climate

Trump withdraws US from key climate treaty, deepening global pullback

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • The White House on Wednesday flagged the US exit from 66 global organizations and treaties -- roughly half affiliated with the United Nations -- it identified as "contrary to the interests of the United States."
  • President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from a bedrock climate treaty was slammed Thursday by the EU, which vowed to keep tackling the crisis with other nations.
  • The White House on Wednesday flagged the US exit from 66 global organizations and treaties -- roughly half affiliated with the United Nations -- it identified as "contrary to the interests of the United States."
President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from a bedrock climate treaty was slammed Thursday by the EU, which vowed to keep tackling the crisis with other nations.
The White House on Wednesday flagged the US exit from 66 global organizations and treaties -- roughly half affiliated with the United Nations -- it identified as "contrary to the interests of the United States."
Most notable among them is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the parent treaty underpinning all major international climate agreements.
The treaty adopted in 1992 is a global pact by nations to cooperate to drive down planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
European Union climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said the UNFCCC "underpins global climate action" and brings nations together in the collective fight against the crisis.
"The decision by the world's largest economy and second-largest emitter to retreat from it is regrettable and unfortunate," Hoekstra said in a post on LinkedIn.
"We will unequivocally continue to support international climate research, as the foundation of our understanding and work. We will also continue to work on international climate cooperation."
Trump, who has thrown the full weight of his domestic policy behind fossil fuels, has openly scorned the scientific consensus that human activity is warming the planet, deriding climate science as a "hoax."
His administration sent no representative to the most recent UN climate summit in Brazil in November, which is held every year under the auspices of the UNFCCC.
Teresa Ribera, the EU's vice-president for the clean transition, said the Trump administration "doesn't care" about the environment, health or the suffering of people.

Fight looms

The UNFCCC was adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992 and approved later that year by the US Senate during George H.W. Bush's presidency.
"The US withdrawal from the UN climate framework is a heavy blow to global climate action, fracturing hard-won consensus," Li Shuo, a climate expert at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told AFP.
The US Constitution allows presidents to enter treaties "provided two thirds of Senators present concur," but it is silent on the process for withdrawing from them -- a legal ambiguity that could invite court challenges.
Trump has already withdrawn from the landmark Paris climate accord since returning to office, just as he did during his first term from 2017–2021 in a move later reversed by his successor, Democratic president Joe Biden.
Exiting the underlying treaty could introduce additional legal uncertainty around any future US effort to rejoin.
Jean Su, a senior attorney for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, told AFP: "Pulling out of the UNFCCC is a whole order of magnitude different from pulling out of the Paris Agreement."
"It's our contention that it's illegal for the President to unilaterally pull out of a treaty that required two thirds of the Senate vote," she continued. "We are looking at legal options to pursue that line of argument."

'Progressive ideology'

California Governor Gavin Newsom, an outspoken critic of Trump who is widely seen as a presidential contender, said in a statement "our brainless president is surrendering America's leadership on the world stage and weakening our ability to compete in the economy of the future -- creating a leadership vacuum that China is already exploiting."
The memo also directs the United States to withdraw from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN body responsible for assessing climate science, alongside other climate-related organizations including the International Renewable Energy Agency, UN Oceans and UN Water.
As in his first term, Trump has also withdrawn the United States from UNESCO -- the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization -- which Washington had rejoined under Biden.
Trump has likewise pulled the US out of the World Health Organization and sharply reduced foreign aid.
Other prominent bodies named in the memo include the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Women, and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement the organizations were driven by "progressive ideology" and were actively seeking to "constrain American sovereignty."
"From DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) mandates to 'gender equity' campaigns to climate orthodoxy, many international organizations now serve a globalist project," he said.
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weightloss

Study shows how fast kilos return after ending weight-loss drugs

BY DANIEL LAWLER

  • This meant that people taking the drugs regained their weight four times faster.
  • When people stop taking the new generation of weight-loss drugs they pile back on the kilos four times faster than they would after ending diet and exercise regimes, new research found Thursday.
  • This meant that people taking the drugs regained their weight four times faster.
When people stop taking the new generation of weight-loss drugs they pile back on the kilos four times faster than they would after ending diet and exercise regimes, new research found Thursday.
But this was mostly because they lost so much weight in the first place, according to the British researchers who conducted the largest and most up-to-date review of the subject.
A new generation of appetite-suppressing, injectable drugs called GLP-1 agonists have become immensely popular in the last few years, transforming the treatment for obesity and diabetes in many countries.
They have been found to help people lose between 15-20 percent of their body weight.
"This all appears to be a good news story," said Susan Jebb, a public health nutrition scientist at Oxford university and co-author of a new BMJ study.
However, recent data has suggested that "around half of people discontinue these medications within a year," she told a press conference. 
This might be because of common side effects such as nausea or the price -- these drugs can cost over $1,000 a month in the US.
So the researchers reviewed 37 studies looking at ceasing different weight-loss drugs, finding that participants regained around 0.4 kilograms a month. 
Six of the clinical trials involved semaglutide -- the ingredient used in Novo Nordisk's brands Ozempic and Wegovy -- and tirzepatide used for Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound.
While taking these two drugs, the trial participants lost an average of nearly 15 kilograms. 
However after stopping the medication, they regained 10 kilograms within a year, which was the longest follow-up period available for these relatively new drugs.
The researchers projected that the participants would return to their original weight in 18 months.
Measurements of heart health, including blood pressure and cholesterol levels, also returned to their original levels after 1.4 years.
People who were instead put on programmes that included diet and exercise -- but not drugs -- lost significantly less weight. However it took an average of four years for them to regain their lost kilos.
This meant that people taking the drugs regained their weight four times faster.

'Starting point, not a cure'

"Greater weight loss tends to result in faster weight regain," lead study author Sam West of Oxford University explained.
But separate analysis showed that weight gain was "consistently faster after medication, regardless of the amount of weight lost in the first place," he added.
This could be because people who have learned to eat more healthily and exercise more often continue to do so even as they regain weight. 
Jebb emphasised that GLP-1 drugs "are a really valuable tool in obesity treatment -- but obesity is a chronic relapsing condition."
"One would expect that these treatments need to be continued for life, just in the same way as blood pressure medication," Jebb said.
If this was the case, it would impact how national health systems judge whether these drugs are cost-effective, the researchers emphasised.
"This new data makes it clear they are a starting point, not a cure," said Garron Dodd, a metabolic neuroscience researcher at the University of Melbourne not involved in the study.
"Sustainable treatment will likely require combination approaches, longer-term strategies, and therapies that reshape how the brain interprets energy balance, not just how much people eat," he said.
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politics

Yes to red meat, no to sugar: Trump's new health guidelines

BY MAGGY DONALDSON

  • Reaction from nutritionists and public health advocates was mixed: the advice to cut sugar and processed foods was a positive, but the emphasis on animal protein and full-fat dairy was "contradictory."
  • The Trump administration on Wednesday urged Americans to avoid highly processed foods along with added sugars while touting consumption of red meat and full-fat dairy, foods many nutritionists had previously discouraged.
  • Reaction from nutritionists and public health advocates was mixed: the advice to cut sugar and processed foods was a positive, but the emphasis on animal protein and full-fat dairy was "contradictory."
The Trump administration on Wednesday urged Americans to avoid highly processed foods along with added sugars while touting consumption of red meat and full-fat dairy, foods many nutritionists had previously discouraged.
The new federal nutritional guidelines emphasize protein more than previous recommendations, releasing a flipped-pyramid graphic that places meat, dairy and healthy fats on the same tier as vegetables and fruits, with fiber-rich whole grains like oats at the bottom tip.
Reaction from nutritionists and public health advocates was mixed: the advice to cut sugar and processed foods was a positive, but the emphasis on animal protein and full-fat dairy was "contradictory."
"I found the whole thing to be muddled, contradictory, ideological and very retro," said Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition at New York University.
Health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr vowed the new guidelines would "revolutionize" US eating habits and "make America healthy again" -- the catchphrase of the MAHA movement that's perhaps best known for vaccine resistance.
Kennedy has long railed against the typical American diet and the food industry, saying the country is in a "health emergency" that has resulted in chronic disease including among children.
The new recommendations -- the federal government must release them every five years -- strongly discourage sugars, saying children should avoid added sweeteners until age 10, and that sugar-sweetened beverages are anathema to good health.
Americans are encouraged to cut back on refined carbohydrates like white bread or flour tortillas, and prioritize whole foods like vegetables and fruits over packaged or prepared meals, which often include significant added sugar and salt.
Nestle told AFP discouraging highly processed foods was a "very strong recommendation," adding "I heartily support it."
Federal data shows that ultra-processed foods -- including packaged sweetened baked goods, savory snacks and soda -- account for about 55 percent of calories in the average American diet.
But Nestle was also among the experts who said that positive came with murkier advice when it comes to meat and fat, calling the new guidance a win for the meat and dairy industries.
While the most recent iteration of US guidelines endorsed "lean meats" along with a variety of other plant-based proteins, seafood, and eggs, the new document includes red meat among the various types of protein to consume.
Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, in a statement called the emphasis on animal protein, full-fat dairy and butter "harmful," adding that it "undermines...science-based advice."
Americans should eat 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, according to the new guidelines. Previous recommendations had said around 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight would suffice for most people.

Mixed messages on fats

Kennedy for months has emphasized he would end the "war" on saturated fats, which in high amounts are known to increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. 
But the administration did not change the previous recommendation that limits daily calories stemming from saturated fats at 10 percent.
The US food pyramid of the 1990s lumped all types of fat together and urged avoidance.
Experts since then have acknowledged that some types of fats -- like those found in olive oil, avocados and nuts -- are important components of a healthy diet.
The new guidelines include that advice, yet alongside olive oil the recommendations say cooking with butter or beef tallow -- the latter has particular hold on MAHA influencers -- are good options.
Cooking with saturated fats and routinely consuming red meat could easily put many people over the 10 percent saturated fat threshold, Nestle said.
She also said the new recommendations were too vague on alcohol -- the administration simply said "consume less." 
Nestle questioned how many people would be able to follow the guidance, given soaring food costs.
And ultimately, the nutritionist said the dietary guidelines carry less weight within the wider political context. 
Within his first year Kennedy has worked ardently to sow confusion over vaccination especially among children, as President Donald Trump gives sweeping medical advice rife with misinformation.
"Eating real food is not going to make American healthy again in the face of a public health system that is completely dysfunctional at this point," said Nestle.
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vaccines

US recommends fewer childhood vaccines in major shift

  • Trump's message heralding the schedule overhaul followed a TruthSocial post rife with false statements about vaccine safety and recommendations that contradict scientific consensus.
  • The Trump administration on Monday overhauled the United States' pediatric vaccine schedule, upending years of scientifically backed recommendations that reduced disease with routine shots.
  • Trump's message heralding the schedule overhaul followed a TruthSocial post rife with false statements about vaccine safety and recommendations that contradict scientific consensus.
The Trump administration on Monday overhauled the United States' pediatric vaccine schedule, upending years of scientifically backed recommendations that reduced disease with routine shots.
The dramatic shift -- announced by the US health department, which is led by long-time vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- means the country will no longer recommend that every child receive immunizations against several diseases including rotavirus and influenza.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instead will recommend that shots preventing those illnesses as well as hepatitis A, hepatitis B and meningococcal disease be administered for select groups of high-risk individuals or when parents and a child's doctor deem them warranted, rather than as standard practice.
The agency had already shifted to this recommendation model for Covid-19 shots in 2025.
At the end of 2024, the CDC was recommending 17 pediatric immunizations for all individuals, the agency said. Now that number is 11.
President Donald Trump praised the changes, noting that the "MAHA Moms" -- a base of online influencers who ardently support Kennedy's agenda -- "have been praying for these common sense reforms for many years."
Trump's message heralding the schedule overhaul followed a TruthSocial post rife with false statements about vaccine safety and recommendations that contradict scientific consensus.
The decision follows Trump's directive last month that health officials compare the US vaccine schedule to peer countries abroad.
They were notably focused on Denmark. The new US recommendations now more closely resemble that country's schedule.
"After an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the US childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent. This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health," Kennedy said in a statement.
But medical and public health experts slammed the overhaul.
Sean O'Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, said "the US child vaccine schedule is one of the most thoroughly researched tools we have to protect children from serious, sometimes deadly diseases."
"It's so important that any decision about the US childhood vaccination schedule should be grounded in evidence, transparency and established scientific processes, not comparisons that overlook critical differences between countries or health systems," he told journalists.
Experts at the Vaccine Integrity Project, an initiative out of the University of Minnesota, recently noted that the US had already been in line with global consensus.
Denmark, project researchers said, represents more of an outlier among "peer countries" than a standard.
"Denmark's schedule reflects a set of choices made in a small, highly homogeneous country with a centralized health care system that guarantees universal access to care, low baseline disease prevalence, and strong social infrastructure," the group wrote.
"Those conditions do not apply to the United States, not even close."

'More confusing for parents'

Senator Bill Cassidy, whose deciding vote confirmed Kennedy's controversial appointment as health chief last year, said that "changing the pediatric vaccine schedule based on no scientific input on safety risks and little transparency will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors."
The Republican, himself a doctor, said doing so would "make America sicker."
States have the authority to mandate vaccinations, but generally CDC recommendations wield significant influence over state policies.
US officials have said that access as well as insurance coverage of vaccines should remain in place, even for shots not broadly recommended by the federal government.
"All vaccines currently recommended by CDC will remain covered by insurance without cost sharing," said Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the federal health insurance programs. 
"No family will lose access. This framework empowers parents and physicians to make individualized decisions based on risk, while maintaining strong protection against serious disease."
But public health authorities warned that the changes would only sow doubt and confusion, especially as vaccine skepticism has mushroomed in the wake of the pandemic.
O'Leary said the shift "just makes things more confusing for parents and clinicians."
"Tragically, our federal government can no longer be trusted" to provide vaccine recommendations, he added.
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conservation

Conservationists sue Trump admin over inaction on horseshoe crabs

  • Their bright blue blood is used for testing the safety of biomedical products, despite synthetic alternatives now approved and widely used in Europe and Asia.
  • A conservation group sued President Donald Trump's administration on Monday over its failure to act on protecting American horseshoe crabs, which are increasingly threatened by the harvesting of their blood for drug safety testing.
  • Their bright blue blood is used for testing the safety of biomedical products, despite synthetic alternatives now approved and widely used in Europe and Asia.
A conservation group sued President Donald Trump's administration on Monday over its failure to act on protecting American horseshoe crabs, which are increasingly threatened by the harvesting of their blood for drug safety testing.
Sometimes called "living fossils," horseshoe crabs have patrolled the world's shallow coastal waters for more than 450 million years, outlasting the dinosaurs.
But their population has cratered more than 70 percent since 2000 as a result of over-harvesting and habitat loss.
Their bright blue blood is used for testing the safety of biomedical products, despite synthetic alternatives now approved and widely used in Europe and Asia.
"Harvesting horseshoe crabs for blood is now the number one threat to horseshoe crabs," Will Harlan, a scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, which brought the legal case against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), told AFP. 
"We think because horseshoe crabs are so depleted overseas -- the other three species of horseshoe crabs are all even more endangered than the American horseshoe crab -- and so demand globally has shifted to the United States," he added, with biomedical harvests doubling over the past seven years.
The Center for Biological Diversity, along with 25 other organizations, petitioned the federal government in February 2024 -- when former president Joe Biden was in office -- to list the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) as threatened or endangered, and to designate areas as critical habitats.
Under the Endangered Species Act, such a petition triggers a 90-day deadline to issue an initial finding. While the law allows some flexibility, it requires that a scientifically justified decision be reached within a year. Rejection can pave the way for appeal.
"Unfortunately, under both administrations, we've been waiting for a decision that, by law, was supposed to come much sooner," said Harlan. "But these horseshoe crabs can't wait any longer."
Since the 1970s, horseshoe crabs have been caught, bled alive, and returned to the sea to harvest a protein called "Factor C," which detects endotoxins that can contaminate drugs.
Some companies, including Eli Lilly -- known for its weight-loss drugs -- have earned praise for converting most of their operations to synthetic alternatives.
With helmet-like shells, spike-like tails and five pairs of legs connected to their mouths, horseshoe crabs crawl ashore along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts each spring to lay their eggs on beaches in massive spawning events.
As their numbers have declined, so too have the species that depend on them, including sea turtles, fish and birds.
The Trump administration has sought to weaken the landmark Endangered Species Act -- proposing, for example, to allow economic considerations to factor into what were previously science-based decisions.
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children

UK starts ban on junk food ads on daytime TV and online

  • "By restricting adverts for junk food before 9pm and banning paid adverts online, we can remove excessive exposure to unhealthy foods," health minister Ashley Dalton said in a statement.
  • New regulations come into force Monday in Britain banning daytime TV and online adverts for so-called junk foods, in what the government calls a "world-leading action" to tackle childhood obesity.
  • "By restricting adverts for junk food before 9pm and banning paid adverts online, we can remove excessive exposure to unhealthy foods," health minister Ashley Dalton said in a statement.
New regulations come into force Monday in Britain banning daytime TV and online adverts for so-called junk foods, in what the government calls a "world-leading action" to tackle childhood obesity.
The ban -- targeting ads for products high in fat, salt or sugar -- is expected to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children's diets each year, according to the health ministry. 
Impacting ads airing before the 9:00pm watershed and anytime online, it will reduce the number of children living with obesity by 20,000 and deliver around £2 billion ($2.7 bln) in health benefits, the ministry added.
The implementation of the measure -- first announced in December 2024 -- follows other recent steps, including an extended sugar tax on pre-packaged items like milkshakes, ready-to-go coffees and sweetened yoghurt drinks.
Local authorities have also been given the power to stop fast food shops setting up outside schools.
The government argues evidence shows advertising influences what and when children eat, shaping preferences from a young age and increasing the risk of obesity and related illnesses. 
It notes 22 percent of children starting primary schooling in England -- typically aged around five -- are overweight or obese, rising to more than a third by the time they progress to secondary schools aged 11. 
Tooth decay is the leading cause of UK hospital admissions for young children, typically aged five to nine, according to officials.
"By restricting adverts for junk food before 9pm and banning paid adverts online, we can remove excessive exposure to unhealthy foods," health minister Ashley Dalton said in a statement.
He added the move was part of a strategy to make the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) focus on preventing as well as treating sickness, "so people can lead healthier lives".
Katharine Jenner, executive director of the Obesity Health Alliance, said it was "a welcome and long-awaited step towards better protecting children from unhealthy food and drink advertising that can harm their health and wellbeing". 
The charity Diabetes UK also welcomed the ads ban, with its chief executive, Colette Marshall, noting that type 2 diabetes is on the rise in young people.
"Obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, and the condition can lead to more severe consequences in young people -- leaving them at risk of serious complications like kidney failure and heart disease," she added.
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demographics

'Not about condoms': Chinese shrug off contraceptive tax

BY ISABEL KUA

  • A 19-year-old student surnamed Du told AFP in Beijing she felt the impact of more expensive contraceptives would be limited. 
  • China has made condoms and other contraceptives more expensive as it tries to boost birth rates, but residents in Beijing and analysts say the measure will have little impact.
  • A 19-year-old student surnamed Du told AFP in Beijing she felt the impact of more expensive contraceptives would be limited. 
China has made condoms and other contraceptives more expensive as it tries to boost birth rates, but residents in Beijing and analysts say the measure will have little impact.
Consumers must now pay a 13 percent value-added tax for contraception including condoms, after Beijing removed exemptions on the products from January 1. 
Childcare and marriage brokerage services are exempt.
The government has sought to boost China's flagging birth rate, concerned about the rapidly ageing and shrinking population, as well as record low marriage rates.
But young people in Beijing told AFP that taxing contraceptives will not address the root issues they say are stopping people from having children. 
"The immense pressure on young people in China today -- from employment to daily life -- has absolutely nothing to do with condoms," a resident in her thirties, who wanted to be known only as Jessica, told AFP.
Jessica said there was a notable class divide in Chinese society and many people felt their future was too uncertain to start a family. 
"The rich are too rich, and the poor remain poor... (and people) lack confidence in their future, so they may be unwilling to have children."
Xu Wanting, 33, who read about the new tax online, said she did not believe it would directly increase birth rates.
"Those who truly need to buy these products will still buy them, because these are family planning products," Xu told AFP outside a shopping mall.
"They (condoms) are not solely for contraception, but also concern women's reproductive health."

Concrete obstacles

China's population has declined for three straight years, and could fall from 1.4 billion today to 633 million by 2100, according to United Nations predictions.
China's leaders, including President Xi Jinping, have pledged to address the country's demographic problems.
They vowed at a key economic policy meeting in December to "advocate positive views on marriage and childbearing, and strive to stabilise the number of new births" in 2026, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
But the contraceptives tax is trivial compared to the true cost of raising a child in China, one of the world's most expensive countries for child-rearing, said Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
"Young couples deciding whether to have children are not calculating whether they can afford extra dollars for contraception -- they are asking whether they can afford to raise a child at all in an environment of economic uncertainty," Wu told AFP. 
They face concrete obstacles in China, Wu added, such as a weak job market, "prohibitive" housing costs, a stressful work culture and workplace discrimination against women.
A 19-year-old student surnamed Du told AFP in Beijing she felt the impact of more expensive contraceptives would be limited. 
To really boost births, small companies have to guarantee benefits like marriage and maternity leave first, Du said.
Otherwise, it may be hard to convince couples to have children.
"Young people today... worry about whether they can shoulder the responsibilities of being parents," she said.
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