haze

Haze emergency grips Malaysian Borneo town

BY ISABELLE LEONG

  • But the smoke was difficult to escape even at home, a mere 10 kilometres (six miles) from Indonesia's Kalimantan province where the fires were raging.
  • Acrid smoke hung heavily over the Malaysian town of Serian, seeping into homes and cloaking roadside stalls, as residents navigated an air‑quality emergency fuelled by transboundary haze from Indonesia's raging fires.
  • But the smoke was difficult to escape even at home, a mere 10 kilometres (six miles) from Indonesia's Kalimantan province where the fires were raging.
Acrid smoke hung heavily over the Malaysian town of Serian, seeping into homes and cloaking roadside stalls, as residents navigated an air‑quality emergency fuelled by transboundary haze from Indonesia's raging fires.
Malaysia declared a state of emergency in Sarawak state's Serian district on Borneo island on Friday, after air pollution readings reached critical levels.
Toxic haze has shrouded parts of Indonesia and Malaysia for weeks as Jakarta struggles to contain fires that have scorched large tracts of Borneo and Sumatra, with the plumes drifting into neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
In Serian, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of Sarawak's capital Kuching, residents tried to carry on with weekend routines but said the thick haze forced them to plan shorter trips to avoid the worst of the smoke.
"I rarely leave the house when it's like this (the haze). I only come out to buy food and groceries, then I'll immediately head home," said Ajen Anak Kunok, 64, a local retired technician. 
Ajen told AFP he had spent the past week battling shortness of breath and a sore throat due to the ongoing haze, before going to the hospital Saturday for treatment.
But the smoke was difficult to escape even at home, a mere 10 kilometres (six miles) from Indonesia's Kalimantan province where the fires were raging.
"Even when I turn on the air conditioner, I can still smell the smoke in my house," Ajen said.

Hazardous levels

Sarawak, which shares a border with Kalimantan, has borne the brunt of pollution in Malaysia. 
On Friday, Serian became the first district in the country this year to declare an emergency over the worsening air quality when API levels passed 500 and peaked at 512. 
Under Malaysian guidelines, API levels above 300 are classified as hazardous, while readings beyond 500 usually trigger consideration of a local emergency.
At the town's markets, the usual bustling throng dwindled, while roadside sellers of Serian's famous durians waited in vain beside their piles of fruit for customers that came in diminished numbers.
The district's scenic Ranchan Waterfall -- usually popular with locals and tourists alike -- was unusually quiet, with just a few visitors dotted around.
Roadside durian seller Siaw Thien Ha, 53, said the emergency has already hit his livelihood hard.
He struggled to earn even half of his usual income of 400 ringgit ($98) for the weekend.
"I'm worried that my income will be affected... But during the durian season, there is money to be made," he told AFP.
"So I don't have a choice but to bring the durians here to sell to support my family," he said.
Friday's emergency declaration will also keep some 647 schools closed until at least the end of the week in Serian district, which has a population of around 154,000 people.
Sister Irmina Peter, 64, who teaches at the St Joseph's Private Primary School in Kuching, told AFP she was worried that the emergency could drag on and spill over to other districts in Sarawak.
Rain in Serian on Friday night and Saturday morning, believed to have been the result of ongoing cloud seeding operations, brought some respite, with API levels dropping to 219.
Serian's state of emergency however remained in place.
Sister Peter said "we don't want the schools to be like during Covid-19 lockdown, where we couldn't do much." 
"We can't go on with our normal routine… we have to go to work, children have to go to school. It affects us very much."
llk/jhe/ane

film

Indian Oscar-nominated filmmaker turns camera on his cancer

BY ARUNABH SAIKIA

  • - 'Meditative' - The central protagonist in Sen's new work is not the filmmaker himself but his surgeon. 
  • Indian filmmaker Shaunak Sen's new documentary began as a "coping" mechanism after a shock cancer diagnosis, but continues the motifs of environmental degradation and caregiving that drove his previous work.
  • - 'Meditative' - The central protagonist in Sen's new work is not the filmmaker himself but his surgeon. 
Indian filmmaker Shaunak Sen's new documentary began as a "coping" mechanism after a shock cancer diagnosis, but continues the motifs of environmental degradation and caregiving that drove his previous work.
Sen's "All That Breathes", which follows two brothers running a largely self-funded clinic for birds falling victim to Delhi's polluted air, won top documentary prizes at Sundance and Cannes in 2022 and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2023 Oscars.
"It became a kind of coping strategy, or a way to deal or dissociate or displace the terror of what you've just been told," Sen, 39, told AFP about his as-yet-untitled project, in an interview from his home in New Delhi.
The diagnosis brought home "the same risks" that make hundreds of birds fall every year from New Delhi's throat-burning polluted skies -- this time on "my own body", Sen said.
"Whenever you ask most oncologists why this happened, or why this current giant spike in cancer rates is occurring, a lot of them would talk about environmental factors like toxins or chemicals or the air," he said.
New Delhi and its sprawling metropolitan region of 30 million residents is regularly ranked among the world's most polluted capitals, due to a mix of emissions from power plants, heavy traffic and the burning of rubbish and crops. 
A 2024 study in The Lancet Planetary Health estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution.

'Meditative'

The central protagonist in Sen's new work is not the filmmaker himself but his surgeon. 
"I did not want to make something that was solipsistically inwards folding," he said.
It echoes his documentary "All That Breathes", where caregiving is at the emotional core of the film.
"What I loved in a surgeon was the ability to completely lose yourself, to be immersed in the absolute present," he said. 
"That feels meditative and contemplative. It's a kind of melting away of everything extraneous, and you're in the pinprick of the moment." 
- City as 'wallpaper' - 
The film is also about Sen's relationship with New Delhi, where he grew up, went to school and university, and the setting for all his work.
"The city," he said, is the "wallpaper of this film."
"In this case, the wallpaper is doing things to me, and I'm kind of reacting to it -- through a more personalised lens than I ever have."
His 2016 debut documentary, "Cities of Sleep", examined the city's  homeless population through the lens of sleep, following them in their quest for a safe place to rest. 
Sen is also heading to the Toronto International Film Festival in September to screen "Termite", his first fiction short, about two Delhi termite exterminators.
Yet the nature of his latest undertaking means it is inevitably different from his previous work.
Sen's ethnographic approach to filmmaking means shooting characters for long periods to, as he put it, "yield or slow drip certain answers".
"There's a deep pleasure in that kind of a thing," he said. 
"Time rewards you with accidents, but in this case, it would be really silly and self-congratulatory for me to say that, 'I gave this film time.'" 
Sen has had surgery, but continues the long road to recovery.
Shooting the film, he said, was a "way to not look directly at a scary thing", and "to aesthetically convert it into a project, so that you don't have to stare it in the grim eyes of what it actually is".
"I guess it's a kind of a con job."
sai/pjm/cms/ane

measles

Bangladesh measles toll nears grim 1,000-child mark

BY RASHEEK MUJIB

  • - 'Devastating' - The outbreak has exposed gaps in Bangladesh's efforts to protect its youngest.
  • Bangladesh's deadliest measles outbreak in decades is nearing the grim milestone of 1,000 child deaths, as a devastating epidemic sweeps through the country and crowded hospital wards fill with struggling babies.
  • - 'Devastating' - The outbreak has exposed gaps in Bangladesh's efforts to protect its youngest.
Bangladesh's deadliest measles outbreak in decades is nearing the grim milestone of 1,000 child deaths, as a devastating epidemic sweeps through the country and crowded hospital wards fill with struggling babies.
Cries of sick children and the hiss of oxygen machines fill the air at Dhaka's Shishu Hospital, where Rima Akter keeps a vigil beside her nine-month-old son.
"Just an hour ago, a child died, and they wheeled him out in front of us," 30-year-old Akter told AFP on Thursday. "We saw two children die today."
Akter's son Sabit Haque is one of scores filling the children's hospital's measles wards.
At least 986 children have died since March, while suspected and confirmed cases have surged past 180,000, according to the latest health ministry figures.
Measles is highly contagious, spreading through coughs and sneezes, and has no specific treatment once caught.
Complications can include brain swelling and severe breathing problems. Although anyone can catch the disease, young children are particularly vulnerable.
The South Asian nation of 170 million has rolled out a mass vaccination drive to combat the outbreak, but case numbers continue to climb.
More than 1,000 suspected cases are reported daily.
- 'Very weak' - 
"I've been running to and from multiple hospitals since July to get my son the proper treatment," said Sanjana Islam Modina, 19, cradling her six-month-old son Ayan, who has an oxygen tube fixed to his nose.
Small dark spots covered Ayan's head, fading from the angry red rash left by measles.
He was first admitted to hospital with pneumonia in July, then contracted measles before finally securing a bed at the capital's specialised children's hospital in mid-August.
Ayan spent 15 days in intensive care, before improving enough to return to the dedicated measles ward.
The hospital currently has 101 children admitted with suspected or confirmed measles.
"His lungs were already very weak from the pneumonia, then with measles his breathing was affected more," Modina told AFP, while trying to soothe her wailing baby.
"He's been on oxygen constantly for the last five days."
Most cases recorded in Bangladesh during the current outbreak have been among children aged between six months and five years.
Doctors say many of the children arriving at hospital are already critically ill, with malnutrition further weakening their ability to fight the virus.
Ayan has also been diagnosed as malnourished.
"The doctors gave my son a special milk specifically designed for malnourished children," said Modina, wiping sweat from his tiny forehead.

'Devastating'

The outbreak has exposed gaps in Bangladesh's efforts to protect its youngest.
SM Ziauddin Hyder, special assistant to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman for health, called the outbreak "devastating".
Bangladesh had previously made major advances in vaccination against infectious diseases, but a measles drive planned for 2024 was delayed by the uprising that toppled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Workers' strikes and political instability delayed a 2025 campaign.
The country has since rolled out a mass vaccination drive to combat the outbreak, but the number of cases continues to climb.
"There was a gap of a significant number of children missing the doses," Hyder said.
"Healthcare workers... are vaccinating these children to close the gap."
Mahmudur Rahman, an epidemiologist and former director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), said Bangladesh should consider a broader vaccination campaign to contain the outbreak.
Rahman said public awareness was also crucial, stressing preventive measures including isolating infected children, handwashing and the use of masks by caregivers.
Worried mother Akter needs no reminder of how quickly the sickness can spread.
"We are aware of how contagious this disease is; our son was first admitted for bronchitis," she said
"After being released, we had to come back for measles."
bur-pjm/lga

health

Mistrial declared in case of US woman who killed her three children

BY JOSEPH PREZIOSO WITH CHRIS LEFKOW IN WASHINGTON

  • "At this point, I'm going to declare that the jury is deadlocked, and I'm going to declare a mistrial," Judge William Sullivan said.
  • A judge declared a mistrial Friday after a jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the high-profile case of an American woman who killed her three young children.
  • "At this point, I'm going to declare that the jury is deadlocked, and I'm going to declare a mistrial," Judge William Sullivan said.
A judge declared a mistrial Friday after a jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the high-profile case of an American woman who killed her three young children.
Lindsay Clancy, 36, acknowledged strangling Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, but claimed she should be excused from criminal responsibility because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.
After seven days of deliberations the jury of nine women and three men was unable to reach a unanimous decision, as required in criminal proceedings in the United States.
Eleven jurors were in favor of finding Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity, but they were opposed by a single holdout.
"At this point, I'm going to declare that the jury is deadlocked, and I'm going to declare a mistrial," Judge William Sullivan said.
Prosecutors must now decide whether to try the case again before a new jury.
"I'll be making that decision shortly," Tim Cruz, the Plymouth County, Massachusetts district attorney, told reporters.
Kevin Reddington, Clancy's lawyer, said his client and the other members of the jury were let down by the man who declined to vote for an acquittal.
"They were robbed by one man for whatever his agenda was," Reddington told reporters. "I hope that guy can sleep well at night."    
Clancy will remain at a psychiatric institution pending a possible new trial.
Her televised trial, which featured more than 80 witnesses and days of distressing testimony, has sparked debate in the United States over maternal mental health and drew a reaction on Friday from President Donald Trump.
"It's a horrible tragedy," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I assume there's going to be another trial."
Clancy pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, saying she heard a voice ordering her to kill her children.
Her lawyers said this was caused by postpartum psychosis, a condition that medical experts say affects about one to two women in every 1,000 births.
Prosecutors rejected that argument, saying Clancy had carefully planned the murders of her children and was able to understand the consequences of her actions.
Psychiatrists and people close to Clancy, as well as her ex-husband, were among the witnesses who testified about her fragile mental health.

'Lousy medical care'

Dozens of women dressed in pink showed up at the court in Plymouth to extend their support for Clancy -- and to make a statement about women's health more generally.
During closing arguments, Reddington, Clancy's lawyer, said she had made numerous pleas for help before the killings but had received "lousy medical care" from the doctors she consulted.
After the murders at the family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023, Clancy cut her neck and wrists and jumped from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt that has left her paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.
The former nurse faced life in prison without the possibility of parole if found guilty of first-degree murder. 
Jurors were also given the option of finding Clancy guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, or not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility -- a verdict that would see her confined to a psychiatric facility.
The trial has revived memories of a similar case that also captivated the country 25 years ago, that of Andrea Yates, a Texas mother who drowned her five children in 2001.
Yates was initially convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but she was found not guilty by reason of insanity at a 2006 retrial and committed to a psychiatric hospital.
cl/mlm

conflict

WHO says key warehouse destroyed by attack in Ukraine

  • Early on Thursday, "an air attack in Kyiv region destroyed one of WHO's main warehouses storing humanitarian medical supplies.
  • The World Health Organization said Friday that one of its main warehouses in Ukraine had been destroyed in air attack -- the third such incident in three months.
  • Early on Thursday, "an air attack in Kyiv region destroyed one of WHO's main warehouses storing humanitarian medical supplies.
The World Health Organization said Friday that one of its main warehouses in Ukraine had been destroyed in air attack -- the third such incident in three months.
The WHO warned that it was part of a wider pattern of attacks on humanitarian facilities in Ukraine.
"In the past three months, three warehouses used by WHO in different regions of Ukraine have been destroyed by airstrikes, ruining essential medical supplies intended for frontline and hard-to-reach areas," the WHO's Europe branch said in a statement.
Early on Thursday, "an air attack in Kyiv region destroyed one of WHO's main warehouses storing humanitarian medical supplies.
"Access to the site remains restricted due to heavy smoke and safety concerns, while assessments of possible damage and stock losses are ongoing. No WHO personnel were affected."
The WHO said this came after an attack two weeks ago in Dnipro which completely destroyed one of its humanitarian warehouses. That resulted in the loss of half of the medical supplies and equipment intended to support an estimated 225,000 people.
And another warehouse used by WHO in the Kyiv region was damaged during a large-scale wave of attacks on the capital and the wider region in July, it added.
"In my understanding, all warehouses, all UN locations, all WHO locations are deconflicted," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva.
That means their whereabouts are clearly communicated to all sides in an armed conflict.

Supplies disrupted

The attacks are part of a broader pattern affecting humanitarian operations across the country, the UN health agency said.
It said that while the UN aid agency OCHA had counted at least 20 attacks on warehouses storing humanitarian supplies in 2026, the WHO itself had verified 15 attacks on warehouses holding health-related supplies so far this year.
The WHO verifies and records attacks on healthcare but does not attribute blame as it is not an investigation agency.
"Right now, our teams are spending valuable time and resources moving supplies from site to site to keep them safe; time and resources that should go into delivering health care, not protecting it from attack," said Silviu Domente, the WHO's representative to Ukraine.
"We are deeply concerned by the growing pattern of attacks on health in Ukraine, including on humanitarian storage facilities."
The WHO has verified more than 3,000 attacks on health care in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Health facilities and the health system at large fall under the protection of international humanitarian and rights law.
rjm/nl/jj

cancer

US study tests psilocybin to fight cancer side effects

BY CHARLOTTE CAUSIT

  • And psilocybin's nerve-protecting quality does not seem to be linked to its hallucinogenic effects because a non-hallucinogenic analogue had the same effect in a lab test, she added.
  • Here's a novel idea for countering the painful side effects of chemotherapy: beforehand, take the hallucinogenic drug found in magic mushrooms.
  • And psilocybin's nerve-protecting quality does not seem to be linked to its hallucinogenic effects because a non-hallucinogenic analogue had the same effect in a lab test, she added.
Here's a novel idea for countering the painful side effects of chemotherapy: beforehand, take the hallucinogenic drug found in magic mushrooms.
The study published Thursday in the journal Science involved tests on rats and certain human tissues as researchers looked at using psilocybin to fight a condition called peripheral neuropathy, which affects millions of people around the world.
It is a nerve ailment that hits about three quarters of all people who undergo chemo and commonly causes numbness and tingling, Patrick Dougherty, a co-author of the study, said in a call with reporters.
But a third of that group will develop non-stop, burning pain, said Dougherty, a pain treatment specialist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The symptoms can lead to trouble walking and other debilitating complications that can last after a person finishes chemotherapy, and even remain with them for life.
And it is not just a quality-of-life issue. This complication also affects a cancer patient's chances of survival because sometimes the side effects are so bad they force doctors to cut back on chemo or stop it altogether.

Protecting nerves

It was almost by accident that these researchers found that psilocybin can help cancer patients.
The team was initially studying how the disease manages to hijack nerve cells in order to grow.
And the researchers were surprised to see the mushroom ingredient -- it was being used to study a brain pathway regeneration concept called neuroplasticity -- actually prevented the emergence of peripheral neuropathy.
Later experiments highlighted psilocybin's role in protecting nerve cells and stimulating inside them the transport of mitochondria, often referred to as a cell's powerhouse.
This is key because chemo destroys the microscopic railroads that allow mitochondria to send energy all the way to the tips of people's hands and feet, killing off nerve endings there.
Psilocybin also seems to act on the brain, preserving electrical activity that chemotherapy thwarts.
In rodents, taking two doses of psilocybin before chemo was enough to prevent the appearance of painful hypersensitivity during as many as six rounds of treatment. And it did this without affecting the animal's immune system or hindering the cancer-fighting action.

Careful with self-medicating 

"This is a highly promising finding," said Kristy Townsend, a professor of neurobiology at The Ohio State University who was not involved in the study.
And psilocybin's nerve-protecting quality does not seem to be linked to its hallucinogenic effects because a non-hallucinogenic analogue had the same effect in a lab test, she added.
Before the treatment can be made standard for people, testing will be needed to see if it is safe and effective, said Townsend.
This will be a long, slow process though it should be eased by a boom in medical research on psychedelic substances and a Trump administration executive order in April to speed up research and regulatory reviews, these scientists say.
The MD Anderson Cancer Center plans to launch clinical tests with psilocybin on cancer patients later this year.
Meanwhile it is important for cancer patients to avoid using magic mushrooms on their own as treatment, the researchers warned.
Psilocybin is legal in a few US states.
The drug has an "amplifier" effect and cancer patients who take it without supervision could feel more stressed and anxious than they already are because of their cancer diagnosis, said Gregory Jones, a psychiatrist who took part in the study released Thursday.
"If you put somebody in adversity under these psychedelic substances, you can get much worse," Jones said.
cha-dw/mlm/hol

drugs

New Zealand approves use of party drug MDMA to treat trauma

  • Wellington's Ministry of Health said MDMA-assisted treatment would be combined with psychotherapy and stressed that patients would not be supplied drugs to take home.
  • Two psychiatrists in New Zealand won approval Friday to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade MDMA to sufferers of severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
  • Wellington's Ministry of Health said MDMA-assisted treatment would be combined with psychotherapy and stressed that patients would not be supplied drugs to take home.
Two psychiatrists in New Zealand won approval Friday to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade MDMA to sufferers of severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
The move by New Zealand's pharmaceutical regulatory body Medsafe makes the country only the second worldwide to approve the use of the party drug for use in treating PTSD, following Australia in 2023.
"PTSD ruins lives and is difficult to treat," said Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour, who last year backed the approval of magic mushrooms to treat people with severe depression.
"MDMA can be very effective at treating it through psychedelic-assisted therapy."
New Zealand is committed to opening up access to "innovative treatments", Seymour said.
PTSD is a mental health condition that develops after a person experiences or is threatened by traumatic events such as death, combat or sexual assault.
Clinical trials are ongoing in the United States after the Federal Drug Administration rejected legalising MDMA's medicinal use in 2024, saying there was not enough evidence it was safe or effective.
Pharmaceutical treatment options for PTSD in the United States have so far been limited to two antidepressants that require three months of dosing to take effect, and response rates to the medications have been uneven.
A study in Israel last year found that MDMA taken by ravers at the Nova music festival when hundreds were killed by Hamas have been helpful in cushioning the impact of the trauma they endured.
Wellington's Ministry of Health said MDMA-assisted treatment would be combined with psychotherapy and stressed that patients would not be supplied drugs to take home.
"Treatment takes place in a controlled clinical setting under the care of an authorised psychiatrist and forms part of a comprehensive treatment plan," the ministry said.
Any patients would have to be aged 18 or older, it added.
bes/oho/cms

health

Lone juror blocking verdict in US mother's child murder trial: defense

  • Jurors can also find Clancy guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, or not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility -- a verdict that would see Clancy sent to a psychiatric facility. eml-bjt/mlm
  • The defense for Lindsay Clancy, the US mother accused of murdering her three children, on Thursday accused a single holdout juror of blocking a verdict in the high-profile trial. 
  • Jurors can also find Clancy guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, or not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility -- a verdict that would see Clancy sent to a psychiatric facility. eml-bjt/mlm
The defense for Lindsay Clancy, the US mother accused of murdering her three children, on Thursday accused a single holdout juror of blocking a verdict in the high-profile trial. 
Clancy, 36, does not deny strangling Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, but claims she was suffering from postpartum psychosis -- excusing her from criminal responsibility. 
Her five-week trial, which was televised and featured more than 80 witnesses, has sparked debate in the United States over maternal mental health. 
Kevin Reddington, Clancy's main lawyer, told a Massachusetts court Thursday that there is "one juror who refuses to listen to the law that you've given him or her on reasonable doubt."
He requested that the juror be removed from the 12-member panel, but Judge William Sullivan refused and instead sent them back to continue a seventh day of deliberations Friday. 
To reach a verdict, all 12 jurors must be in agreement.
If they cannot agree, the judge will declare a mistrial and prosecutors must decide whether to try the case again with a new jury.
On Wednesday, Sullivan issued the jurors a last-resort, so-called "dynamite charge" that encourages them to keep discussing in a bid to break the impasse and avoid a mistrial.
Clancy has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, saying she heard a voice ordering her to kill her children. Her lawyers say this was caused by postpartum psychosis. 
After the killings at her family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts in January 2023, she jumped from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt that left her paralyzed from the waist down.
The former nurse faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if found guilty of first-degree murder. 
Jurors can also find Clancy guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, or not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility -- a verdict that would see Clancy sent to a psychiatric facility.
eml-bjt/mlm

Meta

EU lawmakers demand Brussels force Meta to 'protect' European children

BY RAZIYE AKKOC

  • The 27-nation EU has been pushing for similar changes and in July told Meta to change its "addictive design" in findings the company said it disagreed with at the time.
  • European Union lawmakers have demanded that the bloc's executive compel Meta to change the "addictive" design of its platforms in Europe, as the giant has promised to do in some US states, according to a letter seen by AFP on Thursday.
  • The 27-nation EU has been pushing for similar changes and in July told Meta to change its "addictive design" in findings the company said it disagreed with at the time.
European Union lawmakers have demanded that the bloc's executive compel Meta to change the "addictive" design of its platforms in Europe, as the giant has promised to do in some US states, according to a letter seen by AFP on Thursday.
Meta agreed last month to pay a coalition of US states as much as $16.7 billion and to impose sweeping new limits on how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram, including an automatic night-time block, as part of a landmark court settlement.
The 27-nation EU has been pushing for similar changes and in July told Meta to change its "addictive design" in findings the company said it disagreed with at the time.
Now in a letter dated Wednesday from French EU lawmaker Stephanie Yon-Courtin and signed by 51 other members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from across the political spectrum, Brussels is being urged to act fast and to force Meta's hand.
"European children are worth no less than American ones," the letter said.
"It would therefore be untenable for European minors to end up less well protected, when our framework is the most demanding in the world."
The EU began its probe into Meta in 2024 under the Digital Services Act (DSA), a content law that has been fiercely criticised by the United States.
The lawmakers said the European Commission, the EU's digital regulator, should conclude the probe "without further delay" with a "non-compliance decision" and penalties.
"And should commitments be accepted.., they must on no account fall short of what Meta has just granted to American users," the MEPs said in the letter addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
They also suggested the EU should be ready to ask a court to block access to platforms temporarily if necessary "once other powers have been exhausted and where an infringement persists and causes serious harm".
The lawmakers said the measure was "not about censoring a service or banning a social network; it is about no longer brandishing a threat that nobody believes in".
Fines could be "written off" by tech titans, they argued, but a "shutdown ordered by a judge reaches the business model itself".
The lawmakers accused von der Leyen of failing to deliver on a political pledge to make online spaces safer for children.
"Will the protection of minors online still be among your priorities?" they wrote. "The commission speaks but does not deliver."

Next: social media ban

EU spokesman Thomas Regnier told reporters the commission remained committed to ensuring change as talks continue with Meta.
"We'll not settle with one or two inbuilt safeguards, this is not enough. We tackle the core design features of these platforms. This is what matters to us, and this is what has to change to protect our kids," Regnier said.
The DSA is a major weapon in the EU's boosted legal arsenal, agreed in recent years to rein in Big Tech firms.
The EU is due to announce some form of ban on social media for children later this month -- although the full details are not yet known.
"If platforms are not building safety-by-design features in their systems, we will have to do more," Regnier said.
raz/ec/db

health

Grinding away: in remote Appalachia, old mills fuel US clean food dreams

BY MICHAEL MATHES

  • "Revitalizing" traditional gristmills, thousands of which once operated in Appalachia -- a swath of mountains and valleys across 13 states, from Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia up to southern New York -- is key to America's clean-food puzzle, Nierenberg said.
  • In a country better known for industrial farming, highly processed food and suspiciously long-lasting bread, Chuck Childers rises before dawn and trudges off to operate one of America's oldest functioning gristmills.
  • "Revitalizing" traditional gristmills, thousands of which once operated in Appalachia -- a swath of mountains and valleys across 13 states, from Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia up to southern New York -- is key to America's clean-food puzzle, Nierenberg said.
In a country better known for industrial farming, highly processed food and suspiciously long-lasting bread, Chuck Childers rises before dawn and trudges off to operate one of America's oldest functioning gristmills.
East Tennessee's water-powered Old Mill first began grinding cornmeal back in 1830 in the deep Appalachian region along the Little Pigeon River.
It still does today.
And Childers, 68, isn't just keeping up tradition and showcasing heritage. 
He and other optimists believe the old ways will fuel a return to healthier, smaller-scale, more sustainable food production across the US.
"There's been a resurgence" of interest in "clean food," he told AFP at the mill in Pigeon Forge.
In a nation that invented the likes of the frozen TV dinner, Childers is winding back the clock with technology that would be recognizable to farmers two millenia ago.
The corn ground at the Old Mill is Tennessee-grown, never genetically modified, and no harsh chemicals or additives are added to the cornmeal and grits.
The stones doing the grinding at the mill -- where the father of late country music legend Dolly Parton once took his corn -- each weigh 2,000 pounds (907-kg).
"I think people... want foods that are whole foods, the way we used to do them, the foods that their grandmother or great-grandmother made," Childers said.
- Traditional vs industrial - 
Traditional millers say stone-ground products are healthier than ones from industrial roller mills.
Heavily processed milling strips away bran, germ and other nutrients, and while federal law requires such flour to be enriched, the end product still lacks key vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants.
"A lot of the fiber is taken off" in the industrial process, said Danielle Nierenberg, president of the not-for-profit Food Tank which seeks to build sustainable and equitable food systems.
"Revitalizing" traditional gristmills, thousands of which once operated in Appalachia -- a swath of mountains and valleys across 13 states, from Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia up to southern New York -- is key to America's clean-food puzzle, Nierenberg said.
The economics, however, are going the other direction, with local mills unable to compete with facilities boasting output hundreds of times greater.
Retired miller John Lovett estimates that fewer than 100 traditional gristmills nationwide still operate at commercial viability.

Appalachia: poverty, poor health

Appalachia is known for its struggles with nutrition, health disparities, diminished access to fresh food, and poverty.
Getting locals to eat differently is a challenge.
"It's like pushing a rope," Lovett sighed. A vocal minority is in favor, "but then the mass majority is, I think, not as concerned."
Even if they want to ditch the industrial food products, healthier alternatives cost more -- and in poverty stricken areas of East Tennessee, that's a non-starter.
Clive Valentine, who built a traditional gristmill in Dandridge, in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, sees hope.
The Covid pandemic "opened people's eyes about what they're putting in their bodies," the 77-year-old told AFP. 
A few years ago, 10 couples might stop by the mill and its general store each weekend. Today, that number has soared tenfold.
"People want clean, organic, non-GMO foods," he said.

Rural America 'hit hard'

In Dolly Parton's hometown of Sevierville, chef Derek Green is on a mission to promote the farm-to-table movement and healthier grains.
"If I know what you're feeding my meat, my veg, my everything, it's going to come out as a better product," said Green, who runs the kitchen at The Appalachian restaurant.
Green recognizes organic foods and stone-ground grains are too expensive for many Americans, but says the movement "has a real-life feel to it right now."
Food Tank's Nierenberg argues that traditional mills should be getting some of the money poured by the US government into agro-industry subsidies.
"Rural America is being hit hard by everything. Farmers are going out of business everyday," she said.
mlm/sms

health

US jury deadlocks again in Lindsay Clancy's child murder trial

  • Jurors can also find Clancy guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, or not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility -- a verdict that would see Clancy sent to a psychiatric facility.
  • A US judge on Wednesday sent jurors back for a final push toward a verdict in Lindsay Clancy's triple murder trial after they deadlocked for a second time, raising the prospect of a mistrial.
  • Jurors can also find Clancy guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, or not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility -- a verdict that would see Clancy sent to a psychiatric facility.
A US judge on Wednesday sent jurors back for a final push toward a verdict in Lindsay Clancy's triple murder trial after they deadlocked for a second time, raising the prospect of a mistrial.
Clancy, 36, does not deny strangling her children Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, but claims she was suffering from postpartum psychosis -- excusing her from criminal responsibility. 
Her five-week trial, which was televised and featured more than 80 witnesses, has sparked debate in the United States over maternal mental health. 
The jury on Wednesday indicated to Judge William Sullivan that it had reached a stalemate again on the fifth day of deliberations.
To reach a verdict, all 12 jurors must agree.
If they cannot agree, the judge will declare a mistrial and prosecutors must decide whether to try the case again with a new jury.
According to US media, Sullivan issued the jurors a last-resort, so-called "dynamite charge" that encourages them to keep discussing in a bid to break the impasse and avoid a mistrial.
Clancy has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, saying she heard a voice ordering her to kill her children. Her lawyers say this was caused by postpartum psychosis. 
After the killings at her family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023, she jumped from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt that left her paralyzed from the waist down. 
The former nurse faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if found guilty of first-degree murder. 
Jurors can also find Clancy guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, or not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility -- a verdict that would see Clancy sent to a psychiatric facility.
During Clancy's trial, dozens of women dressed in pink came to the Massachusetts court to show their support for her. 
Postpartum psychosis is a medical emergency that affects about one to two women in every 1,000 births, according to Sally Wilson, national training coordinator at the UK-based charity Action on Postpartum Psychosis. 
Clancy's case is "an incredibly distressing and rare outcome of postpartum psychosis," Wilson told AFP last month.
eml/bjt/mjf

UN

World must prepare for 'reality' of missing 1.5C goal: UN

BY NICK PERRY

  • - 'Dangerous waters' - UNEP had warned that meeting the 1.5C target was becoming increasingly unlikely as heat-trapping emissions rose year after year and global temperatures steadily climbed. 
  • The United Nations said Wednesday the 1.5C target would be missed and outlined how global temperatures might be brought back down in a first-of-its-kind assessment met with dismay in climate-vulnernable nations.
  • - 'Dangerous waters' - UNEP had warned that meeting the 1.5C target was becoming increasingly unlikely as heat-trapping emissions rose year after year and global temperatures steadily climbed. 
The United Nations said Wednesday the 1.5C target would be missed and outlined how global temperatures might be brought back down in a first-of-its-kind assessment met with dismay in climate-vulnernable nations.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres last year acknowledged the inevitability of overshooting 1.5C in the next few years but this assessment is the first by a UN agency to unambiguously state the target would be breached.
Scientists agree that warming above 1.5C relative to pre-industrial times poses grave risks and nearly 200 nations committed a decade ago to try and keep global temperature rises to this safer threshold.
But in a much-anticipated report involving dozens of scientists, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said the best remaining option had shifted "from avoiding overshoot to navigating it".
"It's a reality check. We have to live with this warmer world... but there's still a lot we can do to limit warming," said report co-author Richard Betts from the University of Exeter.
The report "was about responses rather than just sort of saying it is happening", he told journalists.
Fellow author Debra Roberts said it was important for policymakers "to realise the rules of the game are now changing".
"I think for me that's the clarion call... we now have to reconfigure our climate governance around dealing with an overshoot pathway. None of our plans are prepared for that," said Roberts from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

'Dangerous waters'

UNEP had warned that meeting the 1.5C target was becoming increasingly unlikely as heat-trapping emissions rose year after year and global temperatures steadily climbed. 
But its latest report marks a departure, stating in no uncertain terms that "global action to cut greenhouse gas emissions has not been fast enough to avoid global warming crossing 1.5C".
The blunt message "really struck those who live in low-lying atolls", said Climate Minister Maina Talia of Tuvalu, a Pacific nation threatened by rising sea levels.
Marshall Islands climate envoy Tina Stege said "with the overshoot that is now certain ahead of us, we are fighting against a very strong current that's sweeping us into very dangerous waters".
The Alliance of Small Island States, a grouping of 39 developing coastal nations, said the report "must be a wake-up call to act with far greater urgency."
"Fundamentally, it must be made clear that 1.5C is not an arbitrary goal that countries can waffle on or walk away from," it said.

'Heartbreaking'

"1.5 to stay alive!" is a familiar rally cry at the annual COP summits and the target has been a north star for the climate movement.
"This is a heartbreaking moment, but overshoot is not the reason to give up and surrender 1.5C", said Jasper Inventor from Greenpeace International.
Rachel Cleetus from the Union of Concerned Scientists said breaching 1.5C was "a monumental climate injustice that will impose the worst harms on those who have contributed the least to the climate crisis".
The report said it was "theoretically possible" to reverse global warming once the 1.5C threshold is crossed but great uncertainty remains.
Even under the most optimistic scenario, global temperatures would still need to peak at 1.8C to have any chance of returning to 1.5C this century. 
And to achieve this, carbon dioxide removal -- such as planting trees or using technology to pull carbon from the air -- would be required at enormous scale alongside major, rapid cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
Guterres said such an effort would require "an overshoot of ambition".
"The fight for 1.5 degrees is the fight for humanity," he said on Wednesday.

No good outcomes

At present, carbon removal plays a vanishingly small part in tackling climate change and faces strong opposition.
"The only way to minimise harm is a rapid, just phaseout of all fossil fuels... not speculative technofixes," said Lili Fuhr from campaign organisation CIEL.
The world has already warmed roughly 1.4C since 1850-1900 mostly from the burning of fossil fuels and the last three years have been the hottest on record.
Scientists say any overshoot of 1.5C threatens more extreme weather and risks irreversible changes like the loss of ice sheets and coral reefs.
UNEP executive director Inger Andersen said there "are no good outcomes if we remain above 1.5C".
"Let's be very clear -- that 1.5C target is still the goal. But now, we need to approach it differently: from above," Andersen told journalists.
np/ach 

virus

Ebola death toll passes 3,000 in DR Congo: official data

  • The worst outbreak previously recorded in DR Congo left nearly 2,300 people dead from 3,500 reported cases between 2018 and 2020.
  • The deadliest ever Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has now claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people, according to the latest official toll released on Wednesday.
  • The worst outbreak previously recorded in DR Congo left nearly 2,300 people dead from 3,500 reported cases between 2018 and 2020.
The deadliest ever Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has now claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people, according to the latest official toll released on Wednesday.
The epidemic, which has hit the conflict-hit east and northeast of the country, has caused 3,007 deaths and infected 6,186 people, the Congolese National Institute of Public Health said.
The fatality rate is 48.6 percent. A total of 1,409 people have been reported to have recovered, it added.
Ebola, which is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and causes haemorrhagic fever, has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the last 50 years.
The worst outbreak previously recorded in DR Congo left nearly 2,300 people dead from 3,500 reported cases between 2018 and 2020.
The current outbreak originated in the remote northeastern province of Ituri and is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or treatment.
The virus has spread to six provinces and is ravaging areas where the presence of the Congolese state is weak and insecurity is widespread due to the presence of armed groups.
The health response lacks sufficient resources and has been overwhelmed by the surge in cases, while there has been widespread mistrust in parts of the community.
Several treatments and vaccines are being tested against the Bundibugyo strain. Approved vaccines are only effective against the Zaire strain, which is responsible for the largest-known Ebola outbreak to date.
The World Health Organization has in the meantime recommended the implementation of a phase three clinical trial using the Ervebo vaccine deployed against the Zaire strain.
WHO experts are still unclear as to whether Ervebo protects humans against Bundigbugyo but initial data suggests that it could offer a degree of protection.
A batch of 16,250 doses for use by frontline medical personnel arrived in DR Congo at the end of last month and vaccination began shortly afterwards in Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo province in the northeast.
cld/phz/jj

diplomacy

Afghan people should 'not be abandoned': top Red Cross official

  • "Afghan people need national and international support," she added.
  • Afghanistan has slipped from international attention despite the "extreme needs" of its people, an International Committee of the Red Cross senior official said Monday, urging the world "not to abandon Afghan communities".
  • "Afghan people need national and international support," she added.
Afghanistan has slipped from international attention despite the "extreme needs" of its people, an International Committee of the Red Cross senior official said Monday, urging the world "not to abandon Afghan communities".
ICRC director of operations Yasmine Praz Dessimoz told AFP in an interview in Kabul that Afghans are "struggling to survive with significant humanitarian needs" and a collapsing health system.
One million Afghan children face life-threatening malnutrition, while 3.7 million suffer from acute malnutrition, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF warned last week. 
Owing to the decrease in international aid, 100 clinics that had treated malnutrition in children have closed across the country, the UN said recently.
Afghanistan remains among the top five ICRC operations worldwide, but due to funding cuts "we had to make those difficult choices in order to remain alongside the Afghan population," Praz Dessimoz said.
"Afghan people need national and international support," she added.
The ICRC supports 46 clinics and seven rehabilitation centres across Afghanistan, including services for people wounded in conflict or by unexploded ordnance.
It has made the Durand Line, a colonial-era frontier that Kabul has never formally recognised, a priority, focusing on communities affected by the conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan as it can engage with parties on both sides.
Clashes between the neighbouring countries intensified last October and continued into the spring, displacing thousands of people in Afghanistan and killing and wounding hundreds of civilians.
Praz Dessimoz expressed concern over the restrictions imposed on women by Taliban authorities, including bans on education higher than primary school and certain professions.
"We could keep our female staff in our health support," but the major concern is "what is next? Because if the new generation is not educated, then there won't be any replacement".
She stressed the importance of women health workers, "in order then to deliver (care) and to be close to a woman".
In her week-long visit, she met Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi and Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
"What is important is to be able to engage, to be able to have a dialogue with them," Praz Dessimoz said. 
The Taliban government, which returned to power five years ago, is officially recognised only by Russia.
ash-iw/je/mlm

Open

Injuries cloud tennis as US Open gets under way

BY JOHN BIERS

  • Alcaraz and Sinner are far from alone among top players missing big tournaments in 2026 due to injury, a trend that has been a source of growing alarm in the sport.
  • After Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner split last year's Grand Slams, the two superstars were expected to continue their see-saw rivalry in 2026.
  • Alcaraz and Sinner are far from alone among top players missing big tournaments in 2026 due to injury, a trend that has been a source of growing alarm in the sport.
After Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner split last year's Grand Slams, the two superstars were expected to continue their see-saw rivalry in 2026.
That hasn't happened. 
Instead, injuries have foreclosed the possibility of a clash between the two champions in three of the four Grand Slams, with the Spaniard missing the French Open and Wimbledon due to a wrist injury and the Italian absent from New York because of a knee injury.
Alcaraz and Sinner are far from alone among top players missing big tournaments in 2026 due to injury, a trend that has been a source of growing alarm in the sport.
Italy's Lorenzo Musetti and France's Arthur Fils missed earlier Grand Slams in 2026 due to injury but are playing in New York, while women's number two seed Elena Rybakina is nursing a heel injury as she prepares for her first round. Canada's Victoria Mboko missed both Wimbldedon and the US Open due to injury, along with Britain's Jack Draper. 
Compared with earlier generations, today's best tennis players have access to more sophisticated practices in fitness and nutrition, greater candor about mental health and improved technology in detecting and treating injuries. 
"We're losing the battle overall despite the advances in sports medicine," said Neeru Jayanthi, who leads the tennis medicine program at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta.

Bigger, faster, stronger

The injury problem points to the downside of the greater physicality needed to compete at the highest levels of a sport where play is becoming faster and more powerful all the time, enabled by racquet innovations that allow for wicked topspin shots that didn't exist in earlier tennis eras.
"The game has gotten more intense because the players have gotten bigger, faster, and stronger," said Mackie Shilstone, a longtime fitness expert who worked with Serena Williams for 14 years. 
The faster pace places greater strain on the body when it changes direction, while more severe weather due to climate change also takes a toll, Shilstone said.
Adding to that, the big business of tennis is played over 11 months of the year, highlighted by the four Grand Slams and a series of mandatory 1,000-level tournaments.
"You can't go 11 months straight and travel all over the world," Shilstone said. "There has to be planned recovery built in."
Extreme topspin is a factor in the rising incidence of wrist injuries seen at all levels of tennis, said New York hand and wrist surgeon Remy Rabinovich at Northwell Health, who perceives a silver lining in that players are opting to rest rather than playing through pain.
"There is a big element of preventative medicine and more strategic ways of playing in the hopes of having a longer career," Rabinovich told AFP.
At a media availability Friday, Alcaraz said he decided to rest until he was ready to come back to "hopefully have a really long career," he said. 
Novak Djokovic has had injuries in recent years, but at 39, remains a contender at this year's US Open.

Cumulative damage

Injuries in tennis are not new. Among the group of recently-retired greats, Rafael Nadal was out of commission for significant stretches in his peak years due to injury, while hip problems largely derailed Andy Murray's career after he won Wimbledon and the Olympics in 2016.
Roger Federer, who avoided major injury for most of his career, retired in 2022 after realizing "the knee can't do it anymore," he said last week.
Since Federer retired, the tours have shifted many of the 1,000-level tournaments to two-week coed events with 96-player draws, which the "players are probably mentally and physically adjusting to," Federer said, adding that not overplaying is "easier said than done."
A 2024 study by the European Journal of Sport Science in pro matches from the 1970s through 2019 pointed to an overall increase in match retirements.
But a 2016 study showed no increase in injuries at Wimbledon between 2003 and 2012, while ruing "a paucity of published data describing the incidence of injury in elite tennis."
Mitigating injuries is expected to figure into a Grand Slam Player Advisory Council announced earlier this week, according to a press release that identified player welfare as an aspect of the council's mandate.
Addressing the tennis schedule is the most often-discussed response to the injury problem, but Emory's Jayanthi argues for a broader approach, maintaining that major injuries are often the result of cumulative wear and tear from more years of intense play in juniors. 
"Perhaps we should revisit the way we decide to train our younger players to position them for long-term success," he said.
jmb/rcw