Seoul (AFP) May 19, 2022 North Korea sent three of its largest cargo planes to China to pick up medical supplies to help with a spiralling Covid outbreak, local media reports say. Pyongyang announced its first-ever Covid cases last week and has since reported nearly two million cases of “fever” and 63 deaths as the virus tears through its unvaccinated population. State media reports do … Continue reading North Korea sent planes to China for Covid supplies: reports

United Nations, United States (AFP) May 17, 2022 The UN envoy to Iraq on Tuesday urged Iraqi politicians to end a deadlock which has kept parliament from forming a new government for more than seven months, warning that the crisis could spark civil unrest. “The streets are about to boil over in Iraq,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert told reporters. “We cannot afford to go back to a … Continue reading UN calls on Iraqi politicians to end seven-month stalemate

Guwahati, India (AFP) May 18, 2022 At least 10 people including a four-year-old child have died in floods and landslides this week after unusually heavy rains pummelled several parts of India, as forecasters warned on Wednesday of more deluges. Experts say extreme weather around the world is being driven by climate change, made worse in South Asia by damming, deforestation and over-the-top development projects. The … Continue reading Landslides, floods kill at least 10 in India

Paris (AFP) May 18, 2022 Several southern French towns sizzled in record high temperatures for May on Wednesday, while the month as whole is on track to be the hottest since records began, the national weather service said. Towns such as Albi, Toulouse and Montelimar in southern France set records of between 33.4-33.9 degrees Celsius (92.1-93.0 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, while areas on the west … Continue reading French towns sweat in record May heat

Beijing (AFP) May 18, 2022 China will continue to open to the world, President Xi Jinping told a trade summit on Wednesday, just days after Beijing doubled down on its strict border controls. Xi’s remarks come as many foreign businesses have found their operations halted due to a lingering Covid-19 lockdown in financial hub Shanghai, with the American Chamber of Commerce warning it was bracing … Continue reading Xi says China will ‘open still wider’ despite tight border controls

Islamabad (AFP) May 17, 2022 A Pakistani social media star with millions of followers is facing criticism after posing for a TikTok video by a forest fire, as a devastating heatwave causes widespread misery in the country. Humaira Asghar posted a clip of herself walking playfully in a silver ball gown in front of a burning hillside with the caption: “Fire erupts wherever I am.” … Continue reading Pakistan TikTok star faces backlash over forest fire video

Paris (AFP) May 17, 2022 Pollution caused some 9 million people to die prematurely in 2019, according to a new global report published Wednesday, with experts raising alarm over increasing deaths from breathing outside air and the “horrifying” toll of lead poisoning. Human-created waste in the air, water and soil rarely kills people immediately, but causes instead heart disease, cancer, respiratory problems, diahttp://dlvr.it/SQfkgW Continue reading Pollution behind 1 in 6 global deaths in 2019: study

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) May 18, 2022 The oceans have helped sustain life on Earth for billions of years and will likely continue to do so far into the future. Oceans have an abundance of minerals like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, and copper, which are essential nutrients for living organisms. In Japan, deep-sea water (or DSW) is commonly used for drinking, cosmetic purposes, and as seasoning. … Continue reading ‘Untapped’ potential: Mineral water derived from deep-sea water may have health benefits

New York NY (SPX) May 18, 2022 Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior research scientist and head of the Climate Impacts Group at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, received the 2022 World Food Prize from the World Food Prize Foundation on May 5. According to the World Food Prize Foundation, the World Food Prize is a prestigious international award conceived as … Continue reading NASA’s Cynthia Rosenzweig Receives 2022 World Food Prize

Leipzig, Germany (SPX) May 18, 2022 Humans are the only species on earth known to use language. We do this by combining sounds to form words and words to form hierarchically structured sentences. The question, where this extraordinary capacity originates from, still remains to be answered. In order to retrace the evolutionary origins of human language, researchers often use a comparative approach – they compare … Continue reading Chimpanzees combine calls to form numerous vocal sequences