Liberal Blogosphere

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:42:20 +0000

The Lancet: Experts call for climate change to be declared a global health emergency, as many health impacts outpace climate action

The Lancet

The 10th indicator report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change suggests that some of the health harms of climate change grew faster in the decade since the Paris Agreement entered into force (2016–2025) than in the previous decade (2006–2015) as climate action fails to keep pace.
Annual average heat-related deaths rose by nearly 36% globally after the Paris Agreement was introduced. In 2023 alone, heat was linked to a record 710,000 deaths with more than 70% of that toll attributable to human-caused climate change.
Extreme drought affected nearly 52% of the world’s land for at least a month in 2025 (the second-highest level on record), while a new satellite-based analysis suggests that since 2003, 80% of the world’s land has faced significant shifting patterns of increasing dry and wet groundwater storage conditions, with implications for food security and sanitation.
Globally, clean energy investment reached a record US$2.1 trillion in 2025, almost double what was invested in fossil fuels, and cleaner air has prevented an estimated 323,000 deaths a year in at least 77 countries where air pollution from fossil fuels has fallen since 2016. Yet fossil fuels still supply more than 80% of the world’s energy, and the 100 largest oil and gas companies are on track to exceed 1.5°C-compatible production levels by 150% by 2040 – up from 138% from last year.
The report’s authors are calling for climate change to be formally recognised and addressed as a global health emergency, and for health to be placed at the centre of every climate decision, from emissions reductions to funding priorities.

**Country Data Sheets and Infographics available – see Notes to Editors**

The 2026 Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change finds that many of the health risks and harms of climate change grew faster in the decade since the Paris Agreement was introduced (2016–2025) than in the decade before it (2006–2015). Clean energy investment, health system leadership, more health-protecting legislation, and growing scientific evidence helped deliver real health gains, but not enough to offset the rapidly growing harm from fossil-fuel-driven climate change. The report’s authors call for climate change to be formally recognised and addressed as a global health emergency, and for health to shape both climate policies and funding priorities to prevent climate change.

The 10th Lancet Countdown annual report, led by University College London (UCL), and produced in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), represents the work of 146 multidisciplinary researchers from more than 100 institutions across more than 30 countries. Published ahead of the 31st UN Conference of the Parties (COP31), it tracks 54 indicators of the health impacts of climate change and the health effects of climate action, including four new indicators introduced this year covering the availability of water in land (indicator 1.2.2), healthcare sector greenhouse gas footprint assessments (indicator 3.5.2), climate-related health research funding (indicator 4.3.4), and legislative engagement with health and climate change (indicator 5.5). New this year, the report includes an updated media engagement indicator (indicator 5.1), and now also attributes estimated heat-related deaths to human-caused climate change (indicator 1.1.5).

“A decade after the Paris Agreement, our findings are unambiguous: the health harms of climate change are growing faster than the world's response to them, and in many cases even accelerating,” says Professor Marina Romanello, Executive Director of the Lancet Countdown, based at University College London. “Real progress has been made in clean energy, health system readiness, and health-protective regulation, all of which are already delivering health benefits to local communities. However, progress has been too slow, too small, and isn't reaching those who need it most. That is why we are calling for climate change to be formally recognised as a global health emergency, with health placed at the centre of every climate decision.”

Many health harms accelerating faster than a decade ago

Heat was linked to an average of 540,800 estimated deaths per year between 2016 and 2023, 68% of them (369,900) caused by climate change, up from 55% (219,100) per year in 2006–2015. In 2023 alone, the hottest year in that period, heat was linked to a record 710,000 estimated deaths, exceeding those from malaria or HIV, with 71.5% of them driven by climate change. Altogether, climate change is estimated to have caused almost 3 million heat deaths between 2016 and 2023.

Heat also reduced people’s capacity to work productively in 2025, costing the global economy an estimated US$1.07 trillion in potential income (0.91% of global economic output), the third consecutive year that losses topped US$1 trillion. South-East Asia and Africa were hit hardest, with losses equivalent to 3.9% and 3.2% of GDP, respectively, compared to 0.2% in Europe and 1.5% in the Americas. The agriculture and construction sectors, both largely outdoor and physically demanding jobs, absorbed the biggest share of the losses (38% and 29% respectively), because heat directly impacts people’s labour productivity, and puts workers’ health at risk. The impact is particularly pronounced in Africa, where agriculture accounts for 71% of heat-related potential income losses.

More than half the world's land (51.8%) was hit by extreme drought for at least a month in 2025, the second-worst year on record after 2023. Since 2016, the area affected by drought has grown more than 700% faster than it did in 2006–2015. In addition, a new satellite analysis identifies growing extremes in water storage. Since 2003, 43% of the world's land has seen a long-term drop in water storage (getting drier) while a separate 37% has seen a long-term rise (getting wetter), together creating hydrological extremes affecting more than 80% of the world's land and threatening crops, food supplies, and sanitation. Very extreme rainfall is also becoming more common, reaching almost 17.2% of global land each year in 2016–2025, up from 14.8% the previous decade, and increasing the risk of floods, landslides and waterborne disease.

“These numbers point to a clear emergency,” says Professor Romanello. “The rate of increase in many climate-related health threats is accelerating, while heat deaths linked to climate change have reached a record-high, and the economic toll is battering vulnerable sectors and communities the hardest. The risks become even more profound when you consider how different hazards interact and compound. At the same time, drought is spreading, and the world is swinging to water extremes, some drying out, while others are flooding. This isn't a gradual worsening; it's a step change that must be recognised as the global health emergency it is”

Despite gains, progress is falling short

Cleaner energy, more resilient health systems, along with more health-protecting legislation and growing scientific evidence have brought real health benefits to local communities since the 2016 Paris Agreement, but these gains are still too slow, too insufficient, and too inconsistent to offset the growing risks.

Global investment in clean energy grew 7.2% in 2025, to a record US$2.1 trillion, 82% more than the US$1.16 trillion invested in fossil fuels. Such investment has helped renewable electricity grow from 5.5% of the total generation in 2016 to 13.5% in 2023. Health gains are already evident, with cleaner air preventing an estimated 323,000 deaths a year in at least 77 countries where air pollution from fossil fuels has fallen since 2016. However, rising overall energy demand and slow system change means fossil fuels still supply over 80% of the world's energy, and climate-heating emissions reached a record high in 2024. Despite gains in some countries, fossil-fuel air pollution still kills an estimated 2.73 million people a year worldwide.

Health systems are taking important early action: a quarter (56 of 194) of WHO member states now have a national plan for adapting health services to climate change, up from just 14 in 2015, and 47 have separately completed a vulnerability assessment to underpin plans. Beyond planning, almost half of WHO member states declared already having a health surveillance system that incorporates climate information, and more than half (75 of 145 respondents) declared having at least one climate-informed health early warning system. Importantly, the report finds that health early warning systems are slowing down the increase in deaths from extreme weather events in those places which have them.

Legal momentum is building as well. National laws referencing both climate change and health have risen roughly 50-fold since 2000, most of that since 2016. Funding for climate-related health research has also increased, up 655% between 2016 and 2024 from US$42 million to US$316 million, though almost all of it (84%) still goes to researchers in the world's wealthiest countries, leaving evidence gaps where the risks are often greatest.

“Ten years ago, we proposed that responding to climate change could offer the greatest health opportunity of the 21st century through adaptation efforts and rapid progress in phasing down fossil fuels and other emission sources”, says Prof Anthony Costello, Co-Chair of the Lancet Countdown. “A decade on, we have proof that health-centred climate action works: cleaner air, more resilient healthcare and warning systems are protecting health and saving lives globally. But the pace and scale of emissions reduction remains entirely out of step with the pace and scale of the harm.”

Fossil fuel expansion and funding gaps raise the risk

The report finds that progress on the transition away from fossil fuels is continuing to fall short. Fossil fuel production plans are increasingly misaligned with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal, with the world's 100 largest oil and gas companies now planning to produce 150% more fossil fuels by 2040 than is compatible with keeping warming to 1.5°C, up from 138% in 2025 [see page 261 in the appendix].

Production plans persist despite rising fossil fuel costs, which are straining public finances. In response to energy price spikes, global net fossil fuel subsidies reached record levels in 2022–2024, and ten countries spent more on them in 2024 than on their health systems. Net subsidies have doubled since 2016, with countries allocating a cumulative US$6.20 trillion to them since the Paris Agreement was introduced.

Despite the critical need to move away from fossil fuels to protect health and lives, vested interests continue to obstruct progress. The report details how lobbying and disinformation by fossil fuel interests and their political allies continue to weaken support for climate action, despite growing scientific evidence linking climate change and health. The report also finds that national governments, international organisations, and the private sector are now less engaged with health and climate change, reversing previous progress.

Adaptation funding is falling far short of what's needed: the health adaptation needs quantified so far by developing countries (as classified by UNFCCC) put the minimum cost at US$3.3 billion a year, b

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:40:43 +0000

Fighting cancer also means fighting against social stigma

Flinders University

Cancer-related discrimination arises from long-lasting cultural and institutional misconceptions, with significant impacts on every part of a person’s quality of life and health – and Flinders University researchers say it requires coordinated policy, legal, institutional and public education responses for change to occur.

“Cancer can affect much more than a person’s physical health. Our research shows that a cancer diagnosis can also change how people are treated at work, when looking for a job, accessing insurance or financial support, and even within their own social networks,” says lead author Dr Andi Agbejule, a radiation therapist and Cancer Care researcher with Flinders University’s College of Health and Enablement.

“Surviving cancer should not mean having to fight a second battle against stigma, outdated assumptions and unfair treatment.”

Researchers examined more than 100 studies on cancer-related discrimination – which is defined as direct and recurring experiences of enacted stigma, behaviours or unfair treatment based on an individual's cancer history, current cancer diagnosis, perceived cancer risk or cancer caregiving role.

Discrimination stemmed from misconceptions that cancer is contagious, employer concerns about productivity and costs attached to a person with cancer, rigid financial and welfare regulations, along with reduced empathy from the public, and even clinicians, towards cancers perceived as being ‘self-inflicted’ (such as smokers being diagnosed with cancer).

In financial and welfare systems, discrimination includes people being denied insurance because of their cancer history, facing difficulties accessing superannuation or disability entitlements, and navigating eligibility rules that did not reflect the reality that the effects of cancer can change over time. Some people continued to be treated as a financial risk even years after completing treatment.

In healthcare settings, this led to blame judgement and strained patient-clinician interactions. Other impacts of discrimination included self-isolation, concealment of diagnosis, internalised stigma, psychological distress and financial burden.

“Discrimination is not just an unpleasant experience – it can have real consequences,” says Dr Agbejule. “People reported losing jobs, being overlooked for employment, struggling to access insurance, superannuation or financial support, and in some cases taking lower-paid work, using their savings or going into debt.

“It can contribute to financial hardship, including people having to use their savings or take on debt, affect how they are treated by family, friends and the wider community, influence the quality of healthcare they receive, and even make people reluctant to disclose their cancer diagnosis or seek healthcare when they need it.

“This results in social withdrawal, people hiding their cancer diagnosis, and in some cases, fear of discrimination was also linked to people delaying their healthcare.”

The researchers say this points to a need for greater public and private sector education.

“Cancer-related discrimination is not only interpersonal, but also structurally embedded and intersectional,” says Dr Agbejule. “Addressing cancer-related discrimination requires coordinated interventions across individual, community, organisational and policy levels.

“We need to challenge outdated assumptions about what people affected by cancer can and cannot do, while improving awareness among financial institutions employers, organisations, healthcare professionals and the broader community.”

The researchers are now building on this initial research to help change cancer-related discrimination in Australia.

“The goal is to move from documenting the problem to developing practical solutions, including better education, workplace practices, policies and protections for people affected by cancer,” says Dr Agbejule.

“Ultimately, people should not be defined by a cancer diagnosis. As more people live with and beyond cancer, we need to make sure our workplaces, systems and communities evolve with them.”

The research – “From Mechanisms to Manifestations: A Scoping Review Exploring Cancer-Related Discrimination”, by Oluwaseyifunmi Andi Agbejule, Fiona Crawford-Williams, Ria Joseph, Kim Hobbs, Carla Thamm, Sue Woodall, Ashleigh Sharman, Joe Wing Pun, Monique Bareham, Jenny Richards, James Scheibner, Catherine Paterson and Raymond Chan – has been published in Psycho-Oncology journal. DOI: 10.1002/pon.70614

Journal

Psycho-Oncology

DOI

10.1002/pon.70614

Method of Research

Literature review

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

From Mechanisms to Manifestations: A Scoping Review Exploring Cancer‐Related Discrimination

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:44:35 +0000

Little evidence that common workplace ergonomics help

An updated Cochrane review has found that ergonomic interventions show no meaningful benefit for pain, function, recovery or sick leave in workers with work-related complaints of the arm, neck or shoulder (CANS), compared with no treatment.

Cochrane

CANS covers disorders that develop from repetitive movements, awkward postures or external forces such as vibrating tools. They significantly affect working populations worldwide.

Workplaces heavily invest in ergonomic interventions, such as office furniture changes and biomechanical or ergonomic education, to help office workers with CANS.

No clear benefit for pain, function or sick leave

Led by researchers from the University of Technology Sydney, the review analyzed 20 trials, 16 of which looked at non-specific CANS, involving a total of 2,478 people with work-related CANS. The participants included workers who frequently use computers in their job.

The review found that, compared with no treatment, usual care or placebo, ergonomic interventions may make little to no difference to short-term pain. They probably make little to no difference to functional status, sick leave or recovery.

Low-certainty evidence points to possible benefits for quality of life and health care use. Results were mixed, however, and one analysis showed a reduction in health care consumption while another showed little to no difference.

Overall, ergonomic approaches appear less effective than exercise, though small benefits may occur in specific subgroups, such as people with rotator cuff tendinitis.

“When we pooled the best available trials, ergonomic interventions made little to no difference to pain, function, recovery or sick leave compared with no treatment. The certainty of that evidence ranges from low to moderate, so this is a clear signal that the case for these interventions is weaker than many people assume,” says Dr Poonam Mehta, lead author from University of Technology Sydney. “We’d need more evidence to confirm this, as there is not much high-quality research in this area.”

A big investment for companies

Many companies push for and invest heavily in ergonomic interventions. Some examples include ergonomic training, sit-stand desks and specialized equipment such as mouses and ergonomic keyboards.

Repetitive strain injuries can lead to worker absenteeism, a higher turnover and more compensation claims. Workers can also be less productive when they’re in pain.

“Ergonomic interventions can be a big financial burden for organizations,” continues Dr Mehta. “Our findings suggest that, on current evidence, these measures alone shouldn’t be expected to reduce pain or sick leave in the short term. Employers may want to weigh that against the cost.”

Co-author Dr Peter Stubbs also stated that "the methodological flaws and high risk of bias downgrade the confidence in the results.”

No data were available on recurrence of injury or complaint, and little data on work-related outcomes beyond sick leave.

Ergonomic strategies may still have value in specific subgroups, or as part of a broader workplace or rehabilitation program, but supporting evidence is limited and uncertain.

The authors call for high-quality, well-designed trials to establish the role of ergonomic strategies in managing CANS.

Journal

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

DOI

10.1002/14651858.CD014644.pub2

Method of Research

Systematic review

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

‘Ergonomic interventions for treating work-related complaints of the arm, neck or shoulder in adults’

Article Publication Date

27-Oct-2026

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:37:52 +0000

Many non-drug and non-surgical therapies for low back pain are cost-effective

Interventions like yoga, cognitive therapy, and self-management support were more cost-effective than standard medical advice

PLOS

image:

Interventions like yoga were potentially more cost-saving compared to more effective than standard medical advice.

Credit: Annie Spratt, Unsplash (CC 0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

Non-drug and non-surgical treatments for low back pain, including psychological support, exercise and self-management strategies are cost-effective interventions, according to a study published October 27th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine by Manuela Loureiro Ferreira from the George Institute for Global Health, Australia, and colleagues.

Low back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, with significant costs to both individuals and healthcare systems. There are pharmacological or surgical interventions—including drug prescriptions, spinal injections and surgery, but non-invasive methods such as cognitive therapy, physical therapy, exercise and yoga or dietary interventions are also available. Understanding which options provide best value for the money is important for determining where to allocate healthcare funding.

To better understand the cost-effectiveness of non-invasive interventions for low back pain, the authors of this study reviewed research studying treatments recommended by the World Health Organization, the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and the North American Spine Society. They included 20 studies conducted between 2005 and 2026, with a total of 14,884 participants. Those studies compared non-pharmacological and non-surgical interventions such as yoga, acupuncture, massage, psychological therapy, spinal manipulation, exercise and diet plans to some first contact care or no treatment.

The authors found that six single therapies—yoga, cognitive behavioral therapy, self-management support, fear reduction education and mindfulness stress reduction, could reduce health care costs and improve outcomes compared with usual care. They also observed that two multi-modal therapies—combining advice and graded activity in the workplace, and diet plus physical activity—were more cost-effective than usual care, at a willingness to pay threshold of £20,000 (meaning that costs were below that maximum price, a threshold recommended by the NICE). While all of the studies examined were from high-income countries and there were differences in how cost effectiveness was measured, the authors suggest that improving access to these non-surgical and non-pharmacological treatments could benefit patients with low back pain.

Senior author Prof Manuela Ferreira adds, “Low back pain is the world’s leading cause of disability, but many effective treatments can also save healthcare dollars. Our review found that approaches such as exercise, yoga, acupuncture and psychological support can help people recover while providing good value for money.

“The good news for people with back pain is that some of the most effective treatments are also among the most cost-effective. Investing in evidence-based care such as exercise, physical therapies and psychological support could help more people get better while reducing pressure on health systems.”

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Medicine: https://plos.io/46Sw68S

Citation: Mathieson S, Underwood M, Ibrahim M, Hua Z, Zhu Z, Ferreira PH, et al. (2026) Cost-effectiveness of recommended interventions for managing low back pain: A systematic review. PLoS Med 23(10): e1005273. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1005273

Author countries: Australia, United Kingdom

Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Journal

PLOS Medicine

DOI

10.1371/journal.pmed.1005273

Method of Research

Systematic review

Subject of Research

People

COI Statement

‘Profiteering from pain’: Investments of super-rich fuel climate crisis and capitalise on recovery

By Angela Symons

Published on 27 October 2026 EURONEWS

Climate pledges fall short as Oxfam exposes how the super-rich profit from disaster.

A new UN report makes it clear we can’t depend on current national climate pledges to keep global temperature rise within safe limits.

The latest plans would reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by just six per cent by 2035, compared with 2019 levels.

This is down from last year’s projection of a 10 per cent cut, largely due the US’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. It remains far short of 60 per cent scientists say is needed to limit warming to 1.5°C, the threshold to avoid catastrophic and irreversible climate impacts.

Combining the pledges of 154 countries, the report covers 71 per cent of global emissions. Even if every country fully implemented their obligatory plans under the Paris Agreement and also met conditional targets, emissions cuts would still amount to just nine per cent.

To keep warming within the Paris Agreement’s fallback limit of 2°C above pre-industrial levels, emissions would need to fall by 37 per cent by 2035.

Even if efforts to cut emissions succeed, the UN warned earlier this month that the world is on track for a temporary or potentially prolonged overshoot of the 1.5°C limit. The news prompted an EU warning that countries must prepare for a potential 3°C temperature rise by 2100.

Could private investors move the needle on global warming?

In a second report, also published on 27 October, the UN found that global climate finance is increasing but still falls far short of what is needed.

Global climate finance averaged $1.9 trillion (€1.7tn) a year in 2023-24, up 32 per cent from 2021-22. The increase was driven largely by private investment in low-emissions technologies, including renewables, as well as household spending on electric vehicles, solar power and heat pumps.

So with government efforts failing, could private investment make up the shortfall?

A separate report by the charity Oxfam, published ahead of the COP31 climate talks in Türkiye, argues that for the wealthiest investors the incentives often steer them in the wrong direction.

Not only are the super-rich fuelling the climate crisis through polluting activities, they’re also “profiteering from pain” – sometimes reaping a “double dividend”: first from the industries driving climate breakdown, then from the businesses involved in disaster preparation and recovery, says Oxfam.

How are the super-rich profiting from the climate crisis?

Oxfam’s new ‘Destroy and Rebuild Index’, within the report ‘Disaster Divide: How climate chaos deepens inequality and enriches the few’, looked at 217 companies, some in industries that drive climate breakdown and others in industries that prepare for or rebuild after climate disasters.

The companies in the index not only made an average profit of $1.8 billion (€1.6bn) in 2025 but paid out more than $1bn on average to shareholders, according to the charity. The global disaster recovery market is forecast to grow from $70bn (€63bn) to $92bn (€84bn) a year by 2029.

Oxfam says the investments of the world’s 1,000 richest billionaires were linked to 486 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2025. If they were a country, they would rank as the world’s 19th biggest polluter. 71 per cent of those investments are in high-polluting sectors such as oil, gas and chemicals.

Emissions of the super-rich linked to millions of deaths

Oxfam says the wealthiest also contribute disproportionately to the emissions driving the crisis. The richest 0.1 per cent – around eight million people – emit more than the poorest 44 per cent of humanity combined, accounting for around 3.5 billion people.

Oxfam estimates that emissions from the richest one per cent have been responsible for around 20 per cent of global warming since 1990. A single year of their emissions will cause an estimated 1.9 million excess heat-related deaths over the following century, according to the report.

Calling climate disasters “inequality machines”, Oxfam points to research published in the journal Nature showing flood deaths are seven times higher in more unequal countries.

Yet the wealthy are best placed to shield themselves, from buying safer homes to hiring private firefighters. Rich households can also absorb higher food costs and insure their assets. Poorer people tend to live in more exposed areas and in lower-quality housing, with fewer savings to fall back on.

Oxfam is calling on governments to curb the emissions of the super-rich, including those linked to their investments, to make rich countries provide far more grant-based finance for adaptation, and to end profiteering from climate disasters.

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:18:53 +0000

Trucker strikes emptied my local supermarket shelves: Shopping locally made all the difference

By Ruth Wright with AFP, AP

Published on 28 October 2026 - EURONEWS

I didn’t think a trucker strike would really affect me - until supermarkets and petrol pumps were empty.

Last week truck drivers in southern Italy staged a strike - and it had the desired effect. Protesting the rising cost of diesel driven up by the US-Iran war, the truckers’ refusal to work started on a Friday. By Wednesday the supermarket shelves in our area of Sicily, where I live as a foreigner, were empty.

It was much the same across the island and the south of mainland Italy, where drivers set up roadblocks to stop lorries leaving food warehouses. Petrol stations also ran dry and a government minister even said that the Mafia were exploiting the protests by intimidating drivers into taking part and slashing truck tyres.

Strikes are fairly common in Italy - public transport workers often walk out over low pay or working conditions, or rubbish services grind to a halt because of Mafia influence. I’m usually aware these strikes are happening but I’ve never been affected by them. Italian friends had warned me that a truckers’ strike 15 years ago had brought food supplies to a standstill but I foolishly thought that wouldn’t happen again. How wrong I was.

Supermarket stock lasted only a few days

I hadn’t needed to buy food for the first few days of the strike and I hadn’t paid much attention to news about the impact it was having. Then I realised I’d almost run out of a few key essentials - like milk for my toddler and fruit - the go-to when he won’t eat a bite of anything else. That was when I started paying attention to videos on social media of local influencers filming completely empty fridges and aisles in the supermarkets in my local town. I cynically thought they probably went at the end of the day, timing their visit in the hope of catching shocking footage to gain attention.

So I went shopping myself, in the morning, to the local Lidl, Eurospin, a nationwide budget supermarket chain, and a Conad, also nationwide but mid-range. There was no fresh food at all - no meat or fish, no dairy products and no fruit or vegetables. Most of the other aisles looked fairly normal but I could see that in a couple of days, if new deliveries didn’t arrive, staples like pasta, tinned goods and cleaning products would also have disappeared.

It was shocking to realise how quickly the system we all rely on for food can be brought to a grinding halt. This was a well coordinated approach: haulage operators, farmers and shopkeepers, often backed by citizens and students, were all involved in disrupting the transport and delivery of goods, all designed to put pressure on the government to intervene.

Shopping locally became the only option

I left the supermarkets unsure what to do. On my route home I passed a greengrocer’s - charmingly called ‘frutterias’ in Italian. I’d been into this one a couple of times but not regularly, finding it easier to get everything in one go at the supermarket. I pulled up and was delighted to see that it had plenty of fruit and veg. I got a basket full of food and chatted to the owner while I was paying. He said they’d had no problems with stock because local farmers, or their distributors, drive produce directly to his shop. If there’s no logistic chain involved, the logistics can’t be disrupted.

My unexpected visit to the ‘frutteria’ turned out to be one of the best parts of my day: on top of the relief of finding fresh food, my mood was boosted by the friendly chat with the owner - it would never have happened during a rudimentary exchange at a supermarket checkout. On top of that, I got fruit and veg that had only been picked a few days before - it also hadn’t been sprayed with the chemicals needed to make it last long journeys by road.

How did the trucker strike come to an end?

As the strike continued, the fallout got worse and worse. Mozzarella dairies lost €3 million in 24 hours because the buffalo milk needed to produce the cheese couldn’t be delivered. Construction companies were affected when they couldn’t receive deliveries of raw materials.

Eventually the Italian government held an extraordinary cabinet meeting and approved new measures to help truckers, farmers and fishers deal with higher fuel costs, bringing financial aid for the two groups to a combined €540 million in tax credits, up from €434 million.

It’s now been four days since the last roadblocks were opened but I’m still waiting on deliveries I ordered before the strike began, and big companies such as Vinted have notified customers they should expect delays.

Make food transport electric rather than pouring more money into the tank

This protest and its fallout happened for one reason: our addiction to fossil fuels. Almost all of the essential services that keep society moving - like delivery trucks and public transport and production of goods - are powered by oil and gas. The Iran war has caused an unprecedented disruption and shortages of fossil fuels, leading to sky high prices in countries far away from where the war is being raged.

As climate scientists have been saying for decades: we have the solutions to bring down carbon emissions and a big one is electrification - replacing fossil fuels with clean energy sources, like wind and solar, to power transport, heating, factories, everything ideally.

Trucking accounts for roughly 11-17 per cent of total oil demand across the US, EU and China - making it the perfect sector for electrification. The diesel price surge is driving record uptake of electric trucks this year: worldwide, sales of medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks hit a record high in the first half of this year at nearly 160,000 units - up by around 75 per cent versus the first half of 2025.

So as with heat pumps and solar panels, the energy crisis created by the Iran war is actually giving a boost to clean energy. The Italian government would be wise to use tax credits to incentivise hauliers to switch their fleet to electric trucks, rather than pouring more money into fossil fuels.

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:41:51 +0000

Deadly parasite: How fox tapeworm warns of pandemic X

By Franziska Müller

Published on 27 October 2026 - EURONEWS

The WHO has developed an early warning system to spot looming pandemics. Tropical medicine expert Dr Carsten Köhler from Tübingen explains the background to Euronews.

The warning about fox tapeworm is something almost everyone in Germany has heard if they have ever wanted to pick berries or collect mushrooms in the forest. The concern is that the tapeworm eggs could be stuck to them - a parasite that attacks the liver and can cause a potentially life-threatening disease.

This disease is one of 21 illnesses that the World Health Organization WHO has placed on its list of NTDs. These so-called "Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)", known in German as "vernachlässigte Tropenkrankheiten", are regarded as a global early-warning system.

"Wherever NTDs occur, they mark the weak points in the global health system, precisely because there is no system in place there," explains Dr. Dr. Carsten Köhler from the University of Tübingen in an interview with Euronews. He heads, among other things, the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Travel Medicine and Human Parasitology and is president of the German Society for Tropical Medicine, travel medicine and global health.

NTDs can therefore show where medical care, disease surveillance and reliable data are lacking. Precisely in such places, infectious diseases may remain undetected for a long time - with consequences that can reach far beyond the regions directly affected.

Fox tapeworm: Is it still a threat?

The parasite measures only two to six millimetres but can cause severe liver disease in humans. The medical term is alveolar echinococcosis. Adult tapeworms live in the small intestine of foxes and occasionally also in the intestines of dogs and cats.

These animals are then the so-called "definitive hosts" of the tapeworms.

To explain: in biology and medicine, a definitive host is the organism in which a parasite reaches sexual maturity and reproduces. Many parasites have a complex life cycle and change their host - their "home" - during their lifetime. Example: a mouse (intermediate host) ingests the tapeworm eggs. Larvae develop inside the mouse. A fox (definitive host) eats the mouse. In the fox's intestine, the larvae develop into adult tapeworms, which then mate and produce new eggs. The fox is therefore the definitive host.

According to the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL), the most important definitive host in central Europe is the red fox. Infection in humans is very rare but, if it occurs, can be life-threatening.

In 2024, 52 infections were recorded at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI); in previous years the number in humans mostly lay between 40 and 45 cases. According to the German Liver Aid, the majority of cases come from the southern federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. Depending on the region, between 33 and 50 percent of foxes are infected with the parasite.

Echinococcosis is one of the neglected tropical diseases that occur in Germany. But according to Köhler, leishmaniases are now also knocking at the door. This infectious disease can present in different ways and is transmitted by tiny sandflies.

"Many Germans like to travel to the Mediterranean region on holiday and can then bring it back with them," Köhler explains in the interview with Euronews. According to the health magazine of the AOK health insurer, the disease is often curable if it is detected and treated early. The WHO estimates that around 700,000 to one million people worldwide fall ill with leishmaniases every year.

However, most of the 21 neglected tropical diseases occur above all in parts of the world whose health systems are less developed than Germany's.

New neglected disease identified

For example, in 2026 the state of Gabon in Central Africa submitted an application to the World Health Organization WHO to have another disease added to the list of NTDs. "Only endemic countries are allowed to submit applications," Köhler explains. In this case it concerns Loa loa disease, a so-called eye worm. According to Köhler, the WHO will deliberate on the request.

The parasite is transmitted by horseflies. The worms can move through the subcutaneous tissue and sometimes become visible under the conjunctiva of the eye. Infection may be accompanied by itching, swelling and other complaints.

In Köhler's view, the WHO should consider the application. However, in October 2026 the responsible WHO advisory committee recommended a temporary pause in adding new diseases. First, the criteria and procedures for inclusion on the list are to be fundamentally reviewed.

"NTDs occur in regions where the health system does not exist or is only rudimentary," Köhler continues. The diseases themselves are not automatically a danger to the global population. What matters far more is what they reveal about the conditions under which infections can spread: lack of medical care, inadequate monitoring and gaps in the recording of disease cases. There is also a risk that illnesses with pandemic potential may emerge and spread there.

NTDs as an early-warning system for potential endemics

So-called community health workers operate in such regions. They go from community to community, inform the population and observe the local health situation. "A community health worker who is looking out for a worm infection that itself has no pandemic potential would still notice if, all of a sudden, an entire family had died and could report that immediately," says tropical medicine specialist Köhler.

They can recognise illnesses, refer people to medical facilities and report unusual developments to the responsible authorities. "That is why we say these structures can be used as an early-warning system if such basic services have already been set up for NTDs," he explains in his interview with Euronews at the World Health Summit.

The advantage is that helpers are already present in the communities. If NTD programmes are already running in these regions, diseases with pandemic potential are likely to be detected earlier.

Emergency structures do not have to be created from scratch when a new infectious disease appears. If staff are already supporting people with neglected tropical diseases, they can at the same time observe changes that point to other health threats. The work of health workers is also about collecting data as comprehensively as possible.

For this reason, in its strategy to combat neglected tropical diseases up to 2030 the WHO is also relying on integrated approaches: measures are to be more firmly embedded in existing health systems and linked with other areas of public health.

Ebola outbreak: data gap noticed too late

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo showed exactly how problematic missing data can be, says Köhler. "In fact we had expected an outbreak in other hotspots," explains the director of the Centre for Tropical Medicine. "Then we had to realise that the data for the Democratic Republic of Congo were out of date."

When up-to-date information from a region is lacking, health authorities may misjudge the risk. Contact tracing and the targeted deployment of medical staff and supplies also become more difficult.

Local health workers are therefore not only vital for the treatment of individual diseases; they also help to detect outbreaks earlier and to coordinate the response more effectively.

In some cases, the

The Lancet: Experts call for climate change to be declared a global health emergency, as many health impacts outpace climate action

The Lancet

The 10th indicator report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change suggests that some of the health harms of climate change grew faster in the decade since the Paris Agreement entered into force (2016–2025) than in the previous decade (2006–2015) as climate action fails to keep pace.
Annual average heat-related deaths rose by nearly 36% globally after the Paris Agreement was introduced. In 2023 alone, heat was linked to a record 710,000 deaths with more than 70% of that toll attributable to human-caused climate change.
Extreme drought affected nearly 52% of the world’s land for at least a month in 2025 (the second-highest level on record), while a new satellite-based analysis suggests that since 2003, 80% of the world’s land has faced significant shifting patterns of increasing dry and wet groundwater storage conditions, with implications for food security and sanitation.
Globally, clean energy investment reached a record US$2.1 trillion in 2025, almost double what was invested in fossil fuels, and cleaner air has prevented an estimated 323,000 deaths a year in at least 77 countries where air pollution from fossil fuels has fallen since 2016. Yet fossil fuels still supply more than 80% of the world’s energy, and the 100 largest oil and gas companies are on track to exceed 1.5°C-compatible production levels by 150% by 2040 – up from 138% from last year.
The report’s authors are calling for climate change to be formally recognised and addressed as a global health emergency, and for health to be placed at the centre of every climate decision, from emissions reductions to funding priorities.

**Country Data Sheets and Infographics available – see Notes to Editors**

Many health harms accelerating faster than a decade ago

Despite gains, progress is falling short

Fossil fuel expansion and funding gaps raise the risk

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:34:04 +0000

‘Hybrid weapon of war’: Why climate disinformation could be a growing public health threat

By Liam Gilliver

Published on 26 October 2026 - EURONEWS

“Climate disinformation is not only a problem of false rumours and mistruths; it is also a problem of power, incentives and accountability.”

WHO member states are being urged to recognise climate disinformation as a public health threat as vested interests attempt to “sow doubt and confusion”.

Health and civil society organisations have called on 194 countries to make information integrity a core part of climate and health policy, preparedness and response.

It follows the EU-backed landmark declaration to crack down on fake news and conspiracy theories that was launched at the COP30 summit in Belém last year.

A new report, ‘Protecting Health in the Age of Climate Disinformation’, is said to be the first instance of the health community addressing how climate disinformation harms human health around the world – from undermining emergency warnings and public-health guidance to delaying policies on air pollution, clean energy and fossil fuels.

The report, produced by the WHO Civil Society Working Group on Climate and Health, argues that a “healthier information environment” is not a communications luxury but a “condition for climate justice, public health and the right to a healthy future”.

What is climate disinformation?

Climate disinformation refers to the intentional spread of false or misleading information about climate change and climate action.

This includes the complete denial of global warming as well as conspiracy theories.

It differs from climate misinformation, which is defined as false or out-of-context information that someone is presenting as fact.

While misinformation does not carry the same level of intent as disinformation, it can result in equally dangerous consequences.

How climate disinformation is impacting public health

The report highlights several case studies where climate disinformation has interacted with existing inequalities and power structures.

For example, after the 2023 Maui wildfires, false claims circulated online that residents who applied for disaster assistance could have their land or property seized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Fact-checkers established this was false, but the rumour had potential to deter survivors from seeking aid at precisely the moment they needed housing support, financial assistance, medical care and recovery services.

“In a disaster setting, misinformation is not just confusing,” the report reads. “It can directly obstruct access to life-saving and stabilising support.”

In Europe, clean air policies such as low-emission zones – designed to reduce people’s exposure to harmful traffic-related pollution – are often targeted by misleading narratives.

The debate around London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ), which imposes a charge for vehicles that do not meet emissions standards, has included concerns about affordability and implementation, particularly for low-income households, workers, small businesses, and people who depend on older vehicles.

But the report states that these concerns have also been “amplified and distorted” by misinformation, politicised attacks on air quality evidence, fake social media claims, and in some cases even violent backlash against ULEZ infrastructure

“The backlash against ULEZ shows how disinformation can turn a public health intervention into a culture-war issue,” the report states.

“Instead of focusing debate on how to reduce pollution while protecting those least able to bear transition costs, misinformation can shift attention toward fear, mistrust, and false claims. This risks weakening public support for policies that protect lungs, hearts, pregnancies, children, and communities most exposed to polluted air.”

Other case studies in the report highlight the interests and power structures that “enable disinformation to flourish”, including fossil fuel greenwashing and conflicts of interest.

Dr Jeni Miller, Executive Director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance, and co-chair of the WHO Civil Society Working Group on Climate and Health, says governments must integrate tools for mis- and disinformation response into how they prepare and communicate heat, wildfire, flood, storm, drought and infectious disease scenarios.

“Climate disinformation is not only a problem of false rumours and mistruths; it is also a problem of power, incentives and accountability,” Miller adds.

“WHO, its member states, health institutions and the health community must go beyond simply providing better information and messaging – they must establish robust conflict-of-interest safeguards against fossil fuel greenwashing, and against those who wield climate disinformation as a hybrid weapon of war.”

Dr Laura Jung, Chair of the Working Group on Environment, World Medical Association, argues that the public health impacts of climate disinformation can be “immediate”.

“Misleading information can for example discourage people from evacuating during wildfires or floods, undermine confidence in heat and air-pollution warnings, interfere with access to disaster assistance, and create confusion about health risks during emergencies,” she explains.

How to spot climate disinformation

As part of the efforts to address the issue of fake news, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for climate action recently launched a campaign called #ClimateFactsMatter.

It aims to “empower people” to see through climate disinformation and reveals the main techniques used to mislead the public.

The campaign urges members of the public to always check the source of an article they’re reading, fact-check ‘expert’ comments, look out for loaded, emotional language, and fact-check stories claiming to have a ‘quick solution’ to climate change.

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:27:40 +0000

‘Profiteering from pain’: Investments of super-rich fuel climate crisis and capitalise on recovery

By Angela Symons

Published on 27 October 2026 EURONEWS

Climate pledges fall short as Oxfam exposes how the super-rich profit from disaster.

A new UN report makes it clear we can’t depend on current national climate pledges to keep global temperature rise within safe limits.

The latest plans would reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by just six per cent by 2035, compared with 2019 levels.

To keep warming within the Paris Agreement’s fallback limit of 2°C above pre-industrial levels, emissions would need to fall by 37 per cent by 2035.

Could private investors move the needle on global warming?

In a second report, also published on 27 October, the UN found that global climate finance is increasing but still falls far short of what is needed.

So with government efforts failing, could private investment make up the shortfall?

A separate report by the charity Oxfam, published ahead of the COP31 climate talks in Türkiye, argues that for the wealthiest investors the incentives often steer them in the wrong direction.

How are the super-rich profiting from the climate crisis?

Emissions of the super-rich linked to millions of deaths

Calling climate disasters “inequality machines”, Oxfam points to research published in the journal Nature showing flood deaths are seven times higher in more unequal countries.

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:27:28 +0000

Trucker strikes emptied my local supermarket shelves: Shopping locally made all the difference

By Ruth Wright with AFP, AP

Published on 28 October 2026 - EURONEWS

I didn’t think a trucker strike would really affect me - until supermarkets and petrol pumps were empty.

Supermarket stock lasted only a few days

Shopping locally became the only option

How did the trucker strike come to an end?

Make food transport electric rather than pouring more money into the tank

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:26:47 +0000

Dog scared of fireworks? Switzerland could bring in a nationwide ban if public votes yes

By Angela Symons

Published on 27 October 2026 - EURONEWS

Fireworks were banned in the Netherlands earlier this year on safety and environmental grounds.

Swiss citizens are gearing up for an explosive vote: whether to ban noisy fireworks.

Spurred on by animal welfare and environmental groups, the citizen-proposed ‘popular initiative’ will be put to the ballot on 29 November.

“For pets, wild animals, and farm animals, fireworks are not a celebration, but pure stress,” says non-profit Schweizer Tierschutz STS (Swiss Animal Protection), which is supporting the initiative.

The proposal also calls for better protection for people and the natural environment against noise, air pollution, litter, accidents and fires caused by fireworks.

An initial Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) poll released on Friday (23 October) showed promising support for the ban, with 69 per cent of voters backing it.

While the proposal proved most popular among left-wing voters, it received majority support across the political spectrum, and particularly among women.

Votes like these are common in Switzerland, where any citizen or group can launch an initiative by gaining 100,000 valid signatures from eligible voters. Recent examples include the neutrality initiative, rejected in September, and the pending nuclear disarmament initiative.

Would it mean a complete ban on fireworks in Switzerland?

The proposal seeks to “significantly restrict particularly loud and disruptive fireworks” in private settings by banning the sale of noisy pyrotechnics. Quieter alternatives would still be permitted, such as sparklers and fountain-style volcano fireworks.

It would also allow ‘cantons’ (local areas) to grant exemptions for events of “supra-regional significance”, such as 1 August (Swiss National Day) and New Year’s Eve, but still with a focus on quieter alternatives.

Currently, Swiss cantons and communes may restrict or ban the sale and use of fireworks on a local level. Age limits and licensing requirements also govern their use.

STS says the initiative, ‘For a restriction on fireworks’, would create a clear rule for the entire country.

But industry association the Swiss Fireworks Coordination Office (SFK) argues that the proposal is a “threat to Swiss tradition”, while some politicians have said that it would infringe on citizens’ personal freedoms and should be left up to the cantons to govern.

The Swiss People’s Party, the Centre Party and the Swiss Trade Association have launched a campaign to vote against the measure, warning of its impact on business owners and potential to fuel a "prohibition culture".

After initially being submitted in 2023, the proposal received over 137,000 signatures. A failed counter-proposal in summer means it will now be followed by a public vote.

If successful, it could see Switzerland follow in the footsteps of the Netherlands, where a broader firework ban came into force this summer, primarily for safety reasons but also on animal and environmental welfare grounds. Other countries in Europe have their own rules and restrictions, such as Belgium where the use of large, powerful fireworks is restricted to professionals only.

How do fireworks impact the environment?

When fireworks explode, they release tiny dust particles, which are rich in toxic metals from the gunpowder and colouring compounds they contain.

According to the Swiss Federal Office of Police, between 1,000 and 2,000 tonnes of fireworks – three-quarters of which is made up of packaging – are used annually in Switzerland, producing between 200 and 400 tonnes of particulate matter per year.

This accounts for two-to-three per cent of the country’s annual particulate matter emissions, according to the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN).

As well as contributing to air, water and soil pollution, these fine particles can be inhaled with harmful health impacts, particularly for vulnerable people with existing conditions.

Unfavourable weather conditions can heighten the harms, such as fog which can trap particles in the air for longer, or hot and dry conditions which can increase wildfire risk.

FOEN urges responsible disposal of used fireworks, which can be placed in regular household waste once cooled down, while packaging should be recycled as normal.

Fireworks trigger ‘fear, panic and disorientation’

Animal welfare groups have been vocal in their support of a firework ban.

“The sudden noise triggers fear, panic, and disorientation [in animals],” says STS. “The consequences range from flight behaviour and acute stress to injuries or even death. Protecting animals from unnecessary noise is therefore a central concern of animal welfare.”

Speaking in a campaign video for the initiative, Swiss veterinarian Maruschka Blaser says that animals hear high-pitched sounds and loud bangs more acutely than humans. Giving horses as an example, she says “things can become dangerous very quickly when they run uncontrollably because of fireworks”, either for people in crowds or other animals in fields.

“When it comes to domestic animals such as cats and dogs, they sometimes need to be given medication to calm them down days in advance” of firework displays, says Blaser. “I also know families who spend the night in an air-raid shelter with their pets, but somehow that isn’t a solution either,” she adds.

“Millions of pets live in Switzerland. For many of them, fireworks trigger stress or panic,” says Casimir von Arx, President of the Bern branch of Schweizer Tierschutz STS (Swiss Animal Protection SAP) in a campaign video. “We can only protect them if, as a society, we show consideration for one another.”

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:33:57 +0000

GenAI and travel planning: should AI agents build our itineraries?

A new Edith Cowan University (ECU) study of more than 400 Australian travellers has set out to discover what the most influential drivers are behind our decisions to delegate travel planning to AI, and what our threshold is when it comes to trust

Edith Cowan University

image:

Professor Sanjit Roy, Edith Cowan University.

Credit: Edith Cowan University

Whether you’re a seasoned tourist or an emerging explorer the decision to delegate travel planning to artificial intelligence (AI) agents is becoming the norm for many travellers.

ECU Professor of Marketing and Service Science, Sanjit Roy from ECU’s School of Business and Law said the use of responsible AI in tourism is critically important – not only for planning great experiences but ensuring travellers are prepared when things go wrong.

A role to play in tourism

“Responsible use of AI not only gives more certainty that trips will be smooth sailing, but holidaymakers need to ensure they aren’t left out of pocket or on the backfoot when something goes wrong,” Professor Roy said.

The need to safeguard against the trip of a lifetime turning into a tour of misery lane means travellers must be willing to become AI-savvy. Conversely, AI needs to do the right thing by the user.

“Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is becoming an integral part of travel planning and revolutionising travel through automated planning systems,” he said.

“Customers need to be able to trust AI agents to comfortably outsource building their itineraries.”

A recent survey of adult travellers revealed 28.8 per cent of Australians use GenAI to find deals, check out destinations and create their own travel itineraries. Among Gen Z travellers, Australian Government research puts the figure at 30 per cent.

This fundamental transformation is changing the definition of travel decision delegation.

Accountability key

The ECU study analysed data collected from 421 Australian travellers, highlighting five key responsible AI characteristics travellers used to evaluate information produced from GenAI.

“Our findings tell us that travellers consider using GenAI for travel planning based on five characteristics: reliability, accountability, trustworthiness, fairness and transparency. In particular, reliability and accountability play a crucial role in planning travel experiences,” Professor Roy explained.

“Travellers were more likely to use AI when they perceived it as reliable and believed its providers could be held accountable for its recommendations and for addressing problems when they arise.

“Accountability of AI plays a significant role in building trust among travellers.”

The transparency paradox

Interestingly, too much information steered travellers away from using GenAI.

“We found that excessive transparency reduces our willingness to delegate travel planning to GenAI – meaning the mental burden of processing, cross-checking and translating information is not worth it,” Professor Roy said.

The Australian government’s Smartraveller website warns AI can provide outdated transport schedules, incorrect visa information, and recommendations for hotels that have closed. Relying on incorrect information could ruin part of your dream vacation.

GenAI not a lost cause

Whether you use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Mindtrip, Layla, Wanderlog or other – Professor Roy said vacationers shouldn’t dismiss AI as a useful tool to inspire travel itineraries.

“When AI is reliable, trustworthy, honest and doesn’t overload travellers with unnecessary information, they are more likely to delegate travel planning decisions to AI agents,” he said.

When planning an overseas vacation, travellers should fact-check the information provided, know who is accountable if something goes wrong and not assume that more information means the source is highly trustworthy.

“We know that not all those who wander are lost. But not all those who wonder about using AI to plan their next trip will find themselves lost either. You may save precious time planning an incredible travel experience with the help of GenAI.”

Decision delegation to GenAI agents in travel planning: Responsible AI signals, delegation levels, and the transparency paradox is published in Tourism Management Perspectives.

- ends -

Media contact:

Hayley Butler, (08) 6304 5575, h.butler@ecu.edu.au

ECU Corporate Relations, (08) 6304 2222, pr@ecu.edu.au

Sign up to get the latest research news and media releases delivered to your inbox.

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:53:34 +0000

Against all expectations, Delft researchers control the magnetic core of a single atom

Delft University of Technology

Researchers at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) have succeeded in controlling the magnetism in the nucleus of a single atom with radio waves. This came as a surprise: until now, physicists believed that this nuclear spin could not be manipulated directly. The discovery could open up new possibilities for storing and reading quantum information. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

In metals such as iron and nickel, every atom is slightly magnetic. But inside the atom, different magnetic “compass needles”, known in quantum mechanics as spins, are also at work. “By far the strongest magnetism comes from the electrons,” says lead researcher Sander Otte. “But in some atoms, the nucleus also carries a spin. That spin is much weaker, but it is also much better shielded from the outside world.”

Otte’s group studies spins using a converted scanning tunnelling microscope. This enables electrical signals to be directed with extreme precision at a single atom. In the past, the researchers mainly focused on the electron spin, which is the easiest to read out. The nuclear spin appeared only indirectly, through the so-called hyperfine interaction. This causes the spins of the nucleus and the electron to become slightly entangled.

Control against expectations

In their latest experiment, main author Hester Vennema and her colleagues sent two different signals to an atom simultaneously: one targeting the electron and one targeting the nucleus. This allowed them to study the influence of each signal independently. To their surprise, they found that they could flip the nuclear spin even when the two spins were largely disentangled.

That result came unexpectedly. “According to our simple understanding, this should not really happen,” says Otte. “The nuclear spin should not be sensitive at all to the electrical signals from a scanning tunnelling microscope.”

Guitar strings

For this research, the team refined an established measurement technique known as double magnetic resonance for use on a single atom. This enabled them to address the magnetism of the atomic nucleus and that of an orbiting electron independently.

In magnetic resonance, the orientation of a spin is altered using a wave signal. According to quantum mechanics, only a limited number of such rotations are possible. As a result, the signal must have exactly the right frequency. “You can compare it to the strings of a guitar,” Vennema explains. “Each possible spin rotation is like a string with its own note. You have to play precisely the right note to make a particular string vibrate. The “notes” of a nuclear spin are a hundred to a thousand times lower than those of an electron spin.”

Secure quantum information

The nuclear spin of atoms is of particular interest for applications in which quantum information needs to be stored securely. The ability to control nuclear spins could provide new opportunities for storing and reading out quantum information. For now, however, the research mainly raises new questions about the mechanism driving the nuclear spin. “Back to the drawing board, then,” says Otte. “That is really how science works. There is always something new left to figure out.”

Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-026-78801-5

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Nuclear magnetic resonance on a single atom with a local probe

Article Publication Date

24-Oct-2026

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:36:18 +0000

A portable device for accurately and rapidly detecting PFAS in water

Inexpensive electrodes combined with new ‘synthetic antibodies’ detect trace levels of “forever chemicals” in water, opening a promising route to portable environmental monitoring

Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University

image:

The prototypical device. An electrode (the three dark prongs on the white strip) is screen-printed on fabric strips, the same way that an illustration might be printed onto a T-shirt, and coated with molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) that bind specifically to either PFOS or PFOA. This strip is then inserted into a potentiostat (the black dongle, which measures electrical current), which is plugged directly into a smartphone that can take the PFAS measurement.

Credit: Andrew Scott & Jeff Prine/OIST

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals known for their exceptional resistance to degradation, earning them the nickname “forever chemicals.” These persistent substances can accumulate in water, soil, and living organisms, raising growing concerns about their potential impacts on human health and the environment.

Detecting PFAS contamination is a critical first step toward addressing these risks. However, conventional PFAS analysis typically requires collecting environmental samples and transporting them to specialized laboratories equipped with advanced mass spectrometry instruments. Although highly sensitive and accurate, these methods can be costly and time-consuming.

Researchers from the Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have now created a reliable, easy-to-mass-produce platform that enables regulators and other environmental actors to detect PFAS on the spot without the need for an external lab. “Our goal is to develop a sensitive, low-cost technology that can eventually be used outside specialized laboratories,” says Dr. Mark Sullivan. “We have demonstrated that it works for PFOA and PFOS, and the same platform could potentially be adapted to detect other PFAS compounds.”

The new device is described in Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

Catching PFAS with synthetic antibodies and electrical currents

The researchers have designed a new class of molecularly imprinted polymers, or MIPs, that are perfectly tailored to fit PFAS. The materials are formed around the target molecule — in this case, PFAS — creating a binding site. The target molecule is then washed away, leaving behind a material that recognizes and captures the target again, like a lock that is perfectly shaped for a key. This is also why MIPs are often called ‘synthetic antibodies.’

Their device detects PFAS by measuring changes in electrical current as target molecules bind to a sensor coated with PFAS-specific MIPs. The greater the change in electrical current, the higher the PFAS concentration is in the water sample. Because the measurement requires no additional chemical reagents, this approach could provide a simpler, lower-cost solution for portable, on-site water monitoring.

The platform is compact, low-cost, and designed for easy manufacturing. For the prototype, the researchers screen-printed 100 disposable electrodes onto repurposed fabric in just a few hours. These were then coated with PFAS-specific MIPs and connected to commercially available potentiostats, which measure electrical signals and can plug directly into a smartphone or laptop. Furthermore, the MIP manufacturing method is modular, meaning the target molecule can be replaced with any member of the PFAS family; for this prototype, the researchers chose the two most common PFAS chemicals with documented health risks: PFOS and PFOA.

Strengthening the global environmental immune defense against forever chemicals

PFAS have proven to be an insidious problem for the environment and health due to two key factors: their exceptional resistance to heat, water, oil, and environmental degradation makes them both useful and extremely difficult to break down; and their diversity, with the PFAS family encompassing more than 10,000 similar chemicals, of which 50-150 members are regulated across the globe.

The team’s MIP platform’s modularity makes it relatively simple to adapt it to different PFAS molecules and, more importantly, lowers the barrier to addressing PFAS contamination going forward. Dr. Perrine Lasserre continues:

“It shows that it’s possible to make a detection system that empowers local agencies or even families to make an informed decision about whether and how to address potential PFAS contamination — such as alerting municipal authorities to contamination at specific sites, or whether to invest in a water filter. Whatever we can achieve with this system is going to be beneficial.”

“Accurate and accessible detection is an important step toward addressing PFAS contamination,” says Professor Amy Shen. “Our study demonstrates how synthetic molecular recognition can be combined with low-cost electrochemical devices to detect extremely small concentrations of these persistent chemicals. While further development and field validation are needed, we see considerable potential for making environmental monitoring more accessible and widely available.”

Small and very scary: Rare miniature T.rex dinosaur skeleton fetches €42 million at auction

By Tokunbo Salako with AP

Published on 28 October 2026 - EURONEWS

A dinosaur that looks like a tiny Tyrannosaurus rex is now one of the world's most expensive fossils having been sold at a Sotheby's auction for €42.6 million in New York.

A rare skeleton of a smaller cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex has sold for a record €42.6 million at an auction in New York.

The Nanotyrannus, nicknamed "Jodi" after the person who discovered the remains in 2019, was bought by a mystery buyer after a 12-minute bidding battle online and over phones. Sotheby's had expected it to fetch anywhere from €4 to €7 million.

In a statement, the auction house said the deal now ranks the junior T.rex as the world's second most valuable dinosaur ever sold. This summer, a T. rex fossil known as “Gus” sold for a record €44 million at Sotheby's

FILE: Jodi the Nanatyrannus on display at Sotheby's in New York, 13 Oct 2026

AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura

Close family claws and controversy

A Nanotyrannus was about half the length of an adult T. rex, and the two creatures coexisted during the Cretaceous period some 67 million years ago. Nanotyrannus had relatively longer forelimbs and larger hand claws, as well as more slender, blade-like teeth than its famous cousin.

“Jodi” is one of only three such skeletons known to exist. Standing 2.9 metres and stretching nearly 6 metres, it has been on display at the auction house’s upper Manhattan headquarters since earlier this month, and is considered almost 70% complete.

However, some scientists have opposed such private sales, saying “Jodi” and other significant fossils should be displayed in museums or other institutions so they can be studied by researchers and viewed by the public.

Sotheby’s, in a statement, thanked the team of professional fossil hunters whose efforts to discover and excavate the specimen were the focus of the Discovery Channel documentary series “Dino Hunters” in 2020.

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 21:08:42 +0000

Extreme risk protection orders are designed to prevent gun violence. But how do they impact the people subject to them?

University of California - Davis Health

About 125 people die from gun violence through homicide or suicide in the United States every day. Many more are injured by firearms.

Extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), known in California as gun violence restraining orders, are designed to keep firearms temporarily away from people at risk of harming themselves or others. While previous research has focused on whether these orders prevent violence, a new study from the UC Davis Centers for Violence Prevention examines a different question: What consequences — including violence prevention — do people subject to these orders attribute to them?

Detailed answers are now published in PLOS One, Public Library of Science. The paper is the first to draw directly on the experiences of people subject to ERPOs.

Methods

Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 24 people who had been issued ERPOs in California between 2016 and 2020. The interviews, conducted from March through November 2024, were transcribed and analyzed by two researchers to identify common themes and important differences in participants' experiences.

Findings

Participants reported a wide range of consequences after being issued an ERPO:

Some perceived little impact, while others described benefits and harms related to violence risk, legal and economic outcomes, opinions and attitudes, and social and emotional wellbeing.
Two participants believed their orders prevented violence, and one was unsure. Most participants believed they would not have committed violence regardless of the order. A few described perceived increases in suicidal or violent thoughts, while others said the experience prompted self-reflection and positive behavioral changes.
Some participants reported employment or housing difficulties when the order appeared on background checks. They also noted stigmatization, damaged relationships and reduced trust in the legal system.
None of the participants said the ERPO process itself connected them with mental health care, substance-use treatment, or other supportive services.

The findings illustrate that respondents' experiences are not uniform. This suggests that evaluations of ERPO laws should consider a broader range of outcomes in addition to violence prevention.

“To comprehensively evaluate extreme risk protection orders, researchers and policymakers must consider their full range of consequences, including those reported by respondents themselves,” said first author Veronica Pear. Pear is a researcher at the Centers for Violence Prevention and an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Emergency Medicine. “This broader evidence can guide policy refinements that preserve these laws' public-safety benefits while reducing avoidable harms.”

Limitations and future research

The researchers caution that the study reflects participants' own accounts and cannot determine whether the ERPO itself caused the outcomes they described. They also caution that the study included only 24 respondents and is not representative of ERPO respondents generally.

However, they note the interviews provide important insight into perceived consequences that may not be captured in administrative data or measures typically used to evaluate ERPO outcomes.

Among the issues identified for future study are:

Whether respondents could benefit from stronger connections to mental health care, substance-use treatment, or other support services.
Whether removing an ERPO record under certain circumstances could reduce employment and housing difficulties.
Whether procedural changes, such as access to legal representation, could improve trust in the legal process while maintaining public-safety goals.

“Extreme risk protection orders are intended to prevent tragic outcomes, and research suggests they can reduce suicide risk,” said Garen Wintemute, senior author of the study. Wintemute is an emergency room physician and director of the UC Davis Centers for Violence Prevention. “As these laws continue to evolve, listening to respondents can help policymakers identify practical improvements in implementation while maintaining the goal of preventing violence.”

A full list of authors appears in the study.

Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0361337

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Perceived consequences of extreme risk protection orders: A qualitative study of respondents from California

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:33:12 +0000

3 out of 4 responses to UK smoke-free generation consultation were AI bot-generated

And overwhelmingly targeted at opposing restrictions on disposable vape sales; scale and consistency of responses suggest a coordinated campaign

BMJ Group

Three quarters of all the responses to the UK’s public consultation in 2023 on creating a smoke-free generation and restricting disposable vape sales were generated by AI bots, finds an analysis of publicly available data and Freedom of Information requests, published online in the journal Tobacco Control.

These responses were overwhelmingly targeted at opposing restrictions on disposable vape sales, the scale and directional consistency of which suggest a coordinated campaign, say the researchers.

AI bots have been used to spread health misinformation on social media platforms, point out the researchers. But while public consultations are increasingly used to inform health regulation, they are susceptible to automated interference, they add.

The researchers therefore wanted to find out if the 2023 public consultation on government proposals to create a smoke-free generation and curb vaping among young people had been subject to automated interference.

They drew on published consultation reports and Freedom of Information requests to the Department of Health and Social Care.

In all, 118,756 responses were submitted to the consultation, three quarters of which (90,835, 76%), the Department of Health and Social Care identified as fraudulent using bot detection methods.

All the bot-generated responses targeted a single multiple choice question opposing proposed restrictions on disposable vape sales. The same number reported learning of the consultation via social media.

But after the bot responses were excluded, 77% of the valid respondents supported restrictions on disposable vape sales—the opposite of what the unfiltered dataset would have indicated.

“This appears to be the first documented instance of large-scale automated interference in a formal public health policy consultation,” write the researchers.

“While it is not possible to ascertain the commercial origins of such a campaign, transnational tobacco companies have sought to swamp earlier public consultations with favourable responses, using mass recruitment campaigns and postcard submissions,” they explain.

“The scale and directional consistency of bot responses [in this instance] suggest a coordinated campaign, consistent with prior evidence of tobacco industry efforts to manipulate public consultations through mass coordinated submissions,” they add.

The UK’s Tobacco and Vapes Act received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, making it illegal to ever sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009, and restricting the supply and sale of disposable vapes.

The researchers acknowledge several limitations to their findings. For example, they couldn’t independently verify the bot detection methods used by the Department of Health and Social Care as this information isn’t publicly available, and the metadata and demographic information on the respondents was deemed exempt under Freedom of Information legislation.

The findings may not be applicable to other policy topics either, and on the basis of the information received, it’s impossible to attribute source, intent, or commercial sponsorship, emphasise the researchers.

But they conclude: “As bot sophistication increases and public consultations expand across regulatory contexts, strengthening detection capacity and governance safeguards will be essential to maintaining the integrity of public health policymaking, particularly in lower-resource settings where screening infrastructure may be absent.”

Journal

Tobacco Control

DOI

10.1136/tc-2026-060309

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Examining the nature of bot responses to public health consultations: the example of automated submissions to the 2023 UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Article Publication Date

27-Oct-2026

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:32:58 +0000

Promising AI-based approach to early detection of suicide-related behavior at emergency rooms

University of Johannesburg

image:

Table showing true/false positives/negatives per 1000 visits, based on the AI confusion matrix in Figure 3 of the research study.

Researchers from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) have published a promising AI-based approach for early detection of people at risk of suicide-related behaviour (SRB) visiting hospital Emergency Rooms (ERs) in the journal Scientific Reports. (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-64073-y )

The study describes using an AI algorithm, routine patient intake data, and light-weight computing to estimate SRB. The model is intended to assist ER staff, rather than replace them, during very busy periods at resource-constrained hospitals.

Credit: Therese van Wyk, University of Johannesburg (UJ)

Researchers from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) have published a promising approach to early detection of people at risk of suicide-related behaviour (SRB) in the journal Scientific Reports.

The study describes using an AI algorithm, routine patient intake data, and light-weight computing to estimate SRB risk following admission to a hospital emergency room (ER). The AI model was built with historical open-source patient data from the USA. It is intended to assist ER staff rather than replace them.

Resource constraints in South Africa are a major reason to develop an AI model such as this, says lead researcher Mr Tsholofelo Mokheleli.

Late at night and over weekends, some South African hospital emergency rooms can see one ER staff member with 30 or more patients to triage, he adds.

Mokheleli is an assistant lecturer at the Department of Applied Information Systems within the UJ College of Business and Economics (CBE). The study forms part of his PhD research.

During busy ER shifts, an objective, consistent measure to help staff rapidly screen patients could be helpful for early detection of SRB risk.

“The AI model will flag that a patient is at risk and provide reasons. A health care professional still needs to take the final decision however, the clinician must do a severity scaling to determine if the person is really suicidal or not,” says Mokheleli.

Existing SRB screening is resource intensive

The current two screening methods for SRB used in South African ERs require much time and effort from clinicians, says Prof Nompumelelo Ndlovu.

Prof Ndlovu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nursing, within the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Johannesburg. She is a co-author of the study and one of the co-supervisors of Mokheleli’s PhD research.

When anyone first arrives at an ER, the first priority is to stabilize them medically, she adds.

Even for conscious patients admitted to the ER, the standard mini-mental status examination for SRB risk can take 15 minutes and varies between patients, she says. A full mental status examination and history taking for one patient at high risk of SRB could consume a day or more from a mental health professional at the hospital.

“Not everyone who goes into a medical institution has mental health issues. What we are trying to do, is to find those people who do not even say it out loud,” says Mokheleli.

Adds Prof Ndlovu: “Some people do not realize they are at risk of SRB. People may not be aware of what is happening with them unless they speak to somebody. But it is not an easy topic to speak about. There is so much stigma. So how safe do you feel to tell the next person about what is happening with you?”

Routine admissions data, no new ER workload

The study’s AI model identified patient age, pain, and a prior mood disorder recorded at the same hospital as the major reasons for flagging a patient for SRB risk. Vital signs such as temperature and blood pressure follow on that, with prior substance-use and anxiety diagnoses playing smaller roles.

“The USA patient admission information we used to build this model is similar to what you would get in South Africa,” says Mokheleli.

“It includes demographics, age, gender, vital signs, temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturations, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. From that information, we calculate physiological features like the patient’s shock index and pulse pressure,” he adds.

“Another aspect is the patient’s prior history at the same hospital. The model checks if the patient has been at the same hospital before and what the problem was. If there was some kind of substance abuse, anxiety or depression documented with ICD-9 or ICD-10 codes on a previous visit, then the model takes that into account. Night and weekend admissions are also included, as well as notes from medical staff about self-harm on previous visits.”

Local records, local patient data governance

Because the AI model is built on existing electronic patient admissions data, ER staff would not need to do additional data capture for future system implementations. However, in hospitals with paper-based records, the requirement for digitised patient records in a database would be a barrier.

A major reason for building the AI model on routine patient admissions data, is data governance, says co-author and Mokheleli’s PhD main supervisor, Prof Patrick Ndayizigamiye. Prof Ndayizigamiye is a visiting Associate Professor in the Centre of Applied Data Science, at the UJ College of Business and Economics.

“The question is always ‘who owns the confidential patient data and where is it stored?’ Routine admission data belongs to the patient, and it is stored within the hospital’s systems already,” he adds. “As opposed to asking a cloud storage vendor to put the data in their server, which generates a lot of data governance issues.”

False negatives and false positives

With this AI model, a number of factors influence how many patients it will flag correctly for SRB risk. The factors include the size of the dataset; the dynamics of the patient population at the hospital from which data was selected; how few patient records in the training dataset recorded SRB risk; the value of the SRB risk decision threshold; and the AI algorithm selected for analysis.

The same factors also influence how many patients truly at risk for SRB the model misses.

Per 1000 emergency department visits, using the 41,202-patient dataset of the study, the model correctly predicted 866 patients as not at risk of a documented SRB outcome in the 30 days after admission to ER (true negatives).

Per 1000 visits, the model incorrectly predicted or missed 13 cases as not at risk of SRB, although an SRB-related outcome was documented within the 30 days after admission to ER (false negatives).

Per 1000 visits, the model flagged 121 patients as potentially at risk of SRB, and requiring further screening by clinicians (true positives plus false positives), a resource-intensive task.

Of the 121 visits per 1000 the model predicted SRB risk for, 23 had a documented SRB-related outcome that was recorded within the 30 days following the ER admission (true positives).

Of the 121 visits per 1000 flagged for SRB risk, 98 flagged cases did not have any SRB-related outcome documented with ICD-9 or ICD-10 codes in the same hospi

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:31:50 +0000

Yeast and electricity convert CO₂ into valuable chemicals

Researchers develop a new process that captures CO₂ and produces a valuable bio-based chemical

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ

image:

This study demonstrates a novel hybrid system that integrates electrochemical CO2 reduction with microbial biosynthesis of a valuable chemical in a single reactor.

Credit: Izadi et al. Angew. Chemie / Graphic: Simone Bachleitner, Paniz Izadi

Itaconic acid is a bio-based organic acid used to manufacture biodegradable plastics, textiles, adhesives, and resins. It is considered a promising sustainable alternative to petroleum-based chemicals. Worldwide, around 70,000 t of itaconic acid are produced annually, and production is increasing. “On an industrial scale, itaconic acid is produced biotechnologically from sugar using a fungus. We have now developed a process that uses CO₂ instead of sugar as a starting material so that we can put emissions to productive use”, explains Prof. Falk Harnisch, an electrobiotechnologist at the UFZ and last author of the study.

In collaboration with researchers from BOKU University in Vienna, the UFZ team has developed a method that combines electrochemical and microbial processes in a single bioreactor. But how exactly does this electrobioreactor work? And how did the researchers come up with the idea of combining the use of CO₂ with the production of itaconic acid in the first place?

A previous study by BOKU University showed that itaconic acid can be produced biotechnologically from methanol, a type of alcohol. Because microorganisms can metabolise a wide range of substances, the team led by Harnisch tested a chemically similar substance that can be produced relatively easily from CO₂. “Electricity, ideally from renewable sources, can be used to convert CO₂ into formate, which is chemically related to methanol because both contain just one carbon atom. We therefore wanted to investigate whether the yeast could also use formate as an energy source for itaconic acid production”, says Dr Paniz Izadi, a researcher in Harnisch’s UFZ team and first author of the study.

The design of the electrobioreactor in which electrochemical and microbial processes take place simultaneously presented a number of challenges. The electrochemical conversion of CO₂ into formate works best at elevated temperatures and an alkaline pH in the presence of as few other chemical substances as possible. The genetically engineered yeast strain Komagataella phaffii, which is used in the bioreactor, requires entirely different conditions: temperatures of around 30°C, a neutral pH, and a nutrient-rich medium. “In order to ensure that both the electrochemical and microbial processes took place and operated as efficiently as possible, we had to find a compromise between their different requirements in the electrobioreactor”, explains Dr Simone Bachleitner, Senior Scientist at the Institute of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology at BOKU University.

The experiment was successful, and the yeast produced itaconic acid from CO₂ using electrochemically produced formate as an energy source. “We successfully combined electrochemical and microbial processes in our bioreactor. A self-contained process chain offers major practical advantages because it eliminates the need to transport intermediate products between separate facilities. Although the yield of itaconic acid was lower than when sugar or methanol was used, our study clearly demonstrates that CO₂ can be converted into complex and valuable biochemicals”, says Harnisch.

The researchers hope that their new process will provide a model for practical applications and contribute to the development of industrial-scale facilities. The researchers now plan to optimise the processes in the electrobioreactor and investigate their suitability for other microorganisms and bio-based products.

Journal

Angewandte Chemie

DOI

10.1002/anie.8633090

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Integrated electromicrobial production of itaconic acid from CO2 at liter-scale using Komagataella phaffii

Article Publication Date

27-Oct-2026

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:30:20 +0000

The masterminds hiding under the forest

Endophytes uncovered as keystone taxa shaping forest root microbiomes

Kyoto University

image:

First author Mikihito Noguchi performing a field survey in the forests of Sugadaira, Nagano Prefecture.

Credit: KyotoU / Hirokazu Toju

Kyoto, Japan -- Beneath the forest floor extends a vast ecosystem where a diverse array of microorganisms inhabit soil and root systems. Here, fungi and bacteria play particularly pivotal roles in processes such as nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration. Within these microbial communities may exist a keystone species, which exerts a disproportionately large influence on the entire structure and function of such an ecosystem.

While scientists often associate a keystone species with conspicuous predators, pollinators, and plants, there is also a belief that the myriad microorganisms inhabiting the soil include 'hidden' key species. These may be crucial to understanding the dynamics of a complex ecological community, but identifying them within microbial environments is particularly daunting, as experimentally assessing the impact of any one particular species is impossible in a system as vast as a forest.

Fortunately, recent developments in DNA analysis technology have made it possible to capture the diversity of forest microorganisms as large-scale datasets. A team of researchers at Kyoto University was inspired to use this data to identify the masterminds hiding beneath the forest floor.

"Even a single plant root measuring less than one millimeter in diameter harbors a diverse array of coexisting microorganisms," says first author Mikihito Noguchi. "By identifying a keystone species, we aim to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the formation and maintenance of the microbial communities that support forest ecosystems from below."

The team collected 1,270 root samples from a cool-temperate forest in Sugadaira, Nagano prefecture, and analyzed DNA data from fungi and bacteria residing there. With this, they represented the microbial communities as one landscape by modeling the compositions they tend to adopt. This allowed the researchers to develop a theoretical framework to identify species that may be capable of dramatically altering the structure of the landscape: a resulting algorithm was fed to a supercomputer. Finally, the scientists compared their data from Nagano to a large dataset of forests in Europe to verify their findings across vast geographical distances.

Their results point toward a group of fungi known as endophytes, which symbiotically inhabit plant tissue and may play a key role in reshaping the symbiotic relationships between plants and microorganisms in the roots and soil. Endophytes had previously received little attention for their effect on forest ecosystems, but this study has revealed that these hidden masterminds significantly influence the landscape structure of fungal communities.

Further, the novel methods developed in this study serve as a versatile framework for identifying the crucial microorganisms that underpin the dynamics of other complex microbiomes, and have the potential for application in ecosystems far beyond the forest. In the future, these methods are expected to lead to management techniques that consider the ecosystem as a whole, including microbial communities.

###

The paper "Statistical inference of keystone taxa reshaping the assembly rules of forest root microbiomes" appeared on 28 October 2026 in Nature Communications, with doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-78401-3

About Kyoto University

Kyoto University is one of Japan and Asia's premier research institutions, founded in 1897 and responsible for producing numerous Nobel laureates and winners of other prestigious international prizes. A broad curriculum across the arts and sciences at undergraduate and graduate levels complements several research centers, facilities, and offices around Japan and the world. For more information, please see: http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en

Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-026-78401-3

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Statistical inference of keystone taxa reshaping the assembly rules of forest root microbiomes

Night shifts during pregnancy linked to heightened risk of young child’s neurodevelopmental abnormalities

But nightly prenatal sleep length may modify this association, exploratory findings suggest

BMJ Group

Working night shifts during pregnancy is linked to a heightened risk of neurodevelopmental abnormalities detected by screening in the child by the age of 4, finds research published online in Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

But nightly prenatal sleep length during this period may modify this observed association, exploratory findings suggest.

Night shift work during pregnancy has been associated with unfavourable health outcomes for both mother and child, including neurodevelopmental issues, potentially related to body clock and sleep disturbances, note the researchers.

They therefore wanted to explore the associations between mums’ night shift work and their children’s neurodevelopment and to find out if there are potentially modifiable prenatal factors, such as changes in night shift patterns and sleep duration.

They drew on nationwide survey data for around 100,000 pregnant women from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) who were enrolled between January 2011 and March 2014.

The women were surveyed in the first and second/third trimesters and answered questions about the number of night shifts they worked in a month.

Their responses were divided into 3 groups: no night shifts reported in either survey (27,655 women); night shifts in the first, but not second survey (‘discontinued night shifts’, 1779 women); and night shifts in both surveys (‘continued night shifts’, 2084 women).

Prenatal sleep length was calculated from self-reported bedtime and wake-up times in the second/third trimester. Sleep length was categorised as short if less than 6 hours; moderate if 6–9 hours; and long if 10 or more hours.

Child neurodevelopmental abnormalities at the age of 4 were assessed using a developmental screening tool—the Japanese version of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, Third Edition (J-ASQ-3).

This is made up of 5 domains: communication; gross motor skills; fine motor skills (ability to make small, precise, deliberate movements); problem solving; and personal–social functioning (interpersonal skills, emotional/behavioural development, and awareness of personal boundary/space).

In all, 31,528 mothers who worked in the first trimester and completed the child development questionnaire when their children were 4 years old were included in the analysis.

Some 4189 (just over 13%) of the 4 year olds were classified as high risk of an abnormality in at least one of the five J-ASQ-3 domains: 1210 (4%) for communication; 1599 (5%) for gross motor skills; 1906 (6%) for fine motor skills; 913 (3%) for problem solving; and 1495 (5%) for personal–social functioning.

Compared with the children of mothers who didn’t work night shifts, the children of those who discontinued night shift work were more likely to have developmental screening abnormalities, but only in the fine motor skills domain (24% higher risk).

But the children of mothers who continued night shifts during their pregnancy had higher risks of developmental abnormalities in 3 domains compared with children whose mothers didn’t work night shifts.

These were in the domains of communication skills (29% higher risk); fine motor skills (34% higher risk); and personal–social functioning (31% higher risk).

Only the fine motor skills domain showed a significant association, regardless of whether night shifts were continued or discontinued.

“One possible explanation is that maternal inflammation associated with persistent night work may preferentially affect neural pathways involved in fine motor function,” suggest the researchers.

A separate exploratory analysis showed that the observed association between night shift pattern and the child’s neurodevelopmental risk differed according to how long the mothers slept.

Prenatal sleep duration of 10 or more hours was associated with an 80% heightened risk of abnormalities in any of the 5 domains compared with prenatal sleep length of 6-9 hours.

Long prenatal sleep duration may also reflect underlying fatigue, subclinical depression, inflammation, or anaemia, rather than representing a harmful exposure in itself, suggest the researchers.

This is an observational study, and as such, can’t establish cause and effect. And the researchers acknowledge that they weren’t able to account for shift rotation systems, individual chronotype, workload, exposure to light, or the timing of night shift discontinuation, all of which might have influenced the findings.

But in light of the findings, it may be worth employers considering flexible work schedules for pregnant night shift workers, they say.

Journal

Occupational and Environmental Medicine

DOI

10.1136/oemed-2026-111018

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Maternal night shift patterns during pregnancy and offspring’s development at 4 years of age: the Japan Environment and Children’s Study

Article Publication Date

27-Oct-2026

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:26:09 +0000

Autistic women experience more severe menopausal symptoms, study confirms

A new study by researchers at Bournemouth University has shown that autistic people consistently experience more severe menopausal symptoms than non-autistic people, leading to poorer wellbeing and quality of life.

Bournemouth University

image:

PhD student Ms Eunhee Kim

Credit: Ms Eunhee Kim

The new study, led by PhD student Ms Eunhee Kim, is the largest ever to compare self-reported menopause symptoms between autistic and non-autistic people. Just over 900 participants took part in the study, most of them cisgender women. The researchers monitored their symptoms and wellbeing over five weeks.

The study was motivated by the need to explore autistic experiences of menopause on a larger scale. “Previous work by my supervisors at Bournemouth University has told us that autistic people can experience menopause at a time of crisis,” explained Ms Kim. “We know that menopause can be challenging for non-autistic people - the symptoms force one in ten women to leave the workforce. Autistic people can already struggle with memory, planning, managing emotions and sensory sensitivities, and many try hard to fit in and mask their differences while struggling with these things, so menopause could worsen things that are already difficult for them.”

The findings revealed stark health inequalities. Not only did autistic people show more severe menopausal symptoms than non-autistic people across several weeks of the study, but they also had greater anxiety, depression, and lower quality of life - all of which were linked to the severity of their menopause symptoms. They also had much higher rates of physical illness; autistic people were almost twice as likely to report having one or more cardiovascular conditions, like heart disease, than non-autistic people, and over four times more likely to report having a musculoskeletal condition, like hypermobility. Many autistic participants also had multiple serious and chronic health conditions.

“The findings tell us that autistic people often have complex health challenges during menopause,” said Ms. Kim. “This is important because menopause can worsen pre-existing mental and physical health conditions. This is one reason why autistic people, who are more likely to have poorer health to begin with, might have an especially difficult time during menopause.”

Beyond showing the scale of health inequalities during menopause, the study is one of the first to actually explore why autistic people might have a harder time during menopause. The researchers found that feeling out of control, and struggling to understand menopausal changes to the body and mind, appeared to predict the severity of menopause symptoms.

Professor Julie Gamble-Turner and Dr Rachel Moseley, co-authors on the study and Eunhee’s PhD supervisors, point out similarities with their previous work in this area.

Professor Gamble-Turner said, “Autistic people have often told us ‘I thought I was going mad’, or ‘I thought I had a disease’, because their menopausal experiences don’t resemble what they’ve read or heard about in other people. Helping people feel less frightened, confused and out of control - for instance, by giving them information tailored for autistic people about what to expect during menopause – means we are better able to help them.”

The findings also have important implications for healthcare professionals, notes Dr Moseley. “Autistic people often tell us that they struggle to access help during menopause. Sometimes, doctors do not believe how much they are struggling, perhaps because autistic people do not necessarily show their distress in the way non-autistic people expect. Autistic people can be in crisis yet sound quite calm and logical. It’s so important to believe any person who tells you they are struggling.”

Eunhee’s PhD research was funded by the organisation Henpicked/Menopause in the Workplace, who exist to empower people with trusted, evidence-based information support around menopause, and to help employers create menopause-friendly workplaces. CEO Ms Deborah Garlick commented, “Everyone's experience of menopause is different, and this important research helps us better understand why. I'm incredibly proud of Eunhee and the Bournemouth University team for highlighting the challenges autistic people can face during menopause. It's been a pleasure to fund and support this work, which I hope will make a real difference to people's lives through greater understanding and more tailored support.”

Journal

Autism in Adulthood

DOI

10.1177/25739581261497860

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:10:31 +0000

Planned power shutoffs aimed at preventing wildfires may increase risk of acute respiratory illness

Researchers assess wildfire smoke, power outages, and acute healthcare utilization for respiratory conditions over seven years in California

PLOS
Facebook
X LinkedIn WeChat Bluesky Message WhatsApp Email

image:
Power lines in a wildfire prone state.
view more
Credit: Lauren B. Wilner (CC-BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The prevalence of wildfires and co-occurring power outages is increasing in the United States. A study published October 27th in PLOS Medicine by Lauren Blair Wilner, University of Washington, USA, and colleagues suggests public safety power shutoffs aimed at preventing wildfires are associated with an increased risk of acute respiratory illness.
To prevent wildfires, electric utilities may preemptively de-energize power lines. During a power outage, people cannot run air filtration systems, refrigerators, air conditioners, or other electricity-dependent devices. However, the health effects of these events are not well studied.
In order to better understand how power shutoffs affect health, researchers identified public safety power shutoff events between 2013-2019. They categorized shutoff magnitude based on the number of people without power by zip code and analyzed emergency room visits and unscheduled hospital admissions data from 1,504 California zip codes during planned outages.
The researchers found that planned power shutoffs were associated with increased rates of healthcare utilization related to respiratory conditions. When power shutoffs occurred in conjunction with wildfires, smoke further exacerbated emergency department and hospital admissions related to acute respiratory illnesses. The study had several limitations, for example, a lack of individual-level exposure data. Future studies are needed to better understand the individual households’ exposure levels to more accurately assess related health outcomes.
According to the authors, “While intended to promote public well-being, these power shutoffs may affect health, particularly for people with respiratory conditions or dependence on electricity-powered medical equipment. As climate change drives more frequent wildfires and the electric grid continues to age, utilities and policymakers must weigh the health costs of these shutoffs against their wildfire-prevention benefits, and act to reduce harm when shutoffs do occur”.
Wilner adds, “Public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) are meant to keep power lines from sparking wildfires, but they often occur when wildfires are already burning, or they fail to prevent a wildfire from igniting. Power outages and smoke can each affect health, and together they may be more harmful. In California, from 2013-2019, we found that PSPS events were associated with elevated risk of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for respiratory conditions, and that this association was substantially stronger when these shutoffs coincided with wildfire smoke. These shutoffs thus carry health costs that utilities should weigh when deciding whether to turn off the power.
“Wildfires are becoming more common and severe, and PSPS events are likely to follow a similar trajectory. A natural question arises: not whether they should happen, but how to make them safer. We found PSPS effects were strongest among people seeking care for COPD, many of whom rely on electricity-dependent medical equipment like oxygen concentrators. Accordingly, before shutting off the power, we need a plan to protect these vulnerable populations.”

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Medicine: https://plos.io/4y1Pziq
Citation: Wilner LB, Jones-Ngo CG, Chen C, Kwoka B, Do V, Kaufman JD, et al. (2026) Co-exposure to planned power outages and wildfire PM2.5 and acute healthcare utilization in California: A time-stratified case-crossover study. PLoS Med 23(10): e1005270. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1005270
Author countries: United States
Funding: see manuscript
Journal
PLOS Medicine

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:05:49 +0000

Ask an expert: When do identity politics and perception undermine democracy?

In his new book ‘The Great Perceptual Divide,’ Penn State Professor Mitchell P. Smith explores how identity-based perceptions drive political divides in the US and UK and offers actionable paths back to healthy political disagreement

Penn State
X LinkedIn WeChat Bluesky Message WhatsApp Email

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Disagreement is crucial to a healthy democracy, according to Mitchell P. Smith, director of the School of International Affairs and professor of international affairs at Penn State. But when perceptions diverge so sharply that people and parties cannot agree on a common interpretation of events or information, it creates a political divide that can erode a democratic society.
In his new book “The Great Perceptual Divide: Identity and Democracy in the U.S. and Britain,” Smith examined the role that identity plays in the political divides in the two nations and offers steps for a return to “good-willed partisanship.” In the following Q&A, Smith discussed his book and how identity politics drive misinformation and undermine institutions. He also offered three potential outcomes of what he calls “the great perceptual divide.”
Q: Where did the idea for “The Great Perceptual Divide” originate?
Smith: The book originated with what was happening in Britain during “Brexit” — the British exit from the European Union that began with a referendum in June 2016. I was following Brexit closely, and what I learned over time was that perceptions of what was happening and the consequences of Brexit were diverging sharply in the population. And yet, as data came in on the likely consequences for British society, those perspectives diverged further rather than converging. Then, when the COVID pandemic hit, when the 2020 election took place in the United States, I saw the same phenomenon taking place. So, the book that originally was going to focus on Brexit increasingly became about perceptual divides and how the accumulation of information, rather than bringing perspectives closer together, was driving them further apart.
Q: Why are people with these diverse perspectives unable to agree on a common narrative today?
Smith: In pluralistic societies, in a healthy democracy, you want there to be a divergence of views and even a divergence of interpretations of new information. For example, the historical record shows that in the United States, those whose favored party occupies the presidency have a much more positive view about things like the economy than those of the opposition party. However, history suggests that when cataclysmic events take place, like the 2008 financial crisis, what is taking place and the harm to the economy that's taking place is so clear that we see some convergence of views.
Around the time of Brexit, COVID and the 2020 U.S. presidential election, we began to see a phenomenon where that's not what's happening. In the book, I explain this by the identities that divide us. In the British case, that divide centers around Brexit, the “Remainers” and the “Leavers.” In the United States the identity divide is about conceptions of who should belong to the political community, who should have rights in the country, what is and is not the role of government, what is the meaning of "freedom," among other questions. Those views drive interpretations of events, regardless of objective facts.
Q: What’s driving the divide in the United States?
Smith: I start “The Great Perceptual Divide” by referencing a book written by researchers at the University of Minnesota in the 1950s. The book is called “When Prophecy Fails,” and in it the researchers looked at this small group of people who believed that a cataclysmic flood would wipe out life on Earth, though true believers in this prophecy would be rescued by extraterrestrial beings. The researchers found that even after the prophecy did not materialize on the projected date, there was a group within this community who doubled down on their efforts to gain adherents, arguing that they had misinterpreted some signs and that additional signs confirmed the prophecy.
Clearly, what was taking place was that identification with this worldview, this fundamental belief, was driving interpretations of reality. This finding shed light on some of the events taking place in the contemporary United States, where people were interpreting, for example, rules about COVID through their fundamental lens of identity. That is, say I'm someone who does not believe that government is really looking out for the best interests of society but is fundamentally committed to societal control. If I believe that, then I have a very different interpretation about public health recommendations. So, you begin to see, even as evidence about the course of the pandemic accumulates, very different responses to that information.
You want to have partisanship in a healthy democracy. You want people to have different views. But what begins to happen over time is that views no longer converge in response to information that seems very clear to an objective observer. In fact, there are fewer and fewer objective observers. Secondly, the divergent groups begin to look at one another as enemies. One result is that in the United States today, culture wars that speak to and reinforce identities have come to supplant genuine policy debate in which we clash over approaches to a shared challenge. We see this in a variety of areas where the focus of people in political office is to mobilize supporters around identities rather than addressing policy problems. In such an environment, policy problems, such as the growing U.S. federal debt, fester. Rather than drawing lessons from the COVID pandemic about how we can best prepare for the next public health crisis, battles rage over efforts to identify the villains of the pandemic response.
Q: How did we get from a place of respectful disagreement to viewing the opposition as an enemy?
Smith: One factor driving this phenomenon is the demand for disinformation. People driven by different identities are actually searching for information that verifies their views — what psychologists call “confirmation bias.”
In the book, I look at psychological work on cognitive dissonance, which occurs when evidence comes to bear that violates one’s beliefs, one’s sense of self. Threats to an individual's sense of self are psychologically costly, and the individual engages in an effort to reconcile those contradictions. Embracing disinformation is one way to reconcile that dissonance. Another is an assault on authoritative institutions, from the media to governing institutions — the so-called "Deep State." If people dismiss evidence because of the source, then it becomes easier for them to reconcile what is happening with their beliefs and to dismiss challenging information. Instead of pursuing information driven by an accuracy motive, people are looking for information to affirm their worldviews.
Q: How do we end the great perceptual divide?
Smith: The factors driving the divide — the undermining of authoritative institutions; the spread of disinformation; the perversion of political accountability where politicians, instead of being held accountable for their policy measures and whether they advance the welfare of society, are held accountable by their party members for whether they vilify the opposition —are self-reinforcing, which suggests that this is likely to continue or perhaps get worse.
I think that if political figures emerge who understand what's happening and try to separate political issues from identity, it's possible to make some progress in bringing people back together. For instance, making an argument that the government is looking after your best interests and you should listen to the recommendations of the government is the wrong approach for some groups because it pushes up against the fundamental beliefs of people who are, for a wide variety of reasons, skeptical of government. Rather than trying to convince them to change those views, simply divorce the two things and suggest policies that benefit people. A podcast produced during the pandemic, for example, demonstrated that when encouraged to take the COVID vaccine because of recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a skeptical group was entirely unconvinced. When the argument shifted to a focus on preventing the hospitalizations and deaths experienced by peers, and the recommendations of physicians, views began to soften somewhat. If we have savvy politicians who can begin to make common sense arguments in ways that don't run afoul of people's identities, there might be some progress in bringing people together on common views, or at least shared definitions of policy challenges.
Healthy pluralism means that there are partisan divisions, but that when something of a dramatic magnitude occurs, like a pandemic or financial crisis, perceptions of what's going on and what needs to happen begin to converge. That happened with the 2008 financial crisis, but that's sort of the last time it happened. In all the crises that we've seen since, views have grown further and further apart over time, even with the accumulation of evidence — for example, that the announced 2020 presidential election outcome was accurate. If we can return to a place where, as evidence comes out, people have different partisan takes on what's happening but there's sufficient convergence to drive a policy response that says, “here are some ways we can meaningfully address this issue,” then we can shore up political institutions, stabilize democracy, and react more quickly to the next crisis.

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:03:07 +0000

Does the future of food production start in the lab?

Producing food for a growing world population amidst climate change and supply chain constraints is a tall order. Is biotechnology part of the solution?

College of ACES at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Facebook
X LinkedIn WeChat Bluesky Message WhatsApp Email

image:
Yong-Su Jin, professor of food science at tje University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
view more
Credit: L. Brian Stauffer.

URBANA, Ill. - Lab-grown protein that mimics the color, taste, and texture of meat. Egg white substitutes used for baked goods. Food colorants that replace beta-carotene extracted from carrots. Those are some of the products created with precision fermentation, an emerging technology that can develop tailored food ingredients in the laboratory. If adapted to large-scale production, it can potentially contribute to reducing global food insecurity by creating affordable, sustainable products supplementing those delivered by traditional agriculture.
What is precision fermentation?
While precision fermentation has been around for decades, the technology has primarily been used in production of fuel and animal feed. Regular yeast that is used for corn ethanol fermentation can’t process non-edible grain sources such as corn stover, but with metabolic engineering it’s possible to produce yeast that can ferment sugar from cellulosic biomass.
More recently, the technology is also being applied to food production, such as alternative proteins, vitamins, and nutrients. Traditional fermentation uses naturally existing micro-organisms to produce beer, wine, cheese and other consumables. However, precision fermentation uses genetically engineered microorganisms to redirect the cellular metabolism to produce specific food ingredients. One example is leghemoglobin, an alternative protein that is used to give plant-based burgers a red, blood-like color.
University of Illinois precision fermentation initiatives
Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are on the forefront of these developments. Several facilities on campus provide resources for precision fermentation technology and applications, including the NSF iBioFoundry and the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory.
IBRL is a research and development facility that helps companies bridge the gap from basic discovery to commercialization of bioproducts. It is part of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and The Grainger College of Engineering at the U. of I.
“Precision fermentation is one of our core competencies, and one of the areas that has been the busiest for the IBRL. Currently, we're seeing a lot of interest from the major consumer packaged goods companies on replacing traditionally petroleum-derived ingredients with natural alternatives, including food dyes, non-caloric sweeteners, and preservatives,” said Beth Conerty, IBRL Associate Director of Business Development.
Singapore research collaboration
The U. of I. has also co-established a research institute in Singapore. The Centre for Precision Fermentation and Sustainability (PreFerS) is funded by a $15 million grant from Singapore’s National Research Foundation and administered through the Illinois Advanced Research Center at Singapore Ltd., a U. of I.-affiliated non-profit organization.
Yong-Su Jin, professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, is a program lead of PreFerS.
“Singapore is a small country with no agriculture, so they are very interested in using precision fermentation for food production,” he said. “The center focuses on advancing technologies for microbial cell engineering to produce targeted nutritional molecules, including alternative proteins and vitamins. The goal is to enhance cost-effective production of safe and nutritious foods, ultimately improving food security while reducing environmental impacts.”
Specialized food product categories
In a
Researchers study why some trees thrive far from home

Findings could offer insights on which trees serve best as carbon sinks

University of Mississippi
Facebook
X
Bluesky Message WhatsApp Email

image:
Pine trees grow up to four times faster and are more drought-resistant when planted in the Southern Hemisphere, even though they do not grow there naturally. An Ole Miss biologist is among an international team studying why conifers grow so well outside their native habitats and how that affects their potential for carbon storage.
view more
Credit: Photo by Mitchell Diggs/ University Marketing and Communications

In a study spanning 192 sites and four continents, researchers have discovered that conifers planted in the Southern Hemisphere grow up to four times faster and are more drought-resistant than those growing in their native ranges.
This expedited growth and resilience could make conifers a strong candidate for carbon storage, but there may also be drawbacks to planting trees outside their home turf.
University of Mississippi ecologist Stephen Brewer was among more than two dozen researchers across multiple continents who studied the growth rate of pines, spruces, firs, cedars and other conifers in their native and nonnative habitats. The group published its findings in Nature.
"That result is surprising because ecological theory predicts that there should be a tradeoff between how fast a plant can grow and how tolerant it would be of stressful conditions," said Brewer, Ole Miss professor of biology. "This is interesting to us because with the elevated carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere contributing to climate change, there's a desire or push for afforestation, or planting trees in areas where there weren't any before, as carbon sinks.
"For that to be effective, you want the trees to grow quickly and not die in droughts."
While the exact cause for the trees increased resilience needs more study, the researchers found that Northern Hemisphere conifers planted in the Southern Hemisphere had higher concentrations of carbohydrates, such as sugars and starches, that could be used to store energy during stressful seasons.
"This phenomenon of skipping the growth-stress tolerance trade-off is something crucial that this study is reporting," said Alex Fajardo, researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity and professor at the University of Talca. "It is also valuable that we pursued finding the physiological mechanism responsible for this: an increase in carbon reserves needed for drought tolerance."
Although the findings position conifers as well-suited for afforestation efforts, the researchers cautioned that more factors are involved.
"The easy answer to this question is to advocate for plantations with nonnative conifers that can both grow (quickly) and tolerate drought," Fajardo said. "However, this decision has some serious risks, as nonnative conifer plantations, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere, have come with high biodiversity and social costs."
Pines and Douglas firs, two of trees researchers studied, do not naturally grow in the Southern Hemisphere, but they have been planted in countries including Chile, Brazil and South Africa as a part of the lumber industry for decades.
"The problem is, these pines are not necessarily staying in their plantations; they are actually expanding into natural, native habitats," Brewer said.
"In Brazil, it's escaping into what they call their Cerrado, which is a savanna, and it grows much faster there and just basically eliminates all the native vegetation. It's actually become a big problem."
The problem of escaping or encroaching pines has also affected Mississippi, he said. Local lumber industries began replacing longleaf pines with slash pines in the 1930s because of their faster growth rate.
Both species are native to Mississippi, but longleaf pines are more fire-resistant. The threat of fire wiping out entire stands has prompted many foresters and nonprofit agencies to return to the more resilient longleaf.
"I've seen wildfires completely eliminate entire stands of slash pines, whether that's in Mississippi or in the Southern Hemisphere," Brewer said. "The Cerrado in Brazil gets comparable rainfall amounts to what we get along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and it's a savanna for the same reason that we have longleaf pine savannas on our coast: fire.
"Fire is what maintains those savannas, and if you plant slash pines in really high densities, there could be an actual elevated fire risk, too."
The researchers also found that native Southern Hemisphere trees in the genus Nothofagus, known as southern beeches, performed relatively well in growth and drought-tolerance measures.
"In our study, we also found that native angiosperms of the genus Nothofagus did a decent job growing and tolerating drought," Fajardo said. "They may be a more potentially sustainable alternative."
Journal
Nature
Article Title
Pines grow faster and are more drought resilient in the Southern Hemisphere

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 08:53:42 +0000

Global chocolate supply threatened by disease, new cacao plant offers solution

Penn State
Facebook
X LinkedIn WeChat Bluesky Message WhatsApp Email

image:
Just-harvested cacao pods display a range of vivid colors.
view more
Credit: Mark Guiltinan / Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Chocolate lovers may not realize it, but the future of one of the world's most popular foods is increasingly under pressure. Diseases, shifting weather patterns and other environmental stressors are threatening cacao production globally, contributing to supply concerns and economic challenges for the millions of farmers who grow the crop that makes chocolate possible.
Now, after decades of research, Penn State scientists have developed a new disease-tolerant variety of cacao — and they said it has the potential to fundamentally change the chocolate industry.
The new cacao variety builds on decades of research led by Mark Guiltinan, J. Franklin Styer Professor of Horticultural Botany and professor of plant molecular biology in the Department of Plant Sciences at Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, and Siela Maximova, research professor of plant biotechnology in the same department.
“For consumers, chocolate is something they expect to find on store shelves every day, but behind that product is a crop and industry facing significant challenges,” Guiltinan said. “Our goal is to develop tools that help growers continue producing cacao sustainably and profitably.”
Penn State's Program in the Molecular Biology of Cocoa, which Guiltinan and Maximova co-direct, traces its roots to an industry-supported endowment established in the 1980s. Since then, researchers at the University have developed foundational tools for cacao biotechnology, mapped important genetic pathways, and built one of the world's leading cacao research programs.
The University recently entered into a licensing agreement with AgroNetica, a cacao-focused biotechnology company, to work toward bringing the plant to growers worldwide. The company will advance field testing of the plants with the goal of eventually marketing the plant directly to growers, helping address some of the most significant threats facing global chocolate production.
The AgroNetica agreement represents a new chapter in the University’s effort to understand and improve cacao, Maximova said, one focused on translating discoveries into technologies that can help growers, strengthen supply chains and support the future of chocolate production.
“Thanks to this long-term investment in research and maintaining a sustained program, we now have an opportunity to begin getting technologies developed here in the lab closer to the hands of farmers,” Maximova said. “The focus was always on helping cacao farmers and the industry. We're now at the place where we have a partner whose expertise is moving these discoveries into real-world use.”
According to Guiltinan, this new commercialization opportunity is particularly important as cacao production worldwide faces mounting threats from disease, climate variability, and changing environmental conditions that jeopardize both grower livelihoods and supply chains.
Black pod disease, an especially destructive disease caused by a mold-like pathogen, alone is estimated to cause yield losses of roughly 30% worldwide, he said, while climate-related stresses continue to threaten production in major cacao-growing regions.
Native to the Amazon rainforest, cacao evolved as an understory tree growing beneath a tropical forest canopy. Today, it is cultivated across tropical regions in Africa, Asia and Latin America, often under environmental conditions that are very different from those in which the species evolved.
“Cacao evolved in a very stable rainforest environment,” Guiltinan said. “It's a delicate plant in many ways. Changes in rainfall, temperature and humidity can all affect production, and some of those changes can also increase disease pressure.”
Traditional cacao breeding is notoriously slow. Maximova explained that developing and evaluating new varieties can take decades because cacao trees require roughly three years to mature and produce seed. That slow rate of growth means climate change is an especially dangerous threat to its survival, she added. Not only are environmental conditions shifting faster than plants can evolve, but increased humidity and weather variability can create favorable conditions for pathogens and insect pests.
“The climate is changing faster than these trees can naturally adapt,” she said. “One of our goals is to develop tools that help breeders respond more quickly to those challenges.”
In a study published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal, the researchers combined advanced genetic tools such as genome sequencing and editing with traditional plant breeding to create a cacao plant with significantly improved resistance to black pod disease.
Using gene editing technology (CRISPR), the scientists modified a cacao gene known as TcNPR3, which acts as a natural brake on the plant's immune system. The mutation partially activates the plant's defense response, increasing its defenses against subsequent pathogen infection. After introducing the desired edit, researchers bred the plants to remove all transgenic material, or foreign DNA associated with the gene-editing machinery, leaving only the beneficial genetic change.
The result was a cacao plant carrying a precise genetic modification for disease tolerance, but no longer considered a genetically modified organism or GMO, consistent with U.S. and European Union regulatory frameworks that treat certain gene-edited traits similarly to those developed through conventional breeding.
Italian archaeologists discover links to tomb of Jesus underneath Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Copyright Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By Kevin Koehrmann
Published on 27 October 2026 - EURONEWS

Italian researchers have found a burial ground beneath Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, matching biblical accounts of the location of Jesus' burial.
Whether God exists or not is a matter of dispute around the world. A large majority of modern historians are, however, convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was a real historical figure who lived in the 1st century and was crucified under the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. Christians across the globe have long believed that the tomb of the Jewish itinerant preacher lies beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Christian pilgrims hold candles as they gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, known to Orthodox Christians as the Church of the Resurrection, stands in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. It is one of the most important shrines in Christianity, as it is believed to have been built on what was thought to be the site of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was commissioned by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, and was built in the fourth century.
The first church was consecrated in 335 AD. Over the course of its history, the building was destroyed and rebuilt several times. It suffered particularly heavy damage in 1009 under the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim. In the following decades the church was partially restored.
A Christian pilgrim prays in front of the doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City. KEVIN FRAYER/AP
After the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099, extensive alterations were carried out. The church's present appearance is therefore the result of numerous phases of construction and restoration.
For a long time hardly any structural changes, renovation work or excavations were permitted, because several Christian denominations share the church and each feared that changes could weaken their rights and influence. Now the different parties have reached agreement. Since 2016 the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been undergoing restoration, for the first time in more than 200 years.
Ancient tombs and a garden found beneath the church floor
In 2022 a comprehensive restoration of the church floor was initially planned. As work progressed, it turned into an extensive excavation project. Researchers discovered, beneath the church, an abandoned stone quarry, agricultural plots, a garden and rock-cut tombs.
A member of the restoration team works on the floor of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where many Christians believe that Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
The garden is of particular significance, as the Gospel of John mentions a garden at the place of Jesus's crucifixion. According to the Bible, the crucifixion took place close to the city limits of Jerusalem. The Letter to the Hebrews notes that Jesus suffered outside the city gate. This, too, is consistent with the archaeologists' findings.
Lead archaeologist Francesca Romana Stasolla of Rome's "La Sapienza" university interprets the finds as evidence of a burial landscape. The excavations suggest that cultivated land once lay between Golgotha, known as Calvary in the Bible's new testament, and the tomb, according to Stasolla.
The archaeologists also found traces of olive trees and vines, dated to around 33 AD, the period in which Jesus's death is usually placed.
Christian worshippers pray at the stone on which, according to belief, Jesus Christ was washed after his crucifixion. Copyright 2006 AP. All rights reserved.
According to Stasolla, the tombs carved into the rock also point to an earlier burial site. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke describe Jesus's tomb as a burial chamber hewn from rock, so this detail fits as well.
No conclusive proof
The finds do not provide scientific proof that Jesus was buried

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:09:00 +0000
Starlink Is A Lifeline, Its Rules Are Now A Global Security Issue – OpEd

By Burak Oktenli

Key Takeaways:

Ukraine’s October 2026 Starlink and Starshield restrictions, which briefly impaired frontline operations, illustrated that a satellite service can remain technically functional while contractual or policy limits suddenly remove authorized access.

The episode underscores three distinct risks—technical compromise (as in the 2022 Viasat attack), malicious use of working terminals by scammers, and abrupt loss of access through provider or government decisions—each requiring different controls.

Governments and operators should pre-negotiate mission-specific service terms, enable targeted rather than blanket suspensions, test independent fallbacks, and treat diversification (including Europe’s future IRIS² constellation) as essential to resilience.

Ukraine’s October service restrictions and international scam crackdowns show why satellite resilience requires more than coverage: secure networks, predictable access decisions and credible alternatives.

On October 24, Ukraine said its Starlink and Starshield connections were again working at speeds needed for frontline operations. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported stable service on equipment moving at more than 400 kilometers per hour, following restrictions that had affected drone missions, communications and logistics. The satellites had not fallen out of the sky, and Ukraine was not reporting a hack of the constellation. A service restriction, whatever its disputed origin, had nonetheless become an operational problem for a country fighting a war.

Elon Musk said commercial Starlink service had been restricted because Ukraine was using it contrary to conditions governing weapon-related activity. Ukrainian officials disputed his account. Responsibility for restrictions involving the distinct military-focused Starshield service was also publicly contested. These disputes deserve careful reporting rather than premature verdicts. What they reveal is broader than the argument between any government and provider: a communication service can remain technically functional while the terms under which a user can rely on it change.

Two weeks earlier, the U.S. Justice Department named Starlink among technology companies supporting an international operation against scam centers in West Africa. The participating companies collectively reported removing more than 3.7 million fraudulent accounts, pages and groups. Those collective removals must not be credited to Starlink individually. But its presence among the partners underscores the other side of the dilemma: the same cross-border connectivity that helps emergency responders can also sustain criminal organizations.

Global satellite internet is becoming a tool of national resilience and a channel that states and private providers must sometimes restrict. Cybersecurity policy needs to manage both facts at once. A dish on a roof is not the same thing as dependable, authorized and secure connectivity.

A useful lifeline can become a strategic dependency

Starlink earned its standing as crisis infrastructure through real service, not advertising. A 2025 USAID inspector general review documented how terminals helped restore civilian internet access in Ukraine and supported government and emergency communications after Russia attacked terrestrial networks. The same inspection found that safeguards and oversight for 5,175 U.S.-provided terminals had been insufficient. It called for assessing units at risk of misuse or theft and coordinating narrowly targeted suspension. It did not establish that every terminal in a risky location had been misused.

That experience captures the dilemma better than a demand that a private provider never suspend service. A provider must comply with law, sanctions and contractual conditions and must be able to counter misuse. A government, hospital or emergency operator must also know which service it actually purchased, what uses it authorizes, which changes may affect it and what recourse is available when essential work is interrupted.

Starlink’s published service terms distinguish ordinary commercial connectivity from use in offensive or defensive weapons and describe export-control obligations. Starlink and Starshield do not have identical purposes or contractual arrangements. Treating a commercial subscription as an unconditional military right would be untenable. Treating every consequential service change as an ordinary customer-support matter would be equally shortsighted where governments have built vital functions around the connection.

The cyberattack, the abusive user and the access decision are different risks

The first risk is technical compromise. In February 2022, an attack on Viasat’s KA-SAT network disrupted internet service across Ukraine and parts of Europe. Viasat described intrusion through a misconfigured virtual private network appliance into its management environment and malicious commands that disabled customer modems. This was a Viasat incident, not a Starlink breach, and Viasat reported no evidence that the satellite itself had been compromised. It demonstrated why the ground and management layers can be decisive even when the network has assets in orbit.

A March 2026 joint advisory from the United States, Australia and other partners treats low-Earth-orbit satellite security as a problem spanning spacecraft, ground stations, terminals, user devices, communications links and the supply chain. A remote satellite cannot clean ransomware from a hospital computer. Nor does a functioning antenna protect an organization whose administrator credentials or endpoint devices have been stolen. Availability, integrity and confidentiality require different controls.

The second risk is malicious use of otherwise functioning connectivity. An Associated Press and FRONTLINE investigation found Starlink-linked connections among scam operations in Myanmar even after previous enforcement efforts. A terminal used in fraud is not evidence that the satellite network was penetrated. It is evidence that legitimate infrastructure can be purchased, diverted or concealed by an abusive customer. The October operation in West Africa shows that network providers, financial firms, technology platforms and police can make better progress when they coordinate on specific evidence instead of treating every user in a troubled region as suspect.

The third risk is loss of access through policy or contracts rather than technical failure. Ukraine’s October dispute illustrates this risk, although responsibility for Starshield restrictions remains contested. No hack was reported, and a firewall could not resolve such a service restriction. The response must involve clear contracts, transparent responsibility where feasible, valid emergency contacts and practical alternatives. It must also respect the need for immediate intervention when the service is being used unlawfully or presents serious security risks.

Build a crisis service, not just a backup connection

Governments buying satellite access for essential services should require a mission-specific service annex before a crisis. It should distinguish civilian relief, ordinary government connectivity and security operations, identify the responsible public and private officials, describe lawful restrictions and escalation routes, and state what notice or urgent review is possible when access changes. No agreement can promise continued service regardless of sanctions, attacks or misuse. It can make the decision process less ambiguous and reduce avoidable surprises for legitimate users.

Providers and authorities should also be able to restrict abuse as precisely as the evidence permits. Terminal identity, account verification and a traceable incident process can help isolate suspect devices or activities rather than disconnecting whole populations. Where feasible, especially for protected emergency uses, suspension decisions should allow rapid correction of mistaken identity. Cross-border information sharing must remain consistent with law and data minimization, rather than creating a centralized list of everyone who needs to stay online.

Customers have an equally important duty. A satellite backup should be tested with the principal internet link gone, corporate identity services unavailable and a compromised device removed from the network. Staff should demonstrate that they have trusted devices, independent access credentials, power, procedures and the ability to use a different communications route when necessary. Two providers that depend on the same authentication platform, terminal-management service or local electricity supply may still fail together. The test of resilience is the essential work completed, not the number of antennas purchased.

Diversification is becoming a strategic policy choice. In August, the European Union advanced its 348-satellite IRIS² program to strengthen independently governed secure connectivity for public institutions and emergency services. Its first launches are planned for 2029, so it is not a replacement for today’s emergency links. Its relevance is that governments increasingly regard the governance and availability of satellite service, not only signal strength, as part of infrastructure security. Other regions will need options suited to their resources and laws, not necessarily a copy of Europe’s public investment.

This is not a case for nationalizing Starlink or making any provider an international utility by decree. Competition, innovation and provider discretion have helped bring satellite service to places terrestrial networks cannot reliably reach. The policy opportunity is narrower: public purchasers and providers can agree in advance on authorized use, targeted enforcement, incident notification, safe restoration and independently tested fallbacks.

The next global cyber emergency may involve an attack on a ground control system, the exploitation of terminals by criminal networks, or a legitimate user losing a service on which an urgent operation depends. Those are different failures. A country that treats them all as a question of satellite coverage will prepare for none of them adequately.

Starlink can help keep a nation connected in crisis. Real resilience begins when that nation knows how the connection can be protected, restricted and, when necessary, replaced.

About Burak Oktenli
Burak Oktenli holds an MBA and a Master of Professional Studies in Applied Intelligence from Georgetown University. His research addresses the governance of authority in autonomous and AI-enabled systems, and his writing has appeared at the Modern War Institute at West Point, RUSI, RealClearDefense, RealClearMarkets, and Geopolitical Monitor. He is the author of Authority Architectures for Autonomous Systems, a ten-volume series on how authority in autonomous systems is delegated, monitored and recovered, at authority-architecture.me.
View all posts by Burak Oktenli →

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:08:46 +0000

Norway says 'successful' cyberattacks against the country have tripled in last six months
Copyright Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By Nathan Rennolds
Published on 27 October 2026 - EURONEWS
The country's National Security Authority said the rapid growth of artificial intelligence technology also posed a "serious risk" to Norwegian businesses and organisations.
Norway's National Security Authority (NSM) said on Tuesday that the number of "successful" cyberattacks targeting Norwegian organisations had trebled in the last six months as it warned of a continued threat to national security.
In a new report, the NSM - which is involved in efforts to counter espionage and hybrid threats - said the country's defence industry and space sector were particularly exposed to cyber risk.
"This also applies to critical infrastructure and service providers to organisations that are important to national security," it said.
"NSM has not previously made this type of assessment public," director Arne Christian Haugstøyl added. "We are doing so now because it is absolutely necessary to strengthen both the resilience and the ability to handle cyber operations in Norwegian organisations."
The report follows increasing warnings across Europe of suspected Russian hybrid attacks, including cyber operations.
In August, Norwegian media reported that a Russian hacker group had declared war on Norway while also claiming responsibility for a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that had reportedly impacted multiple government digital services.
In its report published on Tuesday, the NSM did not point to a specific actor but said that certain businesses and organisations were being increasingly subjected to reconnaissance and ransomware and DDoS attacks.
The agency also warned of the threat posed by artificial intelligence technology, which it said posed a "serious risk" to Norwegian businesses and organisations.
“AI analyzes large amounts of data and identifies vulnerabilities faster than humans have been able to," Haugstøyl said. "These vulnerabilities open up new opportunities for cyberattacks at a faster pace and on a larger scale.
"This means that the risk is increasing, and the pace at which security measures are implemented must be accelerated."

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:08:29 +0000

Norwegian media sue Meta over plans to use their journalism for AI
Copyright Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

By Jonathan Benton with AFP
Published on 27 October 2026 - EURONEWS

Publishers say new terms for Facebook and Instagram business accounts could allow Meta to collect articles, images and videos from their websites without permission.
A coalition of Norwegian media organisations has launched legal action against Meta, arguing that the company’s new terms for business accounts could undermine publishers’ control over their own journalism and allow it to be used in AI products without their agreement.
According to the 10 media groups, the new terms would give Meta — which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads — the right to collect their articles, photos and videos, including those behind a paywall, and use them to develop artificial intelligence products, among other things.
Meta quietly announced it was changing its Commercial Terms on 8 October, with plans to roll out on 30 October. However, the company postponed the roll-out after receiving widespread pushback from European publishers and antitrust authorities.
The launch is now set for 20 November, "to allow more time for us to explain to our partners and stakeholders what's changing and what's not", said Meta.
Critics say news publishers are being forced into an "all-or-nothing" choice by the US tech giant: allow Meta to scrape their journalism, potentially for AI training, or lose their Facebook and Instagram presence entirely.
The Norwegian media groups’ legal challenge will test whether publishers can block the changes before they take effect.
"The fear is that the companies will use this power to secure rights over journalistic content," the head of the Norwegian Media Businesses' Association (MBL), Lene Eltvik Vindfeld, said in a statement.
"Meta uses media groups' investments to develop artificial intelligence services that compete with them directly. This is both unacceptable and distorts competition," she added.
According to the plaintiffs, Meta’s new terms of use would apply to all professional account holders — media outlets as well as companies and retailers — and would leave them no way to opt out other than deleting their accounts.
They said they had filed a request with the Oslo District Court for a provisional injunction against the entry into force of the terms of use, pending a ruling on the substance of the case.
The plaintiffs include public broadcaster NRK, media groups Schibsted, Amedia, Polaris and Aller, as well as Norwegian news agency NTB.
On 14 October, MBL and NRK had also threatened to sue Meta, accusing the American tech giant of profiting from fraudulent advertisements impersonating them in order to defraud internet users.
A global shift
The Norwegian case reflects a broader dispute over the rights of publishers whose journalism appears on major tech and AI platforms.
Since May this year, more than 340 local and national news sites including the Guardian, the New York Times and USA Today have blocked internet archive crawler bots to prevent them from collecting data for training AI models.
And in June, France’s competition authority warned Meta that its approach to copyright talks with news outlets could "seriously harm" the press.

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:06:22 +0000

Neil Young sues Donald Trump's political committee for copyright infringement - again
Copyright AP Photo

By David Mouriquand
Published on 27 October 2026 - EURONEWS

Neil Young has filed a $10 million suit against Donald Trump's political action committee, Trump 47 Committee Inc., for using his hit song ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ - six years after a prior settlement over the same song.
Legendary Canadian rocker Neil Young has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s political committee, alleging copyright infringement over the organisation’s ongoing use of his song ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ during midterm election rallies. The 1989 hit is frequently used as Trump's walk-on music.
Young’s camp is requesting $10 million (approx. €8.9m) in damages and that Trump’s team be barred from playing the song in public.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday and seen by Variety, highlights how Trump 47 Committee Inc.’s unsanctioned use of Young’s song violates the terms of a past settlement, as the musician and his publishing company, Silver Fiddle Music, filed a copyright infringement suit against Trump’s presidential campaign in 2020.
Young later dismissed the lawsuit, but only after reaching a settlement with the Trump campaign – which included the promise that they would not use ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ without permission.
“The Committee does not now have, and did not at the time of the Youngstown Rally or any other rally financed and conducted by the Committee, have a license or Young’s permission to play the Song at any public political event,” states the new lawsuit.
The lawsuit also highlights that Trump has clearly not listened to (or bothered to read) the song’s lyrics, as it is a famously anti-Republican.
Young wrote the track as a critical commentary on politics and American society during the George H.W. Bush years. The song clearly paints the contradictions and pitfalls of the so-called "American Dream".
“‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ is a blistering anthem that contrasts the hollow promises of American political rhetoric with the harsh realities faced by the poor, homeless and forgotten,” the document states. “The lyrics paint vivid street-level portraits - a mother discarding her baby, addicts lost in despair, garbage piling in the shadows of prosperity -while the repeated chorus delivers a savage irony, celebrating freedom that clearly isn’t shared by all.”
“In short, the song is the opposite of everything that Donald J. Trump stands for."
The opening lyrics to the song are: "There's colours on the street / Red, white and blue / People shufflin' their feet / People sleepin' in their shoes / But there's a warnin' sign on the road ahead / There's a lot of people sayin' we'd be better off dead / Don't feel like Satan, but I am to them / So I try to forget it any way I can...”
For most, it's hardly a difficult metaphor to grasp...
Relate
The suit also alleges that Young “has suffered and continues to suffer from great injury” over the alleged infringement, adding that he also “suffered damage to his reputation and brand as a result of the implication that he supports Donald J. Trump in any way.”
Young has been a longstanding and vocal critic of Trump. Last year, he came to the defence of Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift, both of whom Trump had criticised and even threatened.
At the time, Young shared a new blog post on the Neil Young Archives website, where he defended his fellow musicians.
“Bruce and thousands of musicians think you are ruining America. You worry about that instead of the dyin’ kids in Gaza. That’s your problem. I am not scared of you. Neither are the rest of us.”
He continued: “You shut down FEMA when we needed it most. That’s your problem Trump. STOP THINKING ABOUT WHAT ROCKERS ARE SAYING. Think about saving America from the mess you made.”
“Taylor Swift is right. So is Bruce. You know how I feel. You are more worried about yourself than AMERICA. Wake up Trump!! Remember what the White House is?”
He finished his blog entry by writing: “You are forgetting your real job. You work for us. Wake up Republicans! This guy is out of control. We need a real president!”
Earlier this year, Young even offered Greenlanders free access to his music in the wake of Trump's threats of annexation.
He wrote on his website: “I’m honoured to give a free year’s access to neilyoungarchives.com to all of our friends in Greenland. I hope my music and music films will ease some of the unwarranted stress and threats you are experiencing from our unpopular and hopefully temporary government.”
Relat
Young is far from the only high-profile musician to take legal action against the Trump administration for playing their songs without authorisation.
Everyone from Creedence Clearwater Revival to Tom Petty, via The Rolling Stones, Adele, Foo Fighters, Céline Dion, The White Stripes, ABBA and many more have called out Trump for using their songs without permission.
Other cases include Bruce Springsteen objecting in 2016 to Trump blasting 'Born in the U.S.A.' as a patriotic anthem, when it’s actually a scathing indictment of the treatment of Vietnam vets; Rihanna demanding that Trump stop playing 'Don’t Stop the Music' after the song played at a 2018 rally; and R.E.M. being outraged that their tracks 'Losing My Religion', 'Everybody Hurts' and 'It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)' were used at rallies.
In 2020, Leonard Cohen’s estate issued a statement criticizing Trump's unauthorized use of Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ at the Republican National Convention – having specifically rejected permission for its use. The estate, rather brilliantly, added that they would have only realistically considered approving Cohen's song ‘You Want It Darker’.
In June, Ariana Grande became one of the latest artists to protest Trump's antics, calling out the White House for using one of her songs in a social media post promoting ICE arrests.
She wrote: “Please do not ever use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense. F* ICE."
The 2026 United States midterm elections are scheduled to be held on Tuesday 3 November.

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:33:11 +0000
Will Trump Take Millions Of Hostages Like Me For Big Pharma? – OpEd

October 28, 2026
By James Bovard

Key Takeaways:

Starting 20 January the FDA and Customs and Border Protection will effectively ban almost all personal prescription imports, eliminating a channel that millions of Americans, especially those over 65, have used to obtain drugs from Canadian pharmacies at roughly one-third of U.S. prices.

U.S. prescription prices are roughly triple those in other affluent nations; surveys show six in ten adults worry about affording drugs, and personal imports have also reduced Medicare outlays by allowing seniors to avoid high domestic prices that trigger the $2,100 catastrophic threshold.

The author argues the ban protects pharmaceutical price-gouging rather than public safety, notes that prior state-import proposals stalled under industry opposition, and contends that the freedom to buy lower-priced medicines abroad should not be treated as a threat.

President Trump loves protectionism but he gives Americans the same “protection” that the wolf gave to the lamb. On January 20, the Food and Drug Administration and Customs and Border Protection will effectively ban almost all personal prescription imports, bushwhacking millions of Americans who rely on Canadian pharmacies.

Trump often brags that the US has the world’s lowest drug prices. He also brags that he has lowered drug prices by 500% so he starts out with a helluva cloud over his credibility.

In reality, prescription drug prices in the US are roughly triple the cost in other affluent nations. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found the highest rate ever of Americans worried about affording prescription drugs – six out of ten adults. Almost half said they had not filled prescriptions, skipped doses, or took other steps to curtail their costs.

The Washington Post reported the case of 76-year-old Linda Klonsky suffering from meibomian gland dysfunction. She previously paid $250 for three months of eye drops shipped from Canada to her Silver Spring, Maryland home. But restrictions on drug imports this summer sent the price of her drugs up almost ninefold. Klonsky lamented: “I’m being squeezed between the American drug company and Trump’s tariffs.”

I’m in the crosshairs of this trade battle. Eight years ago, I was diagnosed with glaucoma. With daily eye drops and regular ophthalmologist visits, my vision has remained fairly stable. I’ve tried numerous prescription eye drops but Lumigan is the only effective one that doesn’t give me butt-kicking headaches. Lumigan costs ten times more in the US than in Canada.

I found a trustworthy Canadian online pharmacy that delivers Lumigan for barely a third of the US price. That is typical of the savings pocketed by Americans purchasing from licensed Canadian pharmacies, according to the Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation.

Six years ago, when he was running for re-election, Trump touted a plan to permit state governments to “go to Canada and buy your drugs for a fraction of the price” in the US. Secretary of Health and Human Services Department Alex Azar certified that permitting states to import Canadian drugs “poses no additional risk to the public’s health and safety and will result in a significant reduction in the cost of covered products to the American consumer.” But that program was stillborn in large part due to opposition from US pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Federal policies have created many perverse incentives on pharmaceutical pricing. Prior to turning 65, I could use various discounts and rebates to get Lumigan in the US much cheaper than the full retail price. However, once a person becomes eligible for Medicare, no discounts or rebates are permitted. Medicare turbocharges drug price inflation while often providing only an illusion of a safety net for recipients. I had good reasons for vigorously opposing the creation of Medicare drug subsidies in 2004 – to no avail.

I am effectively subsidizing Medicare by buying Canadian. Medicare now covers the cost of any recipient’s prescription drug expenditure above $2,100 per year. If I bought Lumigan at the full US price of $265 each month, my annual cost would be $3,180 and Medicare would pay $1,080. Medicare Part D plans I have used did not offer decent discounts on Lumigan. Thanks to my Canadian escape valve, Medicare pays zero for my Lumigan regardless of the extortionate price at CVS.

I have scant other prescription costs, and I can save a thousand dollars a year by buying Lumigan abroad without coverage from Medicare. The vast majority of Americans who order prescription drugs from Canada are over 65 and are paying out-of-pocket, providing windfall savings for Medicare. But practically nobody in Washington has given a damn about saving tax dollars since the Reagan era.

Big Pharma lobbyists warn that permitting Americans to directly import the drugs they need is too risky. Indeed, tainted eye drops have been a big problem in recent years. The FDA recently recalled almost 4 million eye drop bottles due to possible contamination. But those bottles were produced in Illinois and California, not the Yukon or Nova Scotia.

“Why would the FDA want to prosecute people just trying to afford their blood pressure, asthma, diabetes medicine?” said Lucia Mueller, president of PharmacyChecker, an organization that vets online pharmacies. Here’s a woman who doesn’t know the history of high-profile raids designed to make FDA officials famous. FDA has a “zero tolerance except for price-gouging” policy.

In the past, the FDA usually turned a blind eye to prescription drug imports of less than 90 days’ personal supply, which may be in a legal gray zone. Perhaps this article will spur the FDA to target me and my bootleg eye drops. Whatever – I’m accustomed to the feds denouncing my articles, from the chief of the FBI to the Secretary of Agriculture and even the Postmaster General. I’ve been thrashing protectionist schemes and the FDA for more than 35 years and it is too late to stop now.

I recently thumped Trump’s pending Canadian embargo in the New York Post. Plenty of people responded by finger-wagging that I should be happy with the lower-priced generic version of Lumigan. But “generic” is a pharmaceutical term that often means “close enough for government work.” Until very recently, the generic version of the eye drops had triple the dose of the active ingredient – with no extra charge for those durn headaches.

If Trump bans Americans from purchasing their prescriptions abroad, I will survive. The patents on Lumigan expire next summer and the price will likely fall sharply unless rascally lawyers find a new pretext to screw American consumers on the price. But hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of other Americans will suffer severe hardship from Trump’s border closure. Tim Smith, general manager of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association, said that people “are coming to us because they can’t afford the drugs where they live.” Unfortunately, that is not a problem for Washington bureaucrats and political appointees.

I am looking for no subsidy or favors from Washington. All I want is the freedom to purchase the drugs I need without getting blindsided by Uncle Sam.

We don’t need federal eye-drop police to protect Americans against low prices. If the United States actually had the lowest drug prices in the world, Trump would not need to take Americans hostage to allow Big Pharma to continue gouging them with high prices.

This article was published at Brownstone Institute

About James Bovard
James Bovard, 2023 Brownstone Fellow, is author and lecturer whose commentary targets examples of waste, failures, corruption, cronyism and abuses of power in government. He is a USA Today columnist and is a frequent contributor to The Hill. He is the author of ten books, including Last Rights: The Death of American Liberty.
View all posts by James Bovard →

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:31:13 +0000
HIV Has Reached ‘Epidemic Proportions’ In A Third Of Russia’s Federal Subjects – OpEd

October 28, 2026

By Paul Goble

Key Takeaways:

HIV has reached epidemic levels in 27 Russian federal subjects, infecting up to 3 percent of men in their 40s and 1 percent of pregnant women, mostly via heterosexual transmission.
Only half of those infected receive antiretroviral therapy, leaving at least 600,000 untreated sources of spread and missing the WHO 95-95-95 target.

Hospitals are again transmitting the virus, and hard-hit regions lack the funds to fill the drug-supply gap despite lifted federal restrictions.

HIV infections have reached “epidemic proportions” in 27 of Russia’s federal subjects, with transmissions increasingly occurring through heterosexual contacts and the failure of medical facilities to prevent the spread. As a result, as many as three percent of Russian men in their 40s are infected and one percent of pregnant women.

Those are just some of the dire reports of Russian experts surveyed by Mikhail Sergeyev, who monitors economic developments for Nezavisimaya Gazeta, reports that suggest that while mortality rates from HIV have fallen there in recent years, that may not continue if the rate of the spread of HIV increases (ng.ru/economics/2026-10-25/1_9610_hiv.html).

One reason for pessimism is that many who are infected do now know that, and “only half of the people living with HIV” are getting anti-retroviral treatments, experts say. That low coverage means that “at least 600,000 HIV sources continue to actively participate in the transmission of the virus,” they continue.

According to the World Health Organization, controlling the spread of HIV requires that countries achieve what is known as the 95-95-95 benchmark, with 95 percent of those infected knowing their status, 95 percent receiving ART treatment, and 95 percent of those achieving viral suppression. At present, Russia is not close to any of those figures.

Russian medical officials say that “two thirds of the new HIV transmissions in Russia are the result of heterosexual contact” rather than drug abuse or homosexual activity;” and they note that hospitals and other medical institutions “are one again becoming channels of transmission of the virus.”

Moscow has lifted restrictions on ART medications, but the problem of a lack of the availability of such drugs is still so great that the hardest hit regions are now trying to fill in the gap, although they rarely are able to do so not only because of the high cost of such drugs but also because of their lack of funds for such things.

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:57:56 +0000

LIBERTARIAN ANTI-IMPERIALISM

The American Government’s Shameful Economic Warfare Against Cuba – OpEd**

A man rides a bicycle by a vibrant Cuban flag mural in Havana.
Photo Credit: Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz, Pexels

October 28, 2026
MISES
By Dr. Birsen Filip

Key Takeaways:

The Trump administration has continued coercive economic measures against Cuba and, through recent statements by President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has left open the possibility of more forceful regime-change efforts, including military options, aimed at replacing President Díaz-Canel and the Communist Party.

Díaz-Canel has rejected resignation under pressure, warned that an invasion would trigger guerrilla resistance and regional destabilization, and called for respectful dialogue while opposing externally driven regime change of the kind pursued elsewhere.

The article contends that attempting to impose a free-market order through embargo and external coercion contradicts classical-liberal and Rothbardian principles, which treat markets as spontaneous outcomes and require states to refrain from interfering in other countries’ affairs.

The Trump administration has shown no interest in pursuing a policy of peaceful engagement with Cuba based on respect for national sovereignty and the principle of self-determination, during either his first term in office or his current presidency. In fact, on both occasions, the US government has implemented coercive economic measures designed to increase pressure on the Cuban government, with the broader objective of weakening the existing political system and encouraging political change without direct military intervention.

More recently, however, there has been a noticeable shift in attitude, as President Trump suggested that there could be “a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover.” Other provocative and undiplomatic statements included: “whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it”; and, “You want to know the truth? They’re a very weakened nation now.” President Trump even went so far as to state that he believed he would have the “honor of taking Cuba.” These comments imply that the administration has not ruled out the possibility of even more coercive measures, including the use of military force.

Speaking to reporters after a G7 meeting in France on March 27, 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued that Cuba was a disaster due to the failure of its economic system and asserted that improving the future of the country would require replacing its leadership, transforming the political regime, and restructuring its economic model. Accordingly, the Trump administration is seeking the removal of Cuban President Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez and the transfer of power away from the Communist Party to a more compliant leadership that would be willing to pursue the economic restructuring long advocated by foreign investors and Cuban exiles in South Florida.

On May 18, President Miguel Díaz-Canel responded by stating that,

. . .the threats of military aggression against Cuba by the world’s most powerful nation are well known. The threat itself constitutes a violation of international law. If carried out, such aggression would result in a bloodbath with incalculable consequences and would have a profoundly destabilizing impact on regional peace and security.

In fact, he has consistently argued that a US invasion of Cuba would entail significant costs and have far-reaching implications for the security of Cuba, the United States, and the wider region. According to Díaz-Canel, such an intervention would be met with guerrilla resistance, as Cubans are prepared to defend their sovereignty even at the cost of national sacrifice. Libertarians should be fully supportive of Cuba in the event of such an altercation, as Rothbard stated that:

. . .revolutionary guerrilla war can be far more consistent with libertarian principles than any inter-State war. By the very nature of their activities, guerrillas defend the civilian population against the depredations of a State; hence, guerrillas, inhabiting as they do the same country as the enemy State, cannot use nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction. Further: since guerrillas rely for victory on the support and aid of the civilian population, they must, as a basic part of their strategy, spare civilians from harm and pinpoint their activities solely against the State apparatus and its armed forces. Hence, guerrilla war returns us to the ancient and honorable virtue of pinpointing the enemy and sparing innocent civilians. And guerrillas, as part of their quest for enthusiastic civilian support, often refrain from conscription and taxation and rely on voluntary support for men and materiel. (emphasis in original)

President Díaz-Canel has also maintained that the United States would be unable to achieve regime change through economic pressure, including the ongoing embargo or other forms of coercion. He reaffirmed that he would not resign under external pressure and has reiterated his commitment to defending Cuban sovereignty and self-determination. At the same time, he has called for mutually respectful dialogue with the United States and opposed efforts to bring about regime change in Cuba, similar to those pursued in Venezuela and Iran.

The belief that an economic siege can bring about the collapse of socialist Cuba and facilitate the establishment of a free-market system rests on a particular assumption: that economic and social transformation can be deliberately engineered through external pressure. Such a view suggests that a market order does not need to emerge organically from domestic institutions, individual choices, and voluntary exchange, but can instead be imposed through coercive measures directed by a foreign state.

This presents a fundamental tension with the principles of classical liberal and libertarian thought. If free markets are understood as outcomes of spontaneous processes, as opposed to conscious design, then the notion that a foreign government can create a capitalist order through economic sanctions and political pressure is difficult to reconcile with the invisible-hand thesis and the principle of laissez-faire. Ultimately, a system based on voluntary cooperation and decentralized decision-making cannot be easily brought into existence through policies aimed at restriction, economic control, and collective punishment.

The case of Cuba illustrates this contradiction. For decades, the economic embargo imposed by Washington has been justified as a means of weakening the socialist government and encouraging a transition towards a market-oriented economy. Yet, the political and economic system of Cuba has demonstrated resilience in the face of this sustained external pressure, which raises important questions about the effectiveness of economic coercion as a tool for social transformation. Instead of producing the political outcomes sought by Washington, these measures have imposed significant costs on the Cuban population, while demonstrating the limitations of attempting to engineer institutional change from outside.

From a libertarian perspective, the broader lesson extends beyond the specific case of Cuba. The pursuit of freedom and market exchange cannot be advanced through policies that rely on coercion and external control. If liberty depends on voluntary action and decentralized decision-making, then attempts to impose a particular social order through state power—whether domestic or foreign—risk contradicting the very principles they claim to promote. Rothbard argued that, within the libertarian tradition, the goal in foreign affairs is “to keep government from interfering in the affairs of other governments or other countries.” That is to say, it aims to “shackle government from acting abroad just as we try to shackle government at home.” Rothbard specifically stated that:

For the libertarian is interested in reducing as much as possible the area of State aggression against all private individuals. The only way to do this, in international affairs, is for the people of each country to pressure their own State to confine its activities to the area it monopolizes and not to attack other States or aggress against their subjects. In short, the objective of the libertarian is to confine any existing State to as small a degree of invasion of person and property as possible. And this means the total avoidance of war. The people under each State should pressure “their” respective States not to attack one another, or, if a conflict should break out, to withdraw from it as quickly as physically possible.

Rothbard insisted that “libertarians in the United States must center their critical attention on the imperial and warlike activities of their own government.” Moreover, Rothbard also reminded libertarians that, in “the twentieth century as a whole, the single most warlike, most interventionist, most imperialist government has been the United States.” In doing so, he recognized that “such a statement is bound to shock Americans, subject as we have been for decades to intense propaganda by the Establishment on the invariable saintliness, peaceful intentions, and devotion to justice of the American government in foreign affairs.”

About the author:

Dr. Birsen Filip is an economist and a philosopher. She is specialized in the history of economic thought, philosophy of economics, political philosophy, philosophy of science, and continental philosophy. She has published numerous academic articles and chapters on a range of topics, including the neo-liberal school of economic thought, the Austrian School of Economics, the German Historical School of Economics, German Idealism, liberalism, ordo-liberalism, imperialism, and socialism. She is also the author of two books: The Early History of Economics in the United States: The Influence of the German Historical School of Economics on Teaching and Theory (Routledge, 2022); and, The Rise of Neo-liberalism and the Decline of Freedom (Palgrave McMillan, 2020).
Source:

This article was published by Mises

About MISES
The Mises Institute, founded in 1982, teaches the scholarship of Austrian economics, freedom, and peace. The liberal intellectual tradition of Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) and Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995) guides us. Accordingly, the Mises Institute seeks a profound and radical shift in the intellectual climate: away from statism and toward a private property order. The Mises Institute encourages critical historical research, and stands against political correctness.
View all posts by MISES →

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:47:12 +0000

Israel election: Netanyahu bloc leads with more than half of votes counted but short of majority

By Nathan Rennolds & Emma De Ruiter
Published on 28 October 2026 EURONEWS

The partial results are likely to change, and several exit polls showed the camps neck-and-neck without a majority.
The camp of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was ahead of the opposition on Wednesday after 50% of votes were counted in Israel's pivotal general election, figures from the Central Elections Committee showed.
Netanyahu's bloc was projected to win 56 of the 120 seats in the parliament, compared with 49 for the opposition bloc and 15 for the Arab parties.
The partial results are likely to change, and several exit polls showed the camps neck-and-neck without a majority.
Initial exit polls suggested no clear victor, with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and main rival Gadi Eisenkot falling short of a majority.
Israel's Channel 13 news initially projected the opposition bloc would have the edge with 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, with Netanyahu's bloc set to win around 50.
The three mainstream Israeli television networks later gave the two blocs each around 51 seats.
Netanyahu's Likud party would be the largest single party, with 27 seats.
Arab parties make gains
Israeli Arab lists were projected to win 15 seats, a sharp gain, with some Israeli Arab communities reporting near-universal turnout driven by outrage to often derogatory rhetoric against them by Netanyahu's far-right allies.
Key Israeli Arab leader Mansour Abbas said he believed the right had "suffered a major loss" and was open to working with Eisenkot.
But Eisenkot said during the campaign he would not govern with Israeli Arab lawmakers -- and Netanyahu again suggested that a government relying on Arab votes would lack legitimacy.
Arab lawmakers could give Eisenkot support in parliamentary votes to maintain a minority government without joining a coalition. If not, Israel could head to new elections.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves to supporters following the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. AP Photo/David Goldman
Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right firebrand who according to exit polls did not gain as much as many expected, warned Netanyahu against another option -- a unity government with Eisenkot.
"It would be a terrible mistake," said Ben Gvir, who champions the expulsion of Palestinians and would likely be excluded from any unity government.
In a post on X, Eisenkot said the exit poll results showed a "complete lack of confidence in Netanyahu and the October 7 government."
Yair Golan, the leader of Israel's left-wing Democrats party, added that the public had "spoken" and "ousted the Netanyahu government."
But Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar warned that celebrations from the left were "premature."
"One thing seems quite clear: The Likud is the largest party in Israel," he wrote on social media.
Netanyahu and Eisenkot each claim mandate
At an appearance early Wednesday, Netanyahu was upbeat and already trying to position himself to remain prime minister, listing off military achievements of the past three years.
He called on his opponents to line up behind him and dismissed the idea of a partnership with Arab parties — whose constituents make up 20% of Israel's population — as treasonous.
“We must establish a strong, right-wing, nationalist government,” said Netanyahu, who was facing off in the vote against his former military chief, centrist Gadi Eisenkot. “We must not endanger Israel and establish a government that relies on anti-Zionist Arab parties.”
"Israel has a unique opportunity with our partner President Trump to forever eliminate the existential threat of Iran," Netanyahu said.
Gadi Eisenkot waves an Israeli flag onstage following the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. AP Photo/Baz Ratner
Eisenkot, speaking to his own supporters in Tel Aviv, issued a veiled warning to Netanyahu, who observers say could use a war to push for a unity government.
"Netanyahu, don't you dare use Israel's security for your political needs," Eisenkot said.
Addressing Israel's security establishment, Eisenkot said that they served the state and not Netanyahu, calling him "a caretaker prime minister, without a mandate or the people’s trust".
Turnout for the election - Israel's first since Hamas' 7 October 2023 attacks - hit over 77%, according to Israel's Central Elections Committee.
Netanyahu had spent much of the day calling on supporters to get out and vote, painting the election as a "matter of life and death."
The vote is widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's leadership.

Ex-Israel government spokesperson: 'Extraordinary comeback' by Netanyahu
Euronews
By Sasha Vakulina
Published on 28 October 2026
Despite the fallout from the 7 October attacks, three years of war and widespread public dissatisfaction, Benjamin Netanyahu emerged from Israel's election with his political position strengthened, even as neither political bloc is assured of a parliamentary majority.
Israel faces three possible outcomes following an inconclusive parliamentary election: a unity government, a minority administration or fresh elections, according to former Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy.
The political deadlock comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stages what Levy described to Euronews as an "extraordinary comeback".
"All of those are going to require someone to surrender on some very serious coalition promises," Levy said.
Netanyahu's political survival
For Netanyahu the election represents a remarkable political recovery after years of mounting pressure over the security failures surrounding the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023, the subsequent war and domestic divi

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:55:20 +0000

Von der Leyen’s Canada ‘associate membership’ spurs battle of words with EU capitals
Copyright AP Photo/ Justin Tang
By Luca Bertuzzi
Updated 28 October 2026 -
EURONEWS

Germany, Italy, France and Greece objected to a draft EU-Canada declaration that cites von der Leyen’s ‘associate membership’ offer, as the member states fear legal uncertainty and a precedent for other third countries ahead of the Montreal summit on Thursday and Friday.
Last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made a bombshell offer to Canada: to become the first EU “associate member”. Now the term is proving hard to swallow for several member states, including her own Germany.
Ahead of the EU-Canada summit, meant to chart what many see as the closest partnership between the bloc and a non-member country, European capitals led by Berlin have pushed back against a term that has yet to be clearly defined, five EU diplomats told Euronews.
“The main concern is that this is unknown terminology, it might bring up legal uncertainty and expectations from other third countries,” one of the diplomats said. “This was not communicated previously from the Commission. We don’t know what we are talking about.”
Last week, a revised draft of the joint declaration explicitly mentioned the notion, vowing regular exchanges with Canadian authorities on major policy and regulatory initiatives and to define the full scope of the partnership at the 2027 summit.
Naming the term outright in what would be the first EU official document of major political significance to include it has drawn strong pushback from Germany, Italy and Greece, and scepticism from other countries, including France.
A new draft circulated on Monday evening added wording that distanced member states from the concept, specifying that it was “put forward by the European Commission," wording suggested by the Italian government.
The text was due to be adopted on Tuesday through the so-called silent procedure, under which a document passes unless a member state objects. Germany, Italy, France and Greece all raised objections before the deadline.
Italy's objection does not relate to associate membership, since its proposed wording was accepted, but it asked to change a paragraph related to competitiveness and technological sovereignty for a balanced decarbonisation transition.
The office of European Council President António Costa is now expected to circulate a new version, with another round of talks at ambassador level on Wednesday, before the summit opens in Montreal on Thursday.
Von der Leyen floated the idea of offering associate membership to Canada in her annual State of the Union speech to the European Parliament in September, with Prime Minister Mark Carney as guest of honour.
The idea had been put to the Canadians before, but it was never discussed with member states or within the Commission, catching capitals including Paris and Berlin off guard.
Even Carney did not seem fully sold on the nomenclature, preferring to call it an “alliance of the future”. “What matters is the substance,” he said when asked whether he was comfortable with the term.
With governments now finalising the joint declaration, to be adopted at the summit on Thursday and Friday, that initial lack of consultation is coming back to haunt the bid.
For Berlin, the main issue is that member states should first define what the cooperation package contains, and only then agree the terms for the declaration, not the other way around.
There is broad consensus on seeking closer cooperation with Canada in areas such as defence, critical raw materials, energy, trade and border security. It is the associate membership label that has drawn scrutiny.
Others took aim at its legal implications, arguing these must be carefully studied before the term enters a political declaration.
“It does not mean anything, it is not in the treaties,” a second EU diplomat said, adding that “we want to find a way to make the concept work.”
Von der Leyen is not new to launching new ideas and forging ahead with initiatives without consulting with the member states. In 2023, she announced a migration deal with Tunisia and was criticised for lacking a formal mandate to do so.
“In the case of Tunisia, member states fully agreed with the objective of reducing arrivals, but they had to say that they did not 100% agree with the way it was done. It is a bit the same case here,” a third diplomat told Euronews.
For this diplomat, the EU should not view the label as merely institutional, but as a way of packaging what would otherwise inevitably look like a sector-by-sector technical exercise in bringing Canada closer to the bloc.
For von der Leyen’s critics, she has a habit of making grand announcements before figuring out the implications. For her supporters, her strength is staying ahead of the curve, setting out a political vision and letting the bureaucratic machinery do the rest.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was the first to propose associate membership, but pitched it as a way to anchor Ukraine to the EU, with security guarantees, as Kyiv progressed through the accession process.
Applying it to Canada carries a very different connotation: it would offer a blueprint for the closest possible partnership with a non-European country that could never join the bloc.
“A lot of other countries want to come closer to the EU, but we don’t know what to offer them. Whatever deal we reach with Canada might be an important motivator for others,” an EU official told Euronews.
This story was updated with additional information.

Germany Slams Brakes On EU-Canada ‘Associate Member’ Statement

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Photo Credit: World Economic Forum / Ciaran McCrickard

October 28, 2026

By Rapporteur

Key Takeaways:

Germany, Italy, France and Greece blocked a draft EU-Canada statement that would have named Canada the bloc’s first “associate member,” forcing a redraft.

The undefined label, floated by Ursula von der Leyen, remains contentious ahead of the Montréal summit, with the text now only pledging to define it by 2027.

U.S. President Trump has already dismissed the idea as “laughable” and threatened heavy tariffs on the EU.

(Rapporteur) — Germany and three other countries have objected to a joint EU-Canada statement proposing to make the north American country the bloc’s first “associate member”.

The objection has put the brakes on a text that was due to be automatically adopted on Tuesday morning. The statement will now need to be redrafted.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, first floated the concept of associate membership in September.

The label has since become one of the most contentious elements ahead of this week’s EU-Canada summit in Montréal, and has raised eyebrows in both Brussels and Ottawa amid a lack of clarity over what the status would mean in practice.Advertisement

Germany has been among the fiercest opponents of the term.

The objection came before the deadline for the EU’s so-called silence procedure, a diplomatic mechanism under which a text is approved automatically unless a member objects in time, several EU diplomats told Rapporteur.

Three other countries, Italy, France and Greece, also objected to the statement.

The draft objected to by the four members was circulated after member states discussed the text on Monday, in an attempt to bridge the different positions.

The latest version, dated 26 October and seen by Rapporteur, referred to work in order to define the concept of “Associate Member put forward by the European Commission,” effectively shifting ownership of the label back to the EU executive as national capitals sought to distance themselves from the internal dispute, said diplomats.

Monday’s draft still retained a commitment to define the concept ahead of the next EU-Canada summit in 2027.

The label had earlier triggered the ire of Donald Trump, the US president, who called the idea “laughable” in September, and threatened to impose “very heavy tariffs” on the EU for what he deemed a “hostile act.”

Germany did not immediately reply to a request to comment.

About Rapporteur
Rapporteur, formerly EurActiv, is Europe’s expert media organisation for policy and politics. Through deeply reported journalism, trusted expertise and a commitment to engagement with our audiences, we aim to help the people shaping Europe’s future make better decisions.
View all posts by Rapporte

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:15:38 +0000
How El-Fasher Remains Gripped By Fear One Year After Sudan’s RSF Seized The City – Analysis

Thousands have fled El Fasher and surrounding areas with many arriving in the locality of Tawila after walking for days under threat of violence.
Photo Credit: UNOCHA/ Mohamed Galal

October 28, 2026

By Arab News

By Jonathan Gornall

Key Takeaways:

A BBC investigation documented at least 43 attacks on hospitals and healthcare sites in El-Fasher between May 2024 and the city’s fall in October 2025, resulting in 55 medical workers killed, 120 injured and 10 forcibly disappeared or abducted.

Doctors who fled the city described systematic shelling and drone strikes intended to put facilities out of service; after South Hospital was raided and closed, the Saudi Maternity Hospital was hit up to 25 times a day, while the RSF denies the claims and asserts hospitals have been restored.

A UN fact-finding mission has described the RSF’s mass killings and siege conditions as indicators of a genocidal path against non-Arab communities, and Amnesty International reports ongoing surveillance, detention and torture that leave the city, now reduced to roughly 70,000 residents, unsafe for return.

One year on from the fall of the Sudanese city of El-Fasher, allegations have emerged that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces deliberately targeted hospitals and health workers during the 18-month siege.

Some details of the atrocities carried out by the RSF in El-Fasher were already known. In October 2025, the Sudan Doctors’ Network claimed that 460 people had been murdered at the Saudi Maternity Hospital.

RSF fighters, they said, had “cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside … including patients, their companions, and anyone else present.”

At the time, the massacre drew condemnation from the World Health Organization. It was denied by the RSF, but satellite imagery acquired by the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University on Oct. 27 and 28 appeared to show clusters of bodies in the grounds of the hospital.

But fresh evidence, reported last week by a BBC team that conducted extensive interviews with medics who had fled the city, suggests that the deliberate targeting of healthcare facilities in the city by the RSF was even more widespread than previously thought.

The BBC said it had documented “at least 43 separate attacks on hospitals and healthcare sites” between May 2024 and October 2025, when the city finally fell.

It also reported that 55 medical workers were killed, 120 injured and 10 “forcibly disappeared or abducted.”

Mohamed Madi, a senior broadcast journalist who worked on the report with Barbara Plett-Usher, the BBC’s Africa correspondent, told Arab News they had not been able to visit El-Fasher.

Instead, they had conducted interviews from Nairobi, Kenya, with medics who had escaped from the city and were now in various parts of Sudan, including Omdurman and Khartoum.

They also spent several months reviewing and verifying open-source video footage and still photographs.

Dr Muhamed Suliman, a surgeon who was in El-Fasher during the siege, told the BBC that the RSF had been “trying to put (the hospitals) out of service because the health system is the cornerstone of any city or any state.”

He added: “The RSF started hitting these areas so citizens no longer have any way to stay there. It was intense. It was deliberate. It was planned.”

The investigation found that in May and June 2024, the city’s South Hospital — also known as Al-Janoubi Hospital — “was shelled several times as paramilitary fighters pushed forward from their positions in the east of the city.”

The hospital was raided and briefly occupied on June 8. Many staff managed to escape but when government forces retook the hospital later the same day, they discovered the bodies of several murdered patients and found medical equipment had been deliberately destroyed.

The hospital closed and later fell back into the hands of the RSF.

Interviewed by the BBC, the health minister of the self-proclaimed RSF-backed Government of Peace and Unity, Dr Alaa Eldin Nugud, claimed the South Hospital had been used as a military base, an accusation strongly denied by the doctors who worked there.

After South Hospital closed, staff and equipment were relocated to the Saudi Maternity Hospital in the west of the city, which then immediately came under attack.

Six doctors in exile spoken to by the BBC insisted the hospital had been systematically targeted multiple times, at one stage being struck up to 25 times a day by a mix of drones and artillery shells.

Other medical facilities were also targeted, including the Specialized Children’s Hospital, which was forced to move to two different locations before finally being forced to close.

According to the report, by the time the city fell to the RSF, on Oct. 26, 2025, only the Saudi Maternity Hospital was still functioning, despite having been badly damaged.

Interviewed in Nairobi by the BBC, Dr Nugud dismissed all the allegations as “lies” designed to discredit the RSF.

The RSF-backed government says most healthcare services in the city have been restored and has released videos on social media purporting to show the Saudi Maternity Hospital and the Teaching Hospital up and running.

Dr Nugud told the BBC that doctors had chosen to stay and work after having been “liberated.” But one of the doctors featured in a video with Dr Nugud told a different story.

“I was forced to be there,” Dr Al-Haj Mohamed Ahmed told the BBC. “If I spoke out of line, they’d put a bullet through my head.”

The targeting of hospitals is just one aspect of the RSF’s behavior during and after the siege of El-Fasher that has been condemned by international bodies.

On Feb. 19, a report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan for the UN Commission for Human Rights found that “the mass killings and related atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces in and around El-Fasher, during its takeover of the city on or around Oct. 26 and 27, 2025, are indicators of a genocidal path.”

The crimes, the report added, “followed an 18-month siege during which the Rapid Support Forces deliberately imposed conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of non-Arab communities, in particular the Zaghawa and the Fur.”

El-Fasher is not the only place in the Darfur region where healthcare infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed during the civil war, which began in April 2023.

In March this year the World Health Organization condemned an attack on a teaching hospital in Al-Daein, the capital of East Darfur state, in which at least 64 people, including a dozen children, were killed.

The WHO said the conflict had so far claimed the lives of 2,036 people in 213 attacks on healthcare facilities. Al-Daein was under the control of the RSF, and on this occasion the SAF was accused of having hit the hospital. It has denied responsibility.

One year on from the fall of El-Fasher, information about conditions inside the city is hard to come by.

But according to Medecins Sans Frontieres, which was given rare access in January, El-Fasher, once a city of a million people, is now a virtual ghost town with only 70,000 inhabitants remaining.

Under constant supervision by the RSF, the MSF team was allowed to spend only four hours in the city, during which time “we saw destroyed areas, largely emptied of the people who used to live there.”

In a statement on Jan. 28, MSF added: “Although we were unable to carry out a thorough and independent assessment, we did not find massive acute medical needs across what now looks like a ghost town, with few civilians who remained or have since returned.

“This is in stark contrast to the regional capital it once was.”

Although few independent witnesses have been able to gain access to El-Fasher, Amnesty International has been collecting testimonies from people who fled the city.

“The RSF’s claims that El-Fasher is safe for civilians to return to after the horrific massacres that took place one year ago could not be further from the truth,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general, in a statement issued on Oct. 23.

“A pervasive pall of fear hangs over El-Fasher today. Men and women live under constant RSF surveillance, and with the ongoing threat of detention, torture and killing.”

Callamard said the international community “has failed to take the necessary actions to address the desperate plight civilians face as the conflict rages.

“The moves towards a ceasefire have been half-hearted, and Amnesty International is not aware of any diplomatic attempts to establish an international force that would meaningfully protect civilians.”

She singled out one state player in the conflict for criticism.

“Crucially, the United Arab Emirates has continued to support the RSF, while governments with the required influence have largely failed to name and denounce their role or hold them to account.”

Amnesty’s accusation that the RSF committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its campaign to seize El-Fasher is supported by testimonies it gathered in August and September from 25 civilians, including 19 residents and six humanitarian workers.

All but one of the civilians had managed to flee the city.

“Modathir,” a 29-year-old Zaghawa man who had been held in Shala prison before escaping in July 2026, told Amnesty he had been regularly beaten and had witnessed killings.

“Torture is something which is permanent in any (RSF) detention,” he told Amnesty.

“They executed people who tried to look at them … If you sleep a lot, they don’t like that, they will execute you. They ask, ‘You want to take a rest? We will give you permanent rest’.”

Another Zaghawa man, 33-year-old “Mamoun,” who was also held in Shawa prison until July, said he had witnessed the RSF shooting prisoners, and the death of a man with untreated diabetes whom his captors had refused to help.

“They take people out randomly, they accuse you of being with the Joint Forces or the military … And they beat you until you faint … Sometimes I was beaten four times a day … It just depends on their mood.”

Mamoun was eventually released after his family paid a ransom.

Women and children were held in schools that had been turned into detention centers. Women who had escaped in July or August this year described high rates of malnutrition among children, a lack of medicines and regular beatings.

As of September, a small number of humanitarian organizations had been able to return to the city, but residents said their movements were closely monitored and residents were prevented from speaking freely to them.

One resident who had returned to El-Fasher in June 2026 told Amnesty: “The El-Fasher I knew is gone, it is a completely destroyed city.

“The public infrastructure, the schools, government institutions, hospitals, all are destroyed … It seemed like everybody is watched very closely, they don’t give humanitarian workers any private space to talk … Everybody is terrorized.”

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:13:12 +0000
China’s Biotechnology Expansion Spreads Across Latin America – Analysis

Laboratory equipment at the University of Concepción’s UdeC-Omics facility in Concepción, Chile, August 4, 2025. The laboratory uses genetic sequencing technology from Chinese company MGI Tech as Chinese biotechnology companies expand their presence in Latin America’s health and research sectors, raising questions about technological dependence, sensitive biodata, and national security.
(Photo: Esteban Paredes Drake/Universidad de Concepción)

October 28, 2026

Diálogo Américas
By Paolo Manzo

Key Takeaways:

China is expanding rapidly in Latin American biotechnology through vaccine plants, sequencing labs and research partnerships, including a $100 million Sinovac commitment in Brazil.

Local production does not equal autonomy: facilities and genetic-data systems can remain dependent on Chinese inputs, creating hard-to-reverse strategic vulnerabilities, especially with firms later listed as military companies.

Stronger biosafety, data-ownership and dual-use rules, plus regional coordination, are needed so Latin American countries retain control over biodata and supply chains.

In recent years, China has accelerated its expansion in Latin America’s biotechnology sector, investing in production facilities, laboratories, genetic sequencing technologies, and partnerships with local institutions. From vaccines to genomics, China’s presence is reaching strategic sectors that are critical not only to public health, but also to scientific research, technological capabilities, and the national security of countries across the region.

While these investments are often presented as a solution to gaps in production and technological capacity, particularly in more fragile health systems, they also risk creating dependencies that are difficult to reverse when strategic technologies, supplies, or infrastructure become concentrated among Chinese providers or reliant on supply chains linked to China.

“Access to genetic data, biological samples, research infrastructure, and specialized knowledge can have security implications, especially in countries with weak regulations on biosafety, data protection, and technology transfer,” César Santos Victoria, a researcher at Central American think tank Expediente Abierto who specializes in Chinese influence in Latin America, told Diálogo.

The risk is particularly significant because biotechnology depends on resources and capabilities that take years to develop, such as genetic data and research infrastructure, and that cannot easily be replaced. Dependence on Chinese providers can create market concentrations that are difficult to reverse, increase Latin American countries’ vulnerability to China, and give Beijing a strategic position in sensitive sectors such as health care, scientific research, and national security.
From vaccine supply to local production

The vaccine sector represents one of the most sensitive areas of China’s biotechnology expansion. Chinese biotechnology companies are increasingly seeking to establish large-scale, competitively priced local production in Latin America, bringing manufacturing facilities closer to consumer markets and reducing supply times and costs. While this may offer advantages to countries in the region in terms of health security and access to essential medicines, it also risks progressively consolidating Chinese companies as key suppliers. Large-scale production capabilities, competitive prices, and long-term government contracts can make it more difficult for other competitors to enter the market and for countries to diversify their sources of supply, creating strategic dependence.

As Santos Victoria warns, “Local production does not necessarily mean autonomy. A plant established in Latin America may continue to depend on China for active ingredients, equipment, reagents, maintenance, financing, or training. The risk is creating production ecosystems that are difficult to replace.”

Among the companies expanding the most is Sinovac Biotech, which announced in June plans to invest $100 million in Brazil over the next five years to establish a local operation focused on vaccines and other areas of biotechnology, including cell therapies and monoclonal antibodies.

The project initially includes vaccines against human rabies and chickenpox through an agreement with the Paraná Institute of Technology. In Colombia, Sinovac Biotech established a public-private partnership with the Bogotá city government and BogotáBio, which plans to begin producing vaccines in 2029. In Chile, meanwhile, Sinovac secured the government contract for influenza vaccines for the second consecutive year, winning exclusive rights for 2026 with an order of more than 8 million doses.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed how Beijing sought to use its production and distribution capacity as a tool of geopolitical influence, using vaccine distribution in Latin America to strengthen political and diplomatic ties through what became known as “vaccine diplomacy.” With production established directly in the region, the concentration of supply among Chinese providers could take on a more lasting dimension: a dominant position in the supply of essential vaccines risks creating structural dependence within local health systems and increasing Beijing’s ability to exert influence over a critical sector during periods of crisis or geopolitical tension.

China’s race for Latin American biodata

China’s biotechnology expansion in Latin America is also extending into genetic sequencing, a strategic sector because it enables the collection of highly sensitive and permanent information not only about individuals, but also about their relatives and, on a larger scale, the genetic characteristics of entire populations. Control over such information can have long-term implications for pharmaceutical research, precision medicine, and the development of new biological technologies.

In 2024, Chinese company MGI Tech Co. opened its main Latin American center in São Paulo, with the goal of expanding the use of genetic sequencing in diagnostics and the fight against cancer, while providing technology and training to laboratories, hospitals, and universities. Applications include precision medicine and oncology. The company also operates in Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. That same year in Uruguay, BGI Genomics opened its first Latin American laboratory, dedicated to genetic sequencing and early diagnosis, with a planned investment of $10 million over five years.

BGI’s presence took on an additional security dimension in June 2026, when the U.S. Department of Defense included BGI Group and BGI Genomics on its list of Chinese military companies under Section 1260H. The Pentagon maintains that BGI Group is affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army and contributes to China’s military-civil fusion system.

Large-scale access to genetic and clinical data can strengthen China’s position in the development of medicines and therapies, increasing its market concentration and other countries’ dependence on its technologies. As occurred with vaccines during the pandemic, China could use this dependence as a tool of geopolitical influence. “China’s approach has been to steal, scale, and strangle competitors,” Caitlin Frazer, executive director of the U.S. National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB), told industry publication BioSpace. Frazer also warned of the risks of depending on Beijing “for life-sustaining medications.”

Artificial intelligence further amplifies this risk: Combined with vast quantities of biodata, it can more rapidly identify biological correlations, design proteins, identify new therapeutic targets, and accelerate drug development. If agreements do not clearly establish where data is stored, who can access it, and how it can be used in subsequent research, biodata generated in Latin America could become a strategic resource for outside companies or research centers without the region necessarily retaining control over it or benefiting from its economic and strategic value.

“In joint projects, it must be clearly established who controls the patents, the data, the research results, and their subsequent commercialization,” Santos Victoria said. The expert warns of the risk of “asymmetries in negotiations” with countries in the region, including opaque contracts and unbalanced negotiating terms that favor Chinese partners, leaving Latin American universities and health institutions in a weaker position when it comes to controlling data, research results, patents, and their subsequent commercialization.
Defending biotechnology autonomy

Countries such as Brazil, Colombia, and Chile have already adopted measures to protect genetic data, biological samples, and genetic resources. In Brazil, the General Data Protection Law (LGPD) classifies genetic data as sensitive personal data, while the Biodiversity Law regulates access to genetic resources and benefit sharing. In 2023, Colombia created a National Biobank System that regulates informed consent, confidentiality, and the traceability of genetic samples and data, and establishes specific authorizations for their transfer abroad. Chile, meanwhile, has had specific regulations governing scientific research and the human genome since 2006. These regulations protect genetic identity, classify genetic information as confidential, require consent for its use, and mandate encryption of identifiable genomic data.

These regulations provide an important foundation, but experts say they increasingly need to be integrated into national security plans that assess the risks associated with control over research infrastructure, biological resources, intellectual property, and technologies with dual-use potential. At the same time, stricter standards are needed for the collection, storage, and transfer of biodata, along with traceability, cybersecurity, and biosafety systems capable of preventing unauthorized access and uses that conflict with national interests. Finally, mapping supply chains, identifying bottlenecks, and maintaining alternative suppliers should be considered an integral part of national security planning, rather than solely a matter of industrial policy.

A regional response is also important. Common standards, reference laboratories, surveillance capabilities, and shared procedures for assessing investments can strengthen Latin American countries’ ability to protect strategic infrastructure and resources. Knowing where sensitive data is stored, who can access it, who maintains technological platforms, and what alternatives are available if a supplier is disrupted is also part of that resilience. For Latin America, maintaining control over biodata, biological resources, infrastructure, and technologies means safeguarding not only its competitiveness, but also its autonomy and national security.

This article was published Diálogo Américas

About Diálogo Américas
Diálogo Américas is a professional magazine published by U.S. Southern Command as an international forum for security issues in Latin America.
View all posts by Diálogo Américas →

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 20:33:55 +0000

Olive trees irrigated with treated wastewater, a pilot project to combat drought
Copyright Euronews
By Aurora Velez
Published on 26 October 2026 -
Olive trees irrigated with treated wastewater: in Puglia, southern Italy, a pilot project thus combats drought and emerging pollutants. The molecule is generated by combining hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet rays. The results of this experience will be known in two years.
Farmland, especially in southern Europe, is thirsty. Every drop of water counts in the Adriatic basin.
In Puglia, in southern Italy, water shortage has been accentuated by climate change and, in addition, a bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, has decimated the olive groves.
The European project ECO FLOW brings together Greek and Italian experts. It proposes reusing Gallipoli's treated wastewater for irrigation, which would otherwise go to the sea. They are focusing on the so-called emerging contaminants. These chemical, material or biological substances, created by humans, come from industrial activities and are present in urban and hospital wastewater.
The experiment is carried out in a field adjacent to the Gallipoli water treatment station. There are three rows of bacteria-resistant olive trees and three forms of irrigation: the traditional one, with the water from the well, the water treated in the purification station and the water subjected to a particular treatment, with which it is intended to reduce the amount of polluting substances.
Rocco Protopapa, of the Regional Agency for Irrigation and Forestry Activities (ARIF), a public body in the Puglia region, explains that ECO FLOW's objectives also include "comparing the plants irrigated with the water from the well with those that have received the treated water and those that have received the water treated with hydrogen peroxide. We want to see how much fruit they produce and how they produce it. And that way we avoid wasting water that would otherwise end up in the sea," he said.
At the Gallipoli purification station, the treated water destined for ECO FLOW is purified even more than that of the station's tanks, using the patented technology of a mini station, conceived in another European project, RE-WATER.
View Gallery
4 Photos
How does this process of additional water disinfection work?
Fabrizio Dell'Anna, in charge of the technical coordination and development of the project from the Aquedotto Pugliese – the organisation in charge of the management of the comprehensive water cycle in Puglia and Campania - comments that the technique "is based on the use of hydrogen peroxide combined with ultraviolet radiation generated by a lamp. This combination enables the formation of an extremely reactive molecule, capable of degrading pollutants. The challenge was important because the equipment used did not exist on the market." The reactor where the water subjected to this treatment is located is "thermally insulated to avoid temperature variations that could disturb the operation of the hydrogen peroxide". They realised that the number of reactive molecules available to attack the contaminants increased if the water circulated and they completed the system to do so.
"The chemical compound that allows contaminants to be removed is produced when hydrogen peroxide is exposed to UV rays. There were already other technologies in the world but the true originality of our facility lies in its recirculation system. This stage of the research was exciting because we had a gut feeling, we put it to the test, and the results confirmed it"
Fabrizio Dell'Anna
Technical coordination and project development, Aquedotto Pugliese
ECO FLOW has a budget of more than one and a half million euros, of which 75% have been financed by European cohesion policy and the remaining 25% by funds from Greece and Italy, the two countries participating in the project. In Greece, researchers worked on a physical membrane to better treat and filter wastewater, while in Italy, they concentrated on the chemical solution. Both solutions are complementary, insisted the experts who share this know-how in the framework of the ECOFLOW pilot.
The laboratory of the Polytechnic University of Bari provides technical and scientific support to Acquedotto Pugliese, the project's main partner in the experiments carried out at ECO FLOW.
Danilo Spasiano, professor and researcher at the Polytechnic University of Bari explains that the monitoring of ECO FLOW has recently started. They study water and plant development, but also soil characteristics and the accumulation of contingent substances in the soil where the two varieties of olives irrigated in this experiment grow: Favolosa and Lecciana, both resistant to Xylella.
"One of the main issues we are going to evaluate is the amount of salts that can accumulate in the soil. We will also study the possible presence of micro contaminants or emerging contaminants that may accumulate in olives"
Danilo Spasiano
Professor and researcher, Polytechnic University of Bari
This pilot project will run for two years.
The Francesca Stajano farm produces more than sixty tons of olives per year. Its owner, Antonio Astuto, irrigates part of the production with water from his well and another younger olive grove with treated water at the Gallipoli purification station and sees the difference.
"We didn't expect four-year-old trees to start producing now. Therefore, we were very happy to see that the plants grew faster, probably thanks to the type of water used," he said.
In his facilities, the olive trees are irrigated with a drip system to "achieve a good result, avoiding the use of as little water as possible" so that it is not wasted, he concludes.

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 21:07:29 +0000

What does voter suppression have to do with health?

How access to the ballot box can influence community health

University of California - Davis Health
Facebook
LinkedIn
Message WhatsApp Email

Public health researchers have long examined how societal forces can shape health outcomes. Decades after redlining was outlawed, for example, researchers continue to document its lasting effects on life expectancy, chronic disease and access to healthcare resources in many communities.
UC Davis psychiatrist Ruth Shim, a contributing author for JAMA Health Forum, suggests that another structural force deserves the same scrutiny: voter suppression.
In her latest article, Shim makes the case that voting is a social determinant of health. She asserts that voter suppression is a structural determinant of health, one of the policies and practices that shape who has access to the conditions for good health.
"We have spent two decades bringing the social determinants of health into clinical practice, but we have paid far less attention to the structures that create them," said Shim, professor in the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. "Voter suppression is one of those structures, and it can be changed."
Shim notes that U.S. voter turnout lags behind many other countries, in part because states administer elections and set their own registration rules. She also points to the Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which was followed by polling place closures that reduced voting access in communities of color, lower-income communities and rural areas.
Shim highlights studies showing links between voter participation and population health.
Research has found that states with lower voter turnout have worse health outcomes, while people in poor health are less likely to vote. Together, those findings point to what Shim calls a vicious cycle of voter suppression and poor health.
Some of the most striking evidence comes from historical analyses.
One study cited by Shim found that passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was associated with significant reductions in Black infant deaths in Jim Crow states.
Other studies have examined the health consequences of voting restrictions.
Shim points to research linking felony disenfranchisement laws with increased depressive symptoms among Black people, but not among White people.
Shim notes that health professionals, who are trusted messengers in the communities affected by health disparities, can support voter registration in health care settings. She points to nonpartisan resources such as Vot-ER and the Civic Health Alliance. Both organizations advance public understanding of the relationship between voter access and health.
"These inequities are not accidental," Shim said. "When people are blocked from voting, they lose a voice in the decisions that shape their health. Protecting the right to vote is a public health intervention."
Resources
Read the article in JAMA
Journal
JAMA Health Forum
DOI
10.1001/jamahealthforum.2026.4962
Method of Research
Literature review
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
oter Suppression Is a Structural Determinant of Health
Article Publication Date
22-Oct-2026
COI Statement
The author declares no conflict of interest.

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 21:05:52 +0000

Dead star and planetary bodies: astronomers spot unique disc of debris that foretells Solar System’s future

ESO
Facebook
X LinkedIn WeChat\Email

image:
This illustration shows a debris disc around the white dwarf J1328−1450 –– the dead core of a star similar to our Sun that expelled its outer layers at the end of its lifetime. The star was suspected to have a planetary system that was vaporised to rubble as the star died, and this debris ended up arranged in a disc like the one shown here.
The disc contains both gas and dust, but the gas appears to be arranged in a unique way. Using the X-shooter instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) astronomers measured the speed of the gas orbiting the white dwarf, and found that it moves at two distinct speeds. This indicates that the gas is distributed in two concentric discs with a gap in between.
The most likely explanation is that these two gaseous discs are maintained by two planetesimals that survived the death of the star. As they orbit the white dwarf they interact with dust grains in the disc, releasing gas in the process, shown here as luminous trails.
view more
Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have found a rare disc of debris around a dead star that provides a glimpse of what may happen to our Solar System. Unlike in similar systems previously found, the debris — the leftovers of planets that once orbited the star — is organised in a double disc, the two parts separated by a clear gap. The disc appears to be shaped by two planetary bodies, one possibly as big as Pluto, that have survived the violent death of the star.
“We have known for some time that planets may survive beyond the transformation of their central star, but this is the first example of a complex system with a double debris disc and potentially two surviving planetesimals,” says Nicola Gentille Fusillo, astronomer at the Università degli Studi di Trieste, Italy, and lead author of the study published this week in Nature Astronomy. The central star of this system is the white dwarf J1328−1450, the dense and burnt-out core left behind when a star similar to our Sun ran out of fuel.
As stars like the Sun enter the final stages of their life, they expand and shed their outer layers, engulfing and destroying nearby planets. The surviving rocky bodies can break apart forming a disc around the central, dead star. However, the disc around J1328−1450 is different from those observed around other dead stars: instead of having only one ring of vaporised planetary rubble, the star is surrounded by two concentric debris rings.
“The structure we see in this system is particularly intriguing because the two gaseous rings are remarkably stable and remain separated by a gap,” says co-author Felipe Lagos-Vilches, an astronomer at the University of Warwick, UK and at the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María in Chile. “The system is a rare glimpse of the violent, chaotic process by which a planetary system meets its end, and it hints that dead stars can have disc structures far more complex than previously realised,” adds Gentile Fusillo, who is also affiliated with the INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Trieste.
According to the team, this complex double structure is likely maintained by two surviving planet-like bodies, on separate orbits. They estimate that the one in the inner ring is the size of a typical asteroid, a few kilometres in diameter, while the outer one could be as large as Pluto, or even our Moon.
All known debris discs around white dwarfs have been identified by the same observational signature, which indicates the presence of a single, flat, rotating disc. But the new observations, made with the X-Shooter instrument on ESO’s VLT in Chile’s Atacama Desert, show that the J1328−1450 system breaks this pattern completely, revealing instead the unique fingerprint of a double disc.
The observations also reveal that elements such as calcium, oxygen, magnesium and iron are present in the disc, indicating a composition similar to that of rocky planetary material found in our own Solar System. Moreover, the data indicate that the two rings in the disc in fact have rather different compositions, with the inner ring rich in magnesium gas and the outer largely stripped of it. This suggests that the planetesimals that feed the rings originated from two planets with different compositions. An alternative explanation is that they are the result of different parts of a celestial body, like the crust and core of a planet.
Our Solar System could meet a similar end, as our Sun will, in a far future, become a white dwarf in a process that may destroy Earth. “The system therefore offers a remarkable glimpse of what the future of planetary systems, including systems like our own, might look like,” concludes Lagos-Vilches.
More information
This research was presented in a paper published in Nature Astronomy (doi: 10.1038/s41550-026-03004-3).
The team is composed of Nicola Pietro Gentile Fusillo (Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita‘ di Trieste and INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Italy), Felipe Lagos-Vilches (Department of Physics, University of Warwick, UK and Departamento de Física, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Chile), Boris T. Gänsicke (Department of Physics and Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability, University of Warwick, UK), Christopher J. Manser (Department of Physics, Astrophysics Group, Imperial College London, UK), Detlev Koester (Institut für Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik, University of Kiel, Germany).
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground — which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy — and promote international collaboration for astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO’s headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as survey telescopes such as VISTA. Also at Paranal, ESO will host and operate the south array of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates ALMA on Chajnantor, a facility that observes the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s biggest eye on the sky” — ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society.
Links
Research paper
Photos of the VLT
For journalists: subscribe to receive our releases under embargo in your language
For scientists: got a story? Pitch your research
Journal
Nature Astronomy
A millipede from South Australia has been rediscovered and described 90 years after it was first collected

Pensoft Publishers
Facebook
X LinkedIn WeChat Bluesky Message WhatsApp Email

image:
Colobothrix deckeri. Mesibov, 2026.
view more
Credit: Image by Ben Parslow, SAMA.

The new species Colobothrix deckeri is in the millipede family Dalodesmidae. It is remarkable because it is the first in its moisture-loving family to be found in a part of Australia with a low annual rainfall, between 400 and 500 mm.
The new species is also unusual for the shape of its sphaerotrichomes, which are tiny ball-shaped structures found on the legs of mature males in Dalodesmidae and some other millipedes. Sphaerotrichomes normally have a long, pointed seta emerging from the ball. The new species has been placed in the new genus Colobothrix, which means “stunted hair”, because the seta on its sphaerotrichomes is reduced to a short, blunt rod.
Colobothrix deckeri was named by Australian myriapodologist Robert Mesibov in honour of German colleague Peter Decker, who played a key role in the story behind the species rediscovery, as described in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal ZooKeys.
The first specimen of C. deckeri was collected in 1936 and deposited as an unidentified millipede in the South Australian Museum (SAMA). In 2015 Decker found the specimen among many he borrowed from the Museum for his PhD work on another millipede family, Paradoxosomatidae.
Decker recognised the specimen as a dalodesmid and sent images of its microscopic characters to Mesibov, who is a dalodesmid specialist. The specimen was the first evidence for Dalodesmidae in dry South Australia, and in 2016 and 2017 Mesibov searched the 1936 locality on South Australia's lower Yorke Peninsula for fresh material. Both searches were unsuccessful, although the two trips yielded a new paradoxosomatid.
Meanwhile, arachnologists Michael Rix and Danilo Harms had been sampling spiders and associated litter invertebrates on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, about 50 km south of the 1936 locality. In 2010 they discovered a remarkable new species of assassin spider from a single site in the relatively wet northwestern corner of the island. They also collected several specimens of the new, still unidentified millipede at the same site and deposited them in the Western Australian Museum (WAM).
Early this year, Mesibov found the WAM millipede record online. He emailed WAM curator Mark Harvey, who kindly provided several images of the millipede collected by Rix and Harms, with close-ups of its diagnostic characters. The images showed that the 2010 Kangaroo Island specimens were the same species that had been collected in 1936 on the Yorke Peninsula.
Kangaroo Island suffered devastating bushfires in 2020. It was feared that the new assassin spider had been pushed towards extinction by the fires, because the 2010 site had been burned out. In 2021, arachnologist Jessica Marsh searched for the new assassin spider on Kangaroo Island. She found more specimens in 2021 at sites several kilometers distant from the 2010 site, and her by-catch included the new millipede.
“Third time lucky!” said Mesibov. “I found the new millipede alive and well this year at relatively wet sites not far from its 2010 and 2021 localities.” He collected a few specimens for description and future genetic analysis, and the 1936, 2021 and 2026 specimens are now all housed in SAMA.
An unanswered question is whether C. deckeri still lives on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula, which is much drier than northwestern Kangaroo Island.
“The 1936 locality is underlain by limestone,” said Mesibov, “and the rock is broken where it is exposed at the ground surface. I wonder if the species survives in small voids in this bedrock, as a relict from wetter periods in South Australia’s past. That might explain why I couldn’t find it in 2016 and 2017, and how it could persist in such a dry climate.”
Journal
ZooKeys
DOI
10.3897/zookeys.1295.214938
Article Title
Two new millipede genera and species from Kangaroo Island, South Australia (Polydesmida, Dalodesmidae, Spirostreptida, Cambalidae)
Article Publication Date
23-Oct-2026

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 21:03:53 +0000

VAPE CONTRADICTION
E-cigarettes help smokers quit even without specialist support

Queen Mary University of London
Facebook
X LinkedIn WeChat
WhatsApp Email

A new study by Queen Mary University of London, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), has found that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking even without ongoing behavioural support.
The randomised controlled trial, published in NEJM Evidence and involving 1,170 adults given e-cigarettes, found that 11.3 per cent of participants given e-cigarettes alone successfully quit smoking for six months, compared with 6.4 per cent of those who received automated NHS stop-smoking messages – making them 76 per cent more likely to quit.
Adding telephone-based behavioural support nearly doubled quit rates. Among participants receiving e-cigarettes alongside counselling, 21.1 per cent successfully stopped smoking for six months, compared with 11.3 per cent receiving e-cigarettes alone.
Previous research has established that e-cigarettes can help smokers quit, but most clinical trials have provided them alongside ongoing behavioural support. This study addresses an important unanswered question: whether e-cigarettes remain effective when specialist counselling is unavailable or unwanted, and how much additional benefit counselling provides.
Participants were randomly assigned to receive automated NHS stop-smoking emails, an e-cigarette starter pack alone, or an e-cigarette starter pack alongside telephone counselling. Those receiving additional support were offered five telephone sessions over four weeks. Quitting was verified using carbon monoxide breath tests.
The researchers also found that more than two-thirds of participants who successfully quit in the NHS supportive messages group were using e-cigarettes at six months. When participants who used treatments outside their allocated group were excluded, the quit rate in the supportive messages group fell to 2.7 per cent.
Dr Katie Myers- Smith, lead author and Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology at Queen Mary said: “One of the most important findings is that smokers don’t necessarily need specialist counselling to benefit from e-cigarettes, but when counselling is available, it can make a difference. In our trial, adding telephone support almost doubled the proportion of people who successfully quit.
“This suggests we shouldn’t make counselling a condition of receiving help to stop smoking, but we should make it easy as possible for people to access that extra support.”
The benefits were also evident at 12 months, with sustained quit rates of 16.8 per cent among those receiving e-cigarettes and counselling, nine per cent among those receiving e-cigarettes alone, and 5.4 per cent among those receiving supportive messages.
Most participants who successfully quit smoking with e-cigarettes were still vaping a year later. Vaping is not completely risk-free, but it poses only a small fraction of risks of smoking, and it can protect ex-smokers from post-cessation weight gain and mood changes, and from relapse back to smoking.
The findings strongly support Swap and Stop, a government initiative which provide free vaping starter packs to help smokers quit. The initiative encourages smokers to enlist with the UK stop-smoking services for behavioural support but does not make it mandatory. E-cigarettes help smokers quit even without ongoing counselling, but behavioural support increases their efficacy further.
Hayden McRobbie, a collaborator on the study and Professor of Population Health at Queen Mary and said: “These findings matter for stop-smoking services. Not everyone who wants to quit smoking is able or willing to attend regular counselling sessions, and our results show that they can still benefit from simply being offered an e-cigarette.
“At the same time, the extra benefit we saw from telephone support still matters. Stop smoking services are still needed to make both effective quitting aids and the additional support available as widely as possible.”
Peter Hajek, senior author and Professor of Clinical Psychology at Queen Mary said: “This trial adds to the strong evidence that e-cigarettes help people stop smoking, and clinicians can recommend them with confidence. Clinicians should also take the opportunity to explain that vaping is far less harmful than smoking, and that ex-smokers can keep using an e-cigarette for as long as they need to feel sure they won’t go back to smoking.”
ENDS
Journal
NEJM Evidence
DOI
10.1056/EVIDoa2600065
Method of Research
Randomized controlled/clinical trial
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
E-Cigarettes with and without Behavioral Support for Smoking Cessation
Article Publication Date
27-Oct-2026

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 21:02:37 +0000

It's not (just) the heat, it's the humidity: Examining the impact of intensifying humid heat on pregnancies

University of Michigan
Facebook
X LinkedIn
Message WhatsApp Email

image:
Nigeria has one of the highest fertility rates in the world and is particularly vulnerable to increasing heat and humidity fueled by climate change. For the first time, a study is examining the impacts of changing increased humid heat on pregnancies in the nation.
view more
Credit: KC Nwakalor for USAID/Digital Development Communication (Used under a CC BY 2.0 license)

New research led by the University of Michigan contains valuable insights for public health officials and communities in Nigeria as they navigate pregnancies through increasing heat and humidity.

The research team focused on Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, because it has one of the highest fertility rates in the world and is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. But high humidity, which limits people's ability to cool off and increases their risk of heat stroke, has received limited attention from studies investigating the effects of climate change on fertility and human health. That's especially true of lower- and middle-income countries, including Nigeria.
This study, which was supported by the NASA Land-Cover and Land Use Change Program, shows how satellite and remotely sensed data can be integrated with large-scale health surveys to change that.
"There's a fair amount of literature in epidemiology that looks at temperature and pregnancy outcomes, but most of it is in the U.S. and other high-income countries," said Nina Brooks, assistant professor at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability, or SEAS. "Humidity plays a really important role in pregnancy heat and we wanted to focus on the role of not just heat, but humid heat."
For data on pregnancies, the team turned to two waves of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys, which included information spanning from 2003 to 2016. This survey is supported by agencies within Nigeria and abroad, including, until recently, the U.S. Agency for International Development.
To estimate the combined influence of air temperature and humidity, the team calculated high-resolution measurements of what's called wet-bulb globe temperature. The researchers obtained the daily maximum wet-bulb globe temperature across Nigeria between 1983 and 2016 by combining data derived from land-based stations with satellite data.
"When combined with stations, satellites can improve heat stress measurement in countries like Nigeria where we have few weather stations with long historical records," said Cascade Tuholske, a study co-author who is now a professor at Aix-Marseille University in France.
The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Overall, the team found that the number of births is trending upward in Nigeria, but there are interesting and important wrinkles in the research.
For example, increasing humid heat is strongly associated with an increased likelihood of early pregnancy terminations. A caveat, though, is that the surveys don't ask whether terminations are induced or spontaneous.
"There are certainly reasons to think that either of those channels could be affected," Brooks said. "But we tend to think that physiological, spontaneous termination is more plausibly linked to heat exposure."
Another important finding is that, during a month of exposure to high wet-bulb globe temperatures, conceptions fell by about 1.4% compared to the average of just above 15 conceptions per 1,000 woman-months. But those conception rates grew relative to that average by 2.3% the following month and by 5% after two months. The net result is that the overall conception probability increased, but the timing of pregnancies shifted.
"While shifts in timing alone might indicate effective adaptation by heat-exposed populations, this net increase in conceptions may bear social costs for households if they conflict with women’s desires around childbearing,” said Katie McMahon, a study co-author and doctoral candidate at the University of California Santa Barbara. "If these changes primarily affect socially vulnerable households, we may also worry that they will exacerbate existing inequalities."
These shifts were particularly common for women with less education and women in rural areas. There were also marked differences geographically, which correspond to religious and economic differences in Nigeria.
In northern Nigeria, the majority of communities are Muslim, and Christianity is the major religion of the south. The south is also the wealthier part of the county. Shifts in pregnancy timing were more pronounced in the north, while timing was less impacted, or trended in the other direction, in the south.
“The regional differences in outcomes observed in this study reflect longstanding regional disparities in Nigeria’s development which have yet to be addressed by social policy,” said Kwaw Andam, a study co-author. Andam was the country program leader for the International Food Policy Research Institute, or IFPRI, in Nigeria at the time of the study.
The team said understanding the impacts of humid heat and how those vary between communities will be helpful to public health workers around Nigeria as they advise women throughout their pregnancies. Brooks added that a goal moving forward is linking high-level studies like these to lived experiences in the communities to ensure women are getting the best public health advice.
"I think a really important step forward is doing work on the ground to really understand how people perceive these effects and how they perceive risks to their health," Brooks said. "You can then use that to design improved public health guidance."
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI
10.1073/pnas.2321152122
Article Title
Humid-heat shifts conceptions and increases pregnancy termination risks in Nigeria

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 21:01:52 +0000

How dismissed symptoms can push patients to breaking point

University of East Anglia
Facebook
X LinkedIn WeChat Bluesky Message WhatsApp Email

Peer reviewed - survey - humans

Patients have been left feeling suicidal after feeling like their doctor was saying their symptoms were ‘all in their head’ – according to research from the University of East Anglia and the University of Cambridge.

A new study uncovers concerns about misdiagnosis, stigma and inconsistent care for people with autoimmune diseases who are also diagnosed with functional neurological disorder (FND).

It also reveals deep disagreements between clinicians over FND diagnoses.

The research team say better communication, multidisciplinary working and more holistic care are needed to improve patient outcomes.

Lead author Dr Melanie Sloan, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School and the Department of Public Health at the University of Cambridge, said: “FND is a recognised neurological condition that can cause symptoms such as weakness, shaking, changes in movement or feeling, and non-epileptic seizures.

“These symptoms are real and are not made up or under a person's control.

“We wanted to better understand the challenges of diagnosing complex neurological symptoms in autoimmune diseases, and why patients and clinicians can sometimes see things very differently.

“Ultimately, our aim was to identify practical ways to improve communication, reduce distress and help ensure patients receive the most appropriate care and support.”

How the research happened

The research team explored how FND diagnoses are used and understood in people with autoimmune diseases, and where disagreements arise between patients and clinicians.

Researchers analysed responses from international surveys involving 1,853 patients, 400 clinicians and 463 members of the public, as well as conducting in-depth interviews with patients and doctors.

They examined how complex neurological symptoms in autoimmune diseases are diagnosed, interpreted and communicated in real-world healthcare settings.

They found that while 86 per cent of patients agreed that a diagnosis of depression was correct, only 53 per cent agreed with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia and 30 per cent agreed with a diagnosis of FND.

Deep divide

Only seven per cent agreed with being told that their symptoms were “psychosomatic”.

Doctors taking part in the study described how difficult it can be to work out what is causing symptoms. Many said they had little training in FND and others had very strong opinions either for or against FND diagnoses.

Patients and doctors reported examples of symptoms being put down to the wrong cause, with misdiagnoses reported in both directions.

Dr Sloan said: “We still do not know enough about some of the ways autoimmune diseases affect the brain and nervous system to always be certain what is causing a particular symptom.

“FND is a real condition and people with FND need the right treatment. But we need to be careful about assuming we know the cause of every symptom and coming to quick conclusions. There may be many different causes of neurological symptoms in autoimmune diseases which are very hard to untangle.

“Clearer explanations of diagnoses could help patients understand and accept them, while doctors need to be cautious when the cause of symptoms is not clear.”

How a diagnosis is explained matters

The study found that the way a diagnosis was explained could make a big difference to how patients felt about it and that stigma played a role.

Doctors (72 per cent) were much more likely than patients (50 per cent) or the general public (48 per cent) to say that mental-health symptoms were seen as more acceptable or less stigmatised when they were thought to be caused directly by the person's physical disease.

Patients left feeling suicidal

Some patients described feeling distressed when an FND diagnosis seemed to suggest that their symptoms were psychological or something they could control. Poor explanations could lead to feelings of guilt, shame, loss of trust with some expressing suicidal thoughts.

The problem of stigma was also highlighted by Prof Guy Leischziner, neurology consultant at Guys’ and St Thomas’ hospital. He said: “FND used to be known by a variety of outdated and offensive terms like ‘hysteria’, and some of the old ideas behind that term have unfortunately carried over into how people still think about FND today.

“It used to be thought that FND almost invariably had a psychological trigger, but we now know that this is not the case. There is also growing interest in how physical illnesses, including autoimmune diseases, may play a role in FND.”

Why listening is key

The study found that patients were more likely to accept a diagnosis when doctors listened to them, explained why they thought a symptom had a particular cause, and explained how symptoms linked to FND differed from those caused by their autoimmune disease.

The researchers say better teamwork between rheumatology, neurology, psychiatry, patients and other specialists is needed, and listening - not just to a patient’s symptoms but also what they feel may be the cause or causes.

When patients feel dismissed

Michael Bosley, a patient and one of the study's authors, said: “How doctors explain this uncertainty really matters. People need to know that their symptoms are being taken seriously, understand why doctors think a particular diagnosis fits, and feel able to come back if things change.

"The damage done by an explanation that's unclear, rushed, or doesn't acknowledge the patient's experience was clear, with several patients in our study reporting feeling suicidal after a unempathetic diagnostic consultation."

Patient and co-author Lucy Calderwood added: “I think one of the most concerning findings from our study is that getting one of these diagnoses may be more about the doctor's views and pre-judgements than about the patient’s symptoms.

"So the same patient with the same symptoms could go to different doctors and one would say it was the autoimmune disease and another would say it is functional. And they’d get completely different treatment."

The findings come shortly after research from the same programme found that females were more likely than males to report that their symptoms had previously been put down to psychiatric or “psychosomatic” causes.

Together, the studies highlight the importance of listening to patients, being open about what we do not yet know, explaining diagnoses clearly and sensitively, and being more aware of gender and other biases in medicine.

Senior study psychiatrist Prof James Bourgeois, from the University of California, said: “The brain and the body are closely connected. Symptoms experienced by the brain such as depressed or anxious mood, confusion, or irritability go along with pain, weakness, and other symptoms of illness experienced in other parts of the body.

“Brain-related symptoms can be the first sign of illness, so doctors need to consider brain-related symptoms along with body-related symptoms. Brain-related symptoms are part of the illness and are not under the patient's direct control. Comprehensive care requires managing brain and body symptoms together in an integrated way, and doctors being honest about what we do not yet know.”

This research was led by UEA in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, King's College London, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Swansea University, St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, the University of Ferrara and Azienda (Italy) and the University of California (US).

It was funded by The Lupus Trust.

‘“False dichotomies” and “FND fundamentalists”: an international mixed methods exploration of clinician and rheumatology patients’ views and experiences of functional neurological disorder (FND) co-diagnoses’ is published in the journal Rheumatology International.

ENDS

The mathematics of growing a shell

California Institute of Technology
Facebook
X
Bluesky Message WhatsApp Email

image:
Caltech engineers have figured out a mathematical way to explain the puzzling reproducibility of molluscan shells—the animals' ability to make roughly the same shell, regardless of the challenges that an individual mollusk might face.
view more
Credit: Huan Liu/Caltech

Kaushik Bhattacharya is an engineer and materials scientist, but he has always been fascinated by seashells. Part of the draw is the "beautiful" idea that even simple organisms like mollusks can construct wonderfully complex structures over and again, even in differing environments. He marvels at nature's engineering capabilities.
""Manufacturing materials is a nasty, difficult process," Bhattacharya says. "How does nature do it so nicely in such simple organisms?"
Bhattacharya, Caltech's Howell N. Tyson, Sr., Professor of Mechanics and Materials Science, and postdoctoral scholar Huan Liu have now figured out a mathematical way to explain the puzzling reproducibility of mollusk shells—the animals' ability to make roughly the same shell, regardless of the challenges that an individual mollusk might face.
This mathematical method can reliably reproduce the characteristic shells of almost any class of mollusk—from the coiled shell of a nautilus to the fanlike shell of a scallop—beginning with nothing more than three elements: the shape at the leading edge of a developing shell (what the researchers call the "curve" element); a scaling factor that reflects how fast a shell expands; and the angle of the shell's rotation, whether it is making the tight spirals of a tower snail or the wide swooping whorls of a nautilus, for example.
The mollusk-shell growth process is both passive, meaning it happens without additional control, and energy efficient—and the scientists now hope to emulate this ability to make other materials with complex shapes, such as specialized manifolds for jet engines.
Bhattacharya and Liu, a Cecil and Sally Drinkward Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech, describe their findings in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on October 23.
About a year ago, Bhattacharya mentioned his interest in molluscan shells to Liu, noting that shell growth had to be governed by ""some simple rule which is done repeatedly," he recalls. "It can't be that the mollusk is sensing the whole shape and then adding to it in a clever way.""
By studying a variety of real seashells, including the conelike shells of some sea snails and the hinged two-part shells of bivalves, Liu saw that the growth lines of each shell had the same shape as the one before it. Like tree rings, these growth lines are laid down sequentially over time. As a mollusk grows, its mantle secretes material that the organism then makes into its shell, creating ridges or bands with each new growth.
Liu and Bhattacharya quickly realized that the growing edge of the first shell that forms in the mollusk's embryo—what is known as a protoconch—repeated one set of actions over and over. The growth lines only differed by a scaling factor, or scalar, and a turn, or rotation.
This suggested that a concept from mathematics called a Lie group (pronounced "lee") would be a natural way of describing seashell growth. (In this context, "group" is a collection of actions that can be combined or undone.) In a Lie group, those actions change smoothly rather than in fixed steps, and this characteristic makes them ideal for describing a process in which the same small operation is executed repeatedly. By treating the shell's growth as a Lie group that acts on the shell's growing edge, the researchers could work out a growth law—a mathematical formula that explains how the growing edge transforms as the shell grows. Using the law, they were able to accurately build up the full spiral shape of a shell by repeating the process over time.
"We found that the wide variety of molluscan shells can be described by a simple family of Lie groups that only contain three elements—one curve, one scalar, and one rotation," Liu says.
Changing the values of two of the three elements in the growth law produces markedly different shells. The starting curve at the growing edge of the shell sets the shape of the shell's opening, while the scaling factor, which the researchers call lambda (λ) determines how fast the shell expands. By changing those two factors in the model, Bhattacharya and Liu were able to generate the shape of nearly all known molluscan shells.
"What is remarkable about all of this is it's very robust," Bhattacharya says. "You can change things around, like the growth rate, or you can add a little defect, and still the overall shape of the shell remains very repeatable."
The scientists also showed that this whole-shell description is also mathematically equivalent to a local growth law at the growing edge. New material is added only along that curve, and the relative rate of material addition depends on the local geometry at that curve, such as how sharply it curves on the shell surface. From the beginning of development, once the protoconch is established, each step of growth determines the next, which means the continued expansion of the shell is a passive process. The mollusk does not need additional energy or activity to direct the construction of the shell; it simply builds upon itself.
The value of lambda—the scaling factor—also turned out to be biologically meaningful. Shells of mollusks within the same class on the phylogenetic tree—even some that look quite different from one another—have nearly the same lambda. And each of the five shell-bearing classes of mollusks (Gastropoda, Bivalvia, Cephalopoda, Monoplacophora, and Scaphopoda) occupies its own narrow range of lambda values.
Bhattacharya, who is interested in engineering materials in more efficient ways, says the results suggest the possibility of gentler and less energy-hungry methods of manufacturing complex parts.
The paper is titled "Local growth laws determine global shape of molluscan shells." The work was supported by the Drinkward Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Howell N. Tyson, Sr., Professorship at Caltech.
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
New UK dinosaur discovered using Natural History Museum’s fossil collections named after devoted dad and husband

Taylor & Francis Group
Facebook
X LinkedIn WeChat Bluesky Message WhatsApp Email

image:
A reconstruction of the iguanodontian dinosaur Paludohadros proudlovii walking through mud along the edge of a shallow body of water. In the distance, the large predatory dinosaur Baryonyx can be seen.
view more
Credit: © Guilherme Gehr

A new relative of Iguanodon from southern England has been discovered in the Natural History Museum’s collections.
The new species has been named in honour of Will Proudlove, the former manager of wienerberger’s Ewhurst brick and roof tile works where the dinosaur was discovered, who died shortly before its excavation.
Paludohadros was uncovered not far from where Baryonyx, an iconic Cretaceous carnivore that ate young iguanodontians as well as fish, was first found.
More than 25 years after it was first discovered, a new species and genus of dinosaur has been named from the fossil collections cared for by the Natural History Museum.
Paludohadros proudlovii was discovered at wienerberger’s Ewhurst brick and roof tile works (Ewhurst Works) in Surrey in 2001 and subsequently donated to the Natural History Museum. It was a member of the iguanodontians – a group of dinosaurs known for their charismatic thumbspikes.
Historically, iguanodontians found in southern England were considered to be either Iguanodon or its smaller relative Mantellisaurus. However, a detailed redescription of the latter by Natural History Museum scientists, published in 2023, has allowed key differences to be identified.
This has led to a flurry of newly named iguanodontians in the past few years, including Brighstoneus, Comptonatus, the sail-backed Istiorachis and now Paludohadros.
The four-legged herbivore lived around 125 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous Period, when iguanodontians were becoming widespread across the world. At the time, southern England would have been covered in muddy wetlands. This environment helped to give the dinosaur its name, as ‘palus’ means ‘swamp’ in Latin.
Meanwhile, the name of the species – proudlovii – honours Will Proudlove, a former employee of the Ewhurst Works who had worked his way up through the ranks to become manager. Sadly, Will died at the age of just 35 shortly before Paludohadros was excavated, leaving behind his wife Rachael as well as their young children Ellie and Matt.
Rachael Proudlove says, “Will always had an interest in dinosaur fossils and was fascinated about what, if anything, would be uncovered each time a layer of clay was removed from the quarry. Sadly, this dinosaur was only discovered the year after he died, but its story has become a part of our lives since then.”
“We were invited to go and look at it being excavated back in 2001, so it’s amazing to hear all this time later that it’s not just a new species of dinosaur, but a new genus too. We’re absolutely overjoyed and honoured that Will’s name and legacy will live on in this dinosaur.”
At around five metres long and around 1.5 to two tonnes in weight, Paludohadros proudlovii would have been a similar size to a rhino when it died. However, as its bones don’t appear to have been fully developed, it’s likely that this individual was still a juvenile – and could potentially have grown twice as large as an adult.
Paludohadros would have lived alongside a variety of other dinosaurs, including Baryonyx walkeri. This fearsome two-legged carnivore has frequently hit the headlines since being discovered at the Ewhurst Works in 1983, and the two dinosaurs might have had a close connection.
Senior author Professor Susannah Maidment of the Natural History Museum, London, and the University of Birmingham, says, “Paludohadros was found just 100 metres away from Baryonyx, whose fossils we also look after at the Natural History Museum. While Baryonyx is best known for eating fish, this dinosaur’s last meal also included a baby iguanodontian.”
“We can’t tell for certain which species this came from, so it’s possible that Baryonyx could have been scavenging on the remains of young Paludohadros or even hunting them when it had the opportunity.”
The naming of Paludohadros and other iguanodontians in recent years has led to palaeontologists re-examining fossils in the Natural History Museum’s care, with several other Paludohadros specimens identified among specimens first collected in the 1950s. This reanalysis is set to continue over the coming years, with the potential for more species to be discovered.
Ricardo Sacamoto, a PhD student at the Natural History Museum, London and the University of Sã

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 20:55:43 +0000

A low-cost tool can help people plan successful evacuation routes during a tsunami

Seismological Society of America
Facebook
Bluesky
Email

video:
Dynamic evacuation visualization for departure 8 minutes after the earthquake origin. The video shows the recorded GPS trajectories together with the advancing simulated tsunami inundation over the first 45 minutes after earthquake origin. Participants are shown as semi-transparent black dots moving along their recorded trajectories. When the simulated inundation reaches a participant, the dot turns red and remains fixed at that location.
view more
Credit: Courtesy of Alejandra Gubler

People living in coastal communities sometimes have only minutes to reach a safe spot after an earthquake-triggered tsunami. But will the evacuation route that they’ve chosen lead them to safety?
In a new study published in Seismological Research Letters, researchers Alejandra Gubler and Matías Carvajal demonstrate that the safety of these routes strongly depends on how soon after an earthquake people begin to evacuate.
The Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile researchers built a low-cost tool that combines data from GPS tracks, collected from participants in community evacuation drills in Chile’s Viña del Mar, with models of inundation from the type of tsunami expected in this central region of the country.
In their analysis of 119 GPS trajectories collected from drill participants, they discovered that successful evacuation depends strongly on when people begin moving. If people began to evacuate immediately after the start of the earthquake, 100 of the 119 trajectories studied would have allowed people to reach safety before being inundated.
But if they waited eight minutes after the earthquake’s origin before evacuating—roughly when a tsunami warning would be issued—only 49 of the trajectories would have led to safety.
And if people were to evacuate twelve minutes after the earthquake origin, only three of the trajectories would reach higher ground before rising waters caught up to them.
“In near-field settings like central Chile, where the tsunami can reach the coast within minutes of the earthquake, that margin is very small, so every minute really counts,” said Gubler.
Gubler and Carvajal created simple but dramatic video animations of their findings, to help residents, authorities and decision-makers understand the critical consequences of delayed evacuation.
“What really surprised us was what happened when we showed the videos to the drill participants. As they watched their own trajectories being reached by the simulated tsunami, you could hear a general ‘oooohhh’ across the room,” said Gubler.
“That reaction showed us how much the videos captured their attention, in a way that a graph or a curve rarely does,” she added.
The researchers collected personal GPS data from participants, mostly university students, in tsunami evacuation drills conducted between 2022 and 2026. The participants were instructed to follow an evacuation route shown on the official evacuation map. Some of the recorded trajectories followed local evacuation signage, however, which does not always match the official map.
Gubler and Carvajal compared the trajectories with a simulated time-dependent tsunami inundation field for a plausible subduction earthquake scenario in the region.
“Most of the tools communities rely on, such as evacuation maps, are static. They show where to go, but not how much time you actually have to get there,” Gubler noted. “We wanted to put that time dimension front and center, and today it is much more feasible to do so, because we can combine GPS tracks recorded during real drills with time-dependent inundation modeling.”
The researchers also grouped the 119 trajectories into 13 main corridors, finding that the number of feasible corridors—paths that would lead to safety before being overtaken by the tsunami—decreased substantially as people delayed their evacuation.
There were also strong differences in some cases between neighboring corridors. In one corridor, 91% of participants would have completed their evacuation when leaving eight minutes after the earthquake origin.
In a corridor only 200 meters away, however, only 13% of participants would have safely evacuated under the same start time. The differences reflect both the local inundation pattern and the recorded movement of the people, the researchers said.
“We have actually gathered a lot of information on the difficulties participants encounter during the drills, such as problems with particular routes or infrastructure,” Gubler said. “Analyzing it properly is something we would like to do in future work.”
Gubler said the researchers also have plans to work with local authorities and the institutions that supported the study to share the animations more widely.
“That said, although we believe it is valuable to show these videos to the whole community, we think the awareness effect is much greater when people have recorded their own route during a drill and then see themselves being reached by the tsunami,” she said. “Watching someone else’s trajectory is informative; watching your own is what really makes an impression.”
The paper was published as part of an upcoming SRL Focus Section on Advances in Operational Response.
Journal
Seismological Research Letters
DOI
10.1785/0220260245
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
A Low‐Cost Tool for Communicating the Time‐Critical Feasibility of Near‐Field Tsunami Evacuation: A Proof of Concept in Viña del Mar, Chile
Article Publication Date
26-Oct-2026

Animation of Evacuation from Simulated Chilean Tsunami (Spanish) [VIDEO]

Dynamic evacuation visualization for departure 8 minutes after the earthquake origin. The video shows the recorded GPS trajectories together with the advancing simulated tsunami inundation over the first 45 minutes after earthquake origin. Participants are shown as semi-transparent black dots moving along their recorded trajectories. When the simulated inundation reaches a participant, the dot turns red and remains fixed at that location.
Credit