Author: Dmedia

The replacement crew for the International Space Station was launched late Friday, paving the way for the return home of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two NASA astronauts stuck on the space station for nine months. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:03 p.m. from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying Crew-10 members: NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov. The crew is part of a routine six-month rotation. Crew-10 and the Dragon spacecraft are expected to reach the space station around 11:30 p.m. Saturday. Returning to Earth alongside Wilmore and Williams will be NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Their return is scheduled for Wednesday, to allow for an overlap of the two crews to brief the…

March 14 is Pi Day, an annual celebration of the mathematical constant of pi, representing the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. The holiday is observed on March 14 or 3/14 because 3.14 are the first three digits of the infinite number pi — 3.14159 ... and on and on. The celebration of Pi Day was the brainchild of physicist Larry Shaw and was first observed in 1988 at San Francisco’s Exploratorium, a science museum, and has since grown into an international event. At that first simple salute to pi in 1988, Shaw and his wife, Catherine, took — guess what? — pies — and tea to the museum for the celebration of the infinite number. Shaw became known as the Prince of Pi and reigned over the…

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Researchers warn that type 2 diabetes could affect millions more people in the coming decades after a study published this month revealed the disease is rising far faster among people in sub-Saharan Africa than previously thought. Take 51-year-old security guard Sibusiso Sithole, for example. Being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes came as a shock, he said, because he walked six miles to and from work every day and never thought his weight was a problem. Then his wife noticed changes in his health. Since his diagnosis 13 years ago, Sithole has been on a rigorous treatment for diabetes and high blood pressure. “I have to take six ... medications every day,” he said. Diabetes is a condition in which the body struggles to turn food into energy…

The U.S. bird population is declining at an alarming rate, according to a report published Thursday by an alliance of science and conservation groups. Habitat loss and climate change are among the key contributing factors to the bird population losses, according to the 2025 U.S. State of the Birds report. More than 100 of the species studied, have reached a "tipping point," losing more than half their populations in the last 50 years. The report revealed that the avian population in all habitats is declining, including the duck population, previously considered a triumph of conservation. "The only bright spot is water birds such as herons and egrets that show some increases," Michael Parr, president of the American Bird Conservancy, told Reuters. The decline in the duck population fell by approximately…

PARIS — On the way to investigate the scene of a historic asteroid collision, a European spacecraft swung by Mars and captured rare images of the red planet's mysterious small moon Deimos, the European Space Agency said Thursday. Europe's HERA mission is aiming to find out how much of an impact a NASA spacecraft made when it deliberately smashed into an asteroid in 2022 in the first test of our planetary defenses. But HERA will not reach the asteroid — which is 11 million kilometers from Earth in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter — until late 2026. On the long voyage there, the spacecraft swung around Mars on Wednesday. The spacecraft used the planet's gravity to get a "kick" that also changed its direction and saved fuel, mission analyst…

WASHINGTON — The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Dr. David Weldon, a former Florida congressman, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Senate health committee announced Thursday morning that it was canceling a planned hearing on Weldon's nomination because of the withdrawal. A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the White House pulled the nomination because it became clear Weldon did not have the votes for confirmation. Weldon was considered to be closely aligned with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary who for years has been one of the nation's leading anti-vaccine activists. A former Florida congressman, Weldon also has been a prominent critic of vaccines and the CDC, which promotes vaccines and…

WASHINGTON — A fossil of a partial face from a human ancestor is the oldest in western Europe, archaeologists reported Wednesday. The incomplete skull — a section of the left cheek bone and upper jaw – was found in northern Spain in 2022. The fossil is between 1.1 million and 1.4 million years old, according to research published in the journal Nature. "The fossil is exciting," said Eric Delson, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the study. "It's the first time we have significant remains older than 1 million years old in western Europe." A collection of older fossils from early human ancestors was previously found in Georgia, near the crossroads of eastern Europe and Asia. Those are estimated to be 1.8 million…

NASA’s newest space telescope rocketed into orbit Tuesday to map the entire sky like never before — a sweeping look at hundreds of millions of galaxies and their shared cosmic glow since the beginning of time. SpaceX launched the Spherex observatory from California, putting it on course to fly over Earth’s poles. Tagging along were four suitcase-size satellites to study the sun. Spherex popped off the rocket's upper stage first, drifting into the blackness of space with a blue Earth in the background. The $488 million Spherex mission aims to explain how galaxies formed and evolved over billions of years, and how the universe expanded so fast in its first moments. Closer to home in our own Milky Way galaxy, Spherex will hunt for water and other ingredients of life…

Medecins Sans Frontiere says cholera is on the rise in Haiti. The nongovernmental health organization, also known as Doctors Without Borders, says 150 Haitians were treated for cholera between Feb. 15 and March 6. The Cite Soleil neighborhood reported 19 infections. MSF expressed concern about the trend as Haitians have less access to clean water at a time when gang violence victims are living on the streets in unsanitary conditions.   Click here for the full story in Creole. ...

Measles outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico are now up to more than 250 cases, and two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes. Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that is airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000. Texas state health officials said Tuesday there were 25 new cases of measles since the end of last week, bringing Texas' total to 223. Twenty-nine people in Texas are hospitalized. New Mexico health officials announced three new cases Tuesday, bringing the state's total to 33. The outbreak has spread from Lea County, which neighbors the West Texas communities at the epicenter of the outbreak, to include one case…

MEXICO CITY — The number of monarch butterflies wintering in the mountains west of Mexico City rebounded this year, doubling the area they covered in 2024 despite the stresses of climate change and habitat loss, experts said Thursday. The annual butterfly count doesn't calculate the individual number of butterflies, but rather the number of acres they cover as they gather on tree branches in the mountain pine and fir forests. Monarchs from east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada overwinter there. Mexico's Commission for National Protected Areas (CONANP) said that this year, butterflies covered 1.79 hectares) compared to only 0.9 hectares the year before. Last year's figure represented a 59% drop from 2023, the second lowest level since record keeping began. After wintering in Mexico, the iconic…

WASHINGTON — Giving a new meaning to the phrase mad scientists, angry researchers, doctors, their patients and supporters ventured out of labs, hospitals and offices Friday to fight against what they call a blitz on life-saving science by the Trump administration. In the nation's capital, a couple thousand gathered at the Stand Up for Science rally. Organizers said similar rallies were planned in more than 30 U.S. cities. Politicians, scientists, musicians, doctors and their patients made the case that firings, budget and grant cuts in health, climate, science and other research government agencies in the Trump administration's first 47 days in office are endangering not just the future but the present. "This is the most challenging moment I can recall," University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann told the crowd full…

CAIRO — Nearly 100 people died of cholera in two weeks since the waterborne disease outbreak began in Sudan's White Nile State, an international aid group said. Doctors Without Borders — also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF — said Thursday that 2,700 people have contracted the disease since Feb. 20, including 92 people who died. Of the cholera patients who died, 18 were children, including five no older than 5 and five others no older than 9, Marta Cazorla, MSF emergency coordinator for Sudan, told The Associated Press. Sudan plunged into war nearly two years ago when tensions simmered between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group, or RSF, with battles in Khartoum and elsewhere across the country. RSF launched intense attacks last month in…

A historic measles outbreak in West Texas is just short of 200 cases, Texas state health officials said Friday, while the number of cases in the neighboring state of New Mexico tripled to 30. Most of the cases across both states are in people younger than 18 and those who are unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. Texas health officials identified 39 new infections of the highly contagious disease, bringing the total count in the West Texas outbreak to 198 people since it began in late January. Twenty-three people have been hospitalized so far. Last week, a school-age child died of measles in Texas, the nation's first measles death in a decade. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that it was sending a team…

Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart. This time, wreckage from the explosion was seen streaming from the skies over Florida. It was not immediately known whether the spacecraft's self-destruct system had kicked in to blow it up. The 123-meter rocket blasted off from Texas. SpaceX caught the first-stage booster back at the pad with giant mechanical arms, but engines on the spacecraft on top started shutting down as it streaked eastward for what was supposed to be a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, half a world away. Contact was lost as the spacecraft went…

A New Mexico resident who has died, tested positive for measles, the state health department said on Thursday, marking the second measles-related death in the United States in more than a decade. The unvaccinated adult patient did not seek medical care before death and was the first measles-related death in the state in more than 40 years, according to David Morgan, Public Information Officer for the New Mexico Department of Health. The cause of death is still under investigation by the state medical examiner, Morgan said. The death brings to 10 the number of measles cases that occurred in Lea County, located adjacent to Gaines County, Texas, where more than 100 cases and one death in an unvaccinated child have been reported. The outbreak, one of the largest the United…

Some global health projects whose U.S.-funded contracts were suddenly canceled last week have received letters reversing those decisions, according to media reports. The reversal came after the Trump administration ended about 90% of contracts funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. State Department. Democratic lawmakers, along with some Republicans and rights groups, have sharply criticized administration efforts to shut down federally funded humanitarian efforts around the world. Michael Adekunle Charles, chief executive of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, said his organization’s letter reversing the cutoff of its funds arrived late Wednesday. “I think it’s good news. We need to wait in the coming days to get additional guidance,” he told Reuters. “Our priority is saving lives, so the earlier we can get started to continue…

PARIS — An Ariane 6 rocket roared skyward with a French military reconnaissance satellite aboard Thursday in the first commercial flight for the European heavy-lift launcher. The rocket took off smoothly from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, quickly disappearing into thick clouds. Video images beamed back from the rocket showed the Earth's beautiful colors and curvature. The rocket's mission was to deliver the CSO-3 military observation satellite into orbit at an altitude of around 800 kilometers. It was the first commercial mission for Ariane 6 after its maiden flight in July 2024. ...

Canada is seeing a noticeable increase in measles cases this year, with more reported in the first two months of 2025 than all of last year, the country's health agency said on Thursday and urged citizens to get vaccinated.  The Public Health Agency of Canada said it has recorded 227 measles cases as of March 6, with many patients requiring hospitalization.   "I strongly urge all Canadians to ensure they are vaccinated against measles," said Theresa Tam, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer.  The agency said most of the patients are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children exposed in community settings such as social events, day cares, schools and health care facilities.  Cases can also arise when unvaccinated individuals travel to or from regions where measles is prevalent.  "As we move through spring break…

Collisions with boats are the cause of at least 20% of manatee deaths in Florida every year. But as Valdya Baraputri reports, that’s not the only threat faced by these gentle giants of the sea. Camera: Laurentius Wahyudi and Nabila Ganinda ...

WASHINGTON — A drill to search for ice. A 4G network test. Three rovers and a first-of-its-kind hopping drone. After becoming the first private firm to land on the moon last year, Intuitive Machines is aiming for its second lunar touchdown on Thursday, carrying cutting-edge payloads to support future human missions. The Houston-based company is targeting no earlier than 12:32 p.m. ET (1732 GMT) at Mons Mouton, a plateau near the lunar south pole -- farther south than any robot has ventured. NASA will livestream the landing an hour before touchdown as Athena, the 4.8-meter hexagonal lander -- about the height of a giraffe -- begins its descent. "It kind of feels like this mission is straight out of one of our favorite sci-fi movies," said Nicky Fox, NASA's associate administrator…

NEW DELHI — The U.S. government will stop sharing air quality data gathered from its embassies and consulates, worrying local scientists and experts who say the effort was vital to monitor global air quality and improve public health. In response to an inquiry from The Associated Press, the State Department said Wednesday that its air quality monitoring program would no longer transmit air pollution data from embassies and consulates to the Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow app and other platforms, which allowed locals in various countries, along with scientists around the world, to see and analyze air quality. The change was "due to funding constraints that have caused the Department to turn off the underlying network" the department said in a statement. However, it added, embassies and consulates were directed to keep…

Ukrainians in Czechia raised nearly 19,000 dollars to help a Ukrainian war veteran and dancer get back on the floor. Yevhen Skripnichuk lost his leg while fighting the Russians. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story. Camera:  Yuriy Dankevych      ...

MELBOURNE, Australia — James Harrison, whose blood plasma donations are credited with An Australian man credited with saving 2.4 million babies through his record-breaking blood plasma donations over six decades, has died at 88, his family said Tuesday. James Harrison, a retired state railway department clerk, died in a nursing home on the central coast of New South Wales state on Feb. 17, according to his grandson, Jarrod Mellowship. Harrison had been surprised to be recognized by Guinness World Records in 2005 as the person who had donated the most blood plasma in the world, Mellowship said. Despite an aversion to needles, he made 1,173 donations after he turned 18 in 1954 until he was forced to retire in 2018 at age 81. “He did it for the right reasons. As…

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA — A private lunar lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA touched down on the moon Sunday, the latest in a string of companies looking to kickstart business on Earth's celestial neighbor ahead of astronaut missions. Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, aiming for the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moon’s northeastern edge of the near side. Confirmation of touchdown came from the company's Mission Control outside Austin, Texas, following the action some 360,000 kilometers away. "We’re on the moon," Mission Control reported, adding the lander was "stable." A smooth, upright landing makes Firefly — a startup founded a decade ago — the first private outfit to put a spacecraft on the moon…

KAMPALA, UGANDA — A second Ebola patient, a 4-year-old child, has died in Uganda, the World Health Organization said, citing the country’s health ministry. The fatality brings the number of confirmed cases in Uganda to 10. The East African country declared an outbreak of the highly infectious and often fatal hemorrhagic disease in January after the death of a male nurse at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in the capital of Kampala. The WHO's Uganda office posted late on Saturday on X that the ministry had reported "an additional positive case in Mulago hospital of a 4 1/2-year-old child, who tragically passed away" on Tuesday. Mulago is the country's sole national referral hospital for Ebola cases. The ministry said on Feb. 18 that all eight Ebola patients under care had been…

SEATTLE — President Donald Trump's plan to pull federal funding from institutions that provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth will remain blocked on a long-term basis under a federal judge's ruling in Seattle late Friday.  U.S. District Court Judge Lauren King previously granted a two-week restraining order after the Democratic attorneys general of Washington, Oregon and Minnesota sued the Trump administration — Colorado has since joined the case.  King's temporary order expired Friday, and she held arguments that day before issuing a preliminary injunction blocking most of Trump's plan pending a final decision on the merits of the case.  The judge found the states lacked standing on one point: the order's protections against female genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation is already illegal in the four states that are part of the…

Measles is rarely seen in the United States, but Americans are growing more concerned about the preventable virus as cases continue to rise in rural West Texas.   This week, an unvaccinated child died in the West Texas outbreak, which involves more than 120 cases. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the last confirmed measles death in the United States occurred in 2015.   There are also nine measles cases in eastern New Mexico, but the state health department said there was no direct connection to the outbreak in Texas. Here's what to know about the measles and how to protect yourself.   What is measles? It's a respiratory disease caused by one of the world's most contagious viruses. The virus is airborne and spreads easily when…