Scientists are testing a novel technique to deter poachers targeting endangered rhinoceroses for their prized horns. As part of a pilot study in South Africa, researchers have injected small, radioactive pellets into the horns of live rhinos. The goal is to make the horns radioactive so there is less demand for them on the black market. Marize de Klerk reports from the UNESCO Waterberg Biosphere Reserve.
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Day: February 4, 2025
Abuja, Nigeria — Nigerian officials have launched a committee to develop a transition and sustainability plan for USAID-funded health programs following U.S. President Donald Trump’s 90-day halt of most foreign aid. The multi-ministerial committee aims to secure new financial support for critical health programs.
Nigeria’s health minister said the committee—comprising officials from the ministries of finance, health, and environment—intends to ensure that patients receiving treatment for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria do not experience setbacks amid the uncertainty over U.S. foreign policy.
Shortly after taking office two weeks ago, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on U.S. foreign aid. But days later, he approved a temporary waiver for life-saving humanitarian assistance, covering medicine, medical services, food, and shelter.
Despite the exemption, concerns remain over the future of U.S. funding for global health programs.
Public health expert Ejike Orji welcomed Nigeria’s proactive response to the U.S. funding freeze.
“What this means is that they’re going to do a review, situation assessment of what’s going on and that would give them the opportunity to make recommendations to the government. They (U.S.) gave a ninety-day review because of the strategic importance of continuing the HIV program in Nigeria, so that means there’s still a possibility after their review, they might say, ‘Look, we don’t want to continue this funding,” said Orji.
Nigeria is a significant recipient of U.S. foreign aid, receiving $1.02 billion in 2023, much of it through agencies like USAID.
USAID funding to Nigeria plays a pivotal role in HIV/AIDS treatment, maternal and child care, and disease prevention efforts.
On Monday, the Nigerian Federal Executive Council approved $1 billion for healthcare sector reforms and allocated an additional $3.2 million to procure 150,000 HIV treatment packs over the next four months.
Authorities said the new funding will support improvements in primary healthcare services, maternal and child healthcare, and training of healthcare professionals.
But Ndeayo Iwot, general secretary of the Health Sector Reforms Coalition, said it will be difficult to sustain those programs without continued U.S. support.
“Even when they’re releasing the available funds on time, they will not be able to cover all the areas that those funds [aid] were helping them to achieve. It will take time, probably two, three years,” said Iwot.
Approximately 1.8 million Nigerians are living with HIV. The country also accounts for the world’s highest number of malaria deaths and ranks among the top countries for tuberculosis cases.
Iwot said Nigeria needs new partnerships for health programs.
“Health needs a multi sectoral approach, it works on partnerships, there are certain things you shouldn’t do alone as a country. Going through resource pulling from many partners and stakeholders is a recommended approach to financing health activities,” said Iwot.
Currently, only about 4% of Nigeria’s annual budget is allocated to the health sector—far below the 15 percent target set by African leaders in the 2001 Abuja Declaration.
It’s unclear whether the U.S. will reverse its decision after the 90-day pause. But with uncertainty looming, analysts say careful implementation of policies and new partnerships may be Nigeria’s best path forward.
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Washington — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the controversial environmental lawyer turned public health critic, cleared his first hurdle on Tuesday to become the nation’s top health official when the senate finance committee voted to advance his nomination for a floor vote.
Republicans voted together to advance his nomination, while Democrats all opposed.
His nomination now will face a full senate vote, despite concerns about the work he’s done to sow doubts around vaccine safety and his potential to profit off lawsuits over drugmakers.
To gain control of the $1.7 trillion Health and Human Services agency, Kennedy will need support from all but three Republicans if Democrats uniformly oppose him.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is also a physician and sits on the finance committee, voted to advance Kennedy’s confirmation. Last week, during Kennedy’s hearings, Cassidy repeatedly implored Kennedy to reject a disproven theory that vaccines cause autism, to no avail. He ended the hearing by saying he was “struggling” with the vote.
“Your past, undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments, concerns me,” Cassidy told Kennedy.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are all seen as potential no votes, too, because they voted against President Donald Trump’s defense secretary nominee and have expressed concerns about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine work.
In a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, McConnell declined to say how he would vote on Kennedy’s nomination but reiterated “vaccines are critically important.”
Democrats, meanwhile, continue to raise alarms about Kennedy’s potential to financially benefit from changing vaccine guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine makers if confirmed as health secretary.
“It seems possible that many different types of vaccine-related decisions and communications — which you would be empowered to make and influence as Secretary — could result in significant financial compensation for your family,” Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a letter sent over the weekend to Kennedy.
Kennedy said he’ll give his son all of the referral fees in legal cases against vaccine makers, including the fees he gets from referring clients in a case against Merck. Kennedy told the committee he’s referred hundreds of clients to a law firm that’s suing Merck’s Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. He’s earned $2.5 million from the deal over the past three years.
As secretary, Kennedy will oversee vaccine recommendations and public health campaigns for the $1.7 trillion agency, which is also responsible for food and hospital inspections, providing health insurance for millions of Americans and researching deadly diseases.
Kennedy, a longtime Democrat, ran for president but withdrew last year to throw his support to Trump in exchange for an influential job in his Republican administration. Together, they have forged a new and unusual coalition made up of conservatives who oppose vaccines and liberals who want to see the government promote healthier foods. Trump and Kennedy have branded the movement as “Make America Healthy Again.”
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Not all children can play with conventional toys. At a school in New York, occupational therapists are taking off-the-shelf toys and adapting them to make them more suitable for disabled students’ needs. Tina Trinh reports.
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Ukrainian culture is booming amid the war with Russia. That’s despite the constant rocket attacks and damage to almost 500 heritage sites, according to UNESCO. Experts say Ukrainians have never been as interested in their own culture as they are now. As Lesia Bakalets reports from Kyiv, almost any event is sold out, especially in the capital. (Videographer: Vladyslav Smilianets )
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PARIS — France hosts top tech players next week at an artificial intelligence summit meant as a “wake-up call” for Europe as it struggles with AI challenges from the United States and China.
Players from across the sector and representatives from 80 nations will gather in the French capital on February 10 and 11 in the sumptuous Grand Palais, built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition.
In the run-up, President Emmanuel Macron will on Feb. 4 visit research centers applying AI to science and health, before hosting scientists and Nobel Prize winners at his Elysee Palace residence on Wednesday.
A wider science conference will be held at the Polytechnique engineering school on Thursday and Friday.
“The summit comes at exactly the right time for this wake-up call for France and Europe, and to show we are in position” to take advantage of the technology, an official in Macron’s office told reporters.
In recent weeks, Washington’s announcement of $500 billion in investment to build up AI infrastructure and the release of a frugal but powerful generative AI model by Chinese firm DeepSeek have focused minds in Europe.
France must “not let this revolution pass it by,” Macron’s office said.
Attendees at the summit will include Sam Altman, head of OpenAI — the firm that brought generative models to public consciousness in 2022 with the launch of ChatGPT.
Google boss Sundar Pichai and Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis, who leads the company’s DeepMind AI research unit, will also come, alongside Arthur Mensch, founder of French AI developer Mistral.
The Elysee has said there are “talks” on hosting DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, and has yet to clarify whether X owner Elon Musk — who has his own generative initiative, xAI — has accepted an invitation.
Nor is it clear who will attend from the United States and China, with the French presidency saying only “very high level” representatives will come.
Confirmed guests from Europe include European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
‘Stoke confidence’
The tone of the AI summit will be “neither catastrophizing, nor naive,” Macron’s AI envoy Anne Bouverot told AFP.
Hosting the conference is also an opportunity for Paris to show off its own AI ecosystem, which numbers around 750 companies.
Macron’s office has said the summit would see the announcement of “massive” investments along the lines of his annual “Choose France” business conference, at which $15.4 billion of inward investment were pledged in 2024.
Beyond the economic opportunities, AI’s impact on culture including artistic creativity and news production will be discussed in a side-event over the weekend.
Debates open to the public, such as that one, are aimed at showing off “positive use cases for AI” to “stoke confidence and speed up adoption” of the technology, said France’s digital minister Clara Chappaz.
For now, the French public is skeptical of AI, with 79 percent of respondents telling pollsters Ifop they were “concerned” about the technology in a recent survey.
More ‘inclusive’ AI?
Paris says it also hopes the summit can help kick off its vision of a more ethical and accessible and less resource-intensive AI.
At present, “the AI under development is pushed by a few large players from a few countries,” Bouverot said, whereas France wants “to promote more inclusive development.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited to co-host the Paris summit, in a push to bring governments on board.
One of the summit’s aims is the establishment of a public-interest foundation for which Paris aims to raise $2.5 billion over five years.
The effort would be “a public-private partnership between various governments, businesses and philanthropic foundations from different countries,” Macron’s office said.
Paris hopes at the summit to chart different efforts at AI governance around the world and gather commitments for environmentally sustainable AI — although no binding mechanism is planned for now.
“There are lots of big principles emerging around responsible, trustworthy AI, but it’s not clear or easy to implement for the engineers in technical terms,” said Laure de Roucy-Rochegonde, director of the geopolitical technology center at the French Institute for International Relations.
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NEW YORK — A violin made by the famed Antonio Stradivari in 1714 has the potential to become the most expensive musical instrument ever sold when it goes up for auction Friday at Sotheby’s in New York.
The auction house is estimating the value of the “Joachim-Ma Stradivarius” at $12 million to $18 million. If it sells at the top end of that range, it could best the $15.9 million paid in 2011 for another Stradivarius, the “Lady Blunt,” made in 1721 and named by Guinness World Records as the most expensive instrument ever sold at auction.
Mari-Claudia Jimenez, Sotheby’s Americas president and head of global business, said Stradivari made the violin during his “Golden Period,” which began around 1700 and was marked by an improvement in his craftmanship.
“So, this is the peak of his output,” Jimenez said. “This is the best violin of this era.”
Sotheby’s says the violin’s preservation is remarkable, and its ownership history extraordinary.
It’s named for two of its famed owners — violin virtuosos Joseph Joachim of Hungary, who lived from 1831 to 1907, and Si-Hon Ma, who was born in China in 1926, moved to the U.S. in 1948 and died 2009.
It is believed that legendary composer Johannes Brahms was influenced by the Joachim-Ma when he wrote his “Violin Concerto in D Major” because of its rich, resonant tone, and that Joachim played that violin during the concerto’s 1879 premiere, according to Sotheby’s.
Ma acquired the violin in 1969, and his estate gifted it to the New England Conservatory in Boston after his death. Ma attended the conservatory, where he earned a master’s degree in 1950. The conservatory is now putting the violin up for auction, with all the proceeds going to student scholarships.
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