Year: 2020

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Friday that a sixth-month randomized trial of COVID-19 treatments found “conclusive evidence” that remdesivir, a drug used to treat U.S. President Donald Trump when he fell ill, has little or no effect on severe cases of the virus.   The WHO, in what they said was the world’s largest randomized control trial on COVID-19 therapeutics, tested remdesivir and three other drugs – hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon – as part the agency’s research to determine if existing drugs might be effective in treating COVID-19.   At a news briefing at WHO headquarters in Geneva Friday, a WHO spokesman said the results of the study, which was not peer-reviewed, “indicate that remdesivir hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon regimens appear to have little or no effect on 28-day mortality, or the in-hospital course of COVID-19 among hospitalized patients.”   The WHO said the study, which covered more than 30 countries, looked at the effects of the treatments on overall death rates, whether patients need breathing machines, and how much time patients spent recovering in hospitals.   Previous studies had already ruled out three of the drugs. But the findings run counter to a clinical trial of remdesivir by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in April which indicated the drug accelerated the recovery rates of people with severe cases of COVID-19.   The company that makes remdesivir, Gilead Sciences, Inc., saw the price of its stock begin to fall as the news of the WHO study broke …

A predicted increase in COVID-19 cases as cold weather approaches in the Northern Hemisphere seems to be underway.     New global cases have climbed to 330,000 per day, with Europe and the U.S. experiencing a worrying uptick.     The U.S. recorded more than 64,000 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, the highest daily tally since July.     The World Health Organization’s European director says 1,000 people a day are dying from COVID-19 on the continent and more than a million new COVID-19 cases have been identified in the last ten days.      Hans Kluge also said the impact of the coronavirus-caused disease this winter could be minimized in Europe if mask wearing increased from the current 60% to 95% of the population and if social distancing were strictly observed.       America’s top infectious disease expert told Americans to rethink their Thanksgiving plans for late November when many people traditionally travel through teeming transportation centers, such as bus depots, train stations, and airports to be with their families.     “If you have vulnerable people, the elderly or people that have underlying conditions, you better consider whether you want to do that now,” Fauci told ABC News.  He suggested people perhaps delay plans and “just …  wait” until the pandemic is under control.      “We really have to be careful this time that each individual family evaluates the risk-benefit,” Fauci added.Stacked chairs are seen in front of a cafe in Lille, northern France, Oct. 12, 2020. Lille …

The Czech Republic’s health minister said Friday the country’s health system needs be ready for a “huge influx,” of COVID-19 patients over the next 10 days to two weeks, as the nation faces Europe’s fastest growing rate in new coronavirus cases.Health Minister Roman Prymula told reporters at a news briefing in Prague the nation is looking at perhaps as much as a three-week surge of COVID-19 patients.At a time when all of Europe is facing an increase in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Czech Republic has been hit perhaps the hardest.  The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention says the Czech Republic leads the continent in the rate of new infections over the past two weeks, with nearly 702 cases per 100,000 people in the past two weeks, and nearly 50,000 of its total of 149,010 cases registered last week alone. The country also leads Europe in rate of deaths from the virus over the same period, 5.2 per 100,000 people.The Czech health ministry’s figures show the day-to-day increase reached 9,721 on Thursday, 177 more than the previous record set a day earlier.Hospitals across the country have been postponing unnecessary operations to focus on the growing number of COVID-19 patients. While Prymula said the country has doubled patient capacity, he says facilities could be full by the end of October.The Czech military will start to build a field hospital for 500 patients at Prague’s exhibition center over the weekend. Neighboring Germany has offered to take in some overflow intensive care …

Doctors and nurses in Zimbabwe are challenging a Ministry of Health rule they say impedes their ability to leave the country.  The ministry said last month that health care workers must get official signatures to receive a “Certificate of Good Standing” – a needed reference to get work abroad.  A doctors group says it’s an attempt to stop a mass exodus after poor treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.  After more than 10 years of working in government hospitals, a 36-year-old doctor – who did not want to be identified told VOA countless protests have not resulted in a decent salary or better working conditions. He applied to work in England.  But for nearly three months now, he says he can’t go, because he is still waiting for a “Certificate of Good Standing” from the government that foreign employers require.  ” I want to leave this country to work where I can treat people properly with all equipment and medicines,” the doctor told VOA.  He says he also wants a salary so he can look after his children and his parents, who paid for his education.  The Senior Hospital Doctors Association of Zimbabwe says its members are frustrated by delays they attribute to the government trying to curtail a brain drain among health workers.    Its leader, Dr. Aaron Musara, says the government is misusing the certificate of good standing.   “Normally the certificate of good standing talks about the integrity of a colleague, how the colleague does not have pending cases or issues of discipline involving issues with patients or with colleagues,” Dr. Musara told VOA. “It will now …

A predicted spike in COVID-19 cases as the cold weather months approach in the Northern Hemisphere seems to be occurring.Daily global cases have climbed to 330,000 per day, with Europe and the U.S. experiencing a worrying uptick.In the U.S., the nation’s top infectious disease expert told Americans to rethink their Thanksgiving plans for late November when many people traditionally travel through teeming transportation centers, such as bus depots, train stations, and airports to be with their families.“If you have vulnerable people, the elderly or people that have underlying conditions, you better consider whether you want to do that now,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News. He suggested people perhaps delay plans and “just … wait” until the pandemic is under control.“We really have to be careful this time that each individual family evaluates the risk-benefit,” Fauci added.On Saturday, France will begin a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for the region of Paris and at least seven other cities, including Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Lille, Rouen and Saint-Étienne. The curfew will remain in effect for at least four weeks.German Chancellor Angela Merkel and governors of the country’s 16 states have agreed to impose a new round of nationwide restrictions after seeing record-high new COVID-19 cases. The restrictions include the early closure of bars and restaurants and limiting the number of people allowed to gather in public.Northern Ireland has announced a nationwide four-week lockdown, with schools closed for two weeks and all pubs and restaurants closed for the full month, except …

Hunger and malnutrition are worsening in parts of the African continent because of the coronavirus pandemic, especially in low-income communities or those already stricken by continued conflict, according to a survey of 2,400 people in 10 African countries by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).The survey, conducted from June to August, shows the pandemic has caused job losses and curtailed people’s ability to farm or access markets.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can Students of Rising Sun Children School wear face masks as a preventive measure to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in their classroom in Yaba, Lagos, on Oct. 12, 2020. In Western Africa, in Nigeria’s conflict-stricken northeast, the number of children treated by the outpatient nutrition program grew by 20%, while the number of severe malnutrition cases grew by 10% compared with the same period last year.The increase in patients was recorded even though ICRC’s community outreach program has been on hold due to COVID-19. The ICRC said it is worried about the increase and predicts even more patients once work resumes.“We are very concerned by the trend, especially in Maiduguri,” said Thomas Ndambu, ICRC nutritionist, who is “certain that when Nigerian Red Cross volunteers resume their community outreach, the number of malnutrition cases will surge.”In nearby Burkina Faso, unabated violence despite the pandemic has displaced about 2.8 million people. These forcibly displaced people are now estimated to face crisis levels of food insecurity or worse, representing an …

Little Kurt looks like any other baby horse as he frolics playfully in his pen. He isn’t afraid to kick or head-butt an intruder who gets in his way and, when he’s hungry, he dashes over to his mother for milk.But 2-month-old Kurt differs from every other foal of his kind in one distinct way: He’s a clone.The rare, endangered Przewalski’s horse was created from cells taken from a stallion in 1980. They sat frozen at the San Diego Zoo for 40 years before they were fused with an egg from a domestic horse.With the egg’s nucleus removed, ensuring Kurt would be basically all Przewalski’s horse, they were implanted in the mare who would become his mom on Aug. 6.The result, officials say, was the world’s first cloned Przewalski’s horse.Scientists have cloned nearly two dozen kinds of mammals, including dogs, cats, pigs, cows and polo ponies. In 2018, researchers in China created monkeys for the first time using the cloning techniques that produced Dolly the sheep.The zoo sees Kurt’s birth as a milestone in efforts to restore the population of the horse also known as the Asiatic Wild Horse or Mongolian Wild Horse. The small, stocky animals (they stand only about 1.2 to 1.5 meters tall at the withers) are believed extinct in the wild and number only about 2,000 in zoos and wildlife habitats. Their limited gene pool puts them at a reproductive disadvantage.“This colt is expected to be one of the most genetically important individuals of his species,” …

Having contained its first brush with the novel coronavirus even as infections in neighboring countries surged, Myanmar is now straining to check a soaring second wave with a health care system blighted by decades of neglect under military rule.In early August, the Southeast Asian country of 54 million was still going days without logging a single new COVID-19 infection and had only 374 total confirmed cases by the middle of the month. Cases have skyrocketed since then, however, to more than 31,000 as of Oct. 14, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center in the U.S.Myanmar logged 2,158 cases on Oct. 10, its highest daily count to date. COVID-related deaths have also jumped, from just six as of Sept. 3 to 732.Local reports say monasteries, schools and government offices are being repurposed as quarantine facilities to help share the load with a creaking public health care system, and that patients who have tested positive for the virus have been forced to share rooms with those who have not.World Health Organization country representative Dr. Stephan Jost called this an “emergency period” for Myanmar.’Turning point’Critics have accused authorities of being slow to take the virus seriously. Well into March, government spokesperson Zaw Htay told reporters the country was still case-free because of people’s lifestyle and diet.But Jost insisted Myanmar was on top of the pandemic starting in early January, banning flights from Wuhan, China, where it began, by the end of the month, canceling visas-on-arrival for visitors from all of China …

French officials said police have conducted early-morning searches of the homes of the current and former top government officials after a special French court ordered an investigation of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.France’s Health Ministry confirmed the dawn searches, which include the offices of the current health minister, Olivier Veran. Officials whose homes were searched include former prime minister Edouard Philippe, Veran, his predecessor, Agnes Buzyn, current Public Health Director Jerome Salomon, and former government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye.The investigation was opened earlier this year after France’s Court of Justice received complaints from COVID-19 patients, doctors, police and others about the government’s slow response to the pandemic, shortages of protective equipment, and a poor plan for testing.  When he announced the investigation earlier this year, Paris chief prosecutor Remy Heitz said the investigation would have limited scope and would focus on public officials. Heitz said possible offenses could include the alleged failure to implement workplace anti-virus protection, failure to provide face masks to reduce infection, and failure to roll out a workable testing plan.The home searches came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced curfews in the Paris region and eight other French metropolitan areas to deal with the rising toll of new infections.French opposition member of parliament Jean-Luc Reitzer, who was hospitalized with COVID-19 earlier this year, told French television he was shocked by the searches. “Do our citizens seriously believe that the shortages, which were real, were voluntary,” he said.   …

The head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warns Sudan’s fragile political stability could be at risk if the desperate needs of hundreds of thousands of flood victims are not urgently addressed. Severe floods have affected nearly 900,000 Sudanese, reportedly killing more than 120, rendering thousands of families homeless, and destroying farmlands and livelihoods.International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Secretary General Jagan Chapagain attends a ceremony in Geneva on July 22, 2020.Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain has just returned from a four-day assessment mission to Sudan. He said the impact of the worst floods in three decades is far beyond anything he had expected.“I visited an area called Algamayer on the outskirts of Khartoum. Homes, infrastructure and crops have been destroyed,”  Chapagain said. “The conditions are simply appalling. It is boiling hot — more than 40 degrees, and there is no shade. The camp we visited is surrounded by stagnant water, and mosquitoes are rife.”Chapagain said the only access to clean water or sanitary toilets is at the neighboring school, which is closed at night. He said people also lack sufficient shelter, toilets and mosquito nets, which means malaria is rampant and the risk of cholera and other diseases is high.He said children comprise about half of the flood victims and are particularly vulnerable. This humanitarian crisis, he said, also is taking a heavy toll on pregnant and lactating women, the elderly and disabled.He told VOA he is very concerned by the level of anger …

Dozens of European cities have been forced into lockdown amid a surge in coronavirus infections. Hospital intensive care units in the affected regions are filling up fast and doctors are warning that health systems could become overwhelmed as winter approaches.Europe is now reporting more daily infections than the three countries worst hit by the pandemic — the United States, Brazil, and India.Paris, along with eight other French cities, including Rouen, Lille, St. Etienne, Lyon, Grenoble, Montpellier, Marseille and Toulouse, have been put under night-time curfew. All restaurants, bars and shops will be forced to close, and people have been told to stay at home between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. for four weeks beginning Oct. 17.Announcing the measures in a televised address Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron warned of tough times ahead. “Testing, alerting, protecting, this is the key to the strategy that we have to ramp up throughout November and December, because we are going to have to deal with this virus until at least the summer of 2021, all the scientists are clear,” Macron said.Some residents of the French capital expressed alarm at the return of a partial lockdown. “My first reaction was that it’s going to be hell,” said 25-year-old Mathilde Weiss, a product manager. “I’m absolutely not going to have a social life anymore. So, I’m a little apprehensive, I admit.”A woman wearing a face mask to protect against the spread of coronavirus walks beneath the metal Puerta de la Ilustracion urban sculpture …

The World Health Organization’s Europe director is encouraging European nations to tighten controls as the continent struggles to contain what appears to be a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.At a virtual news briefing from his headquarters in Copenhagen, the WHO’s Dr. Hans Kluge said statistics show Europe is going through an early Fall-Winter surge. New COVID-19 infections are hitting 100,000 per day with nearly 700,000 new cases registered last week, the highest weekly number since the pandemic began. The region also has averaged 1,000 deaths per day, making COVID-19 the fifth leading cause of death on the continent.But Kluge said the news is not all bad. He noted that while there are two to three times more cases reported now than during the initial COVID-19 peak in April, deaths are five times less likely than at that time. He credited part of that to the fact that younger, less vulnerable populations are contracting and spreading the virus.However, as weather continues to cool in Europe, he warned there is potential for the virus to spread across generations as people gather more indoors.But the WHO regional director said, “simple, swift tightening of protective measures now — such as enforcing widespread mask-wearing and controlling social gatherings in public or private spaces — could save up to 281,000 lives by February across the 53 countries.”He says the reverse is true as well — a prolonged relaxing of restrictions could raise death rates to four or five times higher than they were in April.The …

Wildfires churning out dense plumes of smoke as they scorch huge swaths of the U.S. West Coast have exposed millions of people to hazardous pollution levels, causing emergency room visits to spike and potentially thousands of deaths among the elderly and infirm, according to an Associated Press analysis of pollution data and interviews with physicians, health authorities and researchers. Smoke at concentrations that topped the government’s charts for health risks and lasted at least a day enshrouded counties inhabited by more than 8 million people across five states in recent weeks, AP’s analysis shows. Major cities in Oregon, which has been especially hard hit,  last month suffered the highest pollution levels they’ve ever recorded when powerful winds supercharged fires that had been burning in remote areas and sent them hurtling to the edge of densely populated Portland. Medical complications began arising while communities were still enveloped in smoke, including hundreds of additional emergency room visits daily in Oregon, according to state health officials. “It’s been brutal for me,” said Barb Trout, a 64-year-old retiree living south of Portland in the Willamette Valley. She was twice taken to the emergency room by ambulance following severe asthmatic reactions, something that had never happened to her before. Trout had sheltered inside as soon as smoke rolled into the valley just after Labor Day but within days had an asthma attack that left her gasping for air and landed her in the ER. Two weeks later, when smoke from fires in California drifted into …

The World Health Organization says the young and healthy may have to wait until 2022 to get a COVID-19 vaccine.  WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said Thursday health authorities will likely prioritize health care and frontline workers such as law enforcement and emergency responders, then the elderly.   Swaminathan said she hoped there would at least be one safe and effective vaccine against the novel coronavirus by 2021, but said it would only be available in “limited quantities.”   Over 170 potential COVID-19 vaccines are in various stages of testing around the world, including 10 that have entered late-stage, wide scale human testing.  U.S. pharmaceutical giants Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca have recently halted  late-stage trials of their experimental vaccines after a volunteer in each study became ill.   The race to develop a coronavirus vaccine comes amid a surge of new infections across Europe, sparking fears the continent is on the verge of a second wave of the outbreak as the winter season nears.   German Chancellor Angela Merkel and governors of the country’s 16 states have agreed to impose a new round of nationwide restrictions after posting a record-high 6,638 new cases on Wednesday, including the early closure of bars and restaurants and limiting the number of people allowed to gather in public.   French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for the region of Paris and at least seven other cities, including Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Lille, Rouen and Saint-Étienne.  The curfew will take effect …

U.S. regulators Wednesday approved the first drug for the treatment of Ebola.The Food and Drug Administration OK’d the drug developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for treating adults and children with the Zaire Ebola virus strain, the most deadly of six known types. It typically kills 60% to 90% of patients.The drug was one of four tested during an outbreak in Congo that killed nearly 2,300 people before it ended in June. Survival was significantly better in study participants given Regeneron’s Inmazeb or a second experimental drug.The study was ended ahead of schedule last year so all patients could get access to those drugs.Regeneron’s treatment is a combination of three antibodies that work by killing the virus. It’s given once by IV.”When you have three drugs that bind to the (virus), there’s a low probability that the virus can evade all of them,” said Leah Lipsich, who heads Regeneron’s global program for infectious diseases.She said that should help prevent the virus from becoming resistant to the drug.Seeking U.S. approval first is a common strategy for drugmakers developing treatments for diseases mainly found in the tropics and in developing countries. The FDA’s action will make it easier for Regeneron to get approval or allow emergency use during outbreaks in African countries, where the approval process is not straightforward, Lipsich said.The study in Congo involved 681 people, who were give one of four treatments. After four weeks, about a third of those who got Regeneron’s drug had died. Results were about the same for …

Another pharmaceutical company halted testing of an experimental COVID-19 drug treatment because of safety concerns. U.S.-based Eli Lilly and Company announced Tuesday that the clinical trial of its coronavirus antiviral drug had been paused by independent monitors “out of an abundance of caution,” but did not go into details.   The drug, which Eli Lilly is developing with Canadian-based biotech firm AbCellera, is part of a class of treatments known as monoclonal antibodies, which are made to act as immune cells that scientists hope can fight off the virus. The antibody therapy was similar to one given to U.S. President Donald Trump after he tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month.   The study, which launched in August, aimed to enroll 10,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients in the United States.   Eli Lilly applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization for the drug to be used for mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 infections based on preliminary results from a different clinical trial.   A day before the pause, U.S. drug maker Johnson & Johnson halted its late-stage clinical trials of its experimental vaccine after a participant was diagnosed with an unexplained illness.    Johnson & Johnson had just launched a wide scale test of its single-dose vaccine involving 60,000 volunteers across more than 200 locations in the United States and internationally, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and South Africa.    The Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial is the second to be put on hold after a volunteer became ill after receiving the vaccine.  U.S.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca halted its late-stage trial of a vaccine developed with the University of Oxford early …

Scientists have discovered that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef lost more than half of its coral populations between 1995 and 2017.  Researchers at the The Great Barrier Reef stretches across 2,300 kilometers down Australia’s northeastern coast and is home to a wide variety of marine life, making it the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem. The region was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1981.  …

Another pharmaceutical company halted testing of an experimental COVID-19 drug treatment because of safety concerns. U.S.-based Eli Lilly and Company announced Tuesday that the clinical trial of its coronavirus antiviral drug had been paused by independent monitors “out of an abundance of caution,” but did not go into details.   The drug, which Eli Lilly is developing with Canadian-based biotech firm AbCellera, is part of a class of treatments known as monoclonal antibodies, which are made to act as immune cells that scientists hope can fight off the virus. The antibody therapy was similar to one given to U.S. President Donald Trump after he tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month.   The study, which launched in August, aimed to enroll 10,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients in the United States.   Eli Lilly applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization for the drug to be used for mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 infections based on preliminary results from a different clinical trial.   A day before the pause, U.S. drug maker Johnson & Johnson halted its late-stage clinical trials of its experimental vaccine after a participant was diagnosed with an unexplained illness.    Johnson & Johnson had just launched a wide scale test of its single-dose vaccine involving 60,000 volunteers across more than 200 locations in the United States and internationally, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and South Africa.    The Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial is the second to be put on hold after a volunteer became ill after receiving the vaccine.  U.S.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca halted its late-stage trial of a vaccine developed with the University of Oxford early …

A trio of space travelers has launched successfully to the International Space Station, for the first time using a fast-track maneuver to reach the orbiting outpost in just three hours. NASA’s Kate Rubins along with Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos lifted off as scheduled Wednesday morning from the Russia-leased Baikonur space launch facility in Kazakhstan for a six-month stint on the station.   For the first time, they are trying a two-orbit, three-hour approach to the orbiting space outpost. Previously it took twice as long for the crews to reach the station.   They will join the station’s NASA commander, Chris Cassidy, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, who have been aboard the complex since April and are scheduled to return to Earth in a week. Speaking during Tuesday’s pre-launch news conference at Baikonur, Rubins emphasized that the crew spent weeks in quarantine at the Star City training facility outside Moscow and then on Baikonur to avoid any threat from the coronavirus.   “We spent two weeks at Star City and then 17 days at Baikonur in a very strict quarantine,” Rubins said. “During all communications with crew members, we were wearing masks. We made PCR tests twice and we also made three times antigen fast tests.” She said she was looking forward to scientific experiments planned for the mission.   “We’re planning to try some really interesting things like bio-printing tissues and growing cells in space and, of course, continuing our work on sequencing DNA,” Rubins said. Ryzhikov, who will be the station’s skipper, said …

Australia is trying to clarify reports of a Chinese ban on its coal imports. Industry sources have said Beijing told energy providers and steel firms to stop buying Australian coal. Trade tensions between the Asia-Pacific partners have deteriorated in recent years. Coal is one of the major Australian commodity exports to China, behind iron ore and liquefied natural gas.  So, any disruption to this multi-billion trade would hurt.  State-owned energy providers and steel mills in China have reportedly been told not to buy Australian coal.  Australian officials believe it could be temporary and part of informal quotas in China, or an attempt to restrict imports to protect China’s domestic coal mining industry. However, analysts have speculated that the reported ban on Australian coal could be part of an emerging trade war.     Earlier this year, China was infuriated when Canberra called for a global investigation into COVID-19, which was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Relations have also soured over allegations of Chinese interference in Australia’s domestic politics, cyber-espionage and the detention of Australian citizens in China. Beijing has accused Australia of being “anti-China.” Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham says he has not confirmed that coal exports to China are being disrupted. “We have also been working to seek a response from Chinese authorities in relation to the accusations that have been made publicly. But we take the reports seriously enough to certainly to try to seek some assurances from Chinese authorities that they are honoring the terms of the China-Australia free trade agreement,” Birmingham said.Earlier this year, Beijing effectively banned imports of Australian …

Hot, dry conditions and intense winds across California are threatening to reinvigorate what has already been the worst fire season in state history, officials warned on Tuesday.Gusty winds in California’s north and extreme heat in its south are creating conditions that could fan wildfires that began earlier in the summer as well as spark new ones, leading state and federal authorities to urge residents to prepare.The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for a wide swath of Southern California as temperatures topped 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). The agency asked residents to exercise caution with any fire sources.Strong winds, low humidityThe California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said strong winds and low humidity could ramp up blazes in Northern California starting Wednesday.”While good progress has been made on a number of fires, this could hamper containment efforts,” Daniel Berlant, Cal Fire assistant deputy director, said on Twitter on Tuesday. “It means if a new fire breaks out, that that fire is going to be able to burn very rapidly.”Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), which provides power to much of California, said Monday it was considering proactively shutting off power as soon as Wednesday to as many as 50,000 state residents to mitigate fire risk.Over 4 million acres burned This year, wildfires have burned over 4 million acres in California — twice the total of 2018 which had been the highest on record. Five of the six largest fires in state history were in 2020. Thirty-one …

Britain’s opposition Labor Party Leader Keir Starmer on Tuesday called on the government to implement a three-week temporary nationwide “circuit breaker” lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19 throughout Britain.Starmer made the proposal in a speech in London, one day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced his three-tiered regional alert plan designed to simplify and standardize the variety of COVID-related restrictions that have been imposed around the country.But Starmer said Britain is in a decisive moment in the fight against the virus and “there’s no longer time to give this prime minister the benefit of the doubt.””This was not inevitable, but it is now necessary,” he said, acknowledging that the restrictions are largely unpopular.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, London, Oct. 12, 2020.He also said the lockdown idea comes from recommendations made by Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) which said “a package of stringent interventions is now urgently needed” to lower the rate of infection and take strain off hospitals and the National Health service.Quoting SAGE, the opposition leader said, “not acting now will result in a very large epidemic with catastrophic consequences.”Starmer proposed allowing only essential work and travel, restricting household mixing and that all pubs, bars and restaurants should be closed, but also be compensated. He said he understood the measures would require “significant sacrifices across the country.”The Labor Party leader added that schools would not have to close under his proposal, as the lockdown would be timed to …

The commercial space launch company Blue Origin, in partnership with the U.S. space agency NASA, launched an unmanned reusable suborbital rocket into space Tuesday and landed it on a West Texas launch site. The 12-minute flight, 100 kilometers to the edge of space and back, was a test of a number of new technologies, including two NASA precision descent and landing sensor systems, which could be used in future landers on the moon and Mars, and are able to intelligently identify and avoid potential hazards on target landing zones. FILE – A general view of the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket booster at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Apr. 5, 2017.The launch included Blue Origin’s six-person crew capsule, which is designed with future commercial passengers in mind, including what the company says are the largest windows ever designed for a spacecraft. Once in space, the capsule separated from the launch rocket. The reusable rocket, named New Shepard after the first U.S. astronaut in space, Alan Shepard, touched down at the Texas launch and landing site with a controlled, engine-powered descent. The capsule landed a short time later using three large parachutes.  The capsule contained a variety of experiments and other payloads, including postcards provided by children from across the country. Blue Origin is owned by U.S. investor and entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com.       …

The United Nations is warning that climate change is threatening the lives of millions of people throughout the world, and that demand for humanitarian aid could rise 50% by 2030. The U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization released a report Tuesday that found more weather-related disasters such as heat waves, storms and droughts are occurring each year. “While COVID-19 generated a large international health and economic crisis from which it will take years to recover, it is crucial to remember that climate change will continue to pose an ongoing and increasing threat to human lives, ecosystems, economies and societies for centuries to come,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.  The 2020 State of Climate Services Report said 11,000 disasters attributed to weather have taken place over the past 50 years, causing 2 million deaths and $3.6 trillion in economic damage.  The report also said 108 million people worldwide needed humanitarian help in 2018 because of natural disasters. Despite the increase in weather-related disasters over that period, the report noted that the average number of fatalities from each disaster per year fell by one-third. In addition to the U.N., the report was prepared by 15 other international agencies and financial institutions. They urge governments to invest more in early-warning systems that can help countries more effectively respond and mitigate the impact of natural disasters.    …