pollution

Islamabad puts drivers on notice as smog crisis worsens

BY SAMEER MANDHRO AND JOSEPH SCHMID

  • - 'Her basic right' - Announcing the crackdown on December 7, EPA chief Nazia Zaib Ali said over 300 fines were issued at checkpoints in the first week, with 80 vehicles impounded.
  • Truck driver Muhammad Afzal was not expecting to be stopped by police, let alone fined, as he drove into Islamabad this week because of the thick diesel fumes emanating from his exhaust pipe.
  • - 'Her basic right' - Announcing the crackdown on December 7, EPA chief Nazia Zaib Ali said over 300 fines were issued at checkpoints in the first week, with 80 vehicles impounded.
Truck driver Muhammad Afzal was not expecting to be stopped by police, let alone fined, as he drove into Islamabad this week because of the thick diesel fumes emanating from his exhaust pipe.
"This is unfair," he said after being told to pay 1,000 rupees ($3.60), with the threat of having his truck impounded if he did not "fix" the problem.
"I was coming from Lahore after getting my vehicle repaired. They pressed the accelerator to make it release smoke. It's an injustice," he told AFP.
Checkpoints set up this month are part of a crackdown by authorities to combat the city's soaring smog levels, with winter months the worst due to atmospheric inversions that trap pollutants at ground level.
"We have already warned the owners of stern action, and we will stop their entry into the city if they don't comply with the orders," said Dr Zaigham Abbas of Pakistan's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as he surveyed the checkpoint at the southeast edge of the capital.
For Waleed Ahmed, a technician inspecting the vehicles at the site, "just like a human being, a vehicle has a life cycle. Those that cross it release smoke that is dangerous to human health".

'Self-inflicted crisis'

While not yet at the extreme winter levels of Lahore or the megacity Karachi, where heavy industry and brick kilns spew tons of pollutants each year, Islamabad is steadily closing the gap.
So far in December it has already registered seven "very unhealthy" days for PM2.5 particulates of more than 150 microgrammes per cubic meter, according to the Swiss-based monitoring firm IQAir.
Intraday PM2.5 levels in Islamabad often exceed those in Karachi and Lahore, and in 2024 the city's average PM2.5 reading for the year was 52.3 microgrammes -- surpassing the 46.2 for Lahore.
Those annual readings are far beyond the safe level of five microgrammes recommended by the World Health Organization.
Built from scratch as Pakistan's capital in the 1960s, the city was envisioned as an urban model for the rapidly growing nation, with wide avenues and ample green spaces abutting the Himalayan foothills.
But the expansive layout discourages walking and public transport remains limited, meaning cars -- mostly older models -- are essential for residents to get around.
"The capital region is choked overwhelmingly by its transport sector," which produces 53 percent of its toxic PM2.5 particles, the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative, a research group, said in a recent report.
"The haze over Islamabad... is not the smoke of industry, but the exhaust of a million private journeys -- a self-inflicted crisis," it said.

'Her basic right'

Announcing the crackdown on December 7, EPA chief Nazia Zaib Ali said over 300 fines were issued at checkpoints in the first week, with 80 vehicles impounded.
"We cannot allow non-compliant vehicles at any cost to poison the city's air and endanger public health," she said in a statement.
The city has also begun setting up stations where drivers can have their emissions inspected, with those passing receiving a green sticker on their windshield.
"We were worried for Lahore, but now it's Islamabad. And that's all because of vehicles emitting pollution," said Iftikhar Sarwar, 51, as he had his car checked on a busy road near an Islamabad park.
"I never needed medicine before but now I get allergies if I don't take a tablet in the morning. The same is happening with my family," he added.
Other residents say they worry the government's measures will not be enough to counter the worsening winter smog. 
"This is not the Islamabad I came to 20 years ago," said Sulaman Ijaz, an anthropologist.
"I feel uneasy when I think about what I will say if my daughter asks for clean air -- that is her basic right."
sma/js/fox/abs

wine

Hungary winemakers fear disease may 'wipe out' industry

BY ANDRAS ROSTOVANYI

  • Flavescence doree (FD) is "one of the most dangerous diseases" threatening vineyards today, according to OIV. FD is transmitted primarily by the American grapevine leafhopper insect, a pest that has spread across central Europe in recent years.
  • Hungarian winemaker Viktor Keszler had to rip out young vines after only three harvests -- when they should last at least 25 years -- after they were infected by flavescence doree disease that is threatening Europe's wine regions.
  • Flavescence doree (FD) is "one of the most dangerous diseases" threatening vineyards today, according to OIV. FD is transmitted primarily by the American grapevine leafhopper insect, a pest that has spread across central Europe in recent years.
Hungarian winemaker Viktor Keszler had to rip out young vines after only three harvests -- when they should last at least 25 years -- after they were infected by flavescence doree disease that is threatening Europe's wine regions.
"We spray our vineyard to protect it, but it is futile: the leafhoppers carrying the disease move to untreated vineyards or wild vines nearby and return infected," the 45-year-old told AFP.
Hungary, the world's 14th-largest wine producer, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), is renowned for such regions as the UNESCO-recognised Tokaj.
Flavescence doree (FD) is "one of the most dangerous diseases" threatening vineyards today, according to OIV.
FD is transmitted primarily by the American grapevine leafhopper insect, a pest that has spread across central Europe in recent years.
Experts blame neglected vines, warmer winters due to climate change, and the discontinuation of hazardous pesticides in the EU for its proliferation.
Infection -- usually indicated by discoloured leaves -- greatly reduces vine productivity, and there is no known cure, although it is not harmful to humans.
In Hungary, the disease was first detected in 2013.
But critics say most winemakers and the government have not taken FD seriously enough until this year, when it was detected in 21 out of 22 of the country's wine regions.

'Not alarmed enough'

The latest outbreak especially hurts smaller producers like Keszler, who turned his family's vineyards on the rolling hills of the town of Zalaszentgrot into a business supplying other winemakers with young vines in 2010.
He was forced to uproot half a hectare in his four-hectare vineyard this year due to the high infection rate.
Keszler and fellow winemakers united this summer to raise the alarm.
"If we don't take this seriously, it could effectively wipe out Hungarian grape production," Janos Frittmann, head of the National Council of Wine Communities representing producers, warned at last month's annual conference of winemakers.
According to him, the outbreak caught the industry off-guard.
"Previously winemakers were probably not alarmed enough, many did not even know the symptoms," he told AFP.
The government allocated about 10 million euros ($12 million) in September to detect and protect against the disease's spread.
In recent months, inspectors have checked close to 8,700 hectares of vineyards and collected thousands of samples, the agriculture ministry told AFP.
The ministry insisted that faced with an "escalating epidemic", the government responded quickly, while measures already in place "slowed down" the spread of the disease over the past 12 years.

'Too late to eradicate it'

But some claim the government did not provide enough resources for prevention, leaving the food safety authority NEBIH's plant protection department "understaffed and underfunded", according to plant protection specialist Gergely Gaspar.
Around Monor, a town close to Budapest, the authorities did not carry out random inspections in vineyards for six years, while evaluation of samples can drag on due to the lack of laboratory capacity, Gaspar told AFP.
A lack of scientific groundwork also led to "disastrous consequences", said Gaspar, who produces grapevines himself and lost all his vines to FD.
"Popular grape varieties in Hungary do not show textbook symptoms," added the expert, who also works for a company specialising in the development and distribution of fertilisers and other products.
"My biggest gripe is that we just learned this now in the midst of the crisis... What were researchers doing for the past 12 years?"
Hungary's wineries need to learn how to live with FD, just like their peers in France and Italy, Elisa Angelini, a researcher at the Italian Centre for Research in Viticulture and Enology, told AFP.
Angelini said outbreaks have mainly to be controlled rather than prevented.
"The disease is usually discovered in a new area four years after the infection on average, when it is already too late to eradicate it," she said.
Winemaker Keszler said at times he feels combating the disease is "hopeless".
"But if the state and local municipalities become involved, then we can be successful," he said.
ros/jza/fg/mjw

climate

Indonesia flood death toll passes 1,000 as authorities ramp up aid

BY SATYA ADHI

  • - Frustration grows - Frustration has been growing among flood victims, who have complained about the pace of relief efforts.
  • Devastating floods and landslides have killed 1,006 people in Indonesia, rescuers said Saturday as the Southeast Asian nation grapples with the huge scale of relief efforts.
  • - Frustration grows - Frustration has been growing among flood victims, who have complained about the pace of relief efforts.
Devastating floods and landslides have killed 1,006 people in Indonesia, rescuers said Saturday as the Southeast Asian nation grapples with the huge scale of relief efforts.
The disaster, which has hit the northwestern island of Sumatra over the past fortnight, has also injured more than 5,400, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said.
The deadly torrential rains are one of the worst recent disasters to strike Sumatra, where a tsunami wreaked havoc in 2004 in the northern tip of the island.
The final toll is expected to rise, with the disaster agency's spokesman Abdul Muhari saying 217 people are still missing and that authorities were ramping up aid to the worst-affected areas. 
With vast tracts of territory destroyed by rain, mud and felled trees, 1.2 million residents have been forced to take refuge in temporary shelters. 
"Most of the houses here are gone, destroyed to the ground," said 50-year-old Sri Lestari, who is living in a tent with her three children in Aceh Tamiang district.
Their home was on the brink of collapse, after being pummelled by tree trunks carried by floodwater.
"Look at our house... how can we fix it?" her 55-year-old husband Tarmiji said.

Frustration grows

Frustration has been growing among flood victims, who have complained about the pace of relief efforts.
President Prabowo Subianto said Saturday the situation has improved, with several areas which had been cut off now accessible.
"Here and there, due to natural and physical conditions, there have been slight delays, but I checked all the evacuation sites: their conditions are good, services for them are adequate, and food supplies are sufficient," Prabowo said after visiting Langkat in North Sumatra province. 
On the main road that passes through Aceh Tamiang, AFP journalists saw a long line of trucks and private cars distributing food, water and other supplies. 
Many of the residents in nearby towns were camping outside in temporary structures, their homes filled with mud.
The disaster management agency's spokesman said more than 11.7 tonnes of aid had been delivered to Sumatra by sea, land and air on Saturday and that authorities were starting construction on temporary shelters for displaced residents. 
Costs to rebuild after the disaster could reach 51.82 trillion rupiah ($3.1 billion) and the Indonesian government has so far shrugged off suggestions that it call for international assistance.
Indonesia's meteorological agency warned that severe weather is expected to continue, particularly heavy rainfall on Sumatra.
bur-ebe/ceg/rsc 

cablecar

First urban cable car unveiled outside Paris

  • Officials inaugurated the C1 line in the suburb of Limeil-Brevannes in the presence of Valerie Pecresse, the head of the Ile-de-France region, and the mayors of the towns served by the cable car.
  • Gondolas floated above a cityscape in the southeastern suburbs of Paris Saturday as the first urban cable car in the French capital's region was unveiled. 
  • Officials inaugurated the C1 line in the suburb of Limeil-Brevannes in the presence of Valerie Pecresse, the head of the Ile-de-France region, and the mayors of the towns served by the cable car.
Gondolas floated above a cityscape in the southeastern suburbs of Paris Saturday as the first urban cable car in the French capital's region was unveiled. 
Officials inaugurated the C1 line in the suburb of Limeil-Brevannes in the presence of Valerie Pecresse, the head of the Ile-de-France region, and the mayors of the towns served by the cable car.
The 4.5-kilometre route connects Creteil to Villeneuve-Saint-Georges and passes through Limeil-Brevannes and Valenton.
The cable car will carry some 11,000 passengers per day in its 105 gondolas, each able to accommodate ten seated passengers.
The total journey will take 18 minutes, including stops along the way, compared to around 40 minutes by bus or car, connecting the isolated neighbourhoods to the Paris metro's line 8.
The 138-million-euro project was cheaper to build than a subway, officials said.
"An underground metro would never have seen the light of day because the budget of more than billion euros could never have been financed," said Gregoire de Lasteyrie, vice-president of the Ile-de-France regional council in charge of transport.
It is France's seventh urban cable car, with aerial tramways already operating in cities including Brest, Saint-Denis de La Reunion and Toulouse.   
Historically used to cross rugged mountain terrain, such systems are increasingly being used to link up isolated neighbourhoods.
France's first urban cable car was built in Grenoble, nestled at the foot of the Alps, in 1934. The iconic "bubbles" have become one of the symbols of the southeastern city.
bur-rr-im-as/gv

energy

France updates net-zero plan, with fossil fuel phaseout

  • Fossil gas would be phased out by 2050.
  • France released on Friday a revamped roadmap to become carbon neutral by 2050, with an ambitious plan to phase out oil and gas.
  • Fossil gas would be phased out by 2050.
France released on Friday a revamped roadmap to become carbon neutral by 2050, with an ambitious plan to phase out oil and gas.
The updated strategy was unveiled on the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, the landmark climate accord designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions and keep global warming well below 2C, with efforts toward 1.5C.
The announcement comes as climate diplomacy faces major challenges, with the COP30 climate summit in Brazil last month concluding without an explicit call to phase out fossil fuels, as sought by the European Union and other countries.
France's updated National Low-Carbon Strategy (SNBC-3) foresees the end of oil use between 2040 and 2045. Fossil gas would be phased out by 2050.
It also aims to boost electricity's share of energy consumption to 55 percent by 2050, up from 37 percent in 2023, largely through renewables.
While the government released the updated strategy, Greenpeace activists dumped orange paint on the cobblestone roundabout of the Arc de Triomphe, with one protester holding a sign reading "10 years of climate sabotage".
French public opinion is divided over the radical changes to their lifestyle that are required to achieve carbon neutrality, from reducing meat consumption to buying electric cars and flying less -- measures the far-right opposition calls "punitive environmentalism".
French officials say SNBC-3 is compatible with economic growth.
"It is first and foremost and economic and industrial recovery plan," Ecological Transition Minister Monique Barbut told the business newspaper Les Echos.
"This strategy is not a way to dictate lifestyle changes. It focuses on the tools we already have: expanding the use of heat pumps, promoting electric vehicles, and so on," Barbut said.
"Our goal is to build a social consensus around accessible decarbonisation," she said.
The government hopes 15 percent of cars will be electric by 2030 and that aeroplanes will be the only mode of transport emitting CO2 in France by 2050.
In agriculture, the strategy calls for shifting diets towards eating more fruits and vegetables while lowering emissions from livestock farming.
The industrial sector's challenge will be to decarbonise production along with changing consumption patterns to reduce carbon footprints.
hh-alb/lth/sbk

environment

Nowhere to pray as logs choke flood-hit Indonesian mosque

BY ADITYA AJI

  • Before the disaster, the mosque bustled with worshippers -- locals and students alike -- attending daily and Friday prayers. 
  • Almost two weeks on from devastating floods, Muslim worshippers in Indonesia's Sumatra who gathered at their local mosque on Friday for prayers were blocked from entering by a huge pile of thousands of uprooted trees.
  • Before the disaster, the mosque bustled with worshippers -- locals and students alike -- attending daily and Friday prayers. 
Almost two weeks on from devastating floods, Muslim worshippers in Indonesia's Sumatra who gathered at their local mosque on Friday for prayers were blocked from entering by a huge pile of thousands of uprooted trees.
The deadly torrential rains had inundated vast tracts of rainforest nearby, leaving residents of the Darul Mukhlisin mosque and Islamic boarding school to search elsewhere for places of worship that had been less damaged.
"We have no idea where all this wood came from," said Angga, 37, from the nearby village of Tanjung Karang.
Before the disaster, the mosque bustled with worshippers -- locals and students alike -- attending daily and Friday prayers. 
"Now it's impossible to use. The mosque used to stand near a river," said Angga. "But the river is gone — it's turned into dead land."
Village residents told AFP the structure likely absorbed much of the impact of trees and logs carried by the torrents, preventing even greater destruction downstream. 
When AFP visited the site, the mosque was still encircled by a massive heap of timber -- a mix of uprooted trees and felled logs, likely from nearby forests.
By Friday, the death toll from one of northern Sumatra’s worst recent disasters — including in Aceh, where a tsunami wreaked havoc in 2004 — had reached 995 people, with 226 still missing and almost 890,000 displaced, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.

Uncontrolled logging  

Authorities have blamed the scale of devastation partly on uncontrolled logging. 
Environmentalists say widespread forest loss has worsened floods and landslides, stripping the land of tree cover that normally stabilises soil and absorbs rainfall.
Indonesia consistently ranks among the countries with the highest annual deforestation rates.
President Prabowo Subianto, visiting Aceh Tamiang district on Friday, assured victims the government was working to restore normalcy. 
"We know conditions are difficult, but we will overcome them together," he said, urging residents to "stay alert and be careful."
"I apologise for any shortcomings (but) we are working hard," he said.
Addressing environmental concerns, Prabowo called for better forest protection. 
"Trees must not be cut down indiscriminately," he said.
"I ask local governments to stay vigilant, to monitor and safeguard our nature as best as possible."
But frustrations were growing, with flood victims complaining about the pace of relief efforts.
Costs to rebuild after the disaster could run up to 51.82 trillion rupiah ($3.1 billion) and the Indonesian government has so far shrugged off suggestions that it call for international assistance.
Back in nearby Babo Village, Khairi Ramadhan, 37, said he planned to seek out another mosque for prayers.
"I'll find one that wasn't hit by the flood," he said. "Maybe some have already been cleaned. I don't want to dwell on sorrow anymore."
str-dsa-jhe/ceg
  

waste

EU agrees recycled plastic targets for cars

  • Vehicle manufacturing accounts for 10 percent of the EU's overall consumption of plastics, and is responsible for 19 percent of demand for the bloc's steel industry, according to Brussels.
  • Car manufacturers in Europe will have to include more recycled plastics in new vehicles under new EU rules agreed on by the bloc's countries and lawmakers on Friday.
  • Vehicle manufacturing accounts for 10 percent of the EU's overall consumption of plastics, and is responsible for 19 percent of demand for the bloc's steel industry, according to Brussels.
Car manufacturers in Europe will have to include more recycled plastics in new vehicles under new EU rules agreed on by the bloc's countries and lawmakers on Friday.
European Union governments and parliament representatives reached an early morning deal to mandate that at least 25 percent of plastics used in cars, trucks and motorcycles has been recycled.
Carmakers will have to meet the mandatory target in 10 years, with an intermediate 15 percent goal in six years, according to the European Council representing member states.
At least 20 percent of the recycled materials will have to be sourced from old, scrap vehicles.
"This provisional agreement marks a significant step towards a circular economy for the European automotive sector," said Magnus Heunicke, environment minister for Denmark, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.
Vehicle manufacturing accounts for 10 percent of the EU's overall consumption of plastics, and is responsible for 19 percent of demand for the bloc's steel industry, according to Brussels.
The deal is provisional and needs to be officially endorsed by the European Council representing member states and the parliament before it is formally adopted.
It also instructs the European Commission to set future targets for recycled steel, aluminium, magnesium and critical raw materials and bans the export of old vehicles that are no longer roadworthy.
Around 3.5 million vehicles "disappear without trace from EU roads" every year and are exported, dismantled or disposed of illegally, according to the council. 
The commission had initially proposed a much speedier implementation of the targets -- pushing for 25-percent recycled plastic within six years -- but member states and parliament won a delay during negotiations.
Concerns about sluggish European growth have taken precedence over green ambitions in Brussels over the past year, leading to a business-friendly drive to slash EU red tape and pare back a slew of laws.
"This deal is a textbook case of political backsliding under industry pressure," said Fynn Hauschke, of environmental group EEB.
The agreement comes just days before the commission is set to review a landmark 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales. 
On Thursday, Manfred Weber, a German EU lawmaker and the head of parliament's largest group, the EPP, said the ban would be discarded in favour of a 90 percent emission reduction target. 
"For new registrations from 2035 onwards, a 90 percent reduction in CO2 emissions will now be mandatory for car manufacturers' fleet targets, instead of 100 percent," he told German tabloid Bild, after a meeting with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen. 
"This means that the technology ban on combustion engines is off the table. All engines currently built in Germany can therefore continue to be produced and sold."
Commission officials stressed however that no final decision had been made.
ub/ec/rl

conservation

Indonesia floods were 'extinction level' for rare orangutans

BY SARA HUSSEIN

  • In a draft paper shared with AFP and set to be published as a pre-print in coming days, they warned the flooding represents an "extinction-level disturbance" for tapanulis.
  • Indonesia's deadly flooding was an "extinction-level disturbance" for the world's rarest great ape, the tapanuli orangutan, causing catastrophic damage to its habitat and survival prospects, scientists warned on Friday.
  • In a draft paper shared with AFP and set to be published as a pre-print in coming days, they warned the flooding represents an "extinction-level disturbance" for tapanulis.
Indonesia's deadly flooding was an "extinction-level disturbance" for the world's rarest great ape, the tapanuli orangutan, causing catastrophic damage to its habitat and survival prospects, scientists warned on Friday.
Only scientifically classified as a species in 2017, tapanulis are incredibly rare, with fewer than 800 left in the wild, confined to a small range in part of Indonesia's Sumatra.
One dead suspected tapanuli orangutan has already been found in the region, conservationists told AFP.
"The loss of even a single orangutan is a devastating blow to the survival of the species," said Panut Hadisiswoyo, founder and chairman of the Orangutan Information Centre in Indonesia.
And analysis of satellite imagery combined with knowledge of the tapanuli's range suggests that flooding last month which killed nearly 1,000 people may also have devastated wildlife in the Batang Toru region.
The scientists focused on the so-called West Block, the most densely populated of three known tapanuli habitats, and home to an estimated 581 tapanulis before the disaster.
There, "we think that between six and 11 percent of orangutans were likely killed," said Erik Meijaard, a longtime orangutan conservationist.
"Any kind of adult mortality that exceeds one percent, you're driving the species to extinction, irrespective of how big the population is at the start," he told AFP.
But tapanulis have such a small population and range to begin with that they are especially vulnerable, he added.
Satellite imagery shows massive gashes in the mountainous landscape, some of which extend for more than a kilometre and are nearly 100 metres wide, Meijaard said.
The tide of mud, trees and water toppling down hillsides would have carried away everything in its path, including other wildlife like elephants.
David Gaveau, a remote sensing expert and founder of conservation start-up The Tree Map, said he was flabbergasted by the before-and-after comparison of the region.
"I have never seen anything like this before during my 20 years of monitoring deforestation in Indonesia with satellites," he told AFP.

'Fragile and sensitive'

The devastation means remaining tapanulis will be even more vulnerable, with sources of food and shelter now washed away.
Over nine percent of the West Block habitat may have been destroyed, the group of scientists estimated.
In a draft paper shared with AFP and set to be published as a pre-print in coming days, they warned the flooding represents an "extinction-level disturbance" for tapanulis.
Environmentalists have long campaigned against industrial activity in Batang Toru, particularly a hydroelectric dam and gold mine.
The highland homes currently inhabited by tapanulis are not their preferred habitat, but it is where remaining orangutans have been pushed by development elsewhere.
Earlier this month, Indonesia's government said industrial plantations, hydropower and gold mining in the region had "contributed significantly to the pressure on the environment".
They announced they would suspend operating permits for all projects in the region pending a review.
The government, along with environmentalists, has said deforestation contributed to the scale of the flooding disaster.
A study published Thursday also said climate change-linked heavier rains and warmer seas that can turbocharge storms played a role.
The orangutan experts are urging an immediate halt to development that will damage remaining tapanuli habitat, and an immediate survey of the region.
They also back the expansion of protected areas and work to restore lowland forests.
Panut said the region had become eerily quiet after the landslides.
"This fragile and sensitive habitat in West Block must be fully protected by halting all habitat-damaging development," he told AFP.
sah/kaf

palms

'In her prime': Rare blooming of palm trees in Rio

  • "The talipot palm only fruits once in its lifetime, and can produce up to five million fruits," Marcus Nadruz, from the Research Institute of the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, told AFP. The inflorescences, or flower clusters on stems, began to unfurl in October, forming enormous crowns atop the palm trees that teem with millions of tiny yellowish blossoms.
  • An extraordinary botanical spectacle is drawing crowds in Rio de Janeiro: several talipot palm trees, planted more than six decades ago, are blooming for the first -- and last -- time in their lives.
  • "The talipot palm only fruits once in its lifetime, and can produce up to five million fruits," Marcus Nadruz, from the Research Institute of the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, told AFP. The inflorescences, or flower clusters on stems, began to unfurl in October, forming enormous crowns atop the palm trees that teem with millions of tiny yellowish blossoms.
An extraordinary botanical spectacle is drawing crowds in Rio de Janeiro: several talipot palm trees, planted more than six decades ago, are blooming for the first -- and last -- time in their lives.
The trees, growing in Rio's Aterro do Flamengo park and the Botanical Garden, were planted in the 1960s by the legendary landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx.
Now, some six decades later, these giants have reached the peak of their existence in the Brazilian seaside city.
The talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera), native to southern India and Sri Lanka, is one of the largest palm species on the planet, some reaching more than 30 meters (98 feet) tall.
It flowers only once in its entire life, if it reaches between 40 and 70 years of age.
"The talipot palm only fruits once in its lifetime, and can produce up to five million fruits," Marcus Nadruz, from the Research Institute of the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, told AFP.
The inflorescences, or flower clusters on stems, began to unfurl in October, forming enormous crowns atop the palm trees that teem with millions of tiny yellowish blossoms.
The entire process, from the opening of the first flowers to the ripening of the fruit, will take about a year, explained Nadruz. 
But this splendor has an inevitable end. Once the fruit falls, the palm trees will slowly begin to die.
"I was born in 1961, so she's my age and in her prime," said Deborah Faride, who traveled to see the trees from Sao Paulo and was taking pictures of them with a friend.
"We're the same age and we're blooming together. Just one detail: the talipot is going to die. And I'm going to continue, God willing."
The Botanical Garden plans to collect the seeds to cultivate new seedlings to replace these older plants, and will also distribute them for landscaping projects in public spaces.
bur-ll/cjc/md/msp/mlm

windstorms

Cyclone causes blackout, flight chaos in Brazil's Sao Paulo

  • This left more than two million people without electricity, 1.2 million of whom had yet to see their power restored almost 24 hours later.
  • More than a million people were left without power Thursday and dozens of flights were cancelled, a day after a cyclone triggered gale-force winds in Brazil's economic capital Sao Paulo, authorities said.
  • This left more than two million people without electricity, 1.2 million of whom had yet to see their power restored almost 24 hours later.
More than a million people were left without power Thursday and dozens of flights were cancelled, a day after a cyclone triggered gale-force winds in Brazil's economic capital Sao Paulo, authorities said.
The megalopolis was battered by winds of more than 90 kilometers (55 miles) per hour) on Wednesday, the Sao Paulo state government said in a statement.
This left more than two million people without electricity, 1.2 million of whom had yet to see their power restored almost 24 hours later.
Power utility firm Enel said in a statement that the 12-hour windstorm was considered "historic," with toppled trees hitting power lines.
"The weather event caused severe damage to the electrical infrastructure," said Enel.
The Sao Paulo municipality said in a statement it had received reports of 231 fallen trees.
The state government demanded Enel provide its plan for dealing with such emergency situations, as anger grew over television images of the electricity company's parking lot full of vehicles during the crisis.
The fierce winds also led to hundreds of flight cancellations since Wednesday, sparking chaos at Sao Paulo's two airports, some of the busiest in Latin America, local media reported.
AENA, which operated the city's Congonhas airport, said in a statement that 39 arrivals and 28 departures had been cancelled on Thursday.
fb/mlm

climate

Floodworks on Athens 'oasis' a tough sell among locals

BY HéLèNE COLLIOPOULOU

  • In Nea Filadelfia, the Kifissos stream helps keep local temperatures around 4C lower than the rest of the city, Roi's Georgiou said.
  • A stone's throw from Athens' bustling Nea Filadelfia district, Tassos Sikoutris walks along a stream flanked by reeds and plane trees in a setting unchanged for centuries.
  • In Nea Filadelfia, the Kifissos stream helps keep local temperatures around 4C lower than the rest of the city, Roi's Georgiou said.
A stone's throw from Athens' bustling Nea Filadelfia district, Tassos Sikoutris walks along a stream flanked by reeds and plane trees in a setting unchanged for centuries.
Picking up plastic bottles and rusted debris, the 59-year-old electrical engineer says the "oasis", known as Kifissos by locals, is the last natural stretch of the Kifissos river that cuts through west Athens.
But locals fear for the idyllic body of water's future due to central and regional government plans to introduce flood prevention bulwarks in the area.
The strategy will entail shoring up the stream's banks with gabions -- wire-mesh cages filled with stone -- and pouring concrete over a small section of the river.
Already in practice on stretches of the Kifissos and other rivers in Greece, some experts contest the technique over the risk of narrowing riverbeds and land subsidence.
"Gabions… are natural materials used around the world and considered environmentally friendly," Nikos Tachiaos, Greece's deputy infrastructure minister, told AFP at his office.

Flooding is the 'biggest problem'

Named after an ancient Greek river god, the 27-kilometer (17-mile) Kifissos river has snaked through the western suburbs of Athens since time immemorial. 
But it underwent enormous change in the 20th century, with much of it buried to make way for a highway, residential areas and industrial zones during a frenzied urbanisation drive.
Most of Athens' natural waterways met the same fate, vastly diminishing cool and green areas that would help shield the capital from heatwaves. 
However, Greece's current government views the risk of flooding as the capital's "biggest problem", according to Tachiaos.
"What is now seen as an oasis could, during severe floods, turn into a catastrophe," the minister said.
He defended the works as necessary to prevent "violent (natural) events in the context of climate change" such as Storm Daniel -- a Mediterranean cyclone of unprecedented intensity that in 2023 unleashed one month's worth of rain in just a few hours. 

Legal action

Chryssanthi Georgiou, president of a river preservation association called Roi ("flow" in Greek), counters that the project will lead to "the cutting down of century-old trees and the destruction of flora and fauna".
Nea Filadelfia residents and neighbouring municipalities have taken legal action in an attempt to stop the project.
The Council of State, Greece's highest administrative court, recently scrapped a similar project in Vravrona, east of Athens, over its detrimental environmental impact.
There are similar fears further south in Faliro over its own stream, Pikrodafni.
Constantinos Loupasakis, a geotechnical engineering professor who lives in the area, said reinforced concrete can bring "short-term" benefits but also lets valuable water wash away to the sea.
In Nea Filadelfia, the Kifissos stream helps keep local temperatures around 4C lower than the rest of the city, Roi's Georgiou said.
"Our goal should be to make the most of our natural resources," she added, "especially now with the risk of water shortages" plaguing the Greek metropolis. 
Last month, authorities placed greater Athens under a state of water emergency. 
The measure is intended to speed up infrastructure works in the face of the prolonged regional drought, which has caused the capital's reservoirs to drop significantly. 
According to the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYDAP), annual rainfall in Greece has decreased by about 25 percent, evaporation has increased by 15 percent and consumption has risen by about 6 percent since 2022.
"Compromises have to be made on both sides to find a balance between natural beauty and functionality," Tachiaos said.
hec/yap/jph/cc

pollution

Vietnam's capital chokes through week of toxic smog

  • "I have experienced difficulty in breathing out on the streets these days," resident Dang Thuy told AFP on Thursday, adding she had bought two new air purifiers for her apartment.
  • Toxic smog has blanketed Vietnam's capital for more than a week, blotting out the skyline and leaving residents wheezing as Hanoi's air quality dipped to among the world's worst on Thursday.
  • "I have experienced difficulty in breathing out on the streets these days," resident Dang Thuy told AFP on Thursday, adding she had bought two new air purifiers for her apartment.
Toxic smog has blanketed Vietnam's capital for more than a week, blotting out the skyline and leaving residents wheezing as Hanoi's air quality dipped to among the world's worst on Thursday.
The city of nine million ranked second only to India's New Delhi on IQAir's ranking of most polluted cities on Thursday morning, improving slightly in the afternoon.
According to the Swiss monitoring company, levels of PM2.5 pollutants -- cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- were vastly higher than the World Health Organization's recommended daily exposure limit.
"I have experienced difficulty in breathing out on the streets these days," resident Dang Thuy told AFP on Thursday, adding she had bought two new air purifiers for her apartment.
Hanoi authorities, in an administrative order made public Thursday, urged people to limit time outdoors and said schools can close if the situation deteriorates.
The order instructed officials to crack down on illegal waste burning and take measures to control the dispersion of dust at construction sites, including covering trucks and spraying water to keep tiny particles from becoming airborne.
However, AFP journalists observed construction sites operating normally, with trucks arriving and departing without the required coverings.
"Authorities have been quite active on paper only. Nothing has worked yet and the terribly toxic air remains in our city," said Thuy.
AFP journalists also saw people burning trash on Thursday along the Day river in Hanoi's western outskirts.
"In the past we led a poorer life, but I often roamed along the river with so much fresh air," said 70-year-old Hung, who gave only his first name.
"Now we all have multi-storey brick houses, motorbikes and cars, but leaving the house anytime is a pain. I have glued myself to this face mask."
According to the WHO, a number of serious health conditions, including strokes, heart disease and lung cancer, are linked to air pollution exposure.
Experts say pollution in Hanoi is a result of widespread construction, as well as emissions from the huge number of motorbikes and cars that criss-cross the capital every day.
Emissions from coal plants to the north and agricultural burning exacerbate the problem.
Authorities have announced plans to ban gas motorbikes from central Hanoi during certain hours starting in July next year.
tmh/tym/sco/mjw

environment

Toll in deadly Indonesia floods near 1,000, frustrations grow

  • In Sumatra's Aceh province, scene of a cataclysmic tsunami in 2004, residents are slowly piecing back their lives, but frustrations over the pace of relief efforts are growing. 
  • The death toll in Indonesia's devastating floods closed in on the 1,000 mark Thursday as hundreds of thousands more continued to face shortages, with frustration growing over relief efforts.
  • In Sumatra's Aceh province, scene of a cataclysmic tsunami in 2004, residents are slowly piecing back their lives, but frustrations over the pace of relief efforts are growing. 
The death toll in Indonesia's devastating floods closed in on the 1,000 mark Thursday as hundreds of thousands more continued to face shortages, with frustration growing over relief efforts.
Disaster mitigation agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said 990 people had died by late Thursday in the deluge, which laid waste to the northwestern island of Sumatra -- the biggest disaster of its kind in recent years. More than 220 people are still missing.
Tropical storms and monsoon rains have pummelled Southeast and South Asia this month, triggering landslides and flash floods from the rainforests of Sumatra to highland plantations in Sri Lanka - and more rains are predicted.
In Sumatra's Aceh province, scene of a cataclysmic tsunami in 2004, residents are slowly piecing back their lives, but frustrations over the pace of relief efforts are growing. 
"People don't know who to rely on," said Syahrul, a 39-year-old resident in the northern city of Bireuen, scene of widespread devastation.
Residents have "lost hope... even trying to muster hope for themselves. At this point, they can't rely on the government at all, given how badly this has been handled," he told AFP.
In nearby Lhokseumawe, residents were still fighting to keep the mud at bay.
"Nearly 15 days after the flood, every day, all we've been able to do is clean our house on the inside only," said Sariyulis, 36.
"The outside can't be cleaned anymore because of the mud," he told AFP
Most flood victims were complaining about the lack of help from authorities, Sariyulis added.
"We keep hearing a lot of talk about how floods can be handled by each province, but what we're experiencing is the opposite."
"After more than two weeks, we're still grappling with the same issues. If you ask about progress, it's been minimal," he said.
Muzakir Munaf, Aceh's governor, told reporters that an ongoing emergency response needed to be extended for another two weeks "to carry out rehabilitation and urgent infrastructure repairs".
But the most urgent need was for medicines, and people were getting ill, Muzakir told reporters.
"Our communities are experiencing skin diseases, coughs, itching, and other ailments caused by the flooding," he said.
Costs to rebuild after the disaster could run up to 51.82 trillion rupiah ($3.1 billion) and the Indonesian government has so far shrugged off suggestions to call for international assistance.
str-das-jhe/fox
  

climate

Filipino typhoon survivors sue Shell over climate change

BY ALEXANDRA BACON WITH PAM CASTRO AND CECIL MORELLA IN MANILA

  • - Oil profits - The claimants are seeking financial compensation for "lives lost, injuries sustained and homes destroyed", NGOs supporting the lawsuit said.
  • Survivors of a deadly 2021 typhoon in the Philippines have filed a lawsuit against British oil giant Shell, seeking financial compensation for climate-related devastation, three NGOs supporting them said Thursday.
  • - Oil profits - The claimants are seeking financial compensation for "lives lost, injuries sustained and homes destroyed", NGOs supporting the lawsuit said.
Survivors of a deadly 2021 typhoon in the Philippines have filed a lawsuit against British oil giant Shell, seeking financial compensation for climate-related devastation, three NGOs supporting them said Thursday.
Typhoon Rai struck the southern and central regions of the Philippines in December 2021, toppling power lines and trees and unleashing deadly floods that killed over 400 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
The lawsuit on behalf of 103 survivors argues Shell's carbon emissions contributed to climate change, impacting Philippine communities.
Trixy Elle, a plaintiff from a fishing community whose home and four boats were swept away in the typhoon, told AFP the lawsuit was about getting justice.
"Island residents like us contribute only a small percentage of pollution. But who gets the short stick? The poor like us," said the 34-year-old, who is still paying off high-interest loans she needed to rebuild.
"I am not speaking only for my community but for all Filipinos who experience the effects of climate crises," Elle said, adding that her now 13-year-old son still suffers from trauma caused by the storm.
In a joint statement, the NGOs backing the suit said it represents "a decisive step to hold oil giant Shell accountable for the deaths, injuries and destruction left by the climate-fuelled storm".
While typhoons are a regular weather pattern in Southeast Asia, scientists have long warned that climate change is making storms more intense because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture and warmer seas can turbocharge the systems.
In Manila on Thursday, Greenpeace climate campaigner Virginia Benosa-Llorin called the lawsuit a "test case to hold the corporations accountable".
The suit will be the "first time claimants in the Global South are bringing action related to significant personal injury and property damage... caused through the alleged acts of common measures in the Global North", added UK-based lawyer Joe Snape via videolink.

Lost 'everything'

Plaintiff Rickcel Inting, a fisherman, told AFP his family had lost "everything in an instant" when Typhoon Rai slammed into Bohol province, surviving only because they lashed themselves to a thick column on their rooftop.
"Shell caused what we have suffered because of its actions, causing pollution and harming the environment... they owe poor individuals like us," said the 46-year-old, adding he had never been able to afford to replace his lost fishing boats.
The lawsuit marks the latest step in a wider international movement to assign responsibility to major companies for climate damage.
A German court in May ruled that firms could, in principle, be held responsible for harm caused by their emissions, fuelling hopes that other countries would follow suit.
Shell dismissed the lawsuit as "a baseless claim", with a spokesperson saying "it will not help tackle climate change or reduce emissions".
"The suggestion that Shell had unique knowledge about climate change is simply not true," the firm added.

Oil profits

The claimants are seeking financial compensation for "lives lost, injuries sustained and homes destroyed", NGOs supporting the lawsuit said.
Shell, along with many rival energy giants, has scaled back various climate objectives to focus more on oil and gas in order to raise profits.
The United Nations in 2022 said destruction caused by Typhoon Rai was "badly underestimated" in initial assessments, tripling the number of people "seriously affected" to nine million.
The Philippines -- ranked among the most vulnerable nations to the impact of climate change -- is hit by an average of 20 storms every year.
The UK lawsuit follows an historic climate ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in July, which declared states had an obligation under international law to address the threat of climate change.
ICJ advisory opinions are not legally enforceable but are seen as highly authoritative in steering national courts, legislation and corporate behaviour around the globe.
bur-ajb/cwl/sah/kaf

climate

Warmer seas, heavier rains drove Asia floods: scientists

  • They include heavier rainfall and warmer seas linked to climate change, as well as weather patterns such as La Nina and the Indian Ocean Dipole.
  • Warmer seas and heavier rains linked to climate change, along with Indonesia and Sri Lanka's unique geographies and vulnerabilities, combined to produce deadly flooding that killed hundreds, scientists said Thursday.
  • They include heavier rainfall and warmer seas linked to climate change, as well as weather patterns such as La Nina and the Indian Ocean Dipole.
Warmer seas and heavier rains linked to climate change, along with Indonesia and Sri Lanka's unique geographies and vulnerabilities, combined to produce deadly flooding that killed hundreds, scientists said Thursday.
Two tropical storms dumped massive amounts of rain on the countries last month, prompting landslides and flooding that killed more than 600 people in Sri Lanka and nearly 1,000 in Indonesia.
A rapid analysis of the two weather systems carried out by an international group of scientists found a confluence of factors drove the disaster.
They include heavier rainfall and warmer seas linked to climate change, as well as weather patterns such as La Nina and the Indian Ocean Dipole.
The research could not quantify the precise influence of climate change because models do not fully capture some of the seasonal and regional weather patterns, the scientists said.
Still, they found climate change has made heavy rain events in both regions more intense in recent decades, and that sea surface temperatures are also higher due to climate change.
Warmer oceans can strengthen weather systems and increase the amount of moisture in them.
"Climate change is at least one contributing driver of the observed increase in extreme rainfall," said Mariam Zachariah, one of the study's authors and a research associate at Imperial College London.
The analysis, known as an attribution study, uses peer-reviewed methodologies to assess how a warmer climate may impact different weather events.
The scientists found extreme rainfall events in the Malacca Strait region betwen Malaysia and Indonesia had "increased by an estimated 9-50 percent as a result of rising global temperatures," said Zachariah.
"Over Sri Lanka, the trends are even stronger, with heavy rainfall events now about 28-160 percent more intense due to the warming we have already experienced," she told reporters.
While the datasets "showed a wide range," Zachariah added, "they all point in the same direction, that extreme rainfall events are becoming more intense in both study regions."
The scientists said other factors were also at play, including deforestation and natural geography that channeled heavy rain into populated flood plains.
The two tropical storms coincided with the monsoon rains across much of Asia, which often brings some flooding.
But the scale of the disaster in the two countries is virtually unprecedented.
"Monsoon rains are normal in this part of the world," said Sarah Kew, climate researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, and study lead author.
"What is not normal is the growing intensity of these storms and how they are affecting millions of people and claiming hundreds of lives."
sah/fox

sharks

Racing towards great white sharks in Australia

BY LAURA CHUNG

  • "Great whites, when we catch them, they're easy to work on next to the boat.
  • Sensible people might prefer to flee at torpedo speed from a great white shark, but there's one job in Australia that pays you to race towards the predators.
  • "Great whites, when we catch them, they're easy to work on next to the boat.
Sensible people might prefer to flee at torpedo speed from a great white shark, but there's one job in Australia that pays you to race towards the predators.
And when you reach the big fish, you have to fix a tracker to its dorsal fin while bobbing in a boat on the ocean swell.
The job is key to a sophisticated protection network that lets swimmers, surfers and fishers check for the aquatic hunters in real time when they venture into the water.
Every day, workers lay 305 satellite-linked buoys at popular spots in waters up to 15 meters (50 feet) deep along the coastline of New South Wales as part of the state-run programme.
The so-called smart drumlines have baited hooks and when a shark takes a bite it is caught, sending a signal to the tagging team.
Then comes the hard part.
But it's not the wild "rodeo" people might think, said Paul Butcher, principal research scientist for the state government shark tagging and tracking programme for the past 10 years.
"The sharks are really benign. The process has little impact on those sharks," he told AFP.
A boat races to the buoy within 16 minutes of the alert.
If the fish is one of three potentially dangerous species -- a great white, bull shark or tiger shark -- team members get to work.
They wrap two ropes around the animal: one near its tail and another in front of the pectoral fin to support its body.

Trance-like state

Once the carnivore has been pulled close to the side of the boat, it is rolled to one side carefully while ensuring seawater is passing through its gills.
The position places the shark naturally into a trance-like state that minimises the risk of harm to the team and the animal.
Workers measure the shark's length, collect tissue samples, and fit an acoustic tag to its dorsal fin.
Finally, the animal is released at least one kilometre (half a mile) offshore, vanishing into the blue with a flick of its tail.
The whole process takes about 15 minutes.
"You get some animals that have their own personalities," Butcher said.
"Great whites, when we catch them, they're easy to work on next to the boat. Tiger sharks, not so much. And bull sharks are really benign as well."
In the past 10 years, the state's programme -- managed by the Department of Primary Industries -- has tagged 1,547 white sharks, 756 tiger sharks and 240 bull sharks.
Tagged sharks are detected when they swim past one of 37 listening stations dotted along the coastline.
That sets off an alarm on the SharkSmart app, giving beachgoers an instant notification on their mobiles and smart watches.
The technology forms part of a multi-layered approach that authorities have adopted, alongside spotter drones and old-fashioned nets.

Fatal attacks on the rise

More than 1,280 shark incidents have been recorded around Australia since 1791 -- about 260 of them fatal -- according to a national database.
Though still relatively rare, fatal attacks are on the rise with 57 reported deaths in the 25 years to 2025, compared to 27 in the previous quarter-century.
In November, a three-metre (10-foot) bull shark fatally bit one woman and injured her boyfriend off a remote beach north of Sydney.
The Swiss tourists were reportedly filming a pod of dolphins.
Despite overfishing depleting some shark species, scientists say the rise in fatalities may be linked to the growing numbers of people taking to the water.
Rising ocean temperatures also appear to be swaying sharks' migratory patterns.
Researchers say shark lives, too, need protecting.
Globally, about 37 percent of oceanic shark and ray species are now listed as either endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a database for threatened species.
lec/djw/fox/kaf

environment

Kennedy's health movement turns on Trump administration over pesticides

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • "I supported Kennedy during his independent presidential run, and supported him over to the Trump administration as well," she told AFP, adding that she believes he is doing an overall "excellent job."
  • Yes to rethinking childhood vaccines, but no to more chemicals in agriculture: supporters of US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are in open revolt over the Trump administration's approval of new, highly persistent pesticides.
  • "I supported Kennedy during his independent presidential run, and supported him over to the Trump administration as well," she told AFP, adding that she believes he is doing an overall "excellent job."
Yes to rethinking childhood vaccines, but no to more chemicals in agriculture: supporters of US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are in open revolt over the Trump administration's approval of new, highly persistent pesticides.
The clash pits President Donald Trump's pro-industry instincts against the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement -- a diverse coalition of holistic-health moms, medical-freedom advocates and health-and-wellness influencers who envision a cleaner, less toxic world.
At the heart of the matter is the Environmental Protection Agency's recent decisions to green light new pesticides that critics -- including many scientists -- class as toxic "forever chemicals" known as PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. 
Under Trump's second term, the EPA has approved two such new substances -- insecticide isocycloseram and fungicide cyclobutrifluram -- with proposals to approve several more.
MAHA views that as a deep betrayal and has launched a pressure campaign, including an online petition that has drawn more than 7,000 signatures calling for the removal of EPA administrator Lee Zeldin.
"We're calling him out because he is making a liar out of Trump," Zen Honeycutt, the founder and executive director of the Moms Across America advocacy group, told AFP, recalling the president's promise to protect Americans from harmful chemicals.

'Really concerning'

Zeldin, for his part, lashed out in a sarcastic post on X, writing, "not everything on the internet is true," and arguing that molecules with a single fluorine-carbon bond are not in fact "forever chemicals."
That narrow definition was adopted by the EPA in 2021 under then-president Joe Biden, but it conflicts with those used by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and by independent academic institutions.
"We were equally as critical of the definition when used by the previous administration," David Andrews, a chemist and acting science officer at the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, told AFP.
While these compounds don't build up in the body the way better-known PFAS chemicals do -- such as those used in nonstick cookware -- they break down into trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), which is highly toxic to reproductive systems and "is increasingly being detected in people, crops and waterways around the globe," Andrews said.
"As someone who myself is on a fertility journey, this is something that's really concerning for the increase of infertility rates in the United States," MAHA influencer Iliriana Balaj and CEO of Live Healthillie, told AFP.
- 'Excellent job' -  
The petition was started by Kelly Ryerson, who co-founded American Regeneration to help farmers move away from pesticides, and who has admired Kennedy since his years as an environmental lawyer fighting Monsanto.
"I supported Kennedy during his independent presidential run, and supported him over to the Trump administration as well," she told AFP, adding that she believes he is doing an overall "excellent job."
She highlighted his pledge to close a loophole that lets companies self-affirm food ingredients as safe, while Honeycutt pointed to Kennedy's pressure on food companies to remove synthetic colorings.
Both praised a recommendation by a panel appointed by Kennedy -- a longtime vaccine skeptic -- that newborns no longer receive the hepatitis B shot at birth.
Yet Ryerson said she found it "incredibly disappointing" to see Trump's EPA -- which Zeldin has vowed to use as a vehicle "to unleash American prosperity" -- appoint two former chemical-industry lobbyists to key roles.
For now, tensions may be cooling. Ryerson met with Zeldin personally Tuesday, calling it an "excellent first step."
Asked by AFP at a regenerative farming event Wednesday about the schism, Kennedy said: "We're in discussions with Lee Zeldin at EPA, and we're very, very confident of his commitment to make sure to reduce toxic exposures to the American people."
Whatever happens next, Ryerson said she was heartened that pesticides are now more on the public's mind than ever.
"We're done now with having this poison in our food supply. So what are we going to do about it? And I think that now it's up for grabs as to which party really wants to run with it."
ia/iv

technology

Oracle shares dive as revenue misses forecasts

  • Oracle's cloud and business computing unit accounted for $8 billion of that revenue, an increase of 34 percent from the same quarter in 2024, according to the earnings report.
  • Shares in business computing giant Oracle fell more than 10 percent on Wednesday on word its revenue missed heady expectations, dampening artificial intelligence euphoria in the market.
  • Oracle's cloud and business computing unit accounted for $8 billion of that revenue, an increase of 34 percent from the same quarter in 2024, according to the earnings report.
Shares in business computing giant Oracle fell more than 10 percent on Wednesday on word its revenue missed heady expectations, dampening artificial intelligence euphoria in the market.
The slide in after-market trades came despite Texas-based Oracle reporting that net income in the recently-ended quarter nearly doubled to $6.1 billion in revenue, up 14 percent from the same period a year earlier to $16.05 billion.
Oracle's cloud and business computing unit accounted for $8 billion of that revenue, an increase of 34 percent from the same quarter in 2024, according to the earnings report.
"AI training and selling AI models are very big businesses," Oracle chief executive Mike Sicilia said in the release.
"We think there is an even larger opportunity -- embedding AI in a variety of different products."
But investors are wary of the massive investments tech companies are making in artificial intelligence models and infrastructure, wondering how and when they will pay off.
Oracle has taken on billions of dollars in debt to pay for AI infrastruture and is reported to be considering borrowing even more.
The company has also announced it is putting significant resources into partnerships with AI chip makers and model builders, such as OpenAI and Meta.
"We are now committed to a policy of chip neutrality where we work closely with all our CPU and GPU suppliers," Oracle founder and chief technology officer Larry Ellison said in the earnings release.
"There are going to be a lot of changes in AI technology over the next few years, and we must remain agile in response to those changes."
Oracle shares were down some 10.7 percent to $199.50 in after-market trades that followed release of the earnings figures.
gc/jgc

livestock

Veggie 'burgers' remain on table as EU talks stall

  • Lawmakers at the European Parliament in October backed a proposal to reserve a list of labels including burger and sausage for foods containing meat.
  • EU wrangling over whether to give plant-based "sausages" and veggie "burgers" the chop and restrict such labels to meat products will grind on into next year after countries and lawmakers failed to reach a deal on Wednesday.
  • Lawmakers at the European Parliament in October backed a proposal to reserve a list of labels including burger and sausage for foods containing meat.
EU wrangling over whether to give plant-based "sausages" and veggie "burgers" the chop and restrict such labels to meat products will grind on into next year after countries and lawmakers failed to reach a deal on Wednesday.
Many of Europe's livestock farmers see plant-based foods that mimic meat as potentially misleading for consumers, and a threat to their already troubled sector.
Lawmakers at the European Parliament in October backed a proposal to reserve a list of labels including burger and sausage for foods containing meat.
The European Union's 27 member states Wednesday looked to hash out the initiative with negotiators from the parliament as part of a broad-ranging package of new measures to protect farmers.
But after several hours of talks, no agreement was reached. Negotiations are set to continue next year.
Some countries seem reticent to move ahead with a ban.
Food retailers in Germany, Europe's largest market for plant-based alternative products, have spoken out against the move, along with environmentalists and consumer advocates.

Beatle with a beef

Among high-profile opponents of the ban is former Beatle and prominent vegetarian Paul McCartney, who co-signed a letter to the EU's executive arguing against the measure.
"We urge you not to adopt these restrictions, as we are deeply concerned about the significant global impact they could have," the letter said.
"The evidence is clear: existing legislation already protects consumers; consumers themselves overwhelmingly understand and support current naming conventions."
But livestock farmers argue the opposite, with French industry group Interbev saying current labelling "confuses consumers and undermines recognition" of meat products.
EU consumption of plant-based alternatives to meat products has grown five-fold since 2011, according to data from BEUC, a consumer group.
Concerns over animal welfare and greenhouse gas emissions by livestock farms as well as health arguments have fuelled the boom.
This is not the first time there has been a push to beef up rules on the labelling of such products in the EU.
The debate has stirred emotions in France, which passed a similar label ban in 2024 to appease angry farmers -- only for it to be overturned the following January in line with a ruling by the EU's top court.
And a similar proposal was rejected by European lawmakers in 2020.
The balance of power has since shifted, as the 2024 European elections saw big gains by right-wing parties that cultivate close ties to the farm sector.
But even among those groups, there is no clear consensus, with centre-right leader Manfred Weber insisting the proposal was "not a priority at all".
adc/ub/ec/jhb

animal

Japanese ivory trade attracts fresh global scrutiny

BY KYOKO HASEGAWA

  • A Buddha statue worth more than $1,500 (238,000 yen) is safely housed inside a gold-painted cabinet.
  • At his store in Tokyo's ritzy Ginza district, Hajime Sasaki displays a disparate array of wares, from chopsticks to Buddha statues -- including many made of ivory.
  • A Buddha statue worth more than $1,500 (238,000 yen) is safely housed inside a gold-painted cabinet.
At his store in Tokyo's ritzy Ginza district, Hajime Sasaki displays a disparate array of wares, from chopsticks to Buddha statues -- including many made of ivory.
International trade in elephant ivory is illegal, but Japan hosts one of the world's largest remaining legal domestic markets for the product, which can only be bought and sold within its borders.
It is fed with stockpiles of ivory imported before the international ban more than 30 years ago, or bought in one-off government auctions.
But conservationists warn Japan's ivory often leaks overseas, fuelling black market trade, while driving demand and undermining bans in countries like China.
Sasaki's shop displays pamphlets in Chinese and English explaining that ivory cannot be taken abroad, but he still "receives many Chinese customers", he told AFP.
"Tourists give up buying ivory when I explain you can't bring it outside Japan," said the softly-spoken 69-year-old.
Conservationists estimate between 10,000 and 15,000 elephants from the two African species are killed for their tusks each year.
And seizure data suggests ivory is leaving Japan's domestic market.
Since 2008, more than 3,600 kilograms (four US tons) of ivory linked to Japan has been seized by authorities around the world, according to data presented at a recent global wildlife trade meeting in Uzbekistan.
Dozens of interceptions were destined for China, according to the document presented at the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The data suggests "some weakness in Japan's law enforcement", the document warned.

'Organised criminals'

In 2023, a shipment reportedly bound for Thailand carrying 710 pieces was intercepted, another CITES document said.
Shipments of that size "suggest organised criminals are also involved", said Matt Collis, senior policy director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
At the CITES meeting, four African nations unsuccessfully urged adoption of a document that would have called for the closure of all remaining domestic ivory markets.
And Japan fiercely denies that its national market impacts elephant conservation.
It disputed the interpretation of the data presented at CITES, and said it continues to "implement strict control measures" to prevent leakage.
Japan's alleged leakage problem is particularly problematic for China, once the world's biggest market for ivory, which banned trade in 2017 -- around the same time as the United States. 
"China is doing their best to enforce their domestic ivory ban and to change public perceptions," said Collis.
"But you have a neighbouring country that is undermining these efforts by not enforcing controls and perpetuating demand."
Ivory was once widely used in Japan for personal seals and musical instruments. 
Today the country has a 250-tonne stockpile, boosted by two CITES-approved auctions in 1999 and 2008. 
At Sasaki's shop, shelves are lined with exquisitely-carved ornaments. A Buddha statue worth more than $1,500 (238,000 yen) is safely housed inside a gold-painted cabinet.
But there is little demand.
Sasaki says he has just one or two buyers a month, mostly older Japanese. 
That is partly due to growing awareness of the ivory trade's devastating impact, said Masayuki Sakamoto, director of the Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund (JTEF). 
"So inventory in Japan is piling up, and demand from China and other countries persists," he said.

'Sustainable use'

Although China's ban has tamped down interest somewhat, ivory carvings, jewellery and trinkets remain highly prized in Asia's largest economy. 
"Given the size of China, even lower levels of demand can provide powerful incentives for traffickers to seek to get ivory into China's black market," Collis said.
Experts also question Japan's system for tracking its domestic ivory, which is based mostly on tracing whole tusks, even though trade is primarily in small, derivative products.
Japan has shown little interest in curtailing domestic sales, and supported a proposal by Namibia at CITES that would have allowed a one-off government auction of the African country's ivory stocks to other governments.
The bid was defeated, to the relief of conservationists who argue further sales will only fuel demand. 
But Sasaki said he felt the tusks should be sold to help conservation efforts, echoing the Tokyo Ivory and Crafts Association, which says it backs "sustainable use" of ivory, as a "form of conservation".
"Smuggling is bad", said Sasaki.
"But I think reusing elephant tusks would be better (than disposing of them), and generate income."
kh-aph/sah/mtp