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If you're 50 or older and reading this article, chances are you wear a pair of inexpensive reading glasses to correct presbyopia, or hyperopia, the age-related decline in vision that makes it progressively harder to read small and tiny print . objects.Eventually, everyone gets the condition.But for nearly a billion people in developing countries, reading glasses are a luxury that many cannot afford. According to the World Health Organization, lack of access to corrective glasses inhibits learning among young students, increases the likelihood of road accidents and forces millions of middle-aged workers and farmers to leave the workforce too early.Not surprisingly, uncorrected presbyopia makes it more difficult for breadwinners to support their families. That's the conclusion of ...

Leaning for centuries with a worrying inclination, the Garisenda Tower in Bologna has suffered insults and traumas. Dickens called it “sufficiently unpleasant,” if extraordinary, while Goethe said it was “a disgusting sight.” And then there were the earthquakes, the Allied bombing of the city during the Second World War and the urbanization that destroyed other towers.The Garisenda has resisted all this, a beloved symbol of this medieval city, a reminder of a past when important families or communities erected towers to remind others of their status and for defense.But now Garisenda is in trouble.After sensors attached to the monument, which hangs at a 3.6-degree angle, detected “anomalous movements” last year, alarmed experts issued what was called a “technical code red.”In October, the...

Ford Motor on Thursday delayed production of at least two new electric cars and said it would shift to producing more hybrids. His decision was the latest sign that big automakers are being forced to rethink their electric vehicle strategy because sales of these models are slowing.The shift by Ford and automakers such as General Motors and Mercedes-Benz, which have also pushed back their plans for electric cars, was largely prompted by the companies' difficulties producing and selling enough electric cars and do it profitably.Sales of such vehicles are still growing, but the pace has slowed dramatically in recent months as automakers weed out many early adopters who were willing to spend more than $50,000 for a new battery-powered car. Because they are still learning how to produce c...

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, speaking on the phone call between Biden and Netanyahu, then said that Israel must do more to increase the flow of humanitarian supplies to Gaza, a challenge that has expanded exponentially since the attack on Gaza. humanitarian workers have pushed some groups to reconsider their activities on the ground.“If we lose that respect for human life, we risk becoming indistinguishable from those we face,” Blinken said during a stop at NATO headquarters in Brussels. “Here is the current reality in Gaza, despite the important steps Israel has taken to enable assistance to Gaza: the results on the ground are woefully insufficient and unacceptable.”The Secretary of State made clear that the Biden administration is now ready to exact a price if Israel continues...

The federal government is required to “expeditiously” house migrant children who enter the United States illegally, rather than allowing them to remain in unsafe outdoor sites along the border, a Federal District Court judge ruled Wednesday evening.The decision, issued by Judge Dolly M. Gee of the U.S. District Court of Central California, mostly sided with lawyers representing children in a class action lawsuit. She determined that the minors at the sites were in the legal custody of the Department of Homeland Security and therefore entitled to certain rights and protections, such as a safe and sanitary environment, even if they had not yet been formally processed.The court order, which takes effect immediately, is expected to impact thousands of children and potentially many more. It w...

Muhammad said he had found a better life in Russia. After emigrating from Tajikistan last fall, he began driving delivery vans in Siberia, enrolled his children in a local school, applied for a Russian passport and began planning to buy an apartment with his salary savings much higher.The arrest of a group of Tajik citizens accused of carrying out the attack that killed 145 people in a Moscow concert hall last month has upset these plans, filling Muhammad with the fear of being overwhelmed by the resulting crackdown on the Central Asian migrants supporting Russia's economy.The attack, he said, erased all the efforts his family had made to integrate into society. In a telephone interview from the city of Novosibirsk, he added that he would return to Tajikistan if the police or nationa...

NASA will rent some cool wheels to go around the moon.Space agency officials announced Wednesday that they have hired three companies to come up with preliminary designs of vehicles that will take NASA astronauts to the moon's south polar region in the next few years. After the astronauts return to Earth, these vehicles would be able to navigate autonomously as robotic explorers, similar to NASA's Mars rovers.The autonomous driving capability would also allow the vehicle to take on the astronaut's next mission in a different location.“Where it goes, there are no roads,” Jacob Bleacher, NASA's chief exploration scientist, said at a news conference Wednesday. “Its mobility will radically change our view of the Moon.”This is Houston-based Intuitive Machines, which successful...

Congressional Democrats, increasingly concerned about the way Israel is waging its war in Gaza, are weighing whether to use their leverage over arms sales to raise objections to the civilian death toll and increase pressure on President Biden to impose conditions on American support for the military offensive. .As top Republicans on Congressional foreign affairs committees signed off on a State Department plan to sell $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel, according to several people familiar with the consultation, l The agreement remains in limbo. That strongly suggests that the top two Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees have yet to approve.Spokesmen for the two - Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland and Representative Gregory W. Meeks of...

The first patient to receive a kidney transplant from a genetically modified pig recovered so well that he was released from hospital on Wednesday, just two weeks after the groundbreaking surgery.The transplant and its encouraging results represent a remarkable moment in medicine, scientists say, perhaps heralding an era of cross-species organ transplants.Two previous organ transplants from genetically modified pigs have failed. Both patients received hearts and both died a few weeks later. In one patient there were signs that the immune system had rejected the organ, a constant risk.But the kidney transplanted to Richard Slayman, 62, produces urine, removes waste products from the blood, balances body fluids and performs other key functions, according to his doctors at Massachusetts Gen...

For those who can afford them, the large villas of Whitmore Heath offer countryside tranquility within easy reach of urban centers such as Stoke-on-Trent and Stafford, an hour's drive north of Birmingham, the largest city in the English midlands.Yet on Heath Road, where some house prices have topped £1 million (about $1.3 million), padlocked gates and signs warn intruders of CCTV security monitoring. Outside one house there is a dumpster full of rubbish while the roof of another is covered in a film of moss. Peering through the large windows of a family home, not a single piece of furniture can be seen inside.This scene of abandonment is an aftermath of a multibillion-pound rail project that has lasted three decades and six prime ministers: a case study in the problems Britain faces ...