On the eve of international climate talks, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited globally important Antarctica, where ice that’s been frozen for millions of years is melting because of human-caused climate change, to send the message that “we absolutely need to act immediately.”  “What happens in Antarctica doesn’t stay in Antarctica,” …

The World Health Organization said it has confirmed sexual transmission of mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the first time as the country experiences its biggest outbreak, a worrying development that African scientists warn could make it more difficult to stop the disease. In a statement issued late …

South Africa, Colombia and other countries that lost out in the global race for coronavirus vaccines are taking a more combative approach toward drugmakers and pushing back on policies that deny cheap treatment to millions of people with tuberculosis and HIV. Experts see it as a shift in how such …

Chinese officials say they did not detect any “unusual or novel diseases” in the country, the World Health Organization said Thursday, following an official request by the U.N. health agency for information about a potentially worrying spike in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia in children.  WHO cited unspecified media …

Authorities in several West African countries are trying to manage their huge diphtheria outbreaks, including in Nigeria where a top health official said Thursday that millions are being vaccinated to cover wide gaps in immunity against the disease. At least 573 people out of the 11,640 diagnosed with the disease …

A 14-year-old Ethiopian-born American in the U.S. state of Virginia has won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, an annual science competition for U.S. students in grades five through eight. VOA’s Eden Geremew recently spoke with the winner in Fairfax County, Virginia, in this report narrated by Salem Solomon. Camera: Karina …

For most of her life, Claudia Stearns dreaded Thanksgiving. As a person who struggled with obesity since childhood, Stearns hated the annual turmoil of obsessing about what she ate — and the guilt of overindulging on a holiday built around food.  Now, after losing nearly 100 pounds using medications including …

Rising sea levels, extreme weather and rising temperatures are threatening coastal communities in South Africa. For VOA, Derick Mazarura has the story from Eastern Cape, South Africa. Camera — Buhle Ndamase and Norah Chisa. …

Growing up in Lahore — Pakistan’s cultural capital — fall used to be the perfect time for Mariam to enjoy outdoor activities after months of scorching summer heat. Now, she cannot imagine the same for her young daughters as Lahore’s air, ranked the most polluted globally, becomes unusually toxic in …

Innovations in food production could alleviate hunger for millions of people, according to Britain, which hosted a global summit on food insecurity Monday, but critics say the focus on technology ignores the growing inequality of wealth. The summit was a joint initiative between Britain, Somalia, the United Arab Emirates, the …

A federal judge in Nevada has dealt another legal setback to Native American tribes trying to halt construction of one of the biggest lithium mines in the world. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du granted the government’s motion to dismiss their claims the mine is being built illegally near the sacred …

Oregon’s first-in-the-nation law that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and other illicit drugs in favor of an emphasis on addiction treatment is facing strong headwinds in the progressive state after an explosion of public drug use fueled by the proliferation of fentanyl and a surge in …

SpaceX’s uncrewed spacecraft Starship, developed to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, failed in space shortly after lifting off Saturday, cutting short its second test but making it further than an earlier attempt that ended in an explosion.  The two-stage rocket ship blasted off from the Elon Musk-owned company’s …

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed earlier this week that Beijing will crack down on companies in China that produce precursor chemicals for fentanyl, an agreement that Biden said would “save lives.” In exchange, the Biden administration agreed to lift sanctions on China’s Physical Evidence Identification …

Britain’s medicines regulator has authorized the world’s first gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease, in a move that could offer relief to thousands of people with the crippling disease in the U.K. In a statement Thursday, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it approved Casgevy, the first medicine …

The U.S. flu season is under way, with at least seven states reporting high levels of illnesses and cases rising in other parts of the country, health officials say. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted new flu data Friday, showing very high activity last week in Louisiana, and …

In the Arctic, the impact of climate change is happening at an accelerated pace, with temperatures rising two to four times faster than the global average. “It’s called the polar amplification,” explains Vladimir Romanovsky, a geophysicist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. “Snow and ice reflect lots of energy …

After a barrage of earthquakes that herald an impending volcanic eruption, some evacuated residents of the Icelandic town of Grindavik wonder if they will ever return. “There are going to be a lot of people who don’t want to go there. My mother said, ‘I never want to go there …

The moon glowed in the predawn Mongolia sky as Agvaantogtokh and his family prepared for another big move. On horseback, he rode to a well with nearly a thousand sheep and goats. Occasionally, he and his wife, Nurmaa, stopped to help struggling young ones, weak after a harsh winter. Thousands …

Hundreds of previously unreported workplace injuries surface at a space industry titan. Plus, the European Space Agency chief’s warning on climate change, and we say goodbye to a space travel pioneer. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space. A caution to our viewers – this report contains graphic …

Advances in childhood cancer are a success story in modern medicine. But in the past decade, those strides have stalled for Black and Hispanic youth, opening a gap in death rates, according to a new report published Thursday. Childhood cancers are rare and treatments have improved drastically in recent decades, …

How was the air breathed by Caesar, the Prophet Mohammed or Christopher Columbus? A giant freezer in Copenhagen holds the answers, storing blocks of ice with atmospheric tales thousands of years old. The Ice Core Archive, housing 25 kilometres (15 miles) of ice collected primarily from Greenland, is helping scientists …

Called cover crops, they top the list of tasks U.S. farmers are told will build healthy soil, help the environment and fight climate change. Yet after years of incentives and encouragement, Midwest farmers planted cover crops on only about 7% of their land in 2021. That percentage has increased over …

A thick layer of toxic haze choked Indian capital New Delhi on Friday, and some schools were ordered closed as the air quality index plummeted to the “severe” category. New Delhi again topped a real-time list of the world’s most polluted cities compiled by Swiss group IQAir, which put the …

Fewer high school students are vaping this year, the government reported Thursday. In a survey, 10% of high school students said they had used electronic cigarettes in the previous month, down from 14% last year. Use of any tobacco product — including cigarettes and cigars — also fell among high …