Science

WHO urges Rwanda to see off Marburg outbreak

Geneva — The WHO chief on Sunday urged Rwanda to keep up its fightback against Marburg, as the country battles an outbreak of one of the world’s deadliest viruses.  

There have been 62 confirmed cases and 15 deaths in the outbreak, which was first announced in late September.  

No new cases have been detected in the last six days and 44 people have recovered from infection.  

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, visited Rwanda to see the outbreak response for himself and hailed the country’s handling of the situation.  

“We’re pleased to see that there have been no new cases in the past six days, and we hope that remains the case,” he told a press conference in the capital Kigali.  

“But we are dealing with one of the world’s most dangerous viruses, and continued vigilance is essential.  

“Enhanced surveillance, contact tracing and infection prevention and control measures must continue at scale until the outbreak is declared over.”  

Such a declaration can only be made after 42 days — two consecutive incubation periods — without a new confirmed case.  

Marburg is transmitted to humans from fruit bats, and is part of the filovirus family that includes Ebola.  

With a fatality rate of up to 88 percent, Marburg’s highly infectious hemorrhagic fever is often accompanied by bleeding and organ failure.   

However, the case fatality rate in this outbreak has been held down at 24 percent.   

On Saturday, Tedros visited the treatment center where the remaining patients are being looked after.  

“Two of the patients we met had experienced all of the symptoms of Marburg, including multiple organ failure, but they were put on life support, they were successfully intubated and extubated, and are now recovering,” he said.  

“We believe this is the first time patients with Marburg virus have been extubated in Africa. These patients would have died in previous outbreaks.”  

There are currently no officially approved vaccines nor approved antiviral treatments, but potential treatments, including blood products, immune and drug therapies are being evaluated.  

A vaccination program using a trial vaccine was launched in Rwanda earlier this month. 
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Whooping cough is at a decade-high level in US

MILWAUKEE — Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.

There have been 18,506 cases of whooping cough reported so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That’s the most at this point in the year since 2014, when cases topped 21,800.

The increase is not unexpected — whooping cough peaks every three to five years, health experts said. And the numbers indicate a return to levels before the coronavirus pandemic, when whooping cough and other contagious illnesses plummeted.

Still, the tally has some state health officials concerned, including those in Wisconsin, where there have been about 1,000 cases so far this year, compared to a total of 51 last year.

Nationwide, CDC has reported that kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and vaccine exemptions are at an all-time high. Thursday, it released state figures, showing that about 86% of kindergartners in Wisconsin got the whooping cough vaccine, compared to more than 92% nationally.

Whooping cough, also called pertussis, usually starts out like a cold, with a runny nose and other common symptoms, before turning into a prolonged cough. It is treated with antibiotics. Whooping cough used to be very common until a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, which is now part of routine childhood vaccinations. It is in a shot along with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines. The combo shot is recommended for adults every 10 years.

“They used to call it the 100-day cough because it literally lasts for 100 days,” said Joyce Knestrick, a family nurse practitioner in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Whooping cough is usually seen mostly in infants and young children, who can develop serious complications. That’s why the vaccine is recommended during pregnancy, to pass along protection to the newborn, and for those who spend a lot of time with infants.

But public health workers say outbreaks this year are hitting older kids and teens. In Pennsylvania, most outbreaks have been in middle school, high school and college settings, an official said. Nearly all the cases in Douglas County, Nebraska, are schoolkids and teens, said Justin Frederick, deputy director of the health department.

That includes his own teenage daughter.

“It’s a horrible disease. She still wakes up — after being treated with her antibiotics — in a panic because she’s coughing so much she can’t breathe,” he said.

It’s important to get tested and treated with antibiotics early, said Dr. Kris Bryant, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at Norton Children’s in Louisville, Kentucky. People exposed to the bacteria can also take antibiotics to stop the spread.

“Pertussis is worth preventing,” Bryant said. “The good news is that we have safe and effective vaccines.”
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Kidney transplants are safe between people with HIV, US study shows 

People with HIV can safely receive donated kidneys from deceased donors with the virus, according to a large study that comes as the U.S. government moves to expand the practice. That could shorten the wait for organs for all, regardless of HIV status.

The new study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, looked at 198 kidney transplants performed across the U.S. Researchers found similar results whether the donated organ came from a person with or without the AIDS virus.

Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services proposed a rule change that would allow these types of kidney and liver transplants outside research studies. A final rule would apply to both living and deceased donors. If approved, it could take effect in the coming year.

Participants in the study were HIV positive, had kidney failure and agreed to receive an organ from either an HIV-positive deceased donor or an HIV-negative deceased donor, whichever kidney became available first.

Similar survival rates

Researchers followed the organ recipients for up to four years. They compared the half who received kidneys from HIV-positive donors to those whose kidneys came from donors without HIV.

Both groups had similarly high rates of overall survival and low rates of organ rejection. Virus levels rose for 13 patients in the HIV donor group and for four in the other group, mostly tied to patients failing to take HIV medications consistently, and in all cases returned to very low or undetectable levels.

“This demonstrates the safety and the fantastic outcomes that we’re seeing from these transplants,” said study co-author Dr. Dorry Segev of NYU Langone Health.

In 2010, surgeons in South Africa provided the first evidence that using HIV-positive donor organs was safe in people with HIV. But the practice wasn’t allowed in the United States until 2013 when the government lifted a ban and allowed research studies, at the urging of Segev. At first, the studies were with deceased donors. Then in 2019, Segev and others at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore performed the world’s first kidney transplant from a living donor with HIV to an HIV-positive recipient.

All told, 500 transplants of kidneys and livers from HIV-positive donors have been done in the U.S.

‘A win-win’

People with HIV have been actively discouraged from signing up to be organ donors by stigma and outdated state laws and policies criminalizing organ donation for people with HIV, said Carrie Foote, a sociology professor at Indiana University in Indianapolis.

“Not only can we help those of us living with this disease, but we free up more organs in the entire organ pool so that those who don’t have HIV can get an organ faster,” said Foote, who is HIV positive and a registered organ donor. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”

More than 90,000 people are on the waiting list for kidney transplants, according to the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. In 2022, more than 4,000 people died waiting for kidneys.

In an editorial in the journal, Dr. Elmi Muller of Stellenbosch University in South Africa predicted the new study will have “far-reaching effects in many countries that do not perform transplantations with these organs.”

“Above all, we have taken yet another step toward fairness and equality for persons living with HIV,” wrote Muller, who pioneered the practice.
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Polio crisis deepens as Pakistan reports new cases

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan said Saturday that two children in its southern Sindh province had been paralyzed by poliovirus, bringing the total number of cases nationwide to 39 for the year since March, when officials confirmed the first case.

The South Asian nation of around 240 million people reported six cases of paralytic poliovirus infections in 2023, following a period of more than a year without any documented cases, only to see the numbers rise again.

“Genetic sequencing of the cases is under way,” said a Pakistan polio eradication program statement Saturday while reporting the two new infections in Sindh. “The intense virus transmission and increase in polio cases are indicative of the harm that children suffer when they miss opportunities for vaccination.”

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, with at least 20 cases this year, are the only two countries where the crippling disease is still endemic.

Pakistani officials are preparing to launch a nationwide vaccination campaign on October 28 to immunize more than 45 million children under 5 against the paralytic disease.

“It is critical for parents to open their doors to vaccinators during this drive and ensure that all children in their care receive two drops of the crucial oral polio vaccine to keep them protected from the devastating effects of polio,” the program emphasized in its Saturday statement.

Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, which sits on the Afghan border, has reported 20 polio cases in 2024, while Sindh has detected 12 cases.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan has documented five paralytic poliovirus cases. Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province and the national capital, Islamabad, reported one case each.

The resurgence of poliovirus in Pakistan is blamed on boycotts of vaccination drives by parents in rural areas who allege the initiatives are a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children.

Anti-state militants in violence-hit districts bordering Afghanistan occasionally attack vaccinators and their police escorts, suspecting them of spying for the government. The violence has claimed the lives of dozens of security forces and vaccinators.

An independent monitoring board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative noted in a report last month that more than 420,000 Pakistani children could not be inoculated in anti-polio campaigns in 2024.

The board reported more than 200 boycotts of the polio vaccination campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last year. “It is disturbing to realize that violence, insecurity, and boycotts are still as prevalent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as they were in 2023,” the report said.

It highlighted that residents in several impoverished districts of Pakistan also demanded electricity, gas supply, and road construction in return for getting their children vaccinated.

A representative for Pakistan’s Ministry of Health told a World Health Organization meeting in Doha, Qatar, earlier this week that polio eradication is the country’s “top priority,” and efforts have been intensified to halt virus transmission.

“Despite recent resurgence, a unified plan with provinces aims to stop polio transmission by 2025,” Safi Malik stated. “We’re focusing on quality campaigns, digital tracking of missed areas, and a strong Pakistan-Afghanistan collaboration for cross-border vaccinations,” he said. 
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Nigeria rolls out long-anticipated malaria vaccine

ABUJA, NIGERIA — Nigeria officially launched its malaria vaccination campaign this week to protect millions of children from the deadly disease, focusing heavily on high-risk states.

The first 846,000 doses of the R21 malaria vaccine arrived in Abuja, Nigeria, on Thursday, marking a milestone in efforts to eliminate malaria. According to the World Health Organization, the country accounts for about 27% of global malaria cases. In 2022, it recorded nearly 67 million infections and nearly 200,000 deaths, about 80% of the deaths occurring in children under age 5.

Dr. Muyi Aina, head of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, said the initial rollout prioritizes high-risk regions.

“We expect another 140,000 or so to make a million doses in this first batch,” Aina said. “Every child, every person that is vaccinated, needs to get two doses. So, we know that that’s a limited number of people. So, we have prioritized the highest-burden locations in the country, Kebbi and Bayelsa.”

The government is covering part of the vaccine costs, with global vaccine group Gavi and international partners funding the rest.

Health Minister Muhammad Pate stressed that the vaccine will be administered to recipients at no charge.

“These vaccines are free for [the] population, but they cost resources,” he said.

Not everyone would be able to afford the vaccines, Pate said.

“The children of the poor in rural areas are the ones that may not be able to access them,” he said. “That’s why we’ve prioritized public financing in that regard, and we thank our partners for contributing toward it.”

Nigeria has improved vaccine logistics for hard-to-reach regions.

UNICEF’s chief of health in Nigeria, Dr. Eduardo Celades, expressed confidence in the country’s distribution capacity.

“Transportation and storage [are] a key issue,” he said. “How [can you] ensure that the cold chain has the integrity needed to keep safe the vaccines and to keep them effective? But we are confident that we know that we have the capacities.”

Malaria remains a complex challenge, requiring a mix of strategies such as mosquito control, better health care access and vaccine monitoring.

Malaria elimination strategic adviser Olugbenga Mokuolu said the vaccine complements traditional tools such as bed nets and treatments, offering children added protection.

“We know that no single tool offers 100% of the solution,” Mokuolu said. “That’s why we still talk about the combination of tools. But having the vaccine layering on it is very significant. … With the deployment of this vaccine, we will be conducting … an effectiveness study in order to note the rate of reoccurrence while on the vaccine.”

The WHO approved the RTS,S and R21 vaccines, with R21 showing 77% efficacy in trials. Other African countries, including Uganda and Burkina Faso, have begun vaccine distribution, reflecting the continent’s push to combat malaria.

Experts say the success of the malaria rollout depends on sustained engagement with local leaders and caregivers to ensure children complete their doses.
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Aging farmers face extreme temperatures as they struggle to maintain Japan’s rice crop

KAMIMOMI, Japan — In the remote village of Kamimomi in Japan’s western Okayama prefecture, a small group of rice farmers began their most recent harvest in sweltering heat, two weeks sooner than usual.

The prefecture is called “the Land of Sunshine” because of its pleasant climate, but farmers working among the paddy fields and ancient rice terraces say that climate change is hurting the harvest of rice, long a cornerstone of Japan’s diet.

“Last year, an exceptional heat wave took the water out of the rice, which became small and thin,” rice farmer Joji Terasaka said. “So I am worried about that this year because it will be just as hot.”

This year Japan experienced its hottest July on record, with temperatures reaching 2.16 Celsius higher than average, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The globe has seen a 1.2 C rise in average temperature since preindustrial times, and scientists agree that warming needs to be capped at 1.5 C to stave off the worst effects of climate change. That includes even more powerful heat, storms and irreversible ice melt.

Last year, Japan recorded a poor rice harvest nationwide because of exceptionally hot weather. Ministry data showed the country’s private-sector rice inventory fell to 1.56 million tons in June, the lowest level since records began in 1999. Last year was the hottest on record globally, though it’s feared that this year may top it.

The drop in harvest in Japan was partly to blame for this year’s widespread summer rice shortage, according to officials. There were empty shelves in supermarkets, and some retailers are still enforcing purchase limits of one rice bag per customer.

“Perhaps people think that an increase of one degree Celsius in average temperature isn’t much. But it’s quite a big change for plants and crops,” says Yuji Masutomi, a researcher at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo.

Masutomi said the rising temperatures not only influence the growth cycle and yield of rice, but also hurt the quality of the grain.

When temperatures rise above 27 C, the buildup of starch inside rice grains is reduced. That causes the crop to take on a chalky appearance, and its value is reduced.

At least a fifth of rice farms have reported a drop in quality from rising temperatures, according to a farming ministry report last year.

“Not only is the appearance not good; people say the taste drops too,” Masutomi said.

For farmers in Kamimomi, there’s another problem with working under exceptional heat. The average age of agricultural workers in Japan is nearly 69, among the oldest in the world, and older people are especially vulnerable to heatstroke.

Toshimi Kaiami led a community project in Kamimomi that involved reviving some of the paddy fields abandoned because of the aging population.

“There are no longer any successors,” says Kaiami. “We are heading toward extinction.”

The community project divides labor among Kamimomi’s farmers. But preparations for the harvest coincided with the hottest months of the year — April to September.

“It takes a half year to produce rice. The heat and the work that we have to endure during that time is really tough,” said rice farmer Mitsumasa Sugimoto, 77.

To deal with climate change, the government is promoting the adoption of heat-resistant rice variants, including Sai no Kizuna, which was developed by a research center in Saitama prefecture, near Tokyo.

Research organizations around the world have worked to produce more resilient strains of essential food like rice while introducing more heat and drought resistant grains like sorghum or millet.

“Last year and this year have been extremely hot, but even in those conditions, Sai no Kizuna maintained a certain level of quality,” said Naoto Ohoka, who manages rice breeding at Saitama’s Agricultural Technology Research Center.

“Its other characteristic is that it is very delicious.”

The center cultivates more than a thousand types of rice strains, and through cross-pollination officials assess and select the best performers to develop new varieties.

Sai no Kizuna was developed in 2012 to better withstand heat, a trait that has become more widely recognized recently as Japan sees hotter summers. The strain also stands up well against typhoon wind and certain pests and diseases.

Researchers want to develop more resilient strains against heat as temperatures are projected to continue rising. Masutomi recommends that variants tolerant of temperatures up to 3 degrees Celsius higher should be introduced across Japan by the 2040s.

But it’s a long process. It can take up to 10 years to develop a new variant. Once it’s approved for the market, farmers must then be convinced to switch to the new strain.

The most widely grown variety is Koshihikari, which is less heat resistant. Even so, older farmers have shown a reluctance to switch to other varieties. Farming ministry data show that only around 15% of Japanese paddy fields have adopted heat resistance variants.
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Pressure grows for nations to deliver on promised biodiversity targets at UN conference

Two years after reaching a historic biodiversity agreement, countries will gather next week to determine whether they are making progress on efforts to save Earth’s plant and animal life.

The agreement signed by 196 countries at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference calls for protecting 30% of land and water by 2030, known as 30 by 30. When the agreement was signed, 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas were protected — which hasn’t changed significantly.

At the conference known as COP16, countries next will report on progress made toward the goals, and governments are expected to agree on mechanisms to assure the implementation of them, according to a European Parliament report.

The two-week meeting in Cali, Colombia, will also focus on efforts to raise hundreds of billions of dollars to protect nature by 2030 — with the payment of $20 billion for developing countries due next year. Twenty-three targets will be discussed including cutting food waste and preventing the introduction of invasive species.

Signs of progress hard to find

The nearly 200 countries are supposed to submit national plans ahead of the conference showing actions they are taking to meet the 30 by 30 goals. But as of this week, around 46% of countries have submitted targets and less than 15% submitted plans for reaching them. Australia has yet to submit its targets while India has not submitted a national plan. Brazil, which includes much of the Amazon rainforest, hasn’t submitted targets or a plan.

The United States, which is not party to the biodiversity convention, is not required to submit any plans. But the Biden administration has committed to protecting a third of American land and waters by 2030.

Some countries are expected to use the conference to unveil plans for creating or expanding protected areas and for how they’ll spend biodiversity funding. Canada, for example, has committed to spending $800 million on four Indigenous-led projects.

Conservation groups are concerned that more countries have not yet detailed their biodiversity goals and how to achieve them.

Bernadette Fischler Hooper, head of global advocacy for WWF International, called the commitments so far “disappointing.” WWF, which is tracking the progress, also found some plans lack actions to halt biodiversity loss, funding to support efforts and sufficient buy-in from across government.

“This is really, really getting close,” Hooper said. “There are some countries who can easily afford to update (their plans). There’s no reason why they didn’t do it … and there are countries that didn’t get the support they needed.”

Of the 91 countries that submitted targets, the convention’s secretariat found more than half had targets of protecting and conserving at least 30% of their terrestrial area and about a quarter had targets for 5% to 30%. For marine and coastal areas, more than one-third had a national target of 30% or more, and another third had targets between 5% and 30%.

But Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said the small number of countries submitting plans isn’t surprising since governments first had to come up with targets and then develop action plans.

“These are complex processes that are meant to be a whole of government,” she said of the plans that require coordination and buy-in from ministries, business leaders and community stakeholders, as well as raising money. “That’s not happening overnight.”

Achieving these targets is especially critical to migratory species, more than 40% which a U.N. report found are declining.

“Birds do not recognize boundaries of a protected area and move according to their feeding and roosting needs,” said Jennifer George, who leads the Seoul-based East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership, a nonprofit focused on birds migrating between East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Funding crunch

Much like the U.N. climate talks, a big topic of debate at the biodiversity conference will be financing.

Poor countries pushed to include language requiring that $200 billion a year be raised by 2030 for biodiversity from a range of sources to fund the target-specific projects. Rich countries committed to providing developing countries $20 billion starting next year and gradually scaling that up to $30 billion by 2030.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported in September that development finance for biodiversity more than doubled from 2015 to 2022. But when it comes to funding for this agreement, the world was still 23% short of the $20 billion goal.

Advocates said money will be critical since much of the biodiversity that needs protecting is in developing countries like those in Africa.

“There has been progress. Is there enough progress? No,” said Susan Lieberman, the vice president of international policy at Wildlife Conservation Society. “Some countries are taking it seriously and other countries are saying, ‘Oh we want to do this, but where’s the money?'”

More than 30 by 30

In addition to top-tier biodiversity targets, the conference will discuss a goal in the agreement to halt human-induced extinction of threatened species and, by 2050, to reduce extinction rates tenfold. The goal also calls for increasing the “abundance of native wild species” to healthy levels.

But conservationists say the goals lack specifics and hope details can be agreed upon at the meeting.

“Many of these other targets need to be nailed down and quantified, like stopping species extinctions,” said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm. “At the moment, they are terribly vague.”

Countries plan to showcase the role biodiversity plays in achieving climate mitigation goals and in health, especially preventing future pandemics.

The meeting will also consider adoption of a global mechanism for sharing of benefits from digital data from genetic material derived from plants, animals, bacteria and viruses. The materials are often used to developed commercial products like drugs — and the hope is that an agreement will ensure profits are shared equitably. 
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Namibia hosts workshop on health care access to LGBTQ+ community

WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA — Namibians who are part of the LGBTQ+ community often find it difficult to get decent health care and many report discriminatory practices within the health care system.

For example, when 20-year-old Immanuel Uirab sought contraception at a health facility, the nurse on duty would not assist him.

“I don’t know if it’s the shorts I was wearing or you can generally just tell by looking at me that I am gay,” he said, “but then this particular nurse … came out and she was, like, ‘No, we don’t offer contraceptives for people who practice sodomy. We can’t do that for you. … You can go buy them if you want to use them in your private space, but we … won’t give them to you because our government does not support homosexuality.’”

A recent two-day training workshop facilitated by the group Our Equity Advocacy was aimed at encouraging health care practitioners in Namibia to not discriminate against sexual minorities.

Discrimination in health care services violates the right to health care and the human rights principles of equity, privacy and dignity, said the United Nation’s special rapporteur on the right to health, Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng.

Mofokeng held a workshop last weekend in Windhoek where she trained health care practitioners and young people about the role of health care in human rights.

There are many opportunities in which health care workers “can take a seat at the table,” she said. “Not just in policymaking, but importantly in advocacy … also in understanding human rights.”

The executive director of Namibia’s Ministry of Health, Ben Nangombe, said that discrimination in health care based on sexual orientation is against the law and that practitioners who refuse health care to patients for any reason can lose their jobs.

“The official position [of the] government on this matter is that the Namibian government provides health care services to all Namibians who need it without any discrimination whatsoever,” he said.

One theme from last weekend’s workshop was the need for nurses to become agents of change and advocates for their patients.

Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane, a legal practitioner and health rights activist from South Africa who co-facilitated the workshop, said members of sexual minority groups in Africa often face intrusive questioning when they seek medical care.

“Let’s say you are going to a hospital or a clinic for a broken arm or a headache, some tummy ache, whatever,” Mokgoroane said. “What often happens is when you are trans or when you are gender nonconforming or when you are a member of the LGBTI community, immediately what happens is that the questions veer away from why you are actually there to really invasive and discriminatory questions, right? ‘I have a headache, why are you asking me about my sex life? … I have a headache, why are you asking me about my genitalia?’”

Mokgoroane said the issue can be addressed by training health care workers to affirm the gender of their patients when they treat them.

However, Mokgoroane expressed worry that the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Africa will further drive discriminatory practices in the health care system and undermine public health altogether.
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Moonlight may hamper views of Orionid meteor shower, debris of Halley’s comet

washington — The Orionids — one of two annual meteor showers from Halley’s comet — peak early Monday. A bright waning moon may make them difficult to spot.

The Orionid meteor shower can be unpredictable. It shines like a fireworks display in some years but is fairly slow in other years.

This highly variable shower may result in anywhere from 20 to 60 visible meteors per hour under ideal viewing conditions, said NASA’s Bill Cooke.

This year’s peak activity happens on a night when a waning moon is 83% full. The shower lasts through November 22.

Here’s what to know about the Orionids and other meteor showers.

What is a meteor shower?

Multiple meteor showers occur annually and don’t require special equipment to see them.

Most meteor showers originate from the debris of comets. The source of the Orionids is Halley’s comet.

When rocks from space enter Earth’s atmosphere, the resistance from the air makes them very hot. This causes the air to glow around them and briefly leaves a fiery tail behind them — the end of a “shooting star.”

The glowing pockets of air around fast-moving space rocks, ranging from the size of a dust particle to a boulder, may be visible in the night sky.

“Halley’s comet does not leave the same numbers of particles behind each year,” making it hard to predict what kind of show viewers will see, said Cooke.

How to view a meteor shower

Meteor showers are usually most visible between midnight and predawn hours.

It’s easier to see shooting stars under dark skies, away from city lights. Meteor showers also appear brightest on cloudless nights when the moon wanes smallest.

And your eyes will better adapt to seeing meteors if you aren’t checking your phone.

“It ruins your night vision,” said Cooke.

When is the next meteor shower?

October has been an active time for celestial sightings including the latest supermoon and the comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas.

The meteor society keeps an updated list of upcoming large meteor showers, including the peak viewing days and moonlight conditions.

The next big one is the Southern Taurid meteor shower, which peaks in early November.
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Colombian ranchers aim to prove beef production can be good for planet

Scientists say beef production takes a heavy toll on the environment. Cattle produce methane, a powerful planet-warming gas, and forests get cut down for pastures. But one farm in northern Colombia hopes to show ranching can have a lighter footprint on the planet. Austin Landis travelled to Montería in northern Colombia for a closer look at what could be a revolution in sustainable cattle ranching.
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US Supreme Court declines to pause EPA power plant emissions rule

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Wednesday to put on hold a new federal rule targeting carbon pollution from coal- and gas-fired power plants at the request of numerous states and industry groups in another major challenge to President Joe Biden’s efforts to combat climate change.

The justices denied emergency requests by West Virginia, Indiana and 25 other states — most of them Republican led — as well as power companies and industry associations, to halt the Environmental Protection Agency rule while litigation continues in a lower court. The regulation, aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change, took effect July 8.

The rule would require existing coal and new natural gas-fired plants eventually to reduce emissions including by capturing and storing carbon dioxide.

The EPA’s new rule, issued under the landmark Clean Air Act anti-pollution law, was issued two years after a major ruling by the Supreme Court in 2022 undercut the agency’s power to issue sweeping regulations to force an electricity-generation shift from coal to cleaner energy sources.

The EPA has said efforts to address climate change and its impacts such as extreme weather and rising sea levels must include the power sector because fossil fuel-fired plants make up 25% of overall domestic greenhouse gas emissions.

Notably, the rule mandates that coal plants operating past 2038 and certain new gas plants reduce emissions by 90% by 2032 including by using carbon capture and storage systems that extract carbon dioxide from plant exhaust and sequester it underground.

The EPA has called the technology proven and technically feasible. The rule’s challengers have said it has not been shown effective at the scale predicted by the EPA.

The rule’s requirements are “really a backdoor avenue to forcing coal plants out of existence,” West Virginia, a major coal producer, and other state challengers said in a written filing.

The Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling was based on what is called the “major questions” legal doctrine embraced by its conservative justices that requires explicit congressional authorization for action on issues of broad importance and societal impact.

The states and certain other challengers contend that the EPA’s new rule likewise implicates a major question and exceeds the agency’s authority.

Numerous states and industry players filed multiple lawsuits challenging the rule in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which on July 19 denied requests to pause the regulation pending its review.

The case did not implicate a major question because the EPA’s actions setting plant limits were “well within” its statutory authority, the D.C. Circuit stated.
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Listeria recall grows to 5.4 million kilograms of meat and poultry

A nationwide recall of meat and poultry products potentially contaminated with listeria has expanded to nearly 15.4 million kilograms (12 million pounds) and now includes ready-to-eat meals sent to U.S. schools, restaurants and major retailers, federal officials said.

The updated recall includes prepared salads, burritos and other foods sold at stores including Costco, Trader Joe’s, Target, Walmart and Kroger. The meat used in those products was processed at a Durant, Oklahoma, manufacturing plant operated by BrucePac. The Woodburn, Oregon-based company sells precooked meat and poultry to industrial, foodservice and retail companies across the country.

Routine testing found potentially dangerous listeria bacteria in samples of BrucePac chicken, officials with the U.S. Agriculture Department said. No illnesses have been confirmed in connection with the recall, USDA officials said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not launched an outbreak investigation, a spokesperson said.

The recall, issued on October 9, includes foods produced between May 31 and October 8. The USDA has posted a 342-page list of hundreds of potentially affected foods, including chicken wraps sold at Trader Joe’s, chicken burritos sold at Costco and many types of salads sold at stores such as Target and Walmart. The foods were also sent to school districts and restaurants across the country.

The recalled foods can be identified by establishment numbers “51205 or P-51205” inside or under the USDA mark of inspection. Consumers can search on the USDA recall site to find potentially affected products. Such foods should be thrown away or returned to stores for refunds, officials said.

Eating foods contaminated with listeria can cause potentially serious illness. About 1,600 people are infected with listeria bacteria each year in the U.S. and about 260 die, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Listeria infections typically cause fever, muscle aches and tiredness and may cause stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions. Symptoms can occur quickly or to up to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food. The infections are especially dangerous for older people, those with weakened immune systems or who are pregnant.

The same type of bacteria is responsible for an outbreak tied to Boar’s Head deli meat that has killed at least 10 people since May.
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Growing number of young women say abortion rights top election issue

Since the U.S. Supreme Court sent the issue of abortion back to the states in 2022, Democrats have mobilized to protect abortion rights while Republicans have worked to restrict the procedure on religious and moral grounds. The issue is motivating voters to go to the polls this election year. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Nevada. Videographer: Mary Cieslak
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WHO: Gaza polio campaign starts well, despite Israeli strikes

Geneva — The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it had been able to start its polio campaign in central Gaza and vaccinate tens of thousands of children despite Israeli strikes in the designated protected zone hours before.

As part of an agreement between the Israeli military and Palestinian militant group Hamas, humanitarian pauses in the year-long Gaza war had been due to begin early on Monday to reach hundreds of thousands of children.

However, hours before then, the U.N. humanitarian office said Israeli forces struck tents near al Aqsa hospital, inside in the zone, where it said four people were burned to death.  

The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said one of its schools in the central Gazan city of Nuseirat, intended as a vaccination site, was hit overnight between Sunday and Monday, killing up to 22 people.

WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told a Geneva press briefing that over 92,000 children, or around half of the children targeted for polio vaccines in the central area, had been inoculated on Monday.

“What we have received from colleagues is that the vaccination went without a major issue yesterday, and we hope It will continue the same way,” he said.

Other humanitarian agencies have previously voiced concerns about the viability of the polio campaign in northern Gaza, where an Israeli offensive is under way.

Aid groups carried out an initial round of vaccinations last month, after a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus in August, in the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
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NASA spacecraft rockets toward Jupiter’s moon Europa, searching for keys to life

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A NASA spacecraft rocketed away Monday on a quest to explore Jupiter’s tantalizing moon Europa and reveal whether its vast hidden ocean might hold the keys to life.

It will take Europa Clipper 5 1/2 years to reach Jupiter, where it will slip into orbit around the giant gas planet and sneak close to Europa during dozens of radiation-drenched flybys.

Scientists are almost certain a deep, global ocean exists beneath Europa’s icy crust. And where there is water, there could be life, making the moon one of the most promising places out there to hunt for it.

Europa Clipper won’t look for life; it has no life detectors. Instead, the spacecraft will zero in on the ingredients necessary to sustain life, searching for organic compounds and other clues as it peers beneath the ice for suitable conditions.

SpaceX started Clipper on its 3 billion-kilometer (1.8 million-mile) journey, launching the spacecraft on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. An hour later, the spacecraft separated from the upper stage, floated off and called home.

“Please say goodbye to Clipper on its way to Europa,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s flight director Pranay Mishra announced from Southern California.

“The science on this is really captivating,” NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free told The Associated Press back at the launch site. Scientists are still learning about the depths of our own ocean, “and here we are looking that far out.”

The $5.2 billion mission almost got derailed by transistors.

NASA didn’t learn until spring that Clipper’s transistors might be more vulnerable to Jupiter’s intense radiation field than anticipated. Clipper will endure the equivalent of several million chest X-rays during each of the 49 Europa flybys. The space agency spent months reviewing everything before concluding in September that the mission could proceed as planned.

Hurricane Milton added to the anxiety, delaying the launch by several days.

“What a great day. We’re so excited,” JPL Director Laurie Leshin said after liftoff.

About the size of a basketball court with its solar wings unfurled, Clipper will swing past Mars and then Earth on its way to Jupiter for gravity assists. The nearly 5,700-kilogram (13,000-pound) probe should reach the solar system’s biggest planet in 2030.

Clipper will circle Jupiter every 21 days. One of those days will bring it close to Europa, among 95 known moons at Jupiter and close to our own moon in size.

The spacecraft will skim as low as 25 kilometers (16 miles) above Europa — much closer than the few previous visitors. Onboard radar will attempt to penetrate the moon’s ice sheet, believed to be 15 kilometers to 24 kilometers (10 miles to 15 miles or more) thick. The ocean below could be 120 kilometers (80 miles) or more deep.

The spacecraft holds nine instruments, with its sensitive electronics stored in a vault with dense zinc and aluminum walls for protection against radiation. Exploration will last until 2034.

“Ocean worlds like Europa are not only unique because they might be habitable, but they might be habitable today,” NASA’s Gina DiBraccio said on the eve of launch.

If conditions are found to be favorable for life at Europa, then that opens up the possibility of life at other ocean worlds in our solar system and beyond, according to scientists. With an underground ocean and geysers, Saturn’s moon Enceladus is another top candidate. 
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SpaceX launches its mega Starship rocket; this time, mechanical arms catches it at landing 

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NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will scour Jupiter moon for ingredients for life 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA spacecraft is ready to set sail for Jupiter and its moon Europa, one of the best bets for finding life beyond Earth.

Europa Clipper will peer beneath the moon’s icy crust where an ocean is thought to be sloshing fairly close to the surface. It won’t search for life, but rather determine whether conditions there could support it. Another mission would be needed to flush out any microorganisms lurking there.

“It’s a chance for us to explore not a world that might have been habitable billions of years ago, but a world that might be habitable today — right now,” said program scientist Curt Niebur.

Its massive solar panels make Clipper the biggest craft built by NASA to investigate another planet. It will take 5 1/2 years to reach Jupiter and will sneak within 16 miles (25 kilometers) of Europa’s surface — considerably closer than any other spacecraft.

Liftoff is targeted for this month aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Mission cost: $5.2 billion.

Europa, the superstar among Jupiter’s many moons

One of Jupiter’s 95 known moons, Europa is almost the size of our own moon. It’s encased in an ice sheet estimated to be 10 miles to 15 miles or more (15 kilometers to 24 kilometers) thick. Scientists believe this frozen crust hides an ocean that could be 80 miles (120 kilometers) or more deep. The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted what appear to be geysers erupting from the surface. Discovered by Galileo in 1610, Europa is one of the four so-called Galilean moons of Jupiter, along with Ganymede, Io and Callisto.

Seeking conditions that support life

What type of life might Europa harbor? Besides water, organic compounds are needed for life as we know it, plus an energy source. In Europa’s case that could be thermal vents on the ocean floor. Deputy project scientist Bonnie Buratti imagines any life would be primitive like the bacterial life that originated in Earth’s deep ocean vents. “We will not know from this mission because we can’t see that deep,” she said. Unlike missions to Mars where habitability is one of many questions, Clipper’s sole job is to establish whether the moon could support life in its ocean or possibly in any pockets of water in the ice.

Supersized spacecraft

When its solar wings and antennas are unfurled, Clipper is about the size of a basketball court — more than 100 feet (30 meters) end to end — and weighs nearly 13,000 pounds (6,000 kilograms). The supersized solar panels are needed because of Jupiter’s distance from the sun. The main body — about the size of a camper — is packed with nine science instruments, including radar that will penetrate the ice, cameras that will map virtually the entire moon and tools to tease out the contents of Europa’s surface and tenuous atmosphere. The name hearkens to the swift sailing ships of centuries past.

Circling Jupiter to fly by Europa

The roundabout trip to Jupiter will span 1.8 billion miles (3 billion kilometers). For extra oomph, the spacecraft will swing past Mars early next year and then Earth in late 2026. It arrives at Jupiter in 2030 and begins science work the next year. While orbiting Jupiter, it will cross paths with Europa 49 times. The mission ends in 2034 with a planned crash into Ganymede — Jupiter’s biggest moon and the solar system’s too.

Europa flybys pose huge radiation risk

There’s more radiation around Jupiter than anywhere else in our solar system, besides the sun. Europa passes through Jupiter’s bands of radiation as it orbits the gas giant, making it especially menacing for spacecraft. That’s why Clipper’s electronics are inside a vault with dense aluminum and zinc walls. All this radiation would nix any life on Europa’s surface. But it could break down water molecules and, perhaps, release oxygen all the way down into the ocean that could possibly fuel sea life.

Earlier this year, NASA was in a panic that the spacecraft’s many transistors might not withstand the intense radiation. But after months of analysis, engineers concluded the mission could proceed as planned.

Other visitors to Jupiter and Europa

NASA’s twin Pioneer spacecraft and then two Voyagers swept past Jupiter in the 1970s. The Voyagers provided the first detailed photos of Europa but from quite a distance. NASA’s Galileo spacecraft had repeated flybys of the moon during the 1990s, passing as close as 124 miles (200 kilometers). Still in action around Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has added to Europa’s photo album. Arriving at Jupiter a year after Clipper will be the European Space Agency’s Juice spacecraft, launched last year.

Ganymede and other possible ocean worlds

Like Europa, Jupiter’s jumbo moon Ganymede is thought to host an underground ocean. But its frozen shell is much thicker — possibly 100 miles (160 kilometers) thick — making it tougher to probe the environment below. Callisto’s ice sheet may be even thicker, possibly hiding an ocean. Saturn’s moon Enceladus has geysers shooting up, but it’s much farther than Jupiter. Ditto for Saturn’s moon Titan, also suspected of having a subterranean sea. While no ocean worlds have been confirmed beyond our solar system, scientists believe they’re out there — and may even be relatively common.

Messages in a cosmic bottle

Like many robotic explorers before it, Clipper bears messages from Earth. Attached to the electronics vault is a triangular metal plate. On one side is a design labeled “water words” with representations of the word for water in 104 languages. On the opposite side: a poem about the moon by U.S. poet laureate Ada Limon and a silicon chip containing the names of 2.6 million people who signed up to vicariously ride along.
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Scientists recreate head of ancient 2.7-meter-long bug

WASHINGTON — As if the largest bug to ever live – a monster about 2.7 meters long with several dozen legs – wasn’t terrifying enough, scientists could only just imagine what the extinct beast’s head looked like.

That’s because many of the fossils of these creatures are headless shells that were left behind when they molted, squirming out of their exoskeletons through the head opening as they grew ever bigger — 2.4 to 2.7 meters and more than 50 kilograms.

Now, scientists have produced a mug shot after studying fossils of juveniles that were complete and very well preserved, if not quite cute.

The giant bug’s topper was a round bulb with two short bell-shaped antennae, two protruding eyes like a crab, and a rather small mouth adapted for grinding leaves and bark, according to new research published Wednesday in Science Advances.

Called Arthropleura, these were arthropods — the group that includes crabs, spiders and insects – with features of modern-day centipedes and millipedes. But some of them were much, much bigger, and this one was a surprising mix.

“We discovered that it had the body of a millipede, but head of a centipede,” said study co-author and paleobiologist Mickael Lheritier at the University Claude Bernard Lyon in Villeurbanne, France.

The largest Arthropleura may have been the biggest bugs to ever live, although there is still a debate. They may be a close second to an extinct giant sea scorpion.

Researchers in Europe and North America have been collecting fragments and footprints of the huge bugs since the late 1800s.

“We have been wanting to see what the head of this animal looked like for a really long time,” said James Lamsdell, a paleobiologist at West Virginia University, who was not involved in the study.

To produce a model of the head, researchers first used CT scans to study fossil specimens of fully intact juveniles embedded in rocks found in a French coal field in the 1980s.

This technique allowed the researchers to scrutinize “hidden details like bits of the head that are still embedded in the rock” without marring the fossil, Lamsdell said.

“When you chip away at rock, you don’t know what part of a delicate fossil may have been lost or damaged,” he said.

The juvenile fossil specimens only measured about 6 centimeters and it’s possible they were a type of Arthropleura that didn’t grow to enormous sizes. But even if so, the researchers said they are close enough kin to provide a glimpse of what adults looked like – whether giant or of a less nightmarish size — when they were alive 300 million years ago.
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Hot days and methamphetamine are now a deadlier mix in US

PHOENIX — On just one sweltering day during the hottest June on record in Phoenix, a 38-year-old man collapsed under a freeway bridge and a 41-year-old woman was found slumped outside a business. Both had used methamphetamine before dying from an increasingly dangerous mix of soaring temperatures and stimulants.

Meth is showing up more often as a factor in the deaths of people who died from heat-related causes in the U.S., according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Death certificates show about one in five heat-related deaths in recent years involved methamphetamine. In Arizona, Texas, Nevada and California, officials found the drug in nearly a third of heat deaths in 2023.

Meth is more common in heat-related deaths than the deadly opioid fentanyl. As a stimulant, it increases body temperature, impairs the brain’s ability to regulate body heat and makes it harder for the heart to compensate for extreme heat.

If hot weather has already raised someone’s body temperature, consuming alcohol or opioids can exacerbate the physical effects, “but meth would be the one that you would be most concerned about,” said Bob Anderson, chief of statistical analysis at the National Center for Health Statistics.

The trend has emerged as a synthetic drug manufactured south of the border by Mexican drug cartels has largely replaced the domestic version of meth fictionalized in the TV series Breaking Bad. Typically smoked in a glass pipe, a single dose can cost as little as a few dollars.

At the same time, human-caused climate change has made it much easier to die from heat-related causes in places like Phoenix, Las Vegas and California’s southeastern desert. This has been Earth’s hottest summer on record.

Phoenix baked in temperatures topping 37.7 Celsius for 113 straight days and hit 47.2 Celsius in late September — uncharacteristic even for a city synonymous with heat. The searing temperatures have carried into October. 

“Putting on a jacket can increase body temperature in a cold room. If it’s hot outside, we can take off the jacket,” explained Rae Matsumoto, dean of the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy at the University of Hawaii in Hilo. But people using the stimulant in the outdoor heat “can’t take off the meth jacket.”

These fatalities are particularly prevalent in the Southwest, where meth overdoses overall have risen since the mid-2000s.

In Maricopa County, America’s hottest major metropolitan area, substances including street drugs, alcohol and certain prescription medicines for psychiatric conditions and blood pressure control were involved in about two-thirds, or 419 of the 645 heat-related deaths documented last year. Meth was detected in about three-quarters of these drug cases and was often the primary cause of death, public health data show. Fentanyl was found in just under half of them.

In Pima County, home to Tucson, Arizona’s second most populous city, methamphetamine was a factor in one-quarter of the 84 heat-related deaths reported so far this year, the medical examiner’s office said.

In metro Las Vegas, heat was a factor in 294 deaths investigated last year by the Clark County coroner’s office, and 39% involved illicit and prescription drugs and alcohol. Of those, meth was detected in three-fourths.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration notes in its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment that 31% of all drug-related deaths in the U.S. are now caused by stimulants that speed up the nervous system, primarily meth. More than 17,000 people in the U.S. died from fatal overdoses and poisonings related to stimulants in the first half of 2023, according to preliminary CDC data.

Although overdoses have been more associated with opiates like fentanyl, medical professionals say overdosing on meth is possible if a large amount is ingested. Higher blood pressure and a quickened heart rate can then provoke a heart attack or stroke.

“All of your normal physiological ways of coping with heat are compromised with the use of methamphetamines,” said Dr. Aneesh Narang, an emergency medicine physician at Banner University Medical Center in downtown Phoenix.

Narang, who sits on a board that reviews overdose fatalities, said the “vast majority” of the heat stroke patients seen in his hospital’s emergency department this summer had used street drugs, most commonly methamphetamine.

Because of its proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border, Phoenix is considered a “source city” where large amounts of newly smuggled meth are stored and packaged into relatively tiny doses for distribution, said Det. Matt Shay, a narcotics investigator with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

“It’s an amazing amount that comes in constantly every day,” Shay said. “It’s also very cheap.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized about 74,000 kilograms of meth at the U.S.-Mexico border this last fiscal year ending September 30, up from the 63,500 kilograms captured in the previous 12 months.

And sellers often target homeless people, Shay said.

“It’s a customer base that is easy to find and exploit,” Shay said. “If you’re an enterprising young drug dealer, all you need is some type of transportation and you just cruise around and they swarm your car.”

Jason Elliott, a 51-year-old unemployed machinist, said he’s heard of several heat-related deaths involving meth during his three years on the streets in Phoenix.

“It’s pretty typical,” said Elliot, noting that stimulants enable people to stay awake and alert to prevent being robbed in shelters or outdoors. “What else can you do? You have stuff; you go to sleep, you wake up and your stuff is gone.”

Dr. Nick Staab, assistant medical director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said brochures were printed this summer and distributed in cooling centers to spread the word about the risk of using stimulants and certain prescription medicines in extreme heat.

But it’s unclear how many are being reached. People who use drugs may not be welcomed at some cooling centers. A better solution, according to Stacey Cope, capacity building and education director for the harm reduction nonprofit Sonoran Prevention Works, is to lower barriers to entry so that people most at risk “are not expected to be absent from drugs, or they’re not expected to leave during the hottest part of the day.”
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Pregnant Philippine women arrested in Cambodia for surrogacy could be prosecuted

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Thirteen pregnant Philippine women accused of illegally acting as surrogate mothers in Cambodia after being recruited online could face prison terms after giving birth, a senior Interior Ministry official said Saturday. 

Interior Ministry Secretary of State Chou Bun Eng, who leads the country’s fight against human trafficking and sexual exploitation, said police found 24 foreign women, 20 Philippine and four Vietnamese, when they raided a villa in Kandal province, near the capital of Phnom Penh, on September 23. 

Thirteen of the Philippine women were found to be pregnant and were charged in court on October 1 under a provision in the law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, she said. 

The law was updated in 2016 to ban commercial surrogacy after Cambodia became a popular destination for foreigners seeking women to give birth to their children. 

Developing countries have been popular for surrogacy because costs are much lower than in countries such as the United States and Australia, where surrogate services could cost around $150,000. 

The surrogacy business boomed in Cambodia after it was put under tight restrictions in neighboring Thailand, as well as in India and Nepal. 

In July 2017, a Cambodian court sentenced an Australian woman and two Cambodian associates to 1 1/2 years in prison for providing commercial surrogacy services. 

The new case is unusual because surrogates normally are employed in their own countries, not transported elsewhere. 

Cambodia already has a bad reputation for human trafficking, especially in connection with online scams in which foreigners recruited for work under false pretenses are kept in conditions of virtual slavery and help perpetrate criminal fraud online against targets in many countries. 

Details of the new surrogacy case remain murky, and officials have not made clear whether the women were arrested or whether anyone involved in organizing the scheme has been identified. 

Chou Bun Eng told The Associated Press that the business that recruited the surrogates was based in Thailand, and their food and accommodation in Cambodia were arranged from there. She said the authorities had not yet identified the business. 

She said the seven Philippine women and four Vietnamese women who were caught in the raid but who were not pregnant would be deported soon. 

The 13 pregnant women have been placed under care at a hospital in Phnom Penh, said Chou Bun Eng. She added that after they give birth, they could be prosecuted on charges that could land them in prison for two to five years. 

She said that Cambodia considered the women not to have been victimized but rather offenders who conspired with the organizers to act as surrogates and then sell the babies for money. Her assertion could not be verified, as the women could not be contacted, and it is not known if they have lawyers. 

The Philippine Embassy in Cambodia, in response to a local news account of the affair, issued a statement Wednesday confirming most of the details related to what it called the “rescue of 20 Filipino women.” 

“The Philippine Embassy ensured that all 20 Filipinos were interviewed in the presence of an Embassy representative and an interpreter in every step of the investigation process,” it said. 
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US aviation authority approves SpaceX Starship 5 flight for Sunday

washington — The Federal Aviation Administration approved a license Saturday for the launch of SpaceX’s Starship 5 on Sunday after earlier saying it did not expect to make a decision until late November.

Reuters first reported this week the faster than expected timetable after the FAA in September had suggested a much longer review. 

SpaceX is targeting Sunday for the launch and said a 30-minute launch window opens at 7 a.m. CT (1200 GMT) 

The FAA said Saturday that SpaceX had “met all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements for the suborbital test flight” for the fifth test of the Starship and has also approved the Starship 6 mission profile. 

The Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket are fully reusable systems designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon and beyond. 

The fifth test flight of the Starship/Super Heavy from Boca Chica, Texas, includes a return to the launch site of the Super Heavy booster rocket for a catch attempt by the launch tower, and a water landing of the Starship vehicle in the Indian Ocean west of Australia. 

The FAA said if SpaceX chooses an uncontrolled entry “it must communicate that decision to the FAA prior to launch, the loss of the Starship vehicle will be considered a planned event, and a mishap investigation will not be required.” 

On Friday, the FAA approved the return to flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle after it reviewed and accepted the SpaceX-led investigation findings and corrective actions for the mishap that occurred September 28. 

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has harshly criticized the FAA, including for proposing a $633,000 fine against SpaceX over launch issues and for the delay in approving the license for Starship 5, which the company said has been ready to launch since August. Musk has called for the resignation of FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker and threatened to sue the agency. 
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Election stress disorder is a real thing ahead of November voting

The American Psychiatric Association says that as elections approach, stress levels go up, regardless of political affiliation. The constant stream of news, stressful arguments and concerns about the country’s future all put pressure on mental well-being. Some psychologists call it election stress disorder. Maxim Adams has the story. Videographer: Andre Sergunin
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Cameroon urges awareness of breast cancer’s early stages

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Humanitarian groups in Cameroon are visiting homes and villages in remote areas this week to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month, advising women to go to hospitals for free screening and treatment.

About 60% of the more than 7,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in Cameroon this year have died because they were late in getting to hospitals, officials say. Breast cancer deaths are highly unreported because families abandon women to die at home.

Thirty-year-old history student Emilie Nadege Atangana told a group of women and girls at the University of Yaounde 1 campus how she was psychologically and emotionally traumatized after receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer in 2020.

Most of her relatives, friends and fellow students said she would not live long and abandoned her, she said.

Atangana said she found hope when medical staff members of the Yaounde Gynaecology, Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital told her that 90% of early-stage breast cancers are curable.

Cameroonian government officials and humanitarian groups say cancer survivors such as Atangana have been sent to towns and villages as part of activities marking “Pink Month.”

The World Health Organization designates October as Pink Month, a time to teach people about cancer, including early identification and signs and symptoms.

Forty-two-year-old Mesode Ngwese Agbaw, a cancer survivor, said people should stop hiding cancer patients at home to die because of the false belief that cancer cannot be treated.

“You don’t need to hide alone with your pain,” she said. “Share it with somebody, and the people will be ready to help you. I was operated on and after the operation, I have been following treatment and till now, I am fine.”

This year’s theme for the month in Cameroon is “No one Should Face Breast Cancer Alone and Yes, No One is Expected to Fight Breast Cancer Alone.”

Ruth Amin, a public health specialist and project manager at the Yaounde-based Lifafa Research Foundation, said that sending people suspected of having breast cancer to hospitals would prevent many of the deaths caused because the women were abandoned or got to a hospital too late.

“We are calling on the men to support their spouses, to support their mothers, to support their sisters in raising awareness, in carrying them to the hospitals to be clinically examined by professionals,” she said.

“Women should speak up,” she said. “Women should go toward the health facilities to get examined because the earlier they are being diagnosed, the easier it would be for them to be treated.”

Amin spoke to VOA via a messaging app from Buea, a southern commercial city where humanitarian caravans were educating residents about breast cancer on Saturday.

Cameroon says it has equipped all hospitals with qualified medical staff members and equipment to diagnose breast cancer.

The World Health Organization estimates that Cameroon has about 20,000 new cancer cases, including breast cancers, each year, with 65% related deaths.
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Animal lovers try to counter the deadly risk of Chicago high-rises for migrating birds

chicago — With a neon-green net in hand, Annette Prince briskly walks a downtown Chicago plaza at dawn, looking left and right as she goes.

It’s not long before she spots a tiny yellow bird sitting on the concrete. It doesn’t fly away, and she quickly nets the bird, gently places it inside a paper bag and labels the bag with the date, time and place.

“This is a Nashville warbler,” said Prince, director of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, noting that the bird must have flown into a glass window pane of an adjacent building. “He must only weigh about two pennies. He’s squinting his eyes because his head hurts.”

For rescue groups like the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, this scene plays out hundreds of times each spring and fall after migrating birds fly into homes, small buildings and sometimes Chicago’s skyscrapers and other hulking buildings.

A stark sign of the risks came last fall, when 1,000 migrating birds died on a single night after flying into the glass exterior of the city’s lakefront convention center, McCormick Place. This fall, the facility unveiled new bird-safe window film on one of its glass buildings along the Lake Michigan shore.

The $1.2 million project installed tiny dots on the exterior of the Lakeside Center building, adorning enough glass to cover two football fields.

Doug Stotz, senior conservation ecologist at the nearby Field Museum, hopes the project will be a success. He estimated that just 20 birds have died after flying into the convention’s center’s glass exterior so far this fall, a hopeful sign.

“We don’t have a lot of data since this just started this fall, but at this point, it looks like it’s made a huge difference,” Stotz said.

But for the birds that collide with Chicago buildings, there is a network of people waiting to help. They also are aiming to educate officials and find solutions to improve building design, lighting and other factors in the massive number of bird collision deaths in Chicago and worldwide.

Prince said she and other volunteers walk the streets downtown to document what they can of the birds that are killed and injured.

“We have the combination of the millions of birds that pass through this area because it’s a major migratory path through the United States, on top of the amount of artificial lighting that we put out at night, which is when these birds are traveling and getting confused and attracted to the amount of glass,” Prince said.

Dead birds are often saved for scientific use, including by Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. Rescued birds are taken to local wildlife rehabilitation centers to recover, such as the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center in suburban Illinois.

On a recent morning, veterinarian Darcy Stephenson at DuPage gave a yellow-bellied sapsucker anesthetic gas before taping its wings open for an X-ray. The bird arrived with a note from a rescue group: “Window collision.”

Examining the results, she found the bird had a broken ulna — a bone in the wing.

The center takes in about 10,000 species of animals annually and 65% of them are avian. Many are victims of window collisions and during peak migration in the fall, several hundred birds can show up in one day.

“The large chunk of these birds do actually survive and make it back into the wild once we’re able to treat them,” said Sarah Reich, head veterinarian at DuPage. “Fractures heal very, very quickly in these guys for shoulder fractures. Soft tissue trauma generally heals pretty well. The challenging cases are going to be the ones where the trauma isn’t as apparent.”

Injured birds go through a process of flight testing, then get a full physical exam by the veterinary staff and are rehabilitated before being set free.

“It’s exciting to be able to get these guys back out into the wild, especially some of those cases that we’re kind of cautiously optimistic about or maybe have an injury that we’ve never treated successfully before,” Reich said, adding that these are the cases “clinic staff get really, really excited about.”
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