Mexico City’s floating gardens in peril

All, News
MEXICO CITY — Cassandra Garduño squinted in the sunlight, her pink boots smudged by dirt as she gazed out over her family's chinampa — one of the islands first built up by the Aztecs with fertile mud from the bottom of a lake that, later drained, would one day become Mexico City. Food from these islands has fed people for hundreds of years, but the chinampas are under threat from urbanization. The produce grown here doesn't fetch much money, and many families are abandoning the ancient practice to rent out or sell their land for more lucrative uses such as soccer fields. "People don't want to farm anymore," said Garduño. "They don't see it as a necessity, they don't want to produce, and people don't want to buy the products." Some…


Canada detects its first presumptive human H5 bird flu case

All, News
OTTAWA, Ontario — Canada has detected its first presumptive case of H5 bird flu in a person, a teenager in the western province of British Columbia, health officials said Saturday. The teenager likely caught the virus from a bird or animal and was receiving care at a children's hospital, the province said in a statement. The province said it was investigating the source of exposure and identifying the teenager's contacts. The risk to the public remains low, Canada's Health Minister Mark Holland said in posting on X. "This is a rare event," British Columbia Health Officer Bonnie Henry said in a statement. "We are conducting a thorough investigation to fully understand the source of exposure here in B.C." H5 bird flu is widespread in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks…


Experts release new guidelines for preventing strokes

All, News
Most strokes could be prevented, according to new guidelines aimed at helping people and their doctors do just that.  Stroke was the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than half a million Americans have a stroke every year. But up to 80% of strokes may be preventable with better nutrition, exercise and identification of risk factors.  The first new guidelines on stroke prevention in 10 years from the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association, include recommendations for people and doctors that reflect a better understanding of who gets strokes and why, along with new drugs that can help reduce risk.  The good news is that the best way to reduce your risk…


Climate, health crises must be resolved together, experts say

All, News
GENEVA — Ahead of next week’s U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, health experts warn that the climate crisis is also a health crisis and say they must be addressed in tandem to save the planet for future generations. “Human health and planetary health are intertwined,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “Countries must take meaningful action to protect their people, boost resources, cut emissions, phase out fossil fuels and make peace with nature.” His call for action is buttressed by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, who calls COP29 “a crucial opportunity for global leaders to integrate health considerations into strategies for adapting to and mitigating climate change.” In preparation for the climate summit, the World Health Organization, in collaboration with more than 100 organizations…


Global warming tops milestone ahead of climate summit

All, News
London — 2024 is likely to be the hottest year ever recorded, with global warming already exceeding the threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, according to scientists, who released the latest data ahead of the COP29 climate summit due to start Monday in Azerbaijan.  Carlo Buontempo, the director of the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation program, which produced the data, said it was an important moment for humankind.  “I call it psychological because it's something that has been agreed not only among scientists, but between scientists and policymakers and society and nations to use as a reference point. ... It is a benchmark with respect to that global discussion,” he told the Associated Press on Thursday.  Paris Agreement  Keeping global warming to within 1.5°C of pre-industrial levels was a central pillar…


Global warming tops crucial milestone ahead of COP29 climate summit

All, News
The COP29 climate summit is due to get under way on Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan — a country whose economy is largely based on selling fossil fuels. Over 12 days, world leaders and thousands of delegates will try to negotiate ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions, amid warnings that efforts to limit global warming are way off track. Henry Ridgwell reports. ...


DNA evidence rewrites long-told stories of people in ancient Pompeii

All, News
When a volcanic eruption buried the ancient city of Pompeii, the last desperate moments of its citizens were preserved in stone for centuries. Observers see stories in the plaster casts later made of their bodies, like a mother holding a child and two women embracing as they died. But new DNA evidence suggests things were not as they seem — and these prevailing interpretations come from looking at the ancient world through modern eyes. "We were able to disprove or challenge some of the previous narratives built upon how these individuals were kind of found in relation to each other," said Alissa Mittnik of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. "It opens up different interpretations for who these people might have been." Mittnik and her colleagues discovered…


US health officials call for expanded bird flu testing for farm workers

All, News
Federal health officials on Thursday called for more testing of employees on farms with bird flu after a new study showed that some dairy workers had signs of infection, even when they didn't report feeling sick.  Farmworkers in close contact with infected animals should be tested and offered treatment even if they show no symptoms, said Dr. Nirav Shah, principal director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The new guidance comes after blood tests for 115 farmworkers in Michigan and Colorado showed that eight workers — or 7% — had antibodies that indicated previous infection with the virus known as Type A H5N1 influenza.  "The purpose of these actions is to keep workers safe, to limit the transmission of H5 to humans and to reduce the possibility…


Mpox spread slows slightly in Africa

All, News
KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO — The spread of mpox has slowed down slightly across Africa, but the epidemic is not over, the African Union's health watchdog said Thursday. Fifteen countries across Africa recorded 11,453 mpox cases in the last four weeks, compared with 12,802 in the four weeks prior, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said during an online briefing. But the head of the Africa CDC, Jean Kaseya, warned the epidemic was not over. "We are still in the acute phase of the outbreak that is pushing us to double our effort to control mpox in Africa," Kaseya said. "Unfortunately, we are still losing a number of people," he said. Since the start of the year, authorities have recorded 50,840 mpox cases and 1,083 deaths across Africa.…


Can honeybees and dogs detect cancer earlier than technology? 

All, News
Washington — Researchers at Michigan State University recently discovered that honeybees, with their keen sense of smell, can sniff out lung cancer on a patient’s breath. “Our world is visual. Insects’ world is all based on smell, so their sense of smell is very, very good,” says Debajit Saha, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Michigan State University, who was part of a team that published research on the discovery last month. “There is quite a bit of research that shows that when some cancer grows inside our body, our breath actually changes. Our research does show that honeybees can detect lung cancer and possibly other diseases based on the smell of those cells.” Saha and his team harnessed the bees and attached electrodes to their brains. The insects were then…


European climate agency says this will likely be the hottest year on record — again

All, News
CHICAGO — For the second year in a row, Earth will almost certainly be the hottest it's ever been. And for the first time, the globe this year reached more than 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming compared to the pre-industrial average, the European climate agency Copernicus said Thursday. “It's this relentless nature of the warming that I think is worrying,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus. Buontempo said the data clearly shows the planet would not see such a long sequence of record-breaking temperatures without the constant increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere driving global warming. He cited other factors that contribute to exceptionally warm years like last year and this one. They include El Nino — the temporary warming of parts of the Pacific that changes weather worldwide —…


Vaccine doses allocated for 9 African countries hardest hit by mpox

All, News
An initial 899,000 vaccine doses have been allocated for nine countries across Africa that have been hit hard by the current mpox surge, the WHO and other health organizations said on Wednesday. The WHO declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years in August after a new variant of the virus, called clade Ib, spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo to neighboring countries. In September, after facing criticism on moving too slowly on vaccines, the World Health Organization cleared Bavarian Nordic's BAVA.CO vaccine for mpox and said it was considering LC16, made by Japan's KM Biologics as a potential vaccine option. The WHO also set up a scheme to help bring mpox vaccines, tests and treatments to the most vulnerable people in the…


WHO: 2 UK mpox cases first local transmissions in Europe

All, News
London — Two new cases of the mpox variant clade 1b detected in the U.K. are the first locally transmitted cases in Europe and the first outside Africa, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. The U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed late Monday that the two new cases were household contacts of Britain's first case identified last week, bringing the country's total confirmed cases to three. The WHO warned that European states should be prepared for "rapid action" to contain the latest mpox variant, which spreads through close physical contact including sexual relations and sharing closed spaces. The two cases are also the first to be locally transmitted outside Africa since August 2024, when the WHO declared the outbreak of the new variant an international public health emergency — its highest…


WHO identifies priority pathogens for new vaccines development

All, News
Geneva — The World Health Organization on Tuesday listed 17 pathogens that cause widespread disease and death, including HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, for which it said new vaccines were "urgently needed." The U.N. health agency said that it with its list was providing the first global effort to systematically prioritize endemic pathogens based on criteria including disease burdens, antimicrobial resistance risk and the socioeconomic impact. "We need to do this because we would like to shift the focus from developing vaccines away from commercial returns towards regional and global health needs," Mateusz Hasso-Agopsowicz, a WHO vaccine specialist, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Poland. The study reconfirms longstanding priorities for vaccine research and development, including HIV, malaria and tuberculosis -- three diseases that collectively kill nearly 2.5 million people…


WHO continues talks to prepare world for pandemics

All, News
geneva — World Health Organization member countries resumed negotiations Monday to finalize an agreement on pandemic prevention, with outbreaks of mpox, Marburg and H5N1 stressing the urgency of reaching an agreement without repeating the deadly mistakes of COVID-19. After more than two years of negotiations, there is hope of reaching an agreement in the next 15 days, especially since the negotiators have agreed to postpone discussions on the most contentious points: the sharing of knowledge and equitable access to medical advances. Recent negotiations at COP16 in Colombia on biodiversity, which provided for a comparable mechanism, stumbled on this point. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed the need to balance timeliness and workable deal. "Time is not our friend,” Tedros told national negotiators at the opening of the talks. “COVID is still…


Public funding for nature conservation stalls at COP16, eyes on private investment

All, News
CALI, Colombia — Wealthy nations appeared to hit a limit with how much they are willing to pay to conserve nature around the world, instead shifting their focus at the two-week U.N. biodiversity summit toward discussions of private money filling the funding gap. At the COP16 negotiations in Cali, Colombia, countries failed to figure out how they would mobilize $200 billion annually in conservation funding by 2030, including $30 billion that would come directly from rich nations. That money, pledged two years ago as part of the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreement, is meant to finance activities that boost nature, such as sustainable farming or patrolling wildlife reserves. But there was no consensus as talks dragged on beyond the summit's scheduled end on Friday, during which dozens of delegations departed.…


Mpox cases in Congo may be stabilizing, but more vaccines needed to stamp out virus 

All, News
Goma, Congo — Some health officials say mpox cases in Congo appear to be “stabilizing” — a possible sign that the main epidemic for which the World Health Organization made a global emergency declaration in August might be on the decline.   In recent weeks, Congo has reported about 200 to 300 lab-confirmed mpox cases every week, according to WHO. That’s down from nearly 400 cases a week in July. The decline is also apparent in Kamituga, the mining city in the eastern part of Congo where the new, more infectious variant of mpox first emerged.   But the U.N. health agency acknowledged Friday that only 40% to 50% of suspected infections in Congo were being tested — and that the virus is continuing to spread in some parts of the…


Lahore air pollution hits historic high, forcing school closures 

All, News
KARACHI — Unprecedented air pollution levels in Pakistan's second-largest city of Lahore prompted authorities to take emergency measures on Sunday, including issuing work-from-home mandates and closing primary schools.   The city held the top spot on a real-time list of the world's most polluted cities on Sunday after recording its highest ever pollution reading of 1900 near the Pakistan-India border on Saturday, based on data released by the provincial government and Swiss group IQAir.   The government has shut primary schools for a week, advising parents to ensure children wear masks, said Senior Minister of Punjab Marriyum Aurangzeb during a press conference, as a thick blanket of smog enveloped the city.   Citizens have been urged to stay indoors, keep doors and windows shut, and avoid unnecessary travel, she said, adding that hospitals had…


Ethiopia bans imports of gas-powered private vehicles, but the switch to electric is a bumpy ride 

All, News
ADDIS ABABA — As the price of fuel soared in Ethiopia earlier this year, Awgachew Seleshi decided to buy an electric car. That aligned with the government's new efforts to phase out gas-powered vehicles. But months later, he's questioning whether it was the right decision.   He faces a range of issues, from the erratic supply of electricity in Addis Ababa, the capital, to the scarcity of spare parts.   “Charging my car has been a challenge," the civil servant said. “Spare parts that are imported from China are expensive, few mechanics are able to fix such cars and the resale value of such cars is poor.”   Seleshi's troubles point to wider challenges for Ethiopia. In January, the East African country became the first in the world to ban the importation of non-electric…


Will people leave Florida after devastating hurricanes? History suggests not

All, News
orlando, florida — The news rippled through Treasure Island, Florida, almost like a third storm: The mayor planned to move off the barrier island a month after Hurricane Helene flooded tens of thousands of homes along the Gulf Coast and two weeks after Hurricane Milton also ravaged the state.  Mayor Tyler Payne's home had been flooded and damaged beyond repair, he explained in a message to Treasure Island residents, and he and his husband can't afford to rebuild. He also was stepping down as mayor.  "While it pains my heart to make this decision in the midst of our recovery from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, this is the best decision for me and my family," Payne, who had held the office for more than three years and was a fourth-generation Treasure…


Nevada lithium mine will crush rare plant habitat US said is critical to its survival, lawsuit says

All, News
RENO, Nevada — Conservationists and a Native American tribe are suing the U.S. to try to block a Nevada lithium mine they say will drive an endangered desert wildflower to extinction, disrupt groundwater flows and threaten cultural resources. The Center for Biological Diversity promised the court battle a week ago when the U.S. Interior Department approved Ioneer Ltd.'s Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron mine at the only place Tiehm's buckwheat is known to exist in the world, near the California line halfway between Reno and Las Vegas. It is the latest in a series of legal fights over projects President Joe Biden's administration is pushing under his clean energy agenda intended to cut reliance on fossil fuels, in part by increasing the production of lithium to make electric vehicle batteries and solar panels.…


Agreement signed at UN summit gives Indigenous groups voice

All, News
CALI, Colombia — After two weeks of negotiations, delegates on Saturday agreed at the United Nations conference on biodiversity to establish a subsidiary body that will include Indigenous peoples in future decisions on nature conservation, a development that builds on a growing movement to recognize the role of the descendants of some regions' original inhabitants in protecting land and combating climate change.  The delegates also agreed to oblige major corporations to share the financial benefits of research when using natural genetic resources.  Indigenous delegations erupted into cheers and tears after the historic decision to create the subsidiary body was announced. It recognizes and protects the traditional knowledge systems of Indigenous peoples and local communities for the benefit of global and national biodiversity management, said Sushil Raj, Executive Director of the Rights…


Time to ‘fall back’ an hour as daylight saving time ends

All, News
The good news: You will get a glorious extra hour of sleep. The bad: It'll be dark by late afternoon for the next few months in the United States. Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time Sunday, which means you should set your clock back an hour before you go to bed. Standard time will last until March 9, when we will again "spring forward" with the return of daylight saving time.  "Fall back" should be easier. But it still may take a while to adjust your sleep habits, not to mention the downsides of leaving work in the dark or trying to exercise while there's still enough light. Some people with seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression usually linked to the shorter days and less sunlight…


Robot retrieves first melted fuel from Fukushima nuclear reactor

All, News
TOKYO — A remote-controlled robot has safely returned with a tiny piece of melted fuel it collected from inside one of three damaged reactors at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant for the first time since the 2011 meltdown. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant, said Saturday that the extendable fishing rod-like robot successfully clipped a gravel as big as 5 millimeters, the size of a tiny granola bit, from the top surface of a mound of molten fuel debris that sits on the bottom of the No. 2 reactor’s primary containment vessel. The Telesco robot, with its frontal tongs still holding the melted fuel bit, returned to the enclosed container for safe storage after workers in full hazmat gear pulled it out of the containment vessel…


Winter depression is real, and there are many ways to fight back

All, News
As winter approaches and daylight hours grow shorter, people prone to seasonal depression can feel it in their bodies and brains. "It's a feeling of panic, fear, anxiety and dread all in one," said Germaine Pataki, 63, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She's among the millions of people estimated to have seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. Her coping strategies include yoga, walking and an antidepressant medication. She's also part of a Facebook group for people with SAD. "I try to focus on helping others through it," Pataki said. "This gives me purpose." People with SAD typically have episodes of depression that begin in the fall and ease in the spring or summer. Changing the clocks back to standard time, which happens this weekend, can be a trigger for SAD. A milder form,…


World’s largest captive crocodile dies in Australia

All, News
sydney — A 5.48-meter Australian crocodile that held the world record as the largest crocodile in captivity has died, a wildlife sanctuary said on Saturday. He was thought to be more than 110 years old. Cassius, weighing in at more than one ton, had been in declining health since October 15, Marineland Melanesia Crocodile Habitat said on Facebook. "He was very old and believed to be living beyond the years of a wild croc," according to a post by the organization, based on Green Island near the Queensland tourist town of Cairns. "Cassius will be deeply missed, but our love and memories of him will remain in our hearts forever." The group's website said he had lived at the sanctuary since 1987 after being transported from the neighboring Northern Territory, where…


COVID-19 shots banned at public health district in Idaho, likely first in US

All, News
A regional public health department in Idaho is no longer providing COVID-19 vaccinations to residents in six counties after a narrow decision by its board. Southwest District Health appears to be the first in the nation to be restricted from giving COVID-19 shots. Vaccinations are an essential function of a public health department. While policymakers in Texas banned health departments from promoting COVID-19 vaccines and Florida's surgeon general bucked medical consensus to recommend against the vaccine, governmental bodies across the country haven't blocked the vaccines outright. "I'm not aware of anything else like this," said Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. She said health departments have stopped offering the vaccine because of cost or low demand, but not…