A magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook Taiwan on Monday morning. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.  The quake struck at 9:05 a.m. at a depth of 6.8 kilometers (4.2 miles) in Hualien county, halfway down the east coast of the island, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said.  It was felt across most of the island of 24 million people including to the north in Taipei, the capital. It was also felt across the Taiwan Strait in mainland China’s Fujian province, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said. …

New York City is making a push to give city workers fired earlier this year for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine a chance to get their old jobs back — if they get fully vaccinated. In February, Mayor Eric Adams fired more than 1,400 workers who failed to comply with the vaccine mandate put in place by his predecessor, Bill de Blasio. Just short of 600 unvaccinated non-Department of Education workers are receiving a letter with details, and DOE employees are expected to receive a letter later in the summer, a city spokesperson said, adding that 97% of workers are vaccinated and that the goal has always been “vaccination rather than termination.” The development was first reported by the New York Post. It wasn’t clear how many workers would be affected and a timeline for returning to work was not disclosed. The mandate required vaccinations as a workplace safety rule. …

The U.S. on Saturday opened COVID-19 vaccines to infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The shots will become available next week, expanding the nation’s vaccination campaign to children as young as 6 months. Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the vaccines for the littlest children, and the final signoff came hours later from Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the agency’s director. “We know millions of parents and caregivers are eager to get their young children vaccinated, and with today’s decision, they can,” Walensky said in a statement. While the Food and Drug Administration approves vaccines, it’s the CDC that decides who should get them. The shots offer young children protection from hospitalization, death and possible long-term complications that are still not clearly understood, the CDC’s advisory panel said. The government has already been gearing up for the vaccine expansion, with millions of doses ordered for distribution to doctors, hospitals and …

The World Health Organization is calling for a radical change in the treatment of mental health disorders, saying existing care systems are largely ineffective and often abusive.  Nearly a billion people were living with a mental disorder in 2019. That number has grown, with new data showing conditions such as depression and anxiety increasing by more than 26 percent in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. The World Health Organization recently released its largest review of world mental health since the turn of the century. The report finds 14 percent, or one in seven adolescents, is suffering from a mental disorder. It says suicides account for one in 100 deaths, with 58 percent occurring before age 50. Head of the WHO’s mental health unit, Mark Van Ommeren, says mental disorders are the leading cause of disability. He says depression and anxiety alone cost the world economy nearly $1 trillion …

Weather disasters that happen more often because of climate change create conditions in which gender-based violence often spikes, according to new research.     The study, published in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health, reviewed research from five continents and found increased violence against women and girls in the aftermath of floods, droughts, hurricanes and other extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent as the planet warms. Humanitarian organizations that respond to weather disasters should be aware of this troubling trend when planning their operations, the study authors said.   “When we think of climate change effects, we think of some very drastic and very visual things, things like floods, disruptions of cities, supply chain disruptions — which are all very valid and very real risks of climate change,” said study author Sarah Savić Kallesøe, a public health researcher at Simon Fraser University in Canada. “But there are also some …

More than 1,600 confirmed monkeypox cases and almost 1,500 suspected cases have been reported this year from seven countries where monkeypox has been detected for years and 32 newly affected countries, according to the World Health Organization director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Europe remains the epicenter of this escalating outbreak,” Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said, with “85% of the global total.” WHO is convening an emergency meeting next week to discuss the mounting outbreak and whether the name of the disease should be changed. A group of scientists said in a statement recently on virological.com, “In the context of the current global outbreak, continued reference to, and nomenclature of this virus being African is not only inaccurate but is also discriminatory and stigmatizing. The most obvious manifestation of this is the use of photos of African patients to depict the pox lesions in mainstream …

People infected with the earliest version of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, first identified in South Africa in November, may be vulnerable to reinfection with later versions of omicron even if they have been vaccinated and boosted, new findings suggest. Vaccinated patients with omicron BA.1 breakthrough infections developed antibodies that could neutralize that virus plus the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, but the omicron sublineages circulating now have mutations that allow them to evade those antibodies, researchers from China reported on Friday in Nature. Omicron BA.2.12.1, which is now causing most of the infections in the United States, and omicron BA.5 and BA.4, which account for more than 21% of new U.S. cases, contain mutations not present in the BA.1 and BA.2 versions of omicron. Those newer sublineages “notably evade the neutralizing antibodies elicited by SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination,” the researchers found in test-tube experiments. The monoclonal antibody drugs bebtelovimab from …

Many people are trying to live more eco-friendly lives. But what about more eco-friendly deaths? For VOA, Svitlana Prystynska introduces us to the business of corpse composting. First, a caution: Some may find the subject matter disturbing. …

In marking the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, the United Nations is calling for better land management and regreening initiatives to tackle the twin disasters.  Europe is struggling with an unusually early and intense heat wave, which has spread from North Africa. That has been preceded by a prolonged heat wave in India and Pakistan in March and April.  Spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization, Clare Nullis, said European countries are experiencing scorching temperatures in mid-June that are more typical of those in July or August. She added that temperatures more than 10 degrees higher than average are combined with drought in many parts of Europe.  “As a result of climate change, heat waves are starting earlier. They are becoming more frequent and more severe because of concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which are at record level,” Nullis said. “What we are witnessing today is, unfortunately, …

Abortion providers in some places where the procedure could be banned if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade are bracing for a ruling by halting scheduling for the procedure, transitioning staff to help patients travel to other states and creating networks of clinics that will span across regions of the country. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, which operates three clinics that provide abortions in the state, is not scheduling the procedure beyond June 25 as it anticipates a late June decision reversing the landmark 1973 decision that guaranteed abortion rights nationwide. The organization in recent weeks has dedicated two staff members to help patients book appointments and figure out how to get to clinics. Whether clinics in Wisconsin will be able to provide abortions, though, has turned into a day-to-day question. “One of the hardest aspects of this is not knowing what day this decision will come down and …

Data from a European space observatory tells the history of our galaxy and may even predict its future. Plus, the full moon was as close to Earth as it will be this year, and a look back at a true space pioneer. VOA’s Arash  Arabasadi  brings us The Week in Space. …

During the early months of the pandemic, the Chinese government developed a color-coded smartphone app to track the movement of people in its effort to control the spread of COVID-19 and implement its zero-COVID policy. This week, however, media reports surfaced that authorities in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, were now using the required codes to restrict the movement of people upset because local banks had frozen their deposits. Hundreds of depositors who had lost access to their funds had planned to travel to Zhengzhou on Monday, only to find their health codes had suddenly turned red. This meant they couldn’t travel, and the protests fizzled. The red code seemed to target only depositors, according to CNN. VOA Mandarin asked China’s Foreign Ministry for comment on the government’s alleged new use for the app but received no comment. The state-run Global Times ran an editorial on Tuesday saying, “The health …

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday released new warnings about synthetic pollutants in drinking water known as “forever chemicals,” saying the toxins can still be harmful even at levels so low they are not detectable.  The family of toxic chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have been used for decades in household products such as nonstick cookware, stain- and water-resistant textiles and in firefighting foam and industrial products.  Scientists have linked some PFAS to cancers, liver damage, low birth weight and other health problems. But the chemicals, which do not break down easily, are not yet regulated.  The agency is set to issue proposed rules in coming months to regulate PFAS. Until the regulations come into effect, the advisories are meant to provide information to states, tribes and water systems to address PFAS contamination.  The EPA also said it would roll out the first $1 billion …

COVID-19 shots for U.S. infants, toddlers and preschoolers moved a step closer Wednesday.  The Food and Drug Administration’s outside vaccine advisers gave a thumbs-up to Moderna’s two shots for the littlest kids. The panel is set to vote later Wednesday on whether to also recommend Pfizer’s three-shot series for those youngsters.  The outside experts voted unanimously that the benefits of Moderna’s shots outweigh any risks for children under 5 — that’s roughly 18 million youngsters.  They are the last remaining group in the U.S. to get vaccinated, and many parents have been anxious to protect their little children. If all the regulatory steps are cleared, shots should be available next week.  “This is a long-awaited vaccine,” said panel member Dr. Jay Portnoy of Children’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. “There are so many parents who are absolutely desperate to get this vaccine, and I think we owe it to them …

Phil and Kristie Graves are a U.S.couple from Maryland and parents of three biological children and an adopted girl with special needs from Armenia. Recently, they decided to adopt a six-year-old girl with special needs from Ukraine. But that was before the Russian invasion. Anush Avetisyan has the story. Videographer: Dmytri Shakhov   …

A massive, fast-growing black hole, more luminous than previously discovered phenomena, has been discovered by an international team led by astronomers in Australia. Scientists say the black hole consumes the equivalent of one Earth every second and shines 7,000 times brighter than all the light from our own galaxy. Researchers were looking for unusual stars when they came across a supermassive black hole. It consumes the equivalent of one Earth every second and has the mass of three billion suns. The team led by the Australian National University believes it was obscured by the lights of the Milky Way. The discovery was made using the SkyMapper telescope at Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran in New South Wales. To take a more detailed look, the team went to the South African Astronomical Observatory’s 1.9-meter telescope in Cape Town. Christopher Onken from the Australian National University is the study’s lead researcher. He …

A dangerous heat wave hit much of the Midwest and South on Tuesday, with temperatures hitting triple digits in Chicago and combining with the humidity to make it feel even hotter there and in other sweltering cities.  More than 100 million people were expected to be affected by midweek, and authorities warned residents to stay hydrated, remain indoors when possible, and be aware of the health risks of high temperatures. Strong storms brought heavy rain and damaging wind to many of the affected areas on Monday, and more than 400,000 customers remained without power as of Tuesday afternoon.  Excessive heat warnings are in effect for much of Illinois and Indiana along with parts of Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan and Ohio from Tuesday through Wednesday night, according to the National Weather Service.  Heat index values — which take into account the temperature and relative humidity and indicate how hot it feels outdoors …

A government advisory panel Tuesday endorsed a second brand of COVID-19 vaccine for school-age children and teens. The Food and Drug Administration’s outside experts voted unanimously that Moderna’s vaccine is safe and effective enough to give to kids ages 6 to 17. If the FDA agrees, it would become the second option for those children, joining Pfizer’s vaccine. The same FDA expert panel will meet Wednesday to consider tot-sized shots from Moderna and Pfizer for the littlest kids, those under 5. Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine has long been available for adults in the U.S. and elsewhere, and more than three dozen countries offer it to older children. If the FDA authorizes Moderna’s vaccine for teens and younger children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will next decide whether to formally recommend the shots. The Massachusetts company is seeking clearance for two doses and plans to later offer a booster. Tuesday’s …

Microscopic air pollution caused mostly by burning fossil fuels shortens lives worldwide by more than two years, researchers reported Tuesday. Across South Asia, the average person would live five years longer if levels of fine particulate matter met World Health Organization standards, according to a report from the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute. In the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, home to 300 million, crippling lung and heart disease caused by so-called PM2.5 pollution reduces life expectancy by eight years, and in the capital city of New Delhi by a decade. PM2.5 pollution – 2.5 microns across or less, roughly the diameter of a human hair – penetrates deep into the lungs and enters the bloodstream. In 2013, the United Nations classified it as a cancer-causing agent. The WHO says PM2.5 density in the air should not top 15 micrograms per cubic meter in any 24-hour period, …