Day: May 29, 2024

US health secretary says an agreement on global pandemic response treaty is near

4:00 pm May 29, 2024

The top U.S. health official said on Wednesday it would be “tragic” for the world to miss out on key reforms to the global pandemic response and that a treaty deal was within reach, with no major differences between negotiators. Health officials are meeting in Geneva this week to try to wrap up more than […]

Rare dispute reveals China and North Korea’s ongoing discord over nuclear weapons

3:59 pm May 29, 2024

North Korea’s rare swipe at China this week underscored how Beijing and Pyongyang do not entirely see eye-to-eye on the latter’s illicit nuclear weapons arsenal, despite warming ties in other areas, analysts and officials in South Korea said. The North condemned China, Japan and South Korea on Monday for discussing denuclearization of the peninsula, calling […]

How underground storage tank spills are cleaned up, and why they leak in the first place

3:52 pm May 29, 2024

For more than a decade, some residents of the tiny Richmond, Rhode Island, neighborhood of Canob Park drank and bathed using tap water that had been tainted by gasoline that leaked from storage tanks buried under service stations a few hundred yards from their homes. They spent years battling oil companies, dealing with the daily […]

Germany lifts mandatory COVID vaccination requirement for military following committee recommendation

3:04 pm May 29, 2024

Germany has scrapped a requirement for its military servicepeople to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a mandate that had been in place since late 2021, the government said Wednesday. People serving with the German military, the Bundeswehr, are required to get vaccinations against a number of diseases — including measles, mumps and flu — so long […]

Overnight fire at Denmark’s Legoland theme park melts replicas of famed buildings

3:03 pm May 29, 2024

A fire believed to have been caused by a short circuit has destroyed part of Miniland, a section of the Legoland theme park in western Denmark with replicas of famous buildings made of Lego bricks, the park said Wednesday. Video surveillance showed that the fire started in one of the electric cars that runs on […]