Fight against Corona: Russia to begin COVID-19 vaccine trials on 40,000 people next week

Moscow, Russia: Mass testing of Russia's first potential COVID-19 vaccine to get domestic regulatory approval will involve more than 40,000 people and will be overseen by a foreign research body when it starts next week, backers of the project said on Thursday.

These were the first details on the shape and size of the upcoming late-stage trial of the vaccine given by its developers, who are aiming to allay concerns among some scientists about the lack of data provided by Russia so far. The vaccine, called "Sputnik V" in homage to the world's first satellite launched by the Soviet Union, has been hailed as safe and effective by Russian authorities and scientists following two months of small-scale human trials, the results of which have not been made public yet.

But Western experts have been more sceptical, warning against its use until all internationally approved testing and regulatory steps have been seen to be taken and proved a success. "A range of countries is running an information war against the Russian vaccine," Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) that is backing the vaccine, told a briefing. The vaccine data will be published in an academic journal later this month, he said.

Russia has received requests for up to a billion doses of the vaccine from around the world and has capacity to produce 500 million doses per year via manufacturing partnerships, he said.

A director at Moscow's Gamaleya Institute, which developed the vaccine, said 40,000 people would be involved in the mass testing at more than 45 medical centres around Russia.

The data is being provided to the World Health Organization (WHO), Dmitriev said, and to several countries that are considering participating in the late-stage trial, including the United Arab Emirates, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. Sputnik V has already received approval from domestic regulators, leading President Vladimir Putin and other officials to name Russia the first country to license a COVID-19 vaccine.

The registration took place, however, ahead of the start of the large-scale trial, commonly known as a Phase III trial, considered by many as a necessary precursor to registration. At least four other potential COVID-19 vaccines are currently in Phase III trials globally, according to WHO records.

Corona Vaccine Race: China's latest COVID-19 phase III vaccine to be available, affordable to people worldwide

Beijing: China's vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic will be available and affordable to people worldwide, said Liu Jingzhen, chairman of China National Pharmaceutical Group, in Beijing on Thursday. 

A ceremony took place in Beijing on Thursday to launch phase three clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine in Peru. Peru's national health authorities have approved the trials, the latest in China's efforts to strengthen international cooperation in pandemic control. "We launched the promotion of international clinical trials in April. So we’re making key breakthroughs in the United Arab Emirates, which have been very successful. Today, we established a cooperation relationship with Peru, and officially received the documents in all aspects, and will soon start equity participation. Up to now, the clinical phase three trials, from the experimental point of view, the layout is completely sufficient," said Liu.

Liu said that China's Biotec Group is carrying out the research with experts from some of Peru's leading universities. "In Peru, we're working with the National University of San Marcos and another university [University of Cayetano Heredia], specifically to cooperate comprehensively on the clinical phase three trials. They're two of the top universities in Peru, and their experts have been very professional across the board," said Liu.

Liu added that the vaccines will only be used after sufficient preparations and they are striving to make it available to the public worldwide. "Vaccines are to be used for prevention by healthy people. It must be accessible to the general public. According to President Xi Jinping's speech at the World Health Assembly, China's vaccines will be used as global public goods after research and development is successful, which means both available and affordable to the people worldwide," Liu said.

Liu pointed out two research and production facilities in Beijing and Wuhan, which was hit the hardest by the virus, that could ensure the supply of 200 million vaccines a year. "We have two research and production facilities in Beijing and Wuhan, which can ensure the next large-scale quantitative production, feasibility and availability of the vaccines. We are making every effort to prepare for the vaccine's mass production. According to normal daytime production speed, we can supply over 200 million vaccines a year. We can ensure the availability and mass production on the basis of the quality, safety, and effectiveness of our vaccines," said Liu.

Liu introduced that taking an injection twice with an interval of 28 days would give the best effect of the vaccines. "According to our clinical experiments, taking two injections can achieve the best effect. The best interval between the two injections is 28-days, which would ensure overall effectiveness, because, after the first injection, the antibody would increase slowly and after the second injection, the antibody increases quite fast. The two injections could guarantee the validity and could prolong the validity. So this method is best in effectiveness, which is approved by experimental data," said Liu.

Fight against Corona: COVID-19 vaccine maybe ready by the end of 2020, said experts

Experts around the world are confident in the current research and development progress of the COVID-19 vaccine, with some of them believing that a safe and efficient vaccine will be ready for production by the end of this year.

Researchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against COVID-19, and more than 170 candidate vaccines are now tracked by the World Health Organization. Among those, the promising ones are reportedly from the UK, the U.S., China, and Russia, with large-scale human tests underway in different parts of the world. Six of the vaccines have entered phase three clinical trials, the last phase in the development of a vaccine before it goes through licensure.

"I'm quite hopeful that by the end of 2020 we will have vaccines that have made it through phase trials and are ready for production. But of course between here and there is a long time, there could be things that go wrong, but the sheer number of vaccines that are entering phase three trials gives me hope that at least one will make it through and show itself to be both safe and effective in preventing COVID-19," said Megan Ranney, director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health during an TV interview on Tuesday.

Jerome Kim, director general of the International Vaccine Institute, also hopes that good signs will appear in the next three or four months, and stressed the importance of vaccine manufacture and distribution.

The WHO Manifesto for a healthy recovery from #COVID19 lists 6⃣ steps to create a healthier 💟, fairer ⚖️ & greener 🌳 world while investing to maintain & resuscitate the economy:

👉https://t.co/Ftv0KCKsMA pic.twitter.com/PBuejrb7B4

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) July 31, 2020

"It's very important that we have six vaccines entering phase three testing. Phase three, of course, is the stage where we show that a vaccine is both safe and effective, and that's critical. We hope that in the next four months or so, we'll get a signal, an early signal from one of these vaccines that shows that it's actually protecting people against COVID-19 infection, and that will be a very, very important step. But equally important will be being able to manufacture it and then being able to distribute it around the world and to use it to prevent infections wherever they’re occurring," said Kim.

Kim also expressed his concerns about the impact of geopolitical disputes on vaccine distribution, and called for a solution that will ensure all people can have access to the vaccine.

"The thing that concerns me the most is that we aren't coordinated. It needs to go into ensuring that when we have the vaccine, that it isn't going to be a single deal between China and Brazil or a single deal between a U.S. or European based company and a country somewhere in the world. This has to be a solution that will be available to people all over the world, big countries and small countries, rich countries and poor countries," said Kim.

Fight against Corona: Cuba to start clinical trials of potential COVID-19 vaccine

Havana, Cuba: Cuba is set to begin clinical trials next week of a potential coronavirus vaccine called 'Soberana 01' (Sovereign 01) developed by its state-run Finlay Institute, with results due in February, state-run media said on Wednesday.

The potential coronovirus vaccine will be delivered in two injections during the trials that will involve 676 people aged between 19 and 80 years and conclude on Jan. 11. The island prides itself on its biopharmaceutical industry, begun by former revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, which is also an important hard currency earner and already produces several vaccines.

Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, told Cuban state news agency Prensa Latina that Cuba could even be one of the places it could choose to produce the vaccine from November onwards. Authorities say their treatments for the new coronavirus have already helped it reduce mortality in sufferers.

They touted interferon long before other producers started hailing the merits of the decades-old antiviral agent that boosts immune system and say dozens of countries have expressed an interest in buying it. The country of 11 million inhabitants has registered just a handful of deaths in the last few months, bringing the total to 88 deaths for 3,482 confirmed cases since the start of its outbreak in March.

Cuba has handled its outbreak in textbook fashion through contact tracing and isolation of potential asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19, although cases have risen in recent weeks since it eased lockdown restrictions in the capital, prompting it to tighten them once more.

China grants country's first COVID-19 vaccine patent to CanSino

Tianjin: China's vaccine specialist CanSino Biologics Inc has won a patent approval from Beijing for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate Ad5-nCoV, state media reported, citing documents from the country's intellectual property regulator.

It is the first COVID-19 vaccine patent granted by China, according to state-owned newspaper People's Daily. The paper cited documents published by China's National Intellectual Property Administration saying that the patent was issued on Aug. 11. A late-stage trial of a COVID-19 candidate vaccine from CanSino Biologics Inc has started in Russia, registration records showed, as the Chinese pharmaceutical firm steps up testing abroad to close in on regulatory approval.

The Ad5-nCoV vaccine already has approval for use by China's military after early and mid-stage trials, and further late-stage trials are being lined up for Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

Artificial Intelligence: Japan installs its first LED illuminated manholes with anime motifs

Tokorozawa, Japan: A Japanese city neighbouring Tokyo has spruced up its manhole covers with fans' favourite anime characters.

Since August 1, manhole covers across the city were illuminated with solar-powered LED lights in designs borrowed from popular anime television series such a "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "Gundam", the city's Waterworks and Sewerage department said. The 27 designs that cover a total of 28 manholes were installed by a Japanese publishing firm and were specifically made to drum up anticipation for the November opening of the city's new entertainment complex "Tokorozawa Sakura Town". 

The designs can be found on manholes stretching from the local Higashi Tokorozawa train station and light up from 5:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. in the morning every evening. Residents such as 22-year-old Kotaro Kodaira said they made daily commutes enjoyable.

"I can look at them on the ground so the (walk) time seems shorter than before," he said. City officials said they hope the illuminated manhole covers will help minimize crime and contribute to the neighbourhood's safety at night.

'Seriously doubt' Russia coronavirus vaccine was proven safe - Dr. Anthony Fauci

Top U.S. infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci said he doubts that Russia has proven a newly announced COVID-19 vaccine as safe and effective.

"Having a vaccine... and proving that a vaccine is safe and effective are two different things," said Fauci. "I hope, but I haven't heard any evidence to make me feel that's the case, I hope that the Russians have actually definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective. I seriously doubt that they've done that." Fauci's comments were released as a preview of an exclusive conversation with National Geographic as part of their event, 'Stopping Pandemics,' airing Thursday, August 13 at 1pm ET (1700gmt).

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had become the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing, a move hailed by Moscow as evidence of its scientific prowess.

The vaccine still has to complete final trials, raising concerns among some experts at the speed of its approval, but the Russian business conglomerate Sistema has said it expects to put it into mass production by the end of the year.

Google turns Android phones into earthquake sensors; California to get alerts

California, US: Alphabet Inc's Google's Android phones on Tuesday started detecting earthquakes around the world to provide data that could eventually give billions of users precious seconds of warning of a tremor nearby, with an alerting feature first rolling out in California.

Japan, Mexico and California already use land-based sensors to generate warnings, aiming to cut injuries and property damage by giving people further away from the epicenter of an earthquake seconds to protect themselves before the shaking starts. If Google's approaches for detecting and alerting prove effective, warnings would reach more people, including for the first time Indonesia and other developing countries with few traditional sensors.

Seismology experts consulted by Google said turning smartphones into mini-seismographs marked a major advancement, despite the inevitably of erroneous alerts from a work in progress, and the reliance on a private company's algorithms for public safety. More than 2.5 billion devices, including some tablets, run Google's Android operating system.

"There are hundreds of millions of people around the world that live near earthquake fault zones. And every few seconds of notice that you can receive can give you time to you know get off of a ladder or move away from a dangerous object and overall take cover, so if you can get early notice that an earthquake is coming toward you, you can protect yourself, and that's an area where we think Android can help," said Marc Stogaitis, principal software engineer at Google.

Google's program emerged from a week-long session 4-1/2 years ago to test whether the accelerometers in phones could detect car crashes, earthquakes and tornadoes, said Stogaitis. Accelerometers - sensors that measure direction and force of motion - are mainly used to determine whether a user is holding a phone in landscape or portrait mode.

The company studied historical accelerometer readings during earthquakes and found they could give some users up to a minute of notice. Android phones can currently separate earthquakes from vibrations caused by thunder or the device dropping only when the device is charging, stationary and has user permission to share data with Google.

If phones detect an earthquake, they send their city-level location to Google, which can triangulate the epicenter and estimate the magnitude with as few as several hundred reports, Stogaitis said.

The system will not work in regions including China where Google's Play Services software is blocked.

Google expects to issue its first alerts based on accelerometer readings next year. It also plans to feed alerts for free to businesses that want to automatically shut off elevators, gas lines and other systems before the shaking starts. To test its alerting abilities, Google is drawing in California from traditional government seismograph readings to alert Android users about earthquakes, similar to notifications about kidnappings or flooding.

People expected to experience strong shaking would hear a loud dinging and see a full-screen advisement to drop, cover and hold on, Stogaitis said. Those further away would get a smaller notification designed not to stir them from their sleep, while people too close to be warned will get information about post-quake safety, such as checking gas valves. Alerts will trigger for earthquakes magnitude 4.5 or greater, and no app download is necessary.

At the U.S. Geological Survey, Robert de Groot, communication coordinator for the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning (EEW) system, said the bi-level approach that Google is taking is unique.

"Google is using is what we call bi-level alerting where there's two kinds of messages: what is called a be aware message and then a take action message. And that has a lot of implications.

That's a type of alerting we haven't seen done yet," he said. "But beyond being interesting, and beyond being innovative, if it's successful in protecting people, then it is a success." Stogaitis also said Google has not discussed its plans with Apple Inc, whose competitor to Android comprises half the market in countries including the United States. Apple was not immediately available for comment.

China's Sinovac launches Phase 3 trial for COVID-19 vaccine in Indonesia

Bandung: Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Tuesday said the country hoped to start producing coronavirus vaccines by January if late-stage human trials prove successful.

Widodo was in Bandung, West Java province to launch the phase three human trial for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd and Indonesian state-owned peer Bio Farma, which will involve as many as 1,620 patients. Sinovac's Indonesia trial comes as Southeast Asia's most populous country grapples with spiking infection numbers, with over 127,000 cases recorded as of Tuesday. The trial has so far recruited 1,215 people and will last six months.

The candidate, known as CoronaVac, is among a few potential vaccines that have entered late-stage trials for a large-scale study to gather proof of efficacy for regulatory approval. In Sinovac's mid-stage trial involving 600 participants in China, the rate of fever in patients was relatively lower than other COVID-19 candidates including one from AstraZeneca, the study showed ahead of peer review.

Sinovac is testing its vaccine abroad because China is no longer a satisfactory site for late-stage trials due to the low number of new infection cases.

Russia announces world's first Covid-19 vaccine, President Vladimir Putin said It is approved for use

Russia: President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had become the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing, a move hailed by Moscow as evidence of its scientific prowess.

The vaccine still has to complete final trials, raising concerns among some experts at the speed of its approval, but the Russian business conglomerate Sistema has said it expects to put it into mass production by the end of the year. Russian health workers treating COVID-19 patients will be offered the chance of volunteering to be vaccinated in the coming weeks, a source told Reuters last month. 


Regulatory approval paves the way for the mass inoculation of the Russian population and authorities hope it will allow the economy, which has been battered by fallout from the virus, to return to full capacity. Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, hailed the development as a historic "Sputnik moment," comparable to the Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first satellite. 

The vaccine will be marketed under the name 'Sputnik V' on foreign markets, he said. Dmitriev said Russia had already received foreign requests for 1 billion doses. International agreements had been secured to produce 500 million doses annually, with the vaccine also expected to be produced in Brazil. 

He said clinical trials were expected to start soon in the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines. But only about 10% of clinical trial are successful, and the speed at which Russia has moved, approving a vaccine before the final stages of trials to test safety and efficacy are over, has worried some scientists, who fear Moscow may be putting national prestige before safety. 


Speaking at a government meeting on state television, Putin dismissed those concerns, saying the vaccine, developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute, was safe and that it had even been administered to one of his daughters. "I know that it works quite effectively, forms strong immunity, and I repeat, it has passed all the needed checks," said Putin. He said he hoped mass production would start soon.

Samsung launches Galaxy Note Z Fold 2, foldable smart phone as pandemic shrinks market

Seoul, South Korea: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its latest Galaxy Note smartphone and new version of its foldable phone, the Z Fold 2, on Wednesday, hoping to regain ground against rivals Huawei and Apple Inc as the smartphone market begins to recover from its COVID-19 slump.

Samsung launched its previous premium model, the S20, in February at the start of the pandemic but since then has ceded its top ranking in the smartphone market to China's Huawei, as people opt for cheaper models in tough times. The Z Fold 2 has a 6.2-inch (15.75-cm) screen when folded to provide a full smartphone experience even when it is closed, Samsung announced during a livestreamed event. Its unfolded display measures 7.6 inches (19.3 cm).

The new iteration is thinner than the first Fold, and the hinge is improved to be more resilient, Samsung said. Samsung did not disclose the phone's price, but said more details and preorders will be available on Sept. 1. The new Note 20 boasts a larger screen at 6.7 inches (17 cm), 5G connectivity, enhanced writing features with its S-Pen stylus, and access to more than 100 console and PC games via a tie-up with Microsoft Corp's Xbox cloud service.

It will go on sale on Aug. 21 in about 70 countries, including the United States, where the basic version will retail for $999 (USD), compared with its predecessor's $949. Apple fans are unlikely to jump ship to the new Samsung model as the 5G iPhone is likely to be launched later this year, analysts say.

Samsung posted a 29% on-year drop in shipments in the June quarter, the biggest fall among top vendors, according to researcher IDC. Apple, which launched the budget-friendly SE during the period, remained resilient with 11% on-year shipment growth, while Huawei posted only a 5% fall.

The global smartphone market shrank about 16% on-year in the April-June quarter due to COVID-19 lockdowns and consumer caution, a larger contraction than in the first quarter, and is expected to improve only slightly in the second half, IDC said.

Artificial Intelligence: Star Wars-inspired 'smart skin' developed by Singapore scientists

Singapore: Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed an AI device with a sense of touch that can identify objects and textures.

The device, officially dubbed ACES (Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin), is composed of 100 different small sensors and is about 1 square centimetre in size. According to its developers, it can process information faster than the human nervous system, and has been trained to recognise 20-30 different types of textures and read braille letters, all with over 90% accuracy.

"So humans need to slide to feel texture, but in this case, the skin, with just a single touch, is able to detect textures of different roughness, and so in some sense, it's quite difficult to cheat this skin, especially when it's combined with AI algorithms that can learn very quickly," said research team leader Dr. Benjamin Tee.

According to Tee, the device is part of a series of other innovations that he and his team are developing to help make prosthetic limbs that can feel and sense-not just for detecting objects or textures, but also being able to feel temperatures and even pain.

"When you lose your sense of touch, you essentially become numb every single moment, and prosthetic users face that problem. They are unable to feel the world, just like us. So by recreating an artificial version of the skin, for their prosthetic devices, they can hold a hand and feel the warmth and feel that it is soft, how hard are they holding the hand. You know, they are able to do that, and they can regain some semblance of normal life," said Tee, demonstrating that the device could detect a squishy stress ball is "soft" while a solid plastic ball is classified as "hard".

Tee said that the concept was originally inspired by a scene from the original "Star Wars" trilogy when protagonist Luke Skywalker loses his right hand and had it replaced with a robotic one, and was seemingly able experience sensations of pain and touch again.

The recent projects has been in development for the past two years, although Tee previously spent over a decade working on this field.

Among the other patents they have developed is a water-resistant, self-healing transparent skin that that can repair itself when ruptured. Made from a fluorocarbon-based polymer with a fluorine-rich ionic liquid, the material can repair itself after being ruptured, and takes around a full day to completely "heal" from a large cut. His team has also developed a self-healing, light-emitting material that Tee said can be used for wearable electronic devices or even clothing.

Tee said that the technology is still in the experimental stage and has yet to hit the private market, but there has been "tremendous interest," especially from the medical community.

Corona Crisis: Dr. Fauci expects tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses at start of 2021

Bethesda, US: Drugmakers will likely have tens of millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines in the early part of next year, with production ramping up to a billion doses by the end of 2021, Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases official, said in a interview on Wednesday.

Fauci said he is hopeful the world could get past the pandemic that has claimed more than 700,000 lives worldwide by the end of next year with the help of a vaccine. He said he has not seen any pressure from the White House to announce a successful vaccine close to the Nov. 3 election in the hopes of boosting President Donald Trump's re-election chances. Fauci said health regulators have promised "they are not going to let political considerations interfere" with the approval of a COVID-19 vaccine and that "safety and efficacy" will be primary considerations.

Fauci's interview with Reuters came on the same day Trump said in an interview with Fox News that the virus is "going away. It will go away like things go away." Fauci offered a more mixed assessment, saying some parts of the country had done well in containing the spread of the virus, while others were "on fire."

He characterized the varying responses to the virus as "disjointed" -owing to the size and the diversity of the nation. "I hope, and feel it's possible, that by the time we get through 2021 and go around for another cycle that we'll have this under control," he said.

Brazil, hotbed for COVID-19 vaccine testing, may struggle to produce its own

Sao Paulo: Brazilian officials say they can start making COVID-19 vaccines developed by British and Chinese researchers within a year. Experts say it will take at least twice as long, leaving Brazil reliant on imports to slow the world's second-worst outbreak.

If Brazil's underfunded medical institutions are unable to meet their ambitious goals, it would mark the latest failure by President Jair Bolsonaro's government to control the virus. It would also leave Brazil vulnerable to a frenzied global scramble for vaccine supplies. Some of the most advanced COVID-19 vaccine candidates - including from AstraZeneca Plc in partnership with Oxford University, and China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd - are undergoing large clinical trials in Brazil, which has more than 2.7 million reported cases and almost 95,000 deaths, second only to the United States. Researchers can get results faster by testing vaccines where active virus spread is rampant.

As part of their agreements with Brazilian authorities, AstraZeneca and Sinovac have promised the federal government and the Sao Paulo state government, respectively, tens of millions of doses of their potential vaccines. They also pledged to transfer technology so Brazil can eventually produce them domestically at leading biomedical institutes Fiocruz, in Rio de Janeiro, and Butantan, in Sao Paulo.

The institutes say production of new vaccines will begin by the middle of 2021. Brazil's federal government has said it will invest 1.9 billion reais ($355 million) to process and produce the AstraZeneca vaccine. But three experts told Reuters money alone would not be enough, saying it could take between two and 10 years for Brazil to produce COVID-19 vaccines, due to the difficulty of transferring technology and years of under-investment in the two production facilities.

A former head of federal health regulator Anvisa, who asked not to be named to avoid professional conflicts, also doubted Brazil could become self sufficient in a timely manner. Brazil's Health Ministry said such predictions are premature and will depend on vaccine trial results. But officials have admitted the announced timeline may be hard to attain.

Brazil's state and federal governments are discussing additional late-stage coronavirus vaccine trials with U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc, China's Sinopharm Group and Russian diplomats. But they quickly made big bets on the first two candidates to start testing in the country from AstraZeneca and Sinovac.

The Sinovac deal obliges Butantan to invest 85 million reais ($16 million) to conduct trials of the Chinese vaccine. In exchange, the Sao Paulo government, which runs Butantan, will get enough doses to vaccinate 60 million people. The federal government's memorandum of understanding with AstraZeneca requires it to buy 30 million doses of its still-unproven vaccine at a cost of $97 million, even if it fails in pivotal trials. The deal gives Brazil priority to buy 70 million more doses if the vaccine works.

As part of that deal, Brazil pledged to invest 1.9 billion reais to produce the vaccine. About 1.3 billion will go toward technology transfer, and 95 million reais for updating Fiocruz facilities. The rest will be spent on processing the vaccine. 

Brazil's government has hedged its bets by joining the World Health Organization's COVAX initiative, which intends to guarantee fast and equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines, and aims to deliver 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.

North Korea has 'probably' developed nuclear devices to fit ballistic missiles: UN report

North Korea is pressing on with its nuclear weapons program and several countries believe it has "probably developed miniaturised nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its ballistic missiles," according to a confidential U.N. report.

The report by an independent panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions said the countries, which it did not identify, believed North Korea's past six nuclear tests had likely helped it develop miniaturised nuclear devices. Pyongyang has not conducted a nuclear test since September 2017. The interim report, seen by Reuters, was submitted to the 15-member U.N. Security Council North Korea sanctions committee on Monday.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is continuing its nuclear program, including the production of highly enriched uranium and construction of an experimental light water reactor. A Member State assessed that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is continuing production of nuclear weapons," the report said. North Korea is formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). North Korea's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.N. report.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said last week there would be no more war as the country's nuclear weapons guarantee its safety and future despite unabated outside pressure and military threats. The U.N. report said one country, which it did not identify, assessed that North Korea "may seek to further develop miniaturisation in order to allow incorporation of technological improvements such as penetration aid packages or, potentially, to develop multiple warhead systems."

North Korea has been subjected to U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. While the Security Council has steadily strengthened sanctions, U.N. monitors regularly report that North Korea's continues to enhance its programs and violate sanctions. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump have met three times since 2018, but failed to make progress on U.S. calls for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons and North Korea's demands for an end to sanctions.

In May 2018 North Korea followed through on a pledge to blow up tunnels at its main nuclear test site, Punggye-ri, which Pyongyang said was proof of its commitment to end nuclear testing. But they did not allow experts to witness the dismantlement of the site.

The U.N. report said that as only tunnel entrances were known to have been destroyed and there is no indication of a comprehensive demolition, one country had assessed that North Korea could rebuild and reinstall within three months the infrastructure needed to support a nuclear test.

NASA astronauts splash down after journey home aboard SpaceX capsule

U.S. astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who flew to the International Space Station in SpaceX's new Crew Dragon, splashed down in the capsule in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, August 2 after a two-month voyage that was NASA's first crewed mission from home soil in nine years.

Behnken and Hurley undocked from the station on Saturday and returned home to land in calm waters off Florida's Pensacola coast on schedule at 2:48 p.m. ET following a 21-hour overnight journey aboard Crew Dragon "Endeavor." The successful splashdown, the first of its kind by NASA in 45 years, was a final key test of whether Elon Musk's spacecraft can transport astronauts to and from orbit - a feat no private company has accomplished before.

Spectators in private boats surrounded the splashdown site dozens of miles from shore as SpaceX and NASA recovery teams used a crane to hoist the spacecraft out of the water and onto a boat. At one point, a boat bearing a Trump flag was seen passing by the capsule. "I'm just proud to be a small part of this whole effort to get a company and people to and from the space station," Hurley said, giving a thumbs up as he was wheeled out of the spacecraft on a stretcher - a normal procedure as astronauts adjust to Earth's gravity.

For the return sequence, on-board thrusters and two sets of parachutes worked autonomously to slow the acorn-shaped capsule, bringing Behnken and Hurley's speed of 17,500 miles per hour in orbit down to 350 mph upon atmospheric reentry, and eventually 15 mph at splashdown. During reentry to Earth's atmosphere, the capsule's outer shell withstood temperatures as high as 3,500 Fahrenheit while Behnken and Hurley, wearing SpaceX's white flight suits strapped inside the cabin, experienced 85 Fahrenheit.

The pair were due to undergo medical checks onshore in Pensacola ahead of a flight to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The landmark mission, launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on May 31, marked the first time the U.S. space agency launched humans from American soil since its shuttle program retired in 2011. Since then the United States has relied on Russia's space program to launch its astronauts to the space station."Great to have NASA Astronauts return to Earth after very successful two month mission," President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter. "Thank you to all!"

China's first Mars probe completes first trajectory optimization

China's first Mars probe Tianwen-1 completed its first trajectory adjustment on Sunday morning to continue its exploration of Mars. Before the probe arrives at Mars, it will travel for roughly 450 million kilometers.

"We've calculated that our probe will fly for about seven months from the Earth to Mars. When it finally arrives, the total traveling distance will be about 450 million kilometers," said Xu Liang, one of designers of Tianwen-1. During its journey, the probe needs to adjust its trajectory several times to stick to its way to Mars. Each adjustment will change the probe's altitude, speed and orbit to help it fend off disturbances from the universe.

"We estimate that in September, the trajectory will be adjusted and our probe will fly towards Mars. But as it draws near Mars, it will adjust two more times to get the most perfect orbit inclination and landing point. Those two adjustments will be minor compared to previous ones," said Zhang Yuhua, deputy chief commander of Tianwen-1.

The name Tianwen-1 means quest for heavenly truth and comes from a poem written by Qu Yuan (about 340-278 BC), one of the greatest poets in ancient China. The name signifies the Chinese nation's perseverance in pursuing truth and science and exploring nature and the universe. The probe was successfully launched on July 23. It is the first step of China's Mars mission. The craft is expected to reach Mars around February 2021.

After its landing, a rover will be released to conduct scientific exploration with an expected lifespan of at least 90 Martian days (about three months on Earth), and the orbiter, with a design life of one Martian year (about 687 days on Earth), will relay communications for the rover while conducting its own scientific exploration.

NASA's new Mars rover launches from Florida to seek signs of past life

Florida, US: NASA's next-generation Mars rover Perseverance blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral on Thursday, July 30 atop an Atlas 5 rocket on a $2.4 billion mission to search for traces of potential past life on Earth's planetary neighbour.

The next-generation robotic rover - a car-sized six-wheeled scientific vehicle - also is scheduled to deploy a mini helicopter on Mars and test out equipment for future human missions to the fourth planet from the sun. It is expected to reach Mars next February. It soared into the sky under clear, sunny and warm conditions carried by an Atlas 5 rocket from the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance. The launch took place after the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California where its mission engineers were located was rattled by an earthquake.

This marked NASA's ninth journey to the Martian surface.

Perseverance is due to land at the base of an 820-foot-deep (250 meters) crater called Jezero, a former lake from 3.5 billion years ago that scientists suspect could bear evidence of potential past microbial life on Mars.

Scientists have long debated whether Mars - once a much more hospitable place than it is today - ever harbored life. Water is considered a key ingredient for life, and the Mars billions of years ago had lots of it on the surface before the planet became a harsh and desolate outpost.

One of the most complex maneuvers in Perseverance's journey will be what mission engineers call the "seven minutes of terror," when the robot endures extreme heat and speeds during its descent through the Martian atmosphere, deploying a set of supersonic parachutes before igniting mini rocket engines to gently touch down on the planet's surface. Aboard Perseverance is a four-pound (1.8 kg) autonomous helicopter named Ingenuity that is due to test powered flight on Mars for the first time.

This was scheduled as the third launch from Earth to Mars during a busy month of July, following probes sent by the United Arab Emirates and China. The state from which the rover was launched, Florida, is currently one of the hot spots in the United States for the coronavirus pandemic.