health

US judge orders Purdue Pharma to pay billions ahead of bankruptcy

  • The criminal sentencing caps off years of legal battles and paves the way for Purdue and its former owners, the Sackler family, to pay more than $8 billion as part of a settlement.
  • A US federal judge on Tuesday sentenced OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma to pay billions of dollars over its role in the opioid crisis, ahead of upcoming bankruptcy proceedings and its dissolution.
  • The criminal sentencing caps off years of legal battles and paves the way for Purdue and its former owners, the Sackler family, to pay more than $8 billion as part of a settlement.
A US federal judge on Tuesday sentenced OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma to pay billions of dollars over its role in the opioid crisis, ahead of upcoming bankruptcy proceedings and its dissolution.
The criminal sentencing caps off years of legal battles and paves the way for Purdue and its former owners, the Sackler family, to pay more than $8 billion as part of a settlement.
Between 1999 and 2023, around 806,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Purdue and other opioid makers and distributors are accused of encouraging free-wheeling prescription of painkillers like OxyContin starting in the 1990s, while hiding how addictive the drugs are.
Last year, several US states reached a settlement with Purdue and the Sackler family, with a bankruptcy plan that will see funds routed to affected communities and individuals.
The total amount to be paid in fines, forfeitures and penalties surpasses $8 billion.
The company is set to be dissolved on May 1, with the remnants becoming Knoa Pharma, a public benefit company that will provide opioid use disorder treatments and overdose reversal medicines.
For more than six hours on Tuesday, US Judge Madeline Cox Arleo listened to dozens of victims and their families testify about the impact Purdue Pharma and the opioid epidemic had on them.
She then ordered Steve Miller, Purdue Pharma's board chair, to apologize to them.
During the proceedings to resolve a Department of Justice probe and clear the way for the settlement, Arleo read the names of more than 200 victims who had submitted written statements before the hearing.
"These people are not statistics in an epidemiological study," she said, adding that the testimonies were "heartbreaking."
The judge also apologized on behalf of the US government, saying it had "failed" to protect the public from Purdue Pharma, whose practices were "driven by greed" and had a "corporate strategy much like a criminal enterprise."
While many testifying on Tuesday urged the settlement agreement to be rejected -- in part because it protects the Sackler family from criminal prosecution -- Arleo called it the "best route I see among the options before me."
She urged the lawyers handling the bankruptcy proceedings to honor their promises of compensation.
For many people, opioid addiction begins with prescribed pain pills, such as OxyContin, before they increase their consumption and eventually turn to illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl, an extremely powerful synthetic opioid.
pel/llb/jgc/aks/hol

film

'Jurassic Park' star Sam Neill says cancer-free after gene therapy

  • Neill, 78, said in a weekend interview he had lived with the blood cancer for about five years but his chemotherapy treatment eventually stopped working.
  • Actor Sam Neill says he is cancer-free after five years of living with lymphoma, thanks to a genetic therapy that modified his immune system.
  • Neill, 78, said in a weekend interview he had lived with the blood cancer for about five years but his chemotherapy treatment eventually stopped working.
Actor Sam Neill says he is cancer-free after five years of living with lymphoma, thanks to a genetic therapy that modified his immune system.
The New Zealander, who starred as Dr Alan Grant in the 1993 blockbuster "Jurassic Park", revealed in a 2023 memoir he was "possibly dying" with stage-three non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Neill, 78, said in a weekend interview he had lived with the blood cancer for about five years but his chemotherapy treatment eventually stopped working.
"I was at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn't ideal, obviously," he told Australia's Channel Seven News.
The actor was treated with CAR T-cell therapy, which uses a disabled virus to genetically reprogram human infection-fighting T-cells, enabling them to target specific cancers.
"I've just had a scan just now, and there is no cancer in my body -- that's an extraordinary thing," Neil said.
He is calling on Australian federal and state governments to fund CAR T-cell therapy for blood cancer patients across the country.
Neill's acting career began in the 1970s and has spanned dozens of roles in TV and film, including "Peaky Blinders", "The Hunt for Red October", and "The Piano". 
djw/oho/mtp

health

US opioid crisis victims testify at emotional Purdue Pharma hearing

BY RAPHAëLLE PELTIER

  • Purdue has admitted to promoting OxyContin by paying doctors to prescribe it, bringing in tens of billions of dollars for the laboratory and the Sackler family.
  • Dozens of victims of the US opioid crisis expressed their grief and anger as they testified on Tuesday against Purdue Pharma, the maker of the pain pill OxyContin which was ordered to pay billions by a judge ahead of its dissolution.
  • Purdue has admitted to promoting OxyContin by paying doctors to prescribe it, bringing in tens of billions of dollars for the laboratory and the Sackler family.
Dozens of victims of the US opioid crisis expressed their grief and anger as they testified on Tuesday against Purdue Pharma, the maker of the pain pill OxyContin which was ordered to pay billions by a judge ahead of its dissolution.
Between 1999 and 2023, around 806,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the United States, according to government data.
Purdue and other opioid makers and distributors are accused of aggressively marketing prescription painkillers like OxyContin starting in the 1990s, while hiding how addictive the drugs are.
Among the victims of the opioid epidemic was the mother of a teenage boy. "Because my mom died, I had depression and thoughts of killing myself," the son told the court in an emotional testimony via video call, sitting next to his father.
"I hope you feel guilty," he told the Sackler family, which owned Purdue for decades.
The family and company are due to pay more than $8 billion in fines, forfeitures and penalties.
The hearing to conclude a Department of Justice probe was originally scheduled to take place remotely, but US Judge Madeline Cox Arleo moved it to an in-person hearing after seeing protesters outside her courthouse in Newark, New Jersey.
"That's the least I could do," the judge told a victim who thanked her.
On Tuesday, some 40 victims and their families attended the hearing, with more joining online. Their testimonies, which Arleo described as "heartbreaking," ran for more than six hours.

'Hole in our family'

Alexis Pleus's son was prescribed OxyContin after suffering a high school football injury.
He died in 2014 from a heroin overdose, leaving a "gaping hole in our family for eternity," said Pleus.
Those who survived addiction spoke of their "guilt" of being alive, while families of those who died blamed themselves for not having done enough.
Many painted a picture of "destroyed" lives: divorces, losing custody of their children, prison, psychiatric hospitals, and astronomical medical bills in the hope of regaining "a normal, meaningful life."
The wives of two men who died recalled losing their homes. One of them said she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
In many cases, families that were torn apart said the nightmare "started in the doctor's offices."
Purdue has admitted to promoting OxyContin by paying doctors to prescribe it, bringing in tens of billions of dollars for the laboratory and the Sackler family.
For many, opioid addiction begins with prescribed painkillers before they increase their consumption and eventually turn to illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl, an extremely powerful synthetic opioid.
Many in the courtroom wept during the hearing, and the judge was visibly emotional when listening to Julie Werner Strickler, whose son was prescribed his first pills in the army.
"These people are not statistics in an epidemiological study," the judge said when handing down the sentence.

'Criminal enterprise'

After Arleo read the names of more than 200 victims who had submitted written statements, she ordered Steve Miller, Purdue Pharma's board chair, to apologize to them.
Arleo also apologized on behalf of the US government, saying it had "failed" to protect the public from Purdue, which she likened to a "criminal enterprise."
The sentence against Purdue paves the way for bankruptcy proceedings and its dissolution on May 1, as agreed in a settlement with several US states last year.
What remains of Purdue will be replaced by Knoa Pharma, a public benefit company that will provide opioid-use disorder treatments and overdose reversal medicines.
Several victims on Tuesday called for the rejection of the settlement, which would protect the Sackler family from criminal prosecution.
Expressing her frustration with the deal, Arleo said that it was still the "best route."
"It's no shock. This is the second time I've been in a courtroom where the judge was apologetic and basically said there should have been jail sentences included. But there's always a 'but,'" said Edward Bisch, who lost his teenage son in the epidemic.
For many victims and their families, the fight continues daily in community initiatives to prevent and treat opioid addiction, which are set to receive part of the sums owed by Purdue.
pel/ms/aks/hol

Everest

Australian climber on record sea-to-summit Everest bid

BY PAAVAN MATHEMA

  • Macartney-Snape spent three months walking from sea level to the Everest summit, and it was his documentary that sparked the idea for Foran.
  • Among the hundreds of climbers hoping to scale Everest this season, 27-year-old Australian Oliver Foran began his journey far away, cycling and then walking all the way from the sea.
  • Macartney-Snape spent three months walking from sea level to the Everest summit, and it was his documentary that sparked the idea for Foran.
Among the hundreds of climbers hoping to scale Everest this season, 27-year-old Australian Oliver Foran began his journey far away, cycling and then walking all the way from the sea.
Foran is seeking to break the 67-day "sea-to-summit" record, first pedalling 1,150 kilometres (715 miles) from the warm waves of the Bay of Bengal in India to Nepal and now trekking to the icy 8,849-metre (29,032-foot) peak.
"I always wanted to climb Mount Everest, but I wanted to do it in a special way," Foran told AFP by telephone on a break from his long hike upwards to Everest Base Camp, and then to the highest place on Earth.
It is also a deeply personal journey, with Foran raising funds for youth mental health.
The former real estate agent climbed his first major mountain, Nepal's 6,189-metre (20,305-foot) Island Peak, in 2024.
He then summited 6,812-metre (22,349-foot) Ama Dablam last year.
He hopes Everest will be his first 8,000-metre mountain.
He has been training -- cycling, exercising and working on his breathing -- for the past six months to build endurance for the altitude.

'Unique'

The sea-to-summit is a rare feat, first completed by another Australian, Tim Macartney-Snape, in 1990. Macartney-Snape spent three months walking from sea level to the Everest summit, and it was his documentary that sparked the idea for Foran.
The current record is held by South Korean climber Kim Chang-ho, who walked and then kayaked the Ganges river, cycled to Nepal and then trekked up to the base camp in 2013, five years before his death on another mountain.
Foran aims to slash a week off that record and reach the summit in 60 days.
"It is a challenging task and a unique one," said Gelje Sherpa, his lead guide and expedition organiser at AGA Adventures.
"There are so many facilities and options to summit Everest in a record time now, but he is using only his own human power. That is big." 
Foran cycled across India and Nepal in the first 16 days, navigating sweltering hot plains before steep, relentless hills. 
He said he is driven by "something bigger" than himself, the memory of his teenage grief when his mother died of brain cancer.
"I didn't know how to process it... Life on the outside looked pretty good, but inside I was just emptier than ever," he said.
The unresolved grief reached a breaking point seven years later.
Foran said he had "made up my mind that that was it" -- but a call to a friend proved life-saving.
"I made the decision then that... if I ever got the opportunity to stop somebody else from getting to that point or to give them another way, I would," he said.

'Inspiration'

That commitment underlines his Everest expedition.
Foran is partnering with Australian organisation Youturn with a target to raise $200,000 to build a youth mental health support centre back home.
Aaron Minton, a director at Youturn, said it would be a "youth-focused mental health and well-being hub".
Foran hopes his journey can offer both awareness and inspiration, sharing the good parts and the struggles of his journey through his social media.
"What's really motivating me is, hopefully, having an inspiration on some of these younger people -- that might be a little bit stuck with where they are right now in their lives," he said.
"Also, I'm doing it for my mum, because she can't, and I want to make her proud."
As he continues his ascent, an unexpected source of comfort that accompanies him is the Madonna song "Like a Prayer".
"My mum used to listen to it. And it now holds a special place in my heart," he said.
"So that's what I'm going to be whistling to myself when I'm walking up to the summit."
pm/pjm/pbt/fox

healthcare

Going online helps Pakistan's women doctors back to work

BY ZAIN ZAMAN JANJUA

  • In an impoverished neighbourhood of Karachi, Muhammad Adil was able to take his eight-year-old son to a nearby Sehat Kahani–run health unit because it saves him time and money.
  • With her four-year-old nestled nearby, doctor Saniya Jafri consults from home in Karachi with a patient on the other side of Pakistan via her laptop.
  • In an impoverished neighbourhood of Karachi, Muhammad Adil was able to take his eight-year-old son to a nearby Sehat Kahani–run health unit because it saves him time and money.
With her four-year-old nestled nearby, doctor Saniya Jafri consults from home in Karachi with a patient on the other side of Pakistan via her laptop.
She is one of thousands of Pakistani female doctors returning to practice through "telemedicine" after leaving the profession because of family obligations and workplace barriers to women in the conservative society.
Although women outnumber men in Pakistan's medical registrations, many stop practicing after marriage, exacerbating the fast-growing nation's shortage of doctors.
Jafri, a mother of three, gave up cardiology after marriage.
"I did not want to choose long working hours and be away from home for a long time," she told AFP. 
But an initiative by digital health firm Sehat Kahani helped her back into the workforce by providing a digital platform to connect home-based, mostly female doctors, with patients in underserved communities.
Private clients are also catered for.
The initiative has brought 7,500 doctors back into practice, its co-founder says, and aims to boost healthcare for disadvantaged areas in Pakistan that face a dearth of services -- especially female patients who often feel more comfortable speaking with women medical staff about health issues.
Gallup surveys and doctor associations suggest more than a third of Pakistan's female medical graduates never enter the profession -- or leave it after marriage -- due to lack of family support, poor childcare facilities, and harassment.
The situation is symptomatic of wider challenges for women in Pakistan who face significant economic and social disparities, with the World Economic Forum ranking the nation second-to-last for gender equality.
- 'Doctor Brides' –
Jafri now balances caring for her children and household chores with attending to patients online.
"I wanted to stay with my children," the 43-year-old said of the flexible arrangement.
An overwhelming majority of the tens of thousands of aspirants who compete for places in government-run medical universities are women -- a rare instance in Pakistan of female student admissions outnumbering men.
Yet working at hospitals and clinics is widely seen as incompatible with family life for women, especially those with young children.
"The lady doctor who advises mothers to exclusively breastfeed for six months does not have such a facility at her own workplace," said Zakiya Aurangzeb, President of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association.
She said long hours and the risk of sexual harassment and mob violence from the families of patients who suffered poor outcomes also put off women and their families.
Seeing those challenges as well as Pakistan's dismal healthcare access in poor communities, doctor Sara Saeed Khurram set up Sehat Kahani, a digital network that includes 80 clinics where patients visit for a remote consultation with a doctor, guided by an in-person nurse.
She hoped to realise the full benefits of the years of training and government subsidies for degrees that many families seek for their daughters due to the social status they confer in Pakistan society, where a "Dr" honorific is considered to improve marriage prospects for women.
"When that wedding card goes out that you're marrying a doctor... it just raises the social stature of the entire family," said Khurram.
"Once that purpose is done... then it becomes very difficult for you to challenge the societal norms that exist in that family to let her work."
Khurram understands the situation first-hand.
"I also became what we call the doctor bride or the 'doctor bahu'," she said, using the Urdu term for "daughter-in-law".
Though she remained in the workforce, Khurram watched her mostly-female medical school cohort drop out of work one by one, facing pressure from in-laws to focus on tending the home.
- Healthcare gap –
The lack of female doctors is deepening the strain on Pakistan’s healthcare, a mix of public and private systems with sharp disparities between cities and rural areas in the country of 250 million people and poor outcomes for urban working-class neighbourhoods.
Around 70,000 women -- almost a fifth of the 370,000 total registered doctors -- are listed in official registries but not practicing, according to medical associations.
Ushering female doctors back to the workforce online also provides better options for patients.
In an impoverished neighbourhood of Karachi, Muhammad Adil was able to take his eight-year-old son to a nearby Sehat Kahani–run health unit because it saves him time and money.
"When we come here, we are able to save our daily wage because it's close," he said, after a free consultation with Jafri on his son's chickenpox.
Digital healthcare improved flexibility and could help women back into the workforce, Jafri said, but cautioned that ultimately family backing was key. 
"If a woman doctor receives support from her husband, parents, and in-laws, she can excel," she said.
"Those who get it go on to succeed, but many who don't are forced to give up".
zz/ceg/fox

Global Edition

S. Korea probes syringe hoarding as war hits plastic makers

  • The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency told AFP on Tuesday that it "promptly began an investigation" into four medical device distributors suspected of violating the ban, following a complaint by the food and drug safety ministry.
  • South Korean police said on Tuesday they were investigating firms suspected of hoarding medical syringes, as the Middle East war hits supplies of an oil-derived component crucial for making many plastic goods.
  • The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency told AFP on Tuesday that it "promptly began an investigation" into four medical device distributors suspected of violating the ban, following a complaint by the food and drug safety ministry.
South Korean police said on Tuesday they were investigating firms suspected of hoarding medical syringes, as the Middle East war hits supplies of an oil-derived component crucial for making many plastic goods.
The US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz have rattled deliveries of naphtha, a liquid essential for making a key ingredient in many medical supplies.
The disruption has particularly affected petrochemical sectors in Asia and forced governments to take action, with South Korea imposing a ban this month on hoarding syringes and needles to guard against shortages.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency told AFP on Tuesday that it "promptly began an investigation" into four medical device distributors suspected of violating the ban, following a complaint by the food and drug safety ministry.
The agency vowed to strengthen inspections across the supply chain to crack down on illicit behaviour.
Under the ban, companies must not hold more than 150 percent of last year's average monthly sales volume in syringes and needles for five days or longer, or refuse sales without a valid reason.
But some firms appear to be exploiting the supply crunch by stockpiling syringes and selling them at higher prices, according to the ministry.
One distributor was found to have held excess inventory of about 130,000 units for more than five days, it said.
More than half of South Korea's naphtha imports last year came via the Strait of Hormuz, according to the presidential office.
President Lee Jae Myung pledged in a social media post on Saturday to take the "strongest possible" action against "antisocial behaviour that exploits community crises to worsen them and profit from them".
Lee's chief of staff announced this month that South Korea had secured an additional 2.1 million tonnes of naphtha from countries including Saudi Arabia and Oman via routes that do not pass through the strait.
sjh/mjw/jm

health

Horses unlikely saviours for those who serve in uniform

BY PIRATE IRWIN

  • Former Royal Air Force reservist John Lewis contemplated suicide, serving police officer Nick Morton had a mental health breakdown and ex- military intelligence operative Al Strudwick lost his self-confidence after having both his legs amputated because of sepsis.
  • Members of the armed forces and the police may put their lives on the line for their country but even they have their mental and physical limits and often it is horses, not humans, who can provide salvation.
  • Former Royal Air Force reservist John Lewis contemplated suicide, serving police officer Nick Morton had a mental health breakdown and ex- military intelligence operative Al Strudwick lost his self-confidence after having both his legs amputated because of sepsis.
Members of the armed forces and the police may put their lives on the line for their country but even they have their mental and physical limits and often it is horses, not humans, who can provide salvation.
Former Royal Air Force reservist John Lewis contemplated suicide, serving police officer Nick Morton had a mental health breakdown and ex- military intelligence operative Al Strudwick lost his self-confidence after having both his legs amputated because of sepsis.
All three shared a fear of horses, but it was to be the animals and not the therapists who would bring the trio back from the depths of despair after being put in touch with British charity Warrior Equine.
Such has been Warrior Equine's success that it has been selected as the charity for the prestigious Royal Windsor Horse Show, which takes place on May 14-17.
Morton had over 20 years of experience, but the accumulation of dealing with traumatic incidents, such as child murders, took its toll. 
"We are sometimes seen as that knight in shining armour, unflappable," he told AFP.
"But actually we're human beings. Same as our military colleagues are, we're all humans. 
"We weren't born police officers or soldiers," added Morton.

'Overwhelmingly controlling'

To keep costs at a minimum Warrior Equine, which was founded in 2019, has no permanent facilities or horses and uses both civilian equestrian centres and military horses for their three-day courses, of which between six and eight are held annually.
Warrior Equine was the brainchild of Ele Milwright, though she and equine instructor Jim Goddard had been working with veterans for several years before that.
As the wife of an RAF officer, Milwright had an inkling of how troubled some service personnel were after tours of duty.
"I did notice a lot of our friends and colleagues were coming back a little bit quirky," she said.
"You couldn't quite put your finger on it, but they came back and it was different.
"Nobody told you what to do about it. It was the elephant in the room. 
"So three things, understanding the value of horses, understanding how horses think, their psychology, and my commitment to help people with a military background or those who serve, all came together." 
The work involves the attendee leading the horse into a pen and using body language and energy to encourage the horse to move and interact.
As the attendees practise emotional self-regulation techniques, such as softening their body language, slowing their breathing and lowering their heart rate, they will aim to achieve a calm but focused state, which the horse will find safe to be around.
Lewis said the experience rescued him from the darkest of places.
The father of two had contemplated suicide after he suffered multiple fractures and spent months in hospital when a school bus squashed him between it and his vehicle.
"That vulnerability became exacerbated every time I was away from my family and my kids," he said.
"It became so overwhelmingly controlling. Even if I went into a supermarket to buy a loaf of bread and there wasn't any bread on the shelf, that was me failing to be able to protect them.
"Then I would get into conflict in the supermarket just because there wasn't bread on the shelf."

'Quite comical'

Lewis had tried several types of therapy and was so sceptical about Warrior Equine he turned back three times on his way to attend a course.
However, he eventually realised "I had to give this a go because ultimately, I was going to leave my kids with no dad."
It proved to be a cathartic moment.
"The point where the horse can detect that you're in control of those stress emotions going on inside you, they will, of their own free will, walk over to you and follow you around with no lead," said Lewis.
"They'll sit on your shoulder in this amazing way. And the way it's been described to us, and you can really see it, is that they just want to sit there and trust you."
Lewis says it has transformed his life and rid him of the excessive controlling behaviour.
"That dark tunnel doesn't even stare me in the face," he said.
"I know it's there. But I'm able to turn my back on it every single time."
Such has been the positive impact on Strudwick's self-confidence he climbed the Pen y Fan mountain in Wales -- part of the test for candidates for the British SAS special forces -- in a wheelchair.
"It made me realise how far I had come, from lying in a hospital bed for 50 nights, and being released with shot-away kidneys and a slowly recovering liver, to climbing a mountain," he said.
Despite the double amputation, Strudwick is blessed with self-deprecatory humour -- his forthcoming book is titled "Finding My Feet Again" -- as is his wife.
Shedding his prosthetic legs on a crowded beach in Cornwall, he went swimming with her.
"My little stumps kept sticking out of the water, which was quite comical," he said.
"My wife joked when we were about to get out of the water that I should crawl up the beach screaming 'shark!' and see people's reaction to it."
He resisted.
"It would have traumatised the youngsters!"
pi/gj

health

US Supreme Court hears Bayer bid to end Roundup weedkiller suits

  • Bayer is arguing that it should be shielded from state lawsuits since the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the sale of Roundup to consumers and farmers without any warnings.
  • The US Supreme Court heard a bid on Monday by German pharmaceutical and agrichemical giant Bayer to put an end to a wave of lawsuits over the weedkiller Roundup.
  • Bayer is arguing that it should be shielded from state lawsuits since the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the sale of Roundup to consumers and farmers without any warnings.
The US Supreme Court heard a bid on Monday by German pharmaceutical and agrichemical giant Bayer to put an end to a wave of lawsuits over the weedkiller Roundup.
Bayer has spent more than $10 billion settling litigation linked to Roundup since it acquired its producer, the US group Monsanto, in 2018.
The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) considers glyphosate, one of Roundup's ingredients, a probable human carcinogen, but Bayer says scientific studies and regulatory approvals show the widely used weedkiller is safe.
The top US court agreed to hear Bayer's appeal of a $1.25 million Missouri jury award to a man, John Durnell, who claimed Roundup was responsible for his cancer -- one of thousands of similar "failure-to-warn" lawsuits facing the company.
Bayer is arguing that it should be shielded from state lawsuits since the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the sale of Roundup to consumers and farmers without any warnings.
"Every agency around the globe -- New Zealand, Japan, Australia, the European Union, Canada -- they've looked at glyphosate," Paul Clement, an attorney for Monsanto, told the justices.
"It's probably the most like studied herbicide in the history of man and they've all reached the conclusion based on more data and the kind of expert analysis they can do that there isn't a risk here," Clement said. "You shouldn't let a single Missouri jury second-guess that judgment."
The Trump administration has backed Bayer's stance that a federal statute on pesticide labels preempts state laws requiring warnings on products that may be carcinogenic.
It's not feasible to have 50 different states coming out with their own determinations, Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris said.
"Iowa says maybe this causes cancer. California says absolutely causes cancer. Some other state says this doesn't cause cancer at all, so put that on your label too," Harris said. "It completely undermines the uniformity of the labeling."
Clement, the Monsanto lawyer, also stressed a need for maintaining uniformity.
Failure to do so would "open the door for crippling liability and undermine the interest of farmers who depend on federally registered pesticides for their livelihood," he said.

'Slip through the cracks'

Ashley Keller, a lawyer representing Durnell, who blames his non-Hodgkin lymphoma on exposure to Roundup, said the EPA's analysis of the weedkiller should not be the final word.
"I think there are a lot of conscientious people working at that agency," Keller told the court. "I think we should also all agree that things slip through the cracks with that agency."
Both conservative and liberal justices asked tough questions to lawyers for the two sides and it was not immediately clear how they would rule.
Monsanto, in a statement issued after Monday's oral arguments, said a favorable court ruling "would provide essential regulatory clarity for companies who seek to bring currently approved and new products to market." 
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling by June or early July.
cl/dw 

government

California billionaire tax appears headed to the ballot

  • The proposal gathered 1.5 million signatures -- nearly twice the number required to get on the ballot.
  • A proposed emergency tax on California billionaires to help fund the state's cash-strapped healthcare system has gathered enough signatures to trigger a referendum in November, the union behind the measure announced.
  • The proposal gathered 1.5 million signatures -- nearly twice the number required to get on the ballot.
A proposed emergency tax on California billionaires to help fund the state's cash-strapped healthcare system has gathered enough signatures to trigger a referendum in November, the union behind the measure announced.
The proposal gathered 1.5 million signatures -- nearly twice the number required to get on the ballot.
"Most Californians and most billionaires recognize how reasonable and necessary this proposal is -- both to keep emergency rooms open and to save California businesses from closing," Suzanne Jimenez of the Services Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), the measure's lead sponsor, said late Sunday.
Under the California Billionaire Tax Act, the state's wealthiest residents would be hit with a one-time tax of five percent of their net worth.
Some 90 percent of the tens of billions of dollars in expected revenue would be used to fund the state healthcare system for five years to offset the massive federal cuts imposed by President Donald Trump's budget law.
While the tax would be a one-off, the proposal has sparked controversy in the most populous state and across the nation.
Opponents fear it will scare off Silicon Valley and trigger an exodus of the ultra-wealthy, which would hurt tax revenue. California is home to more than 250 billionaires, more than any other US state.
The American left has been divided on the issue. Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is considered a potential 2028 presidential hopeful, opposes it, while progressive Senator Bernie Sanders is its chief supporter in Congress.
High-profile entrepreneurs are against it. According to US media, Google co-founder Larry Page, Oracle's Larry Ellison, and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel have all taken steps to reduce their footprint in California.
And the cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence communities are funding ad campaigns against it.
Jimenez, the union leader, described the measure's wealthy opponents as "a very small group of the most controversial billionaires on the planet."
"Healthcare workers and our allies won't quit until we fully protect our patients from the looming healthcare disaster that will be caused by $100 billion in cuts to California healthcare," she added.
In the face of growing wealth inequality worldwide, taxation of the ultra-rich has become a flashpoint of debate in recent years.
Brazil put the idea of a billionaire tax on the G20 agenda when it hosted the forum's annual leaders' summit in 2024.
Last year France's parliament rejected the proposed 'Zucman tax,' a measure that would have taxed the ultra-wealthy at an annual rate of two percent.
rfo-mlm/ksb

pandemic

Final talks begin on missing piece for pandemic treaty

BY AGNèS PEDRERO

  • In May 2025, WHO members adopted a landmark agreement on tackling future health crises, after more than three years of negotiations sparked by the shock of Covid-19.
  • An extra week of negotiations to complete an international agreement on handling future pandemics kicked off in Geneva on Monday, with sharp divisions holding up an accord.
  • In May 2025, WHO members adopted a landmark agreement on tackling future health crises, after more than three years of negotiations sparked by the shock of Covid-19.
An extra week of negotiations to complete an international agreement on handling future pandemics kicked off in Geneva on Monday, with sharp divisions holding up an accord.
Wealthy countries and developing nations are at loggerheads in the talks at the World Health Organization over how the pandemic treaty, adopted last year, will work in practice.
The agreement's Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system deals with sharing access to pathogens with pandemic potential, then sharing benefits derived from them such as vaccines, tests and treatments.
"The world cannot afford to lose this opportunity and risk being unprepared for the next pandemic," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the start of the talks.
"It will not be perfect; no agreement ever is. But it can be fair; it can be functional," he told negotiators.
In May 2025, WHO members adopted a landmark agreement on tackling future health crises, after more than three years of negotiations sparked by the shock of Covid-19.
The accord aims to prevent a repeat of the disjointed international response that surrounded the coronavirus crisis, by improving global coordination, surveillance and access to vaccines.
PABS, the heart of the treaty, was left out to get the bulk of the deal over the line.

'Blame is shared'

"Developing countries are voicing their mistrust, fearing they will share their viruses without any guarantees of equitable access to vaccines in the event of a crisis," WHO chief scientist Sylvie Briand told AFP.
Other countries are asking whether the pharmaceutical industry has the capacity and motivation to contribute to a pandemic agreement "without a guarantee of return on investment", she said.
Countries have until Friday to negotiate PABS so it can be approved during the World Health Assembly of WHO member states, which opens on May 18.
"Progress has been slow" and finding compromise "will be very hard", though the European Union was now "making an effort to demonstrate some flexibility", said Jean Karydakis, a diplomat at Brazil's mission in Geneva.
The pathogen sharing clauses are considered crucial by developing states, particularly in Africa, where many countries felt cut adrift in the scramble for Covid-19 vaccines.
While NGOs have criticised wealthy nations' obduracy, a western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were also "excessive demands from some developing countries", and thus "the blame is shared" for the deadlock.

Anonymous access?

The treaty already says participating pharmaceutical companies should make available 20 percent of their production of vaccines, tests and treatments to the WHO for redistribution -- with at least half as a donation and the rest "at affordable prices".
However, the terms and conditions remain to be defined, as does access to health data and tools outside pandemics.
NGOs and developing countries want to impose mandatory rules for laboratories to ensure poor countries receive vaccines.
"During the Ebola outbreaks, samples from African patients led to treatments developed without such obligations," said Olena Zarytska of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The result, she said, was limited supplies in Africa and stockpiles in the United States, which under President Donald Trump has withdrawn from the WHO.
Developing countries also want a user registration and tracking system for the PABS database, while developed countries, "basically Germany, Norway and Switzerland, advocate for maintaining anonymous access", said K. M. Gopakumar, senior researcher with the Third World Network.
Anonymous access would make it "impossible" to track who is using pathogen information and whether they are sharing the benefits, 100 non-governmental organisations, including Oxfam, said in a joint letter to the WHO.
"In practice, this means that genetic resources originating in developing countries can be accessed, commercialised, and exploited with complete impunity," the letter said.
apo/rjm/nl/tw

conflict

Zelensky accuses Russia of 'nuclear terrorism' on Chernobyl anniversary

  • In a social media post marking the Chernobyl anniversary, Zelensky said Russia's invasion was "again bringing the world to the brink of a man-made disaster".
  • President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of "nuclear terrorism" on Sunday, as Ukraine marked the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster amid deadly new drone attacks. 
  • In a social media post marking the Chernobyl anniversary, Zelensky said Russia's invasion was "again bringing the world to the brink of a man-made disaster".
President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of "nuclear terrorism" on Sunday, as Ukraine marked the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster amid deadly new drone attacks. 
Five people were killed across Ukraine after Moscow launched more than 100 drones overnight, the latest in an almost nightly barrage the country has faced since the beginning of the war in 2022.
In a social media post marking the Chernobyl anniversary, Zelensky said Russia's invasion was "again bringing the world to the brink of a man-made disaster".
He highlighted how Russian drones regularly pass over Chernobyl and that one had hit its protective shell last year.
"The world must not allow this nuclear terrorism to continue, and the best way is to force Russia to stop its reckless attacks," he added.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, and Moldovan President Maia Sandu joined the commemorative events. 
Commenting on damage to the shell, which the environment group Greenpeace says raises the risk of a radioactive leak, Grossi said that "repairs should start as soon as possible and that leaving the situation as it is now is problematic."
Any repairs to the massive metal outer structure, which may potentially take up to four years, are virtually impossible due to Russia's invasion, according to Greenpeace. 

Worst nuclear accident

Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom, the successor of the Soviet atomic energy ministry, which managed the facility, said: "To remember Chernobyl means to remember the people who bore the brunt of the disaster, and to take that experience into account in every decision we make today, to prevent a similar catastrophe." 
Rosatom took over the plant in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia, Europe's biggest civilian nuclear power complex, after it was occupied by Russia early in the invasion. The plant is now in shutdown mode. But Moscow and Kyiv repeatedly accuse each other of targeting the plant during the conflict, and Ukraine has called for sanctions against Rosatom. 
Including Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine has four nuclear power plants, which are vital for the country's power supplies amid constant blackouts caused by relentless Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.  
The 1986 explosion at Chernobyl was the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history and changed global perceptions of atomic energy.
Thousands are estimated to have died as a result of exposure to the radiation, though assessments of the precise human toll vary. Some 600,000 people involved in the clean-up operation -- known as "liquidators" -- were exposed to high levels of radiation.
Hundreds of thousands more were evacuated due to the radioactive contamination. The zone around the plant has become an exclusion zone, with abandoned towns, fields and forests. 
In total, the disaster made large swathes of land in northern Ukraine and southern Belarus effectively uninhabitable.

Overnight strikes

Moscow and Kyiv exchanged drone barrages ahead of the anniversary events, causing civilian deaths in both countries. 
Russian night-time strikes across Ukraine killed five people and wounded at least four others in the east, Ukrainian officials said.
In Russian-occupied Crimea and the Lugansk region, four people were killed in Ukrainian drone strikes, said local Moscow-backed authorities. 
Meanwhile, the death toll from a 20-hour Russian barrage Saturday on Ukraine's central-eastern city of Dnipro rose to nine, authorities said.  
Diplomatic efforts to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II are at a standstill with US mediation efforts diverted by the outbreak of the Middle East war in February. 
bur-asy/tw

disinformation

'Natural' birth control risks unwanted pregnancy, experts warn

BY CAMILLE KAUFFMANN AND CHLOé RABS

  • Helping drive this trend are influencers on social media, who often promote natural birth control as a way for women to "liberate" themselves from the hormonal effects of the pill.
  • After taking the pill for a decade, Elodie Monnier Legrand decided to try "natural" birth control, an increasingly popular trend that requires tracking fertility to avoid becoming pregnant.
  • Helping drive this trend are influencers on social media, who often promote natural birth control as a way for women to "liberate" themselves from the hormonal effects of the pill.
After taking the pill for a decade, Elodie Monnier Legrand decided to try "natural" birth control, an increasingly popular trend that requires tracking fertility to avoid becoming pregnant.
"I wanted my body to return to its natural state," the French 30-year-old business owner told AFP.
However after getting two abortions within six months, she discovered the app she was using had slightly miscalculated her fertility cycle.
"It's not an exact science," Legrand said.
She is one of a rising number of women who are abandoning hormonal contraception such as the pill. 
In France, 7.5 percent of women used natural contraceptive methods in 2023, rising from 4.6 percent in 2016, according to the INSERM institute.
Helping drive this trend are influencers on social media, who often promote natural birth control as a way for women to "liberate" themselves from the hormonal effects of the pill.
However experts warn that some common claims about the pill's side effects represent misinformation -- and that methods based on tracking fertility require strict adherence to be effective.
Geoffroy Robin, a gynaecologist at the University Hospital of Lille in France, told AFP that the interest in natural methods was fuelled by "a climate of hormone-phobia".
He also pointed out that the pill had long been seen as a "tool of women's emancipation".
 

Different methods

 
Louise, a 26-year-old in France who did not want to give her surname, told AFP that "hormonal contraception was a complete disaster" for her.
When she was 18, her body rejected a hormonal IUD. After getting an implant, she said she suffered from side effects including weight gain, mood swings and depression.
For the last six years, she has been using the calendar method of natural birth control.
This requires calculating the window when women are fertile -- which is around 10 days a month -- and abstaining from sex during this period.
The temperature method involves daily checks to detect if women's bodies have gotten a little warmer, which happens during ovulation.
For the "Billings" method, women must inspect their vagina daily to see if there is a build-up of cervical mucus. The "sympto-thermal" method combines the latter two techniques.
The embrace of natural contraception -- also called fertility awareness -- comes as the use of the pill has declined in many countries.
A study published last year in BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health estimated that hormonal contraception in England and Wales fell from 19 percent in 2018 to 11 percent in 2023.
The research also suggested there was a link between the increasing use of natural birth control and a rising number of abortions.
According to the experts AFP spoke to, natural techniques are significantly less effective than traditional methods. 
INSERM said they should only be considered by women "who accept a risk of pregnancy".
A review conducted by INSERM in 2022 found that less than 20 percent of around 100 fertility apps it analysed made correct predictions about fertility cycles. Most apps also shared users' data with third parties, often without their knowledge, the review found.
 

'Just another business?'

 
Robin warned that "natural methods are absolutely ineffective" for those with irregular cycles -- roughly one out of every five women.
And there are several factors that can skew measurements.
For example, yeast infection or medication such as antihistamines can disrupt the secretion of vaginal mucus. Paracetamol, antibiotics or even a change in work schedule can alter a woman's temperature.
This means that natural methods are not suitable for everyone, the experts stressed, recommending that women considering a change consult their gynaecologist.
French sociologist Cecile Thome said the rise of natural contraceptive methods, driven by promises of "taking control of one's body," is part of the booming wellness industry.
These arguments were compelling for Legrand, who paid seven euros a month for a fertility app and bought a "smart ring" for over 200 euros to monitor her temperature. 
After getting two abortions, she contacted the app's customer service.
"Their responses were very cold, it wasn't very humane," she said.
The abortions were "hard on her body, hard psychologically," she emphasised.
While Legrand still finds the subject "super interesting," she wondered if "ultimately, it is just another business."
cka-cra-dl/giv

politics

Children's lives at risk from US funding cuts to vaccine alliance: CEO

BY ERIC RANDOLPH

  • "Our malaria programme has taken the heaviest cuts," Gavi CEO Sania Nishtar told AFP in an interview from Rwanda.
  • The head of a global vaccine organisation told AFP on Friday that aid cuts by the United States and other donors have forced it to slash its malaria programme in Africa, threatening tens of thousands of children's lives.
  • "Our malaria programme has taken the heaviest cuts," Gavi CEO Sania Nishtar told AFP in an interview from Rwanda.
The head of a global vaccine organisation told AFP on Friday that aid cuts by the United States and other donors have forced it to slash its malaria programme in Africa, threatening tens of thousands of children's lives.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, brings together government and private donors to help developing countries acquire jabs for key diseases at affordable prices.
Last year, the United States pulled support worth $1.58 billion, with its vaccine-sceptic health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr claiming without evidence that there were safety concerns.  
"Our malaria programme has taken the heaviest cuts," Gavi CEO Sania Nishtar told AFP in an interview from Rwanda.
Gavi has been supporting the rollout of the malaria vaccine, approved in 2021, in 25 countries across Africa, where the disease claims some 600,000 lives a year, mostly children.
The goal of reaching 85 percent coverage in the targeted countries by 2030 has been reduced to 70 percent, she said. 
Gavi had projected the rollout would prevent 180,000 deaths, and while final spending choices still rest with African governments, the impact of the cuts "will likely be tens of thousands of children's lives lost", said Nishtar. 
"This is hugely disappointing," she added.
"If you've ever seen a child with malaria convulsions in a hospital, you know what this means. It's a horrible sight." 

African vaccines

Nishtar also told AFP of the challenges in its effort to develop vaccine manufacturing in Africa -- an issue brought into stark relief during the Covid pandemic when developed countries hoarded jabs, leaving Africans last in line. 
Gavi announced a $1 billion subsidy programme in 2024 to help potential African vaccine-makers get up and running. 
But 18 months later, "none of the manufacturers have been able to redeem a subsidy as of now", said Nishtar.
Firms in South Africa, Senegal, Morocco and Ghana are among those in the hunt but Nishtar said it was clear they needed more upfront financing and support to get labs and production lines off the ground, and she would be proposing that to Gavi's board in July. 
"We are bending backwards to help but we don't have a magic wand," she said, calling on African governments to help with tax breaks and investments of their own. 

'Silver lining'

Gavi had aimed to collect $11.9 billion for its 2026-2030 strategy but is still short by $1.9 billion, mostly due to the US withdrawal but also caused by reductions from other Western donors.
Nishtar was reluctant to criticise Washington, which she hopes can still be convinced to rejoin the alliance. 
"We are very hopeful of a renewed partnership with the US because they are so important to Gavi," she said. 
The cuts also had a "silver lining", she said, by encouraging African governments to invest more in their health systems despite financial challenges.
"Africa needs help at this point in time, and we should all support them," said Nishtar. 
"But African heads of states are allocating monies towards health and finding innovative ways of doing that: earmarked taxes, special levies... There is a willingness to invest," she said. 
"Last year, we ended with $300 million in co-financing contributions (from Africa) tangibly in our bank account."
er/phz

parliament

Assisted dying bill scuppered as UK advocates vow to fight on

BY HELEN ROWE

  • Both chambers of Britain's parliament must approve legislation for it to become law, and bills that are still in progress when a session ends usually fail.
  • A bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales failed in parliament on Friday after getting bogged down in Britain's unelected upper house, as campaigners vowed to fight on.
  • Both chambers of Britain's parliament must approve legislation for it to become law, and bills that are still in progress when a session ends usually fail.
A bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales failed in parliament on Friday after getting bogged down in Britain's unelected upper house, as campaigners vowed to fight on.
Charlie Falconer, who sponsored the legislation in the House of Lords, accused opponents of "pure obstructionism" after the bill simply ran out of time.
MPs in the House of Commons had backed legalising euthanasia for adults who have been given less than six months to live and can clearly express a wish to die, in a historic vote last June.
But more than 1,200 bill amendments subsequently introduced in the second chamber meant that after the end of Friday's debate there was no chance it would pass before parliament concludes its current session next week.
"It was an absolute travesty of our processes which a few Lords manipulated by putting down 1,200 amendments... and then talking and talking and talking," Falconer said minutes after the bill failed.
"The problem was pure obstructionism by a small number," he insisted.
Kim Leadbeater, the MP who introduced the bill in the House of Commons in 2024, added she believed there was a "real sense of injustice... that what's happened is wrong".
Both chambers of Britain's parliament must approve legislation for it to become law, and bills that are still in progress when a session ends usually fail.
"We're incredibly angry with what's happened but we're determined to get it through, this is not the end, we will not be stopped," campaigner Rebecca Wilcox told AFP. 
Her mother Esther Rantzen -- a high-profile television personality -- has a terminal diagnosis.
Wilcox added assisted dying advocates hope that an MP will carry on the fight when parliament reconvenes mid-May for its next term. 
The current draft law was a private member's bill, not government legislation, which requires an MP to introduce it and faces a bigger challenge to get parliamentary time and get on the statute books. 
"We're hoping one (MP) of them will resurrect this bill (and) it will go through parliament. We're pretty confident of that," Wilcox said.
 

'Deliberate delaying'

 
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would have seen Britain emulate several other countries in Europe and elsewhere to allow some form of assisted dying.
More than 200 lawmakers signed a letter late Thursday blaming the bill's scuppering on "deliberate delaying tactics pursued by a minority of peers opposed to its passage".
"I'm really sad, really upset, really disappointed, but also a little bit angry," Leadbeater said earlier Friday adding the terminally ill would continue to be denied "choice, compassion and dignity".
Leadbeater vowed supportive MPs will "go again" in the next parliamentary session, though the legislative process will have reset and a different MP will likely need to introduce a new bill.
"The issue is not going away -- there's a very clear direction of travel around the world," she said, adding polling in Britain showed support for the change.
But critics, including the Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) which represents medical professionals opposed to assisted dying, said they were "relieved".
"It is not possible to construct an assisted suicide service that is safe, equitable, and resistant to placing unacceptable pressure on the most vulnerable", a spokesperson said in statement to AFP.
Under the proposed legislation, any patient's wish to die would have to be signed off by two doctors and a panel of experts.
They would have to be able to administer the life-ending substance themselves.
Its supporters said it would give people with an incurable illness dignity and choice at the end of their lives.
Lawmakers in the self-governing British dependencies of Jersey and the Isle of Man have already approved euthanasia legislation but the moves are still awaiting royal assent.
Lawmakers in Edinburgh in March rejected a bill in the devolved Scottish parliament to legalise assisted dying.
har-jj/jkb/giv

France

From sun to subsoil, how countries are moving away from fossil fuels

  • - Geothermal in France - For a long time, the owners of the building where Anne Chatelain lives near Paris resisted switching from gas heating to geothermal energy. 
  • Heating with geothermal energy, lighting with solar panels, cooking with biodegradable waste: how can we live with less oil and gas?
  • - Geothermal in France - For a long time, the owners of the building where Anne Chatelain lives near Paris resisted switching from gas heating to geothermal energy. 
Heating with geothermal energy, lighting with solar panels, cooking with biodegradable waste: how can we live with less oil and gas?
It's a long-burning question -- but one that is catching fire as energy costs soar due to the conflict in the Middle East, which has strangled exports of crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
With the global energy shock caused by the conflict expected to linger, AFP's video journalists around the world have explored how countries are experimenting with the climate transition.

Geothermal in France

For a long time, the owners of the building where Anne Chatelain lives near Paris resisted switching from gas heating to geothermal energy. 
But on January 1 they finally began heating their homes using the natural heat from the subsoil -- the soil immediately beneath the surface. 
As energy bills soar elsewhere in the world, "Our property manager has announced a 20 percent reduction in heating and hot water bills for 2026 and 2027," rejoices the 69-year-old retiree.
The tech is both climate-friendly and, as a local resource, "not subject to taxation and geopolitical upheavals" such as the war with Iran, says Gregory Mascarau, a Paris director for the French multinational electric utility company ENGIE.
Shallow geothermal energy allows for heating and cooling by using the temperature of the subsoil at depths of less than 200 meters (650 feet). 
Deep geothermal energy involves extracting hot water from depths of 1,000 to 2,000 metres, where its temperature ranges from 80C to 150C.
Since 2023 it has resulted in roughly 25-30 percent savings compared to the cost of heat provided by fossils fuels, says Ludovic Feron, head of the real estate infrastructure department at Gustave Eiffel University.  
The catch is that a suitable subsoil is required, and that deep geothermal energy in particular can be hampered by high costs and uncertainties. 
In France, this type of heating represents only about one percent of final heat consumption -- for now.

'Green coal' in Chad

It looks like charcoal, but the black briquettes are actually made from plant waste: millet and sesame stalks, palm fronds and cobs. 
The residues are sorted, ground and mixed with a maceration of gum arabic to facilitate ignition, and with clay to slow combustion.
"It doesn't smoke, it lasts, and it's economical. And I can see that it doesn't blacken the pot, and there aren't even any side effects," says Sophie Saboura, 24, a resident of the Chadian capital N'Djamena.
The briquettes last up to three times longer than traditional charcoal, according to Ousmane Alhadj Oumarou, technical director of the Raikina Association for Socio-Economic Development (Adser) factory. 
"From an environmental standpoint, eco-friendly charcoal contributes to sanitation. And it also reduces the effects of climate change. It also helps combat deforestation," says Oumarou.
Adser produces about 10 tonnes of briquettes, used for cooking, every day -- but they aren't available everywhere. 
"There are limits to its use. Because even the manufacturing process takes time ... it can take a week," says Pierre Garba, a renewable energy specialist. 
"Sometimes, when there's demand, you try calling, you wait, and wait, and wait," confirms Saboura.
  

Solar in Pakistan  

The aerial view of Islamabad is striking: solar panels stretch as far as the eye can see from the rooftops of the lush, green Pakistani capital. 
Pakistan's shift to solar power is "one of the fastest consumer-led energy transitions on record", according to a recent study by a Pakistani think tank. 
Unlike Western economies, Pakistan -- whose citizens have long struggled with energy shortages, blackouts and regular loadshedding -- did not impose tariffs on solar technology from neighbouring China from 2013 to 2025. 
The rise in oil and gas prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has also spurred consumers to embrace solar power. 
Imports have surged from one gigawatt in 2018 to 51 gigawatts this year.
In the bustling streets of the ancient Mughal city of Lahore, Pakistan's cultural capital, 49-year-old shopkeeper Aftab Ahmed is looking for solar panels to install at his home. 
"It has become so expensive that an average person can no longer afford fuel for a motorcycle or a car. Fuel prices are also affecting electricity bills, leading to further increases," he says. 
Solar power offers the possibility of "at least some savings".
vid/dp/ico/sla/st/rmb

children

Child vaccine catch-up drive on course to hit target: UN

BY ROBIN MILLARD

  • "By protecting children who missed out on vaccinations because of disruptions to health services caused by Covid-19, the Big Catch-Up has helped to undo one of the pandemic's major negative consequences," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
  • The United Nations on Friday said a three-year effort to immunise children who missed routine vaccinations due to the Covid-19 crisis was on course to reach the 21 million target.
  • "By protecting children who missed out on vaccinations because of disruptions to health services caused by Covid-19, the Big Catch-Up has helped to undo one of the pandemic's major negative consequences," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The United Nations on Friday said a three-year effort to immunise children who missed routine vaccinations due to the Covid-19 crisis was on course to reach the 21 million target.
The pandemic, which swept around the world in 2020, severely strained health systems and disrupted vaccination campaigns, resulting in a resurgence of infectious diseases such as measles and polio.
The UN's World Health Organization and the UN children's agency UNICEF, plus Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance said in a joint statement that the so-called Big Catch-Up campaign "is on track to meet its target of catching up 21 million children".
The vaccine drive concluded in March.
While final data is still being compiled, by the end of December 2025, the campaign had reached an estimated 18.3 million children aged one to five across 36 countries in Africa and Asia with more than 100 million doses of life-saving vaccines.
Of those children reached, an estimated 12.3 million had never received a vaccine dose before, while 15 million had never previously received a measles vaccine.
Besides reaching those children, the agencies said the drive had also improved immunisation programmes, making them better equipped to identify older children who were not on the system, having missed earlier doses.
"By protecting children who missed out on vaccinations because of disruptions to health services caused by Covid-19, the Big Catch-Up has helped to undo one of the pandemic's major negative consequences," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Anti-vaccine content

But not all is rosy.
Vaccines are facing a tide of misinformation and disinformation, the agencies said, while cuts in foreign aid spending were also taking their toll.
The statement said chronic gaps in routine immunisation were "plain to see", with measles outbreaks rising in every region with around 11 million cases in 2024.
The surge is compounded by "declining vaccine confidence in some previously high-coverage communities".
The WHO's vaccines director Kate O'Brien told reporters that while the person parents trusted most on vaccination remained the health worker they interact with, "what is really troubling and a very high concern to all of us is that there has been evermore a politicisation of vaccines and of health".
Gavi chief executive Sania Nishtar added that "we are up against a social media engine which has an incentive to promote disinformation, and I think that needs to be strategically tackled".
"The social media algorithms promote hate, disinformation and lies. Put a good piece of information out there and you will have no traction," she said.
Ephrem Lemango, global chief of immunisation at UNICEF, said social media algorithms "tend to reward outrage over accuracy, and there is so much anti-vaccine content" that it has it own "economy behind it".
"So we do need better content that is disseminated through these platforms," he told a press conference.
The continued decline of foreign aid spending and sharp funding cuts to global health "have seriously affected delivery of immunisation services. This will likely reverse hard-earned progress," he added.
rjm/apo/giv

phones

One month phone-free: Young Americans try digital detox

BY ULYSSE BELLIER

  • She can now navigate her neighborhood without relying on Google Maps, has deleted Instagram and launched her own digital sobriety group.
  • Getting around without Google Maps.
  • She can now navigate her neighborhood without relying on Google Maps, has deleted Instagram and launched her own digital sobriety group.
Getting around without Google Maps. No longer scrolling Instagram at the bus stop. Ditching your headphones to hear the birds sing.
In March, a group of 20- and 30-somethings in the US capital swapped their smartphones for basic flip phones and embarked on a one-month digital detox, part of an emerging movement of young Americans seeking to break free from the harmful effects of social media.
"I was waiting for a bus, and I didn't know when it would come," recalled Jay West, 29, who took part in the Month Offline challenge organized by a small startup with support from a local community group.
Old habits die hard, and West, who works as a data analyst for Washington's metro system, said he would often find himself reaching into his pocket for his cell phone, only to realize there was nothing on it. 
But in the end, he said, it was liberating.
"I was bored sometimes, and that's okay," West recalled one recent evening at a city community garden where detox participants met to share their struggles and joys of disconnecting. "It's okay to be bored."
Sitting beside him was Rachael Schultz, 35, who had to ask strangers on bicycles for directions. There was also Lizzie Benjamin, 25, who dug out old CDs her father had burned so she could listen to music without Spotify.
Before the detox, Bobby Loomis, 25, who works in real estate, struggled to watch even a single episode of a TV series without checking his phone.
But now, without his headphones, he enjoyed listening to birds sing as he took walks around Washington. And when the detox ended, his daily screen time dropped from six to four hours, roughly in line with the average for American adults.
— 'Enriching, communal, social life' —
Scientists have long been sounding the alarm, warning that cell phone addiction is associated with shortened attention spans, sleep problems and anxiety.
In a landmark ruling in late March, a California court ruled Instagram and YouTube are liable for the addictive nature of their platforms.
An increasing number of young Americans are finally taking note. According to a YouGov poll conducted last year, more than two-thirds of people aged 18 to 29 would like to reduce their screen time.
And new tools are available to make that happen: digital detox apps, phone-blocking gadgets, and groups, such as the one in Washington, that facilitate month-long detoxes. On university campuses, weeks-long social media diets have become popular and screen-free evenings among friends have become a thing in big cities.
Going smartphone-free even for a couple of weeks leads to "better well-being and improved ability to sustain attention," said Kostadin Kushlev, a psychology researcher at Georgetown University.
Preliminary studies suggest those effects persist over time, he added.
Josh Morin, one of the organizers of the detox programs in Washington, believes that simply ditching the phone is not enough and that an appealing alternative is vital. His program involves a weekly discussion session for participants held at a karaoke bar in a trendy neighborhood of the US capital.
"In order to actually break that, you have to provide an enriching, communal, social life," said Morin.
— 'At the beginning of something' —
The Month Offline initiative was launched a year ago by a community group and is now operated by a company called Dumb.co. It costs about $100 per person to participate and the fee covers the loan of a flip phone pre-loaded with a handful of essential tools, such as phone calls, texts and Uber, that are synchronized with the user's smartphone.
So far the startup has been making baby steps, hoping to surpass the 1,000-user mark in May, but experts see a bigger trend.
Graham Burnett, a history professor at Princeton University, sees "the dawning of an authentic movement," similar to the birth of the environmental movement in the 1960s, which led to landmark environmental protections.
Kendall Schrohe, 23, who works at a digital privacy watchdog, completed the monthly detox in Washington in January.
She can now navigate her neighborhood without relying on Google Maps, has deleted Instagram and launched her own digital sobriety group.
"I take an optimistic lens, and I feel like we're really at the beginning of something," she said.
ube/ev/md/sla/sms

health

US eases access to marijuana for medical use

  • "These actions will enable more targeted, rigorous research into marijuana's safety and efficacy," Blanche said.
  • The US government on Thursday made it easier for Americans to use cannabis for medical reasons by reclassifying the drug and enabling more research into its safety and efficacy.
  • "These actions will enable more targeted, rigorous research into marijuana's safety and efficacy," Blanche said.
The US government on Thursday made it easier for Americans to use cannabis for medical reasons by reclassifying the drug and enabling more research into its safety and efficacy.
Marijuana is now described as having moderate to low addiction potential, "expanding patients' access to treatments and empowering doctors to make better-informed healthcare decisions," acting attorney general Todd Blanche said.
The government appears to be catching up with broad societal shifts in the United States -- adult marijuana use for any reason is legal in 24 states and the US capital, and approved for medicinal use in 40 states.
Until Thursday, it was still ranked federally as "Schedule I," a category for drugs, including heroin and methamphetamine, with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
Marijuana products approved or regulated by federal or state agencies have now been moved to the third rung of a five-level Drug Schedule.
Schedule III substances, which include ketamine and anabolic steroids, are considered to have medical value and less potential for abuse.
The Department of Justice said Thursday's move followed up on President Donald Trump's executive order in December on increasing medical marijuana research.
It also called for expedited hearings beginning in June that would "provide a timely and legally compliant pathway to evaluate broader changes to marijuana's status under federal law," a DOJ statement said.

'Begging' for change

The long-awaited move does not legalize marijuana use in states where it is still banned or sanction its use as a recreational drug.
But Trump in December said it would make it better available for "legitimate medical uses" such as for people with cancer and chronic pain.
"We have people begging for me to do this. People that are in great pain," Trump said in the Oval Office.
Trump, who was surrounded by white-coated medical experts for the announcement, added that the order "is not the legalization" of marijuana.
The 79-year-old teetotaler added: "I've always told my children, don't take drugs, no drinking, no smoking, and just stay away from drugs."
US presidents cannot unilaterally reclassify a drug. Trump's order directed the Department of Justice to expedite the process.
Democrat Joe Biden's administration pursued reclassification, but efforts were not completed before Trump took office in early 2025.
The US has a patchwork of state-level regulations regarding the commercial distribution, recreational possession and personal cultivation of cannabis. 
The government's move is aimed at lowering barriers to research, as authorizing clinical studies on Schedule I substances can require many layers of approval.
"These actions will enable more targeted, rigorous research into marijuana's safety and efficacy," Blanche said.
It could also be a major tax boost for companies that legally grow and sell cannabis.
bur-ksb/bgs

demonstration

Ecuador doctors protest crisis as patients bring own meds to surgery

  • He said there are long waiting lists for people who need emergency operations and "patients buy what they need to undergo surgery."
  • Dozens of doctors, nurses and patients protested Wednesday outside a hospital in Ecuador's capital, expressing outrage at a health care system so overstretched that people undergoing surgery bring their own syringes and medication. 
  • He said there are long waiting lists for people who need emergency operations and "patients buy what they need to undergo surgery."
Dozens of doctors, nurses and patients protested Wednesday outside a hospital in Ecuador's capital, expressing outrage at a health care system so overstretched that people undergoing surgery bring their own syringes and medication. 
One big source of anger is that last week the health ministry announced an unspecified number of dismissals from the state health care system, arguing that it needed to "optimize resources" after detecting cases of suspected overstaffing.
The Ecuadoran Medical Federation, a doctors' association, said as many as 1,200 doctors, nurses and administrative staffers were let go. The association vowed to hold nationwide protests against the health care crisis.
"We do not have what we need to work," said Juan Barriga, head of trauma treatment at Pablo Arturo Suarez Hospital, where the rally took place.
He said there are long waiting lists for people who need emergency operations and "patients buy what they need to undergo surgery."
Indeed, in Ecuador patients are known to bring their own medication, needles, suture thread and other equipment when they go to the hospital.
The dismissals will also affect health care at Ecuador's violent and overcrowded prisons, where a tuberculosis outbreak has been reported.
Outside the Quito hospital, doctors in white lab coats, nurses in uniform, patients and relatives carried signs with slogans such as "there are no supplies. No medicine, the health care system is collapsing."
Barriga said that at his hospital alone, one of the most important of the state health care system in Quito, more than 1,000 people are on a list waiting for surgery.
President Daniel Noba, a conservative in power since 2023 and staunch ally of US President Donald Trump, appointed his sixth health minister on Monday.
sp/dg/dw/des