War leaves tragic legacy of mental illness in Ukraine

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Experts say that in Ukraine, there has been a heavy increase in cases of anxiety, depression, adjustment disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems since Russia’s invasion in 2022, and it will likely have a long-term impact. For VOA, Lesia Bakalets has more. ...


Australian researchers unveil device that harvests water from the air

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SYDNEY — A device that absorbs water from air to produce drinkable water was officially launched in Australia Wednesday. Researchers say the so-called Hydro Harvester, capable of producing up to 1,000 liters of drinkable water a day, could be “lifesaving during drought or emergencies.” The device absorbs water from the atmosphere. Solar energy or heat that is harnessed from, for example, industrial processes are used to generate hot, humid air. That is then allowed to cool, producing water for drinking or irrigation. The Australian team said that unlike other commercially available atmospheric water generators, their invention works by heating air instead of cooling it. Laureate Professor Behdad Moghtaderi, a chemical engineer and director of the University of Newcastle’s Centre for Innovative Energy Technologies, told VOA how the technology operates.   “Hydro Harvester…


Small island states secure climate win at international ocean court

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BERLIN — A group of small island states that include Antigua and Barbuda and the Bahamas secured a win on climate change in an international court Tuesday as they seek to combat rising sea levels. In its first climate-related judgment, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, or ITLOS, said that greenhouse gas emissions absorbed by the ocean are considered marine pollution and countries are obliged to protect marine environments by going further than required under the Paris climate agreement. The opinion was requested by a group of nine island nations facing climate-driven rises in sea levels. The opinion is not legally binding, but it can be used to help guide countries in their climate policy and, in other cases, as legal precedent. "The ITLOS opinion will inform our…


Global carbon emissions pricing raised record $104 bln in 2023

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LONDON — Countries raised a record $104 billion last year by charging firms for emitting carbon dioxide, but prices remain too low to drive changes needed to meet Paris climate accord targets, the World Bank said in a report on Tuesday.   Several countries are using a price on carbon emissions to help meet their climate goals by making polluters pay in the form of a tax, or under an emissions trading (ETS), or cap-and-trade, system. “Carbon pricing is a critical part of the policy mix needed to both meet the Paris Agreement goals and support low emissions growth,” the World Bank’s State and Trends of Carbon Markets report said.   There are 75 global carbon pricing instruments in operation, up two from a year ago, covering around 24% of global…


Brazil floods leave trail of unprecedented devastation

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Historic floods swept through southern Brazil early this month, destroying everything in their path. The floods claimed over 150 lives and left more than 500,000 Brazilians displaced. Scientists attribute this unprecedented destruction to a confluence of weather conditions, all influenced by climate change. Yan Boechat reports. ...


Study: Climate change key driver of record-low Antarctic sea ice

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Paris — Climate change played a key role in last year's record-low levels of Antarctic sea ice, a study published on Monday found, marking an abrupt shift from the growth seen in previous decades. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) found that human-caused global warming resulted in a once-in-2,000-year low in ocean surface around the continent blanketed by ice. Compared to an average winter over the last several decades, the maximum extent of Antarctic sea covered by ice shrank by two million square kilometers — an area four times the size of France, the BAS said. "This is why we were so interested in studying what climate models can tell us about how often large, rapid losses like this are likely to happen," the study's lead author Rachel Diamond told…


Researchers use artificial intelligence to classify brain tumors

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SYDNEY — Researchers in Australia and the United States say that a new artificial intelligence tool has allowed them to classify brain tumors more quickly and accurately.   The current method for identifying different kinds of brain tumors, while accurate, can take several weeks to produce results.  The method, called DNA methylation-based profiling, is not available at many hospitals around the world. To address these challenges, a research team from the Australian National University, in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute in the United States, has developed a way to predict DNA methylation, which acts like a switch to control gene activity.   This allows them to classify brain tumors into 10 major categories using a deep learning model. This is a branch of artificial intelligence that teaches computers to process…


Companies trying to attract more smartphone users across Africa, but there are risks

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Accra, Ghana — Anita Akpeere prepared fried rice in her kitchen in Ghana's capital as a flurry of notifications for restaurant orders lit up apps on her phone. "I don't think I could work without a phone in my line of business," she said, as requests came in for her signature dish, a traditional fermented dumpling. Internet-enabled phones have transformed many lives, but they can play a unique role in sub-Saharan Africa, where infrastructure and public services are among the world's least developed, said Jenny Aker, a professor who studies the issue at Tufts University. At times, technology in Africa has leapfrogged gaps, including providing access to mobile money for people without bank accounts. Despite growing mobile internet coverage on the continent of 1.3 billion people, just 25% of adults in…


What happened in the UK’s infected blood scandal? Inquiry report due Monday

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London — The final report of the U.K.'s infected blood inquiry will be published Monday, nearly six years after it began looking into how tens of thousands of people contracted HIV or hepatitis from transfusions of tainted blood and blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. The scandal is widely seen as the deadliest to afflict Britain's state-run National Health Service since its inception in 1948, with around 3,000 people believed to have died as a result of being infected with HIV and hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver. The report is expected to criticize pharmaceutical firms and medical practitioners, civil servants and politicians, although many have already died given the passage of time. It's also set to pave the way to a huge compensation bill that the British government will…


Blue Origin flies thrill seekers to space, including oldest astronaut 

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Washington — After a nearly two year hiatus, Blue Origin flew adventurers to space on Sunday including a former Air Force pilot who was denied the chance to be the United States' first Black astronaut decades ago.    It was the first crewed launch for the enterprise owned and founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos since a rocket mishap in 2022 left rival Virgin Galactic as the sole operator in the fledgling suborbital tourism market.    Six people including the sculptor Ed Dwight, who was on track to become NASA's first ever astronaut of color in the 1960s before being controversially spurned, launched around 09:36 am local time (1436 GMT) from the Launch Site One base in west Texas, a live feed showed.    Dwight — at 90 years, 8 months and…


Musk, Indonesian health minister, launch Starlink for health sector 

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DENPASAR, BALI, INDONESIA — Elon Musk and Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin launched SpaceX's satellite internet service for the nation's health sector on Sunday, aiming to improve access in remote parts of the sprawling archipelago.    Musk, the billionaire head of SpaceX and Tesla TSLA.O, arrived on the Indonesian resort island of Bali by private jet before attending the launch ceremony at a community health centre in the provincial capital, Denpasar.    Musk, wearing a green batik shirt, said the availability of the Starlink service in Indonesia would help millions in far-flung parts of the country to access the internet. The country is home to more than 270 million people and three different time zones. "I'm very excited to bring connectivity to places that have low connectivity," Musk said, "If you have…


Heat across Asia 45 times more likely because of climate change, study finds

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BENGALURU, India — Sizzling heat across Asia and the Middle East in late April that echoed last year's destructive swelter was made 45 times more likely in some parts of the continent because of human-caused climate change, a study Tuesday found.  Scorching temperatures were felt across large swaths of Asia, from Gaza in the west — where over 2 million people face clean water shortages, lack of health care and other essentials amid the Israeli bombardment — to the Philippines in the southeast, with many parts of the continent experiencing temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) several days in a row.  The study was released by the World Weather Attribution group of scientists, who use established climate models to quickly determine whether human-caused climate change played a part…


Illness took away her voice. AI created a replica she carries in her phone

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PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND — The voice Alexis "Lexi" Bogan had before last summer was exuberant. She loved to belt out Taylor Swift and Zach Bryan ballads in the car. She laughed all the time — even while corralling misbehaving preschoolers or debating politics with friends over a backyard fire pit. In high school, she was a soprano in the chorus. Then that voice was gone. Doctors in August removed a life-threatening tumor lodged near the back of her brain. When the breathing tube came out a month later, Bogan had trouble swallowing and strained to say "Hi" to her parents. Months of rehabilitation aided her recovery, but her speech is still impaired. Friends, strangers and her own family members struggle to understand what she is trying to tell them. In April,…


Patient with sickle cell disease offers hope to Ugandan community

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mbale, uganda — Barbara Nabulo was one of three girls in her family. But when a sister died, her mother wailed at the funeral that she was left with just one and a half daughters. The half was the ailing Nabulo, who at age 12 understood her mother's meaning. "I hated myself so much," Nabulo said recently, recalling the words that preceded a period of sickness that left her hospitalized and feeding through a tube. The scene underscores the lifelong challenges for some people with sickle cell disease in rural Uganda, where it remains poorly understood. Despite Nabulo's knowledge of how the disease weakens the body, she spoke repeatedly of "the germ I was born with." Infections, pain, organ damage Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited disorders in which…


Bird flu found in western China as US combats cattle outbreak

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BEIJING — Cases of bird flu have been confirmed among wild fowl in western China, the agriculture ministry said Saturday, as concerns grow over a U.S. outbreak infecting cattle.  Two counties in Qinghai province confirmed 275 cases of H5 influenza among dead Pallas's gull and other wild birds, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a notice on its website.  The ministry received a report on the cases from the China Animal Disease Control Center, and the national Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed the finding, the notice said.  The H5N1 outbreak among dairy cattle in at least nine U.S. states since late March has raised questions over whether it could spread to humans. No such cases have been reported.  The U.S. announced on May 11 that it would spend…


Extreme heat scorches parts of north India; New Delhi on high alert

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NEW DELHI — Parts of northwest India sweltered under scorching temperatures Saturday, with the capital, New Delhi, under a severe weather alert as extreme temperatures struck parts of the country. India's weather department expects heat wave conditions to persist across the north for the next few days and has put several states on high alert. On Friday, parts of New Delhi reported up to 47.1 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit). The nearby states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan also saw temperatures soar; they are likely to stay high over the next few days, said Soma Sen Roy, a scientist at the India Meteorological Department. Roy cautioned people against going outdoors under the afternoon sun. He advised drinking plenty of water and wearing loose-fitting clothes. Those who are especially vulnerable, such as the…


Changes from Visa mean Americans will carry fewer credit, debit cards

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new york — Your wallet may soon be getting thinner. Visa on Wednesday announced major changes to how credit and debit cards will operate in the U.S. in the coming months and years. The new features could mean Americans will be carrying fewer physical cards in their wallets, and will make the 16-digit credit or debit card number printed on every card increasingly irrelevant. They will be some of the biggest changes to how payments operate in the U.S. since the U.S. rolled out chip-embedded cards several years ago. They also come as Americans have many more options to pay for purchases beyond "credit or debit," including buy now, pay later companies, peer-to-peer payment options, paying directly with a bank, or digital payment systems such as Apple Pay. "I think (with…


English fishing village told to boil water after a parasite outbreak

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LONDON — A scenic fishing village in southwestern England was under instructions to boil its tap water for a third day on Friday after a parasite sickened more than 45 people in the latest example of Britain's troubled water system. Around 16,000 homes and businesses in the Brixham area of Devon were told to boil water after cryptosporidium, a microscopic parasite that causes diarrhea, was found in the water. At least 46 cases of cryptosporidiosis have been confirmed and more than 100 other people have reported similar symptoms, the U.K. Health Security Agency said. Symptoms can last more than two weeks. Sally Dart, who runs a housewares shop near Brixham Harbor, said people in town first began feeling ill two weeks ago during a pirate festival. "No one was checking the…


Heatwave shatters Southeast Asia records in April

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The effects of recent extreme weather in Southeast Asian countries are far-reaching, from school closures to drought and health advisories. While climate change is part of the problem, this year it was made worse by the cyclical weather pattern called El Nino. VOA’s Chris Casquejo explains. ...