Daily Archives: October 1, 2020


Italian Scientists’ Evidence Raises Hopes of Finding Life on Mars

Italian scientists this week showed evidence of Martian salt water, raising hopes of finding tiny Martian life swimming in it. NASA says an air leak aboard the International Space Station does not threaten the crew.  And SpaceX’s next batch of StarLink satellites will need to find another ride into orbit. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has the Week in Space. …


New US Relief Funding Package to Include Eligibility for Mental Health, Substance Abuse Providers

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department announced a new funding opportunity Thursday for providers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic Thursday.     The $20 billion relief fund will be provided through the Health Resources and Services Administration and will allow providers who previously have received Provider Relief Fund payments to apply for additional funding.     Under the Phase 3 General Distribution allocation program, financial losses and changes in operating expenses caused by the coronavirus that previously were not covered now will be considered.   Those who …


Britain Bans Plastic Straws

Britain’s primary environmental agency announced that beginning Thursday a ban on all “single-use” beverage straws is in effect, making it illegal for businesses to sell or supply them to individual customers.   The ban was passed and set to take effect in April, but the COVID-19 pandemic prompted law makers to postpone its implementation so as to not impose a further burden on businesses.   A statement Thursday from Britain’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs says the ban includes plastic straws, stirrers and cotton swabs.   In a …


Chrissy Teigen and John Legend Grieve Their Miscarriage

Chrissy Teigen said she and John Legend are in “deep pain” following her miscarriage, which she announced in a heart wrenching social media post. Teigen wrote that they were “driving home from the hospital with no baby. This is unreal.” “We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we’ve never felt before. We were never able to stop the bleeding and give our baby the fluids he needed, despite bags and bags of blood transfusions. It just wasn’t enough,” she …


‘It Belongs to Us!”: Tense French Trial Over Colonial Art

Is dislodging African artwork from a European museum a political statement, or a criminal act? That’s the question a French court weighed Wednesday in an emotionally charged trial centered around a Congolese activist campaigning to take back art he says was plundered by colonizers. “It belongs to us!” shouted a Black woman watching the trial, breaking down in tears and storming out after a lawyer for Paris’ Quai Branly Museum insisted that its holdings — including tens of thousands of artworks from former colonies — belong to the French state. …


Hundreds in US Charged in $6B Medical Fraud Schemes

The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday announced charges against 345 people for committing over $6 billion in medical fraud. Those charged include more than 100 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who filed fraudulent claims to federal health care programs and private insurers, according to the Justice Department. The bulk of the fraud — $4.5 billion — was connected to telemedicine, which has surged during the pandemic. For example, the Cleveland Clinic went from averaging 5,000 telemedicine visits a month before the pandemic to 200,000 visits just in April, the Associated Press reported. “Telemedicine …