In-Depth Report COVID-19 Vaccines and U.S. Public Health Upheaval Targeted Fall Boosters, But Access Tightened: U.S. health authorities approved new monovalent COVID-19 vaccines (by Pfizer–BioNTech, Moderna, and Novavax) updated for the 2025–26 season reuters.com. Unlike prior booster rollouts, the FDA restricted under-65 eligibility to those with risk factors, aligning with guidance from HHS Secretary Robert…
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The Coral Sea Cable System is a 4,700 km submarine fiber‑optic link completed in late 2019 and brought online in 2020, connecting Solomon Islands to Papua New Guinea and Australia with an initial 200 Gbps capacity and up to 20 Tbps total. Since going live, the Coral Sea cable has allowed ten times more data…
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IO Biotech’s Phase 3 melanoma vaccine Cylembia added to Merck’s Keytruda narrowly missed statistical significance, with median progression-free survival of 19.4 months versus 11 months for Keytruda alone. Fosun Pharma’s deal with Expedition Therapeutics grants rights outside Greater China to XH-S004, a first-in-class oral DPP-1 inhibitor for chronic respiratory diseases, in a pact potentially worth…
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Apollo 13, commanded by Jim Lovell, launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970 at 2:13 PM EST with Jack Swigert replacing Ken Mattingly 48 hours before launch due to measles exposure, suffered an oxygen-tank explosion on April 13, and splashed down in the Pacific near Samoa on April 17. Aquarius, the Lunar Module…
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The Micronesian region comprises the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Palau, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Kiribati. In 2010 the HANTRU-1 fiber cable reached Majuro and Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, branching from Pohnpei to FSM, marking the region’s first international fiber backbone. Palau connected to the SEA-US cable in 2017 and is slated to…
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Nauru has a population of about 12,000 and an area of 21 km², with roughly 83% of residents using the internet as of 2023. Since 2022–2023, SpaceX Starlink has become available in Nauru, and the Starlink Community Gateway on Command Ridge began operating in December 2024. In January 2025 Neotel launched a nationwide 5G network…
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By early 2025, Starlink was available in over 100 countries across every inhabited continent. In the past year, Starlink launched in 42 new countries and territories and surpassed 6 million active customers worldwide. In the United States, the standard Starlink plan costs about $90 per month with a $599 equipment kit. SpaceX added about 2,300…
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The HANTRU-1 cable is 2,917 km long with a 160 Gbps design capacity, extended to Majuro and Kwajalein/Ebeye in 2010, linking to a Pohnpei hub and onward to Guam. A 2017 HANTRU-1 cable fault caused a nationwide 3-week outage, forcing a 97% bandwidth cut as the islands relied on limited satellite links. The East Micronesia…
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Starlink’s residential service delivers about 100–250 Mbps down and 10–20 Mbps up, with latency around 20–50 ms and a median near 45 ms as of mid‑2025. Starlink pricing is typically around $120 per month for standard residential service, with a $80 Lite tier in some regions, and it offers month‑to‑month service with a 30‑day trial.…
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Approximately 79–85% of Fiji’s population are Internet users in recent years, up from 48% in 2018. Over 96% of Fijians have access to at least a 4G mobile signal, with 2G nearly extinct. As of 2024, Fiji hosts six international submarine cables with landing stations in Suva or Savusavu, including the Southern Cross Cable Network…
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