Chinese Chip Import Concerns Prompt US to Review Semiconductor Supply Chain
washington — The U.S. Department of Commerce said Thursday that it would launch a survey of the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and national defense industrial base to address national security concerns from Chinese-sourced chips. The survey aims to identify how U.S. companies are sourcing so-called legacy chips — current-generation and mature-node semiconductors — as the department moves to award nearly $40 billion in subsidies for semiconductor chip manufacturing. The department said the survey, which will begin in January, aims to "reduce national security risks posed by" China and will focus on the use and sourcing of Chinese-manufactured legacy chips in the supply chains of critical U.S. industries. A report released by the department on Thursday said China had provided the Chinese semiconductor industry with an estimated $150 billion in subsidies in…
Bird Flu Set to Spread in Antarctic, Causing Huge Damage, Report Says
PARIS — Bird flu is likely to spread further in the Antarctic region, causing immense damage to wildlife, according to experts on the highly contagious disease that has killed hundreds of millions of birds worldwide in recent years. The spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, commonly called bird flu, to the remote southern region has raised concerns for isolated populations of species, including penguins and seals, that have never been exposed to the virus. The H5 strain of the virus was detected in the region on October 8 in a brown skua on Bird Island, part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, according to a report by OFFLU, which gathers experts from the World Organization of Animal Health and the U.N. Food…
Malawi Bans Maize Imports From Kenya, Tanzania Over Disease
BLANTYRE, MALAWI — Malawi, which already is suffering from food shortages, this week banned the import of unmilled maize from Kenya and Tanzania over concerns that the spread of maize lethal necrosis disease could wipe out the staple food. The ministry of agriculture announced the ban in a statement that said the disease has no treatment and can cause up to 100% yield loss. The statement said maize can be imported only after it is milled, either as flour or grit. Henry Kamkwamba, an agriculture expert with the International Food Policy Research Institute, told VOA that if the disease were introduced into the country, it would be difficult to contain. He used the banana bunchy top virus as an example of the potential danger. “Think of how we lost all of…
2023: The Year Artificial Intelligence Broke Through
From ChatGPT to the impacts of machine learning on the music and film industry, academia and politics, generative artificial intelligence dominated technology news in 2023. Deana Mitchell takes a look. ...
Poinsettia’s Origins, Namesake’s Checkered History Get New Attention
SANTA FE, N.M. — Like Christmas trees, Santa and reindeer, the poinsettia has long been a ubiquitous symbol of the holiday season in the U.S. and across Europe. But now, nearly 200 years after the plant with the bright crimson leaves was introduced in the U.S., attention is once again turning to the poinsettia's origins and the checkered history of its namesake, a slaveowner and lawmaker who played a part in the forced removal of Native Americans from their land. Some people would now rather call the plant by the name of its Indigenous origin in southern Mexico. Some things to know: Where did the name poinsettia come from? The name comes from the amateur botanist and statesman Joel Roberts Poinsett, who happened upon the plant in 1828 during his tenure…
International Astronaut Will Be Invited on Future NASA Moon Landing
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An international astronaut will join U.S. astronauts on the moon by decade's end under an agreement announced Wednesday by NASA and the White House. The news came as Vice President Kamala Harris convened a meeting in Washington of the National Space Council, the third such gathering under the Biden administration. There was no mention of who the international moonwalker might be or even what country would be represented. A NASA spokeswoman later said that crews would be assigned closer to the lunar-landing missions, and that no commitments had yet been made to another country. NASA has included international astronauts on trips to space for decades. Canadian Jeremy Hansen will fly around the moon a year or so from now with three U.S. astronauts. Another crew would actually…
French Pharma Firm Ordered to Pay Millions Over Deadly Diabetes Drug
PARIS — A French appeals court on Wednesday ordered pharmaceutical firm Servier to pay more than $460 million in damages over a scandal involving a diabetes drug linked to hundreds of deaths. The health scandal came to light in 2007 when a doctor raised the alert on heart risks linked to Mediator, a drug destined for overweight people with diabetes but that was also widely prescribed to others as an appetite-suppressant. The drug, which may have caused up to 1,800 deaths, was later banned in France where millions of people took it. It is also banned in the United States, Spain and Italy. In the latest court ruling in more than a decade of legal proceedings, the Paris appeals court upheld verdicts of "aggravated fraud" and "involuntary manslaughter and injuries." It…
Big Wins and Setbacks in 2023 For Biden’s Green Agenda
Injecting billions of dollars into green solutions to fight climate change has been a top priority of the Biden administration in 2023. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks at this year’s achievements and setbacks in the president’s environmental agenda. ...
In Sudan, Health Care Crisis Looms for Unborn, Newborn as Conflict Escalates
Nairobi, Kenya — According to the British charity Save the Children, some 30,000 children will be born in war-torn Sudan over the next three months without access to proper medical care, such as through doctors, hospitals and medicines. The group says the lack of basic health care endangers both mothers and unborn children, heightening the risk of long-term and deadly complications. That’s out of a total of some 45,000 children that are expected to be born in Sudan in the next quarter amid conflict that has destroyed many health facilities in the country. The head of child protection at Save the Children International in Sudan, Osman Adam Abdelkarim, told VOA that the recent escalation of violence in many parts of Sudan has made his organization fear for pregnant women and millions…
Health Care Under Siege as Ukraine Enters Second Winter of War
GENEVA — As Ukraine enters a second winter of war, the World Health Organization warns that the country’s public health system will come under enormous stress as millions of civilians try to keep safe and warm during the long, brutally cold weather ahead. “Since the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine … we have seen the impacts on public health and the increase in disease burden,” said Jarno Habicht, WHO representative in Ukraine. “So, even if the war would end today, the health needs of millions of people across Ukraine will increase,” he said, noting that children and the elderly “are suffering particularly and struggling as winter arrives amid ongoing fighting.” Speaking to journalists Tuesday from Odesa, Habicht said he and Ukraine’s minister of health recently delivered critical equipment and medicines to…
Toyota’s Daihatsu to Halt Vehicle Shipments in Widening Safety Scandal
TOKYO — Toyota Motor's Daihatsu unit will halt shipments of all of its vehicles, Japan's biggest automaker said on Wednesday, after an investigation into a safety scandal found issues at 64 models, including almost two dozen sold under Toyota's brand. An independent panel has been investigating Daihatsu after it said in April it had rigged side-collision safety tests carried out for 88,000 small cars, most of those sold as Toyotas. But the latest revelations suggest the scope of the scandal is far greater than previously thought and could potentially tarnish the automakers' reputation for quality and safety. Daihatsu is Toyota's small-car unit and produces a number of the so-called "kei" smaller cars and trucks that are popular in Japan. The latest issues also impacted some Mazda and Subaru models sold in…
Blue Origin Returns to Space After Year-long Hiatus
WASHINGTON — Blue Origin launched its first rocket in more than a year on Tuesday, reviving the U.S. company's fortunes with a successful return to space following an uncrewed crash in 2022. Though mission NS-24 carried a payload of science experiments, not people, it paves the way for Jeff Bezos' aerospace enterprise to resume taking wealthy thrill-seekers to the final frontier. The New Shepard suborbital rocket blasted off from the pad at Launch Site One, near Van Horn, Texas, at 10:42 a.m. After separating from the booster, the gumdrop-shaped capsule attained a peak altitude of 107 kilometers above sea level, well above the internationally recognized boundary of space known as the Karman line, which is 100 kilometers high. The booster then successfully landed vertically on the launchpad, against the majestic backdrop…
Drought-Prone California OKs New Rules for Turning Wastewater Directly Into Drinking Water
SACRAMENTO, California — When a toilet is flushed in California, the water can end up in a lot of places: an ice skating rink in Ontario, ski slopes around Lake Tahoe, farmland in the Central Valley. And — coming soon — kitchen faucets. California regulators on Tuesday approved new rules to let water agencies recycle wastewater and put it right back into the pipes that carry drinking water to homes, schools and businesses. It's a big step for a state that has struggled for decades to secure reliable sources of drinking water for its more than 39 million residents. And it signals a shift in public opinion on a subject that as recently as two decades ago prompted backlash that scuttled similar projects. Since then, California has been through multiple extreme…
Volunteers Join Annual Christmas Bird Count
North America’s oldest citizen science project is underway with thousands of volunteers measuring bird populations in the annual Christmas Bird Count. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya joined a birdwatching team in Seattle. ...
LogOn: Australian Researchers Use Seawater to Create Hydrogen
Researchers in Australia have developed a method to make hydrogen from seawater without a costly desalination process. This could mark a breakthrough in the production of clean hydrogen from a plentiful, eco-friendly source. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. ...
Study Bolsters Evidence Severe Obesity Increasing in Young US Kids
NEW YORK — A new study adds to evidence that severe obesity is becoming more common in young U.S. children. There was some hope that children in a government food program might be bucking a trend in obesity rates — earlier research found rates were dropping a little about a decade ago for those kids. But an update released Monday in the journal Pediatrics shows the rate bounced back up a bit by 2020. The increase echoes other national data, which suggests around 2.5% of all preschool-aged children were severely obese during the same period. "We were doing well and now we see this upward trend," said one of the study's authors, Heidi Blanck of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We are dismayed at seeing these findings." The…
European Union Investigating Musk’s X Over Possible Breaches of Social Media Law
LONDON — European Union authorities are looking into whether Elon Musk's online platform X breached tough new social media regulations in the first such investigation since the rules designed to make online content less toxic took effect. "Today we open formal infringement proceedings against @X" under the Digital Services Act, European Commissioner Thierry Breton said in a post on the platform Monday. "The Commission will now investigate X's systems and policies related to certain suspected infringements," spokesman Johannes Bahrke told a press briefing in Brussels. "It does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation." The investigation will look into whether X, formerly known as Twitter, failed to do enough to curb the spread of illegal content and whether measures to combat "information manipulation," especially through its Community Notes feature, was effective.…
US Woman Criminally Charged After Miscarriage
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio was in the throes of a bitter debate over abortion rights this fall when Brittany Watts, 21 weeks and 5 days pregnant, began passing thick blood clots. The 33-year-old Watts, who had not shared the news of her pregnancy even with her family, made her first prenatal visit to a doctor's office behind Mercy Health-St. Joseph's Hospital in Warren, a working-class city about 100 kilometers southeast of Cleveland. The doctor said that, while a fetal heartbeat was still present, Watts' water had broken prematurely and the fetus she was carrying would not survive. He advised heading to the hospital to have her labor induced, so she could have what amounted to an abortion to deliver the nonviable fetus. Otherwise, she would face "significant risk" of death, records…
Face Masks Now an Occasional Feature of US Landscape
NEW YORK — The scene: A crowded shopping center in the weeks before Christmas. Or a warehouse store. Or maybe a packed airport terminal or a commuter train station or another place where large groups gather. There are people — lots of people. But look around, and it's clear one thing is largely absent these days: face masks. Yes, there's the odd one here and there, but nothing like it was three years ago at the dawn of the COVID pandemic's first winter holidays — an American moment of contentiousness, accusation and scorn on both sides of the mask debate. As 2023 draws to an end, with promises of holiday parties and crowds and lots of inadvertent exchanges of shared air, mask-wearing is much more off than on around the country…
Guatemala Loses Landmark Indigenous and Environmental Rights Case
MEXICO CITY — Guatemala violated Indigenous rights by permitting a huge nickel mine on tribal land almost two decades ago, according to a ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Friday. The landmark verdict marks a monumental step in a four-decade struggle for Indigenous land rights and a long, bitter legal battle, which has at times spilled into the streets of northern Guatemala. It also comes at the close of the U.N. climate summit COP28, which stressed the importance of renewables and energy transition minerals like nickel more than ever. According to a verdict read from Costa Rica in the early hours of the morning, the Guatemalan government violated the rights of the Indigenous Q'eqchi' people to property and consultation by permitting mining on land where members of the…
Pakistan Uses Artificial Rain Against Hazardous Smog for First Time
Lahore, Pakistan — Artificial rain was used for the first time in Pakistan on Saturday in a bid to combat hazardous levels of smog in the megacity of Lahore, the provincial government said. In the first experiment of its kind in the South Asian country, planes equipped with cloud seeding equipment flew over 10 areas of the city, often ranked one of the worst places globally for air pollution. The "gift" was provided by the United Arab Emirates, said caretaker chief minister of Punjab, Mohsin Naqvi. "Teams from the UAE, along with two planes, arrived here about 10 to 12 days ago. They used 48 flares to create the rain," he told the media. He said the team would know by Saturday night what effect the "artificial rain" had. The UAE…
‘Prescribed Burns’ Could Aid Forests in US Southeast, Experts Say
WEST END, N.C. — Jesse Wimberley burns the woods with neighbors. Using new tools to revive an old communal tradition, they set fire to wiregrasses and forest debris with a drip torch, corralling embers with leaf blowers. Wimberley, 65, gathers groups across eight North Carolina counties to starve future wildfires by lighting leaf litter ablaze. The burns clear space for longleaf pine, a tree species whose seeds won't sprout on undergrowth blocking bare soil. Since 2016, the fourth-generation burner has fueled a burgeoning movement to formalize these volunteer ranks. Prescribed burn associations are proving key to conservationists' efforts to restore a longleaf pine range forming the backbone of forest ecology in the American Southeast. Volunteer teams, many working private land where participants reside or make a living, are filling service and…
NM Extends Ban on Oil and Gas Leasing Around Area Sacred to Native Americans
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New oil and natural gas leasing will be prohibited on state land surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park, an area sacred to Native Americans, for the next 20 years under an executive order by New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard. Wednesday's order extends a temporary moratorium that she put in place when she took office in 2019. It covers more than 293 square kilometers of state trust land in what is a sprawling checkerboard of private, state, federal and tribal holdings in northwestern New Mexico. The U.S. government last year adopted its own 20-year moratorium on new oil, gas and mineral leasing around Chaco, following a push by pueblos and other Southwestern tribal nations that have cultural ties to the high desert region. Garcia Richard said during…