Month: May 2021

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermilab near Chicago is probing the unseen forces that make up the basic building blocks of all matter – and life. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports the project could change scientists’ understanding of particle physics and the very fabric of the universe.  Camera: Kane Farabaugh        Producer: Kane Farabaugh …

Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr in a subdued mood for a second year Thursday as the COVID-19 pandemic again forced mosque closings and family separations on the holiday marking the end of Islam’s holiest month of Ramadan.Worshippers wearing masks joined communal prayers in the streets of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. The world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation allowed mosque prayers in low-risk areas, but mosques in areas where there was more risk of the virus spreading closed their doors, including Jakarta’s Istiqlal Grand Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia.Indonesians and Malaysians were banned for a second year from traveling to visit relatives in the traditional Eid homecoming.”I understand that we all miss our relatives at times like this, especially in the momentum of Eid,” Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in televised remarks. “But let’s prioritize safety together by not going back to our hometowns.”Despite the similar ban a year ago, the number of daily cases in Indonesia had picked up by 37% three weeks after the holiday. Similar patterns followed other holidays in the country that has counted 1.7 million infections and more than 47,600 fatalities from COVID-19.The Jakarta governor also ordered malls, restaurants and leisure destinations usually packed during the holiday period to shut.With no congregational prayers at mosques, no family reunions, no relatives bearing gifts and cookies for children, “Eid is not a grand event anymore,” Jakarta resident Maysa Andriana said. “The pandemic has changed everything… this is too sad!” she said.While police set up highway checkpoints and domestic flights and …

Washington plans to lift many coronavirus restrictions and aims for a full reopening by mid-June. The U.S. capital has already vaccinated more than 70% of its residents. Saqib Ul Islam reports on a unique vaccine drive in the city. Camera: Saqib Ul Islam      Producer: Saqib Ul Islam  …

The U.S. space agency, NASA, said in a news release this week that its Perseverance Mars rover was focusing on its primary mission of looking for signs of ancient life in the dried lakebed surrounding it.The rover has spent much of the past month serving as a communications base and documenting the historic flights of the Ingenuity helicopter. But it has also been focusing its instruments on the rocks in the Jezero Crater, an area scientists believe was once flooded with water and was home to an ancient river delta.The area was carefully chosen as the rover’s landing site because of the evidence scientists have seen that water may have at one time flowed into the crater lake from the surrounding area. Scientists say it is conceivable that water carried microbial life along with it.Perseverance has already used its many cameras to examine rocks, and a laser instrument called SuperCam zapped some of them to detect their chemistry.The rover’s robotic arm carries several other instruments that will be helpful in revealing what secrets the rocks might hold. When scientists find a particularly interesting item, they can reach out and use the arm’s abrader to grind and flatten its surface, revealing its underlying structure and composition.The Perseverance team will gather more detailed chemical and mineralogical information using other instruments, such as PIXL, the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry, and SHERLOC, Scanning for Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals.Over the next two years, scientists hope to examine and …

Authorities in India said Tuesday they have yet to determine the cause of death of dozens of people found dead in the Ganges River.   Officials in Bihar state said 71 bodies were recovered Monday, while officials in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh said around 100 bodies were found, some on Tuesday.   Images of the bodies floating in the river sparked anger and speculation they died from COVID-19, which is surging throughout the South Asian country at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world.     Some medical experts voiced concern that the coronavirus can be spread through contaminated water.   “Although there is no global research on how the virus may spread through dead bodies in water bodies, I strongly believe that the water is now polluted,” said Dr. Mohsin Wali. “It is not worth drinking anymore and when these bodies rot, it will be even more dangerous.”   Authorities performed autopsies but could not confirm the cause of death because the bodies had decomposed.   India had nearly 330,000 new coronavirus cases and 3,867 related deaths on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. India has the second highest number of confirmed cases worldwide with nearly 23 million and the third highest death toll with nearly 250,000, although experts say the actual figures are almost certainly much higher.   The surge has prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to travel to Britain for the Group of Seven summit next month, the Indian Foreign Ministry said …

Thousands of Nepalese migrants working in India rushed home in recent weeks seeking safe haven from a brutal second wave of the coronavirus pandemic as it battered the country with sickness and death.Now, the small Himalayan country is confronting a crisis like India’s as its health care system buckles under an exponential rise in infections. Nepalese officials are calling for international assistance as it grapples with shortages of oxygen that have plagued India. Political turmoil after Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli lost a vote of confidence on Monday could make it harder to cope with the pandemic, analysts said.“A number of people are dying as they search for hospitals or during their treatment,” Samir Kumar Adhikari, a spokesperson for Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population, told VOA. “Almost all hospitals are packed, and although some have space, we are unable to operationalize them because of shortage of oxygen and other logistics.”India and Nepal have an open border policy allowing free movement between the two countries — thousands of Nepalis travel for work in Indian cities, while Indians often travel to Nepal for business.Officials say COVID-19 infections first started to rise in towns like Nepalganj along the Indian border. But Kathmandu Valley where the large cities are situated is now the epicenter of the second wave. Thousands of people have left the capital Kathmandu to return to their villages, raising fears that they will carry the infection and spread it into remote rural areas.Nepal reported over 9,000 daily infections on …

In much of Africa, including Zimbabwe, women struggling to have children often face stigma and ridicule. To help overcome the problem, two Zimbabwean doctors in 2017 re-opened the country’s only in vitro fertilization clinic.Since the clinic re-opened in 2017, several years after its previous owner retired, IVF Zimbabwe says it has helped about 120 women have babies through in vitro fertilization.Dr. Sydney Farayi, who runs the clinic with Dr. Tinovimba Mhlanga, said some couples struggle to have children and turn to the wrong sources for help.”The most hindering obstacle people from seeking assistance is lack of knowledge…. Imagine how many people have stayed together for one year and still failing to conceive, but do not know where to go and get assistance. People are not sure where to go. Normally people will turn to go to traditional, faith healers which are cheap or easy to get but without any good outcomes from there,” said Farayi.Dr. Sydney Farayi, who runs IVF Zimbabwe clinic in Harare with Dr. Tinovimba Mhlanga, says some couples turn to the wrong sources for help from traditional, faith healers. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)Farayi said he and Mhlanga are happy when they help couples reach their goal.“The value is really seen in the happiness and joy which we are bringing to sub-fertile couples in terms of assisting them to conceive and having a baby. The joy is real and it’s something which is touching, personally affecting also us, as individuals and clinicians, so basically assisting couples to conceive is helping …

A probe from the U.S. space agency NASA is scheduled later Monday to fire its thrusters and leave the orbit of the asteroid Bennu, beginning a two-year journey back to Earth, complete with samples from the asteroid’s surface.The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) is scheduled to fire its thrusters for about seven minutes, taking it out of the asteroid’s orbit and setting it on a homeward course.OSIRIS-REx first rendezvoused with the asteroid in 2018. Last October, the craft dropped to Bennu’s surface, sunk its “sampling head” 48.8 centimeters into the asteroid and simultaneously fired a pressurized charge of nitrogen gas to churn up surface material and drive it into its the collection chamber.After gathering what NASA believes to be about 60 grams of material, the probe lifted off and continued to orbit the asteroid.NASA said Monday’s departure sequence is the mission’s most significant maneuver since it arrived at Bennu in 2018. The spacecraft’s thrusters must change its velocity by 958 kilometers per hour to set it on a path to intersect Earth, expected in September 2023.The space agency said there is no direct path back to Earth for the probe, as it must travel to where the planet will be in the future. The course will require it to orbit twice around the sun, covering 2.3 billion kilometers before it will catch up with Earth.Last year, the Japanese Haybusa2 spacecraft successfully returned to Earth with samples it collected from the surface of the Ryugu asteroid.  …

 In much of Africa, including Zimbabwe, women struggling to have children often face stigma and ridicule. To help overcome the problem, two Zimbabwean doctors in 2017 re-opened the country’s only in vitro fertilization clinic.  Columbus Mavhunga has more from Harare.   Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe    …

The U.S. will protect gay and transgender people against sex discrimination in health care, the Biden administration announced Monday, reversing a Trump-era policy that sought to narrow the scope of legal rights in sensitive situations involving medical care. The action by the Department of Health and Human Services affirms that federal laws forbidding sex discrimination in health care also protect gay and transgender people. The Trump administration had defined “sex” to mean gender assigned at birth, thereby excluding transgender people from the law’s umbrella of protection. “Fear of discrimination can lead individuals to forgo care, which can have serious negative health consequences,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Everyone — including LGBTQ people — should be able to access health care, free from discrimination or interference, period.” Becerra said the Biden administration policy will bring HHS into line with a landmark Supreme Court decision last year in a workplace discrimination case, which established that federal laws against sex discrimination on the job also protect gay and transgender people.  Despite that ruling, the Trump administration proceeded to try to narrow the legal protections against health care discrimination, issuing rules that narrowly defined “sex” as biological gender.  A federal judge had blocked those rules from taking effect, although Trump administration officials argued that as a legal matter health care discrimination was a separate issue from the employment case the Supreme Court decided. Monday’s action means that the HHS Office for Civil Rights will again investigate complaints of sex discrimination on the basis of sexual …

A senior female air force officer whose childhood idol was iconic Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong will become Australia’s first space commander. Air Vice-Marshal Catherine Roberts will oversee the space activities across Australia’s armed forces. Experts have said the army, navy and air force have relied on space-based technologies and communication, and centralized coordination was sensible. There is growing international competition for supremacy in space. The United States has a military arm called the U.S. Space Force while China and Russia both set up similar units in 2015. But officials in Canberra have been keen to stress that Australia has no plans to further “militarize space” nor would it seek to build technologies to attack enemy satellites. A dedicated space command brings Australia into line with Canada, France, India and Japan.  Senior officers have said part of its job would be to establish if satellites used by Australia were under threat or being subjected to accidental interference or natural events. Air Vice-Marshal Catherine Roberts is a trained engineer, who has served with the Royal Australian Air Force for 35 years. She will take up her position as space commander next year. In an official RAAF video, she explained how she was inspired by the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969. “Today I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about role models and how important it is for each one of us to pave the way for the next generation as we head into a rapidly accelerating future. The first person I remember ever having a material impact on my ambition was Neil Armstrong. In 1969 as a three-year old I …

The White House was working closely with top U.S. fuel pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline on Sunday to help it recover from a ransomware attack that forced the company to shut a critical fuel network supplying populous eastern states. The attack is one of the most disruptive digital ransom schemes reported and has prompted calls from American lawmakers to strengthen protections for critical U.S. energy infrastructure from hacking attacks. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the pipeline fix was a top priority for the Biden administration and Washington was working to avoid more severe fuel supply disruptions by helping Colonial restart as quickly as possible its more than 5,500-mile (8,850 km) pipeline network from Texas to New Jersey. “It’s an all hands on deck effort right now,” Raimondo said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” program. “We are working closely with the company, state and local officials, to make sure that they get back up to normal operations as quickly as possible and there aren’t disruptions in supply.” Colonial said on Sunday its main fuel lines remain offline but some smaller lines between terminals and delivery points are now operational. Neither Raimondo nor the company gave an estimate for a full restart date and Colonial declined further comment on Sunday. U.S. gasoline futures jumped more than 3% to $2.217 a gallon, the highest since May 2018, as trading opened for the  week and market participants reacted to the closure. Colonial transports roughly 2.5 million barrels per day of gasoline and other fuels from refiners on the Gulf Coast to consumers in the mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States. Its extensive pipeline network serves major U.S. airports, including Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson Airport, the world’s busiest by passenger traffic. A Charlotte Douglas International Airport spokesperson …

The coronavirus crisis is not abating in India, with the country reporting Sunday that it had counted more than 403,000 new infections and 4,000 deaths in the last 24 hours. In addition, health experts say the tolls are likely undercounted. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not imposed a nationwide lockdown to help stop the spread of the coronavirus despite calls to do so from politicians and public health officials. Some local governments, however, have imposed lockdowns on their jurisdictions. New Delhi has announced that a lockdown that began April 20 will be extended to May 17. The Indian capital also announced that Metro transit service will be suspended, starting Monday. The southern state of Tamil Nadu said it would shift from a partial to a full lockdown after neighboring Karnataka state extended its full lockdown Friday. FILE – Beds are seen inside a Gurudwara (Sikh Temple) converted into a coronavirus care facility amidst the spread of COVID-19 in New Delhi, India, May 5, 2021.In an interview Saturday with the French news agency, Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, warned that “the epidemiological features that we see in India today do indicate that it’s an extremely rapidly spreading variant.” Swaminathan said the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was clearly a contributing factor to the catastrophe in India, her homeland.  “There have been many accelerators that are fed into this,” the 62-year-old pediatrician and clinical scientist said, adding, “A more rapidly spreading virus is one of them.” She added, however, that large …

Experts say this has already been a busy year for volcanic activity, but now NASA scientists say they may be able to predict eruptions far enough in advance to save lives. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …

The United States is “turning the corner” in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, a key White House official said Sunday. Jeffrey Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, told CNN that the U.S. has “enough supply [of vaccines] for all Americans,” even as the number of new daily vaccinations has dropped to 2.1 million, down 40% from last month’s peak pace. He said that 58% of those 18 and older in the U.S. — nearly 149 million people — have now received at least one shot, a figure President Joe Biden says he hopes will reach 70% by July 4, the country’s annual Independence Day holiday. People check-in at a Covid-19 vaccination site at a sports center in Brooklyn, New York on May 8, 2021.Zients said the country is “on the path” to becoming “safer and safer and closer and closer to normal.” But he acknowledged that “everyone is tired” of restrictions imposed because of the pandemic and said, “Wearing a mask can be a pain.” He urged Americans to get vaccinated if they have not, as well as to “keep up our guard” and wear a face mask in crowded groups. “Let’s stay vigilant,” he said. Zients said that regardless of whether the U.S. reaches the 70% vaccination figure by July 4, the nation will continue to vaccinate as many people as possible afterward and that if booster shots “are necessary [a half year or more from now], we’ll be ready.” In all, 112.6 million Americans are fully vaccinated, most often with the two-shot regimen developed by …

Some have claimed she’s indulging a forbidden romance. More likely, loneliness compels her to seek company at Rio de Janeiro’s zoo. Either way, a blue-and-yellow macaw that zookeepers named Juliet is believed to be the only wild bird of its kind left in the Brazilian city where the birds once flew far and wide.Almost every morning for the last two decades, Juliet has appeared. She swoops onto the zoo enclosure where macaws are kept and, through its fence, engages in grooming behavior that looks like conjugal canoodling. Sometimes she just sits, relishing the presence of others. She is quieter — shier? more coy? — than her squawking chums. Blue-and-yellow macaws live to be about 35 years old and Juliet — no spring chicken — should have found a lifelong mate years ago, according to Neiva Guedes, president of the Hyacinth Macaw Institute, an environmental group. But Juliet hasn’t coupled, built a nest or had chicks, so at most she’s “still just dating.”A blue-and-yellow macaw that zookeepers named Juliet flies outside the enclosure where macaws are kept at BioParque, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, May 5, 2021.“They’re social birds, and that means they don’t like to live alone, whether in nature or captivity. They need company,” said Guedes, who also coordinates a project that researches macaws in urban settings. Juliet “very probably feels lonely, and for that reason goes to the enclosure to communicate and interact.”Aside from Juliet, the last sighting of a blue-and-yellow macaw flying free in Rio was in 1818 …

An out-of-control Chinese rocket is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere between 1:00 and 5:00 UTC Sunday, but experts do not know where debris from the craft will land or exactly when it will happen.Aerospace Corp. and Space-Track.org are following the rocket as it descends.Space-Track.org estimated Saturday evening that the rocket would reenter the atmosphere over the North Atlantic at 02:04 UTC (10:04 p.m. EDT), give or take one hour. Aerospace Corp. put it at 03:02 UTC 11:02 p.m. EDT), give or take two hours.Aerospace Corp. is a nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research-and-development center committed to space enterprise, according to its website. And Space-Track.org says it provides critical space situational awareness data for a worldwide space community.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Friday that the rocket was unlikely to cause damage.Wang told reporters in Beijing that the rocket would mostly burn up on reentry and “the probability of this process causing harm on the ground is extremely low.”He said China was closely following the rocket’s path toward Earth and would release any information about it in a “timely manner.”Carried space station moduleThe Long March 5B rocket was launched April 29 from Hainan Island. It was carrying a module for a planned Chinese space station. After the unmanned Tianhe module separated from the rocket, the nearly 21,000-kilogram rocket should have followed a planned reentry trajectory into the ocean. Because that did not happen as planned, the rocket will now make an uncontrolled reentry, and no one knows yet precisely where …

Italian archaeologists have uncovered the fossilized remains of nine Neanderthals in a cave near Rome, shedding new light on how the Italian peninsula was populated and under what environmental conditions.The Italian Culture Ministry announced the discovery Saturday, saying it had confirmed that the Guattari Cave in San Felice Circeo was “one of the most significant places in the world for the history of Neanderthals.” A Neanderthal skull was discovered in the cave in 1939.The fossilized bones include skulls, skull fragments, two teeth and other bone fragments. The oldest remains date from between 100,000 and 90,000 years ago, while the other eight Neanderthals are believed to date from 50,000 to 68,000 years ago, the Culture Ministry said in a statement.The excavations, begun in 2019, involved a part of the cave that hadn’t yet been explored, including a lake first noted by the anthropologist Alberto Carlo Blanc, who is credited with the 1939 Neanderthal skull discovery.Culture Minister Dario Franceschini called the finding “an extraordinary discovery that will be the talk of the world.”Anthropologist Mauro Rubini said the large number of remains suggested a significant population of Neanderthals, “the first human society of which we can speak.”Archaeologists said the cave had perfectly preserved the environment of 50,000 years ago. They noted that fossilized animal remains found in the cave — elephant, rhinoceros and giant deer, among others — shed light on the flora and fauna of the area and its climactic history. …

The European Commission called on the United States and other major COVID-19 vaccine producers Friday to export what they make, as the European Union does, rather than talk about waiving intellectual property (IP) rights to the shots.Commission head Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference on the sidelines of a summit of EU leaders that discussions about the waiver would not produce a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine in the short and medium term.”We should be open to lead this discussion. But when we lead this discussion, there needs to be a 360-degree view on it because we need vaccines now for the whole world,” she said.”The European Union is the only continental or democratic region of this world that is exporting at large scale,” von der Leyen said.She said about 50% of European-produced coronavirus vaccine is exported to almost 90 countries, including those in the World Health Organization-backed COVAX program, whose aim is to supply vaccines to mainly poor countries.”And we invite all those who engage in the debate of a waiver for IP rights also to join us to commit to be willing to export a large share of what is being produced in that region,” she said.Only higher production, removing export barriers and the sharing of already-ordered vaccines could immediately help fight the pandemic quickly, she said.”So what is necessary in the short term and the medium term: First of all, vaccine sharing. Secondly, export of vaccines that are being produced. And the third is investment …

First came the amazing pictures, then the video. Now NASA is sharing sounds of its little helicopter humming through the thin Martian air.NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California released this first-ever audio Friday, just before Ingenuity was set to soar on its fifth test flight.The low hum from the helicopter blades spinning at more than 2,500 revolutions per minute is barely audible. It almost sounds like a low-pitched, far-away mosquito or other flying insect.That’s because the 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) helicopter was more than 260 feet (80 meters) from the microphone on the Perseverance rover. Martian wind gusts also obscured the chopper’s sound.Scientists isolated the sound of the whirring blades and magnified it, making it easier to hear.The sound was recorded during the helicopter’s fourth test flight on April 30.Ingenuity — the first powered aircraft to fly on another planet — arrived at Mars on February 18, clinging to Perseverance’s belly. Its first flight was April 19; NASA named the takeoff and landing area Wright Brothers Field in honor of Wilbur and Orrville, who made the world’s first airplane flights in 1903. A postage-stamp-size piece of wing fabric from the original Wright Flyer is aboard Ingenuity.The $85 million tech demo was supposed to end a few days ago, but NASA extended the mission by at least a month to get more flying time.Friday afternoon’s test flight was aiming for twice the altitude — as high as 33 feet (10 meters). The helicopter was also headed to a new touchdown spot.With the helicopter’s …