SYDNEY—Researchers are deploying heat-seeking drones and studying the chemistry of leaves to determine how creatures like the koala can survive in a burned landscape, a new effort to understand the effects of devastating wildfires across the globe. About 73,000 square miles were burned in Australia’s most recent fire season, an area bigger than Washington state, … Read more
MOSCOW—In April, as Covid-19 cases surged across Russia, President Vladimir Putin called a meeting of the country’s top scientists and health officials over video link to deliver an urgent directive: Do whatever you need to create a national vaccine as soon as possible. Four weeks later, Alexander Gintsburg, director of the state-run Gamaleya Institute for … Read more
HONG KONG—A team of researchers have documented a case of Covid-19 reinfection, offering evidence that patients who have recovered from the viral disease could be infected a second time, months after the initial episode. In a paper accepted on Monday by the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, scientists from the University of Hong Kong reported the … Read more
MEXICO CITY—Millions of dollars obtained from foreign bribes during a presidential campaign. Bags of cash to lawmakers in exchange for approving a historic opening of Mexico’s oil industry. A former sitting president making deals with his favorite contractor to share the spoils of big government contracts. Those allegations by Emilio Lozoya, a disgraced former chief … Read more
The mainly Italian tourists visiting the ruins of Italy’s ancient city of Pompeii are getting a rare chance to see the site without the usual crowds—and admire spectacular finds unearthed during a six-year conservation project that is just now drawing to a close. In a corner of the city that was frozen in time by … Read more