Month: April 2021

Senegalese Divers, Activists Clean-Up Coast for Earth Day

Senegal banned single-use plastics a year ago, but the regulation has been poorly enforced and plastic waste still litters the coastline and threatens health. For Earth Day (April 22) this year, a group of Senegalese surfers, scuba divers, and activists took matters into their own hands and to set an example for others to follow.  Annika Hammerschlag reports from Dakar. Camera: Annika Hammerschlag    
 

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Teen Keeps Kids Engaged During Ramadan with Online Stories

While some mosques have opened to prayer during this second Ramadan during the COVID-19 pandemic, religious studies continue online. And in at least one mosque near Washington, D.C., a local teen is trying to keep the lessons entertaining and engaging, as VOA’s Dhania Iman reports.Camera: Dhania Iman Produced by:    Bronwyn Benito 

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NASA Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Flies Faster, Farther Than Ever

U.S. space agency NASA said the experimental Mars helicopter Ingenuity — in its third flight Sunday on the red planet — flew farther and faster than ever, including during test flights on Earth.NASA scientists said the vehicle took off and rose to about 5 meters off the surface of the planet — the same height it reached on its second flight Thursday and slightly higher than on its initial flight a week ago. This time, Ingenuity flew about 50 meters down range from its position, traveling at a top speed of about 2 meters a second. The entire flight was about 80 seconds.As data from the flight was received at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the Ingenuity team said it was “ecstatic” to see how the helicopter performed. Program director Dave Lavery said the flight Sunday was what the team had planned for, “and yet, it was nothing short of amazing.”The initial data from the flight came in from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, which is parked several meters from where the helicopter took flight. The agency said segments of that video showing most of the helicopter’s 80-second journey across its flight zone will be sent back to Earth in the days ahead.  The Ingenuity team has been pushing the helicopter’s limits by adding instructions to capture more photos of its own, including from the color camera, which captured its first images on the flight last Thursday.  Ingenuity weighs just 1.8 kilograms and was packed away on the Perseverance rover when it landed on Mars in February. It was unfolded and dropped from the rover about three weeks ago.NASA considers Ingenuity a technology demonstration designed to test flight capability in the thin Martian atmosphere. It has specially designed rotors that spin much faster than they would have to on Earth to achieve flight. It also has innovative batteries and solar cells for recharging.Aside from cameras, Ingenuity carries no scientific instruments. 

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Burkina Faso’s Women Comedians Hit the Stage

Burkina Faso has a growing comedy scene that despite the international popularity of French-Burkinabé comedian Roukiata Ouedraogo is still dominated locally by men. But a fresh initiative hopes to change that, as Clair MacDougall reports from Ouagadougou.Camera: Clair MacDougall

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‘Nomadland’ Wins Top Prize at Oscars

Chinese filmmaker Chloe Zhao became only the second woman, and the first woman of color, to win the Academy Award for best director as her film Nomadland also captured the award for best picture at Sunday’s Oscars.The film follows a woman who leaves her small town to wander the American West, meeting along the way others who have sought an itinerant life away from conventional society.“I have always found goodness in the people I’ve met everywhere I went in the world,” Zhao said as she accepted her directing award. “This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold onto the goodness in themselves and hold onto to the goodness in each other, no matter how difficult it is to do that.”Nomadland star Frances McDormand won the Oscar for best actress. It was her second time winning the award, following her recognition in 2018 for her role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.The award for best actor went to Anthony Hopkins for his role as a man battling dementia in the film The Father, which also won for best adapted screenplay. Hopkins first won an Oscar nearly 30 years ago.Best original screenplay went to Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman, a thriller in which a woman seeks revenge against predatory men.Daniel Kaluuya, winner of the award for best actor in a supporting role for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” poses in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, April 25, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, Pool)Winners at the 2021 OscarsHere’s a look at the winners at the 93rd annual Academy Awards, which took place April 25, 2021, in Los Angeles.Typically a glamor-filled event held at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, the award show shifted to the city’s Union Station transit hub due to the coronavirus pandemic. Nominees were seated at lamp-lit tables around an amphitheater.The list of nominees featured more women and more actors of color than ever before.South Korean actress Yuh-Jung Youn won the best supporting actress award for her portrayal as the matriarch in the film Minari. She is the first Asian actress to win an Academy Award since 1957.Best supporting actor went to Britain’s Daniel Kaluuya, who played Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson made history as the first Black women to win the Oscar for makeup and hairstyling for their work, along with Sergio Lopez-Rivera, in the film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.The award for best international film went to Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round. 

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Diversity Center Stage at 2021 Oscars

With diversity at center stage, minority Oscar nominees took home many coveted golden statuettes, but the three major awards for best actor, best actress and best cinematography went to white nominees. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
Camera: Penelope Poulou      Producer: Penelope Poulou  

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EU Will Let Vaccinated Americans Visit This Summer, Top Official Says

A top European Union official said Sunday that Americans who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 should be able to travel to Europe by summer, easing existing travel restrictions.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told The New York Times that the union’s 27 members would accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by the European Medicines Agency. The agency has approved the three vaccines used in the United States.”The Americans, as far as I can see, use European Medicines Agency-approved vaccines,” von der Leyen said. “This will enable free movement and travel to the European Union.”She did not say when travel could resume. The EU largely shut down nonessential travel more than a year ago.European Union countries agreed this month to launch COVID-19 travel passes that would permit people who have been vaccinated against the disease, recovered from an infection or have tested negative to travel more easily.

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Oscars: Chloé Zhao Makes History with ‘Nomadland’

Chloé Zhao has made history at the Academy Awards.Zhao won the Oscar for best director for Nomadland, becoming just the second woman and the first woman of color to win the award.”My entire Nomadland company, what a crazy, once-in-a-lifetime journey we’ve all been on together,” Zhao said.Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win, for The Hurt Locker, in 2009.This was the only year in Oscar history with two female nominees, Zhao and Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell. Only seven women have ever been nominated.It was the first Oscar for the 39-year-old Zhao, who was born in Beijing and went to college and film school in the United States. Nomadland is her third feature.The other nominees were Lee Isaac Chung for Minari, Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round, and David Fincher for Mank.Best animated featurePixar’s Soul has won the Oscar for best animated feature.The film stars the voices of Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey.Soul follows an aspiring musician and middle-school band teacher who loses his life — but attempts to escape the afterlife during his quest to help an infant soul.Pixar has now won the award 11 times in the 20 years since the category was established.Daniel Kaluuya, winner of the award for best actor in a supporting role for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” poses in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, April 25, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, Pool)Winners at the 2021 OscarsHere’s a look at the winners at the 93rd annual Academy Awards, which took place April 25, 2021, in Los Angeles.Best supporting actorDaniel Kaluuya used a lead role to win a best supporting actor Oscar. He’ll take it.Kaluuya won his first Academy Award on Sunday night for playing one of the two title roles in Judas and the Black Messiah.”I’d like to thank my mom,” Kaluuya said, as his mother teared up while watching. “You gave me everything. You gave me your factory settings. So I could stand at my fullest height.”Kaluuya played Chicago Blank Panther leader Fred Hampton, who was killed in an FBI raid in 1969.The other nominees were Paul Raci, Leslie Odom Jr. and Sacha Baron Cohen.Best international feature filmRaise a glass for Another Round.The film from Denmark, directed by Thomas Vinterburg, has won the Oscar for best international feature film.”This is beyond anything I could ever imagine,” Vinterburg said from the stage at Union Station in Los Angeles on Sunday night. “Except this is something I’ve always imagined.”It is the fourth time a film from Denmark has won in the category. The last was In a Better World in 2010.Vinterberg teared up when he told the audience his daughter died four days into shooting. “An accident on the highway took my daughter away,” he said. “We ended up making this movie for her, as her monument. So, Ida, this is a miracle that just happened.”Vinterburg was also nominated for best director Sunday night.Best original screenplayThe first Oscar of the night went to Emerald Fennell, writer and director of Promising Young Woman.It’s the first Oscar for Fennell, a 35-year-old British actor and screenwriter.

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Red Carpet Makes a Comeback at History-Making Oscars

The red carpet is back. After the coronavirus pandemic forced awards shows to be canceled or go virtual over the past year, movie stars and Hollywood A-listers returned Sunday, strutting their stuff, live and in person, on perhaps the most iconic red carpet of all: at the Oscars.It was a smaller-than-usual affair with fewer celebrities and cameras — and strict COVID-19 protocols in place. But there was no less glamour to grace the carpet set up at Los Angeles’ Union Station, where the 93rd annual Academy Awards will take place this year.Wearing a double-breasted black tuxedo, actor Paul Raci, 73, was among the first to step in front of microphones on the carpet.”I don’t think I could have it any other way; it means a lot. It’s perfect,” said Raci, who has been nominated for best supporting actor for his role in the movie “The Sound of Metal.”TV hosts and personalities described a pent-up red carpet energy Sunday, with stars and spectators alike eager to put on a show to forget, albeit temporarily, the rigors of 2020.Steven Yeun, star of “Minari” and one of the nominees for best actor, said it felt strange to be out and interacting with people.”I haven’t talked to random people in a while, so this is crazy,” said Yeun, 37.Some of the others on the red carpet aside from the actors and actresses wore masks, and interviewers kept their social distance from their subjects.Some of the nominees and other celebrities took to social media ahead of the ceremony to share preparations for this year’s awards show.On Instagram, Glenn Close, who is hoping to finally nab an Oscar statuette for her portrayal of tough-love parent Mamaw in “Hillbilly Elegy,” silently toasted in front of the camera while getting ready for the show.A mask-wearing Laura Dern held what looked like a swab for a COVID-19 test in a shot the actress shared with her Instagram followers and captioned “Oscars prep!” 
 

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Authorities in Somalia Hail Progress in Malaria Fight

As the world marks World Malaria Day (April 25), several African countries continue to battle the impact of a preventable disease claiming thousands of lives. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, malaria has claimed an estimated 380,000 lives in 2018 according to the World Health Organization (WHO). But there are some signs of hope in Somalia.This year’s theme was reaching the “Zero Malaria” target as the WHO celebrated the achievement of those countries that are on the verge of eliminating the disease.While Somalia is still not malaria-free, the country’s authorities say there has been some progress in the past three years in decreasing the number of deaths from the disease. That is welcome news for the Horn of Africa nation struggling to curb other challenges, including drought and lack of security.  Dr. Ali Abdulrahman, manager of Somalia’s national malaria control department,  pointed out that deaths from malaria have declined, from 31 in 2018, 22 in 2019 to five last year.”There was a lot of interventions we have done including distribution of long-lasting insecticide nets to the target population, especially IDPs (internally displaced persons) and other vulnerable and indoor residual spraying were done in the riverine areas and also case management was going on in all health facilities in the country that was interventions done to reduce cases,” Abdulrahman said.Somalia has a weak health care system and is poorly resourced, according to the WHO. Due to decades of insecurity and conflict, the country’s institutions struggle to provide access to malaria prevention and treatment to those at risk of contracting the disease, including pregnant women and children.  Falestine Mohamed Abukar, a mother of three who lives in an internally displaced persons camp in Mogadishu, said she paid $40 last year to get medicine from a local pharmacy where she was referred when she tested positive for malaria and typhoid.She said she was very weak in bed and when she visited the nearest health center but the health care providers said they did not have the medicine. They then referred her to get it from private pharmacies and pay out of pocket.Dr. Jamal Amran from the country’s World Health Organization office says WHO is working with Somali authorities to improve access to malaria medication.   “This year will start to do rapid assessment needs of IDPs  and other neglected groups like nomads to see how and what the factors are preventing them to utilize health services properly. And based on all findings, we will, along with other partners, develop [a] specific strategy for health services for these minorities, and of course, with the involvement with civil society groups and the community and also workers especially now with COVID-19,” Amran said.Hailed as a possible breakthrough, a new malaria vaccine has shown to be 77% effective in early trials to combat the disease. And once approved for use, countries like Somalia could benefit in continuing their fight against malaria and meet the malaria-free goal. 

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Mariners Learn How Not to Get Stuck in the Suez Canal

In March, one of the world’s biggest container ships became stuck in Egypt’s Suez Canal, creating a commercial logjam and spikes in the cost of oil. At a training facility in France, mariners are learning how to avoid a similar predicament.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.

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UN Calls for Action to Achieve a Malaria-Free World

This year’s commemoration of World Malaria Day celebrates the progress being made in eliminating the disease. The World Health Organization is calling for action to build on these achievements and continue the work to create a malaria-free world.Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple other crises, 24 countries are reported to have stopped malaria transmission for three or more years by the end of 2020. To date, 38 countries and territories have been certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization, including most recently El Salvador, Algeria and Sri Lanka.WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said malaria elimination is a viable goal for all countries, no matter how far they may be from the ultimate target.“WHO has identified a set of 25 countries … with a potential to reach zero malaria within the next five years. Working together, building on each other’s success and supported with sustained funding, we can dare to dream of a malaria-free world.”Malaria is a preventable, treatable disease. Yet, every year it kills more than 400,000 people, most of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, more than 200 million people become newly infected with this deadly parasitic disease every year.Over the last 20 years, WHO reports more than 7.5 million deaths and 1.5 billion cases have been averted, most in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this remarkable progress, director of WHO’s Global Malaria Program, Pedro Alonso, says most cases and deaths continue to take place in Africa.“While Africa is the source of many of the big success stories in terms of impact, it is also the place that carries the brunt of the disease and where we are finding it hard to make further progress. Nigeria and DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), because they are also very large populations, account for nearly 50% of all the global burden of disease.WHO says political commitment is crucial to ending malaria. The U.N. health agency says most countries that have reached zero malaria have strong primary health care systems that ensure access to malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment.WHO estimates up to $4.5 billion a year will be required to stamp out malaria. 

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Modi: COVID-19 Has ‘Shaken’ India

COVID-19 has “shaken” India, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his monthly radio address Sunday.349,691 new COVID cases had been recorded in the previous 24-hour period, yet another daily record, the country’s health ministry said Sunday.The new infection figures are likely undercounted, public health officials have warned. A recent account in The New York Times said, “however staggering” the reports are from the ministry of a string of days with more than 300,000 new infections, the numbers “represent just a fraction of the real reach of the virus’s spread.”The U.S. is under pressure from the international community to release some of its warehoused COVID vaccines to India and other countries that need the shots.In addition to hundreds of thousands of new daily COVID cases, India is also experiencing an oxygen shortage, literally leaving COVID patients gasping for air.The Biden administration’s top medical adviser on the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Friday the U.S. is attempting to help India contain its coronavirus surge by providing technical support and assistance.Phnom Penh closed its markets Saturday. The Cambodian capital went into lockdown April 15, but markets remained open. High infection rates at the markets, however, prompted the local government to issue shutdown orders Friday for the markets. The snap move went into effect Saturday, catching many residents off guard, causing them to plead with the government for food. The market lockdown is in effect until May 7.According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, Cambodia has one of the world’s lowest COVID infection rates with 9,359 cases.The governor of the U.S. state of New York announced Saturday the state would immediately resume vaccinating residents with the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, despite evidence that it is linked to rare cases of blood clots.New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo made the announcement in a statement one day after a U.S. health panel recommended ending a pause on the use of the vaccine.“World-renowned public health experts from the federal government and our own independent state task force have reviewed the data and reaffirmed that the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can resume,” Cuomo said. “The state of New York will resume administration of this vaccine at all of our state-run sites effective immediately.”Advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should be resumed in the U.S. after regulators had paused it last week to review reports of rare but severe blood clots in a handful of Americans who had received the shot.The panel voted 10-4 for resumption of the vaccine, arguing that benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday there were more than 146 million global COVID-19 infections. The U.S. remains at the top of the list as the country with the most infections, with more than 32 million. India is second on the list with almost 17 million cases, followed by Brazil with 14.3 million.

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Thailand Sets Daily Record of COVID-19 Deaths for Second Day

Thailand on Sunday set a record for the daily number of COVID-19 deaths for the second consecutive day, as authorities step up the response to a rapid third wave of infections after about a year of relative success slowing the spread of coronavirus.Thailand will slow down issuing travel documents for foreign nationals from India due to the outbreak of a new coronavirus B.1.617 variant, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government’s COVID-19 taskforce.“For foreigners from India entering Thailand, right now we will slow this down,” said Taweesin, adding that 131 Thai nationals in India already registered to travel in May will still be allowed into the country.Thailand reported 2,438 new coronavirus cases and 11 new deaths, bringing the total number of infections to 55,460 and fatalities to 140 since the pandemic started last year.Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on his Facebook page on Saturday said provincial governors can close public venues and impose curfews if necessary to stop the virus spreading.Authorities in the capital city of Bangkok have ordered the closure of venues including parks, gyms, cinemas and day care centers from April 26 through May 9.Shopping malls remain open, but the Thai Retailers Association has restricted store opening hours in Bangkok as well as in 17 more of the country’s 73 provinces.Thailand kept its number of infection cases far lower than many other countries throughout last year, but a new outbreak, spurred partly by the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant, has resulted in over 24,000 cases and 46 deaths in just 25 days.The rising figures have prompted concern over the number of hospital beds, particularly as government policy is to admit anyone testing positive for the novel coronavirus, even those without symptoms.Health officials have insisted there are still over 20,000 available beds nationwide.To free beds quicker, the prime minister has said health authorities are considering reducing the quarantine period for asymptomatic cases to 10 days from 14, with the remaining four days to be spent in self-isolation at home.

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From Scarcity to Abundance: US Faces Calls to Share Vaccines

Victor Guevara knows people his age have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in many countries. His own relatives in Houston have been inoculated.But the 72-year-old Honduran lawyer, like so many others in his country, is still waiting. And increasingly, he is wondering why the United States is not doing more to help, particularly as the American vaccine supply begins to outpace demand and doses that have been approved for use elsewhere in the world, but not in the U.S., sit idle.“We live in a state of defenselessness on every level,” Guevara said of the situation in his Central American homeland.Honduras has obtained a paltry 59,000 vaccine doses for its 10 million people. Similar gaps in vaccine access are found across Africa, where just 36 million doses have been acquired for the continent’s 1.3 billion people, as well as in parts of Asia.In the United States, more than one-fourth of the population — nearly 90 million people — has been fully vaccinated and supplies are so robust that some states are turning down planned shipments from the federal government.This stark access gap is prompting increased calls across the world for the U.S. to start shipping vaccine supplies to poorer countries. That is creating an early test for President Joe Biden, who has pledged to restore American leadership on the world stage and prove to wary nations that the U.S. is a reliable partner after years of retrenchment during the Trump administration.J. Stephen Morrison, senior vice president and director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington, said that as the U.S. moves from vaccine scarcity to abundance, it has an opportunity to “shape the outcomes dramatically in this next phase because of the assets we have.”Biden, who took office in January as the virus was raging in the U.S., has responded cautiously to calls for help from abroad.He has focused the bulk of his administration’s vaccinations efforts at home. He kept in place an agreement struck by the Trump administration requiring drugmakers that got U.S. aid in developing or expanding vaccine manufacturing to sell their first doses produced in the country to the U.S. government. The U.S. has also used the Defense Production Act to secure vital supplies for the production of vaccine, a move that has blocked the export of some supplies outside the country.White House aides have argued that Biden’s cautious approach to promises around vaccine supply and delivery was validated in the wake of manufacturing issues with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the subsequent safety “pause” to investigate a handful of reported blood clots. In addition, officials say they need to maintain reserves in the U.S. to vaccinate teenagers and younger children once safety studies for those age groups are completed and if booster shots should be required later.The White House is aware that the rest of the world is watching. Last month, the U.S. shared 4 million vaccine doses with neighboring Canada and Mexico, and this past week, Biden said those countries would be targets for additional supplies. He also said countries in Central America could receive U.S. vaccination help, though officials have not detailed any specific plans.The lack of U.S. vaccine assistance around the world has created an opportunity for China and Russia, which have promised millions of doses of domestically produced shots to other countries, though there have been production delays that have hampered the delivery of some supplies. China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said this month that China opposes “vaccine nationalism” and that vaccines should become a global public good.Norma Gonzalez, 68, waits for results after she was tested for the COVID-19 virus, in a Red Cross laboratory in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, April 23, 2021.Professor Willem Hanekom, director of the Africa Health Research Institute and a vaccinologist, said wealthy countries have a stake in the success of vaccination efforts in other corners of the world.“Beyond the moral obligation, the problem is that if there is not going to be control of the epidemic globally, this may ultimately backfire for these rich countries, if in areas where vaccines are not available variants emerge against which the vaccines might not work,” Hanekom said.The U.S. has also faced criticism that it is not only hoarding its own stockpiles, but also blocking other countries from accessing vaccines, including through its use of the law that gives Washington broad authority to direct private companies to meet the needs of the national defense.Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest maker of vaccines and a critical supplier of the U.N.-backed COVAX facility, asked Biden on Twitter on April 16 to lift the U.S. embargo on exporting raw materials needed to make the jabs.India is battling the world’s fastest pace of spreading infections. Its government has blocked vaccine exports for several months to better meet needs at home, exacerbating the difficulty of poor countries to access vaccine.The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 2020 annual report also raised eyebrows for a section titled “Combatting malign influences in the Americas,” which said the U.S. had convinced Brazil to not buy the Russian shot.The U.S. Embassy denied exerting any pressure regarding vaccines approved by Brazil’s health regulator, which has not yet signed off on Sputnik V. Since March 13, Brazil has been trying to negotiate supply of U.S. surplus vaccines for itself, according to the foreign ministry.There are also concerns that the U.S. might link vaccine sharing to other diplomatic efforts. Washington’s loan of 2.7 million doses of AstraZeneca’s shots to Mexico last month came on the same day Mexico announced it was restricting crossings at its southern border, an effort that could help decrease the number of migrants seeking entry into the United States.A retired doctor from the public health system stands in a line as he waits to be inoculated with the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, as part of a vaccination campaign in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, April 23, 2021.Those sort of parallel tracks of diplomacy will be closely watched as the Biden administration decides with whom to share its surplus vaccine, particularly in Central America, home to many countries where migrant families and unaccompanied children are trying to make their way to the U.S.“What we would hope to avoid is any perception that increased access to lifesaving vaccines in Central America is in exchange for increased tightening of border security,” said Maureen Meyer, vice president for programs at the Washington Office on Latin America.As the wait for vaccines continues in Honduras, desperation is growing.Last week, a private business group announced it would try to buy 1.5 million vaccine doses to help government efforts, though it was unclear how it might obtain them. In March, authorities in Mexico seized 5,700 doses of purported Russian vaccines found in false bottoms of ice chests aboard a private plane bound for Honduras. The company owner who chartered the plane said he was trying to obtain vaccines for his employees and their families. The vaccine’s Russian distributor said the vaccines were fake.Lilian Tilbeth Hernández Banegas, 46, was infected with COVID-19 in late November and spent 13 days in a Tegucigalpa hospital. The first days she struggled to breathe and thought she would die.The experience has made the mother of three more anxious about the virus and more diligent about avoiding it. The pandemic rocked her family’s finances. Her husband sells used cars but has not made a sale in more than four months.“I want to vaccinate myself, my family to be vaccinated, because my husband and my children go out to work, but it’s frustrating that the vaccines don’t arrive,” Hernández said.There is plenty of blame to go around, said Marco Tulio Medina, coordinator of the COVID-19 committee at the National Autonomous University of Honduras, noting his own government’s lackadaisical approach and the ferocity of the vaccine marketplace. But the wealthy can do more.“There’s a lack of humanism on the part of the rich countries,” he said. “They’re acting in an egotistical way, thinking of themselves and not of the world.”

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New Apps Help Muslims Find Place to Pray

During Ramadan many mosques are open, but because of attendance limits there’s no guarantee of a place to pray. But new phone apps can help solve that problem, as VOA’s Yuni Salim found out, in this report narrated by Nova Poerwadi.
Camera: Yuni Salim      Producer: Bronwyn Benito

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Vaccine Doses Pass 1 Billion Mark as Global Cases Set Another Record

The number of COVID-19 jabs administered globally surpassed the 1 billion mark on Saturday, offering hope after months of pandemic misery, even as the number of coronavirus cases worldwide hit another daily record, mainly because of an explosion of the virus in India.At least 1,002,938,540 doses have been administered in 207 countries and territories, according to an AFP tally.Nevertheless, the number of new infections topped 893,000 worldwide on Friday, a one-day record.And India accounted for more than a third of those, with authorities there announcing 346,786 more new cases on Saturday, a record for a single country since the start of the pandemic.The pandemic has now killed more than 3 million people worldwide since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019.And India, with its population of 1.3 billion, has become the new hot spot, with the current surge blamed on a new virus variant and recent “super spreader” public events. The country reported 2,624 new deaths in the past 24 hours.Ambulances carrying COVID-19 patients line up waiting for their turn to be attended to at a dedicated COVID-19 government hospital in Ahmedabad, India, April 22, 2021. Indian authorities scrambled Saturday to get oxygen tanks to hospitals.Transporting oxygenOverwhelmed by the devastating new surge, the Indian government scrambled to organize special trains to get oxygen supplies to worst-hit cities.One “oxygen express” carrying 30,000 liters of oxygen arrived in northern Lucknow at dawn on Saturday, where armed guards were waiting to escort trucks to hospitals.The Indian air force also was being used to transport oxygen tankers and other supplies around the country and to bring oxygen equipment from Singapore.Thailand was also grappling with a spiraling caseload.Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha said Saturday that more than 1,400 COVID-19 patients were waiting to be admitted to hospitals.”If the outbreak becomes more severe, [the government] may consider reducing hospital quarantine for asymptomatic people from 14 days to 10 days,” he said in a move intended to free up hospital beds.FILE – A shipment of COVID-19 vaccines distributed by the COVAX global initiative arrives in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Feb. 25, 2021.With the pandemic still showing no sign of slowing, governments around the world are placing their hopes in vaccines.And worldwide, the number of vaccine doses administered has doubled in less than a month.Nevertheless, while the majority of poor countries have also started to vaccinate — mainly thanks to the COVAX program — inoculation is still largely a privilege of high-income countries. Home to 16 percent of the world’s population, they have administered 47 percent of vaccine doses.By contrast, low-income countries account for just 0.2 percent of shots so far.In the U.S., regulators have approved the restart of a rollout of Johnson & Johnson vaccines halted over blood-clotting concerns.Belgium: J&J jabs for all adultsIn Europe, Belgium said Saturday that it would authorize the J&J shot for all adults, having already received 36,000 doses and expecting a total of 1.4 million between April and June.The European Union as a whole said it would have enough vaccines to immunize 70 percent of its adult population by the end of July.A 91-year-old British grandmother, Margaret Keenan, who on December 8 became the first person in the Western world to get an approved coronavirus vaccine, urged people to get inoculated.”It really is the best thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “I’m telling everyone to go and get it … I hope everyone comes forward.”But despite the optimism, the threat of the virus remains ever-present, with Germany implementing tougher new lockdown rules, including night curfews and school closures, after the government passed a disputed new law designed to slow infections.The controversial new rules — passed this week amid huge protests in Berlin — will apply in all regions with incidence rates of more than 100 new infections per 100,000 people over the last seven days.Demonstrators take part in an anti-lockdown “Unite for Freedom” protest, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London, April 24, 2021.And in Britain, ongoing restrictions continued to fuel a great deal of anger.Huge crowds protested in London on Saturday against Britain’s remaining coronavirus restrictions, the mandatory use of masks and the possible introduction of so-called vaccine passports.Britain began to gradually lift COVID-19 restrictions last month after months of curbs and a successful mass vaccination campaign. Pubs were allowed to serve customers outdoors this month and nonessential shops reopened.The demonstrators marched along several major arteries, including the main shopping district Oxford Street, with videos and photos showing thousands in attendance.Hundreds then rallied in Hyde Park late in the afternoon following the march, an AFP reporter said.Organizers used various websites and online platform pages to encourage turnout, despite curbs that limit outdoor gatherings to 30 people.

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Prototype of 1st US Dollar Coins Auctioned for $840,000

A piece of copper that was struck by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1794 and  was a prototype for the fledgling nation’s money was auctioned off for $840,000, considerably more than expected, an official said.Heritage auctions spokesman Eric Bradley said the “No Stars Flowing Hair Dollar” opened at $312,000 when it was put up Friday evening but “in less than a minute, intense bidding quickly pushed the coin to its final auction price of $840,000.”The coin, formerly owned by businessman and Texas Rangers co-chairman Bob Simpson, had been expected to sell for $350,000 to $500,000, Bradley said.This is the back of a piece of copper that was struck by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1794 and was a prototype for the fledgling nation’s money. The item, which is known as the “No Stars Flowing Hair Dollar,” sold for nearly $1 million.While it closely resembles silver dollars that were later minted in Philadelphia, it gets its name because it is missing stars. Jacob Lipson of Heritage Auctions said earlier that starless coins are considered by collectors and institutions as “one-of-a-kind prototypes for the silver examples that would follow.” Known as a pattern, the front features the flowing hair portrait of Liberty and the date 1794, while the reverse side shows a small eagle on a rock within a wreath. Similar starless examples are part of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Numismatic Collection. The pattern was forgotten as the Mint continued the process of creating the nation’s first silver dollars. “Coin collecting lore states the unique rarity was excavated from the site of the first Philadelphia Mint before 1876,” Lipson said. That was how the coin’s first owner described its history at its first auction appearance in 1890.The pattern is corroded and not in perfect condition, Lipson said, likely because it was buried at the site of the original Mint. There are some scratches and other marks on its brown surfaces. It has traded hands eight times, according to the auction house.Simpson, 73, purchased it along with other patterns in 2008 to add to his large collection. “I think coins should be appreciated almost as artwork,” he said. “I have gotten more than enough joy from them.”

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As World Isolates Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, New Zealand Band Plays to 50,000 Fans

Singer Matiu Walters grinned as he gazed out over 50,000 damp but delirious fans and said those magic words: “So, what’s up Eden Park?”While much of the world remains hunkered down, the band Six60 has been playing to huge crowds in New Zealand, where social distancing isn’t required after the nation stamped out the coronavirus. The band’s tour finale on Saturday night was billed as the largest concert in the world since the pandemic began.Equally momentous for a band which met while playing rugby at university was getting to play the first concert ever held at the storied Eden Park rugby stadium. And finding themselves at the apex of world music came as a twist for Six60, which has enjoyed unparalleled success in New Zealand but whose forays abroad have ended without the breakthroughs they sought.Saturday’s set by the five-piece band included powerful cameos by military musicians ahead of the nation honoring its war dead on Sunday, and Maori performers who stretched across the stage while the band switched to singing in the Indigenous language.One fan, Lucy Clumpas, found it a surreal experience to be surrounded by so many people after she spent last year living through endless lockdowns in Britain. “It’s very important for us as humans to be able to get together and sing the same songs together,” she said. “It makes us feel like we’re part of something,” Walters, the lead singer, said they desperately want their musician friends around the world to be able to play live shows again.”We know what it’s like to be in lockdown. It sucked. And we didn’t know if we’d be able to play gigs again,” he said in an interview before the show. “But we are fortunate, for a few reasons, here in New Zealand.”Guitarist Ji Fraser said the reception they received while on the road for their summer tour had been incredible.”It was amazing to see how fanatical people were, and excited about being out and seeing live music, and seeing something to drag them out of a long, brutal year,” he said. “It was very special.”Walters said they did worry that something could have gone wrong — that their gigs could have turned into super-spreader events. But he said there was not much to do other than play by the rules and follow the government guidelines.The band formed thirteen years ago after they started jamming in their rugby changing rooms, making their concert at the hallowed ground of the nation’s All Blacks rugby team feel like completing a circle.
The band had pushed for changes to civic rules to allow concerts at Eden Park, but not all the neighbors were happy.One who objected was former Prime Minister Helen Clark, who said at the time that the concerts would represent a “home invasion” of noise.”But the people wanted it. And the people spoke,” Walters said. The singer added that Clark would have been welcomed at the concert. “Six60 is for everyone. And maybe if she came and enjoyed herself, she’d have a change of heart.”Promoter Brent Eccles said they got permission to use the venue only at the last moment.”And we thought to ourselves, well, how crazy are we?” he said. “And the answer was, well, pretty crazy. So let’s do it.” It’s been a heady rise for a group which began as a hard-partying student covers band. Their style has evolved and remains difficult to define, blending elements of reggae, pop, rock and soul.Bass guitarist Chris Mac said their fans now span rich and poor, young and old. “We’re pretty lucky to have become the soundtrack of people’s lives. Weddings, funerals, birthdays, engagements,” he said, before breaking into laughter. “You know, gender-reveal parties, which are all the rage.”As the band’s popularity grew in New Zealand, it became a kind of sport for critics to knock them for being too bland. Walters said criticism of success remains a problem in New Zealand, and was something that annoyed him at the time. But he said it also energized the band. “We are very serious about the music,” he said. “It’s important for us to express an emotion and tell a story, and for our songs to be healing and magnetic for people. Because, it’s not a fluke that we’re playing to 50,000 people.”The band has been trying to get more recognition abroad, although six months spent in Germany and a U.S. record deal both ended in disaster, as recounted in a behind-the-scenes documentary about the band “Six60: Till The Lights Go Out.”But the band is ready to give it another shot, with a tour of Europe and the U.K. planned for November. They hope that by then, there will be many more places around the world where huge crowds can gather in song.

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French Isolation Study for 15 People Ends After 40 Days in Cave

Ever wonder what it would feel like to unplug from a hyperconnected world and hide away in a dark cave for 40 days? Fifteen people in France did just that, emerging Saturday from a scientific experiment to say that time seemed to pass more slowly in their cavernous underground abode in southwestern France, where they were deprived of clocks and light.With big smiles on their pale faces, the 15 left their voluntary isolation in the Lombrives cave to a round of applause and basked in the light while wearing special glasses to protect their eyes after so long in the dark. “It was like pressing pause,” said 33-year-old Marina Lançon, one of the seven female members in the experiment, adding she didn’t feel there was a rush to do anything.Although she wished she could have stayed in the cave a few days longer, she said she was happy to feel the wind blowing on her face again and hear the birds sing in the trees of the French Pyrénées. And she doesn’t plan to open her smartphone for a few more days, hoping to avoid a “too brutal” return to real life.For 40 days and 40 nights, the group lived in and explored the cave as part of the Deep Time project. There was no sunlight inside, the temperature was 10 degrees Celsius (50 F) and the relative humidity stood at 100%. The cave dwellers had no contact with the outside world, no updates on the pandemic nor any communications with friends or family.Scientists at the Human Adaption Institute leading the $1.5 million “Deep Time” project say the experiment will help them better understand how people adapt to drastic changes in living conditions and environments.As expected, those in the cave lost their sense of time.”And here we are! We just left after 40 days … For us it was a real surprise,” said project director Christian Clot, adding for most participants, “in our heads, we had walked into the cave 30 days ago.” 
At least one team member estimated the time underground at 23 days.Johan Francois, 37, a math teacher and sailing instructor, ran 10-kilometer circles in the cave to stay fit. He sometimes had “visceral urges” to leave.With no daily obligations and no children around, the challenge was “to profit from the present moment without ever thinking about what will happen in one hour, in two hours,” he said.In partnership with labs in France and Switzerland, scientists monitored the 15 member’s sleep patterns, social interactions and behavioral reactions via sensors. One sensor was a tiny thermometer inside a capsule that participants swallowed like a pill. It measured body temperatures and transmitted data to a computer until it was expelled naturally. The team members followed their biological clocks to know when to wake up, go to sleep and eat. They counted their days not in hours but in sleep cycles.On Friday, scientists monitoring the participants entered the cave to let the research subjects know they would be coming out soon. “It’s really interesting to observe how this group synchronizes themselves,” Clot said earlier in a recording from inside the cave. Working together on projects and organizing tasks without being able to set a time to meet was especially challenging, he said. Although the participants looked visibly tired Saturday, two-thirds expressed a desire to remain underground a bit longer in order to finish group projects started during the expedition, Benoit Mauvieux, a chronobiologist involved in the research, told The AP.”Our future as humans on this planet will evolve,” Clot said after emerging. “We must learn to better understand how our brains are capable of finding new solutions, whatever the situation.”

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China Points Toward Asteroid Defense System, Comet Mission

China will discuss building a defense system against near-Earth asteroids, a senior space agency official said Saturday, as the country steps up its longer-term space ambitions.Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration, did not provide further detail in his opening remarks at a ceremony for China’s Space Day in the eastern city of Nanjing.China has made space exploration a top priority in recent years, aiming to establish a program operating thousands of space flights a year and carrying tens of thousands of tons of cargo and passengers by 2045.The European Space Agency last year signed a deal worth 129 million euros ($156 million) to build a spacecraft for a joint project with NASA examining how to deflect an asteroid heading for Earth.China is pushing forward a mission where one space probe will land on a near-Earth asteroid to collect samples, fly back toward Earth to release a capsule containing the samples, and then orbit another comet, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Ye Peijian, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.The mission could take about a decade to complete, Ye said. China and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding last month to set up an international lunar research station.

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Malawi Rejects WHO Call to Use Expired COVID Vaccine

Malawi’s government says it will go ahead with plans to destroy thousands of expired COVID-19 vaccine doses, despite calls from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Africa Centre for Disease Control not to destroy them.The WHO and Africa CDC this week urged African countries not to destroy COVID-19 vaccines that may have passed their expiration dates, saying they are still safe to use. However, Malawi’s government says the appeals have come too late to prevent the destruction of thousands of doses of expired COVID vaccines.
 
Officials said the 16,440 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine that expired April 13 have already been removed from cold storage.
 
Thursday, the WHO and the Africa CDC had urged African countries not to destroy the vaccine that may have expired, saying it is still usable.  
 
“And it’s also a requirement that every vile manufactured, has an expiry date beyond which it cannot be used,” said Dr. Charles Mwansambo, Malawi’s secretary for health. “In this case, we cannot proceed to use these because the vile clearly states the expiry date. And any doctor, any physician would not be forgiven in the event of anything happening after knowingly used a vile that is clearly having labeled as having expired.”
 
The expired vaccine is part of the 102,000-dose donation the country received in March from the African Union.   
 
Malawi and South Sudan earlier announced plans to destroy about 70,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that expired last month.
 
Mwansambo also said using the expired vaccine would scare people from taking the jabs from the remaining stock.  
 
“If we leave or store these expired vaccines that will be big blow to our vaccination drive people will not come. Now even though we are not using them people have been hesitant to come because they feel that we might be given the expired vaccines,” he said.
 
Mwansambo said the country may be considering extending the shelf life of the remaining stock of vaccine received through the COVAX facility and from the Indian government that expires in June and July.
 
George Jobe, the executive director for the Malawi Health Equity Network, said using the expired COVID-19 vaccine would create a negative attitude in people.
   
“We can have phobia from Malawians which we should not. If the [expired] vaccines are safe, the CDC can take the expired vaccines, or WHO, and donate to the developed countries. But we have to witness the day the vaccines are leaving Malawi.”   
 
Mwansambo said destroying the expired vaccine is in line with Malawi government guidelines on expired pharmaceutical products.
 
He said the government will soon announce the date when it will publicly destroy the expired vaccine in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe.  
 

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