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Mount Nyiragongo Erupts in DR Congo

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  Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo erupted on Saturday night, forcing tens of thousands of people in the city of Goma to leave their homes. The lava reached the edge of the city, but did less damage than some people had feared. Mount Nyiragongo is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. It has a large lake of melted rock in its center, which can flow easily and quickly. The volcano is only 6 miles (10 kilometers) away from the city of Goma, which is home to 2 million people. A deadly eruption in 2002 killed around 250 people and left roughly 20% of the city destroyed by lava. Nearly 120,000 people were left homeless. A 1977 eruption killed thousands. So when the volcano erupted on Saturday night, lighting the sky with its orange glow, many people were worried that this eruption might be similar to earlier eruptions. Thunder and lightning near Mount Nyiragongo made the threat seem even greater. Tens of thousands of people rushed from their homes carrying what
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India Hit by Powerful Cyclone Tauktae

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  On Monday, Gujarat, India was hit by the strongest storm ever to strike India’s west coast. Cyclone Tauktae has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and made India’s Covid-19 emergency even more difficult to deal with. India had been preparing for Cyclone Tauktae for days as the cyclone worked its way up the west coast. Over 200,000 people were evacuted from low-lying areas in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Long before it hit land, Tauktae brought huge amounts of rain, causing flooding in several Indian states. As the cyclone came closer to land, it grew stronger and stronger. On Monday night, Tauktae made landfall in Gujarat, hitting the state with winds as fast as 125 mph (205 kph ). That’s the strongest storm ever to hit India’s west coast, and breaks an earlier record set in 1998. The cyclone, which India’s weather agency described as “extremely severe”, pounded the area with heavy rains, flooding roads and highways. Its strong winds knocked down trees an
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Israel-Gaza Ceasefire

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 After 11 days of fighting, Israel and Palestinian militant groups have agreed to a ceasefire. Disagreements in early May led to serious fighting after Israel attacks from airplanes at Palestinians in Gaza, and Gaza responded with rockets. Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired over 4,000 rockets at Israel. Many people have criticized Israel’s attacks for hitting targets not related to the fighting. Last week, an Israeli attack took out a building that was the headquarters of several news groups. Since the fighting began, over 230 Palestinians have been killed, almost half of them women and children. Twelve people have been killed in Israel, including two children. It took several hours after the declaration of the ceasefire for fighting to actually stop. Next comes the difficult work of trying to prevent the fighting from starting again.
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Eswatini Health Clinics Get Solar Hot Water

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  In late March, the African nation of Eswatini celebrated something that people in many countries take for granted – hot water at health clinics across the country. The hot water is heated by the sun, and could save many lives. The country of Eswatini used to be as Swaiziland. Like many other countries around the world, it has struggled in its fight against the new coronavirus, which has caused many illnesses and deaths. One of the people who died from Covid-19 was the country’s prime minister, Ambrose Dlamini. Eswatini has 14 hospitals, but many people live far enough away from these hospitals that they count on local health clinics instead. There are 92 local health clinics spread around the country. Some clinics see as many as 300 patients a day. Some patients may have walked as far as 9 miles (15 kilometers) to visit the clinic. Before the coronavirus pandemic started, none of the clinics had running hot water for patients, and only a few had any hot water at all – even for perfor
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Fast for Football, Not Fast Enough for Track

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  Last October, Seattle Seahawks football star DK Metcalf surprised people by rapidly chasing after another player and stopping him from making a touchdown. At his fastest that day, he was running 22.6 mph (36 kph). On Sunday, at the USATF Golden Games and Distance Open, Metcalf got a chance to test his speed against professional sprinters. Metcalf has only been training as a sprinter for a few months, and weighs far more than the other athletes. Still, he managed to defeat two of the other athletes, coming in 15th out of 17 runners. Metcalf ran the 100 meters in 10.363 seconds. Cravon Gillespie, the winner on Sunday, finished in 9.96 seconds. Metcalf’s time wasn’t fast enough for the US Olympic team, but many people were impressed with his effort. Metcalf himself was impressed with the other athletes. “This is very different from football speed,” he said.
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US Restaurants Can’t Keep Up on Ketchup

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  There’s a surprising shortage in the United States – ketchup packets. Normally, fast food restaurants give customers lots of ketchup packets – often without customers even asking for them. But now US restaurants are having a hard time getting enough ketchup. To stay in business during the coronavirus pandemic, all kinds of restaurants switched over to selling take-out food. That meant that many restaurants that used to use ketchup bottles suddenly needed ketchup packets. The price of ketchup packets went up 13%. Heinz supplies about 70% of the ketchup sold in the US. To catch up to the demand, Heinz says it will begin producing 25% more ketchup. How much is that? 12 billion packets a year.
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Should Vaccine Information Be Shared For Free?

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As coronavirus  outbreaks in places like India grow worse, many people want drug companies to share the secrets behind their Covid-19  vaccines . So far, several rich countries are fighting efforts to share this information. Over the last year, scientists worldwide have worked incredibly hard to develop vaccines that protect against the coronavirus. Now there are several vaccines that work well. Drug companies, and many countries, have spent huge amounts of money developing these vaccines. Scientists came up with new materials and new ways of doing things to create the vaccines. Making the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, for example, requires 280 items from 19 different countries, as well as many special methods. Most drug companies have  legally  protected their Covid-19 vaccines with  patents  to keep other companies from copying their hard work. Now many people say these companies should give up their patents for a while. This “patent waiver” would allow others to freely copy their vaccine
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