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Scientists warn record Siberian temperatures and the rapid melting of the Arctic sea ice along the Russian coast indicate that climate change is occurring and may be irreversible. Siberia, famous for its bitterly cold weather, has been experiencing a tropical heat wave, with temperatures reaching a record 38 degrees Celsius June 20 in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk.  This week alone, the World Meteorological Organization reports some parts of Siberia have been warmer than the U.S. states of Florida and California, with temperatures going above 30 degrees Celsius.    It says the exceptional and prolonged heat is fueling devastating Arctic fires and causing a rapid decrease in the Arctic sea ice coverage.WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis says the Arctic is heating more than twice the global average, and that is having a major impact…

Wildfires continue to burn in parts of Siberia this summer as a heatwave has continued to spread in areas north of the Arctic Circle.The World Metrological Organization (WMO) has raised the alarm, saying official figures show record warming in the Arctic."In general, the Arctic is heating more than twice the global average,” said Clare Nullis, WMO spokesperson. “It's having a big impact on local populations and ecosystems, but we always say that what happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic, it does affect our weather in different parts of the world where hundreds of millions of people live."More than 180 fires are burning in the Siberian region, with many in the northern Sakha Republic, on the Arctic Ocean."Some parts of Siberia this week have again topped 30 degrees…

Russian scientists are digging out fragments of a well-preserved woolly mammoth skeleton found by reindeer herders a few days ago at a lake in northern Siberia.The herders initially found parts of the animal’s skull, lower jaw, several ribs and foot fragments with sinews still intact on the shores of Pechevalavato Lake.Scientists are excavating for the remaining fragments of the prehistoric animal in lakeside silt, which is likely to take a significant amount of time and special equipment.“According to the first information we have, the whole skeleton is there,” said Dmitrii Frolov, director the Arctic Research Center of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, in a report by The Siberian Times."Judging by the pictures, this was a young mammoth, but we’ll have to wait for tests to give the exact age,” he said.Finding…

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed four executive orders aimed at lowering the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs, as he faces an uphill reelection battle and criticism over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has previously proposed most of the changes made by the executive orders he signed Friday, but this was the first time they had made it into signed executive orders. One order would allow for the legal importation of cheaper prescription drugs from countries like Canada, while another would require discounts from drug companies now captured by middlemen to be passed on to patients, Trump said. Another measure seeks to lower insulin costs, while a fourth, which may not be implemented if talks with drug companies are successful, would require Medicare to purchase drugs at the same…

A few weeks ago researchers at Oxford University announced promising results from early trials of their version of a COVID-19 vaccine. In early trial results on just over 1,000 volunteers, the vaccine appeared to be safe and triggered an immune response. VOA spoke with one volunteer who is participated in phase two trials. VOA’s Anna Rice reports.  ...

As he visited a London medical center to promote a flu immunization program Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson referred to opponents of vaccinations as "nuts."  Johnson made the off-hand comment as he chatted with nurses about the importance of a widespread flu vaccination plan as winter approaches. He said the need for such vaccinations is more vital than ever to keep the public health system from being overwhelmed with flu patients as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.   As he discussed the flu immunization program, Johnson noted the number of people who don't vaccinate their children against childhood illnesses. He said, "There are all these anti-vaxxers now, they are nuts." Anti-vaccination activists, a vocal group that opposes inoculations, has organized protests in the wake of the current crisis. They believe, contrary to…

The U.N. weather agency warned Friday that average temperatures in Siberia were 10 degrees Celsius (18 Fahrenheit) above average last month, a spate of exceptional heat that has fanned devastating fires in the Arctic Circle and contributed to a rapid depletion in ice sea off Russia's Arctic coast. "The Arctic is heating more than twice as fast as the global average, impacting local populations and ecosystems and with global repercussions," World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement Friday. He noted that Earth's poles influence weather conditions far away, where hundreds of millions of people live. WMO previously cited a reading of 38 Celsius in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk on June 20, which the agency has been seeking to verify as a possible record-high temperature in the Arctic Circle. It…

Three countries launched missions officially kicking off the summer space race to Mars.  A satellite snaps pictures of the sun in ways Earth-based cameras can’t.  And the comet NASA calls a “natural firework” streaks the skies again.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi ...

An unmanned spacecraft blasted off Thursday on a yearlong journey to Mars, beginning one of China’s most ambitious space missions to date.The Tianwen-1 lifted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch site on China’s southern Hainan Island aboard a Long March 5 rocket as hundreds of cheering fans gathered on beaches across the bay to witness the event.The Tianwen-1, which translates into “Heavenly Questions” or “Questions to Heaven,” is expected to reach the Red Planet by February.  Once it enters orbit, a landing probe will detach and land on the planet’s Utopia Planitia region, where it will release a small solar-powered rover that will explore the surface for at least three months.A successful landing would make China only the second nation to place a spacecraft on the Martian surface, with the…

One of the great mysteries of the coronavirus is how quickly it rocketed around the world.  It first flared in central China and, within three months, was on every continent but Antarctica, shutting down daily life for millions. Behind the rapid spread was something that initially caught scientists off guard, baffled health authorities and undermined early containment efforts — the virus could be spread by seemingly healthy people.As workers return to offices, children prepare to return to schools and those desperate for normalcy again visit malls and restaurants, the emerging science points to a menacing reality: If people who appear healthy can transmit the illness, it may be impossible to contain."It can be a killer and then 40 percent of people don't even know they have it," said Dr. Eric…

An unmanned spacecraft blasted off Thursday on a yearlong journey to Mars, beginning one of China’s most ambitious space missions to date.The Tianwen-1 lifted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch site on China’s southern Hainan Island aboard a Long March 5 rocket as hundreds of cheering fans gathered on beaches across the bay to witness the event.The Tianwen-1, which translates into “Heavenly Questions” or “Questions to Heaven,” is expected to reach the Red Planet by February.  Once it enters orbit, a landing probe will detach and land on the planet’s Utopia Planitia region, where it will release a small solar-powered rover that will explore the surface for at least three months.A successful landing would make China only the second nation to place a spacecraft on the Martian surface, with the…

President Donald Trump has announced the U.S. government will provide an additional $5 billion in aid, equipment and training to the nation’s nursing homes, many of which are hot spots in the coronavirus pandemic.He said COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, poses "the greatest threat to our senior citizens," and that "nearly half of the deaths have occurred among those living in nursing homes or long-term care facilities."According to federal estimates, nursing home residents accounted for roughly 37,000 COVID-19-related deaths; overall, the U.S. has recorded nearly 143,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.“I want to send a message of support and hope to every senior citizen who has been dealing with the struggle of isolation in what should be the golden years of your life," Trump said Wednesday…

The U.S. government will pay $1.95 billion to American drug maker Pfizer and German biotech company BioNTech SE for 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, if it proves to be safe and effective. The companies said Wednesday they finalized a deal with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Defense Department to supply the agencies with a vaccine they are developing jointly, the latest in a number of comparable agreements with other vaccine companies. FILE - Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing in Washington, July 8, 2020.HHS Secretary Alex Azar told Fox News on Wednesday the U.S. could buy 500 million additional doses of the vaccine provided they are "safe and effective." The deal announced Wednesday is…

Laboratories across the U.S. are buckling under a surge of coronavirus tests, creating long processing delays that experts say are actually undercutting the pandemic response.With the U.S. tally of infections at 3.9 million Wednesday and new cases surging, the bottlenecks are creating problems for workers kept off the job while awaiting results, nursing homes struggling to keep the virus out and for the labs themselves, dealing with a crushing workload.Some labs are taking weeks to return COVID-19 results, exacerbating fears that asymptomatic people could be spreading the virus if they don’t isolate while they wait.“There’s been this obsession with, ‘How many tests are we doing per day?'” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The question is how many tests are being done…

The European Southern Observatory on Wednesday released the first image ever captured by a telescope of multiple planets orbiting around a sunlike star.In a statement, the ESO said the image was taken by its Extremely Large Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert.This image from the European Southern Observatory, July 2020, shows the star TYC 8998-760-1, upper left, and two exoplanets. The image was captured by blocking the light from the star, allowing for the fainter planets to be detected.The researchers who discovered the solar system said it was 300 light-years away, relatively close by galactic standards. They said the star was officially known as TYC 8998-760-1 and located in the Musca constellation (the Fly). They have determined it is barely 17 million years old, compared with our sun, which is believed…

COVID-19 tests that take an hour or less and can be done at doctors’ offices, workplaces, or even at home are under development. They could have a big impact on the course of the pandemic in the United States, where long lines for tests and long waits for results are undermining efforts to control the disease.  People who get tested for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 have been waiting for days, up to a week in some places, to find out if they are infected, as overloaded labs struggle to keep up with demand. Patients can spread the virus while they are waiting for test results. That's also a setback for public health workers who need to identify patients' contacts and isolate them before the virus spreads further. Plus, patients tested one day…

COVID-19 tests that take an hour or less and can be done at doctors’ offices, workplaces, or even at home are under development. They could have a big impact on the course of the pandemic in the United States, where long lines for tests and long waits for results are undermining efforts to control the disease.  People who get tested for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 have been waiting for days, up to a week in some places, to find out if they are infected, as overloaded labs struggle to keep up with demand. Patients can spread the virus while they are waiting for test results. That's also a setback for public health workers who need to identify patients' contacts and isolate them before the virus spreads further. Plus, patients tested one day…

A new study indicates that the accelerated melting of Arctic permafrost could release as much as 40 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere not previously accounted for in global emissions estimates.  Permafrost is the thick layer of soil in the world's Arctic and Antarctic regions that, for centuries in some cases, has remained frozen throughout the year. It is vital to the world's climate because it stores twice as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere.   The study, published Monday in the science journal Nature Geoscience, examines how under usual circumstances, the top layer of this frozen soil thaws during summer when plants and microorganisms spring to life. The microbes eat plant roots and respirate like all living organisms and inevitably emit greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide. This…

A study of the Arctic says polar bears are one of the most threatened species on earth because of melting sea ice caused by climate change, and without aggressive steps, the animals could be extinct by the end of the century. The University of Toronto study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, says that polar bears rely on sea ice to reach their prey, usually seals and other water mammals. Researchers who conducted the study say a loss of ice will force the animals onto land, where they must rely on fat reserves due to a lack of food. Co-author of a report on the study Steven Amstrup says the bears currently have less time to feed and a longer time to wait until the ice returns.  He says typically, the ice melts in the early summer and midsummer and returns in fall.  “That period when the ice is absent is getting ever longer and the bears are facing that longer period with less fat on board." Modelling was…

U.S. space agency astronauts Bob Behnken and Chris Cassidy Tuesday floated out of the International Space Station (ISS) on their fourth and final spacewalk to complete the upgrade of the station’s power supply system.Tuesday’s spacewalk is the fourth for the astronauts in under a month, and the 10th spacewalk in each of their careers, tying the U.S. record set by previous space station residents. It is the 12th total spacewalk since 2017 to upgrade the station’s batteries, and the 231st extravehicular mission in the history of the ISS.In under two weeks, Behnken and fellow commercial crew astronaut Doug Hurley, who monitored the spacewalk from inside the ISS, will depart the orbiting complex in the same SpaceX Dragon crew capsule in which they arrived at the end of May.SpaceX is aiming…

With over 14.7 million confirmed novel coronavirus cases and nearly 610,000 fatalities, researchers are reporting progress in the race to develop a safe and effective vaccine against the disease.  Two different experimental vaccines -- one developed in a joint venture between Britain’s Oxford University and British-Swedish drug maker AstraZeneca, the other by Chinese biotech firm CanSino Biologics -- have produced strong immune responses in late-stage human trials, according to two peer-reviewed studies published Monday in the British medical journal The Lancet.   Meanwhile, U.S. drug maker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech also reported positive progress Monday on their vaccine candidate.  The vaccine developed by the joint Oxford-AstraZeneca partnership is receiving the most attention, with the company having signed agreements with many governments to supply its vaccine if it is proved to be effective and granted regulatory approval. The company has…

Officials in the Bahamas say that starting Wednesday, it will ban travelers from the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic. Officials say the large increase in COVID-19 cases throughout the United States and other countries is the reason for the ban; however, some international travel will be permitted, although it will be confined to Canada, Britain, and the European Union. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus. The ban marks a sudden shift from the Bahamas’ decision three weeks ago to reopen to virtually all international tourism. Those still permitted to travel to the Bahamas under the new requirements must test negative for COVID-19 from an accredited lab 10 or fewer days before traveling, or otherwise quarantine themselves for 14 days. “Regrettably, the situation here at home has already deteriorated since we…