The maker of OxyContin and the company’s controlling family agreed Tuesday to pay a groundbreaking $270 million to Oklahoma to settle allegations they helped create the nation’s deadly opioid crisis with their aggressive marketing of the powerful painkiller.

It is the first settlement to come out of the recent coast-to-coast wave of nearly 2,000 lawsuits against Purdue Pharma that threaten to push the company into bankruptcy and have stained the name of the Sackler family, whose members rank among the world’s foremost philanthropists.

“The addiction crisis facing our state and nation is a clear and present danger, but we’re doing something about it today,” Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said.

Nearly $200 million will go toward establishing a National Center for Addiction Studies and Treatment at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa, while local governments will get $12.5 million. The Sacklers are responsible for $75 million of the settlement. 

In settling, the Stamford, Connecticut-based company denied any wrongdoing in connection with what Hunter called “this nightmarish epidemic” and “the worst public health crisis in our state and nation we’ve ever seen.”

The deal comes two months before Oklahoma’s 2017 lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and other drug companies was set to become the first one in the recent barrage of litigation to go to trial. The remaining defendants still face trial May 28.

Opioids, including heroin and prescription drugs such as OxyContin, were a factor in a record 48,000 deaths across the U.S. in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Oklahoma recorded about 400 opioid deaths that year. State officials have said that since 2009, more Oklahomans have died from opioids than in vehicle crashes.

Other states have suffered far worse, including West Virginia, with the nation’s highest opioid death rate. It had over 1,000 deaths in 2017.

​In a statement, Purdue Pharma said the money that will go toward addiction studies and treatment in Oklahoma will help people across the country. CEO Craig Landau said the company is committed to “help drive solutions to the opioid addiction crisis.”

Plaintiffs’ attorney Paul Hanly, who is not involved in the Oklahoma case but is representing scores of other governments, welcomed the deal, saying: “That suggests that Purdue is serious about trying to deal with the problem. Hopefully, this is the first of many.”

But some activists were furious , saying they were denied the chance to hold Purdue Pharma fully accountable in public, in front of a jury.

“This decision is a kick in the gut to our community,” said Ryan Hampton, of Los Angeles, who is recovering from opioid addiction. “We deserve to have our day in court with Purdue. The parents, the families, the survivors deserve at least that. And Oklahoma stripped that from us today.”

Purdue Pharma introduced OxyContin in the 1990s and marketed it hard to doctors, making tens of billions of dollars from the drug. But the company has been hit with lawsuits from state and local governments trying to hold it responsible for the scourge of addiction.

The lawsuits accuse the company of downplaying the addiction risks and pushing doctors to increase dosages even as the dangers became known. According to a court filing, Richard Sackler, then senior vice president responsible for sales, proudly told the audience at a launch party for OxyContin in 1996 that it would create a “blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition.”

Earlier this month, Purdue Pharma officials acknowledged that they are considering bankruptcy . But Oklahoma’s attorney general said the company gave assurances it will not take such a step in the near term. And he said the settlement money is “bankruptcy proof” – that is, “it’s not at risk in the event Purdue declares bankruptcy.”

Lance Lang, a 36-year-old recovering user from Oklahoma City, said he is glad some of the settlement will go toward helping those still suffering from addiction.

​”My heart breaks for those that we’ve already lost. I’ve buried several myself,” said Lang, who now helps recovering users find housing. “But I also know we have waiting lists of dozens and dozens for our facilities, and the state has waiting lists of hundreds and hundreds of people who need help right now.”

But Cheryl Juaire, whose 23-year-old son Corey died of an overdose in 2011, said she was devastated to hear about the settlement.

Jauire, who lives in Marlborough, Massachusetts, had been organizing a group of hundreds of mothers to go to the first day of the trial and stand outside with photos of their dead children. She said a complete airing of the facts is the only way to fully hold Purdue to account.

A settlement is “a huge disservice to the tens of thousands of families here in the United States who buried a child,” she said. “That’s blood money from our children.”

Members of the Sackler family are defendants in some of the lawsuits but were not actually parties to the Oklahoma case. The company said the family nevertheless voluntarily contributed to the settlement. “We have profound compassion for those who are affected by addiction,” the family said in a statement.

The Sacklers are major donors to cultural institutions, and the family name is emblazoned on the walls at many of the world’s great museums and universities. In the past few weeks, as the accusations have mounted, the Tate museums in London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York have cut ties with the family, and other institutions have come under pressure to turn down donations or remove the Sackler name.

A Massachusetts court filing made public earlier this year found that Sackler family members were paid at least $4 billion from 2007 until last year.

Purdue Pharma has settled other lawsuits over the years, and three executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2007. But this is the first settlement to come out of the surge of litigation in the past few years that focuses largely on the company’s more recent conduct.

More than 1,400 federal lawsuits over the opioid crisis have been consolidated in front of a single judge in Cleveland who is pushing the drugmakers and distributors to reach a nationwide settlement.

Read Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter’s full statement about the state’s settlement with Purdue Pharma.
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A New York suburb has banned children not vaccinated against measles from public spaces, such as schools and shopping malls, as it fights the state’s worst outbreak in decades of the potentially deadly disease.

Rockland County declared a state of emergency on Tuesday and said the ban would remain in place for 30 days or until unvaccinated children get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot.

The Rockland announcement follows measles outbreaks in California, Illinois, Texas and Washington and is part of a global resurgence of the viral infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We will not sit idly by while children in our community are at risk,” County Executive Ed Day said in a statement. “This is a public health crisis, and it is time to sound the alarm.”

There have been 153 confirmed cases of measles in Rockland County, about 11 miles (18 km) north of Manhattan, mostly among children who have not been vaccinated.

The ban begins at midnight after which unvaccinated children will not be permitted in locations such as places of worship, schools and shopping malls. Outdoor spaces like playgrounds are excluded from the ban. People medically unable to get vaccinated are exempt.

The outbreak began when a traveler visited Israel and returned to a predominantly ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Rockland County. There have also been at least 181 confirmed cases of measles in the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens since October, mostly among Orthodox Jews, according to the city’s health department.

The New York and Washington outbreaks began after U.S. travelers picked up measles in foreign countries, where the disease was running rampant, and brought it back to places where vaccination rates were too low by U.S. public health standards.

The disease has spread mostly among school-age children whose parents declined to get them vaccinated, citing reasons such as philosophical or religious beliefs, or concerns the MMR vaccine could cause autism, authorities said.

Large scientific studies have demonstrated that there is no link between vaccines and autism.

Officials say the measles outbreaks offer a lesson about the importance of maintaining a minimum 95 percent “herd” level of immunization against dangerous, preventable diseases such as measles. Rates as low as 60 percent were found in parts of New York where measles spread, State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said in February.
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A New York suburb has banned children not vaccinated against measles from public spaces, such as schools and shopping malls, as it fights the state’s worst outbreak in decades of the potentially deadly disease.

Rockland County declared a state of emergency on Tuesday and said the ban would remain in place for 30 days or until unvaccinated children get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot.

The Rockland announcement follows measles outbreaks in California, Illinois, Texas and Washington and is part of a global resurgence of the viral infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We will not sit idly by while children in our community are at risk,” County Executive Ed Day said in a statement. “This is a public health crisis, and it is time to sound the alarm.”

There have been 153 confirmed cases of measles in Rockland County, about 11 miles (18 km) north of Manhattan, mostly among children who have not been vaccinated.

The ban begins at midnight after which unvaccinated children will not be permitted in locations such as places of worship, schools and shopping malls. Outdoor spaces like playgrounds are excluded from the ban. People medically unable to get vaccinated are exempt.

The outbreak began when a traveler visited Israel and returned to a predominantly ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Rockland County. There have also been at least 181 confirmed cases of measles in the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens since October, mostly among Orthodox Jews, according to the city’s health department.

The New York and Washington outbreaks began after U.S. travelers picked up measles in foreign countries, where the disease was running rampant, and brought it back to places where vaccination rates were too low by U.S. public health standards.

The disease has spread mostly among school-age children whose parents declined to get them vaccinated, citing reasons such as philosophical or religious beliefs, or concerns the MMR vaccine could cause autism, authorities said.

Large scientific studies have demonstrated that there is no link between vaccines and autism.

Officials say the measles outbreaks offer a lesson about the importance of maintaining a minimum 95 percent “herd” level of immunization against dangerous, preventable diseases such as measles. Rates as low as 60 percent were found in parts of New York where measles spread, State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said in February.
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Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday called for landing astronauts on the moon within five years, an accelerated pace that would aim to put Americans on the lunar south pole. 

Pence said NASA needs to achieve that goal “by any means necessary.” Speaking at a meeting of the National Space Council in Huntsville, Alabama, he said NASA rockets and lunar landers will be replaced by private craft, if required.

“It’s time to redouble our effort,” he said. “It can happen, but it will not happen unless we increase the pace.”

Now, the earliest possible landing on the moon by NASA isn’t until 2028, Pence said. He acknowledged talent — and money — will be necessary to pull it off earlier.

Announcement comes with warning

Pence warned that if NASA can’t put astronauts on the moon by 2024, “we need to change the organization, not the mission.” The space agency must transform into a leaner, more accountable and more agile organization, and must adopt an “all-hands-on-deck approach,” he said.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine assured Pence that NASA will do everything possible to meet the deadline. Some outside experts were skeptical of the new timeline.  

“I will be astonished if this happens,” said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, noting that a lunar lander still needs to be designed, built and tested.

“That is a hard challenge on a five year time scale even without political budget infighting,” he wrote in an email. 

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing. Since Apollo astronauts last walked on the moon in 1972, no country has made a serious attempt to send humans back to the lunar surface. 

Obama eyed Mars

For decades, NASA has flip-flopped between the moon and Mars, a victim of changing presidential administrations. More recently, President Barack Obama targeted Mars as astronauts’ next big destination, while President Donald Trump has favored the moon. 

In order to get astronauts on the moon by 2024, Bridenstine said the space agency’s new megarocket will be needed, but its development and pace will need to be faster. Two weeks ago, he said NASA was considering using private rockets instead to launch its new Orion capsule around the moon without a crew on a test flight next year.

But on Tuesday, he expressed confidence that the SLS, or Space Launch System, would be ready for the job. He also stressed the need for an outpost with astronauts near the moon to serve as a stepping-off point for lunar landings. 

First time took 8 years

Pence leads the National Space Council. The advisory group held its fifth meeting at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, right next door to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where the Saturn V moon rockets were developed decades ago and where the Boeing-built SLS is now managed. This longtime rocket know-how is why Huntsville is nicknamed Rocket City.

It took just eight years for NASA to accomplish everything to put astronauts on the moon in July 1969. It was unacceptable, Pence said, that SLS delays and cost overruns point to a 2028 target date — nearly two decades after the SLS program began.

The vice president instructed NASA to aim to land on the moon’s south pole, where considerable amounts of ice could be used for drinking and making rocket fuel.

“The exploration of the heavens in this still new century will go forward with or without the United States. But Americans don’t do second place. Americans lead, and so we will,” Pence said to cheers and applause.

Planetary scientist Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute said 2024 is feasible provided the accelerated effort is funded properly and commercial space systems are fully embraced.

“The moon is a truly outstanding target, both for science and for getting our exploration legs back before we set out to further destinations like Mars,” Stern wrote in an email.

Not enough time?

But former NASA official Scott Hubbard said five years seems “awfully short to me,” given the lack of national security incentives like those that existed during Apollo and the Cold War race to beat the Soviets to the moon.

Hubbard pointed out that both Bush administrations proposed similar far-reaching exploration efforts. “Those didn’t go anywhere and collapsed of their own significant financial weight,” he noted in an email.

The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Bobby Braun said he’d like to review the budget and details for implementation “as those details matter.” He previously served as NASA’s chief technologist.

“The United States aerospace community is certainly capable of achieving this goal if provided with stability of purpose and the resources to do so,” Braun wrote in an email.
…

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Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday called for landing astronauts on the moon within five years, an accelerated pace that would aim to put Americans on the lunar south pole. 

Pence said NASA needs to achieve that goal “by any means necessary.” Speaking at a meeting of the National Space Council in Huntsville, Alabama, he said NASA rockets and lunar landers will be replaced by private craft, if required.

“It’s time to redouble our effort,” he said. “It can happen, but it will not happen unless we increase the pace.”

Now, the earliest possible landing on the moon by NASA isn’t until 2028, Pence said. He acknowledged talent — and money — will be necessary to pull it off earlier.

Announcement comes with warning

Pence warned that if NASA can’t put astronauts on the moon by 2024, “we need to change the organization, not the mission.” The space agency must transform into a leaner, more accountable and more agile organization, and must adopt an “all-hands-on-deck approach,” he said.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine assured Pence that NASA will do everything possible to meet the deadline. Some outside experts were skeptical of the new timeline.  

“I will be astonished if this happens,” said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, noting that a lunar lander still needs to be designed, built and tested.

“That is a hard challenge on a five year time scale even without political budget infighting,” he wrote in an email. 

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing. Since Apollo astronauts last walked on the moon in 1972, no country has made a serious attempt to send humans back to the lunar surface. 

Obama eyed Mars

For decades, NASA has flip-flopped between the moon and Mars, a victim of changing presidential administrations. More recently, President Barack Obama targeted Mars as astronauts’ next big destination, while President Donald Trump has favored the moon. 

In order to get astronauts on the moon by 2024, Bridenstine said the space agency’s new megarocket will be needed, but its development and pace will need to be faster. Two weeks ago, he said NASA was considering using private rockets instead to launch its new Orion capsule around the moon without a crew on a test flight next year.

But on Tuesday, he expressed confidence that the SLS, or Space Launch System, would be ready for the job. He also stressed the need for an outpost with astronauts near the moon to serve as a stepping-off point for lunar landings. 

First time took 8 years

Pence leads the National Space Council. The advisory group held its fifth meeting at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, right next door to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where the Saturn V moon rockets were developed decades ago and where the Boeing-built SLS is now managed. This longtime rocket know-how is why Huntsville is nicknamed Rocket City.

It took just eight years for NASA to accomplish everything to put astronauts on the moon in July 1969. It was unacceptable, Pence said, that SLS delays and cost overruns point to a 2028 target date — nearly two decades after the SLS program began.

The vice president instructed NASA to aim to land on the moon’s south pole, where considerable amounts of ice could be used for drinking and making rocket fuel.

“The exploration of the heavens in this still new century will go forward with or without the United States. But Americans don’t do second place. Americans lead, and so we will,” Pence said to cheers and applause.

Planetary scientist Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute said 2024 is feasible provided the accelerated effort is funded properly and commercial space systems are fully embraced.

“The moon is a truly outstanding target, both for science and for getting our exploration legs back before we set out to further destinations like Mars,” Stern wrote in an email.

Not enough time?

But former NASA official Scott Hubbard said five years seems “awfully short to me,” given the lack of national security incentives like those that existed during Apollo and the Cold War race to beat the Soviets to the moon.

Hubbard pointed out that both Bush administrations proposed similar far-reaching exploration efforts. “Those didn’t go anywhere and collapsed of their own significant financial weight,” he noted in an email.

The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Bobby Braun said he’d like to review the budget and details for implementation “as those details matter.” He previously served as NASA’s chief technologist.

“The United States aerospace community is certainly capable of achieving this goal if provided with stability of purpose and the resources to do so,” Braun wrote in an email.
…

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A U.S.-based nonprofit is helping many blind South Sudanese see again by hiring a local doctor to perform surgeries on hundreds of patients in the Jonglei State capital Bor.

Sixty-year-old Mary Ayak Thie lost her vision about three years ago. Ayak said after the doctor removed cataracts from her eyes, her vision returned.

“Before the operation, everything was dark and I could not see, but now it is better. I can see my food; I can go the bathroom, by myself. So I thank the doctor who has helped me see again,” she told VOA’s “South Sudan in Focus.”

Dr. Santino Malang was hired by Partners in Compassionate Care to perform the operations in Bor this week.

“We have screened over 6,000 patients … and we have done over 172 cataracts as we speak,” Malang told VOA. “I feel good because somebody was blind, and can see after the operation, and is able to walk again alone by themselves, it makes both the patients and me happy. ”

Patient Mach Athem, 50, said he, too, can see again after successful surgery by Malang.

“If God has brought the doctor to come and help us, all someone like me can say is ‘thank you.’ I was in a difficult condition, depending on someone else for everything,” Athem told “South Sudan in Focus.”

Athem, Ayak and other patients say they are learning to be self-reliant now that they can see again.

Unfortunately, Malang says, not all patients can have their sight restored.

“People with glaucoma, people with corneal scaring, we are not able to restore their sight. So what happens? We just tell them we can’t do it and we counsel them. So it is hard for them and we feel bad, but there is nothing more we can do,” Malang told VOA.

Deng Ajak Jongkuch, executive director for Partners in Compassionate Care, said the eye operations began last week and will continue until April 2. He said there was a real need for this type of surgery in Bor.

“We do this work because of the vulnerability of elderly people. They don’t have money to go to Juba, Kenya or Uganda for care. And cataract surgery is a simple 15-minute operation, but untreated, a cataract can destroy somebody’s life. Most patients must have someone to help them, guide them to showers, to the bathroom, to bed and to food. But after the operation, they become independent and that’s very rewarding,” Jongkuch told VOA.

Each surgery costs about $100, far cheaper than just about anywhere else in the world for the same operation. Partners will spend about $50,000 to perform operations in Bor but will extend the surgeries to other areas of Jonglei if the nonprofit receives more donations, Jongkuch said.

“The need for cataract surgeries is huge. We will never finish everybody. I wish we could help the eye center in Bor here. We have a cataracts surgeon; Abraham Tong is in Bor here but he is not doing surgeries because there is no support,” Jongkuch told South Sudan in Focus.

He said they hope to go to Pibor, Ayod and Akobo, as well as the other side of the Nile River.

In November, Partners in Compassionate Care successfully operated on more than 150 patients suffering from either cataracts or the eye disease trachoma. Ajak said he has gone back to the U.S. to ask donors for more money.  He hopes the South Sudanese-American community will help.

The nonprofit was formed in 2004 in the Midwestern state of Michigan by American David Bowman for the purpose of providing humanitarian health care to South Sudan.
…

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A U.S.-based nonprofit is helping many blind South Sudanese see again by hiring a local doctor to perform surgeries on hundreds of patients in the Jonglei State capital Bor.

Sixty-year-old Mary Ayak Thie lost her vision about three years ago. Ayak said after the doctor removed cataracts from her eyes, her vision returned.

“Before the operation, everything was dark and I could not see, but now it is better. I can see my food; I can go the bathroom, by myself. So I thank the doctor who has helped me see again,” she told VOA’s “South Sudan in Focus.”

Dr. Santino Malang was hired by Partners in Compassionate Care to perform the operations in Bor this week.

“We have screened over 6,000 patients … and we have done over 172 cataracts as we speak,” Malang told VOA. “I feel good because somebody was blind, and can see after the operation, and is able to walk again alone by themselves, it makes both the patients and me happy. ”

Patient Mach Athem, 50, said he, too, can see again after successful surgery by Malang.

“If God has brought the doctor to come and help us, all someone like me can say is ‘thank you.’ I was in a difficult condition, depending on someone else for everything,” Athem told “South Sudan in Focus.”

Athem, Ayak and other patients say they are learning to be self-reliant now that they can see again.

Unfortunately, Malang says, not all patients can have their sight restored.

“People with glaucoma, people with corneal scaring, we are not able to restore their sight. So what happens? We just tell them we can’t do it and we counsel them. So it is hard for them and we feel bad, but there is nothing more we can do,” Malang told VOA.

Deng Ajak Jongkuch, executive director for Partners in Compassionate Care, said the eye operations began last week and will continue until April 2. He said there was a real need for this type of surgery in Bor.

“We do this work because of the vulnerability of elderly people. They don’t have money to go to Juba, Kenya or Uganda for care. And cataract surgery is a simple 15-minute operation, but untreated, a cataract can destroy somebody’s life. Most patients must have someone to help them, guide them to showers, to the bathroom, to bed and to food. But after the operation, they become independent and that’s very rewarding,” Jongkuch told VOA.

Each surgery costs about $100, far cheaper than just about anywhere else in the world for the same operation. Partners will spend about $50,000 to perform operations in Bor but will extend the surgeries to other areas of Jonglei if the nonprofit receives more donations, Jongkuch said.

“The need for cataract surgeries is huge. We will never finish everybody. I wish we could help the eye center in Bor here. We have a cataracts surgeon; Abraham Tong is in Bor here but he is not doing surgeries because there is no support,” Jongkuch told South Sudan in Focus.

He said they hope to go to Pibor, Ayod and Akobo, as well as the other side of the Nile River.

In November, Partners in Compassionate Care successfully operated on more than 150 patients suffering from either cataracts or the eye disease trachoma. Ajak said he has gone back to the U.S. to ask donors for more money.  He hopes the South Sudanese-American community will help.

The nonprofit was formed in 2004 in the Midwestern state of Michigan by American David Bowman for the purpose of providing humanitarian health care to South Sudan.
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What should have been a giant leap for womankind has turned into a stumble on the path to equality after U.S. space agency NASA canceled the first all-female spacewalk due to a lack of a spacesuit in the right size.

Anne McClain and Christina Koch had been due to step into history books in a spacewalk Friday, during the final week of Women’s History Month.

But McClain will now give up her place on the mission to her male colleague Nick Hague, NASA announced late Monday.

“Mission managers decided to adjust the assignments, due in part to spacesuit availability on the station,” NASA said in a statement.

“McClain learned during her first spacewalk that a medium-size hard upper torso — essentially the shirt of the spacesuit — fits her best. Because only one medium-size torso can be made ready by Friday, March 29, Koch will wear it.”

Nearly 60 years after the first human blasted off into space, less than 11 percent of the 500 plus people who have traveled to space have been women, and spacewalk teams have either been all-male or male-female.

McClain and Koch were both part of the 2013 NASA class that was 50 percent women.

NASA said the decision to change the plan was made in consultation with McClain after a spacewalk last week.

“Anne trained in M and L and thought she could use a large but decided after Friday’s spacewalk a medium fits better,” wrote spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz on Twitter.

“In this case, it’s easier (and faster!) to change spacewalkers than reconfigure the spacesuit.”

The NASA announcement was met with disappointment and anger by many following the much-anticipated mission on social media, with some arguing an all-female spacewalk was overdue.

Others said they were sad that a milestone moment on women’s space exploration had been deferred, but safety came first.

“I’m super disappointed about the all-woman spacewalk not happening as scheduled this Friday but I’m also super supportive of astronauts having the authority to say ‘I would be safer using a different piece of equipment’,” wrote Emily Lakdawalla, a senior editor at the U.S. nonprofit The Planetary Society.

“An all-woman spacewalk WILL eventually happen.”
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What should have been a giant leap for womankind has turned into a stumble on the path to equality after U.S. space agency NASA canceled the first all-female spacewalk due to a lack of a spacesuit in the right size.

Anne McClain and Christina Koch had been due to step into history books in a spacewalk Friday, during the final week of Women’s History Month.

But McClain will now give up her place on the mission to her male colleague Nick Hague, NASA announced late Monday.

“Mission managers decided to adjust the assignments, due in part to spacesuit availability on the station,” NASA said in a statement.

“McClain learned during her first spacewalk that a medium-size hard upper torso — essentially the shirt of the spacesuit — fits her best. Because only one medium-size torso can be made ready by Friday, March 29, Koch will wear it.”

Nearly 60 years after the first human blasted off into space, less than 11 percent of the 500 plus people who have traveled to space have been women, and spacewalk teams have either been all-male or male-female.

McClain and Koch were both part of the 2013 NASA class that was 50 percent women.

NASA said the decision to change the plan was made in consultation with McClain after a spacewalk last week.

“Anne trained in M and L and thought she could use a large but decided after Friday’s spacewalk a medium fits better,” wrote spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz on Twitter.

“In this case, it’s easier (and faster!) to change spacewalkers than reconfigure the spacesuit.”

The NASA announcement was met with disappointment and anger by many following the much-anticipated mission on social media, with some arguing an all-female spacewalk was overdue.

Others said they were sad that a milestone moment on women’s space exploration had been deferred, but safety came first.

“I’m super disappointed about the all-woman spacewalk not happening as scheduled this Friday but I’m also super supportive of astronauts having the authority to say ‘I would be safer using a different piece of equipment’,” wrote Emily Lakdawalla, a senior editor at the U.S. nonprofit The Planetary Society.

“An all-woman spacewalk WILL eventually happen.”
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The number of people needing humanitarian aid in Congo has increased dramatically in the past year to 13 million and “hunger and malnutrition have reached the highest level on record,” the head of the U.N. children’s agency said Monday.

UNICEF’s Executive Director Henrietta Fore told a news conference that 7.5 million of those needing aid are children, including 4 million suffering from acute malnutrition and over 1.4 million from severe acute malnutrition “which means that they are in imminent risk of death.”

U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock, who just returned from a visit to Congo with Fore, said the U.N. is appealing for $1.65 billion in humanitarian aid for the country this year – more than double the $700 million plus that it raised last year to help 8.5 million people.

He said the worsening humanitarian situation is the result of economic stresses including volatility in commodity prices and the turbulent political situation surrounding December’s elections, compounded by violence, increased displacement and the world’s second-largest Ebola outbreak.

Fore added that farmers fleeing with their families and drought in some areas also contributed.

She said the difficulty is that last year’s U.N. appeal was only half funded, and if that same amount is contributed this year it will only be a quarter of this year’s appeal, “and the needs are immense.”

Fore cited more grim statistics: 2 million people were newly displaced last year; 7.3 million children are out of school; 300,000 children die each year before their fifth birthday; 3 in 10 women are reported to be victims of sexual violence; and in January alone there were 7,000 cases of measles and 3,500 cases of cholera.

Congo’s Health Ministry said Monday that the Ebola epidemic has now exceeded 1,000 cases, with a death toll of 629.

Fore said about 30 percent of the cases are children, and UNICEF has identified about 1,000 children who have been orphaned or left unaccompanied while their parents are isolated in Ebola treatment wards.

UNICEF and its partners are providing psycho-social support, food and material assistance to the children, she said.

In the major city of Bunia close to the epidemic’s center, Fore said U.N. and Red Cross officials visited a kindergarten where Ebola survivors who cannot get the virus were caring for orphaned and unaccompanied children.

The U.N. officials also visited Goma, Beni and Butembo and the capital Kinshasa where Lowcock said they had “extremely constructive talks” with Congo’s new president, Felix Tshisekedi.

“We were encouraged by the new president” who said he would like to work closely with the U.N. on humanitarian issues and problems related to the millions of displaced people, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.

“Congo is a country where progress is possible,” Lowcock said, pointing to lower infant mortality, more children in school and Kinshasa becoming a modern African capital.
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A major Greenland glacier that was one of the fastest shrinking ice and snow masses on Earth is growing again, a new NASA study finds.

The Jakobshavn (YA-cob-shawv-en) glacier around 2012 was retreating about 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) and thinning nearly 130 feet (almost 40 meters) annually. But it started growing again at about the same rate in the past two years, according to a study in Monday’s Nature Geoscience . Study authors and outside scientists think this is temporary. 

“That was kind of a surprise. We kind of got used to a runaway system,” said Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland ice and climate scientist Jason Box. “The good news is that it’s a reminder that it’s not necessarily going that fast. But it is going.”

Box, who wasn’t part of the study, said Jakobshavn is “arguably the most important Greenland glacier because it discharges the most ice in the northern hemisphere. For all of Greenland, it is king.”

Cyclical cooling

A natural cyclical cooling of North Atlantic waters likely caused the glacier to reverse course, said study lead author Ala Khazendar, a NASA glaciologist on the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) project. Khazendar and colleagues say this coincides with a flip of the North Atlantic Oscillation — a natural and temporary cooling and warming of parts of the ocean that is like a distant cousin to El Nino in the Pacific.

The water in Disko Bay, where Jakobshavn hits the ocean, is about 3.6 degrees cooler (2 degrees Celsius) than a few years ago, study authors said.

While this is “good news” on a temporary basis, this is bad news on the long term because it tells scientists that ocean temperature is a bigger player in glacier retreats and advances than previously thought, said NASA climate scientist Josh Willis, a study co-author.  Over the decades the water has been and will be warming from man-made climate change, he said, noting that about 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases goes into the oceans. 

“In the long run we’ll probably have to raise our predictions of sea level rise again,” Willis said.

Like an escalator

Think of the ocean temperatures near Greenland like an escalator that’s rising slowly from global warming, Khazendar said. But the natural North Atlantic Oscillation sometimes is like jumping down a few steps or jumping up a few steps. The water can get cooler and have effects, but in the long run it is getting warmer and the melting will be worse, he said.

Four outside scientists said the study and results make sense.

University of Washington ice scientist Ian Joughin, who wasn’t part of the study and predicted such a change seven years ago, said it would be a “grave mistake” to interpret the latest data as contradicting climate change science.

What’s happening, Joughin said, is “to a large extent, a temporary blip. Downturns do occur in the stock market, but overall the long term trajectory is up. This is really the same thing.” 
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As plastic pollution continues to get worse, a number of people and countries are trying to fight the problem, piece by piece. From Africa to South America, homegrown efforts to collect and dispose of plastics are making a small but increasing impact. Kevin Enochs reports.
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Congo’s Ebola epidemic has now exceeded 1,000 cases, the country’s health ministry said Monday, with a death toll of about 629 in the world’s second-worst outbreak.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), an aid group, cautioned that case numbers were on the rise and the outbreak could last another six to 12 months in a region beset by violence and poverty.

Here are some key facts and figures about Ebola:

• The world’s worst epidemic of Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever, began in Guinea in December 2013 and swept through Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing more than 11,300 people.

• Ebola causes fever, flu-like pains, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea and spreads among humans through contact with bodily fluids of an infected person.

• The world’s second-biggest outbreak of Ebola began in August 2018 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

• By March 2019, Congo’s Ebola outbreak surpassed 1,000 cases with a death toll of 629 and spread to the city of Bunia, the second-largest city in eastern Congo.

• The IRC said in the past week there had been 58 new reported cases — the highest number in a week in 2019.

• Its staff were working in about 59 health clinics to train health workers to recognize symptoms and safely triage and transfer suspected Ebola patients to treatment centers.

• Five Ebola centers have been attacked since February 2019.

• The head of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) earlier in March warned that the battle against Ebola was being lost because ordinary people did not trust health workers and the response was overly militarized.
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Millions of people live with the constant pain of fibromyalgia. It’s a disorder that’s often misdiagnosed. And while lab tests can help identify a lot of diseases, until recently there was no test for fibromyalgia. Now, a simple blood test could finally give these patients scientific proof of their condition.

Constant pain is a symptom of fibromyalgia. Barb Hartong suffered from this disorder for a long time before she finally got the right diagnosis. 

“It was almost a relief because I finally knew what was wrong with me,” Hartong said.

Fibromyalgia is a disorder with symptoms of widespread muscle and joint pain, accompanied by fatigue and problems with sleep, memory and mood. Researchers believe that with fibromyalgia, the brain amplifies the pain signals it gets.

About 75 percent of those who suffer from fibromyalgia are undiagnosed. Some people live with pain for years. Many patients receive treatment that’s ineffective or even harmful.

Researchers at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center formed a multi-disciplinary team to see if they could develop a laboratory test to diagnose this disorder and make it easier for patients to get some relief.

Dr. Kevin Hackshaw led the study. 

“Many of the patients with chronic opiate use turn out to have underlying fibromyalgia. So in fact, if that was recognized then we could realize that we can stem the tide of treating them inappropriately with opiates,” Hackshaw said.

The result was a simple blood test that could diagnose fibromyalgia with nearly 100 percent accuracy. Hackshaw worked with researchers at the Ohio State food science and technology department. They found that same technology used to quickly analyze different components in food, like protein and fat, can also analyze chemicals in the blood. Dr. Luis Rodriguez-Saona was the study’s co-author. 

“We use infrared in many companies to determine protein, fat, moisture, starch levels, fiber in seconds,” Rodriguez-Saona said.

Rodriguez-Saona says each person’s blood is unique, like a fingerprint, and this test can show the intricate details of that fingerprint. It can distinguish fibromyalgia from other chronic pain conditions with nearly 100 percent accuracy.

The test uses a color-coded computer program. 

“The brown colored squares, these belong to the fibromyalgia, the red ones are rheumatoid arthritis and the green ones are lupus,” Rodriguez-Saona said.

Hackshaw says when people learn the results they feel relieved just like Barb Hartong did.

“A test like this provides confirmation and validation of the symptoms they’ve been suffering for years,” Hackshaw said.

There is no cure for fibromyalgia, but medication, exercise and stress reduction measures can help control the symptoms. Hartong takes medication and sticks to a daily routine.

“It’s not just giving me a pill, it’s how do I live? For me, it’s exercise,” Hartong said.

The researchers now want to use the test on a larger group of patients to see if they get the same results. If the test is approved, doctors will be able to diagnose fibromyalgia instantly and save patients years of suffering. 
…

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Millions of people live with the constant pain of fibromyalgia. It’s a disorder that’s often misdiagnosed. And while lab tests can help identify a lot of diseases, until recently there was no test for fibromyalgia. Now, a simple blood test could finally give these patients scientific proof of their condition.

Constant pain is a symptom of fibromyalgia. Barb Hartong suffered from this disorder for a long time before she finally got the right diagnosis. 

“It was almost a relief because I finally knew what was wrong with me,” Hartong said.

Fibromyalgia is a disorder with symptoms of widespread muscle and joint pain, accompanied by fatigue and problems with sleep, memory and mood. Researchers believe that with fibromyalgia, the brain amplifies the pain signals it gets.

About 75 percent of those who suffer from fibromyalgia are undiagnosed. Some people live with pain for years. Many patients receive treatment that’s ineffective or even harmful.

Researchers at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center formed a multi-disciplinary team to see if they could develop a laboratory test to diagnose this disorder and make it easier for patients to get some relief.

Dr. Kevin Hackshaw led the study. 

“Many of the patients with chronic opiate use turn out to have underlying fibromyalgia. So in fact, if that was recognized then we could realize that we can stem the tide of treating them inappropriately with opiates,” Hackshaw said.

The result was a simple blood test that could diagnose fibromyalgia with nearly 100 percent accuracy. Hackshaw worked with researchers at the Ohio State food science and technology department. They found that same technology used to quickly analyze different components in food, like protein and fat, can also analyze chemicals in the blood. Dr. Luis Rodriguez-Saona was the study’s co-author. 

“We use infrared in many companies to determine protein, fat, moisture, starch levels, fiber in seconds,” Rodriguez-Saona said.

Rodriguez-Saona says each person’s blood is unique, like a fingerprint, and this test can show the intricate details of that fingerprint. It can distinguish fibromyalgia from other chronic pain conditions with nearly 100 percent accuracy.

The test uses a color-coded computer program. 

“The brown colored squares, these belong to the fibromyalgia, the red ones are rheumatoid arthritis and the green ones are lupus,” Rodriguez-Saona said.

Hackshaw says when people learn the results they feel relieved just like Barb Hartong did.

“A test like this provides confirmation and validation of the symptoms they’ve been suffering for years,” Hackshaw said.

There is no cure for fibromyalgia, but medication, exercise and stress reduction measures can help control the symptoms. Hartong takes medication and sticks to a daily routine.

“It’s not just giving me a pill, it’s how do I live? For me, it’s exercise,” Hartong said.

The researchers now want to use the test on a larger group of patients to see if they get the same results. If the test is approved, doctors will be able to diagnose fibromyalgia instantly and save patients years of suffering. 
…

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At the 27th annual Environmental Film Festival in the nation’s capital, over 100 hundred films were showcased in 25 locations around the city. Many of them focused on the human impact on Climate Change worldwide, pointing to severe weather phenomena already underway, such as rising sea levels, and disappearing biodiversity. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with filmmakers who came to DC to present their work.
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At the 27th annual Environmental Film Festival in the nation’s capital, over 100 hundred films were showcased in 25 locations around the city. Many of them focused on the human impact on Climate Change worldwide, pointing to severe weather phenomena already underway, such as rising sea levels, and disappearing biodiversity. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with filmmakers who came to DC to present their work.
…

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March 26 will mark the fourth anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition campaign to oust the Houthi rebels from parts of Yemen they had occupied. The fighting has caused what the UN calls “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” displacing people from their homes, creating food shortages, a growing civilian death toll and undermining children’s development. The UN estimates that about 10 children die every day in Yemen from preventable diseases caused by hunger. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has this story.
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March 26 will mark the fourth anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition campaign to oust the Houthi rebels from parts of Yemen they had occupied. The fighting has caused what the UN calls “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” displacing people from their homes, creating food shortages, a growing civilian death toll and undermining children’s development. The UN estimates that about 10 children die every day in Yemen from preventable diseases caused by hunger. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has this story.
…

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Millions of people live with a the constant pain of fibromyalgia. It’s a disorder that’s often misdiagnosed. And while lab tests can help identify a lot of diseases, until recently there was no test for fibromyalgia. Now, as VOA’s Carol Pearson reports, a simple blood test could finally give these patients scientific proof of their condition.
…

your ads here!

Millions of people live with a the constant pain of fibromyalgia. It’s a disorder that’s often misdiagnosed. And while lab tests can help identify a lot of diseases, until recently there was no test for fibromyalgia. Now, as VOA’s Carol Pearson reports, a simple blood test could finally give these patients scientific proof of their condition.
…

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Abortion is legal in South Africa for up to 20 weeks into a pregnancy, and is provided for free at government-run clinics. However, getting a safe, legal abortion is a challenge. Many women face harsh stigma for seeking them, or resistance from health workers who oppose abortion. As a result, more than half of all South African abortions end up being performed by unlicensed, backstreet providers. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the area.
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