Japan’s Prime Minister Pledges $19 Billion Investment in Green Economy

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has pledged $19.2 billion toward achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050. He made the remarks Friday during wide-ranging news conference that came a day before the Japanese parliament – the Diet – ends its legislative session, as is customary.  Suga told reporters his proposal marks a big step forward in environmental investment for the country. He also announced a nearly $10 billion investment in digitalization including research and development for wireless communications technologies supporting cellular data networks. Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Japanese leader said he would be introducing an economic package next week to help individuals and businesses recover and repair the economy from the coronavirus’s devastating effects.   As for a vaccine, the prime minister referenced “a few ongoing clinical trials in Japan and overseas,” some of which are in their final stages.   “Safety and efficacy will be the biggest priorities. We are making the utmost effort in preparation, to deliver the vaccinations that will be approved for those in need,” he said Friday. Suga also said he would like to work closely with U.S. President-elect Joe Biden.  “(The) Japan-U.S. alliance is the cornerstone of Japan’s diplomatic security and is the very foundation of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and the international community,” he said, noting he would like to arrange a U.S. visit as soon as possible. Suga took office on Sept. 16, pledging to carry on policies of his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, who resigned due to health problems. …

South Africa Tightens COVID Restrictions Ahead of Christmas Season

South Africa’s president has announced a raft of new restrictions in a major city as the nation stares down a possible coronavirus resurgence. This has been a tough year for the nation with Africa’s highest coronavirus burden, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged in a Thursday night speech.But now, as many South Africans plan to embark on a monthlong summer holiday, now is not the time for South Africa to let down its guard, he warned. “As we want to relax, this virus does not relax.  And this virus does not take a holiday,” he said.  “This 2020 has been a difficult year for us as a nation and as a country. It has severely tested our resolve and demanded great sacrifices of each and every one of us. But even as the holidays approach, we cannot let our guard down. Unless we take personal responsibility for our health and the health of others, more people are going to become infected. More people are going to die.”Nearly 22,000 South Africans have already died, he noted.  To that end, he announced restrictions for one of the country’s major metropoles, Nelson Mandela Bay. The coastal city, also known as Port Elizabeth, has recently seen a jump in confirmed cases. The city’s one million residents now must observe a nighttime curfew and are restricted in both buying and consuming alcohol in public. Gatherings are now limited to 250 people for outdoor events and 100 for indoor events. He also said that countrywide, post-funeral gatherings — which Ramaphosa referred to …

US Coronavirus Infections Top 14 Million

More than 14 million people in the U.S. have been infected and more than 275,000 have died of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.U.S. President-elect Joe Biden said Thursday he will ask Americans to wear masks for 100 days when he assumes office January 20.In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Biden said, “On the first day I’m inaugurated, I’m going to ask the public for 100 days to mask. Just 100 days to mask — not forever, just 100 days. And I think we’ll see a significant reduction” in coronavirus cases that have surged to record numbers in recent days with a corresponding rise in daily death tolls.Among First Acts, Biden to Call for 100 Days of Mask-Wearing That’s made many people reticent to embrace a practice that public health experts say is one of the easiest tools to manage a pandemic which has killed more than 275,000 AmericansCalifornia Governor Gavin Newsom says his state will begin imposing regional stay-at-home orders for its residents.   The orders will begin when intensive care units in hospitals within the state’s five regions reach more than 85% capacity, something that has not happened yet, but is expected to occur soon.     South Korea case spike In South Korea, a spike in COVID-19 cases has public health officials urging people forego in-person Christmas and New Year’s festivities, making them online celebrations instead.   South Korea reported 629 new coronavirus cases Friday, a nine-month high in a country that for months has been a model …

Australian Telescope Finds 1 Million New Galaxies

A powerful new telescope in Australia has mapped vast areas of the universe in record time. The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder was able to chart about 3 million galaxies in just 300 hours – 1 million of which have never been seen before.Galaxies are the building blocks of the universe. From a remote corner in the Western Australian outback, a new telescope, which has turned radio signals in space into images, has examined the entire southern sky in sharper detail than has ever been done before.The Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, 800 kilometers north of Perth, is run by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency.The telescope is not just one dish or antenna, but 36. They are three stories high and connected by fiber-optic cable, so they combine to work as one supertelescope.The array is helping scientists study black holes, the nature of gravity and the origins of the first stars.By cataloging millions of galaxies, scientists hope to unlock the secrets of how the universe has evolved.“If we can look at the statistics of them, where they are on the sky, and how they interact with each other, then we learn about how galaxies like our own can form and how we came to be here on this Earth,” said Douglas Bock, he CSIRO’s director of astronomy and space science. “And if we look at a galaxy that is far away, perhaps 12 billion light years away, we are looking back in time. …

Sweden Closes High Schools Until Early January to Stem COVID-19 Infections

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced Thursday that high schools would switch to distance learning beginning Monday through early January to slow the rate of COVID-19 infections in the country. Lofven made the announcement at a Stockholm news conference alongside Swedish Education Minister Anna Ekstrom. He said he hoped the move would have a “breaking effect” on the rate of COVID-19 infections. He added it was not intended to extend the Christmas break for students and he said he was putting his trust in them that they would continue to study from home. The distance learning will be in effect until January 6.People walk past shops under Christmas decorations during the novel coronavirus pandemic in Stockholm, Dec. 3, 2020.After a lull during summer, Sweden has seen COVID-19 cases surge over the past couple of months, with daily records repeatedly set. Deaths and hospitalizations have also risen sharply. Meanwhile, earlier Thursday, Swedish State Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told reporters he did not think masks were necessary, just two days after the World Health Organization (WHO) expanded its advice to use masks as part of a comprehensive strategy to combat the spread of COVID-19. Tegnell said that in some situations, masks might be necessary, but that the current situation in Sweden did not require it. He said the evidence for wearing a mask was weak and he believed social distancing was much more important. In its expanded guidelines, the WHO said that where the virus was circulating, people — including children and students age 12 or older — should always wear masks …

Phishing Ploy Targets COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Effort

IBM security researchers say they have detected a cyberespionage effort using targeted phishing emails to try to collect vital information on the World Health Organization’s initiative for distributing COVID-19 vaccine to developing countries. The researchers said they could not be sure who was behind the campaign, which began in September, or if it was successful. But the precision targeting and careful efforts to leave no tracks bore “the potential hallmarks of nation-state tradecraft,” they said in  a blog post Thursday. The campaign’s targets, in countries including Germany, Italy, South Korea and Taiwan, are likely associated with the development of the “cold chain”  needed to ensure coronavirus vaccines get the nonstop sterile refrigeration they need to be effective for the nearly 3 billion people who live where temperature-controlled storage is insufficient, IBM said. “Think of it as the bloodline that will be supplying the most vital vaccines globally,” said Claire Zaboeva, an IBM analyst involved in the detection.   Whoever is behind the operation could be motivated by a desire to learn how the vaccines are best able to be shipped and stored — the entire refrigeration process — in order to copy it, said Nick Rossmann, the IBM team’s global threat intelligence lead. Or they might want to be able to undermine a vaccine’s legitimacy or launch a disruptive or destructive attack, he added. In the ploy, executives with groups likely associated with the initiative known as  Covax  — created by the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization and …

WHO Europe Director Applauds Vaccine News, Urges Vigilance

The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) European director Thursday called Britain’s approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine “phenomenal” but urged Europeans to remain vigilant.   Speaking at his headquarters in Copenhagen, Dr. Hans Kluge said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the vaccines on the verge of approval elsewhere, along with 50 candidate vaccines currently in human trials, provide phenomenal promise. He said the vaccines, combined with other public health measures, can bring the end of an acute phase of the pandemic.   While the rest of Europe awaits the vaccine, Kluge called on nations to have plans in place and take immediate stock of their preparedness.     “This is a time for responsible leadership. To those countries seeing a decline in transmission: Use this time wisely,” he said.   Considering the initial limited supply of vaccine that will be available, Kluge said WHO recommends health and social care workers, adults over 60 years of age and residents and staff of long-term care facilities should be prioritized.     He said nations should be scaling up public health infrastructure and preparing for the next surge. He warned that the virus still has the potential to do enormous damage “unless we do everything in our power to stop its spread.”   Kluge said there have now been 19 million COVID-19 cases and over 427,000 deaths reported in the WHO European Region, with over 4 million more cases in November alone.      Last week, for the third consecutive week, the number of new cases …

Fauci to Discuss Coronavirus Pandemic with Biden Transition Team

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, is meeting virtually Thursday with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team about the surging coronavirus pandemic in the country and the likely start soon of widespread vaccinations of millions of Americans.Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, was for months the face of the government’s response to the pandemic.But his dire warnings about the health risks of the virus eventually peeved President Donald Trump, who sidelined him in favor of more optimistic medical views ahead of last month’s national election in which Biden defeated Trump. Biden has promised to listen to the advice of medical experts like Fauci as tens of thousands of new infections in the United States are being recorded daily. More than 273,000 Americans have been killed by the virus, more than in any other country, according to Johns Hopkins University.The 79-year-old Fauci, a career government civil servant, told CBS News that his discussions with Biden’s “landing team” at his agency will center on the new administration’s priorities to quickly start inoculations after two proposed vaccines are likely approved by government drug regulators in the next two weeks.”Having served six (White House) administrations, I’ve been through five transitions, and I know that transitions are really important if you want to get a smooth handing over of the responsibility,” Fauci said.Fauci said he has not yet spoken with Biden but expects to do so soon.   …

United Nations to Convene Special Session on Pandemic Response

More than 100 world leaders and high-ranking government officials will convene a two-day virtual special session of the United Nations General Assembly Thursday to discuss the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to craft a recovery strategy.Brendan Varma, a spokesman for General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir, said the special session is aimed at creating a multilateral strategy among the countries, U.N. actors, the private sector and vaccine developers to craft a recovery strategy.UN Appeals for Record $35 Billion as COVID-19 Wreaks HavocWorld body says it must provide a humanitarian lifeline to 165 million of the world’s most vulnerable needy people in 56 countries in crisisThe Associated Press says Friday’s second and final day will include three virtual panels:  the global body’s response to the pandemic, the current progress toward a coronavirus vaccine, and the global economic recovery from the pandemic.   The U.N. Development Program has released a study predicting the COVID-19 pandemic could push another 207 million people into extreme poverty, bringing the total number to more than 1 billion by 2030.  A separate report released Thursday by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development said nearly 50 so-called least developed countries will experience their worst economic performance in three decades, pushing as many as 32 million people into extreme poverty this year alone.Thursday’s meeting comes as the world nears 1.5 million deaths worldwide from COVID-19, out of a total of 64.5 million total cases.  Among the latest to succumb from the disease is former French President Valery Giscard …

NIH Director: ‘It Is Astounding What’s Been Done’ Regarding COVID-19 Vaccine

VOA contributor Greta Van Susteren interviewed the National Institute of Health Director Frances Collins. Among the issues discussed are the COVID-19 vaccine and its development.Here is a transcript of that interview:Greta Van Susteren: Nice to talk to you, sir.Francis Collins: Nice to talk to you, Greta.Van Susteren: Well, we Americans know what NIH is and we’re very proud of it but what is NIH?Collins: The National Institutes of Health, it’s the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world. Basically, everything that the U.S. is doing in terms of research and academic institutions Institute’s and our own intramural program is funded by the taxpayers through this budget, and I’m the director that’s supposed to make sure it gets spent wisely everything from basic science to clinical trials. Diabetes, rare diseases, cancer, and of course right now, COVID-19, and that’s what we are all about $42 billion a year.Van Susteren: For you the research you do a lot, a lot of research, all research. What does the FDA do the Food & Drug Administration we hear so much about in terms of the vaccine?Collins: So, FDA is a sister agency we’re both in the Department of Health and Human Services. FDA’s job is to be the regulator and it’s to look at some proposed new approach maybe it’s a diagnostic test. Maybe it’s a therapeutic, maybe it’s a vaccine and to get all the data together and look at it and decide if it’s going to be safe and effective, so …

CDC Warns of ‘Most Difficult Time’ for US Public Health

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned Wednesday of a bleak winter ahead as the country continues to see nationwide surges of COVID-19 cases.”The reality is that December, January and February are going to be rough times,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said in a livestream presentation hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. “I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.”Redfield said the current surge in cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is worse than previous ones, noting the geographic scope and steeper trajectory of infection rates and deaths, as the U.S. is recording roughly 2,000 deaths from the virus daily.Redfield also warned of the strain on hospitals across the country, which are running low on beds and overworked staff.The U.S. topped 100,000 hospitalizations for the virus for the first time since the pandemic began Wednesday, according to the COVID Tracking project.Our daily update is published. States reported 1.4 million tests, 196k cases, and 2,733 deaths. There are 100,226 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in the US —the first time hospitalizations have exceeded 100k. pic.twitter.com/8QSKujBGao— The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) December 3, 2020While many Americans face “fatigue” following social-distancing and mask-wearing guidelines, Redfield urged people to adhere to these practices in the coming months.Millions of Americans traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday last week, despite advice from health experts against flying and gathering in large groups indoors.Also on Wednesday, the CDC said Americans …

NASA: Mystery Object Is 54-Year-Old Rocket, Not Asteroid

A mysterious object temporarily orbiting Earth is a 54-year-old rocket, not an asteroid after all, astronomers confirmed Wednesday.Observations by a telescope in Hawaii clinched its identity, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.The object was classified as an asteroid after its discovery in September. But NASA’s top asteroid expert, Paul Chodas, quickly suspected it was the Centaur upper rocket stage from Surveyor 2, a failed 1966 moon-landing mission. Size estimates had put it in the range of the old Centaur, which was about 10 meters long and 3 meters in diameter.Chodas was proved right after a team led by the University of Arizona’s Vishnu Reddy used an infrared telescope in Hawaii to observe not only the mystery object, but — just on Tuesday — a Centaur from 1971 still orbiting Earth. The data from the images matched.”Today’s news was super gratifying!” Chodas said via email. “It was teamwork that wrapped up this puzzle.”The object formally known as 2020 SO entered a wide, lopsided orbit around Earth last month and, on Tuesday, made its closest approach at just over 50,476 kilometers. It will depart the neighborhood in March, shooting back into its own orbit around the sun. Its next return: 2036. …

Nurses Wanted: Swamped US Hospitals Scramble for Pandemic Help

U.S. hospitals slammed with COVID-19 patients are trying to lure nurses and doctors out of retirement, recruiting students and new graduates who have yet to earn their licenses and offering eye-popping salaries in a desperate bid to ease staffing shortages.With the virus surging from coast to coast, the number of patients in the hospital with the virus has more than doubled over the past month to a record high of nearly 100,000, pushing medical centers and health care workers to the breaking point. Nurses are increasingly burned out and getting sick on the job, and the stress on the nation’s medical system prompted a dire warning from the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”The reality is December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they are going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation,” Dr. Robert Redfield said.Reaching out to retireesGovernors in hard-hit states such as Wisconsin and Nebraska are making it easier for retired nurses to come back, including by waiving licensing requirements and fees, though it can be a tough sell for older nurses, who would be in more danger than many of their colleagues if they contracted the virus.Some are taking jobs that don’t involve working directly with patients to free up front-line nurses.Iowa is allowing temporary emergency licenses for new nurses who have met the state’s educational requirements but haven’t yet taken the state licensing exam. Some Minnesota hospitals are …

US Tightens Definition of Service Animals Allowed on Planes

The Transportation Department issued a final rule Wednesday covering animals on airlines. It decided that only dogs can fly as service animals, and companions that passengers use for emotional support don’t count. The rule aims to settle years of tension between airlines and passengers who bring their pets on board for free by saying they need them for emotional help. Under a long-standing department policy, all the passengers needed was a note from a health professional. Airlines argued that passengers abused the situation to bring a menagerie of animals on board, including cats, turtles, pot-bellied pigs and, in one case, a peacock. FILE – Oscar the cat, who is not a service animal, sits in his carry-on travel bag after arriving at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Sept. 20, 2017.The agency said Wednesday that it was rewriting the rules partly because passengers carrying unusual animals on board “eroded the public trust in legitimate service animals.” It also cited the increasing frequency of people “fraudulently representing their pets as service animals,” and a rise in misbehavior by emotional-support animals, ranging from urinating on the carpet to biting other passengers. The Transportation Department proposed the new rule in January and received more than 15,000 comments. While 3,000 commenters favored dropping protections for support animals, 6,000 spoke in favor of them, including people suffering from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, the department said. Pet feesThe Paralyzed Veterans of America said the mere presence of a dog, cat or rabbit — even if untrained — can …

China Joins Race to Mine Moon for Resources

China’s space program celebrated a major accomplishment this week when its Chang’e 5 lunar probe mission safely landed on the moon. The landing Tuesday brought Beijing a step closer to becoming the third country in the world to retrieve geological samples from the moon, but more important, analysts say, is that China is accruing experience for more ambitious plans.The goal of this mission is to extract 2 kilograms of sample from the moon’s northern Mons Rümker region and bring it back to the Earth. If the mission succeeds, China will join the U.S. and the former Soviet Union as the only countries to have collected lunar samples.Analysts say the complexity of Chang’e 5’s unmanned exploration mission shows the great progress of China’s space capabilities, and, if successful, will likely help Beijing realize future plans for manned moon landings and the construction of bases.Namrata Goswami, an Indian defense expert and now a space policy and geopolitical scholar living in the U.S., told VOA that Chang’e 5 would allow China to advance “their understanding of rendezvous and docking, especially when they are planning on human landing.”While reaching the moon remains a significant accomplishment for any space program, Beijing’s space program is still in its early stages and is still building experience.“They’re catching up to where the United States was in the 1960s,” said Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis and space security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “The United States has already sent not …

WMO: Global Warming Triggering Extreme Weather Events

The World Meteorological Organization reports 2020 is shaping up to be one of the three warmest years on record and a year in which extreme weather events have wreaked havoc on the lives and livelihoods of millions of people around the world.The average global temperature in 2020 is set to be about 1.2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level. WMO Director of Climate Maxx Dilley said that despite efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, temperatures are expected to continue rising.”So what we can expect next year, we cannot say whether it will be the warmest year or not, but 2011 to 2020 was the warmest decade on record. … We now have a prediction of at least a one-in-five possibility of the temperature at least temporarily reaching 1.5 degrees between now and 2024,” he said.That means climate change may be happening even faster than experts predicted.  The 2016 Paris Agreement sought to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting average global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius until 2050.WMO describes 2020 as another extraordinary year for the climate.  It says extreme temperatures have occurred on land, sea and especially in the Arctic.  It notes temperatures in the Siberian Arctic reached more than 5 degrees Celsius above average.WMO Scientific Coordinator Omar Baddour says that is particularly serious.“The Arctic part of the world is really suffering major changes. … We are breaking records after records. … The change in the Arctic is not only for the region but also for …

US Shortens COVID-19 Quarantine to 10 Days

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that Americans potentially exposed to COVID-19 could quarantine for 10 days, shortening the previous recommendation of 14 days. The CDC also said that a seven-day quarantine was acceptable with a negative test result, but cautioned that everyone should monitor themselves for potential coronavirus symptoms for 14 days. “Reducing the length of quarantine may make it easier for people to follow critical public health action by reducing the economic hardship associated with a longer period, especially if they cannot work during that time,” CDC official Henry Walke told reporters on a conference call. Last week, a top U.S. health official said people might be more likely to comply with a shorter quarantine period, even if it meant some infections might be missed. Studies show that most people develop symptoms around five days after being exposed to the virus. The CDC said its new guidelines are based on new analysis of data and research. The World Health Organization still recommends a 14-day quarantine period after potential exposure to COVID-19. Esha Grover contributed to this report.   …

Mass COVID-19 Immunization Plans Raise Huge Challenges

Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, has likened the scientists who have developed coronavirus vaccines to the cavalry arriving just in the nick of time. “The toot of the bugle is louder,” he reassured Britons during a recent news conference.   But like his European counterparts, Johnson’s government is scrambling to come up with a vaccine distribution plan and is having to answer key logistical and epidemiological questions, including who should be in the early waves to receive inoculations and how to ramp up a mass immunization program able to vaccinate millions as soon as possible.   On Tuesday, British regulators approved the use of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, saying a rollout will begin next week. Health minister Matt Hancock said the approval of the vaccine is “fantastic news.”   Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street in London, Britain, Dec. 2, 2020.And at a Wednesday press conference, Johnson admitted that it would be an “immense logistical challenge” just to get the vulnerable inoculated.  “It will inevitably take some months before all the most vulnerable are protected — long, cold months. So it’s all the more vital that as we celebrate this scientific achievement we are not carried away with over-optimism or fall into the naive belief that the struggle is over,” he said.  Most countries say they will focus early inoculations on medical professionals and care workers and vulnerable groups, the elderly and those with chronic underlying health conditions.   Thereafter it gets more complicated.   Vaccine skepticismAnd another crucial question is how to persuade enough people to accept vaccinations so that the virus can be suppressed.  Even before the emergence of the coronavirus, Europeans …

Singapore OKs Lab-grown Chicken

It might look like chicken. It might taste like chicken. But it doesn’t come from a chicken, it comes from a lab. For chicken lovers in Singapore, this lab-grown chicken will soon be available in nugget form as the country has given the OK for San Francisco-based startup Eat Just to sell the meat. It is the first regulatory approval for so-called clean meat, according to Reuters. “I would imagine what will happen is the U.S., Western Europe and others will see what Singapore has been able to do, the rigors of the framework that they put together. And I would imagine that they will try to use it as a template to put their own framework together,” said CEO Josh Tetrick in an interview with Reuters. FILE – CEO and founder of Eat Just Josh Tetrick sits on bags of plant protein at the Eat Just facility in Appleton, Minnesota, December 2019. (Eat Just, Inc./Handout via REUTERS)Cultured meat uses fat or muscle cells from an animal which are placed into a culture that nourishes the cells, causing them to grow, according to NBC News. The next step involves putting the cells into a bioreactor that further supports growth.  The industry is still in its early stages, and the products come with a big price tag. For example, in 2013, a cultured hamburger made by a Dutch startup cost $280,000 per patty, according to NBC News. Eat Just’s chicken is not nearly as expensive, with a price comparable to premium chicken, Tetrick told NBC. But for …

UN Chief Appeals for Action to Heal ‘Broken Planet’

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that “the planet is broken” and made an urgent appeal for a course correction to avert a climate catastrophe.“The fallout of the assault on our planet is impeding our efforts to eliminate poverty and imperiling food security. And it is making our work for peace even more difficult, as the disruptions drive instability, displacement and conflict,” Guterres said. “It is no coincidence that 70% of the most climate-vulnerable countries are also among the most politically and economically fragile.”The U.N. chief spoke at New York’s Columbia University to an online audience, ahead of a virtual summit Saturday marking the fifth anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement. Nearly every nation signed up to the landmark accord which focuses on limiting global warming and includes commitments to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century.The United States formally withdrew from the accord earlier this year But the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden plans to rejoin it Guterres, who has made climate action a signature cause of his tenure, laid out his immediate priorities — creating a global coalition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and aligning public and private finance around that goal; raising financing for developing countries to mitigate climate impacts; and expanding funding for climate adaptation and resilience.“Let’s be clear — human activities are at the root of our descent toward chaos,” Guterres said. “But that means human action can help solve it. Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st …

China Spacecraft Collects Moon Samples to Take Back to Earth

A Chinese spacecraft took samples of the moon’s surface Wednesday as part of a mission to bring lunar rocks back to Earth for the first time since the 1970s, the government said, adding to a string of successes for Beijing’s increasingly ambitious space program. The Chang’e 5 probe touched down Tuesday on the Sea of Storms on the moon’s near side after descending from an orbiter, the China National Space Administration said. It released images of the barren landing site showing the lander’s shadow. “Chang’e has collected moon samples,” the agency said in a statement. The probe, launched Nov. 24 from the tropical island of Hainan, is the latest venture by a space program that sent China’s first astronaut into orbit in 2003. Beijing also has a spacecraft en route to Mars and aims eventually to land a human on the moon. This week’s landing is “a historic step in China’s cooperation with the international community in the peaceful use of outer space,” said a foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying. “China will continue to promote international cooperation and the exploration and use of outer space in the spirit of working for the benefit of all mankind,” Hua said. Plans call for the lander to spend two days drilling into the lunar surface and collecting 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of rocks and debris. The top stage of the probe will be launched back into lunar orbit to transfer the samples to a capsule to take back to Earth, where it is …

Huge Puerto Rico Radio Telescope, Already Damaged, Collapses

A huge, already damaged radio telescope in Puerto Rico that has played a key role in astronomical discoveries for more than half a century completely collapsed on Tuesday. The telescope’s 900-ton receiver platform and its Gregorian dome — a structure as tall as a four-story building that houses secondary reflectors — fell onto the northern portion of the vast reflector dish more than 400 feet below. The U.S. National Science Foundation had earlier announced it would close the radio telescope. An auxiliary cable snapped in August, causing a 30-meter (100-foot) gash on the 305-meter-wide (1,000-foot-wide) dish and damaged the receiver platform that hung above it. Then a main cable broke in early November. The collapse stunned many scientists who had relied on what was until recently the largest radio telescope in the world.  The Arecibo Observatory space telescope was damaged from broken cables like the one pictured, as seen in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, November 7, 2020. (UCF/Handout via REUTERS)”It sounded like a rumble. I knew exactly what it was,” said Jonathan Friedman, who worked for 26 years as a senior research associate at the observatory and still lives near it. “I was screaming. Personally, I was out of control. … I don’t have words to express it. It’s a very deep, terrible feeling.” Friedman ran up a small hill near his home and confirmed his suspicions: A cloud of dust hung in the air where the structure once stood, demolishing hopes held by some scientists that the telescope could somehow be repaired.The collapse at 7:56 …

US CDC Advisers Prioritize Health Care Workers, Nursing Home Residents for Vaccine

Healthcare workers and nursing home residents should be among the first Americans to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, members of a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee determined Tuesday. The panel voted 13-1 to give a vaccine, as soon as it’s approved, to the some 24 million Americans who are healthcare workers or nursing home residents, while supplies are still limited as production ramps up. The decision from the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices comes as the U.S. records record numbers of coronavirus cases across the country. The U.S. recorded 4.36 million cases of COVID-19 in November — roughly double the number from a month earlier. The state of Florida surpassed 1 million cases Tuesday. The Trump administration has said that 20 million people could be inoculated by the end of this year. The FDA is considering an emergency request from Pfizer to authorize the use of its vaccine. Moderna said Monday it also would apply for emergency use authorization of its vaccine.  FILE – A nurse prepares a shot that is part of a possible COVID-19 vaccine developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., in Binghamton, New York, July 27, 2020.Hours after Moderna’s announcement, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the agency would announce its decision up to a week after it decides on Pfizer’s application. Dr. Larry Corey of the University of Washington, who leads vaccine clinical trials in the U.S., has said once Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines are approved, they could make 50 million doses …