geneva — World Health Organization member countries resumed negotiations Monday to finalize an agreement on pandemic prevention, with outbreaks of mpox, Marburg and H5N1 stressing the urgency of reaching an agreement without repeating the deadly mistakes of COVID-19.

After more than two years of negotiations, there is hope of reaching an agreement in the next 15 days, especially since the negotiators have agreed to postpone discussions on the most contentious points: the sharing of knowledge and equitable access to medical advances.

Recent negotiations at COP16 in Colombia on biodiversity, which provided for a comparable mechanism, stumbled on this point.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed the need to balance timeliness and workable deal.

“Time is not our friend,” Tedros told national negotiators at the opening of the talks. “COVID is still circulating. Mpox is a global health emergency. We have a Marburg outbreak and H5N1 spreading. The next pandemic will not wait.”

Never again

In December 2021, fearing a repeat of the catastrophe caused by COVID-19, which killed millions of people, the 194 member countries of WHO agreed to reach an agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

The emergence of a new strain of mpox, the deadly Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda and the spread of H5N1 avian flu in recent months have clarified the issues.

Diplomats have agreed on most of the draft’s 37 articles during 11 rounds of negotiations.

The main section on which consensus will need to be found concerns access to pathogens for the scientific community and medical research, and then to products to combat the pandemic such as vaccines or other tests derived from this research.

In order not to block everything, the idea is to postpone the discussion on the details of the pathogen access and benefit sharing system (PABS) until later.

Battle for fairness

For the moment, there is an impasse between rich and poor countries, which have not forgotten that they were abandoned to their fate during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If the world has failed on one thing, it is on the issue of equity” during the COVID-19 pandemic, the head of WHO stressed on Friday.

“Africa was left behind at the time, and this should not happen,” Tedros said.

‘Bitter taste’

Helen Clark, former New Zealand Prime Minister, believes that “the South sees the North as protecting its pharmaceutical industries,” and this “has left an incredibly bitter taste between the North and the South.”

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations called for an agreement “allowing the private sector to innovate.”

“Intellectual property must be respected, and technology transfer must always be voluntary and on mutually agreed terms,” the federation insisted.

Among the country representatives, Malaysia, speaking on behalf of a group of developing countries known as the Equity Group, said “major improvements are still desperately needed in many areas.”

It demanded that at least 20% of real-time production of vaccines, tests and treatments go to developing countries.

Tanzania, on behalf of 48 African countries, said it could not “accept an agreement not based on equity.”

The Indonesian negotiator said an agreement that only preserves the status quo is unacceptable, because “empty promises will not save lives.”

China insisted that “quality should not be sacrificed for time.”

Germany’s representative called for an acceleration of the talks to “focus on what is achievable.”
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CALI, Colombia — Wealthy nations appeared to hit a limit with how much they are willing to pay to conserve nature around the world, instead shifting their focus at the two-week U.N. biodiversity summit toward discussions of private money filling the funding gap.

At the COP16 negotiations in Cali, Colombia, countries failed to figure out how they would mobilize $200 billion annually in conservation funding by 2030, including $30 billion that would come directly from rich nations.

That money, pledged two years ago as part of the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreement, is meant to finance activities that boost nature, such as sustainable farming or patrolling wildlife reserves.

But there was no consensus as talks dragged on beyond the summit’s scheduled end on Friday, during which dozens of delegations departed. By Saturday morning’s roll call, there was no longer a quorum among the nearly 200 nations for an agreement to pass, forcing organizers to abruptly suspend the meeting.

“I am both saddened and enraged by the non-outcome of COP16,” said Shilps Gautam, chief executive of project finance firm Opna.

“The wild thing about the nature financing discussions is that the numbers discussed are already a pittance.”

Human activities such as farming, mining, and urban development are increasingly pushing nature into crisis, with 1 million or so plant and animal species thought to be at risk of extinction.

Climate change, a result of fossil fuel burning, is also adding to nature’s woes by raising temperatures and disrupting weather cycles.

Countries will meet again in Azerbaijan next week for the U.N.’s COP29 climate summit, which again will be focused on the steep need for funding from wealthy nations to their poorer counterparts to help shoulder climate costs.

Little money from rich nations

Even before the talks broke down, developed nations had signaled an unwillingness to offer large amounts of cash.

European governments including Germany and the Netherlands have slashed their foreign aid budgets over the last year, while France and the U.K. are also cutting back.

Government development money specifically targeted at nature conservation abroad fell to $3.8 billion in 2022 compared with $4.6 billion in 2015, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

At COP16, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres demanded that countries make significant new contributions to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund.

The response was muted. Nations at COP16 pledged $163 million in contributions to the fund, bringing total contributions to roughly $400 million – far from a major contribution to the $30 billion target from nations by 2030.

The United States, which is not a party to U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, has not contributed.

“The public money is already leveraged as much as we can,” Florika Fink-Hooijer, the European Union’s director general of environment, told reporters at the summit.

“We now have to look at other sources of funding.”

Private cash

When it came to going after private capital, delegates at the COP16 summit agreed to a plan to charge pharmaceutical and other companies for their use of genetic information in the research and development of new commercial products.

Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Merck, AstraZeneca and Land Sanofi did not respond to request for comment on the deal.

Experts estimate the plan could generate about $1 billion annually.

That still doesn’t cover the billions needed to halt the collapse of ecosystems, like the Amazon rainforest or coral reefs. The world will need to devise ways for enticing private investment in nature-friendly projects, said Marcos Neto, director of global policy at the U.N. Development Program.

Some tools include green bonds or debt-for-nature swaps, whereby countries refinance their debt at lower interest rates in order to spend the savings on conservation. The World Economic Forum estimates that debt-for-nature swaps could generate $100 billion in nature funding.
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Goma, Congo — Some health officials say mpox cases in Congo appear to be “stabilizing” — a possible sign that the main epidemic for which the World Health Organization made a global emergency declaration in August might be on the decline.  

In recent weeks, Congo has reported about 200 to 300 lab-confirmed mpox cases every week, according to WHO. That’s down from nearly 400 cases a week in July. The decline is also apparent in Kamituga, the mining city in the eastern part of Congo where the new, more infectious variant of mpox first emerged.  

But the U.N. health agency acknowledged Friday that only 40% to 50% of suspected infections in Congo were being tested — and that the virus is continuing to spread in some parts of the country and elsewhere, including Uganda.  

While doctors are encouraged by the drop in infections in some parts of Congo, it’s still not clear what kinds of physical contact is driving the outbreak. Health experts are also frustrated by the low number of vaccine doses the central African nation has received — 265,000 — and say that delivering the vaccine to where it’s needed in the sprawling country is proving difficult. WHO estimates 50,000 people have been immunized in Congo, which has a population of 110 million.  

Scientists also say there needs to be an urgent, broader vaccination effort for the entire continent to halt mpox’s spread and avoid further worrisome genetic mutations, like the one detected earlier this year in Congo after months of low-level circulation.  

“If we miss this opportunity, the likelihood of another significant outbreak increases substantially,” said Dr. Zakary Rhissa, who heads operations in Congo for the charity Alima.  

So far this year, there have been roughly 43,000 suspected cases in Africa and more than 1,000 people have died, mostly in Congo.  

“We’ve seen how past outbreaks, such as the one in Nigeria in 2017, can lead to larger global events if not effectively contained,” he said. The 2017 epidemic ended up leading to the 2022 global outbreak of mpox that affected more than 100 countries.  

Rhissa said the decline in cases in Kamituga — where mpox initially spread among sex workers and miners — is an opening to put more programs in place for vaccination, surveillance and education.  

Georgette Hamuli, an 18-year-old sex worker, hadn’t been aware of mpox until immunization teams arrived last week in the poor neighborhood where she works in Goma, the biggest city in eastern Congo.  

“They told us we’re highly exposed to the risk of infection,” she said. “We insist on condoms with our clients, but some refuse … if they don’t want to use a condom, they double the amount they pay.”  

Hamuli said she and other friends who are sex workers each received 2,000 Congolese francs ($0.70) from a charity to get vaccinated against mpox — but it wasn’t the money that swayed her. 

“The vaccine is also necessary,” she said. “I think we’re now protected.”   

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated Congo needs at least 3 million mpox vaccines to stop the virus, and another 7 million for the rest of Africa. So far, WHO and partners have allocated 900,000 vaccines to nine African countries affected by mpox and expect 6 million vaccines to be available by the end of this year.  

Mpox epidemics in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda had their origins in Congo, and a number of cases in travelers have also been identified in Sweden, Thailand, Germany, India and Britain.  

Fewer than half of the people who are most at risk in Congo have been vaccinated, according to Heather Kerr, Congo director for the International Rescue Committee.  

“We only have a tiny amount of vaccines, and nothing for the kids,” she said.  

The vaccines for Congo are largely coming from donor countries like the U.S and through UNICEF, which mainly uses taxpayer money to buy the shots.  

“We’re getting a charitable approach where we only see very small donations of vaccines to Africa,” said Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the Global Health Institute at Duke University. “What we need is a public health approach where we immunize populations at scale.”  

Drugmaker Bavarian Nordic, which makes the most widely used mpox vaccine, said it would sell shots destined for Africa at the lowest price possible.  

The advocacy group Public Citizen estimated UNICEF paid $65 per dose of the Jynneos mpox vaccine made by Bavarian Nordic, far higher than nearly all other vaccines used in public health programs. 

Dr. Salim Abdool Karim, an infectious diseases expert at South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal, said mpox outbreaks typically peak and disappear quickly because of how the virus spreads. This time, however, he said there are two complicating factors: the virus’ transmission via sex and the continued spillover from infected animals.  

“We’re in new territory with mpox this time,” he added. “But we’re never going to solve this until we vaccinate most of our people.” 
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KARACHI — Unprecedented air pollution levels in Pakistan’s second-largest city of Lahore prompted authorities to take emergency measures on Sunday, including issuing work-from-home mandates and closing primary schools.  

The city held the top spot on a real-time list of the world’s most polluted cities on Sunday after recording its highest ever pollution reading of 1900 near the Pakistan-India border on Saturday, based on data released by the provincial government and Swiss group IQAir.  

The government has shut primary schools for a week, advising parents to ensure children wear masks, said Senior Minister of Punjab Marriyum Aurangzeb during a press conference, as a thick blanket of smog enveloped the city.  

Citizens have been urged to stay indoors, keep doors and windows shut, and avoid unnecessary travel, she said, adding that hospitals had been given smog counters.  

To reduce vehicle pollution, 50% of office employees would work from home, said Aurangzeb.  

The government has also imposed a ban on three-wheelers known as rickshaws and halted construction in certain areas to reduce the pollution levels. Factories and construction sites failing to comply with these regulations could be shut down, she said.  

Aurangzeb described the situation as “unexpected” and attributed the deterioration in air quality to winds carrying pollution from neighboring India.   

“This cannot be solved without talks with India,” she said, adding the provincial government would initiate talks with its bigger neighbor through Pakistan’s foreign ministry.   

The smog crisis in Lahore, similar to the situation in India’s capital Delhi, tends to worsen during cooler months due to temperature inversion trapping pollution closer to the ground.  
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ADDIS ABABA — As the price of fuel soared in Ethiopia earlier this year, Awgachew Seleshi decided to buy an electric car. That aligned with the government’s new efforts to phase out gas-powered vehicles. But months later, he’s questioning whether it was the right decision.  

He faces a range of issues, from the erratic supply of electricity in Addis Ababa, the capital, to the scarcity of spare parts.  

“Charging my car has been a challenge,” the civil servant said. “Spare parts that are imported from China are expensive, few mechanics are able to fix such cars and the resale value of such cars is poor.”  

Seleshi’s troubles point to wider challenges for Ethiopia. In January, the East African country became the first in the world to ban the importation of non-electric private vehicles. 

 The decision eased pressure on authorities who spend scarce foreign currency to subsidize the cost of fuel, but it also reflected growing enthusiasm for electric vehicles as the world demands more green technologies to reduce climate-changing emissions.  

Earlier this month, Ethiopia’s government raised the price of fuel by up to 8% as part of a plan to gradually end all fuel subsidies in Africa’s second-most populous country.  

Authorities have claimed some success in enforcing the ban on non-electric vehicles entering Ethiopia, and more than 100,000 electric cars are now being imported into the country each month.  

The official target is to increase the monthly import figure to 500,000 by 2030. By that time, a big new dam Ethiopia has built on the Nile River is expected to be producing power at full capacity.  

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, in a televised address earlier this year, said the Grand Renaissance Dam will start generating more than 5,000 megawatts of electric power within a year. Authorities say such capacity would support the transition to electric vehicles.  

For now, many in Addis Ababa, a city of more than 5 million people, are doubtful the country can achieve its ambitious goals for electric vehicles without further needed infrastructure and services.  

The few garage owners who can fix broken electric cars say they are overwhelmed, while customers say they are being overcharged amid an apparent lack of competition.  

“There are two or three garages that can fix new energy vehicles in Ethiopia and many consumers lack awareness on how to take care of such vehicles,” said Yonas Tadelle, a mechanic in Addis Ababa. “As mechanics, we also lack the tools, the spare parts and the know-how to fix such cars.”  

Many EVs are now parked in garages and parking lots awaiting parts expected to come from China.  

Ethiopia’s minister in charge of transport, Bareo Hassen Bareo, has said he believes the country can be a model nation with a green economy legacy, with the prioritization of electric vehicles a key component.  

The government will invest in public charging stations, he told The Associated Press, and there are plans to create a plant manufacturing EV batteries locally to reduce reliance on imports.   

Private efforts have included a collaboration, which has since fizzled, between Olympian Haile Gebreselassie and South Korean carmaker Hyundai to make electric vehicles in Ethiopia. That effort is believed to have collapsed over the sourcing of materials.  

Samson Berhane, an economist based in Addis Ababa, said the sudden flood of electric vehicles into the local market despite poor infrastructure is making it difficult for customers to adapt comfortably. Some EVs sell for about $20,000.  

“Very few people are willing to take the risk of buying electric cars due to the lack of infrastructure, shortage of mechanics specialized in EV maintenance and the flooding of the market with Chinese brands that have questionable details and long-term visibility,” Berhane said.  

But he said he believes that Ethiopia is more than able to provide electricity to the expected 500,000 EV’s there within the next decade while fulfilling its industrial ambitions.  

Some Ethiopians are already giving up on electric vehicles, and the secondhand trade in gasoline-powered vehicles continues. There are at least 1.2 million vehicles across Ethiopia, and only a small fraction are electric ones.  

Businessman Yared Alemayehu bought a Chinese-made electric vehicle that he had hoped to use for a taxi service. He knew the car had a mechanical defect, but he believed it could be fixed. A mechanic disagreed.  

In the end, he sold the car at a loss and bought a Toyota Corolla — a car made in 2007 that he felt was more reliable — for the equivalent of $20,000, a sum that included the hefty taxes imposed on gasoline vehicles. Taxes can be higher than the cost of importing the vehicle.  

“In addition to having to charge my old electric car, it frequently broke, and the garage was overcharging, and the lineup at the garage was overwhelming us,” he said.  

Taxi driver Dereje Hailu, who had high hopes for his Chinese-made E-Star electric vehicle when he purchased it earlier this year, said his expectations had been dashed.  

“With such a car, I fear I might be stuck if I go far from Addis Ababa where there are no charging stations,” he said. 
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RENO, Nevada — Conservationists and a Native American tribe are suing the U.S. to try to block a Nevada lithium mine they say will drive an endangered desert wildflower to extinction, disrupt groundwater flows and threaten cultural resources.

The Center for Biological Diversity promised the court battle a week ago when the U.S. Interior Department approved Ioneer Ltd.’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron mine at the only place Tiehm’s buckwheat is known to exist in the world, near the California line halfway between Reno and Las Vegas.

It is the latest in a series of legal fights over projects President Joe Biden’s administration is pushing under his clean energy agenda intended to cut reliance on fossil fuels, in part by increasing the production of lithium to make electric vehicle batteries and solar panels.

The new lawsuit says the Interior Department’s approval of the mine marks a dramatic about-face by U.S. wildlife experts who warned nearly two years ago that Tiehm’s buckwheat was “in danger of extinction now” when they listed it as an endangered species in December 2022.

“One cannot save the planet from climate change while simultaneously destroying biodiversity,” said Fermina Stevens, director of the Western Shoshone Defense Project, which joined the center in the lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Reno.

“The use of minerals, whether for EVs or solar panels, does not justify this disregard for Indigenous cultural areas and keystone environmental laws,” said John Hadder, director of the Great Basin Resource Watch, another co-plaintiff.

Rita Henderson, spokesperson for Interior’s Bureau of Land Management in Reno, said Friday the agency had no immediate comment.

Ioneer Vice President Chad Yeftich said the Australia-based mining company intends to intervene on behalf of the U.S. and “vigorously defend” approval of the project, “which was based on its careful and thorough permitting process.”

“We are confident that the BLM will prevail,” Yeftich said. He added that he doesn’t expect the lawsuit will postpone plans to begin construction next year.

The lawsuit says the mine will harm sites sacred to the Western Shoshone people. That includes Cave Spring, a natural spring less than 1.6 kilometers away described as “a site of intergenerational transmission of cultural and spiritual knowledge.”

But it centers on alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act. It details the Fish and Wildlife Service’s departure from the dire picture it painted earlier of threats to the 15-centimeter-tall wildflower with cream or yellow blooms bordering the open-pit mine Ioneer plans to dig. 

The mine’s permit anticipates up to one-fifth of the nearly 3.6 square kilometers the agency designated as critical habitat surrounding the plants — home to various pollinators important to their survival — would be lost for decades, some permanently.

When proposing protection of the 368 hectares of critical habitat, the service said “this unit is essential to the conservation and recovery of Tiehm’s buckwheat.” The agency formalized the designation when it listed the plant in December 2022, dismissing the alternative of less-stringent threatened status.

“We find that a threatened species status is not appropriate because the threats are severe and imminent, and Tiehm’s buckwheat is in danger of extinction now, as opposed to likely to become endangered in the future,” the agency concluded.

The lawsuit also discloses for the first time that the plant’s population, numbering fewer than 30,000 in the government’s latest estimates, has suffered additional losses since August that were not considered in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s biological opinion.

The damage is similar to what the bureau concluded was caused by rodents eating the plants in a 2020 incident that reduced the population as much as 60%, the lawsuit says.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said in its August biological opinion that while the project “will result in the long-term disturbance (approximately 23 years) of 146 acres (59 hectares) of the plant community … and the permanent loss of 45 acres (18 hectares), we do not expect the adverse effects to appreciably diminish the value of critical habitat as a whole.” 
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The good news: You will get a glorious extra hour of sleep. The bad: It’ll be dark by late afternoon for the next few months in the United States.

Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time Sunday, which means you should set your clock back an hour before you go to bed. Standard time will last until March 9, when we will again “spring forward” with the return of daylight saving time. 

“Fall back” should be easier. But it still may take a while to adjust your sleep habits, not to mention the downsides of leaving work in the dark or trying to exercise while there’s still enough light. Some people with seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression usually linked to the shorter days and less sunlight of fall and winter, may struggle, too. 

Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology. 

Two states — Arizona and Hawaii — don’t change and stay on standard time. 

Here’s what to know about the twice-yearly ritual. 

How the body reacts to light 

The brain has a master clock that is set by exposure to sunlight and darkness. This circadian rhythm is a roughly 24-hour cycle that determines when we become sleepy and when we’re more alert. The patterns change with age, one reason that early-to-rise youngsters evolve into hard-to-wake teens. 

Morning light resets the rhythm. By evening, levels of a hormone called melatonin begin to surge, triggering drowsiness. Too much light in the evening — that extra hour from daylight saving time — delays that surge and the cycle gets out of sync. 

How do time changes affect sleep? 

Even an hour change on the clock can throw off sleep schedules — because even though the clocks change, work and school start times stay the same. 

That’s a problem because so many people are already sleep deprived. About 1 in 3 U.S. adults sleep less than the recommended seven-plus hours nightly, and more than half of U.S. teens don’t get the recommended eight-plus hours on weeknights. 

How to prepare for the time change 

Some people try to prepare for a time change jolt by changing their bedtimes little by little in the days before the change. There are ways to ease the adjustment, including getting more sunshine to help reset your circadian rhythm for healthful sleep. 
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CALI, Colombia — After two weeks of negotiations, delegates on Saturday agreed at the United Nations conference on biodiversity to establish a subsidiary body that will include Indigenous peoples in future decisions on nature conservation, a development that builds on a growing movement to recognize the role of the descendants of some regions’ original inhabitants in protecting land and combating climate change. 

The delegates also agreed to oblige major corporations to share the financial benefits of research when using natural genetic resources. 

Indigenous delegations erupted into cheers and tears after the historic decision to create the subsidiary body was announced. It recognizes and protects the traditional knowledge systems of Indigenous peoples and local communities for the benefit of global and national biodiversity management, said Sushil Raj, Executive Director of the Rights and Communities Global Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society. 

“It strengthens representation, coordination, inclusive decision making, and creates a space for dialogue with parties to the COP,” Raj told The Associated Press, also known as the Conference of Parties. 

Negotiators had struggled to find common ground on some key issues in the final week but came to a consensus after talks went late into Friday. 

‘Historical debt’ 

The COP16 summit, hosted in Cali, Colombia, was a follow-up to the historic 2022 accord in Montreal, which included 23 measures to save Earth’s plant and animal life, including putting 30% of the planet and 30% of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030. 

A measure to recognize the importance of the role of people of African descent in the protection of nature was also adopted in Cali. 

The Indigenous body will be formed by two co-chairs elected by COP: one nominated by U.N. parties of the regional group, and the other nominated by representatives of Indigenous peoples and local communities, the AP saw in the final document. 

At least one of the co-chairs will be selected from a developing country, taking into account gender balance, the document said. 

“With this decision, the value of the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and local communities is recognized, and a 26-year-old historical debt in the Convention on Biological Diversity [CBD] is settled,” Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister and COP16 president, posted on social media platform X shortly after the announcement. 

Who owns nature’s DNA was one of the most contentious and fiercely negotiated topics at the summit as tensions spiked between poorer and developed countries over digital sequence information on genetic resources, or DSI. 

Negotiators consented on Saturday morning, however, to bind big companies to share benefits when using resources from animals, plants or microorganisms in biotechnologies. 

Delegations agreed on a genetic information fee of 0.1% of companies’ revenues from products derived from such information. 

“Many of the life-saving medicines we use today come from the rainforest. It is therefore right that a portion of the income companies generate from this information goes back to protect nature,” said Toerris Jaeger, executive director of Rainforest Foundation Norway. “This is the absolute highlight from COP16.” 

Needs exceed pledges

Also adopted was an agreement to protect human health from Earth’s increasing biodiversity issues. Ecosystem degradation and loss of ecological integrity directly threaten human and animal health, environmental groups say. 

Pledges made by countries during the two weeks were far short of the billions needed to tackle plummeting global biodiversity, with only around $400 million in the fund. 

The modest pledges don’t bode well for the next U.N. climate talks, COP29, to take place in Azerbaijan beginning later this month. COP29 is expected to focus on how to generate trillions of dollars needed for the world to transition to clean energies such as solar, wind and geothermal. Raising that money will require major commitments by nations, companies and philanthropies. 

In Montreal’s biodiversity summit, wealthy nations pledged to raise $20 billion in annual conservation financing for developing nations by 2025, with that number rising to $30 billion annually by 2030. 

Global wildlife populations have plunged on average by 73% in 50 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London biennial Living Planet report in October. 
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TOKYO — A remote-controlled robot has safely returned with a tiny piece of melted fuel it collected from inside one of three damaged reactors at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant for the first time since the 2011 meltdown.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant, said Saturday that the extendable fishing rod-like robot successfully clipped a gravel as big as 5 millimeters, the size of a tiny granola bit, from the top surface of a mound of molten fuel debris that sits on the bottom of the No. 2 reactor’s primary containment vessel.

The Telesco robot, with its frontal tongs still holding the melted fuel bit, returned to the enclosed container for safe storage after workers in full hazmat gear pulled it out of the containment vessel earlier Saturday.

The sample marks the first time that melted fuel has been retrieved out of the containment vessel. But the mission is not over until it’s certain that the sample’s radioactivity is below a set standard and safely placed into a container.

If the radioactivity exceeds the limit, the robot must go back inside the reactor to find another piece. TEPCO officials said they expect the piece is small enough to meet the requirement.

The mission initially started in August for what was supposed to be a two-week round trip but had been suspended twice due to mishaps.

The first one was the procedural mistake at the beginning that held up the work for nearly three weeks. Then the robot’s two cameras, designed to transmit views of the target areas for its operators in the remote-control room, failed. The camera problem required the robot to be pulled out all the way for replacement before the mission resumed Monday.

Fukushima Daiichi lost its key cooling systems during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, causing meltdowns in its three reactors. An estimated 880 tons of fatally radioactive molten fuel remains in them, and TEPCO has carried out a number of robotic probes to figure out how to decommission the plant.

Telesco on Wednesday successfully clipped a piece presumably measuring less than 3 grams (0.1 ounce) from the planned area right underneath the Unit 2 reactor core, from which large amounts of melted fuel fell during the meltdown 13 years ago, TEPCO said.

Plant chief Akira Ono said only the tiny spec can provide key data to plan decommissioning strategy, develop necessary technology and robots and retroactively learn how the accident developed.

The government and TEPCO have set a 30-to-40-year target for the cleanup, which experts say is overly optimistic and should be updated.

No specific plan for the full removal of the fuel debris or its final disposal has been decided.
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As winter approaches and daylight hours grow shorter, people prone to seasonal depression can feel it in their bodies and brains.

“It’s a feeling of panic, fear, anxiety and dread all in one,” said Germaine Pataki, 63, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

She’s among the millions of people estimated to have seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. Her coping strategies include yoga, walking and an antidepressant medication. She’s also part of a Facebook group for people with SAD.

“I try to focus on helping others through it,” Pataki said. “This gives me purpose.”

People with SAD typically have episodes of depression that begin in the fall and ease in the spring or summer. Changing the clocks back to standard time, which happens this weekend, can be a trigger for SAD. A milder form, subsyndromal SAD, is recognized by medical experts, and there’s also a summer variety of seasonal depression, though less is known about it.

In 1984, a team led by Dr. Norman Rosenthal, then a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, first described SAD and coined the term. “I believe that because it is easy to remember, the acronym has stuck,” he said.

What causes seasonal affective disorder?

Scientists are learning how specialized cells in our eyes turn the blue wavelength part of the light spectrum into neural signals affecting mood and alertness.

Sunlight is loaded with the blue light, so when the cells absorb it, our brains’ alertness centers are activated and we feel more wakeful and possibly even happier.

Researcher Kathryn Roecklein at the University of Pittsburgh tested people with and without SAD to see how their eyes reacted to blue light. As a group, people with SAD were less sensitive to blue light than others, especially during winter months. That suggests a cause for wintertime depression.

“In the winter, when the light levels drop, that combined with a lower sensitivity, might be too low for healthy functioning, leading to depression,” Roecklein said.

Miriam Cherry, 50, of Larchmont, New York, said she spent the summer planning how she would deal with her winter depression. “It’s like clockwork,” Cherry said. “The sunlight is low. The day ends at 4:45, and suddenly my mood is horrible.”

Does light therapy help?

Many people with SAD respond to light therapy, said Dr. Paul Desan of Yale University’s Winter Depression Research Clinic.

“The first thing to try is light,” Desan said. “When we get patients on exposure to bright light for a half an hour or so every morning, the majority of patients get dramatically better. We don’t even need medications.”

The therapy involves devices that emit light about 20 times brighter than regular indoor light.

Research supports using a light that’s about 10,000 lux, a measure of brightness. You need to use it for 30 minutes every morning, according to the research. Desan said this can help not only people with SAD but also those with less-severe winter blahs.

Special lights run from $70 to $400. Some products marketed for SAD are too dim to do much good, Desan said.

Yale has tested products and offers a list of recommendations, and the nonprofit Center for Environmental Therapeutics has a consumer guide to selecting a light.

If your doctor diagnosed you with SAD, check with your insurance company to see if the cost of a light might be covered, Desan suggested.

What about talk therapy or medication?

Antidepressant medications are a first-line treatment for SAD, along with light therapy. Doctors also recommend keeping a regular sleep schedule and walking outside, even on cloudy days.

Light therapy’s benefits can fade when people stop using it. One type of talk therapy — cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT — has been shown in studies to have more durable effects, University of Vermont researcher Kelly Rohan said.

CBT involves working with a therapist to identify and modify unhelpful thoughts.

“A very common thought that people have is ‘I hate winter,'” Rohan said. “Reframe that into something as simple is ‘I prefer summer to winter,'” she suggested. “It’s a factual statement, but it has a neutral effect on mood.”

Working with a therapist can help people take small steps toward having fun again, Rohan said. Try planning undemanding but enjoyable activities to break out of hibernation mode, which “could be as simple as meeting a friend for coffee,” Rohan said.

What else might work?

People with SAD have half the year to create coping strategies, and some have found hacks that work for them — though there may be scant scientific support.

Elizabeth Wescott, 69, of Folsom, California, believes contrast showers help her. It’s a water therapy borrowed from sports medicine that involves alternating hot and cold water while taking a shower. She also uses a light box and takes an antidepressant.

“I’m always looking for new tools,” Wescott said.

Cherry in New York is devoting a corner of her garden to the earliest blooming flowers: snowdrops, winter aconite and hellebores. These bloom as early as February.

“That’s going to be a sign to me that this isn’t going to last forever,” Cherry said. “It will get better, and spring is on its way.”
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sydney — A 5.48-meter Australian crocodile that held the world record as the largest crocodile in captivity has died, a wildlife sanctuary said on Saturday. He was thought to be more than 110 years old.

Cassius, weighing in at more than one ton, had been in declining health since October 15, Marineland Melanesia Crocodile Habitat said on Facebook.

“He was very old and believed to be living beyond the years of a wild croc,” according to a post by the organization, based on Green Island near the Queensland tourist town of Cairns.

“Cassius will be deeply missed, but our love and memories of him will remain in our hearts forever.”

The group’s website said he had lived at the sanctuary since 1987 after being transported from the neighboring Northern Territory, where crocodiles are a key part of the region’s tourist industry.

Cassius, a saltwater crocodile, held the Guinness World Records title as the world’s largest crocodile in captivity.

He took the title after the 2013 death of Philippines crocodile Lolong, who measured 6.17 meters long, according to Guinness.
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A regional public health department in Idaho is no longer providing COVID-19 vaccinations to residents in six counties after a narrow decision by its board.

Southwest District Health appears to be the first in the nation to be restricted from giving COVID-19 shots. Vaccinations are an essential function of a public health department.

While policymakers in Texas banned health departments from promoting COVID-19 vaccines and Florida’s surgeon general bucked medical consensus to recommend against the vaccine, governmental bodies across the country haven’t blocked the vaccines outright.

“I’m not aware of anything else like this,” said Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. She said health departments have stopped offering the vaccine because of cost or low demand, but not based on “a judgment of the medical product itself.”

The six-county district along the Idaho-Oregon border includes three counties in the Boise metropolitan area. Demand for COVID-19 vaccines in the health district has declined — with 1,601 given in 2021 to 64 so far in 2024. The same is true for other vaccines: Idaho has the highest childhood vaccination exemption rate in the nation, and last year, the Southwest District Health Department rushed to contain a rare measles outbreak that sickened 10.

On Oct. 22, the health department’s board voted 4-3 in favor of the ban — despite Southwest’s medical director testifying to the vaccine’s necessity.

“Our request of the board is that we would be able to carry and offer those [vaccines], recognizing that we always have these discussions of risks and benefits,” Dr. Perry Jansen said at the meeting. “This is not a blind, everybody-gets-a-shot approach. This is a thoughtful approach.”

Opposite Jansen’s plea were more than 290 public comments, many of which called for an end to vaccine mandates or taxpayer funding of the vaccines, neither of which are happening in the district. At the meeting, many people who spoke are nationally known for making the rounds to testify against COVID-19 vaccines, including Dr. Peter McCullough, a Texas cardiologist who sells “contagion emergency kits” that include ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine — drugs that have not been approved to treat COVID-19 and can have dangerous side effects.

Board Chairman Kelly Aberasturi was familiar with many of the voices who wanted the ban, especially from earlier local protests of pandemic measures.

Aberasturi, who told The Associated Press that he’s skeptical of COVID-19 vaccines and national public health leaders, said in the meeting and in an interview with the AP that he was supportive of but “disappointed” in the board’s decision.

He said the board had overstepped the relationship between patients and their doctors — and possibly opened a door to blocking other vaccines or treatments.

Board members in favor of the decision argued people can get vaccinated elsewhere, and that providing the shots was equivalent to signing off on their safety. (Some people may be reluctant to get vaccinated or boosted because of misinformation about the shots despite evidence that they’re safe and have saved millions of lives.)

The people getting vaccinated at the health department — including people without housing, people who are homebound and those in long-term care facilities or in the immigration process — had no other options, Jansen and Aberasturi said.

“I’ve been homeless in my lifetime, so I understand how difficult it can be when you’re … trying to get by and get ahead,” Aberasturi said. “This is where we should be stepping in and helping.

“But we have some board members who have never been there, so they don’t understand what it’s like.”

State health officials have said that they “recommend that people consider the COVID-19 vaccine.” Idaho health department spokesperson AJ McWhorter declined to comment on “public health district business,” but noted that COVID-19 vaccines are still available at community health centers for people who are uninsured.

Aberasturi said he plans to ask at the next board meeting if the health department can at least be allowed to vaccinate older patients and residents of long-term care facilities, adding that the board is supposed to be caring for the “health and well-being” of the district’s residents. “But I believe the way we went about this thing is we didn’t do that due diligence.”
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