Month: March 2021

Toyota, Nissan, Honda and other Japanese automakers scrambled on Monday to assess the production impact of a fire at a Renesas Electronics automotive chip plant that could aggravate a global semiconductor shortage. “We are gathering information and trying to see if this will affect us or not,” a Honda spokesperson said. Other car makers including Toyota and Nissan said they too were assessing the situation. The effect on car makers could spread beyond Japan to other auto companies in Europe and the United States because Renesas has around a 30% global share of micro control unit chips used in cars. Renesas said it will take at least a month to restart production on a 300 mm (millimeter) wafer line at its Naka plant in northeast Japan after an electrical fault caused machinery to catch fire on Friday and poured smoke into the sensitive clean room. Two-thirds of production at the affected line is automotive chips. The company also has a 200 mm (millimeter) wafer line at the Naka plant, which has not been affected. Concerns on the impact of the fire on production sent auto shares sliding in Tokyo on Monday, with the big three, Toyota, Honda and Nissan, down more than 2% by the midday break. Renesas shares tumbled as much as 5.5% and were down 3.9% midday. The benchmark Topix index shed 1.1%. “It will probably take more than a month to return to normal supply. Given that, even Toyota will face very unstable production in April and May,” said Seiji Sugiura, senior analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute. “I think Honda, Nissan and other makers will also be facing a difficult situation.” Semiconductors such as those made by Renesas are used extensively in cars, including to monitor engine performance, manage steering or automatic windows, and in sensors used in parking and entertainment systems.An employee wearing protective equipment pushes a cart at a semiconductor production facility for Renesas Electronics during a government organized tour for journalists in Beijing, May 14, 2020.Nissan and Honda had already been forced to scale back production plans because of the chip shortage resulting from burgeoning demand from consumer electronic makers and an unexpected rebound in car sales from a slump during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic. Toyota, which ensured parts suppliers had enough stocks of chips, has fared better so far. “It could take three months or even half a year for a full recovery,” said Akira Minamikawa, analyst at technology research company Omdia. “This has happened when chip stockpiles are low, so the impact is going to be significant,” he added. Government promises help  Renesas said it customers, which are mostly automotive parts makers rather than the car companies, will begin to see chip shipments fall in around a month. The company declined to say which machine caught fire because of the electrical fault or which company made it. The Japanese government promised help for the auto industry. “We will firmly try to help the Naka factory achieve swift restoration by helping it quickly acquire alternative manufacturing equipment,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a regular news conference on Monday. The latest incident at the Naka facility comes after an earthquake last month shut down production for three days and forced Renesas to further deplete chip stocks to keep up with orders. The plant was closed for three months in 2011 following the deadly earthquake that devastated Japan’s northeast coast. 
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Australian authorities are planning to evacuate thousands of more people Monday from Sydney’s flooded western suburbs, in the worst flooding the city has seen in 60 years with another day of drenching rain expected. Unrelenting rains over the past three days swelled rivers in Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales (NSW), causing widespread damage and triggering calls for mass evacuations. “Flooding is likely to be higher than any floods since Nov 1961,” NSW emergency services said in a tweet late Sunday. Authorities expect the wild weather to continue until Wednesday. The fast-moving flood waters detached houses, swept away vehicles and farm animals, and submerged roads, bridges, houses and farms, television and social media footage showed. Nearly 2,000 people have been evacuated from low lying areas, NSW emergency services said. Large parts of the country’s east coast will receive more heavy rains from Monday thanks to the combination of a tropical low over northern Western Australia and a coastal trough off NSW, the weather bureau said. “These two moisture feeds are merging and will create a multistate rain and storm band from Monday,” the Bureau of Meteorology said in a statement. A severe flood warning has been issued for large parts of NSW as well as neighboring Queensland. “These are very, very serious and very severe storms and floods, and it’s a very complex weather system, too. … So, this is a very testing time,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told radio station 2GB on Monday. Sydney on Sunday recorded the wettest day of the year with almost 111 mm (4.4 inches) of rain, while some regions in NSW’s north coast received nearly 900 mm (35 inches) of rain in the last six days, more than three times the March average, government data showed. 
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In marking the International Day of Forests, environmentalists are calling for the restoration of forests and their life-giving biodiversity systems which, they say, are under increasing threat from illegal exploitation. Forests are the lungs of the earth. They help provide the air we breathe and play a major role in providing clean water. The United Nations reports more than a billion people depend on forest foods and 2.4 billion people use fuel wood and charcoal to cook their daily meals.Additionally, the health of the world is largely dependent on the forests’ so-called green pharmacies. The U.N. reports up to 25 percent of medicinal drugs in developed countries and 80 percent in developing countries are plant-based.Unfortunately, the oxygen that sustains 80 percent of all known terrestrial plants and animal species on the planet is under threat. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s director of forestry, Mette Wilkie, said the forests and biodiversity they contain are at risk from actions to convert the land to agriculture and other exploitative usage.“Each year, the world loses more than 10 million hectares of forest. That is an area of about twice the size of Costa Rica. This is having negative impacts on the climate, biodiversity and people. We know that deforestation and land degradation are affecting the well-being of at least 3.2 billion people across the world and costing more than 10 percent of annual global GDP in lost ecosystem services,” she said.Wilkie said one in three outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases is directly linked to land use changes, such as deforestation and fragmentation of forests. She warns the risks of new pandemics will continue to increase if the world continues business as usual.“The reason for that is that we are disturbing the habitat for some of the wildlife species that are carrying these zoonotic diseases, which means that we are increasing the risk of a spiral from wildlife to—either directly to people or to domestic animals and then to people. So, altering the nature of the forest and reducing their habitats, we are increasing the risk,” she said. Wilkie said this situation can be reversed by reducing the levels of deforestation and investing the money needed to restore the forests to health. She said such actions could contribute to economic recovery in the post COVID-19 stage and help nations mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. 
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Carrie Brady was 40 and single when she decided to adopt a baby. Because of the US opioid crisis, her chances of finding a match were better if she agreed to accept the child of someone addicted to drugs and that’s what she did. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.Casmera: Artyom Kokhan
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The world’s largest vaccine producer has told at least three countries that their COVID-19 vaccine shipments will be delayed.The Serum Institute of India has informed Brazil, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia that India’s overwhelming need for the vaccine is the cause of the delay.India is experiencing a surge in infections. The South Asian nation has the third-highest number of coronavirus cases, with 11.6 million. Only the United States and Brazil have more, at 29.7 million and 11.9 million, respectively.India’s Serum Institute has come under criticism for selling or donating more vaccines than inoculations put in arms in India.Meanwhile, Brazil is in talks with the United States to import excess doses of coronavirus vaccines, its Foreign Ministry tweeted Saturday.The South American nation recorded 79,069 new cases of coronavirus infections in a 24-hour period, its Health Ministry said Saturday, and reported more than 2,400 COVID-19 deaths.The talks between the U.S. and Brazil began March 13. On Friday, the U.S. said it was lending 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada and Mexico but did not mention Brazil.The U.S. has millions of doses of vaccine developed by Britain’s University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical giant that have been approved by the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency but not for use in the U.S. yet.Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who famously told his country to “stop whining” about the country’s deaths from “a little flu,” has signed three measures to speed the purchase of vaccines, including those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson.Several European countries were under new coronavirus restrictions Saturday to combat new waves of infections.About one-third of France’s population is under lockdown after measures were imposed Friday in Paris and several regions in northern and southern parts of the country. More than 4,300 people are in intensive care units in France, the most this year, the health ministry said Saturday.About 6.1 million people in France have received their first COVID-19 shot, or just less than 12% of the adult population.In Poland, which is seeing the highest number of daily cases since November, new measures have forced nonessential shops and other facilities to close for three weeks.Nonessential stores have also been closed in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, where only food markets are allowed to stay open.France, Germany and Italy resumed use Friday of the coronavirus vaccine made by AstraZeneca after health officials sought to allay concerns it may cause blood clots.The European nations resumed inoculations after the EMA, which regulates medicine, said the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine was “safe and effective” and the WHO, the United Nations body responsible for public health, said “available data do not suggest any overall increase in clotting conditions” among those who have been vaccinated.However, French Health Minister Olivier Veran said the country’s health advisory body is recommending AstraZeneca vaccinations only for people 55 or older.French officials cited an assessment by the EMA that it could not rule out a possible link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and a small number of blood clots, particularly in younger women. The EMA said that overall, the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks of side effects.The WHO repeated its recommendation Friday for countries worldwide to continue to administer shots of AstraZeneca’s vaccine. The agency’s expert committee on coronavirus vaccines said the AstraZeneca vaccine has “tremendous potential to prevent infections and reduce deaths” and said “it is not certain” the blood clot cases have been caused by the vaccine.Officials in Miami Beach in the southern U.S. state of Florida have imposed an emergency curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. It was not immediately clear how long the lockdown would be in place.“Officials blamed overwhelming and out-of-control spring break crowds for the curfew, which was taking effect Saturday night in South Beach, one of the nation’s top party spots,” the Associated Press reported.Global spectators will be barred from entering Japan for the summer Olympic games because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic organizing committee said Saturday.The committee said tickets bought by overseas residents would be refunded.The pandemic forced the postponement of the Olympic games last year, but organizers have said they are committed to hosting the games this year, despite warnings.
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Throngs of revelers flocking to Miami Beach, Florida, for spring break have become so uncontrollable that authorities imposed a curfew Saturday that they hope will spoil the party.For the next 72 hours, visitors will have to leave the streets and restaurants will close their doors at 8 p.m. in the main tourist areas of South Beach, the epicenter of the city’s party scene, authorities announced.In addition, the three bridges that connect the island with mainland Miami will be closed to traffic after 10 p.m.Only residents, workers and hotel guests will have access.”This is all about the public safety, folks,” said acting City Manager Raul Aguila.Referring to photos of huge crowds gathering on the main Ocean Drive strip, he added: “It looked like a rock concert. You couldn’t see pavement and you couldn’t see grass.”The move followed weeks of wild partying in Miami Beach, which is no stranger to uncontrollable spring break crowds.But this year the volume is clearly higher than in previous years, said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber.”I think it is in part due to the fact that there are very few places open elsewhere in the country, or they’re too cold, or they’re not open and they’re too cold,” he said.Over the last several days viral videos have emerged showing fights in restaurants that caused serious damage in addition to prompting diners to flee without paying expensive bills, according to local press reports.Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements said he is concerned the situation will become unmanageable.On Thursday night “we had an issue where hundreds of people ran at one particular time. Tables and chairs were thrown and used as weapons,” he said.He added that police had hoped it was a one-time event but “last night we had three of those situations and we had a young lady that got hurt as a result of trying to run away from a crowd.””We can’t continue to be fortunate. We have to do some things that are going to mitigate those circumstances,” he said.
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Ahead of World Water Day Monday, the World Meteorological Organization warns climate change is intensifying water-related disasters, threatening the lives and livelihoods of billions of people worldwide.
 
Climate-related hazards include increased flooding and longer-lasting droughts. Climate change also is altering rainfall patterns, affecting water availability and worsening the damage floods and drought cause worldwide.
 
The WMO says increased flooding threatens to destroy water points and sanitation facilities and contaminate water sources. As a consequence, WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis says billions of people have limited or no access to clean water and sanitation.
 
“So, 39 percent of the global population does not have access to safe drinking water. We expect this problem to be exacerbated because of socio-economic changes, of population growth, and obviously, changes in sources of water, such as glaciers,” Nullis said.The WMO calls glaciers the water towers of the world. It warns the melting of ice cover and glaciers is leading to more hazards and threatening the long-term water security of hundreds of millions of people.
 
Nullis said one of the most dramatic examples of how this is playing out can be seen in Tajikistan, a country that had more than 14,500 glaciers in the 20th century.
 
“Today, more than a thousand of these have completely melted and the total volume of the mass has decreased by one-third. This in the short term leads to more hazards like avalanches, mud flows, flooding—what we call glacial outbursts,” Nullis said.
 
Glaciers are a key source of water. In the long-term, Nullis warned glacier melting will lead to increased water stress for many millions of people. She said the same phenomenon is being repeated throughout the world.
 
The WMO says more than half of countries worldwide have no quality management systems for water. The agency is calling for more concerted action on safeguarding the world’s diminishing water sources and on mitigating climate change.
 
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The coughing among the western lowland gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in January was the first warning sign. Soon the fears were confirmed: A troop of gorillas became the first apes known to test positive for the coronavirus.Around the world, many scientists and veterinarians are now racing to protect animals from the coronavirus, often using the same playbook for minimizing disease spread among people: That includes social distancing, health checks and, for some zoo animals, a vaccine.Karen, a 28-year-old orangutan, became the first ape in the world to get a coronavirus vaccine on Jan. 26 at the San Diego Zoo.Two shots for KarenKaren has received two shots of a vaccine from Zoetis, a veterinary pharmaceutical company in New Jersey, and has shown no adverse reactions. Since then, nine other primates at the San Diego Zoo have been fully vaccinated: five bonobos and four orangutans. Four more animals — one bonobo and three gorillas — got their first shot this month and will get a second one in April.“I was really convinced that we wanted to get that to protect our other great apes,” said the zoo’s wildlife health officer Nadine Lamberski, who explained she felt urgency to act after the eight gorillas fell sick.That virus outbreak was linked to a zookeeper who was infected but had no symptoms. Seven gorillas recovered after a mild cases of the sniffles, but one elderly silverback had pneumonia, likely caused by the virus, as well as heart disease. He was put on antibiotics and heart medication, and he received an antibody treatment to block the virus from infecting cells.Zoetis vaccine of choiceAbout three dozen zoos across the United States and abroad have put in orders for the Zoetis vaccine, which is formulated to elicit a strong immune response in particular animal species.“We will jump at the opportunity to get the Zoetis vaccine for our own great apes,” said Oakland Zoo’s veterinary director Alex Herman, who is ordering 100 doses.Zoetis got a permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide the doses on an experimental basis to the San Diego Zoo. The company will need to apply for the same permission to provide vaccine to additional zoos.Scientists believe the coronavirus likely originated in wild horseshoe bats, before jumping — perhaps through an intermediary species — to humans. Now many researchers worry that humans may unwittingly infect other susceptible species.
“Right now, humans are the main vectors of SARS-CoV-2, with consequences for many animal species,” said Arinjay Banerjee, a disease researcher at McMaster University in Canada.Great apes such as gorillas, which share 98% of their DNA with humans, are especially susceptible, as are felines. So far, confirmed coronavirus cases include gorillas, tigers and lions at zoos; domestic cats and dogs; farmed mink, and at least one wild mink in Utah.Cattle, pigs are safeScientists have also experimentally shown that ferrets, racoon dogs and white-tailed deer are susceptible, although pigs and cattle are not.“This could be a conservation concern, especially if the virus began to spread in a wild species with extremely reduced populations, like the black-footed ferret,” which is endangered, said Kate Langwig, an infectious disease ecologist at Virginia Tech.Another worry is that virus spread among other species could produce new variants, complicating health authorities’ efforts to curb the pandemic.In Denmark, workers at a mink farm accidentally infected the animals. As the coronavirus spread among the mink, it mutated — and human handlers contracted the new variant. In response, the government ordered millions of mink to be killed.“Mutations happen when there’s a lot of disease transfer going on between animals,” said Scott Weese, a veterinary microbiologist at the Ontario Veterinary College.Many recommended steps to minimize disease spread to animals are familiar: wearing masks and sanitizing shared equipment, regular health checks, and maintaining physical distance.Since the outbreak, the San Diego Zoo and its safari park north of San Diego have installed more fans at its indoor primate areas to increase air circulation. The staff wears double masks and face shields and limits their time indoors with animals.’Wake-up call’ for care of apesScientists and conservationists who monitor wild primates have also adapted their daily routines.“COVID-19 has been a wake-up call for the world about the fact that these viruses can go from wild animals to people, and from people to great apes,” said Kirsten Gilardi, executive director of Gorilla Doctors, a conservation group that includes field veterinarians who treat wild gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.There are only about 1,000 wild mountain gorillas, so the threat of coronavirus infection “has changed the way we do our work,” said Felix Ndagijimana, the Rwanda country director for Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, a conservation group.For the past year, field trackers who check on gorillas daily in the rainforest first get a coronavirus test, then stay with other trackers in an encampment for work stints of several weeks. This is to ensure that they don’t pick up the bug by returning to their villages at night.“It was really a big ask of our team, especially during the pandemic. People want to be close to their families, but also keep the gorillas safe,” said Ndagijimana. To date, he said, there have been no coronavirus cases among wild gorillas.No plan to use vaccine on wild gorillasWhile some wild gorillas were vaccinated against measles in the 1980s, there are currently no plans to vaccinate them against the coronavirus. With wild apes, the first choice is always to be as hands-off as possible, said Jean Bosco Noheli, a field veterinarian for Gorilla Doctors in Rwanda. “Let’s focus on other measures we can take first to protect wild gorillas,” he said.But more zoo animals could soon be getting virus shots.“There’s a lot of interest,” said Sharon Deem, a veterinary epidemiologist at the St. Louis Zoo who is also part of a hazard preparedness group of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums that represents 240 zoos.“I think given how horrible this particular pathogen has been to humans, and that we know it can be transmitted between humans and animals, that there is great interest to use an animal vaccine as soon as it is available,” she said.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson received his first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine Friday and urged the public to do the same, saying “he did not feel a thing.”
Johnson, 56, received his vaccine at the same hospital where almost a year ago he was put in an intensive care unit and given oxygen via a tube in his nose after he contracted the virus and fell seriously ill. He later said he was so sick that plans were drawn up on how to announce his death.
“I literally did not feel a thing. It was very good, very quick,” Johnson said after receiving the injection at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
“I cannot recommend it too highly, everybody when you do get your notification to go for a jab, please go and get it, it is the best thing for you, best thing for your family and for everyone else.”
Pictures showed the prime minister wearing a black mask, and a shirt and tie with his sleeve rolled up, while a nurse gives him the vaccine.Record day for Britain
Britain broke its record for the most coronavirus shots given out in one day Friday and almost half of all adults have received one dose, making it one of the fastest countries in the world to roll out a vaccine program.
This success has helped the ruling Conservatives regain the lead over the main opposition Labour Party in opinion polls after the prime minister last year was accused of acting too slowly to stop the spread of the virus.
Johnson received his vaccine as European countries Friday resumed using the AstraZeneca shot after regulators said its benefits outweighed any risks following recent reports of blood clots.
Countries including Germany and France reversed their decision to temporarily pause its use after reports of about 30 cases of rare brain blood clots sent scientists and governments scrambling to determine any link.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed by scientists at the University of Oxford, also has been at the center of tensions between Britain and the European Union, after Brussels expressed anger over the lack of deliveries of the shot coming from Britain.
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France, Germany and Italy resumed use Friday of a coronavirus vaccine made by AstraZeneca after health officials sought to allay concerns it might cause blood clots.The European nations resumed inoculations after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine was “safe and effective” and the World Health Organization said “available data do not suggest any overall increase in clotting conditions” among those who had been vaccinated.From left, German public health expert Karl Lauterbach, RKI health institute deputy director Lars Schaade and German Health Minister Jens Spahn speak at a news conference, March 19, 2021, in Berlin, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.Germany and Italy are trying to avoid a third wave of coronavirus infections while France is experiencing its highest caseload in four months.Beginning Friday, several French regions, including Paris, will be under new lockdown orders to contain increasing coronavirus cases.France had 40,000 new cases Wednesday.The EMA approved the continued use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine Thursday in the battle to contain the pandemic. Spain had also stopped using the vaccine.The agency said in a statement that “the benefits of the vaccine in combating the still widespread threat of COVID-19 (which itself results in clotting problems and may be fatal) continue to outweigh the risk of side effects.”“A causal link with the vaccine is not proven but is possible and deserves further analysis,” the agency added.FILE – A member of the medical staff holds a vial of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine at the South Ile-de-France Hospital Group in Melun, in the outskirts of Paris, Feb. 8, 2021.Meanwhile, the White House announced Thursday that it was sending millions of stockpiled doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and Canada. Mexico is slated to receive 2.5 million doses from the U.S., with Canada receiving 1.5 million.U.S. regulators have not yet approved use of the vaccine, but Mexican and Canadian officials have.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the vaccine would be loans to the two U.S. neighbors, with the U.S. eventually being reimbursed with vaccine from the bordering countries.The announcement came as the Biden administration sought Mexico’s help in stemming the tide of migrants trying to enter the U.S.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control announced new distance guidelines for schools Friday, saying three feet of distance for masked students was adequate instead of the previously recommended six-foot span.“These updated recommendations provide the evidence-based road map to help schools reopen safely, and remain open, for in-person instruction,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.On Friday, India’s Union Health Ministry reported an increase in coronavirus infections for the ninth day in a row, with 40,000 new cases in the previous 24 hours. India has reported 11.5 million COVID-19 cases. As of early Friday afternoon EDT, only two countries had more — the U.S., with 29.7 million, and Brazil, with 11.8 million, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.Hopkins reported a global total of 122.1 million infections. 
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U.S. President Joe Biden announced Friday he plans to nominate former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson to lead the U.S. space agency, NASA.In a statement, the White House says as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a three-term senator from Florida, Nelson, a Democrat, chaired committees on space, science and transportation. They also note he co-authored the landmark 2010 NASA bill which set the current path of private-sector partnership. In the statement, the White House notes Nelson, as a congressman in 1986, even flew on a six-day space shuttle mission. He currently serves on the NASA advisory council.Nelson, if approved by the Senate, would take over the agency as commercial space projects are already shuttling supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station.NASA is also preparing to return astronauts to the moon in the next four years.Nelson’s nomination has already received the endorsement of Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican.“I cannot think of anyone better to lead NASA than Bill Nelson,” Rubio tweeted on Thursday.
If approved, Nelson would be NASA’s 14th administrator, and would take over from the Trump administration’s appointee, former Oklahoma congressman Jim Bridenstine.
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A 14-year-old South Sudanese girl who could not control her urine or bowel movements for two years is lying on a bed at the Lutheran Medical Center in Juba, recovering from an operation to repair a fistula – a medical condition in which a hole develops in the birth canal that is caused by prolonged obstructed labor.The girl, who VOA is not identifying for privacy reasons, said a doctor friend called her last month from Juba when she was in Rumbek to inform her about a two-week camp being run by the Barbara May Foundation, an Australian organization that helps women suffering from fistula in the South Sudanese capital.The girl told South Sudan in Focus that in 2019 an old man found her by the roadside, kidnapped her, and forced her into marriage. She said she later became pregnant and developed fistula while delivering her first-born child as a child herself.”I delivered a baby at home in the village. It’s not a town where I could be taken to the hospital. I delivered alone. There was a woman who was helping me so that the baby could come in her hands, but she put her hands in and it cut the urinary tube and urine started flowing by itself. The relatives of my husband said they don’t want me, that I am smelling, so I went to my father’s home,” said the girl.Australian surgeon Dr. Andrew Browning, who started the foundation and conducted the operations, said he and his team have operated on more than 100 women and girls in three different camps in South Sudan.“About 30 ladies per camp and [in] this camp, we have 34 ladies to operate on so it’s now about 120 ladies we have treated in South Sudan but that’s just a small part of the problem; there are many thousands of women in South Sudan with this problem, so we need to train more doctors how to do this operation,” Browning told South Sudan in Focus.The obstetrician and gynecologist became involved with helping women suffering from fistula 17 years ago after visiting his aunt Valerie Browning in rural Ethiopia, who assisted women with terrible childbirth injuries.Dr. Browning trained a few South Sudanese surgeons in Ethiopia.  He said those surgeons could now be working in Juba, Wau and Aweil, but far more doctors are needed to perform fistula operations.“There are some people doing it but not enough, and the patients that come here are usually patients who have been operated on in other places and they failed,” Browning said.  “We pray they succeeded this time,” he added.People believe all kinds of misconceptions about fistula, says Browning.“Some people say it’s a bad spirit, or a curse or maybe the woman was unfaithful in her marriage, but that’s not true.  It’s just that the baby was too big for the mother to deliver and that’s how she got stuck, so she was stuck in labor for five days, it’s not her fault, it’s an awful condition to live with, she is leaking all the time, she is very ashamed,” Browning said.Dr. John Sebit, medical director at the Lutheran Medical Center, where the operations have been conducted, said the center started the project to support mothers who are often rejected by their loved ones due to their condition.“This camp we started in 2018 after realizing there are so many mothers outside living with fistula or obstetric fistula and again the specialists who do these surgeries are not so common, there are so few,” Sebit told South Sudan in Focus.The Lutheran Medical Center helps identify women and girls suffering from fistula and transports them “to where they can be operated on,” he said.Obstetric fistula “will continue in South Sudan until mothers start delivering from hospitals” so that if a baby becomes stuck, doctors can carry out a caesarean section, said Browning.
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U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are traveling to the southern U.S. state of Georgia on Friday, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the massage parlor shootings near Atlanta on Tuesday.The U.S. leaders will meet with Asian American leaders to discuss the shootings and the targeting of people of Asian descent in the U.S. in apparent hate crimes.Georgia officials, however, have not yet labeled the massage parlor shootings as hate crimes because the suspect said the shooting spree was a result of his sexual issues.The president and the vice president will also meet with officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention while in Georgia to get an update on the U.S.  handling the COVID-19 pandemic.They were originally also planning to participate in a “Help Is Here” rally to promote the trillion-dollar COVID relief package.The rally has been postponed in the wake of the shootings that killed eight people, six of Asian descent. Biden is, however, slated to meet with former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams whose organizing is widely viewed as being responsible for the Democratic presidential win in Georgia in November, the first Democratic presidential victory in the southern state since 1992.Meanwhile, U.S. and Mexican officials deny Washington is attaching any strings to a likely shipment of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses to America’s southern neighbor at a time of heightened migration passing through Mexico en route to the United States.“[P]reventing the spread of a global pandemic is part of one of our diplomatic objectives. Another one of our diplomatic objectives is working to address the challenges at the border. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that those conversations are both ongoing and happening,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied when asked about a link between lending vaccine supplies and commitments from Mexico to tighten the flow of migrants heading north.“These are two separate issues, as we look for a more humane migratory system and enhanced cooperation against COVID-19, for the benefit of our two countries and the region,” said a statement from Roberto Velasco, director general for the North America region at Mexico’s foreign ministry.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 19 MB720p | 37 MB1080p | 74 MBOriginal | 224 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioPsaki confirmed Thursday that there are discussions to send 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada.“We are assessing how we can lend doses,” the press secretary said. “That is our aim. It’s not fully finalized yet.”Mexican officials say an agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico is to be announced Friday.Tens of millions of doses of the Astra Zeneca-University of Oxford vaccine are in U.S. manufacturing sites. That company’s vaccine has been authorized in numerous countries, but not yet in the United States.The AstraZeneca vaccine has received some negative publicity and there is speculation some Americans will hesitate to take that vaccine after it receives expected approval in the United States.Several countries in Europe this week suspended use of the AstraZeneca doses after reports that a few people who received it later developed blot clots and severe bleeding.Europe’s drug regulator Thursday declared the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, adding that a review of the 17 million people who received it found they were actually less likely to develop dangerous clots than others who hadn’t received the vaccine.“It makes sense for the United States to loan its surplus of millions of doses to neighbors where it can be put to good use right away,” said Joshua Busby, assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Texas-Austin.The pending deals with Canada and Mexico, Busby told VOA, do not go far enough because “more countries in the Americas and beyond will need vaccines. But I’m confident that the Biden team is aware of this.”Busby, author of the book Moral Movements and Foreign Policy, said he expects in the coming months the Biden administration will make a major effort to increase global vaccine access “because the longer the epidemic persists globally, the greater the risk of variants that could emerge for which the current vaccines are ineffective.”Asked on Thursday about requests from other countries to make U.S. coronavirus vaccine stock available to them, Psaki replied: “Certainly we’ll have those conversations, and we are open to receiving those requests and obviously making considerations.””Various countries including China have been engaged in so called vaccine diplomacy,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Japanese reporters on Wednesday. “We shouldn’t tie the distribution or access to vaccines to politics or to geopolitics.”Concerns have been raised that the United States and the rest of the West are losing a public relations battle with China and Russia which, at minimum, are using such vaccine distribution to improve their influence and image in developing countries.“Even as nations understandably prioritize their own citizens for vaccines, including their own most vulnerable, we cannot forget that those with the means should also help other countries in need,” said Curtis Chin, former U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank.Vaccine diplomacy competition between nations to help other countries can be a good thing, but “where it falls apart is when that competition overrides necessary cooperation and coordination,” Chin told VOA.
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Twitter on Friday began a survey of global users about platform rules for world leaders while consulting human rights and academic specialists on its next policy steps.The announcement comes after Twitter joined other social networks banning then-president Donald Trump for his comments seen as inciting the violent attack on the US Capitol in January.The ban was criticized by Trump supporters while others had argued Twitter should have taken action earlier despite its policy of allowing leeway for world leaders and newsworthy posts.”Politicians and government officials are constantly evolving how they use our service, and we want our policies to remain relevant to the ever-changing nature of political discourse on Twitter and protect the health of the public conversation,” the Twitter safety team said in a blog post.”That’s why we’re reviewing our approach to world leaders and seeking your input.”Twitter will be asking users their views in a survey in 14 languages, from Friday until April 12.”Generally, we want to hear from the public on whether or not they believe world leaders should be subject to the same rules as others on Twitter. And, should a world leader violate a rule, what type of enforcement action is appropriate,” the statement said.”We’re also in the process of consulting with a range of human rights experts, civil society organizations, and academics worldwide whose feedback will be reflected in forthcoming revisions to the policy framework.”
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German health officials Friday said coronavirus cases in the country are rising at “an exponential rate,” forcing the government to reconsider lifting COVID-19 restrictions. At a news conference in Berlin, Robert Koch Institute ((RKI)) for infectious Diseases Vice President Lars Schaade told reporters highly contagious virus variants were getting the upper hand in the nation, wiping out progress seen last month in containing the pandemic.Shaade, appearing with German Health Minister Jens Spahn, reported 17,482 new infections in the previous 24 hours and 226 deaths in Germany, with the seven-day incidence rate soaring to about 96 per 100,000 people, despite a months-long lockdown in much of the country.Shaade said increased infections were notably among younger people. “The incidence increases are clearly in the groups under 60 years old, especially in the group 15 to 49 years old.”Spahn told reporters the numbers mean plans to re-open the country will need to be put on hold. “On the contrary, we may even have to take steps backwards.”Earlier this month, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced plans to gradually lift COVID-19 restrictions, she said she and regional leaders agreed to impose new restrictions in areas where the seven-day incidence rate surpassed 100. At least two regions have already reached that threshold.Meanwhile, Spahn said he has been negotiating with Russia regarding its Sputnik V vaccine, and indicated he is very close to completing a deal. He said the government had been in close contact with the Russians, “and I can also well imagine that we [will] conclude contracts — and conclude them quickly.”He said, however, Germany needs more details on how many doses could be delivered and when. The vaccine has yet to be approved by German or European Union regulators.Germany resumed administering AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine Thursday after the EU regulator Europe Medincines Agency ((EMA)) concluded once again that it was safe and effective. The agency had conducted a study of the vaccine and cases of blood clots reported in several patients after receiving the vaccine.
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