environment

Indian capital bans fuel for old cars in anti-pollution bid

  • The ban that came into force on Tuesday seeks to keep them off the roads by barring them from refuelling.
  • India's capital banned fuel sales to ageing vehicles on Tuesday as authorities try to tackle the sprawling megacity's hazardous air pollution.
  • The ban that came into force on Tuesday seeks to keep them off the roads by barring them from refuelling.
India's capital banned fuel sales to ageing vehicles on Tuesday as authorities try to tackle the sprawling megacity's hazardous air pollution.
The city is regularly ranked one of the most polluted capitals globally with acrid smog blanketing its skyline every winter.
At the peak of the smog, levels of PM2.5 pollutants -- dangerous cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- surge to more than 60 times the World Health Organization's recommended daily maximum. 
Petrol cars older than 15 years, and diesel vehicles older than 10, were already banned from operating on New Delhi's roads by a 2018 Supreme Court ruling.
But millions flout the rules.
According to official figures, over six million such vehicles are plying the city's streets.
The ban that came into force on Tuesday seeks to keep them off the roads by barring them from refuelling.
Police and municipal workers were deployed at fuel stations across Delhi, where number plate-recognising cameras and loudspeakers were installed. 
"We have been instructed to call in scrap car dealers if such vehicles come in," said a traffic policeman posted at a fuelling station in the city. 
From November, the ban will be extended to satellite cities around the capital, an area home to more than 32 million people.
A study in the Lancet medical journal attributed 1.67 million premature deaths in India to air pollution in 2019.
Each winter, vehicle and factory emissions couple with farm fires from surrounding states to wrap the city in a dystopian haze. 
Cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds worsen the situation by trapping deadly pollutants. 
Piecemeal government initiatives, such as partial restrictions on fossil fuel-powered transport and water trucks spraying mist to clear particulate matter from the air, have failed to make a noticeable impact. 
ash-sai/pjm/lb

research

Over 14 million people could die from US foreign aid cuts: study

BY DANIEL LAWLER

  • The cuts could lead to more than 14 million avoidable deaths by 2030, the projections found.
  • More than 14 million of the world's most vulnerable people, a third of them small children, could die by 2030 because of the Trump administration's dismantling of US foreign aid, research projected on Tuesday.
  • The cuts could lead to more than 14 million avoidable deaths by 2030, the projections found.
More than 14 million of the world's most vulnerable people, a third of them small children, could die by 2030 because of the Trump administration's dismantling of US foreign aid, research projected on Tuesday.
The study in the prestigious Lancet journal was published as world and business leaders gather for a United Nations conference in Spain this week hoping to bolster the reeling aid sector.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) had provided over 40 percent of global humanitarian funding until Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. 
Two weeks later, Trump's then-close advisor -- and world's richest man -- Elon Musk boasted of having put the agency "through the woodchipper".
The funding cuts "risk abruptly halting -- and even reversing -- two decades of progress in health among vulnerable populations", warned study co-author Davide Rasella, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).
"For many low- and middle-income countries, the resulting shock would be comparable in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict," he said in a statement.
Looking back over data from 133 nations, the international team of researchers estimated that USAID funding had prevented 91.8 million deaths in developing countries between 2001 and 2021. 
That is more than the estimated number of deaths during World War II, history's deadliest conflict.

HIV, malaria to rise

The researchers also used modelling to project how funding being slashed by 83 percent -- the figure announced by the US government earlier this year -- could affect death rates.
The cuts could lead to more than 14 million avoidable deaths by 2030, the projections found.
That number included over 4.5 million children under the age of five -- or around 700,000 child deaths a year.
For comparison, around 10 million soldiers are estimated to have been killed during World War I. 
Programmes supported by USAID were linked to a 15-percent decrease in deaths from all causes, the researchers determined. 
For children under five, the drop in deaths was twice as steep, at 32 percent.
USAID funding was found to be particularly effective at staving off preventable deaths from disease. 
There were 65 percent fewer deaths from HIV/AIDS in countries receiving a high level of support compared to those with little or no USAID funding, the study found. 
Deaths from malaria and neglected tropical diseases were similarly cut in half. 
Study co-author Francisco Saute of Mozambique's Manhica Health Research Centre said he had seen on the ground how USAID helped fight diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. 
"Cutting this funding now not only puts lives at risk -- it also undermines critical infrastructure that has taken decades to build," he stressed.
A recently updated tracker run by disease modeller Brooke Nichols at Boston University estimates that nearly 108,000 adults and more than 224,000 children have already died as a result of the US aid cuts. 
That works out to 88 deaths every hour, according to the tracker.

'Time to scale up'

After USAID was gutted, several other major donors, including France, Germany and the UK, followed suit in announcing plans to slash their foreign aid budgets. 
These aid reductions, particularly in the European Union, could lead to "even more additional deaths in the coming years," study co-author Caterina Monti of ISGlobal said.
But the grim projections are based on the current amount of pledged aid, so could rapidly come down if the situation changes, the researchers emphasised.
Dozens of world leaders are meeting in the Spanish city of Seville this week for the biggest aid conference in a decade. 
The United States, however, will not attend.
"Now is the time to scale up, not scale back," Rasella said.
Before its funding was slashed, USAID represented 0.3 percent of all US federal spending.
"US citizens contribute about 17 cents per day to USAID, around $64 per year," said study co-author James Macinko of the University of California, Los Angeles.
"I think most people would support continued USAID funding if they knew just how effective such a small contribution can be to saving millions of lives."
dl/gil

environment

EPA employees accuse Trump administration of 'ignoring' science

  • "This politicized messaging distracts from EPA's core responsibility: to protect human health and the environment through objective, science-based policy."
  • US President Donald Trump's administration is "ignoring the scientific consensus to benefit polluters," hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency employees said in a letter of dissent Monday, accusing the government of undermining the EPA's core mission.
  • "This politicized messaging distracts from EPA's core responsibility: to protect human health and the environment through objective, science-based policy."
US President Donald Trump's administration is "ignoring the scientific consensus to benefit polluters," hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency employees said in a letter of dissent Monday, accusing the government of undermining the EPA's core mission.
The scathing letter, signed by more than 200 current and former officials and their supporters, accused EPA chief Lee Zeldin of enacting policies dangerous to both humans and the environment.
"The decisions of the current administration frequently contradict the peer-reviewed research and recommendations of Agency experts," said the letter.
"Make no mistake: your actions endanger public health and erode scientific progress -- not only in America -- but around the world."
Under Zeldin, the EPA has worked to deliver Trump's campaign promises of lifting environmental regulations, boosting fossil fuel production and cutting clean energy spending.
The letter identifies five main areas of concern, including the increasing politicization of the agency, the reversing of programs aimed at marginalized communities and the "dismantling" of the agency's Office of Research and Development.
It described the agency's communications under Zeldin as being used "to promote misinformation and overtly partisan rhetoric."
"This politicized messaging distracts from EPA's core responsibility: to protect human health and the environment through objective, science-based policy."
As an example, the letter cited official communications that likened "climate science to a religion."
Zeldin has repeatedly stated that he sees the EPA's role as supporting US economic growth, and under his guidance the agency has set in motion a full-scale reversal of several environmental standards and greenhouse gas regulations.
Unveiling a set of policy initiatives in March, Zeldin hailed the move as "the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen."
"We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the US and more," said the administrator of the federal agency charged with protecting the environment.
The letter came weeks after the publication of a similar text signed by dozens of employees of the National Institutes of Health over the Trump administration's "harmful" policies.
The EPA letter had more than 170 "anonymous signers," with the text stating the administration had promoted "a culture of fear" at the agency.
cha-aha/mlm

smoking

France imposes smoking ban on beaches, parks

BY CHARLOTTE HOUANG WITH THOMAS BERNARDI AND MARISOL RIFAI IN LE PORGE

  • "There's plenty of space, but it's never pleasant when you get a little smoke on you.
  • France on Sunday banned smoking in parks and on beaches, part of efforts to protect the public from passive smoke and create the country's first non-smoking generation.
  • "There's plenty of space, but it's never pleasant when you get a little smoke on you.
France on Sunday banned smoking in parks and on beaches, part of efforts to protect the public from passive smoke and create the country's first non-smoking generation.
The ban, published in the official government gazette on Saturday, also applies to bus shelters and areas near libraries, swimming pools and schools.
It was introduced one week before the start of school holidays, aiming to shield children from smoke on beaches.
The rules do not apply to bar and restaurant terraces, where smoking remains permitted.
They also do not apply to electronic cigarettes. 
On a beach packed with sunbathers and sloping into the crashing Atlantic surf in southwestern France, opinions on the new rules were mixed as smokers puffed away without apparent fear of reprimand.
"Frankly, I think it's ridiculous. We bring our own ashtrays and we're no longer allowed to smoke in parks, on beaches and so on," said Damien Dupois, a smoker.
But Romain Boonaert, a non-smoker enjoying the beach in La Porge outside Bordeaux, welcomed the move.
"There's plenty of space, but it's never pleasant when you get a little smoke on you. And then some people smoke other things too, so at least it takes away all the trouble."

'Tobacco-free generation'

According to the new rules, people should also not smoke within a 10 metres radius of schools, swimming pools, libraries and other places that hurt minors.
The health ministry said it would announce the minimum distance for smoking in these areas in the coming days.
Those who violate the ban could face a fine of 135 euros ($160) up to a maximum of 700 euros. 
The health ministry is expecting an initial grace period as the new rules are introduced.
"Tobacco must disappear from places where there are children. A park, a beach, a school -- these are places to play, learn, and breathe. Not for smoking," Health and Family Minister Catherine Vautrin said.
She said the ban was part of France's push for a "tobacco-free generation" by 2032.

'It must be clear'

The ban "is a step in the right direction, but remains insufficient," said Yves Martinet, president of the National Committee Against Smoking (CNCT), criticising the continued permission to smoke on cafe terraces.
"The minister points to the protection of children," but children "also go to the terraces," Martinet, a pulmonologist, said.
He lamented the absence of e-cigarettes from the text, saying flavours are used to "hook young people". 
"For a measure to be effective, it must be clear -- no consumption of products containing tobacco or nicotine in public," Martinet said.
But Frank Delvau, president of the Union of Hotel Trades and Industries (UMIH) for the Paris region, said a ban on smoking on cafe terraces "would only shift the problem because people on terraces would go smoke next to these establishments". 
"Smokers and non-smokers can coexist" on terraces, the "last places of conviviality and freedom," said Franck Trouet, of hospitality association Hotels and Restaurants of France (GHR).
Passive smoking causes between 3,000 and 5,000 deaths annually in France, according to official estimates.
Smoking is steadily declining in France with "the lowest prevalence ever recorded since 2000", according to the French addiction agency OFDT. 
Less than a quarter of adults aged 18 to 75 smoked daily in 2023. Smoking causes 75,000 deaths a year and costs society 156 billion euros annually, the agency said.
A recent survey found 62 percent of French respondents support a smoking ban in public spaces.
ch-ref-alu-tb-mer-sjw/srg/gv

environment

Europe bakes in summer's first heatwave as continent warms

BY JULIETTE RABAT WITH CLEMENT MELKI IN ROME

  • Europe's ever-hotter and increasingly common blistering summer heatwaves are a direct result of that warming, they argue.
  • Southern Europeans braced Saturday for their first heatwave of the northern hemisphere summer, as climate change pushes thermometers on the world's fastest-warming continent increasingly into the red.
  • Europe's ever-hotter and increasingly common blistering summer heatwaves are a direct result of that warming, they argue.
Southern Europeans braced Saturday for their first heatwave of the northern hemisphere summer, as climate change pushes thermometers on the world's fastest-warming continent increasingly into the red.
Scientists have long warned that humanity's burning of fossil fuels is heating up the world with disastrous consequences for the environment. Europe's ever-hotter and increasingly common blistering summer heatwaves are a direct result of that warming, they argue.
In Italy, 17 cities -- from Milan in the north to Palermo in the south -- were put on red alert for high temperature, with peaks recorded of 39 degrees Celsius (12 Fahrenheit).
In Rome, the high temperatures drove the Eternal City's many tourists and pilgrims towards its 2,500 public fountains for refreshment.
And in Venice, visitors to -- and protesters against -- Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos's Friday wedding in Venice sweltered in the extreme heat.
"There is no wind, a lot of humidity, we are sweating, and I'm suffocating at night," Alejandra Echeverria, a 40-year-old Mexican tourist to the city, told AFP on Saturday.

Sunday forecast hotter

In France, as temperatures in the southern port city of Marseille flirted with 40C, the city's authorities ordered public swimming pools be free of charge to help residents beat the Mediterranean heat.
Two-thirds of Portugal will be on high alert on Sunday for extreme heat and forest fires, with 42C (108F) expected in the capital Lisbon.
The heatwave is forecast to become even more intense on Sunday.
Spain, which has in past years seen a series of deadly summer blazes, is expecting peak temperatures in excess of 40C (104F) across most of the country.
According to AEMET, Spain's meteorological agency, El Granado in the southwest Huelva region recorded 46 Celsius (114F), which if confirmed would be the hottest temperature ever recorded in Spain during June.
The past three years have been the hottest in Spain's history.

Precautionary measures

With peaks of 39C (102F) expected in Palermo, Sicily has ordered a ban on outdoor work in the hottest hours of the day, as has the Liguria region in northern Italy.
The country's trade unions are campaigning to extend the measure to other parts of the country.
And in France, where heatwave alerts were extended Saturday across the country, the central city of Tours ordered schools there closed on Monday and Tuesday in the afternoon.
The nearby city of Orleans had already made access to some air-conditioned museums free and announced it was keeping parks and gardens open late.
In the French Mediterranean city of Nice, where the mercury hit 33 Celsius at midday (91F), residents and tourists were seeking refuge in misted parks and museums. 
"We're not going to stay cooped up all day," said one retiree resting in the shaded Promenade du Paillon, a central greenway.
Families with young children flocked to water jets and cooling sprays. 
"We live in a city-centre flat without a pool, and the sea is tricky with a two-year-old," said Florence Oleari, a 35-year-old GP. 
At the Albert I garden, organisers of a triathlon to be held on Sunday briefed 4,000 competitors on emergency measures, including ice stations and electrolyte stations. 
"If I feel unwell, I'll stop," said Frederic Devroye, a participant who travelled from Brussels for the triathlon, which includes a 3.8 km swim, a 180 km cycle with 2,600 m of elevation, and -- to top it off -- a marathon. Local authorities have distributed nearly 250 fans to schools over the past fortnight, while tourists like Jean-Luc Idczak opted to explore Nice's air-conditioned museums to keep cool.
"With this weather, it's perfect," he said as he entered the city's photography museum.
In Seville, where forecasts suggested temperatures could reach up to 43 degrees Celcius, locals and tourists used handheld fans and caps to shield themselves from heat.
"Lots of cream, sun protection, on the face, everywhere, and very light clothing," said Marta Corona, a 60-year-old tourist holding a fan.
"People come asking for water and drinks, that’s what sells, because with this heat you have to cope somehow," said Fernando Serrano, a 69-year-old kiosk owner at his stand.
The heatwave comes hot on the heels of a series of tumbling records, including Europe's hottest March ever, according to the EU's Copernicus climate monitor. 
According to Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Europe has been warming at roughly twice the global average since the 1980s.
As a result of the planet's warming, extreme weather events including hurricanes, droughts, floods and heatwaves like this weekend's have become more frequent and intense, scientists warn.
By some estimates 2024, the hottest year in recorded history so far, saw worldwide disasters that cost more than $300 billion.  
burs-jj/gv

smoking

France bans smoking in beaches, in parks and bus shelters

  • The decree, published in the official government gazette on Saturday, will also ban smoking outside libraries, swimming pools and schools, and is aimed at protecting children from passive smoking. 
  • France will ban smoking on beaches and in parks, public gardens and bus shelters from Sunday, the government said.
  • The decree, published in the official government gazette on Saturday, will also ban smoking outside libraries, swimming pools and schools, and is aimed at protecting children from passive smoking. 
France will ban smoking on beaches and in parks, public gardens and bus shelters from Sunday, the government said.
The decree, published in the official government gazette on Saturday, will also ban smoking outside libraries, swimming pools and schools, and is aimed at protecting children from passive smoking. 
The decree did not mention electronic cigarettes. Violaters of the ban will face a fine of 135 euros ($158).
"Tobacco must disappear from places where there are children," Health and Family Minister Catherine Vautrin had said in May, underscoring "the right of children to breathe pure air".
Cafe terraces are excluded from the ban.
Some 75,000 people are estimated to die from tobacco-related complications each year in France.
According to a recent opinion survey, six out of 10 French people (62 percent) favour a smoking ban in public places.
alu/ach/ecl

weather

Heatwave across the Med sparks health and fire warnings

  • France has been gripped by its 50th national heatwave since 1947 for more than a week now, and four regions in southern France were placed under an orange alert on Friday -- the second-highest warning.
  • Southern European countries braced Friday for a punishing weekend heatwave, with temperatures predicted to hit up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and beyond, prompting health warnings and fears of wildfires.
  • France has been gripped by its 50th national heatwave since 1947 for more than a week now, and four regions in southern France were placed under an orange alert on Friday -- the second-highest warning.
Southern European countries braced Friday for a punishing weekend heatwave, with temperatures predicted to hit up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and beyond, prompting health warnings and fears of wildfires.
The searing heat spreading across the Mediterranean from the Iberian peninsula to the Balkans and Greece comes as climate scientists warn that galloping human-induced climate change is causing more extreme weather, including longer and more intense heatwaves.
Tens of millions of people have already been sweltering in what the National Weather Service called an "extremely dangerous" heatwave across the eastern United States, including in New York and Washington, straining the power grid as people cranked up air conditioning.
Across the Atlantic in Spain, emergency medical staff readied to deal with an expected surge in heatstroke cases, particularly among vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly and people with chronic illnesses.
In neighbouring Portugal, the national meteorological agency IPMA said the heatwave would hit from Saturday, with temperatures passing 40C in the south as well as in the central Tagus and northern Douro valleys.
Sunday will be even hotter, the agency added, and two-thirds of the country has already been put on orange alert. Temperatures are expected to hit 42C in the capital Lisbon.

Red alert in Italy

The risk of fire is at its highest inland in the northern half of Portugal, as well as on the Algarve coast popular with holidaymakers in the south.
France has been gripped by its 50th national heatwave since 1947 for more than a week now, and four regions in southern France were placed under an orange alert on Friday -- the second-highest warning. Temperatures were expected to reach 35C to 38C locally, and up to 39C inland.
The Meteo France weather agency said surface sea temperatures from the Mediterranean were an "aggravating factor" that could make nights "more stifling".
Additional French regions are expected to be placed on orange alert on Saturday as the heatwave spreads north, and the soaring temperatures are expected to last until Tuesday, said the agency.
In Italy, the health ministry issued its top red alert for 21 cities this weekend, including the capital Rome, the economic powerhouse Milan and Venice, where the rich and famous were celebrating the wedding of Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos.
People were advised not to go outdoors between 11:00 am and 6:00 pm, and to seek shelter in air-conditioned public places.
In Venice, the temperature was set to hit 32C on Saturday, when Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are expected to be throwing a dance party starring Lady Gaga -- but it will feel like around 36C due to humidity.
In Florence, which was already on red alert on Friday, the temperature is forecast to reach 37C on Saturday, while it will go up to 36C on Sunday in Rome, Milan and Naples.

Albania battles fires

Across the Adriatic, the authorities in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia also issued health warnings, while in Albania, firefighters battled Thursday to bring at least eight blazes under control after flames destroyed dozens of homes in the south of the country last weekend.
Further south, weather agencies in Greece forecast a heatwave in the coming days with temperatures of more than 40C, including in the capital Athens.
The country has become particularly vulnerable to summer fires in recent years fuelled by strong winds, drought and high temperatures linked to climate change.
Firefighters said Friday a forest blaze that had forced evacuations around Athens was under control, but warned that scorching temperatures were keeping fire risk at a high level around the capital and on northern Aegean islands.
Fields, olive groves and some houses were ravaged by the blaze around Athens, which came after another on Greece's fifth-largest island Chios that destroyed more than 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of land in four days.
burs-jj/jhb

youth

Ketamine 'epidemic' among UK youth raises alarm

BY JULIE EZVAN

  • Barney was just 16 when he went to the Reading music festival in southern England and used ketamine for the first time, writing about it in ecstatic terms in his journal.
  • The first time Barney Casserly used ketamine at a UK music festival he thought he had found "nirvana".
  • Barney was just 16 when he went to the Reading music festival in southern England and used ketamine for the first time, writing about it in ecstatic terms in his journal.
The first time Barney Casserly used ketamine at a UK music festival he thought he had found "nirvana". Five years later he died in agony, leaving behind devastated parents and friends.
"I would never, ever have imagined that this would happen to us as a family," said his mother, Deborah Casserly, still grieving for Barney who died in April 2018, aged 21.
Ketamine, an affordable recreational drug that induces a sense of detachment from reality, has reached unprecedented levels of popularity among young people in the UK, with some experts even calling it an "epidemic".
The extent of the crisis prompted the government in January to seek advice from an official advisory body on whether to reclassify ketamine as a Class A substance.
That would bring it in line with other drugs such as heroin, cocaine and ecstasy, meaning supplying ketamine could carry terms of up to life imprisonment.
In the consulting room of doctor Niall Campbell, a leading specialist in addiction treatment at Priory Hospital, Roehampton, Casserly, 64, showed pictures of her son -- a smiling young man with dark hair and bright eyes.
Tearfully, she recalled how her son's life fell apart as his ketamine addiction took hold.
Barney was just 16 when he went to the Reading music festival in southern England and used ketamine for the first time, writing about it in ecstatic terms in his journal.
But he swiftly became addicted to the drug, a white crystalline powder that is crushed and then sniffed. Alternatively it can be swallowed in liquid form.

'Excruciating pain'

"His usage moved from being used in a party context to being used at home alone... a tragic, sad, desperately lonely experience," said his mother. 
His family sent him to private rehabs but he relapsed, would use every day, and was in an "excruciating amount of pain".
"He would spend long parts of the day in the bath, in hot water... because the cramps were so bad. He was not able to sleep properly at night because he was constantly getting up to urinate," said his mother. 
Barney suffered from ulcerative cystitis, also known as "ketamine bladder", which is when "the breakdown products of ketamine basically cause the bladder to rot", said Campbell.
"Mum, if this is living, I don't want it," said Barney on April 7, 2018. The next morning his mother found him dead in his bed.
An anaesthetic drug invented in 1962, ketamine is used for both human and veterinary medicine often as a horse tranquilliser. 
"Some people love that dissociative, detached from reality, kind of effect" the drug brings, said Campbell.
Users "go right down into what we call a K hole, which is just to the point of collapsing and being unconscious".
In the year ending March 2024, an estimated 269,000 people aged 16 to 59 had reported using ketamine, a government minister said.
And among young people aged 16-24 "the misuse of ketamine... has grown in the last decade" by 231 percent, said junior interior minister Diana Johnson, in her letter asking for advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
There were 53 deaths in England and Wales in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Highly addictive

"It's really commonplace now, it's everywhere," said Laiden, a London drug dealer using an assumed name. 
"It's a cheap drug with a strong effect on people and people aren't concerned about selling it to youngsters," added Laiden.
Ketamine costs between £20 and £30 ($27.50 and $41) a gram while cocaine, which remains his top seller, is around £100 a gram, he said. 
"This epidemic is having a huge effect on the nation," said Campbell. 
Ketamine is very addictive and "by the time they get to see us, the party's over. They're not out in the nightclubs. They're sitting on their own at home, secretly doing this stuff, killing themselves", he added.
But others argue that ketamine can have healing benefits.
Married therapists Lucy and Alex da Silva run a psychedelic therapy wellness centre in London, and use ketamine prescribed by doctors in lozenge form to treat depression and trauma.
"We want people to see what the healing benefits of ketamine, when it's controlled in the right way, can do," said Lucy da Silva.
But she agreed there was "a need for education around the dangers of street ketamine and the lives that it's taking".
je/jkb/jwp/phz

diplomacy

UN conference seeks foreign aid rally as Trump cuts bite

BY IMRAN MARASHLI

  • Spain will be the first developed country to host the UN development finance conference.
  • Spain will host a UN conference next week seeking fresh backing for development aid as swingeing cuts led by US President Donald Trump and global turmoil hinder progress on fighting poverty, hunger and climate change.
  • Spain will be the first developed country to host the UN development finance conference.
Spain will host a UN conference next week seeking fresh backing for development aid as swingeing cuts led by US President Donald Trump and global turmoil hinder progress on fighting poverty, hunger and climate change.
French President Emmanuel Macron, South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa and Daniel Noboa of Ecuador will headline the around 70 heads of state and government in the southern city of Seville from June 30 to July 3.
But a US snub at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development underlines the challenges of corralling international support for the sector. 
Joining the leaders are UN chief Antonio Guterres, more than 4,000 representatives from businesses, civil society and financial institutions, including World Bank head Ajay Banga.
Such development-focused gatherings are rare -- and the urgency is high as the world's wealthiest countries tighten their purse strings and development goals set for 2030 slip from reach.
Guterres has estimated the funding gap for aid at $4 trillion per year.
Trump's evisceration of funding for USAID -- by far the world's top foreign aid contributor -- has dealt a hammer blow to humanitarian campaigns.
Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium are among the other rich nations that have announced recent aid cuts as economic and security priorities shift and national budgets are squeezed.
From fighting AIDS in southern Africa to educating displaced Rohingya children in Bangladesh, the retreat is having an instant impact.
The UN refugee agency has announced it will slash 3,500 jobs as funds dried up, affecting tens of millions of the world's most vulnerable citizens.
International cooperation is already under increasing strain during devastating conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, while Trump's unpredictable tariff war plunges global trade into disarray.

Debt burden

Reforming international finance and alleviating the huge debt burden under which low-income countries sag are key points for discussion.
The budgets of many developing nations are constrained by servicing debt, which surged after the Covid-19 pandemic, curbing critical investment in health, education and infrastructure.
According to a recent report commissioned by the late Pope Francis and coordinated by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, 3.3 billion people live in countries that fork out more on interest payments than on health.
Critics have singled out US-based bulwarks of the post-World War II international financial system, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, for reform.
Seville represents "a unique opportunity to reform an international financial system that is outdated, dysfunctional and unfair", Guterres said.
At a preparatory meeting at UN headquarters in New York in June, countries except the United States unanimously agreed a text to be adopted in Seville.
The document reaffirms commitment to achieving the 2030 UN sustainable development goals on eliminating poverty, hunger and promoting gender equality.
It focuses on reforming tax systems, notably by improving the Global South's representation within international financial institutions.
The text also calls on development banks to triple their lending capacity, urges lenders to ensure predictable finance for essential social spending and for more cooperation against tax evasion.
The United States said it opposed initiatives that encroach on national sovereignty, interfere with international financial institutions and include "sex-based preferences".

Lack of ambition?

While the European Union celebrated achieving a consensus, NGOs have criticised the commitment for lacking ambition. 
For Mariana Paoli, global advocacy lead at Christian Aid, the text "weakens key commitments on debt and fossil fuel subsidies -- despite urgent calls from the Global South".
"Shielded by US obstructionism, the Global North continues to block reform. This isn't leadership -- it's denial."
Previous failures by rich countries to keep their promises have eroded trust.
After promising to deliver $100 billion of climate finance a year to poorer nations by 2020, they only hit the target in 2022.
Acrimonious negotiations at last year's UN climate summit in Azerbaijan ended with rich countries pledging $300 billion in annual climate finance by 2035, decried as too low by activists and developing nations.
Independent experts have estimated the needs upwards of $1 trillion per year.
Spain will be the first developed country to host the UN development finance conference. The inaugural edition took place in Mexico in 2002, followed by Qatar in 2008 and Ethiopia in 2015.
vab-imm/mdm/phz/tc

politics

US panel replaced under Trump backs new shot for kids

  • The ACIP panel was asked to adjudicate the next step after approval -- namely, whether it should now be recommended for infants under eight months old entering their first RSV season who are not already protected by an RSV vaccine administered to their mother during pregnancy.
  • A medical panel appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted Thursday to recommend a new preventive shot against RSV, a common respiratory illness that is the leading cause of hospitalization for infants in the United States.
  • The ACIP panel was asked to adjudicate the next step after approval -- namely, whether it should now be recommended for infants under eight months old entering their first RSV season who are not already protected by an RSV vaccine administered to their mother during pregnancy.
A medical panel appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted Thursday to recommend a new preventive shot against RSV, a common respiratory illness that is the leading cause of hospitalization for infants in the United States.
The vote marked the first by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) since Kennedy dismissed all members of the influential group of independent experts and replaced them with his own nominees, a move that made this decision a test of the new panel's intentions.
Clesrovimab was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a shot for newborns and young babies experiencing their first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season.
Marketed under the name Enflonsia by its manufacturer Merck, the antibody immunization shot was shown in clinical trials to be safe and effective at significantly reducing RSV infections and hospitalizations among infants.
The ACIP panel was asked to adjudicate the next step after approval -- namely, whether it should now be recommended for infants under eight months old entering their first RSV season who are not already protected by an RSV vaccine administered to their mother during pregnancy.
They voted 5-2 in favor.
The two dissenters were Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at MIT who has questioned the safety of Covid-19 vaccines, and Vicky Pebsworth, a nurse and member of the anti-vaccine National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC).
"I don't feel this is ready to be administered to all healthy babies. I think we should take a more precautionary approach," said Levi, explaining his "no" vote.
Pebsworth did not offer comments, but the NVIC previously opposed the earlier-approved RSV antibody, nirsevimab.
Kennedy -- who spent decades spreading vaccine misinformation before becoming President Donald Trump's top health official -- abruptly fired all 17 members of the ACIP earlier this month, accusing them of conflicts of interest.
ia/bgs

politics

RFK Jr panel votes against ingredient targeted by anti-vaxxers

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • Robert Malone, a new panel member known for spreading misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic, including promoting the antiparastic drug ivermectin to treat the virus, said the CDC document had not been approved by the Office of the Secretary.
  • A newly appointed US medical panel voted Thursday to oppose the use of a vaccine ingredient long targeted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over debunked claims it causes autism.
  • Robert Malone, a new panel member known for spreading misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic, including promoting the antiparastic drug ivermectin to treat the virus, said the CDC document had not been approved by the Office of the Secretary.
A newly appointed US medical panel voted Thursday to oppose the use of a vaccine ingredient long targeted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over debunked claims it causes autism.
Thimerosal, a preservative that prevents bacterial and fungal contamination in multidose vials, has been extensively studied, with authorities including the World Health Organization finding no evidence of harm beyond minor injection-site reactions.
Although the substance is now rarely used in US vaccines, the recommendations by the influential Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices alarmed experts, who say the move has effectively embedded talking points championed by the anti-vaccine movement into national policy.
Kennedy -- who spent decades spreading vaccine misinformation before becoming President Donald Trump's top health official -- abruptly fired all 17 ACIP members earlier this month, accusing them without evidence of conflicts of interest.
Across three votes, his new panelists recommended that thimerosal be removed from influenza vaccines for children, pregnant women and finally all adults.
Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth University and the lone voice of dissent, said: "The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent risk as far as we know from thimerosal," adding that he was worried about the decision's global impact.
Although 96 percent of US flu vaccines in the 2024-2025 season did not contain thimerosal, the preservative remains important in lower income countries because they are more likely to use lower cost multidose vials that must be punctured repeatedly, raising the risk of contamination.
Thimerosal contains an artificial form of mercury called ethylmercury that is cleared from the body far more quickly than the form of the chemical found in nature. US manufacturers voluntarily removed it from most pediatric vaccines in 2001.

'Platform for anti-vaccine talking points'

"The fact that it's being brought up again -- something that's already been adjudicated -- shows how the ACIP is becoming a platform for anti-vaccine talking points to come back to life long after most of us thought they'd been put to rest," Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, told AFP.
Ahead of the vote, Lyn Redwood, a nurse and former leader of the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, which Kennedy once chaired, was invited to present arguments against thimerosal. 
A previous version of her slideshow, which was posted online before the meeting, was removed without explanation after it was found to contain a fabricated citation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had prepared a rebuttal to Redwood's presentation, but it was removed from the meeting website. 
Robert Malone, a new panel member known for spreading misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic, including promoting the antiparastic drug ivermectin to treat the virus, said the CDC document had not been approved by the Office of the Secretary.
"We now have a CDC ACIP that is voting based on vibes from an embarrassingly bad presentation from an external speaker," Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician and editor-in-chief of MedPage Today, told AFP. 
"Taking thimerosal out of the few vaccines it's in won't change anything other than give credence to discredited notion. That will undermine confidence in vaccines, not improve it."
ia/ksb/dw

health

Top US court allows states to defund largest abortion provider

  • It clears the way for South Carolina and other states "to stop funding big abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood in their Medicaid programs," it said on X. Paige Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, called the ruling a "grave injustice" and said it "promises to send South Carolina deeper into a health care crisis."
  • The US Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for states to potentially cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, one of the country's largest abortion providers.
  • It clears the way for South Carolina and other states "to stop funding big abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood in their Medicaid programs," it said on X. Paige Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, called the ruling a "grave injustice" and said it "promises to send South Carolina deeper into a health care crisis."
The US Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for states to potentially cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, one of the country's largest abortion providers.
Planned Parenthood is already barred from receiving federal money for abortion care but the 6-3 ruling would also allow states to cut off reimbursements for other medical services it provides to low-income Americans under the Medicaid program.
The three liberal justices on the top court dissented.
The case stems from an executive order issued by South Carolina's Republican governor Henry McMaster in 2018 cutting off Medicaid funding to the two Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.
The Medicaid reimbursements were not abortion-related, but McMaster said providing any funding to Planned Parenthood amounts to a taxpayer "subsidy of abortion," which is banned in South Carolina for women who are more than six weeks pregnant.
Planned Parenthood, which provides a wide range of reproductive health services, and a South Carolina woman suffering from diabetes, filed suit against the state arguing that Medicaid patients have the right to receive care from any qualified provider.
An appeals court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot be excluded from the state's Medicaid program and South Carolina appealed to the Supreme Court, where conservatives wield a 6-3 majority.
The court ruled that a Medicaid patient cannot sue the state to receive medical care from a provider of their choosing.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a dissent joined by the two other liberal justices, disagreed.
"Congress enacted the Medicaid Act's free-choice-of-provider provision to ensure that Medicaid recipients have the right to choose their own doctors," Jackson said. "Today's decision is likely to result in tangible harm to real people."
The Supreme Court ruling was welcomed by the anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, which called it a "major win for babies and their mothers."
It clears the way for South Carolina and other states "to stop funding big abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood in their Medicaid programs," it said on X.
Paige Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, called the ruling a "grave injustice" and said it "promises to send South Carolina deeper into a health care crisis."
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 case that established federal protections for abortion access, in June 2022. 
Since then, more than 20 of the 50 US states have imposed strict limits on abortion, or even outright bans.
cl/bjt

pollution

Tunisia U-turn on phosphate plant sparks anger in blighted city

BY YOUCEF BOUNAB

  • Cherifa said she had survived breast and uterus cancers, while her 76-year-old sister, Naftia, complained of heart complications.
  • The bedroom of 74-year-old Cherifa Attia smells like burnt rubber.
  • Cherifa said she had survived breast and uterus cancers, while her 76-year-old sister, Naftia, complained of heart complications.
The bedroom of 74-year-old Cherifa Attia smells like burnt rubber. The vast phosphate processing plant beside her home has been belching out toxic fumes into the atmosphere, blighting this Tunisian city.
"This is killing us," said Cherifa as the foul air permeated her home. "That's all we breathe. Day and night." 
Residents of Gabes, a city of around 400,000 people, have been campaigning for decades against the pollution from the plant, finally winning a promise from the government in 2017 to begin its gradual closure.
But with Tunisia now mired in public debt, the current government has gone back on that promise and is planning a fivefold increase in fertiliser output at Gabes in a bid to boost hard currency earnings.
The North African country used to be the world's fifth largest producer but has fallen back to 10th over the past decade and a half.
President Kais Saied has vowed to revitalise the sector and reverse long years of underinvestment in the Gabes plant.
The U-turn has angered environmental campaigners who had pressed successive governments to honour the 2017 pledge.
"This plant harms the air, the sea and all forms of life," said Khayreddine Debaya coordinator of local campaign group Stop Pollution.
"We waited on successive governments to act on the 2017 decision, but the current one has visibly abandoned the idea," Debaya added.
Cherifa said she had survived breast and uterus cancers, while her 76-year-old sister, Naftia, complained of heart complications.
Both women blame toxic waste from the plant for their health conditions.

Radioactive

The processing of phosphate rock into fertiliser emits toxic gases such as sulphur dioxide and ammonia.
The main solid waste product is phosphogypsum, which the plant discharges into the Mediterranean. It contains radioactive radium that decays into radon gas, which is also radioactive and can cause cancer.
But the government has announced that it will no longer consider phosphogypsum as hazardous waste.
Phosphate processing emits other toxic gases such as sulphur dioxide and ammonia, while heavy metals like lead and arsenic can contaminate the soil and groundwater.
The US National Institute of Health says exposure to the waste from phosphate processing can cause "hepatic failure, autoimmune diseases, pulmonary disorders and other health problems".
And a study by Geosciences Environnement Toulouse in December found that the Gabes plant was releasing "high levels of toxic contaminants".
It cited "devastating consequences" for residents' health including "heart malformations", "congenital" diseases and "lung, nose, breast, liver, kidney, stomach, blood" issues.
The absence of official figures makes it hard to pin down the health consequences for the people of Gabes.
Many medical professionals in the city are reluctant to speak out for fear of repercussions from the authorities.
One oncologist in Gabes interviewed by AFP refused to comment on cases specific to the city.
The plant employs 4,000 people and provides work to many more indirectly, an important consideration in a city where one in four people of working age was jobless in 2019, the last year for which official figures are available.
"If the authorities don't want to remove it, they should at least stop dumping those materials into the air and sea," said Gabes resident Mouna Bouali, 45.
"Since they make so much money out of phosphate, they should be able to afford a clean environment."

'Cheering our own demise'

Bouali's widowed mother, Dhahbia, who said she suffered from an autoimmune disorder, said she hoped authorities would relocate them.
"Let them take all of Gabes," Dhahbia said. "We don't want this city anymore. The state gets the money and we get diseases."
The 67-year-old said she considered selling the family home to move elsewhere, but that proved impossible: "Who would buy a house here?"
"Everything is dying in Gabes," said her daughter.
Hundreds have protested outside the provincial governor's office in recent weeks, brandishing placards  reading: "I want to live".
Authorities did not respond to repeated requests from AFP for comment.
The two families interviewed by AFP both said they voted for Saied in the 2019 election which brought him to power, hoping he might change things for the better in Tunisia's neglected south.
Yet it was at his behest that the North African country is now counting on phosphates to boost its struggling economy. They are a "pillar of the national economy", Saied said.
The government wants to increase the plant's output from less than three million tonnes a year now to 14 million tonnes a year by 2030 to take advantage of rising world fertiliser prices.
For Cherifa and Naftia, it is the latest false dawn touted by the country's leaders. 
They still remember the celebrations in Gabes when then president Habib Bourguiba first opened the phosphates plant in 1972.
"We went out in the street singing and clapping," said Naftia. "We didn't know we were cheering our own demise."
bou/kir/tc

misinformation

RFK Jr vaccine panel targets childhood vaccinations in first meeting

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • Lyn Redwood, a nurse and former leader of Children's Health Defense -- the anti-vaccine group once chaired by Kennedy -- is scheduled to present Thursday on thimerosal.
  • A medical panel appointed by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held its first meeting Wednesday, pledging to revisit the childhood vaccine schedule and promoting themes long embraced by anti-vaccine activists.
  • Lyn Redwood, a nurse and former leader of Children's Health Defense -- the anti-vaccine group once chaired by Kennedy -- is scheduled to present Thursday on thimerosal.
A medical panel appointed by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held its first meeting Wednesday, pledging to revisit the childhood vaccine schedule and promoting themes long embraced by anti-vaccine activists.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent group that reviews scientific evidence to determine who should receive vaccines and when, rarely draws headlines.
But that changed after Kennedy -- who spent decades spreading vaccine misinformation before becoming President Donald Trump's top health official -- abruptly fired all 17 sitting members earlier this month, accusing them of industry conflicts of interest.
He replaced them with eight new appointees, including scientist Robert Malone, known for promoting false claims during the Covid-19 pandemic. 
The panel's new chair, Martin Kulldorff, co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for ending lockdowns in October 2020, even though it was known Covid vaccines were nearing approval.
Kulldorff opened the meeting by announcing a new working group to re-examine the childhood vaccine schedule. He raised questions about the potential cumulative effects of vaccine interactions and the wisdom of administering the Hepatitis B shot "on the day of birth."
Experts met the announcement with skepticism.
"The rationale for Hepatitis B vaccination prior to hospital discharge (not 'day of birth') for neonates is well documented and established -- but it's another pet cause of the anti-vaccine movement," Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University, told AFP. 
The panel's first major test comes Thursday, when it votes on whether to recommend a newly approved antibody shot against RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, for infants whose mothers did not receive an RSV vaccine during pregnancy.
- Fabricated citation - 
The meeting agenda also signaled plans to revisit long-settled debates around thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, and to highlight rare side effects linked to measles shots -- with no planned discussion of the overwhelming public health benefits of immunization.
Lyn Redwood, a nurse and former leader of Children's Health Defense -- the anti-vaccine group once chaired by Kennedy -- is scheduled to present Thursday on thimerosal.
Scientists reviewing her slides, posted ahead of the meeting, discovered she cited a 2008 paper by RF Berman titled "Low-level neonatal thimerosal exposure: Long-term consequences in the brain."
No such study exists. While Berman did publish a paper that year, it appeared in a different journal and found no link between thimerosal and autism.
The presentation was quietly revised without explanation. The incident echoed possible AI chatbot hallucinations blamed for similar sourcing errors in Kennedy's recent flagship Make America Healthy Again report.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is overseeing the meeting, had been set to deliver a presentation defending thimerosal, but that document was deleted from the website at the last minute.
The panel will vote on thimerosal-containing flu vaccines on Thursday afternoon.

Sweeping implications

During a discussion on Covid-19 vaccines, Malone suggested that mRNA shots may have triggered novel, poorly understood effects on the immune system.
CDC scientist Sarah Meyer pushed back, saying the nation's vaccine safety systems would have flagged such issues if they had occurred.
The panel will also revive a debate on the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) shot, which is offered as an alternative to separate MMR and varicella injections.
While the combined version spares children an extra jab, it slightly increases the risk of febrile seizures -- a rare and typically harmless side effect.
Current guidelines already recommend splitting the doses for a child's first shot at 12–47 months, leaving experts puzzled as to why the issue is being re-litigated.
As panelists scrutinize rare side effects, there is no plan to discuss the measles vaccine's enormous public health benefits -- including preventing millions of hospitalizations.
The United States, which declared measles eliminated in 2000, is experiencing its worst outbreak in decades -- with over 1,200 cases and three confirmed deaths this year. 
ACIP's recommendations could carry sweeping implications, shaping school entry requirements and insurance coverage across the country.
ia/des

sailing

'You try not to bump into things:' blind sailing in Rio

BY MAURO PIMENTEL, LUCíA LACURCIA

  • The rookie mariners were first schooled on vessels in Rio's main marina before testing their chops in Guanabara, the big natural harbor at the heart of Rio. 
  • Fernando Araujo could feel the sea breeze on his face at the helm of a 40-foot yacht zipping across Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay in bright sunshine.
  • The rookie mariners were first schooled on vessels in Rio's main marina before testing their chops in Guanabara, the big natural harbor at the heart of Rio. 
Fernando Araujo could feel the sea breeze on his face at the helm of a 40-foot yacht zipping across Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay in bright sunshine.
He navigated confidently, despite not being able to see his stunning surroundings, including Rio's iconic Sugarloaf mountain.
"You are being guided by a blind man!" Araujo, who lost his sight shortly after birth due to excess oxygen in his incubator, told his fellow sailors jokingly.
Araujo was one of five Brazilians with visual or hearing disabilities who were shown the ropes on a yacht recently during a three-day sailing course run by the Nas Mares environmental organization.
The rookie mariners were first schooled on vessels in Rio's main marina before testing their chops in Guanabara, the big natural harbor at the heart of Rio. 
As a para skateboarder, Araujo, 31, knows a thing or two about trying to stay upright.
But sailing is "very different," he said, adding: "I never imagined myself being skipper of a boat."
A year before it hosted the Olympic Games and Paralympics in 2016, Brazil passed an Inclusion of People with Disabilities Act aimed at eliminating hurdles to accessing transport, housing, services, education and sport.
Latin America's biggest country also tackled the issue of funding by allocating 0.87 percent of all lottery funds to paralympic sport. 
Eduardo Soares, a 44-year-old physical education teacher from Sao Paulo who took part in the free sailing course, said the improvements had been life-changing.
"Over the past 10 years, things have become much easier," Soares, who was born with a visual disability, said.

Steering by sound, smell, touch  

Some 6.5 million of Brazil's 210 million citizens are visually impaired and 2.3 million have hearing disabilities, according to the IBGE statistics institute. 
While many wealthy countries, including Australia, Britain, France and the United States, have sailing associations for the blind or partially sighted, few in Latin America get the chance to skipper a boat.
Araujo, a lover of extreme sports, said sailing was a way of combatting the isolation of people with disabilities, many of whom "don't like to try new things."
His heightened sense of hearing, smell and touch made him and his crew particularly receptive to non-visual stimuli on the boat, including the direction of the wind and the vessel's vibrations.
"My sensory faculties helped me to keep the boat on course," he said with pride. 
Juliana Poncioni Mota, director of Nas Mares, said the idea of offering the classes came when she was at sea with a blind, 13-year-old boy.
She caught herself trying to describe the beauty of their surroundings for him in visual terms.
"It led me to rethink how to... translate what I see for someone who doesn’t have that perception (sight)," she said.
Because her monohull is not adapted for people with disabilities she and her fellow sailing instructors describe in detail to each participant the location and characteristics of the helm, the mast, the boom and sails.
A sign language interpreter conveys the instructions to a trainee with a hearing disability.
Then touch is the key to getting the hang of things.
The apprentices explore all the boat's instruments by hand, as well as a scale model of the vessel and of a humpback whale, lest they come across one of the enormous cetaceans which migrate to Rio's coast between June and August to breed.
For Rodrigo Machado, a 45-year-old former Paralympic swimmer who was making his sailing debut, taking the helm involves "working it out in your mind, without seeing" which, he said, is what the visually impaired do every day. 
"On the street, you try not to bump into things, it's normal," he said.
On this outing, much to their disappointment, the seamen heard no whale song coming across the underwater microphone.
But they all vowed to soon get their feet wet again.
ll/cb/sms

research

Child vaccine coverage faltering, threatening millions: study

BY DANIEL LAWLER

  • "But persistent global inequalities, challenges from the Covid pandemic, and the growth of vaccine misinformation and hesitancy have all contributed to faltering immunisation progress," he said in a statement. 
  • Efforts to vaccinate children against deadly diseases are faltering across the world due to economic inequality, Covid-era disruptions and misinformation, putting millions of lives at risk, research warned Wednesday.
  • "But persistent global inequalities, challenges from the Covid pandemic, and the growth of vaccine misinformation and hesitancy have all contributed to faltering immunisation progress," he said in a statement. 
Efforts to vaccinate children against deadly diseases are faltering across the world due to economic inequality, Covid-era disruptions and misinformation, putting millions of lives at risk, research warned Wednesday.
These trends all increase the threat of future outbreaks of preventable diseases, the researchers said, while sweeping foreign aid cuts threaten previous progress in vaccinating the world's children.
A new study published in The Lancet journal looked at childhood vaccination rates across 204 countries and territories.
It was not all bad news. 
An immunisation programme by the World Health Organization was estimated to have saved an estimated 154 million lives over the last 50 years.
And vaccination coverage against diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, polio and tuberculosis doubled between 1980 and 2023, the international team of researchers found.
However the gains slowed in the 2010s, when measles vaccinations decreased in around half of the countries, with the largest drop in Latin America. 
Meanwhile in more than half of all high-income countries there were declines in coverage for at least one vaccine dose.
Then the Covid-19 pandemic struck. 
Routine vaccination services were hugely disrupted during lockdowns and other measures, resulting in nearly 13 million extra children who never received any vaccine dose between 2020 to 2023, the study said.
This disparity endured, particularly in poorer countries. In 2023, more than half of the world's 15.7 million completely unvaccinated children lived in just eight countries, the majority in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the study.
In the European Union, 10 times more measles cases were recorded last year compared to 2023.
In the United States, a measles outbreak surged past 1,000 cases across 30 states last month, which is already more than were recorded in all of 2024.
Cases of polio, long eradicated in many areas thanks to vaccination, have been rising in Pakistan and Afghanistan, while Papua New Guinea is currently enduring a polio outbreak.

'Tragedy'

"Routine childhood vaccinations are among the most powerful and cost-effective public health interventions available," said senior study author Jonathan Mosser of the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
"But persistent global inequalities, challenges from the Covid pandemic, and the growth of vaccine misinformation and hesitancy have all contributed to faltering immunisation progress," he said in a statement. 
In addition, there are "rising numbers of displaced people and growing disparities due to armed conflict, political volatility, economic uncertainty, climate crises," added lead study author Emily Haeuser, also from the IHME.
The researchers warned the setbacks could threaten the WHO's goal of having 90 percent of the world's children and adolescents receive essential vaccines by 2030.
The WHO also aims to halve the number of children who have received no vaccine doses by 2030 compared to 2019 levels.
Just 18 countries have achieved this so far, according to the study, which was funded by the Gates Foundation and the Gavi vaccine alliance.
The global health community has also been reeling since President Donald Trump's administration drastically slashed US international aid earlier this year.
"For the first time in decades, the number of kids dying around the world will likely go up this year instead of down because of massive cuts to foreign aid," Bill Gates said in a separate statement on Tuesday.
"That is a tragedy," the Microsoft co-founder said, committing $1.6 billion to Gavi, which is holding a fund-raising summit in Brussels on Wednesday.
dl/yad

health

Toxic threat from 'forever chemicals' sparks resistance in Georgia towns

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • Sasha, who moved to the property after marrying Jamie in 2020, soon developed two autoimmune conditions, as well as high blood pressure and chronic fatigue.
  • Sasha and Jamie Cordle thought their small farm in rural Georgia would be a ladder out of working-class struggle, and a gift for their children and grandchildren.
  • Sasha, who moved to the property after marrying Jamie in 2020, soon developed two autoimmune conditions, as well as high blood pressure and chronic fatigue.
Sasha and Jamie Cordle thought their small farm in rural Georgia would be a ladder out of working-class struggle, and a gift for their children and grandchildren.
Instead, it may be poisoning them.
Tests show their spring water is laced with toxic "forever chemicals" at levels tens of thousands of times above federal safety guidelines, likely from nearby carpet factories.
"It scares us," said Sasha, a 38-year-old dispatcher whose husband drives long hauls across the country. She's worried about their five children, two-year-old granddaughter, and a grandson due in October.
PFAS -- or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances -- are a group of more than 10,000 human-made chemicals that repel heat, water, oil, and stains.
Developed in the 1940s, they're still used in nonstick pans, firefighting foams and stain-proof carpets, yet are now linked to hormonal disruption, immune suppression and cancers.
Their ultra-tough carbon-fluorine bonds take millennia to break down in the environment, linger in bodies for years, and are now found in the blood of nearly every living creature on Earth.
– 'Carpet capital' –
In Dalton, Georgia, which calls itself the "Carpet Capital of the World," mills run by giants Mohawk Industries and Shaw Industries are widely blamed for making the region one of America's most PFAS-laden.
They're accused of spewing the chemicals into the air, flushing them into sewers unequipped to remove them, and indirectly contaminating farmland through sludge byproducts later spread as fertilizer.
The Cordles have joined other landowners in suing the carpet makers, seeking damages to "remediate" their properties -- a process they estimate could cost about $1 million per acre -- plus punitive damages.
Mohawk, Shaw, and chemical giant 3M declined to comment on the complaint. Chemical maker Chemours, another chemical maker and defendant, says it has no factories in Georgia and denies culpability.
In a complex web of lawsuits, Dalton Utilities, which manages the local water system, has also sued the carpet makers, while Mohawk has sued 3M over the same issue.
The Biden administration last year enacted the first enforceable national drinking water standards for six PFAS chemicals.
But under President Donald Trump, the federal government has since rolled back limits on four of the chemicals and delayed the compliance deadline for the remaining two.

Test cases

Meanwhile, the Cordles have seen alarming signs, in both humans and animals.
Sasha, who moved to the property after marrying Jamie in 2020, soon developed two autoimmune conditions, as well as high blood pressure and chronic fatigue.
"Sometimes getting out of bed, I feel like I'm 80," she said.
Her grown children also report various ailments -- and some goat kids didn't survive their birth defects.
Attorney Ben Finley is leading a wave of damages claims, recruiting new clients at buoyant town halls.
So far, his firm has filed suits for 18 lead plaintiffs.
"We're drawing a direct line between contamination, lost property value and cleanup cost," Finley said.
– Entering the food web –
While the lawyers work the crowds, water expert Bob Bowcock takes water, soil and dust samples to help build the scientific case behind the legal one.
"We've got springs emitting into ponds that are discharging to creeks at over 180,000 parts per trillion," he said. The national guideline for drinking water is just four parts per trillion, and local creeks are often seen frothing with pollution.
PFAS in the soil move up the protein chain and into the food web -- contaminating eggs, milk, beef, and leafy greens that find themselves on store shelves nationwide.
The carpet makers are the area's main economic lifeline, yet many are now turning against them.
Mary Janet Clark, 62, toiled for the carpet makers, had her ovaries removed after cancer, and now has a tumor in her brain.
"We helped them build their business and make all that money," said her son, David Wray, 40. "It's just cruel."
– Lost dreams –
Others share similar grief.
Human-resources manager Teresa Ensley, 57, lost her brother, father and husband to cancer in just a few years.
Studies have linked PFAS to elevated colon cancer rates, the disease that killed her brother and husband. She and her 81-year-old mother both suffer severe thyroid problems and have had hysterectomies.
Even for those not yet sick, the toll is palpable.
Greg and Sharon Eads hoped to retire on farmland they bought in 2019, but it has since tested hot for PFAS, unraveling their dream.
They own $50,000 worth of cattle now off-limits for milk or meat.
It's become "basically a petting zoo," said Greg. "I can't do anything with them, not in good conscience."
During a recent visit, the couple led AFP through bucolic pastures where the herd huddled around a healthy newborn calf -- a welcome moment of hope after several others were lost to deformities.
ia/des/jxb