The World Health Organization says that in Zambia over 70% of men and over 30% of women are drinking too much, too often. Some nonprofit organizations are intervening to help those on the path to recovery from alcohol addiction. Kathy Short reports from Lusaka, Zambia. Video editor: Elias Chulu
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A secondary school dropout from rural Malawi has brought electricity to his community using what he says is a groundbreaking air-powered generator, bypassing use of fuel, oil or batteries. Experts have questions about how the system works, but Malawi’s government is pledging support. Lameck Masina reports from Dowa District.
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SAVANNAH, Ga. — A company’s plan to mine minerals near the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp and its federally protected wildlife refuge neared final approval Friday as regulators in the U.S. state of Georgia released draft permits for the project, which opponents say could irreparably harm a natural treasure.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division said it will take public comments on the draft permits for 30 days before working up final versions to send to the agency’s director for approval.

Twin Pines Minerals of Birmingham, Alabama, has worked since 2019 to obtain government permits to mine titanium dioxide less than 4.8 kilometers from the southeastern boundary of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the largest U.S. refuge east of the Mississippi River.

Federal scientists have warned that mining near the Okefenokee’s bowl-like rim could damage the swamp’s ability to hold water. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in 2022 declared the proposed mine poses an “unacceptable risk” to the fragile ecosystem at the Georgia-Florida line.

“This is a dark day in Georgia’s history,” said Josh Marks, an Atlanta environmental attorney and leader of the group Georgians for the Okefenokee. “EPD may have signed a death warrant for the Okefenokee Swamp, our state’s greatest natural treasure.”

In documents released Friday, state regulators echoed past comments that their analysis shows the proposed 312-hectare mine won’t significantly harm the Okefenokee or lower its water levels.

“EPD’s models demonstrate that the mine should have a minimal impact” on the Okefenokee refuge, the agency said, “even during drought periods.”

Twin Pines President Steve Ingle applauded regulators’ decision to move forward after what he called a “thorough evaluation of our application.”

Ingle has insisted for years that his company can mine without hurting the Okefenokee.

“We expect stringent government oversight of our mining-to-reclamation project, which will be fully protective of the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge and the region’s environment,” Ingle said in a statement.

The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge covers nearly 1,630 square kilometers in southeast Georgia and is home to alligators, bald eagles and other protected species. The swamp’s wildlife, cypress forests and flooded prairies draw roughly 600,000 visitors each year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge.

In February 2019, the Fish and Wildlife Service wrote that the proposed mine could pose “substantial risks” to the swamp, including its ability to hold water. Some impacts, it said, “may not be able to be reversed, repaired, or mitigated for.”

C. Rhett Jackson, a hydrology professor at the University of Georgia, warned state regulators in a written analysis that the mining pits planned by Twin Pines would siphon off enough groundwater to triple the frequency and duration of severe droughts in the swamp’s southeast corner.

Georgia regulators have an outsized role in deciding whether to approve the mine because the U.S. government, which normally considers environmental permits in tandem with state agencies, relinquished oversight of the Twin Pines project.

The Army Corps of Engineers was reviewing a federal permit for Twin Pines when the agency declared in 2020 that it no longer had jurisdiction authority because of regulatory rollbacks under then-President Donald Trump. Despite efforts by President Joe Biden to restore federal oversight, the Army Corps entered a legal agreement with Twin Pines to maintain its hands-off position.

The mining project is moving forward as the National Park Service seeks designation of the Okefenokee wildlife refuge as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Conservation groups say the rare distinction would boost the Okefenokee’s profile as one of the world’s last intact blackwater swamps and home to more than 400 animal species.

The draft permits were released barely two weeks after Twin Pines agreed to pay a $20,000 fine ordered by Georgia regulators, who said the company violated state laws while collecting soil samples for its permit application.

Twin Pines denied wrongdoing, but said it agreed to the fine to avoid further permitting delays.

“It is inconceivable to anyone who actually values Georgia’s environment to claim that this mine will not harm the critically important wetlands and wildlife of the Okefenokee ecosystem,” Ben Prater, southeast director for the group Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement. He added: EPD has one job. It must deny the permits.”

Some House lawmakers In the Georgia legislature are again pushing a bill that would ban future mining outside the Okefenokee. The proposal got a hearing last year, but has stalled in a House committee. While the measure wouldn’t stop Twin Pines from obtaining permits already pending, it would prohibit expansion of the company’s mining operation if it became law.
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SAN FRANCISCO — A bounty of 10 African penguin chicks has hatched in just over a year at a San Francisco science museum as part of an effort to conserve the endangered bird.

The penguins began hatching in November 2022, ending a four-year period without any new chicks, and continued through January of this year, the California Academy of Sciences announced Wednesday.

African penguins have dwindled to 9,000 breeding pairs in the wild, the academy said in a statement.

Threats such as overfishing, habitat degradation and oil spills have reduced colonies of the charismatic black-and-white birds, said Brenda Melton, director of animal care and well-being at the museum’s Steinhart Aquarium.

“Every chick we welcome strengthens the genetics and overall population of the species in human care,” she said.

Chicks spend their first three weeks with their penguin parents in a nest box. They then attend “fish school,” where they learn to swim on their own and eat fish provided by biologists. Once ready, they are introduced to the colony.

The 21 penguins at the museum in Golden Gate Park have distinct personalities and are identifiable by their flipper bands, according to the academy’s website.

Opal is the oldest and, at age 36, has perfected the ability to catch fish in mid-air. Her partner, Pete, is a messy eater and a flirt.

Partners Stanlee and Bernie, who both like to bray, produced four of the 10 chicks, including Fyn, named for a type of vegetation found on the southern tip of Africa. Fyn is the youngest on exhibit and older sister to Nelson and Alice, both hatched in November.

Fyn often runs up to biologists when they enter the habitat and shakes her head at them — typical courtship behavior that chicks and juveniles commonly display toward people who have cared for them since hatching.

The youngest chick hatched January 12, and its sex has not yet been determined.

African penguins can live to be 27 years old in the wild, and longer in captivity.
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vancouver, british columbia — The Canadian government is delaying access to medically assisted death for people with mental illness.

Those suffering from mental illness were supposed to be able to access Medical Assistance in Dying — also known as MAID — starting March 17. The recent announcement by the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the second delay after original legislation authorizing the practice passed in 2021.

The delay came in response to a recommendation by a majority of the members of a committee made up of senators and members of Parliament.

One of the most high-profile proponents of MAID is British Columbia-based lawyer Chris Considine. In the mid-1990s, he represented Sue Rodriguez, who was dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS.

Their bid for approval of a medically assisted death was rejected at the time by the Supreme Court of Canada. But a law passed in 2016 legalized euthanasia for individuals with terminal conditions. From then until 2022, more than 45,000 people chose to die.

Considine said he was in favor of postponing an extension of the law to those with mental illness because depression can have numerous reasons, such as poor housing or job prospects. He pointed to the difficulty many people face in getting timely psychiatric help.

He said pressure for the delay came from numerous parts of Canadian society.

“I think that there was pressure from a number of sources, including provincial governments in Canada, a number of them who felt that they could not provide the funding nor the resources for persons who are depressed to receive access to health care professionals, such as psychologists and psychiatrists,” he said.

Pamela Wallin, a former journalist, was one of three senators in the minority on the parliamentary committee. She told VOA that medical experts say they are ready, but not the politicians. She feels continuing the delay is cruel.

“But if you have a mental illness, no, no, no. We’ve already made you work and wait for three years on this, and we promised you it would be ready,” she said. “But now we’re going to make you wait another three years while we think about it some more. I’m just appalled that we would do this to people who are suffering in ways that many of us can’t even understand.”

Sally Thorne, a professor emeritus of nursing at the University of British Columbia, said if mentally ill people wish to apply for medical assistance in their deaths, they have to meet all the current requirements for people with physical ailments whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable but who have chronic and life-limiting conditions.

These requirements include evaluations by multiple doctors, including a specialist in a patient’s particular condition, being offered other methods of treatment, and a 90-day waiting period.

Thorne said she was not worried about the argument that those with mental disorders lack the ability to give consent.

“Because such people do, in our society, buy a house or sign consent for cardiac surgery or something like that. We do as a society understand that there’s a difference between having a mental illness and having the capacity to provide informed consent,” she said.

Thorne said it was an interesting paradox that those with mental illness who also have qualifying physical conditions can legally access medical assistance in dying.

Arthur Schafer, the founding director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba, said the pressure for the latest pause was entirely expected and was misguided.

“I think when people are asking their opinion when the general public is there, assuming, ‘Hey, if you’re mentally ill, you won’t really know what you want, or you won’t be capable, or you may be temporarily depressed, and that makes you vulnerable.’ But that isn’t what will happen,” he said.

Nicole Scheidl, the executive director of Ottawa-based Physicians for Life, who is strongly opposed to euthanasia, said the idea of extending MAID to cover mental health sufferers should be abandoned permanently.

“Frankly, I think they should drop it,” she said. “I don’t see how there’s any medical evidence to show that they can produce clinical practical guidelines, practice guidelines, that would be useful.”

The Trudeau government has announced the delay will last until at least 2027. This will move the issue until after the next federal election, which must happen no later than October 20, 2025.
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Brazil is set to launch a public mass vaccination campaign against dengue fever, amid a surge of cases nationwide. According to the country’s Health Ministry, Brazil has seen nearly five times more cases in the first five weeks of this year than in the same period in 2023. From Sao Paulo, Yan Boechat has the story.
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SYDNEY — A new study finds that marine heatwaves are changing the base of the marine food chain, disrupting ecosystems and potentially global food supplies.

Researchers in the investigation led by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, say their work has global implications.

The study monitored the health of microorganisms that lie at the base of the marine food chain. The survey is part of a long-term project spanning 12 years.

Tiny phytoplankton species developed smaller cells that are not easily consumed by larger animals. Researchers believe this could potentially have “profound changes all the way up the food chain.”

There could also be impacts on the ability of marine ecosystems to absorb – or sequester – carbon and the size of fish stocks.

The study’s lead author Mark Brown tells VOA that the study has far-reaching implications.

“This really is a global issue. Everywhere around the world is experiencing heatwaves. Even the warmest places like the Red Sea are pushing their temperatures higher and higher than the longterm average,” Brown said. “Places like the Arctic and the Antarctic can have marine heatwaves and those might be the places where it is really important to study because any changes to those large polar ecosystems will really have (a) significant impact on the global food stocks.”

Marine heatwaves involve extended periods of abnormally warm ocean water.

Scientists warn they can have significant impacts on marine life, including fish, coral reefs and kelp forests.

The basis of the research by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization was a marine heatwave in the Tasman Sea off the island state of Tasmania in 2015 to 2016.

The CSIRO team found that the extreme conditions “transformed the microbial community” to resemble those found in far warmer waters 1,000 kilometers to the north.

The CSIRO team says that climate change is intensifying the impact of marine heatwaves, which can also be influenced by naturally occurring weather phenomena, including the El Niño pattern.

Brown says while the organisms they study are small, their importance is huge.

“They are minuscule, and you cannot see them with the naked eye,” he said. “So, all these things are invisible. Just like your gut microbes enable you to have a healthy ecosystem in your body and turn nutrients into energy etcetera, the same processes occur in the ocean, but it is very difficult to study. So, this is why we need to use genomic techniques, DNA sequencing etcetera in order to really analyze what is there.”

The CSIRO findings have been published in the journal Nature’s Communications Biology.
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Mosocw — Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko on Sunday set a world record for total time spent in space, surpassing his compatriot Gennady Padalka who logged more than 878 days in orbit, Russia’s space corporation said.

At 0830 GMT Kononenko broke the record, Roscosmos said. Kononenko is expected to reach a total of 1,000 days in space on June 5 and by late September he will have clocked 1,110 days.

“I fly into space to do my favorite thing, not to set records,” Kononenko told TASS in an interview from the International Space Station (ISS) where he is orbiting about 263 miles (423 km) from Earth.

“I am proud of all my achievements, but I am more proud that the record for the total duration of human stay in space is still held by a Russian cosmonaut.”

The 59-year-old took the top spot from Padalka, who accumulated a total of 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes and 48 seconds, Roscosmos said.

The Soviet Union spooked the West in the early years of the space race by being first to launch a satellite to orbit the Earth — Sputnik 1, in 1957 — and then Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space in 1961.

But after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia’s space program grappled with massive funding shortages and corruption.

Officials under President Vladimir Putin have repeatedly vowed to turn around the decline of Russia’s space programs, though serious problems remain, according to officials and space analysts.

Life in space

Kononenko said that he worked out regularly to counter the physical effects of  “insidious” weightlessness, but that it was on returning to Earth that the realization came of how much life he had missed out on.

“I do not feel deprived or isolated,” he said.

“It is only upon returning home that the realization comes that for hundreds of days in my absence the children have been growing up without a papa. No one will return this time to me.”

He said cosmonauts could now use video calls and messaging to keep in touch with relatives but getting ready for each new space flight became more difficult due to technological advances.

“The profession of a cosmonaut is becoming more complicated. The systems and experiments are becoming more complicated. I repeat, the preparation has not become easier,” he said.

Kononenko dreamed of going to space as a child and enrolled in an engineering institute, before undergoing cosmonaut training. His first space flight was in 2008.

His current trip to the ISS launched last year on a Soyuz MS-24.

The ISS is one of the few international projects on which the United States and Russia still cooperate closely. In December, Roscosmos said that a cross-flight program with NASA to the ISS had been extended until 2025.

Relations in other areas between the two countries have broken down since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, to which Washington responded by sending arms to Kyiv and imposing successive rounds of sanctions on Moscow.
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WASHINGTON — One of the great interspecies love stories of our time has come to an end.

Walnut, a white-naped crane and internet celebrity, has died at age 42. She is survived by eight chicks, the loving staff at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and by Chris Crowe, a human zookeeper whom Walnut regarded as her mate for nearly 20 years.

“Walnut was a unique individual with a vivacious personality,” Crowe said, in a statement released by the National Zoo. “I’ll always be grateful for her bond with me.”

The tale of Walnut (and Chris) has inspired internet fame and the occasional love song. It dates back to the bird’s 2004 arrival at the institute’s campus in Front Royal, Virginia.

The chick of two wild cranes who had been brought to the U.S. illegally and were later rescued by the International Crane Foundation, Walnut was hand-raised by people and bonded with her human caretakers. That preference continued when she came to the institute; she showed no interest in breeding and even attacked male crane suitors.

But white-naped cranes are considered vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Today, fewer than 5,300 remain in their native habitats in Mongolia, Siberia, Korea, Japan and China due to habitat loss, pollution, nest predation and poaching. And as the offspring of two wild-caught cranes, Walnut’s genes were not represented in U.S. zoos. So convincing Walnut to breed was regarded as a priority.

In stepped Crowe, who, according to a zoo statement, won her over by “observing and mimicking” the institute’s male white-naped cranes’ actions during breeding season.

Videos show Crowe offering Walnut food as well as grass and leaves for nest-building materials. When he flaps his arms in front of her, the tall majestic bird flaps excitedly in response and dances in a half-circle with her head bobbing. Once Crowe had gained her trust, he was able to artificially inseminate her using sperm from a male crane.

The unique arrangement proved wildly successful, and Walnut had eight chicks. The fertilized eggs were given to other white-napped crane pairs who tended to them as their own. Of the eight white-napped cranes currently living at the institute, one is Walnut’s chick and another is her grand-chick.

The relationship also seems to have been beneficial for Walnut’s health; at 42, she nearly tripled the median life expectancy of 15 years for white-naped cranes in human care.

Walnut was born in Wisconsin in the summer of 1981. She was named after a local Wisconsin restaurant’s popular walnut pie dessert.

Starting on the morning of Jan. 2, keepers noticed that Walnut wasn’t eating or drinking. Not even offers of her favorite treats — frozen-thawed mice, peanuts and mealworms — couldn’t spark her appetite. Veterinarians administered fluids and antibiotics and drew blood for analysis. But her health continued to decline and Walnut was eventually hospitalized. She died peacefully, surrounded by an animal care team; an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be renal failure.

“She was always confident in expressing herself, an eager and excellent dancer, and stoic in the face of life’s challenges,” Crowe said. “Walnut’s extraordinary story has helped bring attention to her vulnerable species’ plight. I hope that everyone who was touched by her story understands that her species’ survival depends on our ability and desire to protect wetland habitats.” 
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new york — This New York love story begins with a criminal act of sabotage. 

Under cover of darkness a year ago Friday, someone breached a waist-high fence and slipped into the Central Park Zoo. Once inside, they cut a hole through a steel mesh cage, freeing a majestic Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco who had arrived at the zoo as a fledgling 13 years earlier. 

Immediately, Flaco fled the park, blinking his big orange eyes at pedestrians and police on Fifth Avenue before flying off into the night. 

In the year since his dramatic escape, Flaco has become one of the city’s most beloved characters. By day he lounges in Manhattan’s courtyards and parks or perches on fire escapes. He spends his nights hooting atop water towers and preying on the city’s abundant rats. 

To the surprise of many experts, Flaco is thriving in the urban wilds. An apex predator with a nearly 6-foot (2-meter) wingspan, he has called on abilities some feared he hadn’t developed during a lifetime in captivity, gamely exploring new neighborhoods and turning up unexpectedly at the windows of New Yorkers. 

“He was the underdog from the start. People did not expect him to survive,” said Jacqueline Emery, one of several birders who document the owl’s daily movements and share them online with his legions of admirers. “New Yorkers especially connect to him because of his resilience.” 

But as Flaco enters his second year in the spotlight, it can be easy to forget that his freedom is the result of a crime, one that has improbably remained unsolved. 

‘This was a crime’

The break-in happened steps from the shared headquarters of the New York City Parks Department and the Central Park Zoo, in the vicinity of at least one surveillance camera. 

But if they have collected any evidence on a potential suspect, police and zoo authorities have declined to share it. Since the zoo suspended efforts to re-capture Flaco in February 2023, there has been no public information about the crime. 

Privately, the zoo has sought to soften descriptions of Flaco’s former living conditions, in a minivan-sized structure decorated with a painted mountain vista, barely twice the width of Flaco’s extended wings. 

In internal emails obtained through a Freedom of Information request, zoo officials urged the Parks Department not to publicly describe Flaco as “raised in captivity.” Likewise, the term “escape” should be avoided. 

“That puts the blame on the animal rather than the perpetrator,” the zoo’s then-communications director, Max Pulsinelli, wrote in one email. “This was a crime.” 

In the absence of official information, theories of the crime abound — a youthful prank, perhaps, or an attempted owl heist gone awry? For many invested in Flaco’s fate, the most plausible explanation is that he was freed for ideological reasons. 

Proponents of the animal liberation theory point to the seemingly targeted nature of the crime, as well as the limitations of the owl’s modest enclosure. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was someone who loved Flaco and wanted him free,” said Nicole Barrantes, a wildlife campaign manager with World Animal Protection, who started a petition against Flaco being returned to the zoo. “His habitat was ridiculous. It was the saddest thing ever.” 

Break-ins and vandalism have long been tactics some activists have used to free animals. Such actions are often made public by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, an anonymous online database. 

The group’s spokesperson, Jerry Vlasak, said no one had come forward to claim responsibility for Flaco’s escape. “We never received a communique,” he said. “But we’re certainly glad it happened.” 

A spokesperson for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which has operated the zoo since 1988, did not respond to the claims that Flaco’s zoo habitat was inadequate. 

“This was a criminal act that jeopardized the safety of the bird,” the zoo said in a statement, adding that they are continuing to monitor reports of Flaco’s activity and wellbeing and are “prepared to resume recovery efforts if he shows any sign of difficulty or distress.” 

Threats in the city

Even with his proficient hunting skills, Flaco faces many threats in the city, including a grave risk of consuming rodenticide through a poisoned rat. In 2021, another beloved Central Park owl, Barry, was fatally struck by a truck after ingesting a lethal dose of rat poison that may have impaired her flying. 

“All the hazards are still there,” cautioned Suzanne Shoemaker, the director of the Owl Moon Raptor Center in Maryland. “He’s shown some good instincts to be able to make it this far. He’s also lucky.” 

Flaco spent his initial months of freedom mostly in Central Park, which is loaded with wildlife, but has lately preferred more urban sections of Manhattan. There has been some speculation that he has been looking for a mate, though he most certainly won’t find one. Eurasian eagle owls aren’t native to North America. 

Stories of zoo animals breaking loose in the middle of the country’s densest city have long captured the public imagination, while often ushering in calls for reforms. 

Following a series of bird thefts and “senseless” animal beatings in the 1970s, administrators ordered immediate security upgrades and the redesign of some pens at the zoo, which the city’s parks commissioner at the time described as “Rikers Island for animals” because of poor living conditions. 

A few years later, when a group of vandals made off with a boa constrictor and a parrot named “Peanuts,” officials accused the perpetrators of stealing the animals for “voodoo rites.” 

Since those days the zoo has been substantially redesigned. 

Wildlife groups have long warned that owls can be used as sacrifices in certain religious ceremonies — particularly birds like Flaco, who boasts prominent ear tufts. The Eurasian eagle-owl is also commonly used in falconry, selling for as much as $3,000. 

But while some have suggested Flaco was targeted for either financial or spiritual purposes, such speculation would seem undermined by the fact that he emerged from his damaged cage and into the bustling cityscape unscathed. 

On a recent night on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, one of the Flaco’s most dedicated observers, David Barrett, struck an ambivalent tone when asked how New Yorkers should think about the crime that made him an avian celebrity. 

“To me, the folk hero is Flaco,” said Barrett, who runs the X account Manhattan Bird Alert, documenting the bird’s whereabouts in real time. “It’s an amazing thing: He lives his whole life in captivity and in a matter of days he taught himself to fly and to hunt rats.” 

Tuning his ears skyward, Barrett listened for the signature hoot that had echoed across Broadway on so many recent nights. 

“It’s not our business to try to solve crimes,” he said. “We’re just glad he’s here.” 
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WASHINGTON — Women are far more likely than men to get autoimmune diseases, when an out-of-whack immune system attacks their own bodies — and new research may finally explain why.

It’s all about how the body handles females’ extra X chromosome, Stanford University researchers reported Thursday — a finding that could lead to better ways to detect a long list of diseases that are hard to diagnose and treat.

“This transforms the way we think about this whole process of autoimmunity, especially the male-female bias,” said University of Pennsylvania immunologist E. John Wherry, who wasn’t involved in the study.

More than 24 million Americans, by some estimates up to 50 million, have an autoimmune disorder — diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and dozens more. About 4 of every 5 patients are women, a mystery that has baffled scientists for decades.

One theory is that the X chromosome might be a culprit. After all, females have two X chromosomes while males have one X and one Y.

The new research, published in the journal Cell, shows that extra X is involved — but in an unexpected way.

Our DNA is carried inside each cell in 23 pairs of chromosomes, including that final pair that determines biological sex. The X chromosome is packed with hundreds of genes, far more than males’ much smaller Y chromosome. Every female cell must switch off one of its X chromosome copies, to avoid getting a toxic double dose of all those genes.

Performing that so-called X-chromosome inactivation is a special type of RNA called Xist, pronounced like “exist.” This long stretch of RNA parks itself in spots along a cell’s extra X chromosome, attracts proteins that bind to it in weird clumps, and silences the chromosome.

Stanford dermatologist Dr. Howard Chang was exploring how Xist does its job when his lab identified nearly 100 of those stuck-on proteins. Chang recognized many as related to skin-related autoimmune disorders — patients can have “autoantibodies” that mistakenly attack those normal proteins.

“That got us thinking: These are the known ones. What about the other proteins in Xist?” Chang said. Maybe this molecule, found only in women, “could somehow organize proteins in such a way as to activate the immune system.”

If true, Xist by itself couldn’t cause autoimmune disease or all women would be affected. Scientists have long thought it takes a combination of genetic susceptibility and an environmental trigger, such as an infection or injury, for the immune system to run amok. For example, the Epstein-Barr virus is linked to multiple sclerosis.

Chang’s team decided to engineer male lab mice to artificially make Xist — without silencing their only X chromosome — and see what happened.

Researchers also specially bred mice susceptible to a lupus-like condition that can be triggered by a chemical irritant.

The mice that produced Xist formed its hallmark protein clumps and, when triggered, developed lupus-like autoimmunity at levels similar to females, the team concluded.

“We think that’s really important, for Xist RNA to leak out of the cell to where the immune system gets to see it. You still needed this environmental trigger to cause the whole thing to kick off,” explained Chang, who is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports The Associated Press’ Health and Science Department.

Beyond mice, researchers also examined blood samples from 100 patients — and uncovered autoantibodies targeting Xist-associated proteins that scientists hadn’t previously linked to autoimmune disorders. A potential reason, Chang suggests: standard tests for autoimmunity were made using male cells.

Much more research is necessary but the findings “might give us a shorter path to diagnosing patients that look clinically and immunologically quite different,” said Penn’s Wherry.

“You may have autoantibodies to Protein A and another patient may have autoantibodies to Proteins C and D,” but knowing they’re all part of the larger Xist complex allows doctors to better hunt disease patterns, he added. “Now we have at least one big part of the puzzle of biological context.”

Stanford’s Chang wonders if it may even be possible to one day interrupt the process.

“How does that go from RNA to abnormal cells, this will be a next step of the investigation.”
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ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — The “cone of uncertainty” produced by the National Hurricane Center to forecast the location and ferocity of a tropical storm is getting an update this year to include predictions for inland areas, where wind and flooding are sometimes more treacherous than damage to the coasts. 

The Miami-based hurricane center said Thursday on the X social media platform that the new, experimental forecast tool will be ready around August 15, just before the traditional peak of the hurricane season that begins June 1. 

“This experimental graphic will help better convey wind hazard risk inland in addition to coastal wind hazards,” the center said in the post. 

The traditional cone in use for years generally shows the forecast track of a hurricane or tropical storm but is focused on wind and storm surge along the coasts — and forecasters always warn not to focus on the center line alone. Heavy rains and strong winds can be deadly and cause significant damage inland, which happened in 2022 with Hurricane Ian, when 149 people died in Florida. 

The goal of the expanded forecast cone is to make sure people who don’t live along a coast are aware of the dangers they could still face, said Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the hurricane center. The new cone features colors to show which places face threats in a much broader way than before. If someone lives in one of those areas, “you are under risk,” Rhome said. 

There’s growing evidence that the impacts of climate change — such as rising sea levels — are making the most severe hurricanes even more intense and increasing the likelihood that a developing hurricane will rapidly intensify and lead to more flooding and more powerful storm surges battering coastlines, experts say. 

After Ian blasted across the Fort Myers, Florida, area — where the most people died and the worst damage was caused — the storm kept dumping rain and toppling trees across a wide swath of the state of Florida. Floods were reported around Orlando and its theme parks, south to Kissimmee, east to Daytona Beach, and in central Florida’s cattle and citrus country. 

Ian produced between 10 and 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain across much of central Florida, the hurricane center reported. 

People near rivers were deeply and possibly unexpectedly affected. After Ian slogged through inland DeSoto County and the Peace River flooded the community, Fire Chief Chad Jorgensen urged residents to flee, saying the river was unpredictable and dangerous. 

The first named storm of 2024 will be Alberto. The 2023 season saw 20 named storms, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including seven hurricanes. Only Hurricane Idalia struck the U.S., coming ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region of Florida’s Gulf Coast but also causing significant inland flooding. 
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Countries waging wars are more focused on winning battles than mitigating their environmental impact. But researchers — who say the environmental impact of active conflicts is substantial — are trying to measure wars’ effects. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. Carla Babb contributed.
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A great space success story comes to an end. And SpaceX is at it again with a busy week of launches. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.
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Geneva — New cancer cases are projected to rise by 77% to more than 35 million in 2050 from an estimated 20 million new cases and 9.7 million deaths in 2022, according to new data released Thursday by the World Health Organization’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

The report, which is being issued ahead of World Cancer Day February 4, projects the greatest relative increases in cancer cases will occur in lower human development index (HDI) settings. That is a reference to a tool developed by the United Nations to measure a country’s level of social and economic development.

“We expect the global population of the world to rise from eight billion currently in 2022 to almost 10 billion, 9.7 billion, by 2050 and this will have a large impact on the number of new cancer cases,” said Freddie Bray, head of the cancer surveillance branch at IARC.

“You will see a 142% increase in cancer cases predicted by 2050 in low HDI countries. These are the countries that have fewer resources to manage the cancer burden,” he said, noting that cancer deaths likewise are projected to almost double in 2050.

The report cites tobacco, alcohol, and obesity as key factors behind the increasing global incidence of cancer, with air pollution a major environmental risk factor.

New estimates show lung cancer to be the most commonly occurring cancer worldwide with 2.5 million new cases in 2022. Female breast cancer ranked a close second, followed by colorectal, prostate, and stomach cancers.

The report said breast cancer was the most diagnosed and leading cause of death for women. For men it was lung cancer.

Bray observed that, “One in five men and one in five women will develop cancer in a lifetime and around one in nine men and one in 12 women will develop and die from the disease.”

The global estimates reveal striking inequities in the cancer burden, with people in poorer, less developed countries most at risk. Isabelle Soerjomataram, deputy head of the cancer surveillance branch at IARC, says that is particularly true for breast cancer.

“Women in lower HDI countries are 50% less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than women in high HDI countries, yet they are at a much higher risk of dying of the disease due to late diagnosis and inadequate access to quality treatment,” she said.

A World Health Organization survey of 115 countries shows most countries do not adequately finance cancer and palliative care services, as part of universal health coverage, a situation that disproportionately affects underserved, poorer populations.

“Health care expenditure, particularly in cancer is increasing,” said Andre Ilbawi, WHO technical lead on cancer. “New technologies, population aging, and more people accessing more complex services are straining health budgets. Out of pocket payment in cancer is high and often push families into poverty,”

When people diagnosed with cancer are told they must pay out of pocket, Ilbawi said they are less likely to seek help, receive treatment and complete their care.

“That makes cancer more deadly and more expensive for economies, particularly as the burden of cancer increases,” he said, noting that governments can break this cycle by investing in cancer services.

“Cancer does not need to be expensive and should not be a death sentence,” he said.

“This is not the time to turn away. This is the time to double down and make those investments in cancer prevention and control or else we will be dealing with inequities that are even worse than what we see today.”

Soerjomataram also stressed the urgency of investing in prevention to address the growing global cancer burden and global inequities in cancer outcomes.

“Investing in prevention is becoming very key because we cannot treat our way out of cancer,” she said. “Treatment and providing access to care is important in preventing cancer so that no one is suffering from it.”
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