The Unforgettable Chorus in New York is using music to help people with memory loss reconnect with family, friends and themselves. Since 2011, the choir has been a beacon of hope, offering a space where those living with dementia can sing, participate and be part of a community. Johny Fernandez reports from New York City.
…

your ads here!

NEW YORK — U.S. life expectancy jumped last year, and preliminary data suggests there may be another — much smaller — improvement this year.

Death rates fell last year for almost all leading causes, notably COVID-19, heart disease and drug overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday. That translated to adding nearly a year the estimated lifespan of Americans.

Experts note it’s part of a bounce-back from the COVID-19 pandemic. But life expectancy has not yet climbed back to prepandemic levels, and the rebound appears to be losing steam.

“What you’re seeing is continued improvement, but slowing improvement,” said Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, a University Minnesota researcher who studies death trends. “We are sort of converging back to some kind of normal that is worse than it was before the pandemic.”

Last year, nearly 3.1 million U.S. residents died, about 189,000 fewer than the year before. Death rates declined across all racial and ethnic groups, and in both men and women.

Provisional data for the first 10 months of 2024 suggests the country is on track to see even fewer deaths this year, perhaps about 13,000 fewer. But that difference is likely to narrow as more death certificates come in, said the CDC’s Robert Anderson.

That means that life expectancy for 2024 likely will rise — “but probably not by a lot,” said Anderson, who oversees death tracking at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Life expectancy is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live, given death rates at that time. It’s a fundamental measure of a population’s health.

For decades, U.S. life expectancy rose at least a little bit almost every year, thanks to medical advances and public health measures. It peaked in 2014, at nearly 79 years, and then was relatively flat for several years. Then it plunged during the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping to just under 76 1/2 years in 2021.

It rebounded to 77 1/2 years in 2022 and, according to the new report, to nearly 78 1/2 last year.

Life expectancy for U.S. women continues to be well above that of men — a little over 81 for women, compared with a little under 76 for men.

In the last five years, more than 1.2 million U.S. deaths have been attributed to COVID-19. But most of them occurred in 2020 and 2021, before vaccination- and infection-induced immunity became widespread.

The coronavirus was once the nation’s third leading cause of death. Last year it was the underlying cause in nearly 50,000 deaths, making it the nation’s No. 10 killer.

Data for 2024 is still coming in, but about 30,000 coronavirus deaths have been reported so far. At that rate, suicide may surpass COVID-19 this year, Anderson said.

Heart disease remains the nation’s leading cause of death. Some underappreciated good news is the heart disease death rate dropped by about 3% in 2023. That’s a much smaller drop than the 73% decline in the COVID-19 death rate, but heart disease affects more people so even small changes can be more impactful, Anderson said.

There’s also good news about overdose deaths, which fell to 105,000 in 2023 among U.S. residents, according to a second report released by CDC on Thursday.

The causes of the overdose decline are still being studied but there is reason to be hopeful such deaths will drop more in the future, experts say. Some pointed to survey results this week that showed teens drug use isn’t rising.

“The earlier you start taking a drug, the greater the risk that you could continue using it and the greater the risk that you will become addicted to it — and have untoward consequences,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the survey study. “If you can reduce the pipeline (of new drug users) … you can prevent overdoses.”
…

your ads here!

GENEVA — International human and animal health experts warn the H5N1 avian influenza is evolving quickly and posing a global health threat as the virus is increasingly crossing species barriers and infecting a wide range of domestic and wild mammals.

“These developments pose significant challenges to animal, human and environmental health,” Dr. Gregorio Torres, veterinarian and head of the science department at the World Organization for Animal Health, told journalists in Geneva Tuesday.

He noted that avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, has been reported in 108 countries and territories over five continents in the last three years.

“And as of December 2024, the infection has been detected in over 70 species of domestic and wild mammals. This includes the ongoing detection of H5N1 in dairy cattle in the United States,” Torres said.

“So far, the close monitoring of the virus has not found markers that could suggest effective mammalian adaptation, but we know this can change at any time,” he said.

Most human cases in US

The World Health Organization this week reported 76 people were infected with the H5 avian influenza viruses in 2024, most of them among farm workers. Sixty-one of these cases occurred in the United States, which has reported outbreaks in wildlife, poultry and, more recently, dairy cattle.

“This is the first time we have seen the infections from dairy cattle to humans, and so many within the U.S.” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic threat management at WHO.

“In the U.S., all but two have direct links with infected animals, whether this was working on farms, whether this was part of culling exercises,” she said. “We have not seen any detection of human-to-human transmission among these cases.”

While much attention on the bird flu situation has focused on the United States this year, Van Kerkhove noted that Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China and Vietnam also reported outbreaks.

Based on available information, she said that the H5N1 viruses have remained avian viruses and have not adapted to spread among people, stressing that follow-up epidemiologic, virologic and serologic investigations “so far have not reported or identified human-to-human transmission.”

“However, this can change quickly as the virus is evolving, which is why we are actively assessing the situation and why surveillance is so critical,” she said.

300 million birds dead

Although the WHO assesses the current risk of infection for the public as low, it considers the public health risk for farm workers and others exposed to infected animals to be low-to-moderate. The WHO advises exposed groups to use personal protective equipment such as coveralls, respirator masks, eye protection, gloves and boots to minimize the risk.

Since October 2021, H5N1 has caused the deaths of more than 300 million birds worldwide, affecting the livelihood of millions of people.

“In addition to the direct impact on livelihoods, the economic burden on farmers can lead to reduced investments in biosecurity measures,” said Madhur Dhingra, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s senior infectious diseases animal health officer.

“This increases the risk and leads to a dangerous cycle of risk, vulnerability, and loss. … In regions heavily reliant on poultry as a primary protein source, HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] poses a serious threat to food and nutrition security,” she said.

“The impacts of HPAI have spilled over into wildlife, with more than 500 bird species and over 70 mammalian species affected, including endangered animals like the California condor and polar bears,” she said. “The biodiversity impacts, particularly among seabirds and marine mammals, and disruption of fragile ecosystems, such as the Antarctic region, are concerning.”

Health experts agree that increased surveillance and close monitoring of the evolution of the H5N1 virus are essential to prevent the disease from spreading widely around the world.

“We are in an interpandemic period right now where we have a number of different zoonotic viruses, with avian influenza, H5N1 one of several,” Van Kerkhove said.

“While we are operating in a state of readiness, I think the world is not ready for another infectious disease, massive outbreak or pandemic because we have lived through COVID and it was incredibly traumatic, and it is still ongoing.

“We are recommending to our member states and national authorities to increase surveillance and vigilance in human populations, especially those who are occupationally exposed, for the possibility for infection, and, of course, doing thorough investigations around each and every human case,” she said.

In the meantime, she advised people to minimize their risk of becoming sick from bird flu by carefully watching what they eat and drink.

“Cows infected with the H5N1 virus have been reported to have high viral loads in their milk,” she said, so, it is advisable that people “consume pasteurized milk.”

“If pasteurized milk is not available, heating milk until it boils also makes it safe for consumption. Similarly, we recommend thoroughly cooking meat and eggs when in areas affected by avian flu outbreaks,” she said.
…

your ads here!

HARARE, ZIMBABWE — A Zimbabwean national park is hosting relocated wildlife from a game park just outside the country’s capital after an autopsy report on Saturday confirmed that four rhinos and several other animals died after drinking contaminated lake water.

Tinashe Farawo, the spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, confirmed to VOA the death of four rhinos after drinking bacteria-polluted water at Lake Chivero Recreational Park, about 20 kilometers west of the capital, Harare.

“We are not only losing the rhinos, but [we] also lost some zebras, wildebeest and some birds,” Farawo said.

“We have tried to treat some of the rhinos, but unfortunately it seems like we are not managing at the moment. But we have made some temporary collective measures to make sure we do the best we can with this challenge,” he said, referring to the temporary transfer of wildlife away from the lake.

“We need to continue to make sure that at least we deal with the issue of pollution around Lake Chivero,” Farawo said.

Amkela Sidange, spokesperson for the Environmental Management Agency of Zimbabwe, said that, nationwide, about 415 megaliters of untreated sewage are being discharged into the environment daily.

The “city of Harare on its own … contributes about 219 megaliters of raw and partly treated sewer that is discharged into the environment on a daily basis, and that goes to show how huge the crisis is,” she said.

“We need the whole of government and societal approach,” Sidange said, adding that temporary solutions aren’t getting the job done.

Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume said he is counting on the central government to provide money to help the city provide proper sewer services, especially for those who live in “informal settlements.”

“We have over 150,000 informal settlements, and these informal settlements do not have sewer reticulation systems,” he said. “Therefore, their discharge is going straight into our water bodies.”

While the bickering continues among high-ranking officials about who is polluting Harare water with cyanobacteria, Farai Maguwu, director of the Center for Natural Resource Governance, is worried about the residents of Zimbabwe’s capital.

“There is a need to carry out scientific investigations about the water that is pumped into people’s homes by Harare city council and see if that water is still safe for drinking and inform the citizens of Harare accordingly,” Maguwu said.

On Tuesday, Mafume declared that Harare’s water was still meeting the World Health Organization’s standards and was safe for drinking.

The city council provides bottled water during its meetings and, for years now, many residents of Harare drink bottled water and water from boreholes.
…

your ads here!

NEW YORK — An Alabama woman is recovering well after a pig kidney transplant last month that freed her from eight years of dialysis, the latest effort to save human lives with animal organs. 

Towana Looney is the fifth American given a gene-edited pig organ — and notably, she isn’t as sick as prior recipients who died within two months of receiving a pig kidney or heart. 

“It’s like a new beginning,” Looney, 53, told The Associated Press. Right away, “the energy I had was amazing. To have a working kidney — and to feel it — is unbelievable.” 

Looney’s surgery marks an important step as scientists get ready for formal studies of xenotransplantation expected to begin next year, said Dr. Robert Montgomery of NYU Langone Health, who led the highly experimental procedure. 

Looney is recuperating well after her transplant, which was announced Tuesday. She was discharged from the hospital 11 days after surgery to continue recovery in a nearby apartment although temporarily readmitted this week while her medications are adjusted. Doctors expect her to return home to Alabama in three months. If the pig kidney were to fail, she could begin dialysis again. 

“To see hope restored to her and her family is extraordinary,” said Dr. Jayme Locke, Looney’s original surgeon who secured Food and Drug Administration permission for the Nov. 25 transplant. 

More than 100,000 people are on the U.S. transplant list, most who need a kidney. Thousands die waiting and many more who need a transplant never qualify. Now, searching for an alternate supply, scientists are genetically altering pigs so their organs are more humanlike. 

Looney donated a kidney to her mother in 1999. Later a complication during pregnancy caused high blood pressure that damaged her remaining kidney, which eventually failed. It’s incredibly rare for living donors to develop kidney failure although those who do are given extra priority on the transplant list. 

But Looney couldn’t get a match — she had developed antibodies abnormally primed to attack another human kidney. Tests showed she’d reject every kidney donors have offered. 

Then Looney heard about pig kidney research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and told Locke, at the time a UAB transplant surgeon, she’d like to try one. In April 2023, Locke filed an FDA application seeking an emergency experiment, under rules for people like Looney who are out of options. 

The FDA didn’t agree right away. Instead, the world’s first gene-edited pig kidney transplants went to two sicker patients last spring, at Massachusetts General Hospital and NYU. Both also had serious heart disease. The Boston patient recovered enough to spend about a month at home before dying of sudden cardiac arrest deemed unrelated to the pig kidney. NYU’s patient had heart complications that damaged her pig kidney, forcing its removal, and she later died. 

Those disappointing outcomes didn’t dissuade Looney, who was starting to feel worse on dialysis but, Locke said, hadn’t developed heart disease or other complications. The FDA eventually allowed her transplant at NYU, where Locke collaborated with Montgomery. 

Even if her new organ fails, doctors can learn from it, Looney told the AP: “You don’t know if it’s going to work or not until you try.” 

Blacksburg, Virginia-based Revivicor provided Looney’s new kidney from a pig with 10 gene alterations. Moments after Montgomery sewed it into place, the kidney turned a healthy pink and began producing urine. 

Looney was initially discharged on Dec. 6, wearing monitors to track her blood pressure, heart rate and other bodily functions and returning to the hospital for daily checkups before her medication readmission. Doctors scrutinize her bloodwork and other tests, comparing them to prior research in animals and a few humans in hopes of spotting an early warning if problems crop up. 

“A lot of what we’re seeing, we’re seeing for the first time,” Montgomery said. 

During a visit last week with Locke, who now works for the federal government, Looney hugged her longtime doctor, saying, “Thank you for not giving up on me.” 

“Never,” Locke responded.
…

your ads here!

The United Nations says the HIV/AIDS epidemic could be ended by 2030. But patients need to follow their treatment plans to keep the virus in check. Games could help, as Zaheer Cassim reports from Johannesburg.
…

your ads here!

Islamabad — Authorities in Pakistan reported Monday that gunmen targeted vaccination teams in northwestern districts during a nationwide campaign against the paralytic poliovirus, resulting in the deaths of at least one health worker and two police officers.

The violence in the militancy-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, also injured several polio workers and police force members escorting them. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks.

Pakistan has reported a significant surge in poliovirus infections in 2024, confirming 63 cases so far, compared to only six cases in 2023.

On Monday, the country launched a weeklong house-to-house vaccination campaign, culminating the year’s anti-polio efforts. Officials said the campaign aims to inoculate more than 44 million children under five to protect them against polio.

Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s adviser for the polio eradication program, emphasized parental cooperation to help achieve a polio-free Pakistan.

“We strongly encourage all parents to welcome our dedicated polio workers when they visit your residence and ensure that your children under the age of five receive the necessary two doses of the polio vaccine,” she said.

The World Health Organization lists Pakistan and Afghanistan as the only two countries where the potentially fatal poliovirus continues to cripple children.

WHO officials have cited multiple factors for the resurgence of polio cases in Pakistan. They noted that false propaganda that anti-polio campaigns are a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children has led to vaccine boycotts in some Pakistani districts.

Additionally, insurgents in violence-hit regions occasionally stage deadly attacks on polio teams, suspecting them of spying for the Pakistani security forces, routinely disrupting vaccination drives.

“There are concerning numbers of missed children during the recent campaigns (ranging from 5,000 to 700,000) due to insecurity, boycotts, and program quality issues,” the WHO reported in a statement in August after an emergency committee meeting under the International Health Regulations.

Pakistani authorities have reported the killings of more than 200 polio workers and police personnel escorting them since the country launched vaccination campaigns in the 1990s to control infections.

WHO and officials in Afghanistan have reported at least 23 polio cases in 2024, up from six last year.

In September, the de facto Taliban government abruptly banned the house-to-house vaccination campaign in parts of the war-torn country, permitting only site-to-site and mosque-to-mosque vaccinations of Afghan children.

The WHO committee meeting lamented in its December 3 statement that the Taliban’s ban dealt a setback to the “very encouraging progress” made in Afghanistan during the first half of 2024.

“The committee was concerned about this recent development since site-to-site campaigns are not able to reach all the children in Afghanistan, especially those of younger age and girls,” said the statement. It warned that the restriction poses a substantial risk of a further resurgence of paralytic poliovirus in Afghanistan and beyond.
…

your ads here!

VIENNA — Three years ago, Andrea Vanek was studying to be an arts and crafts teacher when spells of dizziness and heart palpitations suddenly started to make it impossible for her to even take short walks.

After seeing a succession of doctors she was diagnosed with long COVID and even now spends most of her days in the small living room of her third-floor Vienna apartment, sitting on the windowsill to observe the world outside.

“I can’t plan anything because I just don’t know how long this illness will last,” the 33-year-old Austrian told AFP.

The first cases of COVID-19 were detected in China in December 2019, sparking a global pandemic and more than seven million reported deaths to date, according to the World Health Organization.

But millions more have been affected by long COVID, in which some people struggle to recover from the acute phase of COVID-19, suffering symptoms including tiredness, brain fog and shortness of breath.

Vanek tries to be careful not to exert herself to avoid another “crash”, which for her is marked by debilitating muscle weakness and can last for months, making it hard to even open a bottle of water.

“We know that long COVID is a big problem,” said Anita Jain, from the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.

About six percent of people infected by coronavirus develop long COVID, according to the global health body, which has recorded some 777 million COVID cases to date.

Whereas the rates of long COVID after an initial infection are declining, reinfection increases the risk, Jain added.

‘Everything hurts’

Chantal Britt, who lives in Bern, Switzerland, contracted COVID in March 2020. Long COVID, she said, has turned her “life upside down” and forced her to “reinvent” herself. 

“I was really an early bird…. Now I take two hours to get up in the morning at least because everything hurts,” the 56-year-old former marathon runner explained.

“I’m not even hoping anymore that I’m well in the morning but I’m still kind of surprised how old and how broken I feel.”

About 15 percent of those who have long COVID have persistent symptoms for more than one year, according to the WHO, while women tend to have a higher risk than men of developing the condition.

Britt, who says she used to be a “workaholic”, now works part-time as a university researcher on long COVID and other topics. 

She lost her job in communications in 2022 after she asked to reduce her work hours.

She misses doing sports, which used to be like “therapy” for her, and now has to plan her daily activities more, such as thinking of places where she can sit down and rest when she goes shopping.

A lack of understanding by those around her also make it more difficult.

“It’s an invisible disease…. which connects to all the stigma surrounding it,” she said.

“Even the people who are really severely affected, who are at home, in a dark room, who can’t be touched anymore, any noise will drive them into a crash, they don’t look sick,” she said.

Fall ‘through the cracks’

The WHO’s Jain said it can be difficult for healthcare providers to give a diagnosis and wider recognition of the condition is crucial.

More than 200 symptoms have been listed alongside common ones such as fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive dysfunction.

“Now a lot of the focus is on helping patients, helping clinicians with the tools to accurately diagnose long COVID, detect it early,” she said.

Patients like Vanek also struggle financially. She has filed two court cases to get more support but both are yet to be heard.

She said the less than $840 she gets in support cannot cover her expenses, which include high medical bills for the host of pills she needs to keep her symptoms in check.

“It’s very difficult for students who get long COVID. We fall right through the cracks” of the social system, unable to start working, she said.

Britt also wants more targeted research into post-infectious conditions like long COVID.

“We have to understand them better because there will be another pandemic and we will be as clueless as ever,” she said.
…

your ads here!

A large number of mysterious drones have been reported flying over parts of New Jersey and the East Coast in recent weeks, sparking speculation and concern over who sent them and why.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy wrote to President Joe Biden asking for answers. New Jersey’s new senator, Andy Kim, spent Thursday night on a drone hunt in rural northern New Jersey, and posted about it on X.

Murphy and law enforcement officials have stressed that the drones don’t appear to be a threat to public safety, but many state and municipal lawmakers have nonetheless called for stricter rules about who can fly the unmanned aircraft.

The FBI is among several agencies investigating and has asked residents to share videos, photos and other information they may have about the drones.

What’s the deal with the drones in New Jersey?

Dozens of witnesses have reported seeing them in the state starting in November.

At first they were spotted flying along the scenic Raritan River, which feeds the Round Valley Reservoir, the state’s largest aquifer, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of New York City.

But soon sightings were reported statewide, including near the Picatinny Arsenal, a military research and manufacturing facility, and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster.

The aircraft have also recently been spotted in coastal areas.

Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Smith said a Coast Guard commanding officer told him a dozen drones closely followed a Guard lifeboat near Barnegat Light and Island Beach State Park in Ocean County over the weekend.

Federal officials offer assurances that drones don’t pose a threat

The growing anxiety among some residents is not lost on the Biden administration, which has faced criticism from Trump for not dealing with the matter more aggressively.

In a call with reporters Saturday that was organized by the White House, senior officials from the FBI, Pentagon, FAA and other agencies sought to assure people that the drones are not a national security or public safety threat or the handywork of a malicious foreign actor.

An FBI official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said the public concern is understandable but added, “I think there has been a slight overreaction.”

Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Thursday that the military’s initial assessment after consulting with the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Council — that the drones are not of foreign origin — remained unchanged.

New Jersey congressman wants the military to take action

A New Jersey congressman has urged the Pentagon to authorize the use of force to bring down one or more drones to try to figure out who deployed them.

The objects could be downed over the ocean or in an unpopulated area on land, Smith said Saturday at a news conference.

“Why can’t we bag at least one of these drones and get to the bottom of it?” Smith said.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, another Republican Jersey Shore-area congressman, has also called for the military to shoot down the drones.

Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden said people should not take it into their own hands to shoot down drones, which would break state and federal laws.

Drones have been spotted over New York City

Drone sightings have now been reported in New York, where a permit is required, and Mayor Eric Adams said the city was investigating and collaborating with New Jersey and federal officials.

The runways at Stewart International Airport — about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of the city — were shut down for about one hour Friday night because of drone activity in the airspace, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

“This has gone too far,” she said in a statement.

The governor called on Congress to strengthen the FAA’s oversight of drones and give more investigative authority to state and local law enforcement.

“Extending these powers to New York State and our peers is essential,” she said. “Until those powers are granted to state and local officials, the Biden administration must step in by directing additional federal law enforcement to New York and the surrounding region to ensure the safety of our critical infrastructure and our people.”

Are these drones dangerous?

The White House has said that a review of the reported sightings shows that many of them are actually manned aircraft being flown lawfully, echoing the opinion of officials and drone experts.

The federal Homeland Security Department and FBI also said in a joint statement they have no evidence that the sightings pose “a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.”

Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, who was briefed by the Department of Homeland Security, said the reported drones have been up to 6 feet (1.8 meters) in diameter and sometimes travel with their lights switched off. This is much larger than those typically flown by drone hobbyists, and she said they appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopter and radio.

Who sent the drones?

Authorities say they do not know.

The FBI, Homeland Security and state police are investigating the sightings. Authorities say they don’t know if it is one drone that has been spotted many times or if there are multiple aircraft being flown in a coordinated effort.

Speculation has raged online, with some expressing concerns that the drone or drones could be part of a nefarious plot by foreign agents.

Officials stress that ongoing state and federal investigations have found no evidence to support those concerns, but Rep. Smith on Saturday echoed such speculation.

“The elusive maneuvering of these drones suggests a major military power sophistication that begs the question whether they have been deployed to test our defense capabilities — or worse — by violent dictatorships, perhaps maybe Russia, or China, or Iran, or North Korea,” he said.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Wednesday that the aircraft are not U.S. military drones.

What have officials said about the sightings?

Trump has said he believes the government knows more than it’s saying. “Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!” he posted on his social media site.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Thursday that the drones should be “shot down, if necessary.”

“We should be doing some very urgent intelligence analysis and take them out of the skies, especially if they’re flying over airports or military bases,” Blumenthal said.

Experts, however, warn not to shoot at anything in the sky.

Trisha Bushey, 48, of Lebanon Township, New Jersey, lives near Round Valley Reservoir where there have been numerous sightings and said she doesn’t believe the assertion that the drones aren’t a risk to public safety.

“How can you say it’s not posing a threat if you don’t know what it is?” she said. “I think that’s why so many people are uneasy.”

Are drones allowed in New Jersey?

The flying of drones for recreational and commercial use is legal in the state, but it is subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions.

In New York City, a permit is required to take off or land an unmanned aircraft.

Operators must be FAA-certified.

Have drones been spotted anywhere else?

Sightings also have been reported in Virginia and elsewhere.

Two people said they spotted an aircraft Thursday night near Virginia Beach that was unlike any other they’ve seen.

The object was over the ocean, and they watched as it slowly moved over an Army National Guard facility, John Knight told The Virginian-Pilot.

“It was definitely different,” said Knight, who took videos of what he thinks was a drone the size of a small truck.

“It flew like a helicopter but made no noise,” he added.

The Virginia National Guard did not have any aircraft operating in the area Thursday night, according to spokesperson A.A. “Cotton” Puryear. Its leadership is aware of the incident and it’s under investigation.

Another military installation in the area is Naval Air Station Oceana Dam Neck Annex. NAS Oceana, the East Coast master jet base in Virginia Beach, is aware of recent reports of sightings in the area and is coordinating with federal and state agencies to ensure the safety of its personnel and operations, Katie Hewett, public affairs officer, said Friday by email.

Knight submitted the videos Thursday night to the FBI tip line.

In Massachusetts, 10 to 15 drones were reported hovering over a home Thursday night in Harwich on Cape Cod. A resident told police they were bright and she observed them for more than an hour.

Earlier that evening, an off-duty police officer in the same town noticed similar activity near a public safety complex, police said. The information was forwarded to the FBI and Massachusetts State Police.

Drones were also spotted last month in the U.K. The U.S. Air Force said several small unmanned aircraft were detected near four military bases in England that are used by American forces.
…

your ads here!

Americans should eat more beans, peas and lentils and cut back on red and processed meats and starchy vegetables, all while continuing to limit added sugars, sodium and saturated fat.

That’s the advice released Tuesday by a panel of nutrition experts charged with counseling the U.S. government about the 2025 edition of the dietary guidelines that will form the cornerstone of federal food programs and policy.

But the 20-member panel didn’t weigh in on the growing role of ultraprocessed foods that have been linked to health problems, saying there’s not enough evidence to tell people to avoid them. And the group steered clear of updating controversial guidance on alcohol consumption, leaving that analysis to two outside reports expected to be released soon.

Overall, the recommendations for the 2025-30 Dietary Guidelines for Americans sound familiar, said Marion Nestle, a food policy expert.

“This looks like every other set of dietary guidelines since 1980: eat your veggies and reduce consumption of foods high in salt, sugar and saturated fat,” Nestle said in an email. “This particular statement says nothing about balancing calories, when overconsumption of calories, especially from ultra-processed foods, is the biggest challenge to the health of Americans.”

What the scientific panel said about healthy diets

The nutrition panel concluded that a healthy diet for people aged 2 years and older is higher in vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, whole grains, fish and vegetable oils that are higher in unsaturated fat.

It is lower in red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, refined grains and saturated fat. It may also include fat-free or low-fat dairy and foods lower in sodium and may include plant-based foods.

The panel, which met for nearly two years, was the first to focus on the dietary needs of Americans through what they called a “health equity lens,” said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, a Massachusetts General Hospital obesity expert who was part of the group. That meant considering factors such as household income, race, ethnicity and culture when recommending healthy diets. It will help ensure that the guidance “reflects and includes various population groups,” she said in an email.

The panel didn’t come to conclusions on ultraprocessed foods or alcohol

Ultraprocessed foods include the snacks, sugary cereals and frozen meals that make up about 60% of the American diet.

The panel considered more than 40 studies, including several that showed links between ultraprocessed foods and becoming overweight or developing obesity. But the nutrition experts had concerns with the quality of the research, leaving them to conclude that the evidence was too limited to make recommendations.

That decision is likely to bump up against the views of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee to lead the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, who has questioned potential conflicts of interest among members of the dietary guidelines panel and vowed to crack down on ultraprocessed foods that contribute to chronic disease.

The panel also didn’t revise recommendations that suggest limiting alcohol intake to two drinks or less a day for men and one drink or less a day for women.

In 2020, the last time the guidance was updated, the government rejected the advice of scientific advisers to recommend less alcohol consumption.

Two groups — the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine and a committee of the government agency that oversees substance abuse — are expected to release reports in the coming months on the effects of moderate alcohol use to inform the guidelines.

Do Americans follow dietary guidelines?

The advisory panel acknowledged that the diets of most Americans don’t meet the current guidelines. More than half of all U.S. adults have one or more diet-related chronic health conditions and 18 million U.S. households have insecure sources of food, according to the report.

“Nutrition-related chronic health conditions and their precursors continue to threaten health through the lifespan,” the report concludes. “Which does not bode well for the future of health in the United States.”

What happens next?

The scientific report informs the dietary guidelines, which are updated every five years. Tuesday’s recommendations now go to HHS and the Agriculture Department, where officials will draft the final guidance set for release next year.

Starting Wednesday, the public will have 60 days to comment on the guidance. HHS and USDA officials will hold a public meeting January 16 to discuss the recommendations.

The new guidance, which will be finalized by the incoming Trump administration, is consistent with decades of federal efforts to reduce diet-related disease in the U.S., said Dr. Peter Lurie, president of the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.

“Broadly, I think these are well-formulated recommendations that the incoming administration would do well to adopt,” Lurie said. 
…

your ads here!

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday sued a New York doctor for allegedly providing a Texas woman with abortion pills by telemedicine.

The lawsuit by the Republican attorney general, which appeared to be the first of its kind, could offer a test of conservative states’ power to stop abortion pills from reaching their residents.

New York is among the Democratic-led states that have passed so-called shield laws aiming to protect doctors who provide abortion pills to patients in other states. The law says New York will not cooperate with another state’s effort to prosecute, sue or otherwise penalize a doctor for providing the pills, as long as the doctor complies with New York law.

“As other states move to attack those who provide or obtain abortion care, New York is proud to be a safe haven for abortion access,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “We will always protect our providers from unjust attempts to punish them for doing their job and we will never cower in the face of intimidation or threats.”

In the lawsuit, filed in the District Court of Collin County, Paxton said that New Paltz, New York, Dr. Margaret Carpenter prescribed and provided mifepristone and misoprostol, the two drugs used in medication abortion, to a Texas woman via telemedicine.

Medication abortion accounts for more than half of U.S. abortions. It has drawn increasing attention since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision allowing states to ban abortion, which more than 20 have done.

The woman went to the hospital after experiencing bleeding as a complication of taking the drugs, which were subsequently discovered by her partner, according to the lawsuit.

Paxton claimed that Carpenter violated Texas’s abortion law and its occupational licensing law by practicing medicine in the state despite not being licensed there. He is seeking an injunction barring her from further violations of Texas’s abortion ban and at least $100,000 in civil penalties for each past violation.

Carpenter is a member of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, which supports nationwide access to abortion through telemedicine, and helped start Hey Jane, an online telehealth clinic offering abortion pills, according to the coalition’s website. She could not immediately be reached for comment. 
…

your ads here!

ABUJA, NIGERIA — The World Health Organization (WHO) and public health experts are calling for increased political commitment and funding to fight malaria, especially in endemic regions like Africa. This week’s release of the 2024 World Malaria Report by the WHO said there were 11 million more malaria cases compared to the previous year and that Ethiopia and Nigeria recorded their highest death tolls from the disease since 2015.

According to Wednesday’s report, there were 263 million cases of the mosquito-borne disease and nearly 600,000 deaths worldwide last year.

The report indicates global malaria cases grew by about 11 million compared to the year prior while fatalities remained nearly the same.

The WHO report said Africa accounted for 95% of global malaria deaths. Most of the victims were children under 5 years of age.

Dr. Kehinde Ajayi, an expert on malaria epidemiology and control, said one issue is that since 2020, most developing nations have had a shortage of resources to combat the disease.

“Some of the resources like insecticide-treated nets and also funding towards the malaria control programs have been hampered because of … COVID-19 and the economic imbalance in developing countries,” Ajayi said.

Ajayi said climate change and declining effectiveness of anti-malaria drugs are threatening progress.

Nigeria bears the world’s highest burden of malaria with more than 27% of global malaria cases and 31% of deaths.

But the WHO report also showed some progress — estimating that about 2.2 billion cases of malaria and 12.7 million deaths were averted globally since 2000.

Ajayi said increased government funding for malaria interventions could change things.

“Mosquitoes thrive very well under temperatures that are more than 19 degrees Celsius, and the climate change has made [that] possible,” Ajayi said. “Also, the plasmodium parasite has gained a lot of resistance against malaria drugs. Also, the government needs to invest more in our health sector. Government also needs to fund research that will help us in discovering indigenous drugs.”

The WHO report said only about half of the $8.7 billion target for malaria intervention last year was achieved.

In Nigeria, spending on health care is about 4% of the national budget, much lower than the 15% agreed upon by the African Union in 2001 — in the so-called Abuja Declaration.

Authorities have pledged to improve spending on health. On Thursday, Nigeria signed a deal to promote local production of test kits for HIV and malaria.

Last week, Nigeria launched its malaria vaccination campaign — becoming the latest African country to provide malaria vaccines to young children.

There are now 17 countries giving new malaria vaccines.
…

your ads here!

A landmark hearing into nation-states’ legal obligations over climate change wrapped up at the United Nations’ top court in The Hague on Friday. The outcome could have implications for the fight against global warming — and for the big polluters blamed for emitting most greenhouse gases. Henry Ridgwell has more.
…

your ads here!

At least 2,400 children have been killed or injured since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to the latest UNICEF reports. The U.N. agency says the war is creating a mental health crisis among Ukrainian children. VOA Russian has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
…

your ads here!