Category: News

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects that 100,000 Americans died of drug overdose between May 2020 and April 2021 — a nearly 30% increase over the previous year.  While not an official count, the CDC says it can confirm 98,000 deaths so…

With the Indian capital enveloped in a haze of toxic smog, authorities ordered six thermal plants in the city’s vicinity to shut temporarily, closed schools and colleges indefinitely and imposed work-from-home restrictions to control pollution levels that turned severe on several days this month. A…

The port of Vancouver, Canada's largest, said on Tuesday that all rail access had been cut by floods and landslides farther east that killed at least one person and left two others missing.  Two days of torrential rain across the Pacific province of British Columbia…

News outlets say the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is planning to spend $5 billion to purchase Pfizer’s new experimental antiviral pill designed to treat COVID-19, enough to cover 10 million courses of treatment.  The revelation comes a day after the U.S. drugmaker announced it had signed a deal…

With the Earth getting warmer and weather events more extreme, the African Union has set up a Disaster Operations Center in Nairobi to help monitor major hazards and provide regional early warnings for drought, floods, extreme rainfall, food insecurity, and pests like the desert locusts.…

Russian officials on Tuesday rejected accusations that they endangered astronauts aboard the International Space Station by conducting a weapons test that created more than 1,500 pieces of space junk. U.S. officials on Monday accused Russia of destroying an old satellite with a missile in what…

Relentless rain battered Canada's Pacific coast on Monday, forcing a town's evacuation and trapping motorists as mudslides, rocks and debris were washed across major highways.  Some 275 people, according to local media, were stuck overnight in their cars between two mudslides on Highway 7 near…

A Russian weapons test created more than 1,500 pieces of space junk that is now threatening the seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station, U.S. officials said Monday.  The State Department confirmed that the debris was from an old Russian satellite destroyed by the missile…

With its red and yellow rock formations, the Ramon Crater in Israel's Negev desert has been compared to the surface of Mars. Now, scientists are using the landscape deep in the desert for experiments to help make human travel to Mars a reality. Six astronauts…

The British government Monday announced Monday an expansion of the nation’s COVID-19 booster shot program to people ages 40 and up, to fight off a potential winter surge of the deadly disease. Until now, only British residents ages 50 and up, those clinically vulnerable because…

Pakistan rolled out a massive two-week drive Monday to immunize more than 90 million children in what officials hailed as one of the world’s biggest vaccination campaigns against measles and rubella. An official announcement said children aged between 9 months and 15 years across the…

ith the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference, or COP 26, now over, countries are looking to begin funding a global counterattack on rising temperatures on Earth. Meanwhile, scientists in Denmark are searching for clues to our warming planet’s future by studying ice from the past.…

Malawi has begun a mass distribution of mosquito nets, aiming to reach almost half the country’s population of 18 million people. Health authorities say the campaign is aimed at reducing the spread of malaria, which in Malawi currently accounts for 36% of all hospital outpatients…

The idea was striking in its ambition: African countries aimed to plant trees in a more than 8,000 kilometer-line spanning the entire continent, creating a natural barrier to hold back the Sahara Desert as climate change swept the sands south. The project called the Great…

Medicare’s “Part B” outpatient premium will jump by $21.60 a month in 2022, one of the largest increases ever. Officials said Friday a new Alzheimer’s drug is responsible for about half of that. The increase guarantees that health care will gobble up a big chunk…

In Kansas City, Kansas, educators are opening an after-school mental health clinic staffed with school counselors and social workers. Schools in Paterson, New Jersey, have set up social emotional learning teams to identify students dealing with crises. Chicago is staffing up "care teams" with the…

Africa is on the front line of climate change. Nowhere is this more evident than the Lake Chad Basin, which covers almost 8% of the continent and supports tens of millions of people. The United Nations says it has shrunk by 90% since the 1960s…

Several young African climate activists traveled thousands of miles to Glasgow, Scotland, to be part of the COP26 climate summit — and to convey their sense of urgency to world leaders. Henry Ridgwell spoke with some of them about their climate change experiences and what…

A businessman who traveled to space with William Shatner last month was killed along with another person when the small plane they were in crashed in a wooded area of northern New Jersey, state police said. The space tourist, Glen M. de Vries, 49, of…

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday that Europe remains the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting 2 million new cases last week, the region's highest number since the pandemic began.  At a briefing in Geneva, the WHO chief said the region also…

Scientists in South Africa have announced the discovery of the first partial Homo Naledi child’s skull in one of the world’s richest hominin fossil sites.   The discovery at a UNESCO World Heritage site near Johannesburg, called the “Cradle of Humankind,” revealed that members of the nonhuman species performed rituals with their dead thousands of years before humans did.…

More than 22 million infants missed their first measles vaccine in 2020, according to a report by the World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. WHO said in a statement the 22 million tally was “the largest increase in two decades”…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday people have a duty to be inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine as a way of protecting not only themselves, but others as well. She made the comments in a virtual conversation with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on…

The contagious delta variant is driving up COVID-19 hospitalizations in the Mountain West and fueling disruptive outbreaks in the North, a worrisome sign of what could be ahead this winter in the U.S. While trends are improving in Florida, Texas and other Southern states that…

A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts pulled up Thursday at the International Space Station, their new home until spring. It took 21 hours for the flight from NASA's Kennedy Space Center to the glittering outpost. The one German and three U.S. astronauts said it was…

New York state legalized recreational marijuana use this year, just in time to host the annual Cannabis World Congress & Business Exposition. Evgeny Maslov has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera - Michael Eckels. ...