Feb282025 by DmediaNo Comments

Southern Africa pushes for better energy access

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GABORONE, BOTSWANA — Southern Africa energy experts and political leaders pledged to improve access to energy at a summit in Botswana this week. The commitments come as most countries in the region still rely on coal, a major contributor to global warming. More than 500 participants from 16 Southern African Development Community, or SADC, member states, as well as other African countries, participated in the energy gathering. Moses Ntlamelle, a senior SADC programs officer, said pursuing a more inclusive transition to cleaner energy was one of the resolutions that regional representatives adopted at the summit. “The region is recommended to expedite just energy transition and explore the development of a regional renewable energy market,” he said. “This is to ensure that nobody is left behind. ... Inasmuch as we are going…


Feb282025 by DmediaNo Comments

Harsh flu season has health officials worried about brain complications in children

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WASHINGTON — This year's harsh flu season — the most intense in 15 years — has federal health officials trying to understand if it sparked an increase in a rare but life-threatening brain complication in children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 19,000 people have died from the flu so far this winter, including 86 children. On Thursday, the CDC reported at least nine of those children experienced brain complications, and it has asked state health departments to help investigate if there are more such cases. There is some good news: The CDC also reported that this year's flu shots do a pretty good job preventing hospitalization from the flu — among the 45% of Americans who got vaccinated. But it comes a day after the Trump administration canceled…


Feb272025 by DmediaNo Comments

Katy Perry, Gayle King to join Blue Origin spaceflight

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CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA — Katy Perry and Gayle King are headed to space with Jeff Bezos’ fiancee, Lauren Sanchez, and three other women. Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, announced the all-female celebrity crew on Thursday. Sanchez, a helicopter pilot and former TV journalist, picked the crew who will join her on a 10-minute spaceflight from west Texas, the company said. They will blast off sometime this spring aboard a New Shepard rocket. No launch date was given. Blue Origin has flown tourists on short hops to space since 2021. Some passengers have gotten free rides, while others have paid a hefty sum to experience weightlessness. It was not immediately known who’s footing the bill for this upcoming flight. Sanchez invited singer Perry and TV journalist King, as well as former NASA…


Feb272025 by DmediaNo Comments

Japan’s births fell to record low in 2024

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TOKYO — The number of babies born in Japan fell to a record low of 720,988 in 2024 for a ninth consecutive year of decline, the health ministry said on Thursday, underscoring the rapid aging and dwindling of the population. Births were down 5% on the year, despite measures in 2023 by former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government to boost child-bearing, while a record number of 1.62 million deaths meant that more than two people died for every new baby born. Although the fertility rate in neighboring South Korea rose in 2024 for the first time in nine years, thanks to measures to spur young people to marry and have children, the trend in Japan has yet to show an upturn. Behind Japan's childbirth decline are fewer marriages in recent years,…


Feb272025 by TechmanNo Comments

Private company’s craft rockets toward moon in latest rush of lunar landing attempts

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A private company launched another lunar lander Wednesday, aiming to get closer to the moon's south pole this time with a drone that will hop into a black crater where the sun never shines.  Intuitive Machines' lander, named Athena, caught a lift with SpaceX from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. It's taking a fast track to the moon, with a landing on March 6. The company hopes to avoid the fate of Athena's predecessor, which tipped over at touchdown.  Never before have so many spacecraft angled for the moon's surface all at once. Last month, U.S. and Japanese companies shared a rocket and separately launched landers toward the moon. The lander from the U.S. company, Firefly Aerospace of Texas, should get there first this weekend.  The two U.S.…


Feb262025 by DmediaNo Comments

What we know about Congo illness that has sickened 400, killed 50

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KINSHASA, CONGO — Unidentified illnesses in northwestern Congo have killed more than 50 people over the past five weeks, nearly half of them within hours after they felt sick.  The outbreaks in two distant villages in Congo's Equateur province began on Jan. 21 and include 419 cases and 53 deaths. Health officials still do not know the cause, or whether the cases in the two villages, which are separated by more than 190 kilometers (118 miles), are related. It's also unclear how the diseases are spreading, including whether they are spreading between people.  The first victims in one of the villages were children who ate a bat and died within 48 hours, the Africa office of the World Health Organization said this week. More infections were found in the other village,…


Feb262025 by DmediaNo Comments

First measles death reported in West Texas outbreak that’s infected more than 120 people

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LUBBOCK, TEXAS — A person who was hospitalized with measles has died from measles in West Texas, the first death in an outbreak that began late last month.   Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center spokesperson Melissa Whitfield confirmed the death Wednesday.  It wasn't clear the age of the patient, who died overnight. Covenant Children's Hospital in Lubbock didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The measles outbreak in rural West Texas has grown to 124 cases across nine counties, the state health department said Tuesday.   There are also nine cases in eastern New Mexico. Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours.   Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the U.S.…


Feb262025 by DmediaNo Comments

US will spend up to $1 billion to combat bird flu, USDA secretary says

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. will invest up to $1 billion to combat the spread of bird flu, including increasing imports of eggs, agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said on Wednesday.   A three-year bird flu outbreak in U.S. poultry has killed 166 million chickens since 2022, according to USDA data.   The virus has also infected nearly 1,000 dairy herds and almost 70 people, including one death, since early 2024.  The USDA will spend up to $500 million to provide free biosecurity audits to farms and $400 million to increase payment rates to farmers who need to kill their chickens due to bird flu, Rollins said at a conference of state agriculture officials.   Some of the money will come from cuts to USDA spending by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, Rollins said in…


Feb262025 by DmediaNo Comments

Newly discovered asteroid will bypass Earth

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Earth is not in danger of being hit by an asteroid in the near future, NASA and the European Space Agency said Tuesday. The proclamations from the two agencies came after an asteroid dubbed 2024 YR4, discovered in December, had scientists speculating that it could strike Earth in December 2032. Scientists now project the asteroid will simply fly past our planet. That’s a good thing, because an asteroid that big, measuring 40 to 90 meters across, could cause a lot of damage. After two months of observation, scientists have significantly reduced the odds of the asteroid hitting Earth. At one point the likelihood of a strike was as high as 3%. ESA has reduced the odds to 0.001%, while NASA has reduced its odds to 0.0027%. "That's the outcome we…


Feb252025 by DmediaNo Comments

Unknown illness kills over 50 in part of Congo with hours between symptoms and death 

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KINSHASA, DR Congo — An unknown illness has killed over 50 people in northwestern Congo, according to doctors on the ground and the World Health Organization on Monday.  The interval between the onset of symptoms and death has been 48 hours in the majority of cases, and “that’s what’s really worrying,” Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring center, told The Associated Press.  The latest disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo began on Jan. 21, and 419 cases have been recorded including 53 deaths.  According to the WHO’s Africa office, the first outbreak in the town of Boloko began after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours following hemorrhagic fever symptoms.  There have long been concerns about diseases jumping from animals to humans…


Feb252025 by DmediaNo Comments

Talks to protect Earth’s biodiversity resume with money topping the agenda

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BOGOTA, Colombia — An annual United Nations conference on biodiversity that ran out of time last year will resume its work Tuesday in Rome with money at the top of the agenda. That is, how to spend what's been pledged so far — and how to raise a lot more to help preserve plant and animal life on Earth. The talks in Colombia, known as COP16, yielded some significant outcomes before they broke up in November, including an agreement that requires companies that benefit from genetic resources in nature — say, by developing medicines from rainforest plants — to share the benefits. And steps were taken to give Indigenous peoples and local communities a stronger voice in conservation matters. But two weeks turned out to be not enough time to get…


Feb252025 by TechmanNo Comments

Musicians release silent album to protest UK’s AI copyright changes

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LONDON — More than 1,000 musicians including Kate Bush and Cat Stevens on Tuesday released a silent album to protest proposed changes to Britain's copyright laws which could allow tech firms to train artificial intelligence models using their work. Creative industries globally are grappling with the legal and ethical implications of AI models that can produce their own output after being trained on popular works without necessarily paying the creators of the original content. Britain, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants to become an AI superpower, has proposed relaxing laws that currently give creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the right to control the ways their material may be used. The proposed changes would allow AI developers to train their models on any material to which they have lawful…


Feb242025 by TechmanNo Comments

Apple to build 23,200-square meter facility in Texas

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U.S. tech giant Apple has announced plans to create some 20,000 jobs and invest $500 billion over the next four years in the United States.  Apple says it will expand teams and facilities in nine states across the country and that it aims to open a 23,200-square-meter server manufacturing facility in Texas in 2026.  The announcement comes just days after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with U.S. President Donald Trump.  “We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our long-standing U.S. investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country’s future,” Cook said on the investment.  “From doubling our Advanced Manufacturing Fund, to building advanced technology in Texas, we’re thrilled to expand our support for American manufacturing. And we’ll keep working with people…


Feb242025 by TechmanNo Comments

Australia fines Telegram for delay in answering child abuse, terror questions

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Sydney — Australia's online safety regulator fined messaging platform Telegram about $640,000 on Monday for its delay in answering questions about measures the app took to prevent the spread of child abuse and violent extremist material. The eSafety Commission in March 2024 sought responses from social media platforms YouTube, X and Facebook to Telegram and Reddit, and blamed them for not doing enough to stop extremists from using live-streaming features, algorithms and recommendation systems to recruit users. Telegram and Reddit were asked about the steps they were taking to combat child sexual abuse material on their services. They had to respond by May, but Telegram submitted its response in October. "Timely transparency is not a voluntary requirement in Australia and this action reinforces the importance of all companies complying with Australian…


Feb232025 by TechmanNo Comments

Rich in cash, Japan automaker Toyota builds city to test futuristic mobility

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SUSONO — Woven City near Mount Fuji is where Japanese automaker Toyota plans to test everyday living with robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous zero-emissions transportation. Daisuke Toyoda, an executive in charge of the project from the automaker's founding family, stressed it's not "a smart city." "We're making a test course for mobility so that's a little bit different. We're not a real estate developer," he said Saturday during a tour of the facility, where the first phase of construction was completed. The Associated Press was the first foreign media to get a preview of the $10 billion Woven City. The first phase spans 47,000 square meters (506,000 square feet), roughly the size of about five baseball fields. When completed, it will be 294,000 square meters (3.1 million square feet). Built on…


Feb232025 by DmediaNo Comments

Philippine village battles dengue by offering bounties for mosquitos — dead or alive

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MANILA, PHILIPPINES — A village in the densely populated Philippine capital region launched a battle against dengue Wednesday by offering a token bounty to residents for captured mosquitos — dead or alive. The unusual strategy adopted by the Addition Hills village in Mandaluyong City reflects growing concern after the nearby city of Quezon declared an outbreak of the mosquito-borne illness over the weekend. Eight more areas reported an upsurge in cases of the potentially deadly viral infection. At least 28,234 dengue cases have been recorded in the Philippines this year up to Feb. 1, a 40% increase compared to the same period last year, according to health department statistics. Quezon City declared a dengue outbreak Saturday after deaths this year reached 10 people, mostly children, out of 1,769 residents infected. A…


Feb222025 by DmediaNo Comments

Cholera kills 58, sickens 1,300 over 3 days in Sudanese city

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CAIRO — A cholera outbreak in a southern Sudanese city killed nearly 60 people and sickened about 1,300 others over the last three days, health authorities said Saturday. The outbreak in the southern city of Kosti was blamed mainly on contaminated drinking water after the city’s water plant stopped due to an attack by a notorious paramilitary group, the Health Ministry said. The group has been fighting the country’s military for about two years. The ministry said in a statement the disease killed 58 people and sickened 1,293 others between Thursday and Saturday. The ministry said it has taken a series of measures to fight the outbreak, including launching a vaccination campaign against cholera in the city. The disease killed more than 600 and sickened over 21,000 others between July and…


Feb222025 by DmediaNo Comments

New polio vaccination drive begins in Gaza

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JABALIA, GAZA STRIP — A third mass polio vaccination campaign began in Gaza on Saturday, AFP journalists reported, with the aim of delivering the first dose to nearly 600,000 children across the Palestinian territory. Scores of children under the age of 10 received the dose at a mosque in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, where a blistering Israeli military assault last year reduced many buildings to rubble. The vaccination campaign involves multiple U.N. agencies, including the Israeli-boycotted U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees, or UNRWA, and comes at a time when Israel and Hamas are observing a ceasefire that has largely halted the fighting. The United States, United Kingdom and other Western nations designate Hamas as a terror group. The World Health Organization said the campaign aims to vaccinate more…


Feb212025 by DmediaNo Comments

Nearly 100 cases of measles reported in Texas, New Mexico

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The measles outbreak in rural West Texas has grown to 90 cases across seven counties, the state health department posted online Friday, and 16 people are hospitalized.  In neighboring eastern New Mexico, the measles case count is up to nine, though state public health officials said Thursday there's still no evidence this outbreak is connected to the one in Texas.  The West Texas cases are concentrated in eight counties in West Texas.   Texas state health department data shows that most of the cases are among people younger than 18. Twenty-six cases are in kids younger than 4 and 51 are in kids 5-17 years old. Ten adults have measles, and three cases are pending an age determination. The Ector County Health Department told the Odessa American its case was…


Feb212025 by DmediaNo Comments

Global glacier melt is accelerating, scientists say

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PARIS — Ice loss from the world's glaciers has accelerated over the past decade, scientists said on Wednesday, warning that melting may be faster than previously expected in the coming years and drive sea levels higher. The world's glaciers, which are important climate regulators and hold freshwater resources for billions, are rapidly melting as the world warms. In a first-of-its-kind global assessment, an international team of researchers found a sharp increase in melting over the past decade, with around 36% more ice lost in the 2012-23 period than in the years from 2000-11. On average some 273 billion tons of ice are being lost per year -- equivalent to the world population's water consumption for 30 years, they said. The findings are "shocking" if not altogether surprising as global temperatures rise…


Feb202025 by TechmanNo Comments

VOA Mandarin: How will China help developing countries promote AI?

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After China’s DeepSeek gained global recognition, some argue that the U.S.-China rivalry in AI may be upended. In addition, the Chinese Communist Party is actively offering to help developing countries strengthen their AI capacity building. Observers said that China is selling its AI software to targeted regions, which can challenge U.S. AI and serve as a strategy for Chinese companies to get more business overseas. Click here for the full story in Mandarin.  ...


Feb202025 by TechmanNo Comments

EU approves $960 million in German aid for Infineon chips plant

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BRUSSELS — The European Commission said Thursday it had approved 920 million-euro of German state aid, or $960 million, to Infineon Technologies for the construction of a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in Dresden. The measure will allow Infineon to complete the MEGAFAB-DD project, which will be able to produce a wide range of different types of computer chips, the Commission said. Chipmakers across the globe are pouring billions of dollars into new plants, as they take advantage of generous subsidies from the United States and the EU to keep the West ahead of China in developing cutting-edge semiconductor technology. The European Commission has earmarked 15 billion euros for public and private semiconductor projects by 2030. "This new manufacturing plant will bring flexible production capacity to the EU and thereby strengthen Europe's…


Feb192025 by TechmanNo Comments

Solar refrigerators in Kenya reduce food waste

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NAIROBI, KENYA — Milk and egg vendor Caroline Mukundi has lost a lot of her stock in her years of selling fresh food at a Nairobi market. Mukundi said she had no way to keep food fresh, and the cost of refrigerating was out of reach. “The food would go bad,” she said, and she would have to throw it away. “It was a big challenge for me.” Mukundi said her situation turned around when she acquired a solar-powered refrigerator. The refrigerators, named Koolboks and manufactured in Kenya, are fitted with ice compartments that can chill food even without a source of power. The devices can keep food cool for up to four days without electricity, even with limited sunlight. Customers can buy the refrigerators on a customized payment model, said…