Category: News

WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA — Namibians who are part of the LGBTQ+ community often find it difficult to get decent health care and many report discriminatory practices within the health care system. For example, when 20-year-old Immanuel Uirab sought contraception at a health facility, the nurse on duty would not assist him. “I don’t know if it’s the shorts I was wearing or you can generally just tell by looking at me that I am gay,” he said, “but then this particular nurse ... came out and she was, like, ‘No, we don’t offer contraceptives for people who practice sodomy. We can’t do that for you. ... You can go buy them if you want to use them in your private space, but we ... won’t give them to you because our government…

washington — The Orionids — one of two annual meteor showers from Halley's comet — peak early Monday. A bright waning moon may make them difficult to spot. The Orionid meteor shower can be unpredictable. It shines like a fireworks display in some years but is fairly slow in other years. This highly variable shower may result in anywhere from 20 to 60 visible meteors per hour under ideal viewing conditions, said NASA's Bill Cooke. This year's peak activity happens on a night when a waning moon is 83% full. The shower lasts through November 22. Here's what to know about the Orionids and other meteor showers. What is a meteor shower? Multiple meteor showers occur annually and don't require special equipment to see them. Most meteor showers originate from the…

Scientists say beef production takes a heavy toll on the environment. Cattle produce methane, a powerful planet-warming gas, and forests get cut down for pastures. But one farm in northern Colombia hopes to show ranching can have a lighter footprint on the planet. Austin Landis travelled to Montería in northern Colombia for a closer look at what could be a revolution in sustainable cattle ranching. ...

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Wednesday to put on hold a new federal rule targeting carbon pollution from coal- and gas-fired power plants at the request of numerous states and industry groups in another major challenge to President Joe Biden's efforts to combat climate change. The justices denied emergency requests by West Virginia, Indiana and 25 other states — most of them Republican led — as well as power companies and industry associations, to halt the Environmental Protection Agency rule while litigation continues in a lower court. The regulation, aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change, took effect July 8. The rule would require existing coal and new natural gas-fired plants eventually to reduce emissions including by capturing and storing carbon dioxide. The EPA's new rule,…

A nationwide recall of meat and poultry products potentially contaminated with listeria has expanded to nearly 15.4 million kilograms (12 million pounds) and now includes ready-to-eat meals sent to U.S. schools, restaurants and major retailers, federal officials said. The updated recall includes prepared salads, burritos and other foods sold at stores including Costco, Trader Joe's, Target, Walmart and Kroger. The meat used in those products was processed at a Durant, Oklahoma, manufacturing plant operated by BrucePac. The Woodburn, Oregon-based company sells precooked meat and poultry to industrial, foodservice and retail companies across the country. Routine testing found potentially dangerous listeria bacteria in samples of BrucePac chicken, officials with the U.S. Agriculture Department said. No illnesses have been confirmed in connection with the recall, USDA officials said. The U.S. Centers for…

Since the U.S. Supreme Court sent the issue of abortion back to the states in 2022, Democrats have mobilized to protect abortion rights while Republicans have worked to restrict the procedure on religious and moral grounds. The issue is motivating voters to go to the polls this election year. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Nevada. Videographer: Mary Cieslak ...

Geneva — The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it had been able to start its polio campaign in central Gaza and vaccinate tens of thousands of children despite Israeli strikes in the designated protected zone hours before. As part of an agreement between the Israeli military and Palestinian militant group Hamas, humanitarian pauses in the year-long Gaza war had been due to begin early on Monday to reach hundreds of thousands of children. However, hours before then, the U.N. humanitarian office said Israeli forces struck tents near al Aqsa hospital, inside in the zone, where it said four people were burned to death.   The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said one of its schools in the central Gazan city of Nuseirat, intended as a vaccination site, was hit overnight…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A NASA spacecraft rocketed away Monday on a quest to explore Jupiter’s tantalizing moon Europa and reveal whether its vast hidden ocean might hold the keys to life. It will take Europa Clipper 5 1/2 years to reach Jupiter, where it will slip into orbit around the giant gas planet and sneak close to Europa during dozens of radiation-drenched flybys. Scientists are almost certain a deep, global ocean exists beneath Europa’s icy crust. And where there is water, there could be life, making the moon one of the most promising places out there to hunt for it. Europa Clipper won’t look for life; it has no life detectors. Instead, the spacecraft will zero in on the ingredients necessary to sustain life, searching for organic compounds and other…

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA spacecraft is ready to set sail for Jupiter and its moon Europa, one of the best bets for finding life beyond Earth. Europa Clipper will peer beneath the moon’s icy crust where an ocean is thought to be sloshing fairly close to the surface. It won’t search for life, but rather determine whether conditions there could support it. Another mission would be needed to flush out any microorganisms lurking there. “It’s a chance for us to explore not a world that might have been habitable billions of years ago, but a world that might be habitable today — right now,” said program scientist Curt Niebur. Its massive solar panels make Clipper the biggest craft built by NASA to investigate another planet. It will take 5…

WASHINGTON — As if the largest bug to ever live – a monster about 2.7 meters long with several dozen legs – wasn't terrifying enough, scientists could only just imagine what the extinct beast's head looked like. That's because many of the fossils of these creatures are headless shells that were left behind when they molted, squirming out of their exoskeletons through the head opening as they grew ever bigger — 2.4 to 2.7 meters and more than 50 kilograms. Now, scientists have produced a mug shot after studying fossils of juveniles that were complete and very well preserved, if not quite cute. The giant bug's topper was a round bulb with two short bell-shaped antennae, two protruding eyes like a crab, and a rather small mouth adapted for grinding leaves…

PHOENIX — On just one sweltering day during the hottest June on record in Phoenix, a 38-year-old man collapsed under a freeway bridge and a 41-year-old woman was found slumped outside a business. Both had used methamphetamine before dying from an increasingly dangerous mix of soaring temperatures and stimulants. Meth is showing up more often as a factor in the deaths of people who died from heat-related causes in the U.S., according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Death certificates show about one in five heat-related deaths in recent years involved methamphetamine. In Arizona, Texas, Nevada and California, officials found the drug in nearly a third of heat deaths in 2023. Meth is more common in heat-related deaths than the deadly…