Jul62024 by DmediaNo Comments

Hurricane Beryl destroys homes, uproots trees in Grenada

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new york — The extent of Hurricane Beryl's damage became clearer Friday, as communications were reestablished with the small, storm-ravaged eastern Caribbean islands and relief began to arrive.  The Grenadian islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique sustained the most severe damage when Beryl made landfall Monday as a Category 4 storm and later saw its winds strengthen to a Category 5. About 11,000 people inhabit the two islands.  "The desalination plants have been knocked out; all of the cell towers have been knocked out; all of the fiber optic cables have been knocked out," said Simon Springett, the United Nations resident coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. "The roads are impassable. We probably have about 95% of the housing stock destroyed. And by default, all of the local businesses, all…


Jul52024 by TechmanNo Comments

Australia plans to build secret data centers with Amazon

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SYDNEY — Australia said Thursday a $1.35 billion deal with U.S. technology giant Amazon to build three secure data centers for top-secret information will increase its military’s “war-fighting capacity.” The data centers are to be built in secret locations in Australia and be run by an Australian subsidiary of the U.S. technology company Amazon Web Service, the government said. The deal is part of Australia’s National Defense Strategy, outlining its commitment to Indo-Pacific security and maintaining “the global rules-based order.” The country has a long-standing military alliance with the United States and is a member, with the United Kingdom, U.S., Canada and New Zealand, of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance. Australian officials said the project would create a “state-of-the-art collaborative space” for intelligence and defense agencies to store and gain access…


Jul42024 by TechmanNo Comments

Silicon Valley steps up screening on Chinese employees to counter espionage

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Washington — Leading U.S. technology companies reportedly have increased security screening of employees and job applicants, which experts say is necessary to counter the cyber espionage threat from China. While the enhanced screening is being applied to employees and applicants of all races, those with family or other ties to China are thought to be particularly vulnerable to pressure from the Beijing government. But at least one Chinese computer science graduate student at a U.S. university is hoping to make his ties to China an asset. Zheng, who does not want to reveal his first name for fear of retaliation from the Chinese government, says he recently changed his focus to cybersecurity in hopes of improving his job prospects in the United States. "The goal is a bit high, but I…


Jul42024 by DmediaNo Comments

India is likely undercounting heat deaths, affecting its response to increasingly harsh heat waves  

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BENGALURU, India — Months of scorching temperatures sometimes over 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in parts of India this year — its worst heat wave in over a decade — left hundreds dead or ill. But the official number of deaths listed in government reports barely scratches the surface of the true toll and that's affecting future preparations for similar swelters, according to public health experts.  India now has a bit of respite from the intense heat, and a different set of extreme weather problems as monsoon rain lashes the northeast, but for months the extreme heat took a toll on large swaths of the country, particularly in northern India, where government officials reported at least 110 heat-related deaths.  Public health experts say the true number of heat-related deaths is likely…


Jul32024 by DmediaNo Comments

Japan’s top court rules forced sterilization law unconstitutional   

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Tokyo — Japan's top court ruled on Wednesday that a defunct eugenics law under which thousands of people were forcibly sterilized between 1948 and 1996 was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court also declared that a 20-year statute of limitations could not be applied, paving the way for compensation claims from victims after years of legal battles. "For the state to evade responsibility for damages payments would be extremely unfair and unjust, and absolutely intolerable," the court in Tokyo said. Japan's government acknowledges that around 16,500 people were forcibly sterilized under the law that aimed to "prevent the generation of poor quality descendants." An additional 8,500 people were sterilized with their consent, although lawyers say even those cases were likely "de facto forced" because of the pressure individuals faced. A 1953 government notice…


Jul22024 by DmediaNo Comments

FDA approves 2nd Alzheimer’s drug that modestly slows disease

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WASHINGTON — U.S. officials have approved another Alzheimer's drug that can modestly slow the disease, providing a new option for patients in the early stages of the incurable, memory-destroying ailment.  The Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly's Kisunla on Tuesday for mild or early cases of dementia caused by Alzheimer's. It's only the second drug that's been convincingly shown to delay cognitive decline in patients, following last year's approval of a similar drug from Japanese drugmaker Eisai.  The delay seen with both drugs amounts to a matter of months — about seven months, in the case of Lilly's drug. Patients and their families will have to weigh that benefit against the downsides, including regular IV infusions and potentially dangerous side effects like brain swelling.  Physicians who treat Alzheimer's say the…


Jul22024 by DmediaNo Comments

Study: Climate-induced disasters significantly weaken Pakistan’s societal resilience

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islamabad — A new study has revealed that recent floods in Pakistan have substantially weakened its societal resilience in coping with and recovering from such disasters as the threat from climate change continues to grow. The London-headquartered independent global charity Lloyd’s Register Foundation said Tuesday the findings are part of the latest edition of their flagship World Risk Poll Resilience Index. The study also highlighted that the number of Pakistanis who have experienced a disaster in the past five years has more than doubled since 2021, increasing from 11% to 27%. “This increase has been driven primarily by the extensive floods that hit the country in 2022, affecting regions containing around 15% of the population,” the study said. The report noted that community and society resilience scores declined sharply in the…


Jul22024 by DmediaNo Comments

US Supreme Court to weigh in on flavored e-cigarette products

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court took up an e-cigarette case Tuesday, weighing whether the Food and Drug Administration wrongly blocked the marketing of sweet, flavored products amid a surge in vaping by young people. Vaping companies argue the FDA unfairly denied more than a million applications to market fruit or candy flavored versions of nicotine-laced liquid that's heated by the e-cigarette to create an inhalable aerosol. The case comes as the FDA undertakes a sweeping review after years of regulatory delays intended to bring scientific scrutiny to the multibillion-dollar vaping market, which includes thousands of flavored vapes that are technically illegal but are widely available in convenience stores, gas stations and vape shops. The FDA recently approved its first menthol-flavored electronic cigarettes for adult smokers. The agency says the sweet,…


Jul22024 by TechmanNo Comments

Alliance sets sights on minerals needed for global shift to green energy

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The U.S. government's representative to the Minerals Security Partnership, an alliance of mostly Western countries that aims to speed the development of energy mineral supply chains, said last month that a Chinese company was using "predatory" tactics to hold down the price of cobalt mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Henry Wilkins looks at what this means for Africa. ...


Jul12024 by DmediaNo Comments

Street medicine teams search for homeless people to deliver lifesaving IV hydration in extreme heat

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Phoenix — Alfred Handley leaned back in his wheelchair alongside a major Phoenix freeway as a street medicine team helped him get rehydrated with an intravenous saline solution dripping from a bag hanging on a pole. Cars whooshed by under the blazing 96-degree morning sun as the 59-year-old homeless man with a nearly toothless smile got the help he needed through a new program run by the nonprofit Circle the City.   “It’s a lot better than going to the hospital,” Handley said of the team that provides health care to homeless people. He's been treated poorly at traditional clinics and hospitals, he said, more than six years after being struck by a car while he sat on a wall, leaving him in a wheelchair. Circle the City introduced its IV…


Jul12024 by TechmanNo Comments

Meta risks fines over ‘pay for privacy’ model breaking EU rules

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Brussels, Belgium — The EU accused Facebook owner Meta on Monday of breaching the bloc's digital rules, paving the way for potential fines worth billions of euros. The charges against the US tech titan follow a finding last week against Apple that marked the first time Brussels had levelled formal accusations under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA). The latest case focuses on Meta's new ad-free subscription model for Facebook and Instagram, which has sparked multiple complaints over privacy concerns. Meta's "pay or consent" system means users have to pay to avoid data collection, or agree to share their data with Facebook and Instagram to keep using the platforms for free. The European Commission said it informed Meta of its "preliminary view" that the model the company launched last year "fails…


Jun302024 by DmediaNo Comments

Space Pioneer says part of rocket crashed in central China

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Beijing — Beijing Tianbing Technology Company said Sunday that the first stage of its Tianlong-3 rocket under development had detached from its launch pad during a test due to structural failure and landed in a hilly area of the city of Gongyi in central China. There were no reports of casualties after an initial investigation, Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, said in a statement on its official WeChat account. Parts of the rocket stage were scattered within a "safe area" but caused a local fire, according to a separate statement by the Gongyi emergency management bureau. The fire has since been extinguished and no one has been hurt, the bureau said. The two-stage Tianlong-3 ("Sky Dragon 3") is a partly reusable rocket under development by Space Pioneer, one of…


Jun302024 by DmediaNo Comments

Hurricane Beryl strengthens into Category 4 storm as it nears southeast Caribbean 

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Beryl strengthened into what experts called an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm as it approaches the southeast Caribbean, which began shutting down Sunday amid urgent pleas from government officials for people to take shelter. Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Beryl's center is expected to pass about 112 kilometers south of Barbados on Monday morning, said Sabu Best, director of Barbados' meteorological service. "This is a very serious situation developing for the Windward Islands," warned the National Hurricane Center in Miami, which said that Beryl was "forecast to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge." Beryl was located about 570 kilometers east-southeast of Barbados. It had maximum sustained winds of 215 kph and was moving west…


Jun302024 by DmediaNo Comments

Ice baths and ventilators: India’s hospitals adapt to killer heat

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NEW DELHI — The Nigerian student only popped out to repair his phone, but he ended up in a New Delhi hospital, the latest victim of a brutal heat wave that has cost scores of lives, sent birds plummeting from the sky and tormented India's poorest workers. On that sweltering June day, the business administration student collapsed in the street and strangers rushed him to the nearby Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital, one of the country's largest. When he was admitted, his body temperature had soared to more than 41 degrees Celsius and he was very dehydrated, said Seema Wasnik, head of RML's emergency medicine department. She immediately recognized the classic signs of heatstroke. More than 40,000 suspected heatstroke cases were recorded in India as a prolonged heat wave pushed temperatures…


Jun292024 by DmediaNo Comments

Beryl strengthens into a hurricane, forecast to become major storm

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Beryl strengthened into a hurricane Saturday as it churned toward the southeast Caribbean, with forecasters warning it was expected to strengthen into a dangerous major hurricane before reaching Barbados late Sunday or early Monday.  A major hurricane is considered a Category 3 or higher, with winds of at least 178 kph. Beryl is now a Category 1 hurricane.  A hurricane warning was issued for Barbados, and a hurricane watch was in effect for St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, while a tropical storm watch was issued for Martinique, Dominica and Tobago.   "It's astonishing to see a forecast for a major (Category 3+) hurricane in June anywhere in the Atlantic, let alone this far east in the deep tropics. #Beryl organizing in a…


Jun292024 by DmediaNo Comments

Antelope poaching on rise in South Sudan

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BADINGILO and BOMA NATIONAL PARKS, South Sudan — Seen from the air, they ripple across the landscape — a river of antelope racing across the vast grasslands of South Sudan in what conservationists say is the world's largest land mammal migration. The country's first comprehensive aerial wildlife survey, released Tuesday, found about 6 million antelope. The survey over a two-week period last year in two national parks and nearby areas relied on spotters in airplanes, nearly 60,000 photos and tracking more than a hundred collared animals over about 120,000 square kilometers. The estimate from the nonprofit African Parks, which conducted the work along with the government, far surpasses other large migratory herds such as the estimated 1.36 million wildebeests surveyed last year in the Serengeti straddling Tanzania and Kenya. But they…


Jun292024 by DmediaNo Comments

Palestinians face summer heat surrounded by sewage, garbage

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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza — Children in sandals trudge through water contaminated with sewage and scale growing mounds of garbage in Gaza's crowded tent camps for displaced families. People relieve themselves in burlap-covered pits, with nowhere nearby to wash their hands. In the stifling summer heat, Palestinians say the odor and filth surrounding them is just another inescapable reality of war — like pangs of hunger or sounds of bombing. The territory's ability to dispose of garbage, treat sewage and deliver clean water has been virtually decimated by eight brutal months of war between Israel and Hamas. This has made grim living conditions worse and raised health risks for hundreds of thousands of people deprived of adequate shelter, food and medicine, aid groups say. Hepatitis A cases are on the rise, and…


Jun292024 by DmediaNo Comments

More African nations focus on HPV vaccination against cervical cancer

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ABUJA, Nigeria — Yunusa Bawa spends a lot of time talking about the vaccine for the human papillomavirus that is responsible for nearly all cases of cervical cancer. But on most days, only two or three people allow their daughters to be vaccinated in the rural part of Nigeria where he works. The challenge in Sabo community, on the outskirts of the capital of Abuja, is the unfounded rumor that the HPV vaccine will later keep young girls from giving birth. "The rumor is too much," said Bawa, 42. As more African countries strive to administer more HPV vaccines, Bawa and other health workers tackle challenges that slow progress, particularly misinformation about the vaccine. The World Health Organization's Africa office estimates that about 25% of the population still has doubts about…