Malawi health authorities fear vaccine hesitancy could lead to tens of thousands of COVID-19 jabs expiring early next month. With just 2% of Malawi’s population vaccinated, authorities hope to increase uptake by deploying mobile vaccination clinics to bring the vaccine closer to people.Malawi has so far received just over 1.2 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines under the COVAX facility.But vaccine hesitancy in Malawi is widespread largely because of misperceptions of the jabs’ efficacy and safety. Dr. Gift Kawalazira, who heads Health and Social Services at the Blantyre Health Office, says there’s yet another reason for the low vaccination rate. “We have noticed that with the coming of summer, the number of cases has drastically reduced, and also the number of people coming for vaccination have reduced from having over 2,000 people per day to having just about 400 people per day now,” he said.Kawalazira said deploying mobile vaccination centers will help increase vaccine uptake, noting that when the initiative was launched Saturday over 600 people were vaccinated – and six companies booked the mobile clinic to come and vaccinate their workers.He predicted the initiative will help Malawi meet its vaccination target of 60% by 2022 and allay fears that more vaccines will expire.“Johnson & Johnson is actually expiring after December and AstraZeneca has got two different batches, one of which is expiring next month, and the other one is going up until December,” he said.In May, Malawi incinerated about 20,000 AstraZeneca doses that had expired after many people refused the jab due to concerns about its safety and efficacy.Malawi health ministry statistics show that currently only about 700,000 people have had one jab, while about 400,000 are fully vaccinated, representing 2.1% of the country’s 18 million population.Simeon Phiri gets vaccinated at a mobile vaccination clinic at Limbe Market in Blantyre. Health authorities say the initiative will increase vaccine uptake among Malawians. (Lameck Masina/VOA)Simeon Phiri got his jab Wednesday at a mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Limbe market in Blantyre. He said the convenience with which he could get the jab played an important role for him. “This has helped me a lot because it has provided me easy access to the vaccine instead of walking a long distance. For example, I came here to Limbe to do some errands, but I also have found an opportunity to get vaccinated,” Phiri said. To increase uptake in rural areas, the government is currently working with traditional leaders to mobilize and tell their communities about the need to be vaccinated when the mobile clinics visit their villages.
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The first trial in the “Operation Varsity Blues” college admissions bribery scandal will begin this week, with the potential to shed light on investigators’ tactics and brighten the spotlight on a secretive school selection process many have long complained is rigged to favor the rich.Jury selection is beginning Wednesday in federal court in Boston in the case against two parents — former casino executive Gamal Abdelaziz and former Staples and Gap Inc. executive John Wilson — who are accused of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to help get their kids into the University of Southern California by falsely presenting them as athletic recruits.Though they were among dozens of prominent parents, athletic coaches and others arrested across the country when the case exploded into the headlines over two years ago, theirs is the first to go to trial. Defense attorneys are expected to argue that their clients believed their payments were legitimate donations and that USC’s treatment of their children was routine for parents with deep pockets.”The government appears to want to present its one-sided evidence that the ‘school wasn’t okay’ with granting preferential admissions treatment for donations while at the same time blocking the defendants’ evidence that, in fact, the school was okay with this arrangement,” the two executives’ lawyers wrote in a court filing.Prosecutors say the defense is merely trying to muddy the waters in a clear-cut case of lying and fraud.Since March 2019, a parade of wealthy parents has pleaded guilty to paying heavily to help get their children into elite schools with rigged test scores or bogus athletic credentials. The group — including TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and Loughlin’s fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli — have received punishments ranging from probation to nine months behind bars. Now, prosecutors face the challenge of convincing a jury that two of the few remaining parents still fighting are guilty. Abdelaziz, of Las Vegas, is accused of paying $300,000 to the sham charity run by the scheme’s mastermind — admissions consultant Rick Singer — to get his daughter into USC as a basketball recruit. Prosecutors say Abdelaziz signed off on an athletic profile that touted the girl as a star, even though she didn’t even make the cut for her high school varsity team. Wilson, who heads a Massachusetts private equity firm, is charged with paying $220,000 to have his son designated as a USC water polo recruit and an additional $1 million to help get his twin daughters into Harvard and Stanford. Prosecutors say Singer told Wilson he couldn’t secure spots for both girls on Stanford’s sailing team because – according to Singer — the coach “has to actually recruit some real sailors so that Stanford doesn’t … catch on.” An attorney for Abdelaziz declined to comment ahead of the trial, and a lawyer for Wilson didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. Defense attorneys have argued in court documents that their clients had no knowledge of any false information submitted about their children. They say USC can’t be a victim of fraud because the school regularly rewarded donors by giving their kids special treatment in admissions.Prosecutors have accused the defense of trying to turn the case into a trial on USC’s admissions policies instead of whether the parents agreed to lie and trump up their children’s athletic credentials. USC has said it wasn’t aware of Singer’s scheme until 2018 when it began cooperating with investigators.The judge told the defense at a recent hearing that “USC is not on trial.” The parents’ attorneys would be allowed to introduce evidence that the school admitted other unqualified students whose parents donated, the judge said, only if the defendants were aware of it at the time they paid the alleged bribes.Opening statements are expected on Monday. Among issues likely to influence jury selection is the wealth of the defendants.Defense attorneys had sought to block prosecutors from introducing evidence about their incomes, wealth, spending or lifestyles, saying it would do nothing other than “unfairly prejudice the jury.” But U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton said such evidence could show the parents were motivated “to have their children admitted to elite universities so they could maintain or improve their status in the community.” Singer, the admissions consultant who began cooperating with the FBI in 2018 and recorded his phone calls with parents, has pleaded guilty and was long expected to be a key witness for the government. But prosecutors have not yet said whether they intend to call him to the stand.Defense attorneys have seized on notes revealed in court documents last year in which Singer claimed investigators told him to lie to get parents to make incriminating statements. In the notes Singer took on his phone in 2018, Singer said the agents instructed him to say he told the parents the payments were bribes. The agents have denied pressuring Singer to lie, but putting Singer on the stand could present the defense with an opportunity to attack his credibility. “He can be directly confronted on statements suggesting that he may have in fact been pressured in saying certain things … which could be devastating to the prosecution if the jury believes that,” said Brad Bailey, a former federal prosecutor in Massachusetts who isn’t involved in the case.But at the same time, not calling Singer could be even more problematic for prosecutors by allowing the defense “to raise more questions that really could result in reasonable doubt,” said Bailey, now a defense attorney. Wilson is also fighting another legal battle after filing a defamation lawsuit against Netflix in April over its portrayal of him in its “Operation Varsity Blues” documentary. Wilson’s lawyers wrote that Singer deceived him and insist that his son was not a fake athlete, but “an invited member of the United States Olympic water polo development program” with grades and test scores that “were more than sufficient to gain admission to USC.” Another parent who was supposed to go on trial with Abdelaziz and Wilson pleaded guilty last month to paying $500,000 to get her son into USC as a football recruit though he wouldn’t really play on the team. Marci Palatella, the chief executive officer of a California liquor distribution company, was the 33rd parent to plead guilty in the case.Three other parents are scheduled to go to trial in January. The sprawling Varsity Blues case has been prosecuted out of Boston because authorities there began investigating the scheme years ago thanks to a tip from an executive targeted in a securities fraud probe.
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A new report released Wednesday says the COVID-19 pandemic had a “devastating” impact in the fight against HIV and tuberculosis last year.The Global Fund, an alliance of governments, civil society groups and private sector entities, says the number of people reached with HIV prevention programs and services declined 11 percent in 2020 compared with the year before, while testing for HIV dropped 22 percent last year.The number of people treated for drug-resistant tuberculosis fell by 19 percent in countries where the Fund invests — a figure the Geneva-based group described as “staggering” — while those being treated for “extensively” drug-resistant tuberculosis plummeted by 37 percent.Peter Sands, the executive director of The Global Fund, told the Reuters news agency that about one million fewer people were treated for tuberculosis in 2020 than the year before, a fact he says will “inevitably mean that hundreds of thousands of people will die.”The Fund said programs to fight malaria appear to have been “less badly affected” by COVID-19 than HIV or tuberculosis.Meanwhile, the Bloomberg news service says a study conducted in South Africa found that Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot COVID-19 vaccine reduces the risk of contracting the disease by about half. The study, which involved nearly half a million health workers in the country, found that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was about 70 percent effective against hospitalization and as much as 96 percent effective against death.Glenda Gray, the study’s co-leader, tells Bloomberg the final results from the study will be submitted for publication in days.While the European Union is boasting an average vaccination rate of 70 percent, the rates are much lower among eastern European nations compared to those in western Europe. Only 20 percent of all citizens in Bulgaria have been vaccinated against COVID-19, the lowest rate among all 27-member EU nations, while deaths have surged in recent weeks. The New York Times says similar circumstances have also been found in countries like Poland, Romania and Slovakia.Observers blame the discrepancies on doubts about the vaccines due to misinformation, along with deep mistrust of authorities and institutions.More than 222 million people around the globe have tested positive for COVID-19, including 4.5 million deaths, since the outbreak was first detected in late 2019 in central China, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The United States has now surpassed 40 million confirmed COVID-19 infections, including more than 650,690 deaths, leading the world in both categories. COVID-19 is caused by the coronavirus.(Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Presse.)
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U.S. (gridiron) football great Sam “Bam” Cunningham, whose performance against Alabama in a 1970 game is credited for prompting major college football programs in the southern United States to integrate their teams with Black players, has died at the age of 71. The University of Southern California, where Cunningham played his collegiate years, said he died Tuesday at his home near Los Angeles. Cunningham was a sophomore (second-year student) running back when he rushed for 135 yards and two touchdowns to lead USC to a 42-21 rout of Alabama, one of college football’s most dominant programs both in the southern U.S. as well as nationally. His performance led Paul “Bear” Bryant, Alabama’s legendary head coach, to begin recruiting Black players to his then-predominantly White team, with other college coaches in the south doing the same. The late Jerry Claiborne, a longtime college football coach who was one of Bryant’s assistants, said Cunningham “did more for integration in 60 minutes (the length of a football game) than Martin Luther King did in 20 years.” Cunningham later said the game did not change how White people felt about Blacks, but that Black players “were accepted because they could help their program win football games.” Cunningham became an All-American standout for USC during his three years on the team, capping his collegiate career by scoring four touchdowns in a 42-17 win over Ohio State in the 1973 Rose Bowl, securing the Trojans the national championship for the 1972 season. Cunningham, who earned his nickname for his powerful head-on running style, went on to play nine seasons with the National Football League’s New England Patriots, becoming the franchise’s all-time leading runner with 5,453 yards. He helped lead the Patriots to a record-setting 3,165 single-season rushing yards in 1978, which stood until it was broken in 2019 by the Baltimore Ravens. Patriots owner Robert Kraft praised Cunningham as a player who “made a tremendous impact, both on and off the field.” Cunningham was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010, the same year he was inducted in the Patriots Hall of Fame. His younger brother Randall, was a standout NFL quarterback for 16 seasons. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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Britney Spears’ father filed Tuesday to end the court conservatorship that has controlled the singer’s life and money for 13 years. James Spears filed his petition to terminate the conservatorship in Los Angeles Superior Court. “As Mr. Spears has said again and again, all he wants is what is best for his daughter,” the document says. “If Ms. Spears wants to terminate the conservatorship and believes that she can handle her own life, Mr. Spears believes that she should get that chance.” Judge Brenda Penny, who oversees the case, will need to approve the move. Britney Spears’ attorney, Matthew Rosengart, said in an email the filing “represents another legal victory for Britney Spears — a massive one — as well as vindication for Ms. Spears.” James Spears had been the target of much of the anger surrounding the conservatorship from both his daughter and the public. A petition from Britney Spears’ attorney to remove him was to be heard at the next hearing in the case on September 29. James Spears said in a filing on August 12 that he was planning to step down as the conservator of her finances but offered no timetable. He gave up his control over her life decisions in 2019, keeping only his role overseeing her money. He has repeatedly said there is no justification for his removal, and he has acted only in his daughter’s best interest. The conservatorship was established in 2008 when Britney Spears began to have very public mental struggles as media outlets obsessed over each moment, hordes of paparazzi aggressively followed her everywhere, and she lost custody of her children. Tuesday’s filing cites how Britney Spears’ “impassioned plea” to end the legal arrangement in a June 23 speech in court gave a jolt to those who wanted to see her freed from it, quoting from the transcript of that afternoon. “I just want my life back,” Britney Spears said. “And it’s been 13 years and it’s enough. It’s been a long time since I’ve owned my money. And it’s my wish and my dream for all of this to end without being tested.” Tuesday’s filing notes that Britney Spears said she did not know she could file a petition to end the conservatorship, which she has yet to do. It says that Penny’s decision to allow her to select Rosengart as her attorney demonstrates that the court trusts her with major choices. And it says evidence shows she has apparently “demonstrated a level of independence” by doing things like driving herself around Southern California. It also cites her desire to make her own decisions on therapy and other medical care. Spears had said in her June 23 speech that she was being compelled under the conservatorship to take certain medications and to use an intrauterine device for birth control against her will. James Spears called for a court investigation of these and other allegations, saying they were issues that were beyond his control because he had stepped down as conservator of his daughter’s person, handing the role to court-appointed professional Jodi Montgomery. Rosengart said when he was hired in July that he intended to help end the conservatorship, and questioned whether it needed to be established in the first place, though he had not yet filed to terminate it. He said instead that his first priority was getting rid of James Spears, whom he challenged to resign on the spot in his first appearance before the court. In his email responding to the request to terminate, Rosengart indicated that his tactics wouldn’t change. “It appears that Mr. Spears believes he can try to avoid accountability and justice,” Rosengart said, “including sitting for a sworn deposition and answering other discovery under oath, but as we assess his filing (which was inappropriately sent to the media before it was served on counsel) we will also continue to explore all options.” Britney Spears gave the conservatorship’s initial existence credit for keeping her career afloat, though she has now put her work entirely on hold for more than two years. Fans objecting to her circumstances and seeing what they believed were pleas for help in the pop star’s Instagram posts began calling online to #FreeBritney, and began appearing outside her court hearings to protest. Famous names from Miley Cyrus to Britney Spears’ former boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, have joined the outcry in recent months, especially after Britney Spears made a pair of passionate speeches to the court in June and July. Penny, the judge with the ultimate power over the conservatorship, has not appeared inclined to end it before, but she has also never been presented with such a clear opportunity.
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Qatar has granted academic scholarships to members of a girls’ robotics team from Afghanistan dubbed the “Afghan Dreamers,” the Persian Gulf nation’s education and science foundation said on Tuesday. Qatar has been instrumental in efforts to evacuate at-risk Afghans and foreigners from Kabul airport, including members of the team who are being housed in Doha’s Education City campus of schools and universities. “They will receive scholarships that enable them to keep pursuing their studies through a partnership between Qatar Foundation (QF) and Qatar Fund for Development,” QF said in a statement. The team of high-achieving high school girls has about 20 members, mostly still in their teens, and are now dotted around the world with some in Qatar as well as Mexico. The girls made headlines in 2017 after being denied visas to take part in a robotics competition in Washington — before then-President Donald Trump intervened and they were allowed to travel. Last year, they worked to build a low-cost medical ventilator from car parts hoping to boost hospital equipment during the coronavirus pandemic. “These talented, creative students have been living through a time of uncertainty and upheaval, and at Qatar Foundation we want to do whatever we can,” said Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al-Thani, vice-chairwoman and chief executive of QF. “By providing them with scholarships to study at Education City, their education can now continue uninterrupted.” The girls’ needs were being assessed to determine which schools or pre-university programs they should be placed in, she added. The Taliban’s seizure of power a little over one week ago has furled a chaotic mass exodus as many Afghans fear a repeat of the brutal interpretation of Islamic law implemented during the militants’ 1996-2001 rule. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with several members of the team on Tuesday during a whirlwind tour of the emirate. “You’re famous around the world and a source of inspiration,” he told them. “The story you’ve already told about the importance about women engaging in science… sends an important message around the world, well beyond Afghanistan.” Roya Mahboob, the founder of the Digital Citizen Fund, parent organization of the team, said the girls were “excited and grateful for this opportunity to study abroad.” She also questioned Blinken on what the future would hold for Afghan women. Several other members of the robotics team, none of whom were identified for security reasons, have relocated to Mexico.
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Mexico’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Tuesday that penalizing abortion is unconstitutional, a major victory for advocates of women’s health and human rights, just as parts of the United States enact tougher laws against the practice.The decision in the world’s second-biggest Roman Catholic country means that courts can no longer prosecute abortion cases, and follows the historic legalization of the right in Argentina, which took effect earlier this year.Arturo Zaldivar, president of the Mexican Supreme Court, hailed the decision as “a watershed moment” for all women, especially the most vulnerable.The court’s ruling stemmed from a 2018 case challenging a criminal law on abortion in Coahuila, a northern Mexican state which borders Texas, which has just tightened its laws.It also comes as a growing feminist movement has taken to the streets in Mexico to press for change, including calls to end anti-abortion laws on the books in much of the country.At a demonstration in Coahuila state capital Saltillo, women wearing green bandanas to symbolize the pro-choice movement embraced and shouted “abortion is no longer a crime!””We’re very happy that abortion has been decriminalized, and now we want it to be legal,” said 26-year-old Karla Cihuatl, one of the demonstrators, who belongs to the feminist organization Frente Feminista in Saltillo.”This step has broken the stigma a little. But I believe that we still have to change the social aspect.”With some 100 million Catholics, Mexico is the largest predominantly Catholic country after Brazil. The Catholic Church opposes all forms of abortion procedures.Hundreds of mostly poor Mexican women have been prosecuted for abortion, while at least several dozen remain jailed.Tuesday’s vote establishes a mandatory criteria for all judges in the country, making it no longer possible to prosecute any woman who has an abortion without violating the criteria of the court and the constitution, Zaldivar said.Coahuila’s state government issued a statement saying the ruling would have retroactive effects and that anyone woman imprisoned for abortion should be released “immediately.”A number of U.S. states have moved to restrict access to abortion, particularly Texas, which last week enacted a sweeping ban on the procedure after the first six weeks of pregnancy when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.The Mexican ruling may lead to U.S. women in states such as Texas deciding to travel south of the border to terminate their pregnancies.In July, the state of Veracruz became just the fourth of Mexico’s 32 regions to decriminalize abortion.Mexico’s leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has carefully avoided taking a stand on the matter, as he did again on Tuesday morning in the run-up to the ruling.When asked at a news conference for his opinion on abortion, he sidestepped the question, saying it was up to the court.”Due my presidential office, I can’t expose myself to wear and tear, so I have to look after myself, and this is quite a controversial issue,” he said.During his winning 2018 election campaign, he forged an alliance with a small political party founded by Christian conservatives known for their strong opposition to abortion.
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Coronavirus vaccines offer protection not only against infection and serious illness but may also help prevent so-called “Long COVID,” where symptoms can last for several weeks or months, according to new research from scientists at Kings College London. There are no official figures, but it’s thought millions of people worldwide who contracted the coronavirus have suffered from so-called “Long COVID,” with reported symptoms including muscle pain, fatigue, shortness of breath and brain fog lasting longer than four weeks. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 8 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 15 MB720p | 32 MB1080p | 62 MBOriginal | 463 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe condition remains poorly understood, says British campaigner Ondine Sherwood, who founded the ‘Long Covid SOS’ campaign group after suffering from the disease caused by the coronavirus. “Amongst medical practitioners, there is a bit of variation in terms of recognition. I think people are still getting told that it’s due to anxiety. Some doctors don’t fully understand this condition,” Sherwood told VOA. “It is a case of treating symptoms. Research is ongoing as to the mechanisms of Long COVID and it’s not fully understood. There are quite a lot of theories, many of which have been backed up with research. But we haven’t reached the stage where we have targeted treatments,” Sherwood added. The research from Kings College London suggests that coronavirus vaccines halve the risk of suffering from long COVID, for the very low number of people who become infected after vaccination. The scientists based their research on Britain’s “Zoe” COVID study app, which tracked the self-reported symptoms of 1.2 million people between December 2020 and July of this year. Zero-point-two percent of vaccinated respondents reported being infected with the coronavirus. Of those, 5% reported suffering from long COVID, compared to 11% of unvaccinated people. “So, the vaccine will protect you from becoming ill from the virus. It will also protect you if you do get symptoms from becoming long-term ill from this virus,” said Sterghios Moschos, a virologist at the University of Northumbria, who was not involved in the research. “This means that if you get exposed to the virus and you’ve been vaccinated, the vast chances are that you are not even going to be able to tell if you’ve been infected. That’s how good the vaccines are,” he added. The findings will fuel the debate over whether to offer vaccines to children, as schools start to reopen. Another recent study in Britain found that one in seven children suffers from Long COVID three months after infection, with headaches and fatigue listed as the most common symptoms. Britain has yet to approve vaccines for healthy children. In the meantime, measures such as improved ventilation, social distancing and face masks should continue, argues Moschos. “We need to continue preventing transmission. We must not rely only on vaccines,” he told VOA. Several countries, including the United States, have already begun vaccination programs for those 12 and older.
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Mexico’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Tuesday that penalizing abortion is unconstitutional, a major victory for advocates of women’s health and human rights, just as parts of the United States enact tougher laws against the practice.The court ruling in the majority Roman Catholic nation follows moves to decriminalize abortion at the state level, although most of the country still has tough laws in place against women terminating their pregnancy early.”This is a historic step for the rights of women,” said Supreme Court Justice Luis Maria Aguilar.A number of U.S. states have recently taken steps to restrict women’s access to abortion, particularly Texas, which last week enacted the strictest anti-abortion law in the country after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.The Mexican ruling opens the door to the possibility for the release of women incarcerated for having had abortions. It also could lead to U.S. women in states such as Texas deciding to travel south of the border to terminate their pregnancies. In July, the state of Veracruz became just the fourth of Mexico’s 32 regions to decriminalize abortion.
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A greater share of U.S. soldiers survived the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq than those who fought in previous conflicts. Advances in medicine and new concepts in trauma care over the past two decades have made the difference. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports on the most dramatic advances.
Camera: Mike Burke Video editor: Marcus Harton
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The U.S. ended its conflict in Afghanistan, but the Veterans Health Administration continues researching ways to reduce the impact of the most serious injuries U.S. troops suffered in conflicts in both Afghanistan and Iraq. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports on one area of research, traumatic brain injury.
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Disabled fashion designers have long struggled against discrimination, especially in developing countries such as Malawi. To combat the problem, Malawian fashion brand House of Xandria on Saturday organized the country’s first fashion show featuring creations by designers with disabilities. Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre.
Camera: Dan Kumwenda
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Koalas, rock wallabies and the Nightcap Oak, a rare tree, are some of the iconic species to be protected under an “historic” zero extinction plan in the Australian state of New South Wales.The New South Wales government Tuesday outlined a strategy to safeguard the survival of endangered plants and animals in the state’s vast network of national parks, to address what Environment Minister Matt Kean said is the worst mammal extinction rate in the world. More than 90 endangered species at risk from feral pests, bushfires and climate change will be given greater legal protection. There are new safeguards for birds, frogs and reptiles, as well as rare trees, including the dwarf mountain pine. The species join the Wollemi pine, known as a “dinosaur tree” because of its ancient heritage, which was declared New South Wales’ first asset of intergenerational significance last year after the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires almost wiped out its few known sites in the wild. There will also be a network of predator-free areas and authorities will be able to mandate conservation and fire-management plans to ensure plants and animals are protected. For some species there is little time to waste. Some population groups of the brush-tailed rock wallaby in the Warrumbungle National Park have fallen to just ten animals. Environmental groups have broadly welcomed the zero extinction initiative. Rachel Lowry, the chief conservation officer of the Australia branch of the international conservation organization the World Wildlife Fund, says it is a promising plan. “What I find really encouraging is that the zero extinction target is the type of principled target that we need that draws a line in the sand and says no more extinctions. Now, I would love to see that being drawn actually for the whole nation, and not just for species in protected areas and in this case species in protected areas in New South Wales only. But like I said, it is a good step forward,” she said.It is not just an Australian problem. Officials in New South Wales have warned that, globally, one million species face extinction in the coming decades. National Threatened Species Day is commemorated across Australia September 7 to raise awareness of plants and animals at risk of dying out.
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U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans Tuesday to fulfill a election promise to grapple with the rocketing cost of the long-term care needed by Britain’s growing older population. To do it, he appears set to break another election vow: not to raise taxes. Johnson is scheduled to tell Parliament how his Conservative government will raise billions to fund the care millions of Britons need in the final years of their lives. That burden currently falls largely on individuals, who often have to deplete their savings or sell their homes to pay for care. One in seven people ends up paying more than 100,000 pounds ($138,000), according to the government, which calls the cost of care “catastrophic and often unpredictable.” Meanwhile, funding care for the poor who can’t afford it is placing a growing burden on overstretched local authorities. Johnson has been tight-lipped about his plans, which are being unveiled to the Cabinet on Tuesday morning before he makes a statement in the House of Commons. But the prime minister said late Monday he would “not duck the tough decisions needed.” He is expected to announce an increase in National Insurance payments made by working-age people to fund care and the broader National Health Service, which has been put under immense strain by the coronavirus pandemic. That would break the firm promise in Johnson’s 2019 election platform not to hike personal taxes. Breaking promises is hardly novel for politicians, but those enshrined in British parties’ election manifestos have long been considered binding on governments. Johnson’s rumored plan has alarmed many Conservative lawmakers — both because it involves breaking a firm election commitment, and because the burden would fall on working-age people and not retirees. Jake Berry, one of a crop of Conservative lawmakers representing northern England seats won from the Labour Party with promises of investment and new jobs, said the proposed plan would help affluent, older voters at the expense of younger, poorer ones. And William Hague, a former Conservative leader, said breaking an election promise would be a “loss of credibility when making future election commitments, a blurring of the distinction between Tory and Labour philosophies, a recruiting cry for fringe parties on the right, and an impression given to the world that the U.K. is heading for higher taxes.” Attempts to reform the care system have stymied British governments. Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, campaigned in a 2017 election on a plan to cut benefits to retirees and change the way they pay for long-term care. The idea was quickly dubbed a “dementia tax” by opponents, and May ended up losing her majority in Parliament.
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NASA confirmed Monday that its Perseverance Mars rover succeeded in collecting its first rock sample for scientists to pore over when a future mission eventually brings it back to Earth. “I’ve got it!” the space agency tweeted, alongside a photograph of a rock core slightly thicker than a pencil inside a sample tube. The sample was collected on September 1, but NASA was initially unsure whether the rover had successfully held onto its precious cargo, because initial images taken in poor light were unclear. After taking a new photo so mission control could verify its contents, Perseverance transferred the tube to the rover’s interior for further measurements and imaging, then hermetically sealed the container. “This is a momentous achievement, and I can’t wait to see the incredible discoveries produced by Perseverance and our team,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science, likened the achievement to the first samples of rock taken from the Moon, which are still invaluable to researchers today. Perseverance’s sampling and caching system is the most complex mechanism ever sent to space, with more than 3,000 parts. Its first target was a briefcase-sized rock nicknamed “Rochette” from a ridgeline that is particularly interesting from a geological perspective as it contains ancient layers of exposed bedrock. Perseverance uses a drill and a hollow coring bit at the end of its 2-meter-long (7-foot-long) robotic arm to extract samples. Perseverance landed on an ancient lakebed called the Jezero Crater in February, on a mission to search for signs of ancient microbial life using a suite of sophisticated instruments mounted on its turret. It is also trying to better characterize the red planet’s geology and past climate. The first part of the rover’s science mission, which will last hundreds of sols or Martian days, will be complete when it returns to its landing site. By then, it will have traveled somewhere between 2.5 and 5 kilometers (1.6 and 3.1 miles) and may have filled up to eight of its 43 sample tubes. It will then travel to Jezero Crater’s delta region, which might be rich in clay minerals. On Earth, such minerals can preserve fossilized signs of ancient microscopic life. Eventually NASA wants to send back the samples taken by the rover in a joint mission with the European Space Agency, sometime in the 2030s. Its first attempt at taking a sample in August failed after the rock was too crumbly to withstand the robot’s drill.
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Brazil soccer great Pele said on Monday that he was recovering in a hospital from surgery to remove a tumor from his colon. Pele, the only player to win three World Cups, did not say whether the tumor was malignant, but the 80-year-old former Santos and New York Cosmos player said he was feeling good. “Last Saturday I underwent surgery to remove a suspicious lesion in the right colon,” he wrote in a social media post. “The tumor was identified during the tests I mentioned last week.” The Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo said in a statement that it was keeping Pele in intensive care but expected to transfer him to a room on Tuesday. The tumor has been sent for tests, it added. “Luckily, I am used to celebrating big victories with you,” Pele wrote. “I am facing up to this match with a smile on my face, a lot of optimism and happiness for being surrounded by the love of my family and friends.” The news came just hours after a Brazilian news outlet said Pele had spent six days in hospital after going in for his annual medical. It also came days after Pele refuted reports he had fainted and 18 months after his son Edinho said his father was depressed, something the star quickly denied. As a player, Pele was famous for rarely getting injured, but he has suffered from hip problems for years and cannot walk unaided. His public appearances were already being cut before the COVID-19 pandemic, and since then, he has made few unnecessary forays outside his house near Santos.
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Jean-Paul Belmondo, star of the iconic French New Wave film “Breathless,” whose crooked boxer’s nose and rakish grin went on to make him one of the country’s most recognizable leading men, has died at 88. His death was confirmed Monday by the office of his lawyer, Michel Godest. No cause of death was given. Belmondo’s career spanned half a century. In the 1960s, he embodied a new type of male movie star, one characterized by pure virility rather than classic good looks. He went on to appear in more than 80 films and worked with a variety of major French directors, from Francois Truffaut to Claude Lelouch and Jean-Luc Godard, whose 1960 movie “Breathless” (“Au Bout de Souffle” in its original French title) brought both men lasting acclaim. Belmondo’s career choices were equally varied, from acclaimed art house films to critically lukewarm action and comedy films later in his career. His unconventional looks — flattened nose, full lips and muscular frame — allowed him to play roles from thug to police officer, thief to priest, Cyrano de Bergerac to an unshakable secret agent. Belmondo was also a gifted athlete who often did his own stunts. Reaction from celebritiesFrench President Emmanuel Macron called the actor a “national treasure” in an homage on Twitter and Instagram, recalling the actor’s panache, his laugh and his versatility. Belmondo was at once a “sublime hero” and “a familiar figure,” Macron wrote. “In him, we all recognize ourselves.” FILE – French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and Italian actress Claudia Cardinale attend a cocktail party in the Foreign Press Association in Rome, Nov. 3, 1960.France bounded into Belmondo mode at news of his death, with praise from politicians of all stripes pouring in. The media played old movie clips that caught the athletic Belmondo in the heart-stopping acrobatics he was known to love, from sliding down a rooftop to climbing up a rope ladder from a moving convertible. “I’m devastated,” an emotional Alain Delon, another top cinema star, said of the death of his longtime friend on CNews. Even Paris police headquarters offered its condolences for Belmondo, who played a police officer in numerous films, tweeting that “a great movie cop has left us.” Early lifeBelmondo, affectionately known as Bebel, was born on April 9, 1933, in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine into an artistic family. His father was renowned sculptor Paul Belmondo and his mother, Sarah Rainaud-Richard, was a painter. Belmondo played soccer and trained as a boxer before quitting school at 16. He took up acting in the 1950s at the Paris Conservatory, where one of his teachers, Pierre Dux, famously told him that his career as a leading man was doomed because of his looks. People would burst into laughter if they saw an actress in Belmondo’s arms, Dux said, according to biographer Bertrand Tessier. French theater critic Jean-Jacques Gautier wasn’t impressed either, once saying, “Mr. Belmondo will never enjoy success with his ruffian’s mug.” At his final conservatory competition, the jury failed to give him the recognition he thought he deserved — so he gave the judges an obscene parting gesture. The star began acting in small provincial theaters and caught the eye of aspiring filmmaker Godard in Paris in 1958, who asked him to appear in a short film. At first, Belmondo didn’t take Godard seriously. “I spoke to my wife about it, and she said, ‘Go ahead. If (Godard) hassles you, punch him,'” Belmondo told the Liberation newspaper in 1999. Belmondo was given his first important role by director Claude Sautet in “Classe tous risques” (Consider All Risks), in which he starred alongside Lino Ventura in 1960. The same year, Godard called Belmondo back to appear in “Breathless” — which became one of the breakthrough films of the French New Wave. The movement, which included Truffaut, grouped filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s who abandoned traditional narrative techniques and were known for their mood of youthful iconoclasm. FILE – French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, center, is congratulated by actors on stage during the ceremony of the 42nd Cesar Film Awards, at the Salle Pleyel, in Paris, Feb. 24, 2017.Belmondo played opposite American actress Jean Seberg, who appeared as the street-smart aspiring reporter who, in the film’s key moment, sold the International Herald Tribune on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. Belmondo sometimes said he acted in Godard’s first film and would act in his last. But he didn’t link his name exclusively with one director and worked with most of France’s top filmmakers — and many of Europe’s well-known actresses, including Jeanne Moreau and Sophia Loren. Following the huge success of “Breathless,” Belmondo showed the vast array of his talent and his versatility in dramas (“Leon Morin, pretre”), arthouse movies (“Moderato Cantabile”) and blockbusters (“Cartouche”). In “Un Singe en hiver,” a French classic directed by Henri Verneuil in 1962, Belmondo impressed the legendary Jean Gabin. “You won’t tell me anymore: ‘If only I had a young Gabin.’ You have him!” Gabin told the director about Belmondo. In Truffaut’s 1969 “Mississippi Mermaid,” Belmondo played a tobacco farmer and starred opposite Catherine Deneuve. Belmondo and Danish-born Anna Karina played a couple on the run in Godard’s 1965 “Pierrot le Fou.” Belmondo also won a Cesar — the French equivalent of an Oscar — for his role in Lelouch’s 1988 film “Itinerary of a Spoiled Child,” his final big success. Later rolesDuring the second half of his career, Belmondo opted for high-paying roles in commercially successful action films. He played a tough detective in “Cop or Hooligan,” and a World War II ace in “Champion of Champions.” In the 1980s, Belmondo returned to the stage, his first love, and won back the doubting critics. His comeback role was in a 1987 Paris production of “Kean,” about an actor famous for his uncontrollable temper and genius. Belmondo, who had recovered from a stroke in 2001, is survived by three children, Florence, Paul, and Stella Eva Angelina. Another daughter, Patricia, died in 1994. Funeral arrangements weren’t immediately known.
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The pollution, emissions and cleanup costs of plastic produced in 2019 alone could be $3.7 trillion, according to a report released Monday by wildlife charity WWF, warning of the environmental and economic burden of this “seemingly cheap” material. There is increasing international alarm over the sheer volumes of fossil-fuel based plastics entering the environment, as microplastics have infiltrated even the most remote and otherwise pristine regions of the planet. In its report, WWF said societies were “unknowingly subsiding” plastic. The report estimates the lifetime costs of the 2019 production is equal to more than the gross domestic product of India. “Plastic appears to be a relatively cheap material when looking at the market price primary plastic producers pay for virgin plastic. However, this price fails to account for the full cost imposed across the plastic life cycle,” said the report, “Plastics: The Cost to Society, Environment and the Economy,” produced for WWF by the consultancy Dalberg. Plastic is everywhere It estimated that unless there was concerted international action, a projected doubling of plastic production could see costs rocket by 2040 to $7.1 trillion. The analysis looked at factors including the greenhouse gas emissions in the production process, health impacts, waste management and estimates of the reduction in the economic services of ecosystems on land and in water. Since the 1950s, roughly 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced with around 60% of that tossed into landfills or the natural environment. Tiny fragments have been discovered inside fish in the deepest recesses of the ocean and peppering Arctic sea ice. The debris is estimated to cause the deaths of more than a million seabirds and more than 100,000 marine mammals each year. “Tragically, the plastic pollution crisis is showing no signs of slowing down, but the commitment to tackle it has reached an unprecedented level,” said Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, in a statement. ‘More plastic than fish’ The report comes as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) meets in the French port city of Marseille, with one motion under consideration calling for an end to plastic pollution by 2030. Earlier in September the European Union threw its weight behind calls for a legally binding international agreement to reduce plastic pollution, during U.N.-hosted talks in Geneva. The U.N. Environment Program has said the planet is “drowning in plastic pollution,” with about 300 million metric tons of plastic waste produced every year. The proposed resolution is to be discussed during the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi next year. France’s minister in charge of biodiversity, Berangere Abba, said if the world failed to act there would be “more plastic in the oceans than fish” by 2050.
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Brazil’s World Cup qualifying match against Argentina was dramatically suspended shortly after it began Sunday as controversy over COVID-19 protocols erupted.The match at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena between the two giants of South American football came to a halt when a group of Brazilian public health officials came onto the pitch, triggering a melee involving team staff and players.Argentina’s players trudged off the pitch to the locker room as the furor raged. Argentina captain Lionel Messi later re-emerged from the tunnel without his team shirt on as confusion swept around the stadium.The stunning intervention came just hours after Brazil’s health authorities said four players in Argentina’s squad based in England should be placed in “immediate quarantine” for breaching COVID-19 protocols.According to Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), Premier League players Giovani Lo Celso (Tottenham), Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa), Emiliano Buendia (Aston Villa) and Cristian Romero (Tottenham) provided “false information” upon their entry to Brazil.Romero, Lo Celso and Martinez were all in the Argentina starting lineup that kicked off Sunday’s game, triggering the intervention onto the field of officials wearing ANVISA shirts.The four Premier League players were accused of failing to disclose that they had spent time in the United Kingdom in the 14 days prior to their arrival.”We got to this point because everything that ANVISA directed, from the first moment, was not fulfilled,” ANVISA director Antonio Barra Torres said on Brazilian television.”(The four players) were directed to remain isolated while awaiting deportation, but they did not comply. They went to the stadium and they entered the field, in a series of breaches,” the official added.A government order dating from June 23 prohibits the entry into Brazilian territory of any foreign person from the United Kingdom, India or South Africa, to prevent the spread of variants of the coronavirus.”ANVISA considers that this situation represents a serious health risk and recommends that the local health authorities (of Sao Paulo) order the immediate quarantine of the players, who are prohibited from taking part in any activity and from remaining on Brazilian territory,” the agency said in a statement earlier Sunday.ANVISA said Brazil’s Federal Police had been notified so that “the necessary measures are taken immediately.”Brazilian website Globoesporte said the Argentina Football Association (AFA) could request an exceptional authorization from authorities in Sao Paulo to allow the players to take the field against Brazil.The controversy comes after nine Brazilians based in the Premier League failed to travel to South America following objections from their clubs.
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In the vast Sunderbans delta that spans eastern India and Bangladesh, coastal erosion due to rising sea levels has been slowly carving away chunks of its low-lying islands, forcing thousands of people to relocate, according to climate experts.“When we talk to families in the Sunderbans, we find that only elderly people are left behind. Many young people are already working in different parts of the country as day laborers or semiskilled workers,” Harjeet Singh, senior adviser at Climate Action Network International, said.The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body, warns that the Indian Ocean is warming faster than other seas. As a result, it says that sea levels around South Asia have increased faster than the global average, leading to coastal area loss and retreating shorelines in densely populated countries such as India and Bangladesh.That is affecting millions — a December report by ActionAid and Climate Action Network South Asia estimated that the combined effects of climate change will result in the displacement of 63 million people in South Asia from their homes by 2050 if emissions continue at the same levels.Many of those displaced will be from coastal communities, and are already seeing their homes regularly inundated from rising sea levels and their farms shrinking or becoming unusable because of increased soil salinity, say experts.Millions displacedWhile disasters such as cyclones and floods linked to climate change have grabbed headlines, the displacement of millions of people in the region has gotten less attention.“The IPCC report points out that the sea level is rising much faster than earlier research had suggested,” said Roxy Mathew Koll at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.“A 3-centimeter rise in a decade might not seem much but it is equivalent to 17 meters of land carved out by the sea every decade along the entire coast of India. That is what we are seeing happening currently,” Koll said.Mega cities in India, such as Mumbai and Chennai, have been witnessing increased monsoon flooding, as rural communities along the shore see livelihoods destroyed.Low-lying Bangladesh, where more than 35 million people live in coastal areas, could lose more than 15% of its land, affecting the homes and livelihoods of millions in coastal areas.“This region is not prepared to deal with such levels of displacement because the poor do not have resources to relocate. These climate migrants are mostly pushed into slums in nearby towns and cities, which are already densely populated,” Singh said.Barriers of mud and rock erected by residents, as well as concrete structures, have done little to keep the ocean out.Bangladesh’s government is planning to improve coastal embankments that were built to keep out tidal flooding and offer protection against severe cyclones, according to Malik Fida Khan at the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services in Dhaka.Ocean damages soilEven where the land is not swallowed by the ocean, though, the sea water pushing into farms has caused long-term damage.“We can build embankments and resilience against cyclonic storms and sea level rise, but it is very difficult to handle soil salinity. You need fresh water to push back the salinity,” Khan said.“For example, it will take 50 years or more to remove soil salinity that has increased in 10 years. So, you need different kind of adaptation measures such as growing saline-tolerant varieties of rice,” he said.While Bangladesh has developed several such varieties of rice, some studies say the soil salinity has increased so much that even growing these is difficult.Nowhere is the situation more dire than in the Sunderbans, often called one of the world’s climate hotspots. Increasingly battered by more intense cyclones, the region is witnessing one of the fastest rates of coastal erosion in the world, with islands dotting the delta steadily shrinking, according to several studies.Ghoramara island in the Indian state of West Bengal for example has diminished by half since 1970, according to several studies. Once home to 40,000 people, India’s 2011 census counted only 5,000 on the island.Those who have grown up in the Sunderbans in India, such as Bhakta Purakayastha, founder of the Sunderbans Social Development Center, describe the dramatic changes they have witnessed.“When I was a child, we used to cross the river in a boat. Now the river has shrunk so much due to silt deposits from upstream that we can walk across,” he said.He said fish were once abundant in the river but the catch has shrunk as the rising sea pushes into rivers, affecting poor communities that rely on their rice paddies and fish for sustenance.“Now they have to go out into the deep sea to catch fish, but rising tides pose a challenge” Purakayastha said.’We do not have a plan’A severe cyclone that hit the region in May has exacerbated the problem in the delta, with even drinking water becoming scarce because of rising salinity in rivers.Experts are calling on regional governments to develop plans to assist the growing tide of climate migrants, saying marginalized communities are the hardest hit by climate change.“The reality is we do not have a plan, although many of the impacts of climate change are already locked in,” Singh of Climate Action Network International said.“None of the governments in South Asia have specific policies for people forced to migrate due to climate change to eke out a living. Even the recognition of climate induced migration is not there,” he said.
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Australia recorded three new COVID-19 deaths in its most populous state of New South Wales and nearly 1,500 new cases of the coronavirus disease Sunday.Speaking to reporters in Sydney, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the peak of the most recent outbreak was expected “in the next couple of weeks.”Regarding the vaccination efforts, Berejiklian said 40% of the adult population in her state had received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.The Australian state of Victoria recorded at least 180 new locally contracted cases of the coronavirus Sunday.Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said the majority of people hospitalized with COVID-19 were not vaccinated. Andrews urged people to take the vaccine.New Zealand officials on Saturday reported the country’s first COVID-related fatality in more than 200 days. Doctors said the nonagenarian had several underlying health problems in addition to COVID-19.In Japan, the Nikkei newspaper reported Sunday that the government plans to issue COVID-19 vaccination certificates online.The report said the certificates for people vaccinated from around mid-December are intended for overseas travel rather than domestic use.In Brazil, federal health regulator Anvisa has placed a 90-day suspension on the use of more than 12 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine because they were made in a plant that had not been authorized by it.Several cities in Brazil have begun providing vaccine booster shots, even though most citizens have yet to receive their second shots. The booster shots were prompted by concerns older Brazilians have about the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine, The Associated Press reported.France, Israel, China and Chile are among those countries giving boosters to some of their older citizens, and a U.S. plan to start delivering booster shots for most Americans by Sept. 20 is facing complications that could delay third doses for those who received the Moderna vaccine, Biden administration officials said on Friday.Japan and South Korea are planning booster shots in the fourth quarter of this year. Malaysia is also considering boosters, but Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said those who have yet to receive their first shot are being prioritized.Thailand began giving booster shots this week, but only for health and frontline workers.Russia, Hungary and Serbia also are giving boosters, although there has been a lack of demand in those countries for the initial shots amid abundant supplies.According to The Associated Press, France’s worst coronavirus outbreak is unfolding 12 time zones away from Paris, devastating Tahiti and other idyllic islands of French Polynesia.Regional health officials say the South Pacific archipelagos lack enough oxygen, ICU beds and morgue space, and that the vaccination rate is just half the national average.With more than 2,800 COVID cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the region now holds France’s record for the highest infection rate. The majority of the region’s 463 documented COVID-19 deaths have taken place in the past 30 days.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said early Sunday that it had recorded nearly 220.3 million global COVID-19 infections and 4.56 million deaths. The center said more than 5.4 billion vaccines have been administered.Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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Willard Scott, the beloved weatherman who charmed viewers of NBC’s Today show with his self-deprecating humor and cheerful personality, has died. He was 87. His successor on the morning news show, Al Roker, announced that Scott died peacefully Saturday morning surrounded by family. An NBC Universal spokeswoman confirmed the news. No further details were released. “He was truly my second dad and am where I am today because of his generous spirit,” Roker wrote on Instagram. “Willard was a man of his times, the ultimate broadcaster. There will never be anyone quite like him.” “He played such an outsized role in my life and was as warm and loving and generous off-camera as he was on,” Katie Couric tweeted. Scott began his 65-year career at NBC as an entry-level page at an affiliate station in Washington and rose to become the weather forecaster on the network’s flagship morning show for more than three decades. His trademark was giving on-air birthday greetings to viewers who turned 100 years old by putting their faces on Smucker’s jelly jars and delivering weather updates in zany costumes. According to NBC, he once took up a viewer’s dare to appear in drag to win a $1,000 donation to the USO, the charity for military families, by dressing up as the Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda. The stunt wasn’t new for the genial Scott: He played Bozo the Clown when he hosted a children’s TV show in the 1960s and Ronald McDonald in commercials in the Washington area. He often dressed as Santa Claus at the National Tree Lighting ceremony throughout the 1980s and co-anchored NBC’s coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade between 1987 to 1997. In one memorable moment on live television, first lady Barbara Bush gave him a kiss during the 1989 inauguration parade of her husband, President George H.W. Bush. “[The president] said, ‘I didn’t know you knew Willard Scott.’ I said, ‘I don’t know Willard Scott. I just love that face,’ ” the first lady recalled. Scott handed the reins to Roker in 1996, occasionally filling in for him for the next decade before fully retiring in 2015. He is survived by his wife, Paris Keena, whom he married in 2014, and two daughters with Mary Dwyer Scott, his wife of 43 years until she died in 2002.
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Funeral director Wayne Bright has seen grief piled upon grief during the latest COVID-19 surge. A woman died of the virus, and as her family was planning the funeral, her mother was struck down. An aunt took over arrangements for the double funeral, only to die of COVID-19 herself two weeks later. “That was one of the most devastating things ever,” said Bright, who also arranged the funeral last week of one of his closest friends. Florida is in the grip of its deadliest wave of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, a disaster driven by the highly contagious delta variant. While Florida’s vaccination rate is slightly higher than the national average, the Sunshine State has an outsize population of elderly people, who are especially vulnerable to the virus; a vibrant party scene; and a Republican governor who has taken a hard line against mask requirements, vaccine passports and business shutdowns. As of mid-August, the state was averaging 244 deaths per day, up from 23 a day in late June and eclipsing the previous peak of 227 during the summer of 2020. (Because of the way deaths are logged in Florida and lags in reporting, more recent figures on fatalities per day are incomplete.) Hospitals have rented refrigerated trucks to store more bodies. Funeral homes have been overwhelmed. This 2016 photo provided by Cristina Miles shows her and her husband, Austin, in Palm Coast, Fla. Cristina’s husband died after contracting COVID-19, and less than two weeks later, her mother-in-law succumbed to the virus.’Weird dream state’Cristina Miles, a mother of five from Orange Park, is among those facing more than one loss at a time. Her husband died after contracting COVID-19, and less than two weeks later, her mother-in-law succumbed to the virus. “I feel we are all kind of in a weird dream state,” she said, of herself and her three children. Hospitals have been swamped with patients who, like Miles’ husband and mother-in-law, hadn’t gotten vaccinated. In a positive sign, the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 in Florida has dropped over the past two weeks from more than 17,000 to 14,200 on Friday, indicating the surge is easing. Florida made an aggressive effort early on to vaccinate its senior citizens. But Dr. Kartik Cherabuddi, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Florida, said the raw number of those who have yet to get the shot is still large, given Florida’s elderly population of 4.6 million. “Even 10% is still a very large number, and then folks living with them who come in contact with them are not vaccinated,” Cherabuddi said. “With delta, things spread very quickly.” Cherabuddi said there is also a “huge difference” in attitudes toward masks in Florida this summer compared with last year. This summer, “if you traveled around the state, it was like we are not really in a surge,” he said. FILE – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a news conference at Orlando Regional Medical Center, June 23, 2020, in Orlando, Fla.DeSantis’ stancesGovernor Ron DeSantis has strongly opposed certain mandatory measures to keep the virus in check, saying people should be trusted to make decisions for themselves. He has asserted, too, that the spike in cases is seasonal as Floridians spend more time indoors to escape the heat. At his funeral home in Tampa, Bright is working weekdays and weekends, staying past midnight sometimes. “Usually we serve between five and six families a week. Right now, we are probably seeing 12 to 13 new families every week,” he said. “It’s nonstop. We are just trying to keep up with the volume.” He had to arrange the burial of one of his closest friends, a man he had entrusted with the security code to his house. They used to carpool each other’s kids to school, and their families would gather for birthday and Super Bowl parties. “It is very, very difficult to go through this process for someone you love so dearly,” he said. Pat Seemann, a nurse practitioner whose company has nearly 500 elderly, homebound patients in central Florida, had not lost a single patient to COVID-19. Then the variant she calls “the wrecking ball” hit. In the past month, she lost seven patients in two weeks, including a husband and wife who died within days of each other. “I cried all weekend. I was devastated, angry,” she said. Elderly hit hardestOverall, more than 46,300 people have died of COVID-19 in Florida, which ranks 17th in per capita deaths among the states. The majority of the deaths this summer — like last summer — are among the elderly. Of the 2,345 people whose recent deaths were reported over the past week, 1,479 of them were 65 and older, or 63%. “The focus needs to be on who’s dying and who’s ending up in the hospital,” Seeman said. “It’s still going after the elderly.” But the proportion of under-65 people dying of COVID-19 has grown substantially, which health officials attribute to lower vaccination rates in those age groups. Aaron Jaggi, 35, was trying to get healthy before he died of COVID-19, 12 hours after his older brother Free Jaggi, 41, lost his life to the virus. They were overweight, which increases the risk of severe COVID-19 illness, and on the fence about getting vaccinated, thinking the risk was minimal because they both worked from home, said Brittany Pequignot, who has lived with the family at various times and is like an adopted daughter. After their death, the family found a whiteboard that belonged to Aaron. It listed his daily goals for sit-ups and push-ups. “He was really trying,” Pequignot said.
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Some cities in Brazil are providing booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, even though most people have yet to receive their second jabs, in a sign of the concern in the country over the highly contagious delta variant.Rio de Janeiro, currently Brazil’s epicenter for the variant and home to one of its largest elderly populations, began administering the boosters Wednesday. Northeastern cities Salvador and Sao Luis started on Monday, and the most populous city of Sao Paulo will begin Sept. 6. The rest of the nation will follow the next week.France, Israel, China and Chile are among those countries giving boosters to some of their older citizens, but more people in those countries are fully vaccinated than the 30% who have gotten two shots in Brazil. A U.S. plan to start delivery of booster shots by Sept. 20 for most Americans is facing complications that could delay third doses for those who received the Moderna vaccine, administration officials said Friday.About nine out of 10 Brazilians have been vaccinated already or plan to be, according to pollster Datafolha. Most have gotten their first shot but not their second.Brazil’s cases and deaths have been falling for two months, with 621 deaths reported in the seven days through Sept. 2 — far below April’s peak of more than 3,000 reported deaths over a seven-day period. Older Brazilians have expressed concern about the efficacy of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine against the delta variant, prompting authorities to offer the booster shots.Diana dos Santos, 71, received two shots of the Sinovac vaccine even after President Jair Bolsonaro spent months publicly criticizing it. Dos Santos, who lives Rio’s low-income Maré neighborhood, is diabetic and was hospitalized for a heart condition. She refuses to leave home until she gets her booster.“I can’t go out like before and I’m still afraid of all of this,” dos Santos said. “I will feel safer (with a booster).”Because of the variant, some experts say the government should slow the rollout of boosters and focus on distributing second doses. Delta is the most contagious variant identified, and many studies have suggested that one dose doesn’t protect against it.Two shots provide strong protection, with nearly all hospitalizations and deaths among the unvaccinated.Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist and professor at the Federal University of Espirito Santo, said pushing boosters at this early stage recalls the lack of concern given the gamma variant that overwhelmed Amazonian city Manaus earlier this year, only to feed a new wave nationwide. Brazil has seen more than 580,000 deaths from COVID-19, making it home to world’s eighth-highest toll on a per capita basis.Elderly residents wait for a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, during a booster shot campaign for the elderly in long-term care institutions, at Casa de Repouso Laco de Ouro nursing home, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 2, 2021.“It seems we’re in the same movie, repeating the same errors,” Maciel said. “It’s only a matter of time until what’s happening in Rio leads to a greater number of more serious cases in the rest of the country.”The delta variant already is dominant in Rio de Janeiro state, detected in 86% of the samples collected from COVID-19 patients, according to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. Intensive care units have reached full capacity in eight municipalities, although only a small rise in deaths have been recorded so far.Authorities in Sao Paulo state expect a similar scenario within weeks. It registered its first confirmed death from the delta variant on Tuesday, a 74-year-old woman who had received two Sinovac shots.Globally, doubts have plagued Chinese vaccines, especially as the delta variant has gained hold in many countries. Chinese officials have maintained the vaccine protects against delta, particularly preventing hospitalizations and severe cases.Still, Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said Aug. 25 that people aged 70 or older or who have a weak immune system will be eligible for a third dose, starting Sept. 15 — preferably with the Pfizer vaccine. He said that people over 18 will have received their first doses by then, although he didn’t address their vulnerability to the delta variant without a second shot.He also criticized governors and mayors who sought to deliver booster shots earlier, saying it could lead to vaccine shortages.Carla Domingues, former coordinator of Brazil’s national immunization program, agrees with the need to provide the elderly boosters, but not for people aged 70 and up right away. Shots should first go to nursing homes and people who are bed-ridden, she said, then people 80 and above, with the age slowly decreasing as supply allows.“Certainly, there will be problems with shortage, because there won’t be enough vaccine,” Domingues said.Japan and South Korea both wrestled with slow vaccine rollouts, and under half their populations are fully vaccinated; their governments are only planning booster shots in the fourth quarter of this year. Malaysia also is considering boosters, but Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the priority is those who haven’t received a first dose.Aloysio Zaluar, 84, is injected with a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during a booster shot campaign for elderly residents in long-term care institutions in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 1, 2021.Thailand began giving booster shots even as most people wait to be vaccinated — but only for health and front-line workers who received two Sinovac shots. The decision came after a nurse died of COVID-19 in July.Russia, Hungary and Serbia also are giving boosters, although there has been a lack of demand in those countries for the initial shots amid abundant supplies.In addition to doubts over boosters, the issue is sensitive due to implications for global vaccine distribution. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for a moratorium on boosters “to allow those countries that are furthest behind to catch up.”Epidemiologist Denise Garrett, vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, which advocates for expanding global vaccine access, said in an interview there is no doubt about the need for two jabs, but she sees no scientific or moral justification for a third.“Authorities giving a third dose are prioritizing protection against light disease instead of shielding people in poor countries from death,” said Garrett, who is Brazilian. “That is shameful, immoral, and this vaccine inequity must end.”That doesn’t sway 97-year-old Maria Menezes, who wants to spend time outside her home where she has lived for the last seven decades in Rio’s western region. Her two daughters say Menezes wants to a booster shot.“She asked us to take her for the third vaccine,” said daughter Cristina França, 38. “It will be important to beef up her immunity to reduce her risks. Her life won’t change much after the third dose, because she is more frail now, but she would live with more calm.”
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