A last-minute fight over emissions cutting and the overall climate change goal is delaying a potentially historic deal that would create a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich countries’ carbon pollution. “We are extremely on overtime. There were some good spirits earlier today. I think more people…
read moreWildlife conservationists are heartened by a rare sighting of a snow leopard in what they say is the first member of the endangered species to be captured on camera in Indian-administered Kashmir. The adult animal was identified from images taken last month using infrared camera traps in a remote region some 3,500 to 3,800 meters…
read moreChina’s zero-COVID policy prompted hundreds of Chinese citizens to march in the streets in Guangzhou this week after hearing that ongoing lockdowns had been extended. In videos shared on Chinese social media and later on Twitter, demonstrators were seen tearing down COVID lockdown barriers in the streets and chanting slogans such as “don’t test anymore”…
read morePfizer said Friday that its updated COVID-19 booster may offer some protection against newly emerging omicron mutants, even though it’s not an exact match. Americans have been reluctant to get the updated boosters rolled out by Pfizer and rival Moderna, doses tweaked to target the BA.5 omicron strain that until recently was the most common…
read moreAs Americans head into the holiday season, a rapidly intensifying flu season is straining hospitals already overburdened with patients sick from other respiratory infections. More than half the states have high or very high levels of flu, unusually high for this early in the season, the government reported Friday. Those 27 states are mostly in…
read moreAuthorities in Botswana are reporting increased thefts of lithium batteries from mobile phone towers amid a surge in global demand for the battery in electric vehicles. The southern African nation’s biggest mobile network operator says it has lost more than $100,000 worth of lithium batteries in the past week alone. Botswana police spokesperson Diteko Motube…
read moreNASA’s Webb Space Telescope is finding bright, early galaxies that until now were hidden from view, including one that may have formed a mere 350 million years after the cosmic-creating Big Bang. Astronomers said Thursday that if the results are verified, this newly discovered throng of stars would beat the most distant galaxy identified by…
read moreA global wildlife summit in Panama took an important step Thursday toward upgrading protection for sharks, the ancient ocean vertebrates targeted for their fins used in a status-symbol soup. A committee voted to approve a proposal to include requiem and hammerhead sharks on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). …
read moreMalawi is struggling to contain one of the worst cholera outbreaks in years. It has spread nationwide, killing more than 250 people and infecting more than 8,000. Authorities and aid groups have stepped up cholera vaccination and hygiene campaigns, as Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre, Malawi. …
read moreNASA once again makes moonshot history. Plus, the space agency’s astronauts take a stroll, and a piece of tragic space history found by accident. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space. …
read moreUganda’s tourism sector is once again being hit by effects from a deadly disease. In 2021, it was the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, it’s the Ebola outbreak, with 141 confirmed cases and 55 deaths. President Yoweri Museveni said Tuesday in his address to Ugandans that he had been informed that tourists are canceling trips…
read moreTaiwan’s envoy to a gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders is the 91-year-old billionaire founder of a computer chip manufacturing giant that operated behind the scenes for decades before being thrust into the center of U.S.-Chinese tension over technology and security. Morris Chang’s hybrid role highlights the clash between Taiwan’s status as one of China’s top tech…
read moreRepublicans won control of the U.S. House on Wednesday, returning the party to power in Washington and giving conservatives leverage to blunt President Joe Biden’s agenda and spur a flurry of investigations. But a threadbare majority will pose immediate challenges for Republican leaders and complicate the party’s ability to govern. More than a week after…
read moreCongressional Republicans mostly condemned President Joe Biden for saying that there “need not be a new Cold War” between the U.S. and China, following a three-hour summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Indonesia. A few Republicans, however, joined members of Biden’s Democratic Party in cautiously welcoming signs that the meeting may have helped…
read moreWith Twitter’s human rights team eliminated, legal experts voice alarm about what it could mean for users around the world. Tina Trinh reports. Camera: Daniel Brody. …
read moreHeavy rains behind floods that killed more than 600 people in Nigeria this year were about 80 times likelier because of human-induced climate change, scientists reported Wednesday. The floods mainly struck Nigeria but also Niger, Chad and neighboring countries, displacing more than 1.4 million people and devastating homes and farmland in a region already vulnerable…
read moreU.S. senators took a key step toward protecting same-sex and interracial marriages Wednesday as they advanced the Respect for Marriage Act, 62-37, to a final vote. Twelve Republicans voted to advance the legislation, which will head to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law after final passage in the U.S. House. The legislation…
read moreSenator Mitch McConnell was reelected as Republican leader Wednesday, quashing a challenge from Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the Senate GOP campaign chief criticized over his party’s midterm election failures. Retreating to the Capitol’s Old Senate Chamber for the private vote, Republicans had faced public infighting following a disappointing performance in last week’s elections that…
read moreAfter mechanical issues and inclement weather forced a series of delays, NASA’s Artemis 1 mission to the moon finally took off from Kennedy Space Center early Wednesday morning. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Florida. Camera: Adam Greenbaum …
read moreNASA’s new Artemis moon rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard early Wednesday. The launch brings the United States a big step closer to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program 50…
read moreChinese authorities locked down a major university in Beijing on Wednesday after finding one COVID-19 case as they stick to a “zero-COVID” approach despite growing public discontent. Peking University students and faculty were not allowed to leave the grounds unless necessary and classes on the main campus — where the case was found — were…
read moreIn the days leading up to former President Donald Trump’s announcement Tuesday evening that he would seek the Republican Party’s nomination again in 2024, influential voices in conservative political circles expressed their opposition to the idea of handing the party’s reins back to him. With Trump leading the party after his election in 2016, Republicans…
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