Month: August 2023

Ecuadorians voted against drilling for oil in a protected area of the Amazon, an important decision that will require the state oil company to end its operations in a region that's home to isolated tribes and is a hotspot of biodiversity. With over 90% of the ballots counted by early Monday, around six in 10 Ecuadorians rejected the oil exploration in Block 43, situated within Yasuni National Park. The referendum took place along with the presidential election, which will be decided in a runoff between leftist candidate Luisa González and right-wing contender Daniel Noboa. The country is experiencing political turmoil following the assassination of one of the candidates, Fernando Villavicencio. Yasuni National Park is inhabited by the Tagaeri and Taromenani, who live in voluntary isolation, and other Indigenous groups. In…

U.S. regulators on Monday approved the first RSV vaccine for pregnant women so their babies will be born with protection against the respiratory infection. RSV is notorious for filling hospitals with wheezing babies every fall and winter. The Food and Drug Administration cleared Pfizer's maternal vaccination to guard against a severe case of RSV when babies are most vulnerable — from birth through 6 months of age. The next step: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must issue recommendations for using the vaccine, named Abrysvo, during pregnancy. (Vaccinations for older adults, also at high risk, are getting underway this fall using the same Pfizer shot plus another from competitor GSK.) "Maternal vaccination is an incredible way to protect the infants," said Dr. Elizabeth Schlaudecker of Cincinnati Children's Hospital, a…

Practioners of traditional Chinese medicine use earthworms — dried to a powder or distilled in liquid — to treat fevers, arthritis, asthma and bronchitis. But overharvesting in China has nearly wiped out the country’s earthworm population. Now, hunters are poaching and purchasing earthworms unearthed in Vietnam, upsetting Vietnamese farmers who depend on them to keep their fields fertile and environment balanced. The earthworm rush has plagued Vietnam’s northern provinces, as poachers, driven by bounty offered by Chinese merchants, trespass private fields or fruit orchards to catch the invertebrate, the online VnExpress news outlet reported. Most of the hunters are Vietnamese, eager to cash in on the Chinese demand. The rush is yet another marker in the sometimes fraught, centuries-long relationship between China and Vietnam, its largest trading partner. The two…

Public utility regulators in Iowa will begin a hearing Tuesday on a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline for transporting emissions of the climate-warming greenhouse gas for storage underground that has been met by resistant landowners who fear the taking of their land and dangers of a pipeline rupture. Summit Carbon Solutions' proposed $5.5 billion, 3,219-kilometer pipeline network would carry CO2 from 34 ethanol plants in five states to North Dakota for storage deep underground — a project involving carbon capture technology, which has attracted both interest and scrutiny in the U.S. North Dakota regulators earlier this month denied a siting permit for Summit's proposed route in the state, citing myriad issues they say Summit didn't appropriately address, such as cultural resource impacts, geologic instability and landowner concerns. On Friday, Summit petitioned…

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a brief visit to the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Sunday to highlight the safety of an impending release of treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, a divisive plan that his government wants to start soon despite protests at home and abroad. His trip comes hours after he returned home Saturday from a summit with U.S. and South Korean leaders at the American presidential retreat of Camp David. Before leaving Washington on Friday, Kishida said it is time to make a decision on the treated water's release date, which has not been set due to the controversy surrounding the plan. Since the government announced the release plan two years ago, it has faced strong opposition from Japanese fishing organizations, which worry about further…

The language is stark: People in torched areas of Maui should not try to filter their own drinking water because there is no "way to make it safe," Maui County posted on its Instagram account this week. The message reached Anne Rillero and her husband, Arnie, in Kula, who were eating yet another meal of frozen pizza. The couple feels incredibly lucky they and their home survived the fires that raced across Maui in recent days, wiping most of Lahaina off the map. The number of confirmed fatalities was raised on Friday to 114 people. When a neighborhood organization alerted them not to drink their water and to air out the house even if they run the tap, the couple decided to eat off paper plates to avoid exposure. No…

An "abnormal situation" occurred at Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft Saturday as it was preparing to transfer to its pre-landing orbit, Russia's national space agency Roskosmos said.  The Russian spacecraft is scheduled to land on the south pole of the moon Monday, part of a big power race to explore a part of the moon that scientists think might hold frozen water and precious elements.  "During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters," Roskosmos said in a short statement.  Specialists are analyzing the situation, it said, without providing further details.  Images of moon's craters Earlier, Roskosmos said it had received the first results from the Luna-25 mission and that they were being analyzed.  The agency…

Phil Durst recalled clawing at his face after a chemical from a commercial dishwashing machine squirted into his eyes, causing “the most indescribable pain I’ve ever felt — ever, ever, ever.” His left eye bore the brunt of the 2017 work accident, which stole his vision, left him unable to tolerate light and triggered four to five cluster headaches a day. Then he underwent an experimental procedure that aims to treat severe injuries in one eye with stem cells from the other. “I went from completely blind with debilitating headaches and pondering if I could go another day — like really thinking I can’t do this anymore" — to seeing well enough to drive and emerging from dark places literally and figuratively, he said, choking up. The 51-year-old from Homewood,…

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he will visit the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Sunday before setting a release date for its treated radioactive wastewater, as his government continues working to promote understanding over the controversial plan at home and abroad. "The government has reached the final stage where we should make a decision," Kishida told reporters in Washington on Friday after wrapping up his summit with U.S. and South Korean leaders at the American presidential retreat of Camp David. Since the government announced the release plan two years ago, it has faced strong opposition from Japanese fishing organizations, which worry about further damage to the reputation of their seafood as they struggle to recover from the accident. Groups in South Korea and China have also raised concerns, turning…

A British nurse who described herself as a "horrible evil person" was found guilty on Friday of murdering seven newborn babies and trying to kill another six in the neonatal unit of a hospital in northwest England where she worked. Lucy Letby, 33, was convicted of killing five baby boys and two baby girls at the Countess of Chester hospital and attacking other newborns, often while working night shifts, in 2015 and 2016. The verdict, following a harrowing 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court, makes Letby Britain's most prolific serial child killer in modern history, local media said. She was found not guilty of two attempted murders while the jury, who spent 110 hours deliberating, were unable to agree on six other suspected attacks. "We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and…

The World Health Organization and U.S. health authorities said Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown. The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries," it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday. So far, the variant has been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirmed it is also closely monitoring the variant, in a message on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter. There are four known sequences of the variant, the WHO has said. "The potential impact of the BA.2.86 mutations are presently unknown and undergoing careful assessment," the WHO…

With warming ocean waters threatening much of the world’s coral reefs, some ecologists are using simple technology to help restore them. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. ...

Comic books can be a great way to help people work through emotional trauma. For VOA, Genia Dulot reports on comics that encourage children and adults to share their feelings and address issues of mental health ...

The evacuation center at the South Maui Community Park & Gymnasium is now Anne Landon's safe space. She has a cot and access to food, water, showers, books and even puzzles that bring people together to pass the evening hours.  But all it took was a strong wind gust for her to be immediately transported back to the terrifying moment a deadly fire overtook her senior apartment complex in Lahaina last week.  "It's a trigger," she said. "The wind was so horrible during that fire."  Helping survivors cope Mental health experts are working in Maui to help people who survived the deadliest fire in the United States in more than a century make sense of what they endured. While many are still in a state of shock, others are starting…

Pollution from discarded plastic, metals and other items is a persistent problem in Nigeria. Some young people are doing what they can to clean up the trash and make strides toward sustainable development. Gibson Emeka has this story from Abuja, Nigeria, narrated by Salem Solomon. ...

Russia's lunar spacecraft entered the moon's orbit on Wednesday, a major step toward the country's ambition of being the first to land on the moon's south pole in the search for frozen water.  The Luna-25 entered the moon's orbit at 11:57 a.m. local time (0857 GMT), Russia's space corporate Roskosmos said.  Luna-25 will circle the moon, the Earth's only natural satellite, for about five days, then change course for a soft landing on the lunar south pole planned for August 21.  India's Chandrayaan-3 entered the moon's orbit earlier this month ahead of a planned touchdown on the south pole of the moon later this month.  The Luna-25, which is roughly the size of a small car, will aim to operate for a year on the south pole, where scientists at…

New restrictions on access to a drug used in the most common form of abortion would be imposed under a federal appeals court ruling issued Wednesday, but the Supreme Court will have the final say. The ruling by three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned part of a lower court ruling that revoked the Food and Drug Administration's approval — more than two decades ago — of mifepristone. But it left intact part of the ruling that would end the availability of the drug by mail and require that the drug be administered in the presence of a physician. Those restrictions won't take effect, at least right away, because the Supreme Court previously intervened to keep the drug available during the legal fight.…

Surgeons transplanted a pig's kidney into a brain-dead man and for over a month it's worked normally — a critical step toward an operation the New York team hopes to eventually try in living patients. Scientists around the country are racing to learn how to use animal organs to save human lives, and bodies donated for research offer a remarkable rehearsal. The latest experiment announced Wednesday by NYU Langone Health marks the longest a pig kidney has functioned in a person, albeit a deceased one — and it's not over. Researchers are set to track the kidney's performance for a second month. "Is this organ really going to work like a human organ? So far it's looking like it is," Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of NYU Langone's transplant institute, told…

Germany's Cabinet on Wednesday approved a plan to liberalize rules on cannabis, setting the scene for the European Union's most populous member to decriminalize possession of limited amounts and allow members of "cannabis clubs" to buy the substance for recreational purposes. The legislation is billed as the first step in a two-part plan and still needs approval by parliament. But the government's approval is a stride forward for a prominent reform project of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's socially liberal coalition, although significantly short of its original ambitions. The bill, which the government hopes will take effect at the end of this year, foresees legalizing possession of up to 25 grams (nearly 1 ounce) of cannabis for recreational purposes and allowing individuals to grow up to three plants on their own. German…

Vice President Kamala Harris marked the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act by touting the Biden administration’s commitment to mitigating the climate crisis. Natasha Mozgovaya reports from Seattle. ...

Researchers in heavily drilled Pennsylvania were preparing Tuesday to release findings from taxpayer-financed studies on possible links between the natural gas industry and pediatric cancer, asthma and poor birth outcomes. The four-year, $2.5 million project is wrapping up after the state's former governor, Democrat Tom Wolf, in 2019 agreed to commission it under pressure from the families of pediatric cancer patients who live amid the nation's most prolific natural gas reservoir in western Pennsylvania. A number of states have strengthened their laws around fracking and waste disposal over the past decade. However, researchers have repeatedly said that regulatory shortcomings leave an incomplete picture of the amount of toxic substances the industry emits into the air, injects into the ground or produces as waste. The Pennsylvania-funded study involves University of Pittsburgh…