Day: July 30, 2021

Russian space officials said Friday that a software malfunction had caused the unexpected firing of thrusters on a newly arrived module, moving the International Space Station out of its intended attitude.The incident occurred Thursday, hours after the long-delayed Russian laboratory module, known as Nauka, docked with the ISS.  It took mission controllers nearly an hour to reposition the ISS, which had been bumped 45 degrees out of alignment.  Ground controllers fired Russian thrusters on other Russian elements at the station to fix the positioning.In a statement Friday, ISS Russian segment flight director Vladimir Solovyov said the software failure had prompted a direct command to turn on the module’s engines.Communications between the ground and the crew went out twice for several minutes, but in a statement, the U.S. space agency NASA said the ISS crew was never in danger.On Twitter Friday, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky said not to worry and the work to integrate the new module into the ISS was continuing as scheduled.The Russian unmanned, 20-ton, nearly 13-meter-long Nauka module — also known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module — docked with the ISS following a long and, at times, uncertain journey.Nauka is now the first new module in the Russian segment of the station since 2010.The troubled trip to the orbiting space station followed years of problems getting the module off the ground. Nauka — designed to provide more room for scientific experiments and space for the crew — was initially scheduled to launch in 2007 but was repeatedly delayed because of technical problems.
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The WHO said Friday that Japan was doing its best to minimize the risk of Covid-19 spreading during the Tokyo Olympics but stressed there was no such thing as zero risk.The World Health Organization’s warning came as Japan extended a virus state of emergency in Tokyo and expanded the measure to four more regions as it battles a record surge in infections a week into the pandemic-postponed Games.”There is no zero risk. There could be less or more risk. And then, for things to happen with low risk, you try your best,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference from the UN health agency’s Geneva headquarters.Japan and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) “did their best to minimise risk, because nobody should expect zero risk”, he said.World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, center, arrives for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, on July 23, 2021.”I know that they have done their best, and we have supported them all along.”Across Japan, new virus cases topped 10,000 for the first time on Thursday, and a string of government officials and health experts have warned that the more contagious Delta variant is fuelling a dangerous surge.Tedros went to the Olympics opening ceremony and also addressed the IOC in Tokyo.On Friday he called on the world to draw on the Olympic spirit of unity to bring the pandemic to an end, and said his IOC speech was aimed at using the Games as the biggest platform to spread the message.Morally ‘wrong path'”Do you really accept 1.5% vaccination in Africa while in some countries it’s already 70%?” he said.”Don’t we need a platform like the Olympics to go and tell the truth that the world is actually morally, epidemiologically and economically doing the wrong things?”We are taking the wrong path and we need to use the spirit of the Olympics to correct it.”He said the image of an Olympic torchbearer wearing a mask would remind the world of the pandemic for generations to come.”It shows that we are doing this in very difficult conditions when we are taken hostage by a dangerous virus. But at the same time, it shows me the determination to fight back.”WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said the Games organisers and the IOC had comprehensive risk management measures in place, with strong surveillance, regular testing of athletes and delegates, and the use of quarantine and isolation.”The true drivers of this pandemic are not within the Olympic Games; they’re really related to the deep inequities we have in the distribution and availability of vaccines,” Ryan said.He said the Olympics were founded on fair play and Tedros’s trip to Tokyo was to urge the world to do likewise with regard to the distribution of vaccines to combat Covid-19, which is hitting some countries “very unjustly and very unfairly”.
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Amazon.com Inc has been hit with a record $886.6 million (746 million euros) European Union fine for processing personal data in violation of the bloc’s GDPR rules, as privacy regulators take a more aggressive position on enforcement.The Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) imposed the fine on Amazon in a July 16 decision, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing on Friday.Amazon will appeal the fine, according to a company spokesperson. The e-commerce giant said in the filing it believed CNPD’s decision was without merit.CNPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, requires companies to seek people’s consent before using their personal data or face steep fines.Globally, regulatory scrutiny of tech giants has been increasing following a string of scandals over privacy and misinformation, as well as complaints from some businesses that they abuse their market power.Alphabet’s Google, Facebook Inc, Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp have drawn heightened scrutiny in Europe.In December, France’s data privacy watchdog handed out its biggest ever fine of 100 million euros ($118.82 million) to Google for breaching the nation’s rules on online advertising trackers.
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Lebanon is running desperately short of life-saving medicines to treat cancer, heart ailments, or even of basic vitamins needed by expectant mothers. It is all a direct result of Lebanon’s deepening political and economic crisis which has led to severe shortages hard currency and fuel. Anchal Vohra has this report for VOA from northern Lebanon.Videographer and producer: Tilo Gummel
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According to reports in The Washington Post and The New York Times, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to make public Friday an internal federal health document about the delta variant of the coronavirus that can be spread “as easily as chickenpox” by vaccinated and unvaccinated people.The newspapers reported the document is a slide presentation distributed to CDC officials. The presentation details the difficulties the agency has experienced in convincing some populations to get vaccinated and wear masks.The presentation urges CDC officials to develop public service messages that “emphasize vaccination as the best defense against a variant so contagious that it acts almost like a different novel virus, leaping from target to target more swiftly than Ebola or the common cold.”With the delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 rapidly spreading across the country, U.S. President Joe Biden has announced civilian federal government employees must be vaccinated or submit to regular testing and wear masks.“Every federal government employee will be asked to attest to their vaccination status,” Biden said Thursday in a speech from the White House East Room. “Anyone who does not attest or is not vaccinated will be required to mask, no matter where they work, test one or two times a week to see if they’ve acquired COVID, socially distance, and generally will not be allowed to travel for work.”Nurse Darryl Hana prepares a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a three-day vaccination clinic at Providence Wilmington Wellness and Activity Center on July 29, 2021, in Wilmington, California.The federal government employs more than 4 million Americans, including over 2 million in the federal civilian workforce, a White House statement said.The same standards will apply to federal contractors, Biden added.Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced lockdown measures Friday for the Manila capital region, home to 13 million people. The move is designed to curb the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus.  The lockdown will go into effect beginning Aug. 6 and lasting until Aug. 20.Tokyo’s neighbors are being placed under a state of emergency from Aug. 2-31, according to the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun.  Tokyo, where the Olympic Games are currently being held, and Okinawa have already been placed under a state of emergency due to the spread of the coronavirus.Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa and Osaka are the new prefectures to have the emergency state imposed on them.Hokkaido, Ishikawa, Kyoto, Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures, also neighboring Tokyo, will be placed under pre-emergency measures.Under a state of emergency, business is suspended in locations that serve alcohol or have karaoke.Business are asked not to serve alcohol under pre-emergency measures.Japan has reported a record number of daily COVID cases as the country hosts the Olympics Games in Tokyo.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 14 MB480p | 20 MB540p | 27 MB720p | 55 MB1080p | 108 MBOriginal | 124 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioAsahi Shimbun reported late Thursday that Japan had more than 10,000 daily coronavirus cases, the first time the country’s daily count has exceeded 10,000. Tokyo had 3,865 infections, eclipsing the previous day’s total of 3,177, according to the publication. The newspaper also reported that 24 people associated with the Olympic Games tested positive for COVID-19, including three athletes, bringing the total to 193 for people connected with the Games who have tested positive for COVID-19.WHO officials fear that 47 of Africa’s 54 countries will miss a September target of vaccinating 10% of their populations, a goal set earlier this year by the World Health Assembly, the world’s highest health policy-setting body. Africa accounts for less than 1% of the more than 4 billion vaccine doses administered globally.Many Latin American countries also are lagging. The region, along with the Caribbean, has suffered 1.25 million COVID-19-related deaths and is struggling to secure the vaccines needed by those countries. While Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have inoculated about 50% of their populations, most of the others have managed to vaccinate only about 30% — with Honduras, Guatemala and Venezuela trailing at under 10%.The U.S. sent millions of doses of vaccine to Latin America earlier this month as part of Biden’s commitment to end the pandemic across the globe. One million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine were shipped to Bolivia, a million doses of Pfizer to Paraguay on Friday, and 1.5 million doses of Moderna to Guatemala, according to the White House.Overall, across the globe, just 1.1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one vaccine dose.The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported 196,634,210 global COVID infections early Friday.
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Once seen as a vaccine hoarder, the U.S. is now sharing its COVID-19 doses, acting on the Biden administration’s pledge to deliver a half-billion doses around the world over the next year. VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo reports on some of the countries that have received their first batches.
Producer: Bakhtiyar Zamanov
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A long-delayed Russian laboratory module docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, but hours later the Russian lab knocked the orbiting station out of position when the lab’s thrusters accidentally fired.It took mission controllers nearly an hour to reposition the ISS, which had been bumped 45 degrees out of alignment.  Ground controllers fired Russian thrusters on other Russian elements at the station to fix the positioning.During the repositioning, communications between the ground and the crew went out twice for several minutes.It was “a pretty exciting hour,” according to Kathy Lueders, NASA’s human spaceflight chief.“We haven’t noticed any damage,” space station program manager Joel Montalbano said. “There was no immediate danger at any time to the crew.”The complication forced NASA to delay a Boeing test flight to the ISS that had been scheduled to take off from Florida Friday.The Russian unmanned, 20-ton, nearly 13-meter-long Nauka module — also known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module — docked with the ISS following a long and, at times, uncertain journey.The European Space Agency says shortly after its July 21 launch from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the module deployed its solar panels and antennas as scheduled. But soon after, Russia’s mission control center in Moscow said the craft did not receive proper automated data commands and failed to complete an initial burn to raise its orbit.The ESA says flight engineers spent the week running critical propulsion tests and carrying out orbital corrections on the module, which is designed to rendezvous and dock automatically with the ISS using its own engines.The ESA monitored the module launch as it carried with it a robotic arm developed by the agency.The troubled trip to the orbiting space station follows years of problems getting the module off the ground at all. The Nauka — designed to provide more room for scientific experiments and space for the crew — was initially scheduled to go up in 2007 but was repeatedly delayed because of technical problems. Contamination had been found in its fuel system, resulting in a long and costly replacement, and other systems underwent modernization or repairs.The Nauka is now the first new module in the Russian segment of the station since 2010. Russian crewmembers on the station had done two spacewalks to connect cables in preparation for the new arrival. On Monday, one of the older Russian modules, the Pirs spacewalking compartment, undocked from the space station to free up room for the new module.The new module will require many operations, including up to 11 spacewalks beginning in September, to prepare it for operation.Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies. 
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The impact of the coronavirus pandemic has stretched people’s mental health around the globe, and Zimbabwe is no exception. But some Zimbabweans hit hard by the stress have found unique support at the Friendship Bench, one of the country’s biggest counseling services.The Friendship Bench was created in 2006 to provide counseling to those stressed out or depressed by the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe. The organization now has branches at most clinics and hospitals in Harare, and it is the only large mental health therapy service operating in the country.The service is run by volunteers who say they do not want to see Zimbabwean people experience severe anxiety.Chengetayi Nyamukapa, country coordinator for Friendship Bench, says due to COVID-19, the organization is now mainly doing online counseling. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)According to Chengetayi Nyamukapa, country coordinator for Friendship Bench, many people have stopped meeting others in person due to COVID-19.”As Friendship Bench, are saying we are there, we continue to provide counseling to people who are infected, affected by COVID-19 pandemic,” Nyamukapa said. “Again, we are saying that we are unable to do that using our conventional face to face, but what we have done as an organization is to migrate to an online platform. We are accessible via WhatsApp, be it in audio, video call, being it texting and even a general call.”But some, such as Elizabeth Chibeka, still come to their offices. The 49-year-old said her father is battling COVID-19.“I have nothing to pay for his medical bills,” she said. “I am unemployed, I have no means to raise funds even for his food. Those are some of the things stressing me, hence I came here to talk to these people. COVID-19 is there and it’s real, especially where we stay. We are failing to attend funerals because of COVID-19.”Forget Gutuza, 53, one of the counselors at the Friendship Bench, says COVID-19 is dominating her counseling lately. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)Fifty-three-year-old Forget Gutuza, one of the counselors at the Friendship Bench, said COVID-19 is dominating her counseling lately.”COVID-19 has really spread its wings,” she said. “It’s all over. But people are not masking up. I do not know how awareness programs can be done. I wonder why people do not understand the situation we are in.”Dr. Debra Machando, chief of mental health for the World Health Organization’s office in Zimbabwe, said COVID-19 has caused a lot of stress.“Lately we have been seeing a number of psychological disorders, including panic attacks, insomnia, depression, and also a surge in terms of family conflict and violence,” she said. “So, there are a number of things that people can do to mitigate loss of income, to mitigate the stress. The first thing is to understand, to appreciate that we are living in strange times, and things are difficult. When people understand, it also means that they are going to put their expectations into perspective.”This realization might help people to cope as the number of cases of COVID-19 continue to spike in Zimbabwe with the delta variant on the rise.  
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There is growing international criticism of Israel following allegations that software from the private security company NSO was used to spy on journalists, dissidents, and even political leaders around the world. A group of American lawmakers is urging the U.S. government to take punitive action against the company, which denies any wrongdoing. In Israel, some experts are calling for better regulation of cyber exports. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem.
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