Month: July 2021

The space-tourism industry got a major boost aboard a billionaire’s rocket ship.  Plus, the EU lends Mother Earth a climate-conscious hand, and LeBron James suits-up for the big screen.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space. Produced by: Arash Arabasadi …

A NASA-University of Hawaii study warns that upcoming changes in the moon’s orbit coupled with higher ocean levels could lead to record coastal flooding on U.S. coasts in the next decade.The study, conducted by the NASA Sea Level Change Team at the University of Hawaii, and published last month in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, says a regularly occurring change in the moon’s orbit around the earth will raise ocean water levels along U.S. shorelines.The NASA researchers say the so-called “wobble” in the moon’s orbit is part of an 18.6-year cycle, recorded as far back as 1728. During half of the cycle, the moon creates lower high tides and higher low tides; the other half creates higher high tides and even lower low tides.The phenomenon is expected to peak the mid-2030s and is occurring just as coastal flooding is on the rise due to higher ocean levels linked to the effects of climate change. A report released Wednesday by the U.S. National Oceanic at Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says the U.S. saw record levels of coastal flooding in the past year.NOAA say flooding at high tide, often called “nuisance” or “sunny day” flooding, has regularly occurred within many coastal communities as water routinely sloshes into streets, yards and businesses.But the agency reports from May 2020 through April 2021, U.S. coastal communities saw twice as many high tide flooding days than they did 20 years ago. They expect the near-record high tides trend to continue through April 2022, as well as …

Haiti, reeling from the assassination of its president and the coronavirus pandemic, has received its first half-million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund said Thursday. UNICEF said in a statement the doses were donated by the U.S. and delivered Wednesday through COVAX, an initiative for the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. “Until yesterday, Haiti was the only country in the Americas without a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine,” Haiti was the only country in the Americas without a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. On July 14, 500,000 doses of vaccine donated by the U.S government through COVAX landed in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. (Photo: © UNICEF/UN0489198/Fils Guillau)The initial batch of vaccines came after the July 7 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise by an armed hit-squad in his heavily guarded private home. Moise’s death occurred amid a period of heightened political instability and gang violence in the country. His assassination has raised fears of another surge in COVID-19 cases, according to the Pan American Health Organization. U.S. President Joe Biden promised in June to deliver 80 million doses worldwide by the end of the month. His administration plans to donate an additional 500 million doses globally in the next year, and 200 million by the end of 2021. COVAX is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Margaret Besheer at the United Nations contributed to this report. Some information also came from Agence France-Presse and Associated Press.   …

Indonesia, the world’s fourth-largest nation, is the latest hotspot for the fast-moving, highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19.  The nation reported more than 54,517 new coronavirus infections Wednesday, a new single-day record, along with 991 deaths. Hospitals on Java island are overflowing with infected patients and residents scrambling to find oxygen tanks to treat family members isolating at home. Indonesia’s rising daily COVID-19 rates have begun to outstrip that of India, where the variant was first detected.  India endured a disastrous outbreak earlier this year, with a peak of more than 400,000 daily cases in early May, now down to about 40,000.  The Associated Press says about 1.5 million doses of the two-dose Moderna vaccine are set to arrive in Indonesia from the United States Thursday, coming on the heels of three million doses that arrived Sunday.  Only 15 million of the country’s 270 million people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Lockdown in Victoria state, AustraliaThe delta variant outbreak continues to wreak havoc in Australia, where officials in the southern state of Victoria imposed an immediate five-day lockdown Thursday as the number of new cases there rose to 18 in just over two days. Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said the state’s six million residents, including its capital Melbourne, will only be able to leave home for medical reasons, essential work, school, grocery shopping, exercise and getting vaccinated. The lockdown is Victoria state’s third lockdown this year and its fifth since the start of the pandemic.     FILE – Essential workers walk …

New data by two leading U.N. agencies find the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine life-saving immunization services for millions of children, many of whom risk dying from vaccine-preventable diseases.The World Health Organization and U.N. Children’s Fund report 23 million children missed out last year on vaccines against killer diseases such as measles, polio, and diphtheria. They say global disruptions of immunization services caused by COVID-19 have set back progress in childhood vaccinations by a decade.They report children in the Southeastern Asian and eastern Mediterranean regions were most affected. India topped a list of 10 countries with the greatest increase in children who did not receive a first dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis combined vaccine. The nine following countries are in the Americas and African regions.Director of Immunization, Vaccines, and Biologicals Department at WHO Kate O’Brien said new waves of COVID-19 and the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines must not derail routine immunization. She noted vaccines are the most powerful tools available to safeguard public health.A student reacts as a medical worker administers a shot of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination campaign for children ages 12-17 at a school in Tangerang, Indonesia, July 14, 2021.“The world has rightly prioritized the emergency response to COVID-19,” she said. “But if we fail to find a catch-up, and catch up those who have missed their vaccines, and restore and improve the essential immunization program, there is a serious risk of disease outbreaks that will continue to grow. We really cannot trade one crisis for …

European Union leaders on Wednesday introduced the bloc’s most comprehensive plans yet to combat climate change, with a new goal of reducing carbon emissions to 55% below 1990 levels by 2030.Unveiled by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, the legislation would make the bloc’s goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050 legally binding and completely overhaul its energy system.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a press conference that the “Fit for 55” plan would act as a road map of concrete actions necessary to achieve the bloc’s climate goals.“Our package aims to combine the reduction of emissions with measures to preserve nature, and to put jobs and social balance at the heart of this transformation,” von der Leyen said.The sweeping proposal would involve every sector of the EU’s economy in its Emissions Trading System, which incentivizes companies to lower their emissions by taxing the carbon they produce.New taxes on previously exempt sectors are proposed for aviation and shipping fuels. The plan also calls for increasing existing carbon taxes to the transportation, manufacturing and power sectors.FILE – Cars sit at a standstill during morning rush hour on a main artery in the European Quarter of Brussels, Dec. 12, 2019. The European Union on July 14, 2021, unveiled new legislation to help meet its pledge to cut climate-changing emissions.Border taxOne of the package’s most noteworthy aspects is a first-of-its-kind tax on the carbon produced by foreign imports, which in turn likely would raise prices for consumers.This border tax …

More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in the U.S. last year, a record experts say was partly triggered by the isolation that many experienced during coronavirus-related lockdowns.   The government reported Wednesday that the 2020 total easily surpassed the previous record of about 72,000 deaths in 2019.   “This is a staggering loss of human life,” Brandon Marshall, a Brown University public health researcher who tracks overdose trends, told the Associated Press. He said the United States was already faced with an overdose epidemic but that the pandemic “has greatly exacerbated the crisis.”   In addition to isolation, many sources of help for addicts were not available during lockdowns.   “During the pandemic, a lot of [drug] programs weren’t able to operate. Street-level outreach was very difficult. People were very isolated,” said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, a health policy expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.   Health experts say that while prescription painkillers once played a key role in U.S. drug overdose deaths, heroin and then in recent years fentanyl — a dangerously powerful opioid — proved exceptionally lethal.   Fentanyl was developed to legitimately treat intense medical pain, but now is sold illicitly and mixed with other drugs.   The government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its studies show fentanyl was involved in more than 60% of overdose deaths last year.This August 2017 shows Jordan McGlashen, left, and his siblings, Brandon, Collin, and Kaitlin, in Battle Creek, Michigan. Jordan …

More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in the U.S. last year, a record experts said was partly triggered by the isolation that many experienced during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.The government reported Wednesday that the 2020 total easily surpassed the previous record of about 72,000 deaths in 2019.“This is a staggering loss of human life,” Brandon Marshall, a Brown University public health researcher who tracks overdose trends, told The Associated Press. He said the United States was already faced with an overdose epidemic but that the pandemic “has greatly exacerbated the crisis.”Health experts said that while prescription painkillers once played a key role in U.S. drug overdose deaths, heroin and in recent years  fentanyl, a dangerously powerful opioid, proved exceptionally lethal.Fentanyl was developed to legitimately treat intense medical pain but now is sold illicitly and mixed with other drugs.The government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its studies showed fentanyl was involved in more than 60% of the overdose deaths last year.Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. …

New Zealand students have developed sustainable materials made from cabbage tree leaves and flax that could soon be used to make high-performance skis, kayaks and skateboards. Their plan is to use them to replace traditional fiberglass and carbon fiber. Skateboards need to be tough. Two students at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury, Ben Scales and William Murrell, believe they can make them even more durable by using fiber from plants. After experimenting in their garage workshops, they created new, natural composite materials.  Scales, who is 21 and studies product design, says their first version is looking good. “The prototype is a harakeke bio-composite skateboard. So, it is 25 percent harakeke fiber and 75 percent recycled polylactic acid, which is a plastic derived from corn starch. It is commonly used in 3D printing, and we have found it to be (a) quite well-suited material to a skateboard because it absorbs the bumps and shocks a lot more than, say, a carbon-fiber skateboard or a conventional wood skateboard,” Scales said.    The fiber is extracted from the Harakeke plant, which is a native New Zealand flax, and mixed with various resins. Leaves from the cabbage tree, which is similar to a palm tree, are also a key ingredient.   The plan is to use these sustainable materials to make skis, snowboards and kayaks, which are currently manufactured from fiberglass and carbon fiber. The university students have attracted interest from potential business partners in other countries. “They range in companies in Europe that make boats to skis, and then a few startups overseas who are looking to sort of shape the personal transport industry with e-bikes and things like that, and they are looking to use sustainable materials that just are not offered in industries like that. So, they …

Residents in Sydney, Australia will remain under lockdown for another two weeks as officials continue to struggle to contain a growing outbreak of the delta variant of COVID-19.The lockdown was first imposed on June 26 after a Sydney airport limousine driver who had been transporting international air crews tested positive for the variant. More than 800 people have since been infected, including 97 new infections reported Wednesday.  Two people have died in the current outbreak.”It always hurts to say this, but we need to extend the lockdown at least a further two weeks,” New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said Wednesday in Sydney, the state capital.  The city’s five million residents are only allowed to leave home for work, exercise, essential shopping or medical reasons, while schools and many non-essential businesses are closed.People queue in line to wait for coronavirus testing at a testing site in Seoul, South Korea, July 8, 2021.South Korea dealing with new outbreak South Korea is also dealing with a stubborn outbreak of new COVID-19 cases triggered by the delta variant.  Officials with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 1,615 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, a new single-day record.  The majority of the new infections came from the capital, Seoul, and immediate surrounding neighborhoods.   The outbreak has prompted authorities to enforce strict restrictions and social distancing rules across much of South Korea, including a ban on private gatherings of more than two people after 6 p.m. in the Seoul area, with bars and restaurants closing by …

The United States should accommodate millions of refugees who will be forced to flee disasters and other effects of a changing climate, according to a task force report released Wednesday.  The In this April 15, 2021, file photo, President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. No nation offers asylum or other protections to people displaced because of climate change. Biden’s admin is studying the idea.In an executive order in February, U.S. President Joe Biden instructed National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to examine how to identify and resettle people who will be displaced by climate change.    “We are actively working on a report on climate change and its impact on migration, including forced migration, internal displacement and planned relocation, for the president and expect a final version, or summary thereof, will be made public by the fall,” a senior administration official told VOA.  Opposition to resettlement proposal There is certain to be pushback from conservative lawmakers and groups opposing liberal immigration reform.   America’s immigration system “is already strained to the breaking point” with more than 1.3 million pending asylum cases, and “inviting untold millions more to seek refugee status, or arrive here and claim asylum, based on assertions of harm as a result of climate change would cause the system to collapse entirely,” predicted Ira Mehlman, media director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform.  Climate change “cannot be addressed by advocacy group-driven attempts to engage in mass resettlement of people in the United States,” added Mehlman, who contends the task force’s proposal “ironically would further hinder our ability to address the root causes of climate change. Large-scale, migration-driven population growth would make it nearly …

Seven COVID-19 vaccines have received the green light from the World Health Organization so far. And as new variants of the coronavirus evolve, questions arise about how well each vaccine works. It can get confusing. But as VOA’s Steve Baragona reports, when it comes to keeping people out of the hospital and the grave, any shot will help. Video editor: Bronwyn Benito …

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is adding a new warning to Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine because of a link to a rare neurological condition.The federal oversight agency issued a statement Monday saying it had received preliminary reports of 100 people who developed Guillain-Barré syndrome after receiving the single-shot vaccine. According to the FDA, Guillain-Barré syndrome occurs when the immune system damages nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and occasional paralysis.  Between 3,000 and 6,000 people are diagnosed each year with the condition in the United States.The FDA said of the 100 vaccine recipients who developed Guillain-Barré syndrome, one person died and 95 were hospitalized. Most of the cases were reported in men 50 years old and older, and usually two weeks after being inoculated.The numbers are a small fraction of the 12.8 million people who have received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which makes up a small proportion of the U.S. vaccine supply.  The FDA said after evaluating the information it has determined that “the known and potential benefits” of the vaccine “clearly outweigh the known and potential risks.”But the new warning casts another cloud over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which has been plagued with problems since it was approved by the FDA.  Both the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention briefly halted use of the vaccine back in April after several women under 50 years old developed a rare but serious blood-clotting disorder following vaccination, and at least one person died. Another problem occurred earlier …

Wildfires that torched homes and forced thousands to evacuate burned across 10 parched Western states on Tuesday, and the largest, in Oregon, threatened California’s power supply. Nearly 60 wildfires tore through bone-dry timber and brush from Alaska to Wyoming, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Arizona, Idaho and Montana accounted for more than half of the large active fires. The fires erupted as the West suffered through the second bout of dangerously high temperatures in just a few weeks. A climate change-fueled megadrought also is contributing to conditions that make fires even more dangerous, scientists say. The National Weather Service says the heat wave appeared to have peaked in many areas, and excessive-heat warnings were largely expected to expire by Tuesday. However, they continued into Tuesday night in some California deserts, and many areas were still expected to see highs in the 80s and 90s. In Northern California, a combined pair of lightning-ignited blazes dubbed the Beckwourth Complex was less than 25% surrounded after days of battling flames fueled by winds, hot weather and low humidity that sapped the moisture from vegetation. Evacuation orders were in place for more than 3,000 residents of remote northern areas and neighboring Nevada. There were reports of burned homes, but damage was still being tallied. The blaze had consumed 362 square kilometers (140 square miles) of land, including in Plumas National Forest. A fire that began Sunday in the Sierra Nevada south of Yosemite National Park exploded across 36 square kilometers (14 square miles) and was just 10% contained. A highway that leads to Yosemite’s southern entrance …

U.S. President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland met Monday with key municipal and law enforcement officials about a seemingly intractable American problem: the soaring number of gun crimes.By various tabulations, 2021 could be the deadliest year for gun violence in the U.S. in two decades. Already this year, more than 10,700 people have been killed in shootings, according to a tabulation by the Gun Violence Archive, some accidentally but many in homicides, robberies and in highly publicized mass shootings such as attacks that occurred at a grocery store, massage spas and a package shipping warehouse.Biden has called gun violence in the U.S. “an epidemic” and “an international embarrassment,” but he has been powerless to stop it.U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland takes part in a meeting with President Joe Biden, law enforcement officials, and community leaders to discuss gun violence reduction strategies at the White House in Washington, July 12, 2021.“While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, we know there are some things that work. And the first of those that work is stemming the flow of firearms,” Biden said at the start of Monday’s meeting. He has called for Senate passage of two gun control measures already approved by the House of Representatives. One of the House-passed measures would close a longstanding loophole in gun laws by expanding background checks to those purchasing weapons over the internet, at gun shows and through some private transactions. The other would give officials 10 business days, instead of the current three, to make background checks …

Scientists funded by U.S. space agency NASA are studying how small impacts from space materials have affected the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa and how they could affect the search for signs of life there. Scientists have determined that on Europa, beneath a thick layer of ice, is a salty ocean whose conditions may be suitable for life. The water may even make its way into the icy crust and onto the moon’s surface. Because of its proximity to Jupiter, Europa is subject to impacts with space debris and intense electron radiation generated by the planet. Each of these impacts can stir up the surface of the moon. Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have been studying the cumulative effects the impacts have on Europa’s surface as part of their preparations to send a probe mission to the distant moon later this decade. FILE – The icy moon Europa rises above Jupiter’s cloud tops in this undated image taken by NASA spacecraft New Horizons.The study, published Monday in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy, explains how the JPL scientists, using models, determined that the icy surface of Europa had been churned by small impacts to an average depth of about 30 centimeters over tens of millions of years. And that any molecules that might qualify as potential biosignatures — including chemical signs of life — could be affected at that depth. The researchers call the surface-churning process “impact gardening,” and they say the impacts would churn some material to the surface, where radiation …

World leaders should prioritize reopening schools for in-person learning immediately in order to avoid a “generational catastrophe,” UNICEF and UNESCO said in a joint statement Monday.The organizations said that keeping schools closed to 156 million students in 19 countries, due to COVID-19, is causing potentially irreparable damage to child development. They also pointed out discrepancies in reopening strategies, which have often opened bars and restaurants while keeping schools shut.“Closing schools mortgages our future for unclear benefits to our present,” the statement read. “We must prioritize better. We can reopen schools safely, and we must.”The statement comes one day before the 2021 Global Education Meeting convenes, an annual event organized by UNESCO that brings together prominent education leaders to address global efforts to improve education.Last year, leaders at the 2020 GEM agreed to a 15-month education plan focused on recovering from the setbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic and staying on track with other educational goals.UNICEF’s and UNESCO’s primary argument for reopening schools now centered around mitigating the negative impacts 18 months of school closures have incurred.“From learning loss, mental distress, exposure to violence and abuse, to missed school-based meals and vaccinations or reduced development of social skills, the consequences for children will be felt in their academic achievement and societal engagement as well as physical and mental health,” they said. “The most affected are often children in low-resource settings who do not have access to remote learning tools, and the youngest children who are at key developmental stages.”The organizations urged governments …