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Month: April 2024
About 1 in 4 older US adults expect they will never retire
washington — About one-quarter of U.S. adults age 50 and older who are not yet retired say they expect to never retire, and 70% are concerned about prices rising faster than their income, an AARP survey finds.
About 1 in 4 have no retirement savings, according to research released Wednesday by the organization that shows how a graying America is worrying more and more about how to make ends meet even as economists and policymakers say the U.S. economy has all but achieved a soft landing after two years of record inflation.
Everyday expenses and housing costs, including rent and mortgage payments, are the biggest reasons why people are unable to save for retirement.
The data will matter this election year as Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump are trying to win support from older Americans, who traditionally turn out in high numbers, with their policy proposals.
Everyday expenses hamper saving
The AARP’s study, based on interviews completed with more than 8,000 people in coordination with the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, finds that one-third of older adults with credit card debt carry a balance of more than $10,000 and 12% have a balance of $20,000 or more. Additionally, 37% are worried about meeting basic living costs such as food and housing.
“Far too many people lack access to retirement savings options and this, coupled with higher prices, is making it increasingly hard for people to choose when to retire,” said Indira Venkateswaran, AARP’s senior vice president of research. “Everyday expenses continue to be the top barrier to saving more for retirement, and some older Americans say that they never expect to retire.”
The share of people 50 and older who say they do not expect to retire has remained steady. It was 23% in January 2022 and 24% that July, according to the study, which is conducted twice a year.
“We are seeing an expansion of older workers staying in the workforce,” said David John, senior strategic policy advisor at the AARP Public Policy Institute. He said this is in part because older workers “don’t have sufficient retirement savings. It’s a problem and its likely to continue as we go forward.”
In the AARP survey, 33% of respondents 50 and older believe their finances will be better in a year.
Based on the 2022 congressional elections, census data released Tuesday shows that voters 65 and older made up 30.4% of all voters, while Gen Z and millennials accounted for 11.7%.
Biden has tried to court older voters by regularly promoting a $35 price cap on insulin for people on Medicare. He trumpets Medicare’s powers to negotiate directly with drugmakers on the cost of prescription medications.
Trump, in an interview with CNBC in March, indicated he would be open to cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The former president said “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.”
Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for Trump’s campaign, said in a statement to The Associated Press on Tuesday that Trump “will continue to strongly protect Social Security and Medicare in his second term.”
Candidates court senior voters
A looming issue that will affect Americans’ ability to retire is the financial health of Social Security and Medicare.
The latest annual report from the program’s trustees says the financial safety nets for millions of older Americans will run short of money to pay full benefits within the next decade.
Medicare, the government-sponsored health insurance that covers 65 million older and disabled people, will be unable to pay full benefits for inpatient hospital visits and nursing home stays by 2031, the report forecast. And just two years later, Social Security will not have enough cash on hand to pay out full benefits to its 66 million retirees.
An AP-NORC poll from March 2023 found that most U.S. adults are opposed to proposals that would cut into Medicare or Social Security benefits, and a majority support raising taxes on the nation’s highest earners to keep Medicare running as is.
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Iran Risks Further Backlash for Death Sentence of Dissident Rapper, Says German MP
Washington — Iran’s handing of a death sentence this week to dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi has drawn outrage from the Islamic republic’s domestic and international critics, including a German lawmaker who says Tehran risks fueling the backlash if it moves toward executing the artist.
In an interview for the Friday edition of VOA’s Flashpoint Global Crises program, German parliament member Ye-One Rhie said the Iranian government is using the death sentence to monitor who is still reacting to developments in Salehi’s case and how they are reacting. Rhie has been acting as a “political sponsor” or advocate for the 33-year-old Iranian singer since shortly after his initial arrest in October 2022.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is testing the waters,” Rhie said, noting that Tehran did the same when it staged an unprecedented aerial assault on Israel earlier this month. Israeli forces largely thwarted the attack with military assistance from a coalition of Western allies and Arab neighbors.
Iranian state-approved newspaper Shargh first reported the death sentence against Salehi in an article published Wednesday, citing one of his lawyers who vowed to appeal it.
Salehi was charged upon arrest with “spreading corruption on earth,” an offense punishable by death. Days earlier, he had posted videos on Instagram, showing himself joining a nationwide protest movement against Iran’s Islamist government and releasing a music video denouncing the government for 44 years of “failure.”
The rapper was sentenced last July to six years in prison, but Iran’s Supreme Court reviewed the ruling and declared it flawed, enabling his release in November. He was re-arrested two weeks later, after posting another video online complaining of being tortured in custody.
Wednesday’s report of Salehi’s death sentence drew swift condemnations from other dissidents and artists in Iran and from Iranian teachers’ trade unions.
VOA’s Persian Service also received and vetted several videos that appeared to show protest actions inside Iran. VOA could not verify the videos independently because it is barred from reporting inside Iran.
One video shows a banner with Salehi’s image on a bridge over Tehran’s Modarres Expressway, as a woman filming the scene says the date is April 25.
Another clip shows a Persian slogan citing Salehi scrawled onto a building’s exterior wall in an unidentified location. The graffiti says: “We will return to the streets with strength.”
Criticism of Salehi’s death sentence also came quickly from the United States and U.N. human rights bodies. In a Wednesday post on the X platform, U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Iran Abram Paley said the U.S. “strongly” condemns the move. U.N. rights experts issued a statement Thursday demanding that Iran release Salehi immediately and reverse the sentence.
As those calls were made, some Iranian state media appeared to downplay the possibility of Salehi being executed. In articles published Thursday, they cited Iran’s Judiciary Media Center as saying that even if the Supreme Court confirms Salehi’s death sentence upon appeal, a Pardon and Forgiveness Commission would review the case for possible commutation.
Rhie said her efforts to raise international awareness of Salehi’s plight for the past year-and-a-half have kept his case on the radar and agenda of Western media and governments.
“It is important for the Iranian regime to know that Salehi has a status that they cannot touch. I would warn them against doing anything to him, because they don’t want to know what the backlash would be,” Rhie said.
While Iran has signaled that Salehi’s death sentence could be reversed, the German lawmaker said she will keep up her fight. “I don’t think that there is anything that will stop us from our activism,” she said.
VOA’s Persian Service contributed to this report.
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Methane-measuring satellite could help slow global warming
Methane leaking from fossil fuel production is among the top contributors to climate change. Now a leading environmental scientist is hoping to provide more accurate and consistent findings of methane emissions with the launch of a technologically advanced satellite. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. Arash Arabasadi contributed to this report. Camera: Adam Greenbaum
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Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone launch malaria vaccination programs
COTONOU, Benin — Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone launched large-scale malaria vaccine programs on Thursday under an Africa-focused initiative that hopes to save tens of thousands of children’s lives per year across Africa.
The three West African countries are the latest to participate after successful rollouts of routine malaria immunization for children in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, the global vaccine alliance GAVI said in a statement.
The World Health Organization-approved vaccine is meant to work alongside existing tools such as bed nets to combat malaria, which in Africa kills nearly half a million children under the age of 5 each year.
“This introduction … will help save lives and offer relief to families, communities and hard-pressed health systems,” said Aurelia Nguyen, GAVI chief program officer.
Benin has 215,900 doses of the vaccine, which will be available to children from around 5 months old, according to GAVI.
Sierra Leone has 550,000 doses and neighboring Liberia has 112,000 doses, it said.
At the official launch in Benin, which took place in the town of Allada, some 54 kilometers from the country’s largest city, Cotonou, 25 children received the vaccine.
“I came to have my children vaccinated against malaria. It’s important to me because when children get this malaria disease, we spend a lot of money,” said Victoire Fagbemi, a 41-year-old mother of four.
Another mother, Victoire Boko, who had her 10-month-old child vaccinated at the launch, said the health minister’s explanations about the vaccine in the local Fon language had allayed any anxieties she had about its safety. “When I get home, I will share the information … with my neighbors and friends,” she said on the sidelines of the launch.
The African region is home to 11 countries that carry approximately 70% of the global burden of malaria, according to GAVI.
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Nigerian company creates taxi system fueled by electric vehicles
As climate change wreaks havoc around the world, the need for sustainable solutions grows more urgent. In Nigeria, a private company recently introduced an Uber-style taxi system made of approximately 200 electric vehicles. The company says the fleet is a step toward a greener future. Gibson Emeka reports from Abuja, Nigeria. Amy Reifenrath narrates.
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Malaria remains public health challenge in Kenya, but progress may be coming
MIGORI, Kenya — As the coffin bearing the body of Rosebella Awuor was lowered into the grave, heart-wrenching sobs from mourners filled the air. Her sister Winnie Akinyi, the guardian to Awuor’s orphaned son, fell to the ground, wailing.
It was the latest of five deaths in this family attributed to malaria. The disease is common in Kenya, and it is preventable and curable, but poverty makes it deadly for those who can’t afford treatment.
In the family’s compound in the western county of Migori, three other graves are visible, that of Awuor’s husband and their other two children who died from malaria before age 2.
Awuor, 31, fell ill in December and lost her five-month pregnancy before succumbing to malaria. Her 11-year-old son is the family’s only survivor.
Malaria is still a significant public health challenge in Kenya, though some progress may be coming. Parts of Kenya participated in an important pilot of the world’s first malaria vaccine, with a reported drop in deaths for children under 5. Kenya’s health ministry hasn’t said when the vaccine will be widely available.
The biggest impact is felt in regions characterized by high temperatures like Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast, and places with high rainfall like the western region near Lake Victoria.
Kenya had an estimated 5 million malaria cases and more than 12,000 deaths reported in 2022, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO has declared April 25 as World Malaria Day.
Most of those affected are children under 5 and pregnant women.
New approaches needed
Kenya continues to combat malaria with traditional methods such as distributing bed nets that are treated with insecticides, spraying breeding areas, and promoting early diagnosis and treatment, but experts say progress against the disease with those approaches has plateaued.
Public health expert Dr. Willis Akhwale, special adviser for the Kenya End Malaria Council, said the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the distribution of drugs and treatment.
He said innovative treatment methods are needed in the wake of drug-resistant cases reported in parts of Africa.
“We need to start looking at investments in new-generation medicines. That should then be able to counter any resistance in [the] foreseeable future,” he said.
Akhwale said other needs include more funding and logistical support.
“In Kenya, the shortfall in terms of the need is almost $52 million, so we need to close that gap,” he said, citing health ministry data. He recommended domestic funding and private sector support amid donor fatigue with crises around the world.
Wilson Otieno has been admitted to a hospital three times for malaria and has received outpatient treatment countless times. It’s expensive for the 33-year-old accountant and father in the lakeside city of Kisumu.
Malaria is never “pocket friendly,” he said.
Some progress has been made with local manufacturing of crucial medication.
The Kenya-based Universal Corporation Limited last year received the WHO’s approval to produce an antimalarial drug known as Spaq, a combination of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine plus amodiaquine.
The approval was an important step in Africa’s capacity to make lifesaving medications, a new focus for governments and public health officials after vulnerabilities were exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Africa relies heavily on drug imports.
“It will really help in lowering the dependency for imports as we saw during the COVID era, where whatever was being imported actually had huge supply disruptions,” said Palu Dhanani, the founder and managing director of UCL.
If you don’t get the right medicine at the right time, malaria can cause unnecessary deaths, Dhanani said.
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‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years
Paris, France — World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of “extreme” climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said Thursday.
“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organization of Vine and Wine, or OIV, that covers nearly 50 wine-producing countries.
Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.
The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.
In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank 3 percent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.
Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine-producing regions.”
Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “The most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.
“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.
France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a 4 percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.
Less wine being drunk
Wine consumption last year was, however, at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall off over the last five years, according to the figures.
The trend is partly due to price increases caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China — down a quarter — due to its economic slowdown.
The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.
Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.
“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.
Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares.
But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a 3 percent rise in the size of its vineyards.
France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distill their grapes.
The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.
Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the center and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions,” he said.
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Old style dresses help Namibian women look ahead
Victorian dress was forcibly imposed on Namibia’s indigenous ǂNūkhoe women by German colonizers in the late 1800s. Despite the origins, these styles persist today as a symbol of resilience. Lee Garises reports from Windhoek, Namibia. Camera: Jesaya Abraham
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Biden grants $6 billion to Micron to boost chip production
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden was in Syracuse, New York, Thursday to tout a deal to provide memory chip maker Micron Technology with $6.1 billion in federal grants to support the firm in building factories in the states of New York and Idaho.
“We’re bringing advanced chip manufacturing back to America after 40 years,” Biden said Thursday. He said the funding, paired with a $125 billion investment from Micron, represents the “single biggest private investment ever in history of these two states.”
The investment will support the construction of two plants in Clay, a suburb of Syracuse, New York, and one in Boise, Idaho. The grant will unleash “$50 billion in private investment by 2030 as the first step towards Micron’s investment of up to $125 billion across both states over the next two decades,” the White House said in a statement.
The deal was announced last week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, who personally lobbied Micron to invest in his state. It’s the latest in a series of awards given by the administration, intended to shore up domestic production of advanced semiconductors using funds from the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The aim is to boost domestic manufacturing and reduce reliance on chip supplies from China and Taiwan.
This investment will “supercharge Micron to build the most advanced memory chip factory in the world, Schumer said Thursday. “America’s future will be built in Syracuse, not in Shanghai.”
The administration recently awarded Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductor, Intel, GlobalFoundries, Microchip Technology, and BAE Systems, more than $29 billion in federal grants for chipmaking investments. It’s part of an effort to catch up in the global semiconductor manufacturing race currently dominated by China, Taiwan and South Korea.
The U.S. share of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity has decreased from 37% in 1990 to 12% today, largely because other governments have offered manufacturing incentives and invested in research to strengthen domestic chipmaking capabilities, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
To address such stiff foreign competition, the $280 billion bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act offers $52 billion in incentives for domestic semiconductor production and research, as well as an investment tax credit for semiconductor manufacturing.
Manufacturing revival
The announcements are part of the economic vision the president is offering to voters in his re-election bid – that he is working to create a manufacturing revival in the country, including in Republican-controlled districts such as where the Micron plant will be located.
“Micron’s total investment will be the largest private investment in New York and Idaho’s history, and will create over 70,000 jobs, including 20,000 direct construction and manufacturing jobs and tens of thousands of indirect jobs,” the White House said.
Ahead of the November presidential election, Biden’s strategy appears to be to announce investments in manufacturing facilities in Georgia, Idaho, North Carolina and Ohio, states where Democrats lack a strong foothold.
It is not clear whether the approach will succeed as voters will not immediately feel the effects. The initial phase of the Micron project, for example, would see the first plant opened in 2028 and the second in 2029.
Meanwhile, voters are concerned about high inflation, and dislike Biden’s economic job performance. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll shows 34% of respondents approving of Biden’s approach on the economy, compared to 41% who favor the approach of former president Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Still, Biden’s trip to New York is an opportunity for him to celebrate another victory following a string of good news for the president. On Wednesday, he secured the endorsement of the North America’s Building Trades Unions and signed a $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after months of congressional gridlock.
Paris Huang contributed to this report.
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US communications regulator restores net neutrality annulled under Trump
washington — The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 on Thursday to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules and reassume regulatory oversight of broadband internet rescinded under former President Donald Trump.
The commission voted along party lines to finalize a proposal first advanced in October to reinstate open internet rules adopted in 2015 and re-establish the commission’s broadband authority.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the agency “believes every consumer deserves internet access that is fast, open, and fair.”
“The last FCC threw this authority away and decided broadband needed no supervision,” she said.
Net neutrality refers to the principle that internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.
The FCC said it was also using its authority to order the U.S. units of China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile to discontinue broadband internet access services in the United States.
Rosenworcel noted the FCC has taken similar actions against Chinese telecom companies in the past using existing authority.
Reinstating the net neutrality rules has been a priority for President Joe Biden, who signed a July 2021 executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate net neutrality rules adopted under Democratic President Barack Obama.
Democrats were stymied for nearly three years because they did not take majority control of the five-member FCC until October.
Under Trump, the FCC had argued the net neutrality rules were unnecessary, blocked innovation and resulted in a decline in network investment by internet service providers, a contention disputed by Democrats.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticized the FCC action saying it was “imposing a flawed, pre-television era regulatory structure on broadband” and “will only deter the investments and innovation necessary to connect all Americans.”
Public interest group Free Press said the vote is a “major victory for the public interest” saying it “empowers the FCC to hold companies like AT&T, Comcast, Spectrum and Verizon accountable for a wide range of harms to internet users across the United States.”
A group of Republican lawmakers, including House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Senator Ted Cruz, called the plan “an illegal power grab that would expose the broadband industry to an oppressive regulatory regime” giving the agency and states power to impose rate regulation, unbundle obligations and tax broadband internet providers.
Democrats on the FCC say they will not set rate regulations.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, whose members include Amazon.com, Apple, Alphabet and Meta Platforms, back net neutrality, arguing the rules “must be reinstated to preserve open access to the internet.”
USTelecom, whose members include AT&T, Verizon and others, called reinstating net neutrality “entirely counterproductive, unnecessary, and an anti-consumer regulatory distraction.”
Despite the 2017 decision to withdraw the requirement at the federal level, a dozen states now have net neutrality laws or regulations in place. Industry groups abandoned legal challenges to those state requirements in May 2022.
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Pakistan’s Malaria Surge Linked to Climate Change
April 25 marks the global observance of World Malaria Day. Pakistan saw the world’s largest increase in malaria cases in 2022 following that year’s catastrophic flooding, according to the latest World Health Organization data. Experts say climate change was a factor. VOA’s Nazr Ul Islam’s visited a hospital in Islamabad and filed this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
Camera: Nazr Ul Islam
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Russia blocks UN resolution on peaceful use of outer space
new york — Russia blocked a U.N. Security Council resolution Wednesday reaffirming the need to prevent a nuclear arms race in outer space.
The measure was proposed jointly by the United States, a nuclear power, and Japan, the only nation ever to be attacked with nuclear bombs.
“We have only begun to understand the catastrophic ramifications of a nuclear explosion in space,” said U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “How it could destroy thousands of satellites operated by countries and companies around the world — and wipe out the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial and national security services we all depend on.”
The failed text recalled the responsibility of states to comply with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which is the basic framework on international space law. It says outer space is to be shared among nations and shall be free of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction. The treaty also says the moon and other celestial bodies “shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes,” and astronauts shall be “regarded as the envoys of mankind.”
The proposed resolution also called on states “not to develop nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction specifically designed to be placed in orbit around the Earth, or to be installed on celestial bodies, or to be stationed in outer space in any other manner.”
Thomas-Greenfield noted that President Vladimir Putin has said publicly that Russia has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space.
“And so, today’s veto begs the question: Why? Why, if you are following the rules, would you not support a resolution that reaffirms them?” she asked. “What could you possibly be hiding? It’s baffling, and it’s a shame.”
Thomas-Greenfield just returned from Japan, where she visited Nagasaki, a city on which the United States dropped one of two atomic bombs at the end of World War II.
“It was a reminder of our profound responsibility to prevent the scourge of war and ensure that no place experiences the horror of nuclear weaponry ever again,” she said.
“Adopting this draft resolution would have been a positive and practical contribution to the promotion of the peaceful use and exploration of outer space,” said Japanese Ambassador Kazuyuki Yamazaki. “If adopted, we could have demonstrated our unity in reaffirming the principle of no placement of any weapons of mass destruction in outer space and in opposing the development of such capabilities.”
The proposed resolution, which had more than 60 co-sponsors, created no new international obligations, but reaffirmed existing ones. It was supported by 13 of the 15 council members. After failing to get an amendment added to it, Russia vetoed it and China abstained.
“Today, our council is once again being involved in a dirty spectacle prepared by the U.S. and Japan,” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said. “This is a cynical ploy. We are being tricked.”
He said Moscow wanted a text that would have gone further, banning weapons of any kind in outer space.
China’s new U.N. ambassador, Fu Cong, echoed that, saying the draft needed “other substantive elements.”
US concerns
In February, U.S. officials said Russia is developing a space-based weapon to attack satellites. They do not believe it would target people or cause destruction on Earth.
Analysts at the Washington-based Safe World Foundation think tank say on their website that Russia is most likely developing a system “that would use a nuclear explosion to create weapons effects, most likely an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), that would in turn disable or destroy satellites.”
There are thousands of satellites in space that run the gamut from sophisticated military purposes to running a car’s GPS or providing television programming.
Although the U.S. resolution was not adopted, Thomas-Greenfield said Washington would continue to pursue bilateral arms control discussions with Russia in good faith.
The U.S. also has concerns about China’s work in space, where officials say they are rapidly developing a range of counterspace weapons and using outer space to strengthen the capabilities of their military forces on Earth.
“Over the last six years they have tripled the number of intelligent surveillance and reconnaissance satellites in orbit, and they have used their space capabilities to improve the lethality, the precision and the range of their terrestrial forces,” said General Stephen Whiting, commander of the U.S. Space Command.
He spoke by phone to regional journalists Wednesday from Tokyo, where he is meeting with allies.
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‘Loose Ends’ provides closure one project at a time
When a person dies, it often falls to their children, loved ones, lawyers or even friends to sort through the things they’ve left behind. Sometimes, those things are unfinished projects or hobbies, that’s where the group Loose Ends comes in. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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Japan’s moon lander still going after 3 lunar nights
TOKYO — Japan’s first moon lander has survived a third freezing lunar night, Japan’s space agency said Wednesday after receiving an image from the device three months after it landed on the moon.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the lunar probe responded to a signal from the earth Tuesday night, confirming it has survived another weekslong lunar night.
Temperatures can fall to minus 170 degrees Celsius during a lunar night and rise to around 100 Celsius during a lunar day.
The probe, Smart Lander for Investing Moon, or SLIM, reached the lunar surface on Jan. 20, making Japan the fifth country to successfully place a probe on the moon.
SLIM landed the wrong way up with its solar panels initially unable to see the sun, and had to be turned off within hours, but powered on when the sun rose eight days later.
SLIM, which was tasked with testing Japan’s pinpoint landing technology and collecting geological data and images, was not designed to survive lunar nights.
JAXA said on the social media platform X that SLIM’s key functions are still working despite repeated harsh cycles of temperature changes. The agency said it plans to closely monitor the lander’s deterioration.
Scientists are hoping to find clues about the origin of the moon by comparing the mineral compositions of moon rocks and those of Earth.
The message from SLIM came days after NASA restored contact with Voyager 1, the farthest space probe from Earth, which had been sending garbled data back for months.
An U.S. lunar probe developed by a private space company announced termination of its operation a month after its February landing, while an Indian moon lander failed to establish communication after touchdown in 2023.
your ads here!Generative AI threatens voter confidence in what’s real
Artificial intelligence surrounds U.S. political life, from fundraising to campaign advertising. Some lawmakers are looking to better police the use of generative content in this year’s presidential election as they say it threatens voter confidence in what is real. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns reports.
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