Authorities in Afghanistan said Sunday that national security forces were locked in fierce battles with Taliban insurgents to keep them from overrunning an eastern provincial center as U.S.-led foreign troops continue to withdraw from the country.
The Taliban came close to , the capital of the embattled Laghman province, after capturing key security outposts around the city earlier in the day. The insurgents have made important territorial gains in the province recently, seizing control of the Dawlat Shah district on Friday, which paved the way for assault on Mehtarlam.
The Defense Ministry confirmed late Sunday that the Afghan army chief Mohammad Yasin Zia, who is also the country’s acting defense minister, had arrived in Laghman along with other top security officials and is leading the counter-Taliban operations.General Chief of Armed Forces, @GenYasinZia is in Laghman province now and leading operations against terrorists. Laghman will be cleared off from terrorists. pic.twitter.com/lEP2Nt2Hi9— Fawad Aman (@FawadAman2) May 23, 2021Residents and security sources reported heavy fighting raging near the main provincial prison and in parts of Mehtarlam. Both sides reportedly suffered casualties, but no details were available immediately.
Afghan media reported that intense fighting was also taking place in several districts of northern Baghlan province and around its capital, Pul-e-Khumri.
Violence has escalated across many Afghan provinces after the United States along with NATO allies began withdrawing their last remaining troops from the country on May 1.
The Taliban has since made battlefield advances, threatened several provincial capitals, and captured four districts, with two of them in a province 70 kilometers from the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Hundreds of combatants on both sides and Afghan civilians have reportedly been killed since the start of this month.
The Afghan government and the Taliban observed a temporary cease-fire during the three-day Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr earlier this month before resuming battlefield attacks.
Around 2,500 American and roughly 7,000 allied troops are set to withdraw from the country by September 11 under a directive U.S. President Joe Biden announced last month to close nearly 20 years of the Afghan war, America’s longest.
The military drawdown stems from a landmark deal Washington signed with the Taliban in February 2020. The insurgents declared a cease-fire with international forces after negotiating the deal, but they have ignored persistent U.S. calls for easing battlefield attacks.
U.S. officials have dismissed concerns that Afghan forces will not be able to resist the Taliban for long once all international forces leave the country and that the insurgents will regain power in Kabul.
The Afghan army and its air force have heavily relied on the U.S. for maintenance, training and combat air support in battles against the Taliban.
Washington has intensified diplomatic efforts to try to persuade the Afghan warring sides to urgently negotiate a peace arrangement that would end the country’s long war.
But the so-called intra-Afghan negotiations, which started in Qatar last September, have been slow and failed to deliver any breakthroughs. Both sides accuse each other of using delaying tactics to obstruct the peace process.
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Month: May 2021
Pandemic Treaty, Vaccine Equity Seen Topping UN Health Meeting Agenda
Ending the COVID-19 pandemic and preventing future pandemics is expected to dominate discussions during this week’s 74th World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization. The session will also address other pressing global health issues.The 2021 World Health Assembly will be held virtually, from tomorrow (May 24) through June 1. This in and of itself is aimed at sending a strong message that it still is not safe for large groups of people to gather physically. More than 2,750 people so far have registered to attend the virtual event. WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic and a global International public health emergency on March 11, 2020. Since then, COVID-19 cases have increased fortyfold to 162 million, including more than 3.3 million deaths. Discussions on a so-called pandemic treaty to better prepare for and prevent global infectious outbreaks is expected to take center stage at the global assembly. WHO chief legal officer Steven Solomon says drafting a treaty would be a long process. He says delegates have not decided whether negotiations on a treaty should be started. He says a legally binding pandemic convention would cover both substantive issues, which include equitable sharing of materials such as vaccines and diagnoses, and structural ones. “Structurally, the elements that often come up are issues of enforcement mechanisms, compliance mechanisms, monitoring mechanisms, incentives and disincentives. There are clearly issues of governance and how that would work under treaty institutions, and financing,” he said.The assembly will face the largest agenda ever over the coming eight days, with more than 72 global health issues under examination. Questions of vaccine equity will be central to these discussions — wealthy countries are making great strides in vaccinating their populations and returning to a semblance of normal life but poor countries are not. WHO warns vaccine inequity threatens ending the pandemic and global recovery from the pandemic. As in previous years, the issue of granting Taiwan observer status at the WHA will come up for debate at the opening session. China claims Taiwan as one of its provinces and has blocked Taiwan’s participation since 2016. Under Beijing’s “One China Policy,” the Chinese Communist Party asserts sovereignty over Taiwan. This year, 13 WHO member states, including the United States, have called for Taiwan to be allowed to take part in proceedings. They say Taiwan has great insight on tackling the pandemic and would have a lot to contribute. Other significant issues to be addressed include the eradication of polio, speeding action on antimicrobial resistance, and considering WHO’s global strategy on health, environment and climate change.
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CDC Investigates Reports of Heart Inflammation After COVID Inoculations
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is investigating reports that young people have developed myocarditis, or heart inflammation, after being inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine.The agency’s vaccine safety group said in a recent report that there have been “relatively few reports“ of the heart inflammation, but most tended to occur in male teenagers and young adults, usually after a second vaccine dose.“Most cases appear to be mild, and follow-up of cases is ongoing,” the safety group said.In another development, two doses of the COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca are about as effective against the coronavirus variant first found in India as they are against the variant first found in England, according to a study by Public Health England announced Saturday.The study found that Pfizer’s vaccine is 88% effective against B.1.617.2, or the Indian variant, and 93% effective against B.1.1.7, now known as the Kent variant. AstraZeneca’s vaccine is 60% against the Indian variant and 66% effective against the English variant.In both cases, the effectiveness was measured two weeks after the second shot and against symptomatic disease. The Kent variant is the dominant strain in England but health officials fear the Indian strain may outpace it.In England, health authorities have stretched the time between the two doses to as much as three months in order to get more people vaccinated and stop the coronavirus in its tracks. Against the variants, though, two shots are better than one, so for clinically vulnerable people or those older than 50, the period between the two shots will be cut to eight weeks.“I’m increasingly confident that we’re on track for the road map [to reopening], because this data shows that the vaccine, after two doses, works just as effectively [against the Indian variant],” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told broadcasters.Kaiser Health News reported that during the pandemic many older people have become “physically and cognitively debilitated and less able to take care of themselves.”While no large-scale study has recorded the extent of the problem, Kaiser said doctors and physical therapists are reporting that seniors are losing muscle mass and strength, resulting in problems with mobility and balance.“What I’d love to see is a national effort, maybe by the CDC, focused on helping older people overcome these kinds of impairments,” Linda Teodosio, a physical therapist and division rehabilitation manager in Bayada Home Healthcare’s Towson, Maryland, office told Kaiser.India casesOn Sunday, India’s health ministry reported 240,842 new COVID infections and nearly 4,000 deaths from the virus in the previous 24-hour period.The Indian government said Saturday that while COVID-19 infections remain high as they spread to overburdened rural areas, the infections are stabilizing in some parts of the country.As India struggles with a faltering health care system and vaccine shortages, experts have warned of a third wave of infections in coming months.Johns Hopkins University said early Sunday there are 166.7 million global COVID-19 infections. The U.S. has 33.1 million, followed by India with 26 million. Brazil is ranked third with 16 million.
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Increasing Food Security in Africa
PCUSA guest host Kim Lewis speaks with Atsuko Toda, acting vice-president of the African Development Bank’s Agriculture, Human and Social Capital about the latest breakthroughs to boost food production and ensure food security in Africa. Toda also shares highlights from the recent high level virtual “Leaders’ Dialogue” presented by the African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD.
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In Fast-Aging China, Elder Care Costs Loom Large
China’s latest census shows that the country’s population is quickly growing older, creating a policy challenge familiar to many governments: how to cover elder care costs while ensuring continued prosperity for everyone else.Over the past decade, China’s overall population grew at the slowest pace since the first modern census in 1953, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This came even though the one-child policy was abolished in 2016.In about 25 years, one-third of China’s population will be retirees, and their living and health care expenses will eat up a quarter of the country’s GDP, according to the NBS census report, which was released last week. But by 2035, the government-run basic pension system for corporate employees will likely be depleted, according to a 2019 Chinese Academy of Social Sciences report.China’s “increasing elderly population will reduce the supply of labor force and increase the burden on families’ elder care and the pressure on the supply of basic public services,” said Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS, at a May 11 press conference in Beijing marking the release of the census.”The aging of the population has further deepened, and in the coming period, (we will) continue to face pressure for the long-term balanced development of the population,” Ning said.”I think it’s a serious problem,” Mrs. Su, a retired teacher living in Beijing, told VOA Mandarin. “But to be honest, I couldn’t care less about our country’s family planning policies and what the government is going to do from now on. I only care about my retirement benefits and how I can enjoy my remaining years.” She asked to be identified by only one name to avoid attracting the attention of authorities.Africa bucks trendChina is not alone in facing this demographic tension.In many developing and developed nations, younger working people pay part of their income into pension plans, offsetting the costs of an aging population. As birthrates fall in the Americas, Europe and elsewhere in Asia, this construct is challenging governments. Only in Africa do demographers see population growth, at least over the next two decades.China’s current economy was built on lives spent in poorly paid manufacturing jobs which offered little to workers for their retirement. Male workers become eligible to retire at 60; female office workers, 55; and female blue-collar workers, 50. Officials set the ages in the 1950s, when China’s life expectancy was less than 45. As of 2019, life expectancy was 77.3 years nationwide, with city dwellers expected to keep going past 80 years.In China, families have traditionally been the caregivers and major source of financial support for older adults. According to a study published in the China Economic Journal in 2015, roughly 41% of Chinese 60 and over live with an adult child. Another 34% have an adult child living nearby.Yet that pattern is gradually changing. China enforced the one-child policy between 1979 and 2015, aiming to control population growth. This means that people born in the 1940s could have three or four children to care for them when they are old, while people born in the 1950s and 1960s usually have only one adult child. Mrs. Su, the retired teacher in Beijing, is from the latter group.Mr. Chen, a retired professor living in Beijing, said that the one-child policy is not the only thing that’s contributing to today’s demographic trend. He asked to be identified by only one name to avoid attracting the attention of authorities.”Modern medicine has prolonged our life expectancy, so it’s inevitable for China to have an aging population,” he said. “In addition, just as many young people in the developed countries, young people in China today don’t really want to have kids because of the high cost. So even with the policy change, not a lot of young people choose to have a second kid since the cost of living is so high.”Official census data for 2020 alone showed a fertility rate of 1.3 children per couple.Chinese policymakers “have been studying — and adjusting for — the effects of demographic change on China’s economy for more than three decades,” wrote Lauren Johnston, a research associate at SOAS China Institute, in a 2019 post for the World Economic Forum.Effect on economic growthOfficials understood that an aging population coupled with a low birthrate could slow economic growth — and undercut the ruling Communist Party’s promises of continued prosperity. In 2018, an editorial in the official People’s Daily newspaper said, “To put it bluntly, the birth of a baby is not only a matter of the family itself, but also a state affair.”In 2020, the Chinese government created a strategy for responding to its aging population and added it to its next five-year plan. China would increase the retirement age, develop the elder care sector and improve the quality of service for senior citizens, according to the official China Daily newspaper, which did not report any details of how the plan would be carried out.According to the latest official census data, those 60 and over now make up 18.7% of the population, or 264 million people. In 2010, the over-60 cohort was 13.3% of a total population of 1.34 billion, or 178 million people. Those 65 and above accounted for 13.5% of the population in 2020. In 2010, 8.9% were 65 or older, compared with just under 7% in 2000 and 5.6% in 1990. China uses age 60 as the marker for being elderly, while the United Nations uses 65 years.The U.N. and the World Health Organization define an “aging society” as having at least 7% of the total population over 65 years old. When the percentage reaches 14%, it is called an “aged society.” A “super-aged society” is one in which more than 20% of the population is over 65. China became an “aging society” in 2002, according to a study published in BioScience Trends in 2019.According to a 2014 study by consulting firm Deloitte, developed countries generally do not become “aging societies” until their average gross domestic product reaches $10,000 per person.”By contrast, China became an aging society in 2011 when its average GDP was only $5,416 per person. Today, the elderly in China depend on pensions, family care, and income from work,” the report said, adding that the shortage in China’s pension fund will reach $1.4 trillion in 2050.China’s state media Xinhua News Agency reported in 2019 that from 2005 to 2016, the average monthly pension payment for enterprise retirees increased to about $350 (2,400 RMB) from just under $100 (640 RMB).Nursing home shortageAs the demand for elder care increases in China, so does the shortage of affordable assisted living facilities and nursing homes. According to The Rooth Law Firm of Chicago, in 2014, less than 3% of China’s aged population could find accommodation in nursing homes.In cities such as Shanghai or Beijing, the cost of a nursing home ranges from $310 (2,000 RMB) per month to $3,100 (20,000 RMB per month), with the requirement of purchasing at least a one-year lease.In Shanghai, according to China Daily, only 3% of the city’s elderly population is cared for in nursing homes. The majority — 90% — remain at home, and they or their families hire a caregiver to provide some form of assistance at a monthly cost of $450-$700 (3,000-4,500 RMB).”Obtaining a spot in a nursing home has become incredibly competitive,” the law firm said, “The top social welfare home in Beijing has a waiting list of more than 10,000 applicants, and only approximately 1,100 beds in the facility, with only about 12 spots opening up annually.”Mrs. Wang, a retired doctor, said she has seen numerous cases of elderly adults failing to get a bed in nursing homes. She asked to be identified by only one name to avoid attracting the attention of authorities.”If you want to get into a private nursing home, you’ve got to have money first,” she told VOA Mandarin. “On top of that, you have to prepare gifts for the staff so you can receive good care.”
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China’s ‘Father of Hybrid Rice’ Dies; His Research Helped Feed World
Yuan Longping, a Chinese scientist who developed higher-yield rice varieties that helped feed people around the world, died Saturday at a hospital in the southern city of Changsha, the Xinhua News agency reported. He was 91.Yuan spent his life researching rice and was a household name in China, known by the nickname “Father of Hybrid Rice.” Worldwide, a fifth of all rice now comes from species created by hybrid rice following Yuan’s breakthrough discoveries, according to the website of the World Food Prize, which he won in 2004.On Saturday afternoon, large crowds honored the scientist by marching past the hospital in Hunan province where he died, local media reported, calling out phrases such as: “Grandpa Ye, have a good journey!”In the 1970s, Yuan achieved the breakthroughs that would make him famous. He developed a hybrid strain of rice that recorded an annual yield 20% higher than existing varieties — meaning it could feed an extra 70 million people a year, according to Xinhua.His work helped transform China from “food deficiency to food security” within three decades, according to the World Food Prize, which was created by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognize scientists and others who have improved the quality and availability of food.Yuan and his team worked with dozens of countries around the world to address issues of food security as well as malnutrition.In his later years, Yuan did not stop researching. In 2017, working with a Hunan agricultural school, he helped create a strain of low-cadmium indica rice for areas suffering from heavy metal pollution, reducing the amount of cadmium in rice by more than 90%.
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Virgin Galactic Shuttle’s First Rocket-powered Flight Reaches Edge of Space
Virgin Galactic on Saturday made its first rocket-powered flight from New Mexico to the fringe of space in a manned shuttle, as the company forges toward offering tourist flights to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.High above the desert in a cloudless sky, VSS Unity ignited its rocket to hurtle the ship and two pilots toward space. A live feed by NASASpaceFlight.com showed the ship accelerating upward and confirmed a landing later via radar.Virgin Galactic announced that the shuttle achieved a speed equal to three times the speed of sound and an altitude of just more than 89 kilometers (55 miles) above sea level before making its gliding return through the atmosphere.British billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson said the flight and landing brought the roughly 15-year-old venture tantalizingly close to commercial flights for tourists. Virgin Galactic said those flights could begin next year.’They all worked'”Today was just an incredible step in the right direction,” Branson told The Associated Press shortly after the flight landing. “It tested a lot of new systems that the teams have been building and they all worked.”Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said at least two more undated test flights lie ahead — the next with four mission specialist passengers in the cabin. Pending trials also include a flight that will take Branson to the edge of space.”The flight today was elegant, beautiful,” Colglazier said. “We’re going to analyze all the data that we gather on these flights, but watching from the ground and speaking with our pilots, it was magnificent. So now it’s time for us to do this again.”Virgin Galactic said the flight provided an assessment of upgrades to a horizontal stabilizer, other flight controls and a suite of cabin cameras designed to provide live images of flight to people on the ground. The shuttle also carried a scientific payload in cooperation with NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program.Preparations for the latest flight included a maintenance review of the special carrier plane that flies the six-passenger spacecraft to a high altitude, where it is released so it can fire its rocket motor and make the final push to space.Several delaysThe first powered test of the rocket ship in New Mexico from Spaceport America was delayed repeatedly before Saturday’s launch. In December 2020, computer trouble caused by electromagnetic interference prevented the spaceship’s rocket from firing properly. Instead of soaring toward space, the ship and its two pilots were forced to make an immediate landing.While Virgin Galactic’s stock price ticked up this week with the announcement of the latest test being scheduled for Saturday, it wasn’t enough to overcome the losses seen since a peak in February. Some analysts have cautioned that it could be a while before the company sees profits as the exact start of commercial operations is still up in the air.Virgin Galactic is one of a few companies looking to cash in on customers with an interest in space.Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch a billionaire and his sweepstakes winners in September. That should be followed in January 2022 by a flight by three businessmen to the International Space Station.Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched a new capsule in January as part of testing as it aims to get its program for tourists, scientists and professional astronauts off the ground. It’s planning for liftoff of its first crewed flight on July 20, the date of the Apollo 11 moon landing.Virgin Galactic has reached space twice before. The first time was from California in December 2018.New Mexico taxpayers have invested more than $200 million in the Spaceport America hangar and launch facility, near Truth or Consequences, after Branson and then-Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat, pitched the plan for the facility, with Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant.Richardson watched Saturday’s flight from the ground below and later thanked residents of local counties that committed early on to a sales tax increase to support the venture.
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Ransomware Moves from ‘Economic Nuisance’ to National Security Threat
The recent cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline, the operator of the largest petroleum pipeline in the U.S., shows how internet criminals are increasingly targeting companies and organizations for ransom in what officials and experts term a growing national security threat.These hackers penetrate victims’ computer systems with a form of malware that encrypts the files, then they demand payments to release the data. In 2013, a ransomware attack typically targeted a person’s desktop or laptop, with users paying $100 to $150 in ransom to regain access to their files, according to Michael Daniel, president and CEO of Cyber Threat Alliance.“It was a fairly minimal affair,” said Daniel, who served as cybersecurity coordinator on the National Security Council under U.S. President Barack Obama, at the RSA Cybersecurity Conference this week.In recent years, ransomware has become a big criminal enterprise. Last year, victim organizations in North America and Europe paid an average of more than $312,000 in ransom, up from $115,000 in 2019, according to a recent report by the cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks. The highest ransom paid doubled to $10 million last year while the highest ransom demand grew to $30 million, according to Palo Alto Networks.“Those are some very significant amounts of money,” Daniel said. “And it’s not just individuals being targeted but things like school systems.”Last year, some of the largest school districts in the U.S., including Clark County Public Schools in Nevada, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and Baltimore County Public Schools in Maryland, FILE – In this Sept. 12, 2019, photo, County Sheriff Janis Mangum stands in a control room at the county jail in Jefferson, Ga. A ransomware attack in March took down the office’s computer system.Colonial’s payment wasn’t the largest ransom paid by a single organization. Last year, Garmin, the maker of the popular fitness tracker, reportedly FILE – In this Aug. 22, 2019, file photo, signs on a bank of computers tell visitors that the machines are not working at the public library in Wilmer, Texas. Twenty-two local governments in Texas were hit by ransomeware in August 2019.Last month, the U.S. Justice Department created a task force to develop strategies to combat ransomware.“This is something we’re acutely focused on,” Monaco said.In a report to the Biden administration last month, an industry-backed task force called for a more aggressive response to ransomware.“It will take nothing less than our total collective effort to mitigate the ransomware scourge,” the task force wrote.In a typical ransomware attack, hackers lock a user’s or company’s data, offering keys to unlock the files in exchange for a ransom.But over the past year, hackers have adopted a new extortion tactic. Instead of simply encrypting a user’s files for extortion, cyber actors “exfiltrate” data, threatening to leak or destroy it unless a ransom is paid.Using dedicated leak sites, the hackers then release the data slowly in an effort “to increase pressure on the victim organization to pay the extortion, rather than posting all of the exfiltrated data at once.”In March, cybercriminals used this method when they encrypted a large Florida public school district’s servers and stole more than 1 terabyte of sensitive data, demanding $40 million in return.“If this data is published you will be subject to huge court and government fines,” the Conti cybercrime gang warned a Broward County Public Schools official.The district refused to pay.Cybersecurity experts have a term for this tactic: double extortion. The method gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic as cyber criminals used it to extort hospitals and other critical service providers.“They’re looking to increase the cost to the victim,” Meyers said at the RSA conference.Recent attacks show cyber criminals are upping their game. In October, hackers struck Finnish psychotherapy service Vastaamo, stealing the data of 400 employees and about 40,000 patients. The hackers not only demanded a ransom from Vastaamo but also smaller payments from individual patients.This was the first notable case of a disturbing new trend in ransomware attacks, according to researchers at Check Point.“It seems that even when riding the wave of success, threat groups are in constant quest for more innovative and more fruitful business models,” the researchers wrote.
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Biden Announces US-South Korea Vaccine Partnership
COVID-19, climate change and cooperation in high-tech industries were the focus of a summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House Friday. While the leaders also discussed North Korea, prospects for a breakthrough on denuclearization appear dim. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Cicadas Blanket Parts of US
Billions, perhaps even trillions, of cicadas are emerging from the soil over a six-week period in more than a dozen U.S. states. The Washington region, including Northern Virginia, is a hot spot for the plentiful but short-lived thumb-sized insect that some find fascinating and others unnerving.Entomologist Floyd Shockley searched a wooded area in Alexandria, Virginia, for the harmless insects, which slowly climb out of the ground every 17 years from under the deciduous trees on which they feed.An adult cicada climbs up a bush at a forested park in Alexandria, Virginia. Scientists say billions, perhaps even trillions of the insects, may emerge during the next several weeks. (Deborah Block/VOA)”There’s a couple of adults over here,” Shockley said as he gently picked up a black creature with translucent wings and prominent red eyes. Shockley is the collections manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington. Today, he is collecting specimens for research.More than 3,000 kinds of cicadas can be found worldwide. While many appear annually, some U.S. varieties spring from the ground either every 17 or 13 years. The cicadas currently blanketing the Washington area are known as Brood X (10).”It’s an amazing phenomenon,” Shockley said.Two-year-old Robert Cody in Alexandria can’t get enough of the cicadas, even when they fly and land on him. “The cicadas are my friends. They tickle my ears, and their eyes look like fire,” he said.Some people are wary of the bugs, like Jeremy Buchanan in Herndon, Virginia, who likes to take a run after work. “When I run by some trees, they sometimes drop on my head,” he said.”There’s no reason for people to be afraid of them,” explained Gene Kritsky, a cicada expert at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio. “They don’t bite or sting or spread diseases on crops.”Kritsky came up with the idea of a phone app and website called Cicada Safari that citizen scientists can use to post their cicada photos and the location where they were taken.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
A Brood X cicada tracker map on CicadaSafari.com shows locations in the US where the bugs are appearing after 17 years of being underground. (Courtesy Cicada Safari/Gene Kritsky, Mount St. Joseph University, Cincinnati, Ohio)Since the protein-rich cicadas aren’t poisonous, adventurous humans can eat them as well. A cookbook called Cicada-Licious includes recipes for cicada pizza, tacos and cookies.Brian Schwatken in Arlington, Virginia, fried some cicada nymphs with butter, garlic and onions. “They are tender, have kind of a nutty taste and are really good,” he said.The males court the females with a screaming high-pitched mating call that resembles the droning sound of a UFO in an old movie, Shockley said. A chorus of cicadas can be louder than the sounds near an airport when jets are landing, Kritsky added.The females don’t fall for just any male. He must win her over by showcasing his different tones and rhythms. If she’s interested in him, she clicks her wings, McKamey said.Adult cicadas die soon after mating and fertilize the soil.Brian Schwatken in Arlington, Virginia, fries cicadas with butter, garlic and onions. ‘They are tender and have a nutty taste,’ he said. (Courtesy Brian Schwatken)The females lay their eggs on small branches. After they hatch in about six weeks, tiny white nymphs fall from the trees and burrow into the soil, repeating the 17-year natural wonder all over again.Kritsky said it’s a “big mystery” how the cicadas time the 17-year cycle. Underground, they feed on the sap of deciduous tree roots, stopping during the winter and beginning again in the spring. It could be the insects detect the trees’ seasonal changes, Shockley said.
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Pfizer, BioNTech Pledge 2 Billion Vaccine Doses to Poor Nations
U.S. and German vaccine partners Pfizer and BioNTech on Friday pledged to deliver 2 billion doses of their vaccine to low- and middle-income nations as part of a global effort to close the vaccine gap between rich and poor nations.Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, speaking in Rome at the Global Health Summit, said the first billion doses of their vaccine will be delivered this year, and the second in 2022.U.S. pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Johnson & Johnson also pledged donations of 200,000 and 100,000 doses respectively.Tentative reopeningsIn large parts of Germany on Friday, beer gardens, cafes and restaurants opened outdoor tables for the first time in months. Customers had to show a negative COVID-19 test or a vaccination certificate to gain entry. Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to behave responsibly as the country begins to reopen.Also Friday, International Olympic Committee Vice President John Coates said the games will open in just more than two months in Tokyo even if the city is under a state of emergency because of the pandemic.Recent opinion polls indicate that most Japanese oppose hosting the Olympics, which are scheduled to begin July 23.Coates said the polls might improve once more Japanese receive coronavirus vaccinations. Japanese officials have pledged to vaccinate the country’s elderly population by the end of July.The government in Lebanon said Friday it will allow cinemas and theaters to reopen at reduced capacity for the first time in more than a year. The development comes a day after the country recorded its lowest one-day death rate in months, with only seven fatalities.Swipe rightIn the United States, the White House COVID-19 response team said Friday that major online dating sites are pitching in to encourage more people in the United States to get vaccinated.At the response team’s Friday briefing, Andy Slavitt, senior White House adviser, told reporters that major dating sites, including Bumble, Tinder, Hinge, Match and OkCupid, are offering incentives to members to get vaccinated, including badges to display on their profiles and access to premium features.U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky reported that as of Friday, more than 60% of all Americans older than 18 have received at least one shot, and 126.6 million Americans are fully vaccinated.She said that as of Thursday, the national daily average number of COVID-19 cases for the past week fell by almost 20% to the lowest daily average since June 13, 2020. Thursday was also the second day in a row the national daily average number of cases fell below 30,000.India and ArgentinaIndia’s health ministry reported 259,591 new COVID-19 cases Friday in the previous 24 hours. The South Asian nation also reported more than 4,000 deaths.The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center says India has 26 million of the world’s 165.5 million cases. Only the United States has more cases, with 33 million.Argentina will start a strict lockdown beginning Saturday and ending May 31.”We are seeing the highest numbers of cases and deaths. We must take this critical situation seriously and not naturalize so much tragedy,” President Alberto Fernández said Thursday in a televised speech. Johns Hopkins reports that Argentina has 3.4 million COVID cases.
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Nigerian Army Chief Dies in Air Force Plane Crash
Nigeria’s army chief, Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru, died in a plane crash Friday on an official visit to the northern state of Kaduna, which has had security challenges in recent months, the presidency said.The air force said in a statement that its plane crashed near the Kaduna airport and that it was investigating the cause.The presidency said that in addition to the army general, other military officers died in the crash.President Muhammadu Buhari, in a presidency statement, described the crash as a “mortal blow … at a time our armed forces are poised to end the security challenges facing the country.”The crash occurred three months after a small Nigerian air force passenger plane went down just outside the Abuja airport following what was said to be an engine failure, killing all seven people on board.Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has had a poor air safety record in the past, although it has improved in recent years.Buhari appointed Attahiru alongside other military chiefs in January after years of mounting criticism over spreading violence by Islamist insurgents and armed gangs.Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province, have waged a decadelong insurgency estimated to have displaced about 2 million people and killed more than 30,000. They want to create states based on their extreme interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
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Debate Over DC Statehood
More than 700,000 citizens living in the capital of the United States do not have full representation in Congress. Once a fringe issue, a bill for DC statehood recently passed the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives, but faces high hurdles in the Senate. Zack Smith, legal fellow in the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation and William Roberts, managing director for Democracy and Government Reform at the liberal Center for American Progress, spar over the constitutional, historical, ideological and political impediments to statehood for the District of Columbia.
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App Store Would Be ‘Toxic’ Mess Without Control, Apple CEO Says
Apple’s online marketplace would become a “toxic” mess if the iPhone maker were forced to allow third-party apps without reviewing them, chief executive Tim Cook said in testimony at a high-stakes trial challenging the company’s tight control of its platform.Cook, the last scheduled witness in the case brought by Fortnite maker Epic Games, delivered a strong defense of Apple’s procedures for reviewing and approving all the apps it offers for iPhone and iPad users.”We could no longer make the promise … of privacy, safety and security,” Cook said under questioning from Apple attorney Veronica Moye in federal court in California.Cook said Apple’s review process helps keep out malicious software and other problematic apps, helping create a safe place for consumers.Without this review, the online marketplace “would become a toxic kind of mess,” he said.”It would also be terrible for the developer, because the developer depends on the store being a safe and trusted place.”Cook’s testimony caps a high-profile trial which opened earlier this month in which Apple is accused of abusing a monopoly on its marketplace by creating a “walled garden” that squeezes app makers.’Not about money’Under cross-examination, Cook sparred with Epic lawyer Gary Bornstein about the profitability of the App Store.Cook disputed Epic’s contention that its profit margin on apps was some 80%, but the exact figure was not disclosed in court due to confidentiality.The Apple executive said the proprietary payments system challenged by Epic was about convenience for consumers, more than about profits.”We always put the user at the center of everything we do,” Cook said. “It has nothing to do with money.”During his testimony, Cook defended Apple’s policy of barring apps directing consumers to other platforms to purchase subscriptions or credits for games and other services.”It would be akin to Best Buy advertising that you can go across the street to the Apple Store to buy an iPhone,” he said.Epic, maker of the popular Fortnite video game, is seeking to force Apple to open up the marketplace to third parties seeking to circumvent Apple’s procedures and commissions of up to 30%.Apple booted Fortnite from its App Store last year after Epic dodged revenue sharing with the iPhone maker.Apple does not allow users of its popular devices to download apps from anywhere but its App Store, and developers have to use Apple’s payment system, which takes its cut.The Epic lawyer also questioned Cook about Apple’s arrangement with Google to be the default search engine for the iPhone maker’s Safari browser, another area scrutinized by antitrust officials.Cook acknowledged that Google pays for this position but added that Apple made the arrangement “in the best interest of the user.”The case before District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland comes with Apple feeling pressure from a wide range of app makers over its control of the App Store, which critics say represents monopolistic behavior.The European Union has formally accused Apple of unfairly squeezing out music streaming rivals based on a complaint brought by Sweden-based Spotify and others, which claim the California group sets rules that favor its own Apple Music.A recently formed Coalition for App Fairness, which includes both Spotify and Epic, have called for Apple to open up its marketplace, claiming its commission is a “tax” on rivals.Closing arguments in the bench trial in California were expected early next week, with the judge expected to rule within several weeks.
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Online Dating Sites Offer Incentives to Get Vaccinated, White House Says
The White House COVID-19 response team said Friday that major online dating sites are pitching in to encourage more people in the United States to get vaccinated.At the response team’s Friday briefing, Andy Slavitt, senior White House adviser, told reporters that major dating sites including Bumble, Tinder, Hinge, Match, OkCupid and others are offering incentives to members to get vaccinated, including badges to display on their profiles and access to premium features.Slavitt said that the pandemic has had an impact on people’s personal lives, as social distancing is not conducive to dating. He said that while people are eager to get back into dating, they want to be able to do it safely. And, he said, the dating site OkCupid reports that its members who can show they are fully vaccinated are 14% more likely to get dates.Slavitt said online dating sites have access to more than 50 million members, and the White House welcomes the incentives.Numbers droppingMeanwhile, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky reported that as of Thursday, the national daily average number of COVID-19 cases for the past week fell by almost 20% to the lowest daily average since June 13, 2020. Thursday was also the second day in a row the national daily average number of cases fell below 30,000.The good news about declining COVID-19 numbers around the country creates, ironically, a problem for officials trying to get more people vaccinated. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says the numbers may make people think that the progress made means the pandemic is over and that they should not bother getting vaccinated.Murthy said the only way for the good news to continue is for people to continue getting shots. Slavitt agreed, saying that surveys show that many people who are not yet vaccinated simply have not made it a priority.Prizes, scholarshipsHe said the White House welcomes efforts to encourage people to get vaccinated, such the ones the dating sites are making or, as several states are doing, entering all those who get vaccinated into lotteries with prizes worth thousands of dollars and, in Ohio, five prizes of $1 million and full-ride college scholarships.The CDC director reported that as of Friday, more than 60% of all Americans older than 18 have received at least one shot, and 126.6 million Americans are fully vaccinated.
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Refugees in Uganda Battle Suicidal Thoughts Amid COVID Pandemic
Twenty-two-year-old Meta Josten from the Democratic Republic of Congo was already living a hard life in one of Uganda’s refugee settlements. When the Ugandan government announced measures last year to control the spread of COVID-19, life got even harder.With little or no work available to locals, Josten, who previously survived on casual labor outside the settlement, had no income to supplement the aid his family was given.For Josten, who lived with five siblings and a jobless father, it was the hunger that almost got him to take his life.“We slept two days without eating food,” Josten said. “We were just surviving on just porridge. A bit of porridge which sustained us for the bit of moments. By then I was like if it’s like this, which means, it’s useless for me to stay in this world.”Mamuru Jackson, a refugee from South Sudan, said it was the lack of human interaction that pushed him to the brink. Having fled to Uganda with a younger brother, leaving his mother and father in South Sudan, Jackson wasn’t ready to assume the role of a parent.“Actually, that thought came into my mind,” Jackson said. “Because, I feel like I’m alone in this world. And also, the work at home. Because I was only elder person. The other brother of mine is still very young. I feel overwhelmed.”Male Ali, a psychologist and counselor, said both Josten’s and Jackson’s conditions were deepened due to the thought of not being cared for after separation from family. He outlines the underlying issues.“Parental abuse, poverty,” Ali said. “Those who have been stricken … Those who are traumatized. Especially those who faced violence. Exchange of bullets, now like for the refugee dwellers. And they really had a lot of post-traumatic stress that was now transitioning them to another stage of contemplating suicide.”Psychologists say the contemplation of suicide takes place in stages. These include losing hope, planning on how to end their lives by either using an overdose, poison, ropes or falling from high elevations — and finally accomplishing the act.It is at the second stage that psychologists say people at risk must get the attention they need to prevent them going through with suicide.Professor Eugene Kanyinda is a member of the Medical Research Council unit of Uganda.“Illnesses for example like depression in our African culture are not recognized as mental illnesses,” Kanyinda said. “So, I think there’s a need for people to understand that, I mean, if you see a relative for example, talking of suicide, don’t take it lightly. I mean, the person probably is already entertaining those ideas.”Some warning signs psychiatrists said one should look out for are withdrawal, crying, self-isolation, loss of interest in formerly pleasurable activities and lack of sleep.For survivors of suicide attempts, counsellors refer to them as heroes, to encourage them to think positively.
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South Korea Seeks Tax Cuts, Incentives for US Investment
South Korea requested from the United States incentives such as tax deductions and infrastructure construction to ease the U.S. investment of Korean firms, including leading chipmaker Samsung Electronics, its presidential office said Friday.South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in Washington for a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, told a gathering of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, her South Korean counterpart and CEOs of Qualcomm, Samsung and other companies that both countries can benefit by strengthening supply chain cooperation.Biden has advocated for support for the U.S. chip industry amid a global chip shortage that has hit automakers and other industries.He met with executives from major companies including Samsung in April and previously announced plans to invest $50 billion in semiconductor manufacturing and research.Samsung plans to invest $17 billion for a new plant for chip contract manufacturing in the United States, South Korea’s presidential Blue House added in a statement, confirming plans previously reported.In February, documents filed with Texas state officials showed that Samsung is considering Austin, Texas, as one of the sites for a new $17 billion chip plant that the South Korean firm said could create 1,800 jobs.There has been no new public documentation filed on the potential Texas chip plant application since March, the website for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts showed Friday.The U.S. Department of Commerce and the Korean industry ministry agreed Friday that for continuous chip industry cooperation, policy measures such as incentive support, joint research and development, cooperation on setting standards, and manpower training and exchange are needed, the Blue House said.Meanwhile, DuPont announced plans to establish an R&D center in South Korea to develop original chip technologies such as photoresist for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the Blue House said.
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Hackers Targeted Solarwinds Earlier than Previously Known
The hackers who carried out the massive SolarWinds intrusion were in the software company’s system as early as January 2019, months earlier than previously known, the company’s top official said Wednesday. SolarWinds had previously traced the origins of the hack to the fall of 2019 but now believes that hackers were doing “very early recon activities” as far back as the prior January, according to Sudhakar Ramakrishna, the company’s president and CEO. “The tradecraft that the attackers used was extremely well done and extremely sophisticated, where they did everything possible to hide in plain sight, so to speak,” Ramakrishna said during a discussion hosted by the RSA Conference. The SolarWinds hack, which was first reported last December and which U.S. officials have linked to the Russian government, is one in a series of major breaches that has prompted a major cybersecurity focus from the Biden administration. By seeding the company’s widely used software update with malicious code, hackers were able to penetrate the networks of multiple U.S. government agencies and private sector corporations in an apparent act of cyber-espionage. The U.S. imposed sanctions against Russia last month. Also Wednesday, Ramakrishna apologized for the way the company blamed an intern earlier this year during congressional testimony for poor password security protocols. That public statement, he said, was “not appropriate.” “I have long held a belief system and an attitude that you never flog failure. You want your employees, including interns, to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes and together we become better,” he added. “Obviously you don’t want to make the same mistake over and over again. You want to improve.”
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Glasses, Rings, Clothing That Monitor Your Health, Coming in Near Future
From earbuds that measure blood pressure to clothing that monitors your heart rate, the latest in health monitoring technology is being included in everyday items such as clothes, rings and glasses. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details.
Camera: Elizabeth Lee
Producer: Elizabeth Lee
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Irish Health Service Hit by ‘Very Sophisticated’ Ransomware Attack
Ireland’s health service operator shut down all its IT systems Friday to protect them from a ransomware attack, which crippled diagnostic services and disrupted COVID-19 testing.An international cybercrime gang was behind the attack, said Ossian Smyth, Ireland’s minister responsible for e-government. Smyth described it as possibly the most significant cybercrime attempt against the Irish state.Ireland’s COVID-19 vaccination program was not directly affected, but the attack was affecting IT systems serving all other local and national health provisions, the head of the Health Service Executive (HSE) said.Ransomware attacks typically involve the infection of computers with malicious software, often downloaded by clicking on seemingly innocuous links in emails or other website pop-ups. Users are left locked out of their systems, with the demand that a ransom be paid to restore computer functions.No payment”We are very clear we will not be paying any ransom,” Prime Minister Micheál Martin told reporters.The HSE’s chief described the attack as “very sophisticated.” Officials said the gang exploited a previously unknown vulnerability. Authorities shut down the system as a precaution after discovering the attack early Friday morning and will seek to gradually reopen the network, although that will take “some days,” Martin said.The attack was largely affecting information stored on central servers, and officials said they were not aware that any patient data had been compromised. Hospital equipment was not impacted, with the exception of radiography services.”More services are working than not today,” HSE Chief Operations Officer Anne O’Connor told national broadcaster RTE.”However, if this continues to Monday, we will be in a very serious situation and will be canceling many services. At this moment, we can’t access lists of people scheduled for appointments on Monday so we don’t even know who to cancel.”
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