LONDON — Less than two months ahead of the COP29 United Nations Climate Summit, the Azerbaijani leadership laid out its plans on Tuesday for what it hoped to achieve, as countries continue to wrestle with how to raise ambitions for a new financing target. The main task for the November summit …
your ad hereClimate change will escalate child health crisis due to malnutrition, says Gates
LONDON — Malnutrition is the world’s worst child health crisis and climate change will only make things more severe, according to Microsoft-co-founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates. Between now and 2050, 40 million more children will have stunted growth and 28 million more will suffer from wasting, the most extreme and irreversible …
your ad hereAuthorities install air quality Monitors around Nairobi
Authorities in Nairobi are trying to tackle the Kenyan capital’s chronic and worsening air pollution. With help from the U.S. Agency for International Development, authorities are placing sensors that can monitor air quality around the densely populated city. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi. Camera: Jimmy Makhulo …
your ad hereTech billionaire returns to Earth after first private spacewalk
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A billionaire spacewalker returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted them higher than anyone has traveled since NASA’s moonwalkers. SpaceX’s capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida’s Dry Tortugas in the predawn darkness, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared …
your ad hereTraveling ‘health train’ has become essential source of free care in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG — Thethiwe Mahlangu woke early on a chilly morning and walked through her busy South African township, where minibuses hooted to pick up commuters and smoke from sidewalk breakfast stalls hung in the air. Her eyes had been troubling her. But instead of going to her nearby health clinic, Mahlangu …
your ad hereWHO flags limited mpox testing in epicenter DRC
Geneva, Switzerland — Limited capacity is keeping mpox testing coverage low in the DR Congo — the epicenter of the international emergency — the World Health Organization said Saturday in its latest situation report. “Testing coverage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remains low, due to limited testing capacity,” the …
your ad hereBrazil’s Lula pledges to finish paving road experts say could worsen Amazon deforestation
brasilia — In a visit to see the damage caused by drought and fire in the Amazon, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to pave a road that environmentalists and some in his own government say threatens to vastly increase destruction of the world’s largest tropical forest — and contribute …
your ad hereWHO clears Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine for mpox, sets up access plan
Tech billionaire pulls off first private spacewalk high above Earth
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A tech billionaire performed the first private spacewalk hundreds of kilometers above Earth on Thursday, a high-risk endeavor reserved for professional astronauts — until now. Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman teamed up with SpaceX to test the company’s brand new spacesuits on his chartered flight. The daring spacewalk …
your ad hereBotswana, US firm partner to conduct border pathogen monitoring
Gaborone, Botswana — Botswana and an American biotech firm, Ginkgo Bioworks, have partnered to conduct pathogen surveillance at the country’s entry points. Health officials say the proactive move is meant to safeguard public health as the world faces emerging disease threats. Botswana introduced mpox screening last month for travelers at its …
your ad hereSoyuz craft heads to space station with 2 Russians, 1 American
MOSCOW — A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American blasted off Wednesday for an express trip to the International Space Station. The space capsule atop a towering rocket set off at 1623 GMT from Russia’s manned space launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and was scheduled to dock with the …
your ad hereFrancine reaches hurricane strength, heads for US Gulf Coast
First doses of mpox vaccine from US arrive in DR Congo
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo said that 50,000 doses of mpox vaccine from the United States arrived in the country on Tuesday, a week after the first batch arrived from the European Union. Adults in Equateur, South Kivu and Sankuru, the three most-affected …
your ad hereBomb blast hits Pakistan polio team amid national immunization drive
Islamabad — Authorities in northwestern Pakistan said Monday that a roadside bomb explosion injured at least 10 people, including anti-polio vaccinators and police personnel escorting them. The bombing in the South Waziristan district near the border with Afghanistan targeted a convoy carrying polio workers and their guards on the …
your ad hereIndia isolates ‘suspected mpox case’
New Delhi — India reported Sunday that it had put a “suspected mpox case” into isolation, assuring that the world’s most populous nation had “robust measures” in place, the health ministry said in a statement. There have been no confirmed cases of mpox in India, a country of 1.4 billion people. …
your ad hereChina plans to allow wholly foreign-owned hospitals in some areas
Beijing — China said Sunday it would allow the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals in nine areas of the country including the capital, as Beijing tries to attract more foreign investment to boost its flagging economy. In a document on the official website of China’s commerce ministry, it said the new …
your ad herePakistan hasn’t learned lessons from 2022 deadly floods, experts say
ISLAMABAD — Millions of people in Pakistan continue to live along the path of floodwaters, showing neither people nor the government have learned lessons from the 2022 devastating floods that killed 1,737 people, experts said Thursday, as an aid group said half of the 300 victims killed by rains since July …
your ad hereNew polio strain threatens setback to eradication in Nigeria
ABUJA, NIGERIA — Nigeria’s difficult victory over polio faces a challenge as the poliovirus type 2 variant reemerges and the nation considers new measures to tackle the outbreak. Nigeria eradicated wild polio in 2020, but more than 50 cases of the poliovirus type 2 variant were reported between January and May. …
your ad hereSome Zimbabweans worry about nation’s continued reliance on coal
Zimbabwe’s heavy reliance on coal-based energy is hurting the health of people in mining regions who continue to be exposed to dirty air from coal burning. Columbus Mavhunga visited the Hwange thermal power station — about 700 kilometers from Harare — and the surrounding area, where residents have complained about …
your ad hereEarth hits hottest summer on record, EU climate monitor says
Tribes celebrate removal of dam, revival of community along Klamath River
For more than a century, dams have blocked fish migration on California’s second-largest river. VOA’s Matt Dibble takes us to the removal of the last of four dams, a victory for Native Americans who depend on the river. …
your ad hereNASA astronauts stuck in space with nowhere to go … for now
A trip that should have lasted just over a week spirals into a roughly eight-month adventure. Plus, a pioneering teacher memorialized in bronze. And a robot proves its purpose by picking up pebbles. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space. …
your ad hereFemale genital mutilation continues to endanger girls, women in Somalia
Despite global efforts to stop the practice of female genital mutilation, the harmful tradition continues to affect the lives and health of millions of women and girls in Somalia. Reporter Najib Ahmed has this story from the capital, Mogadishu, narrated by Anthony LaBruto. (Camera and Produced by: Abdulkadir Zuber) …
your ad hereFirst mpox vaccines due in DR Congo on Thursday
Kinshasa, Congo — The first delivery of almost 100,000 doses of mpox vaccines will arrive in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, the African Union’s health watchdog said. The vast central Africa country of around 100 million people is at the epicenter of the mpox outbreak, with cases and deaths …
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