African-born bioengineer at UCLA develops new tuberculosis test
According to the World Health Organization, 1.3 million people died from tuberculosis in 2022. The disease is fully treatable but relies on timely diagnosis. Mireille Kamariza, a molecular bioengineer from the University of California, Los Angeles, has developed a test…
Chinese scientist who published COVID-19 virus sequence allowed back in his lab after sit-in protest
BEIJING — The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China said he was allowed back into his lab after he spent days locked outside, sitting in protest. Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post on…
Reuters/Ipsos poll: Most Americans see TikTok as a Chinese influence tool
Washington — A majority of Americans believe that China uses TikTok to shape U.S. public opinion, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted as Washington moves closer to potentially banning the Chinese-owned short-video app. Some 58% of respondents to the two-day…
Europe: Report highlights direct link between pandemic and childhood obesity
Results from 17 countries showed that boys and girls aged seven to nine spent more time looking at screens and less time playing outside, mirroring an increase in overweight children in this same age range. More than 50,000 children were…
Gazans on tenterhooks awaiting news of ceasefire call
“One-third of all the families who live here have children under five, so many babies, so many kids,” said Matthew Hollingworth, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Palestine Country Director, speaking from a school in Deir Al Balah, run by the…
Palestine: General Assembly discusses failed UN membership bid
A 2022 initiative, resolution76/262, calls for the UN’s most representative body to meet within 10 days if the veto is used in the Security Council by one of its permanent members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the…
Ukrainian woman, 98, escapes Russian-occupied home on foot with slippers, cane
KYIV, Ukraine — A 98-year-old woman in Ukraine who escaped Russian-occupied territory by walking almost 10 kilometers (6 miles) alone, wearing a pair of slippers and supported by a cane has been reunited with her family days after they were…
Open-source intel offers glimpse of war casualty figures Russia is trying to hide
The number of Russian soldiers killed in combat since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine remains a secret that the Kremlin goes to great lengths to hide. However, open-source research has recently yielded figures that show Moscow’s losses…
Kenya’s Ruto orders evacuations after deadly floods
Mai Mahiu, Kenya — Kenyan President William Ruto on Tuesday deployed the military to evacuate everyone living in flood-prone areas in a nation where 171 people have been killed since March by torrential rains. Seasonal rains, amplified by the El…
Survey: US consumer confidence at lowest level since 2022
Washington — U.S. consumers appear less optimistic about the jobs market and more worried about future financial conditions, bringing a closely watched confidence metric to its lowest level since July 2022, a survey showed Tuesday. The consumer confidence index fell…