Oct282022 DmediaNo Comments

Hawaii’s Big Island Gets Warning as Huge Volcano Rumbles

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Hawaii officials are warning residents of the Big Island that the world's largest active volcano, Mauna Loa, is sending signals that it may erupt. Scientists say an eruption isn't imminent, but they are on alert because of a recent spike in earthquakes at the volcano's summit. Experts say it would take just a few hours for lava to reach homes closest to vents on the volcano, which last erupted in 1984. Hawaii's civil defense agency is holding meetings across the island to educate residents about how to prepare for a possible emergency. They recommend having a "go" bag with food, identifying a place to stay once they leave home and making a plan for reuniting with family members. "Not to panic everybody, but they have to be aware of that…
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Oct282022 TechmanNo Comments

Timeline of Billionaire Elon Musk’s Bid to Control Twitter

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On Oct. 4, Elon Musk reversed himself and offered to honor his original proposal to buy Twitter for $44 billion — a deal he had spent the previous several months trying to wriggle out of. He posted a video of himself arriving at Twitter headquarters Wednesday, and Thursday evening new outlets announced the deal had been completed and Musk had fired at least two top Twitter executives. If the case has your head spinning, here's a quick guide to the major events in the saga featuring the billionaire Tesla CEO and the social platform. January 31: Musk starts buying shares of Twitter in near-daily installments, amassing a 5% stake in the company by mid-March. March 26: Musk, who has tens of millions of Twitter followers and is active on the…
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Oct282022 TechmanNo Comments

Elon Musk Completes $44 Billion Acquisition of Twitter

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Elon Musk became Twitter Inc's new owner on Thursday, firing top executives he had accused of misleading him and providing little clarity over how he will achieve the lofty ambitions he has outlined for the influential social media platform. The CEO of electric car maker Tesla Inc TSLA.O has said he wants to "defeat" spam bots on Twitter, make the algorithms that determine how content is presented to its users publicly available, and prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division, even as he limits censorship. Yet Musk has not offered details on how he will achieve all this and who will run the company. He has said he plans to cut jobs, leaving Twitter's approximately 7,500 employees fretting about their future. He also said on…
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Oct272022 TechmanNo Comments

US Rolls Out Voluntary Cybersecurity Goals

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The United States is trying to make it easier for companies and organizations to bolster their cybersecurity in the face of growing attacks aimed at crippling their operations, stealing their data or demanding ransom payments. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) rolled out their new Cybersecurity Performance Goals on Thursday, describing them as a critical but voluntary resource that will help companies and organizations make better decisions. "Really what these cybersecurity performance goals present is a menu of options to advance one's cybersecurity," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters, describing the rollout as a "watershed moment" for cybersecurity. "They are accessible, they are easy to understand, and they are identified according to the cost that each would entail, the complexity…
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Oct272022 DmediaNo Comments

UN: Greenhouse Gas Cuts Needed to Prevent Climate Catastrophe

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GENEVA - A U.N. report warns the window for preventing a climate catastrophe is fast closing. The U.N. Environment Program’s latest Emissions Gap Report urges unprecedented cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and a rapid transformation of societies to head off the worst. The U.N. report finds the world is falling far short of the Paris climate goals agreement, with no credible pathway for limiting a temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said progress since last year’s climate change conference, COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland, has been woefully inadequate. She said nations have failed to deliver on their pledges for greater emissions cuts. She noted greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 45 percent by 2030 to stop climate change.…
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Oct272022 DmediaNo Comments

MSF Warns of Measles, Cholera Outbreaks at Kenya Refugee Complex

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The charity Doctors Without Borders said Thursday that Kenya's Dadaab Refugee Complex faces a high risk of measles and cholera outbreaks as thousands of new refugees arrive from areas of Somalia where the diseases are circulating.  More than 233,000 refugees live in three overcrowded camps in the complex.   Doctors Without Borders, best known by its French acronym MSF, reported a sharp rise since January in the number of people fleeing to Kenya to escape drought, hunger and violence.  Many of the new arrivals are from southern Somalia, where measles and cholera outbreaks recently have occurred, the charity said.   MSF's deputy program manager for Kenya, Adrian Guadarrama, said Thursday in Geneva that many are being received by refugee communities inside camps, but many more are living in very poor…
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Oct272022 TechmanNo Comments

Musk Says He Doesn’t Seek ‘Free-for-All Hellscape’ for Twitter

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Elon Musk is telling Twitter advertisers he is buying the platform to "help humanity" and doesn't want it to become a "free-for-all hellscape" where anything can be said with no consequences. The message to advertisers posted Thursday on Twitter came a day before Musk's deadline for closing his $44 billion deal to buy the social-media company and take it private. "The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence," Musk wrote, in an unusually-long message for the billionaire Tesla CEO who typically projects his thoughts in one-line tweets He continued: "There is currently great danger that social media will splinter…
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Oct272022 DmediaNo Comments

Germany to Become One of Europe’s First Countries to Legalize Cannabis

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Germany on Wednesday unveiled plans to legalize cannabis, potentially making it one of the first countries in Europe to make marijuana legal. Presenting his plans to the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said the proposal aims to achieve “the most liberal cannabis liberalization in Europe, and, on the other hand ... the most tightly regulated market." Germany's federal Cabinet reportedly approved the plan, kicking off a lengthy process to legalize growth, cultivation and distribution of the plant. German laws must comply with European legislation, and under the proposal, the government would regulate cannabis production, sale, and distribution as part of a controlled, legalized market, said Lauterbach, describing the reform as a possible “model” for other European countries. Although many European countries have decriminalized small amounts…
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Oct262022 TechmanNo Comments

US Technology Helps Improve Crop Yields in Drought-stricken Africa

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More frequent and severe droughts in Africa are hampering food production, especially in arid parts of the continent, where farmers struggle to eke out a living. A water retention system developed in the United States is helping African farmers fight the trend and improve crop yields in drought-affected areas. Under the scorching sun in the Ulilinzi village of southeastern Kenya, farmers are engaging in unique land preparations. They are installing in the ground specially designed polyethylene membranes that look like clear covers, to prevent the loss of moisture and nutrients from the soil. Exacerbated by drought from climate change, the sandy soil in this area, like in most arid and semi-arid areas, has made it nearly impossible to produce abundant crops. However, this new water retention technology developed in the…
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Oct252022 DmediaNo Comments

CDC Warns of Possible Surge of Flu Cases

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After two years of low influenza case numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns of a possibly harsh flu season.   "The United States has experienced relatively little influenza activity since 2020, thanks, in part, to community mitigation measures used to control the spread of COVID-19, making the country ripe for a severe influenza season," the CDC told VOA in an email.   According to the CDC, the flu is already spreading in parts of the South, with relatively high activity levels in Georgia and Texas, compared to the same period last year.   Although the influenza season in the U.S. is just beginning, "based on what we have seen in parts of the Southern Hemisphere, flu has the potential to hit us…
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Oct252022 DmediaNo Comments

Europe’s Bees Stung by Climate, Pesticides and Parasites

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Bees pollinate 71 of the 100 crop species that provide 90% of food worldwide. They also pollinate wild plants, helping sustain biodiversity and the beauty of the natural world. But climate change, pesticides and parasites are taking a terrible toll on bees, and they need protecting, said European beekeepers, who held their annual congress in Quimper, western France, this week. The congress, which said some European beekeepers were suffering "significant mortalities and catastrophic harvests due to difficult climatic conditions," was an opportunity for beekeepers and scientists to respond to the major concerns. The European Union, the world's second-largest importer of honey, currently produces just 60% of what it consumes. French beekeepers, for example, expect to harvest between 12,000 and 14,000 metric tons of honey this year, far lower than the…
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Oct242022 DmediaNo Comments

Kenyan Museums, Farmers Conserve Indigenous Seeds as GMOs Are Legalized

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Kenya's museums and partners are conserving and promoting indigenous seeds after the government lifted a ban on genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, for farming. The museum says the native seeds are at risk because of the GMO seeds, which the government and some farmers say will help them to produce more crops faster as the region suffers a historic drought. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi, Kenya. Videographer: Jimmy Makhulo ...
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Oct242022 DmediaNo Comments

WHO Says a Polio-Free World Within Grasp

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In marking World Polio Day, advocates for a polio-free world are urging nations to commit to a new five-year strategy to eradicate this crippling disease and consign it to the trash bin of history. An estimated 350,000 children were paralyzed by polio when the World Health Organization launched its Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988. In the world today, polio is endemic only in Pakistan, and Afghanistan. So far this year, 29 cases have been recorded, putting the possibility of a polio-free world within reach. The WHO notes the final stretch is the most difficult and cautions nations against letting down their guard too soon. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the 29 recorded cases include a small number in southeast Africa linked to a strain originating in Pakistan. “While…
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Oct242022 DmediaNo Comments

Cameroon Says Cholera Hits Minawao, a Nigerian Refugee Camp

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Authorities in Cameroon say they are struggling to contain a cholera outbreak in an overcrowded refugee camp on its northern border with Nigeria. In the past week, three people have died in the Minawao refugee camp and at least 81 have been infected from the bacteria, which spreads through dirty water and food. The camp was designed to hold fewer than 15,000 refugees but currently has more than five times that number. The camp located on Cameroon’s northern border is home to 76,000 Nigerians who have fled Boko Haram terrorist attacks. Helen Ngoh, spokesperson for UNHCR Cameroon says the U.N. body needs support to contain the ongoing wave of infections and to prevent future outbreaks in the refugee camp. "In Minawao specifically UNHCR needs at least 450,000 U.S. dollars to…
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Oct232022 DmediaNo Comments

World Polio Day: Pakistan’s Polio Problem Persists

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Photos of Zarghoona Wadood sightseeing in Egypt with two other wheelchair-using women went viral last year in Pakistan, becoming a symbol of what women with disabilities can do. Wadood was just 7 months old when polio paralyzed her legs. Her parents didn’t know to get her vaccinated. “I can’t even move from my bed unless the wheelchair is near me … the wheelchair is a part of me now,” Wadood, now 38 and employed with the U.N. World Food Program, told VOA. She is one of thousands of Pakistanis disabled by polio, an incurable and highly infectious viral disease that can infect a person’s spinal cord, causing muscles to stop working. The invention of polio vaccines in the 1950s and 1960s wiped the disease from the industrialized world, and the…
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Oct232022 DmediaNo Comments

India Launches 36 Internet Satellites Delayed by Ukraine War

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India launched a rocket carrying 36 private internet satellites on early Sunday, stepping in to keep the orbital constellation growing after a monthslong interruption related to the war in Ukraine. The liftoff from southern India was the first launch for London-based OneWeb since breaking with the Russian Space Agency in March because of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. “We have accomplished the orbit very accurately, now the rocket is in its intended orbit,” said S. Somanath, the chairperson of India’s space agency. He said 16 satellites were put into orbit and expressed optimism that "the remaining 20 satellites will get separated as safely as the first of the 16.” OneWeb now has 462 satellites flying — more than 70% of what the company said it needs to provide broadband services around…
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Oct232022 DmediaNo Comments

Uganda Says Two More Ebola Cases Confirmed in Kampala Hospital

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Two more people in an isolation unit of Uganda's main hospital have tested positive for Ebola, bringing total cases recorded in the facility to five, the health minister said on Sunday. The five confirmed cases in Kampala are the first known transmission of the virus in the city, coming days after the information ministry said the country's Ebola outbreak was coming under control and was expected to be over by the end of the year. Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said on Saturday that three patients among 60 people in isolation at Kampala's Mulago Hospital tested positive for the disease a day earlier. She had said the three infected people had been in contact with a patient from Kassanda district in central Uganda who had died in Mulago. "Two more…
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Oct212022 DmediaNo Comments

Share of Cases of COVID-19 Variants Nearly Doubles in US; Europe Warns of Rise 

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U.S. health regulators Friday estimated that BQ.1 and closely related BQ.1.1 accounted for 16.6% of coronavirus variants in the country, nearly doubling from last week, while Europe expects them to become the dominant variants in a month.  The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said the variants are likely to drive up cases in the coming weeks to months in the European region.  The two variants are descendants of Omicron's BA.5 subvariant, which is the dominant form of the coronavirus in the United States. Regulators in Europe and the U.S. have recently authorized vaccine boosters that target it.  There is no evidence yet that BQ.1 is linked with increased severity compared with the circulating Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5, European officials said, but warned it may evade some immune…
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Oct212022 DmediaNo Comments

As Leaders Meet, Chinese Hope for End to ‘Zero-COVID’ Limits

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As China's ruling Communist Party holds a congress this week, many Beijing residents are focused on an issue not on the formal agenda: Will the end of the meeting bring an easing of the at times draconian “zero-COVID" policies that are disrupting lives and the economy? It appears to be wishful thinking. As the world moves to a post-pandemic lifestyle, many across China have resigned themselves to lining up several times a week for COVID-19 tests, restrictions on their travels to other regions, and the ever-present possibility of a community lockdown. "There is nothing we can do," Zhang Yiming, 51, said this week at a park in Beijing. "If we look at the situation abroad, like the United States where over 1 million people have died, right? In China, although…
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Oct212022 TechmanNo Comments

Companies Weigh Fallout From US Ban on Sending Chip Tech to China

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The Biden administration's announcement earlier this month that it would ban the transfer of advanced U.S. semiconductor technology to China continues to reverberate through global markets. The ruling by the Department of Commerce affects not only U.S. firms that sell to China but any company whose products contain American semiconductor technology. In mainland China, according to Bloomberg News, officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have been summoning executives from domestic semiconductor manufacturers to assess how being deprived of high-tech manufacturing tools from overseas would impact their businesses. And companies that rely on imports of high-end semiconductors are assessing the viability of their businesses going forward. In the U.S., semiconductor companies and other tech firms that count China among their largest single markets are facing potentially severe damage…
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Oct202022 DmediaNo Comments

WHO: Lack of Physical Activity Can Lead to Disease, Premature Death

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The World Health Organization warns physical inactivity can lead to the development of debilitating noncommunicable diseases and millions of premature deaths. Data from 194 countries show governments are not doing enough to encourage their populations to engage in physical activity, including creating the opportunities for people to be more active and move around freely. For example, the World Health Organization reports too few countries encourage active and sustainable transport. It notes just over 40% of countries have road design standards that make walking and cycling safer. Fiona Bull, head of WHO’s physical activity unit within the Department of Health Promotion, said this neglect results in staggering economic, physical, and mental costs. “Our estimates indicate that $27 billion a year or up to 2030, $300 billion dollars (in costs) could be…
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