Category: Science

KINSHASA, DR Congo — An unknown illness has killed over 50 people in northwestern Congo, according to doctors on the ground and the World Health Organization on Monday. 

The interval between the onset of symptoms and death has been 48 hours in the majority of cases, and “that’s what’s really worrying,” Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring center, told The Associated Press. 

The latest disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo began on Jan. 21, and 419 cases have been recorded including 53 deaths. 

According to the WHO’s Africa office, the first outbreak in the town of Boloko began after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours following hemorrhagic fever symptoms. 

There have long been concerns about diseases jumping from animals to humans in places where wild animals are popularly eaten. The number of such outbreaks in Africa has surged by more than 60% in the last decade, the WHO said in 2022. 

After the second outbreak of the current mystery disease began in the town of Bomate on Feb. 9, samples from 13 cases have been sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, for testing, the WHO said. 

All samples have been negative for Ebola or other common hemorrhagic fever diseases like Marburg. Some tested positive for malaria. 
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BOGOTA, Colombia — An annual United Nations conference on biodiversity that ran out of time last year will resume its work Tuesday in Rome with money at the top of the agenda.

That is, how to spend what’s been pledged so far — and how to raise a lot more to help preserve plant and animal life on Earth.

The talks in Colombia, known as COP16, yielded some significant outcomes before they broke up in November, including an agreement that requires companies that benefit from genetic resources in nature — say, by developing medicines from rainforest plants — to share the benefits. And steps were taken to give Indigenous peoples and local communities a stronger voice in conservation matters.

But two weeks turned out to be not enough time to get everything done.

The Cali talks followed the historic 2022 COP15 accord in Montreal, which included 23 measures aimed at protecting biodiversity. Those included putting 30% of the planet and 30% of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030, known as the Global Biodiversity Framework.

“Montreal was about the ‘what’ — what are we all working towards together?” said Georgina Chandler, head of policy and campaigns for the Zoological Society London. “Cali was supposed to focus on the ‘how’ — putting the plans and the financing in place to ensure we can actually implement this framework.”

“They eventually lost a quorum because people simply went home,” said Linda Krueger of The Nature Conservancy, who is in Rome for the two days of talks “And so now we’re having to finish these last critical decisions, which are some of the nitty gritty decisions on financing, on resource mobilization and on the planning and monitoring and reporting requirements under the Global Biodiversity Framework.”

The overall financial aim was to achieve $20 billion a year in the fund by 2025, and then $30 billion by 2030. So far, only $383 million had been pledged as of November, from 12 nations or sub-nations: Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Province of Québec, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Participants will discuss establishing a “global financing instrument for biodiversity” intended to effectively distribute the money raised. And a big part of the talks will be about raising more money.

‘Completely off track’ on larger financial goal

Chandler and Kruger both said the finance points at Colombia’s talks were particularly contentious.

“It’s really about how do we collect the money and how do we get it distributed fairly. Get it to the ground where it’s needed most, so that that’s really the core issue,” said Kruger.

Oscar Soria, chief executive of The Common Initiative, a think tank specializing in global economic and environmental policy, was pessimistic about raising a great deal more money.

“We are completely off track in terms of achieving that money,” Soria said. Key sources of biodiversity finance are shrinking or disappearing, he said.

“What was supposed to be a good Colombian telenovela in which people will actually bring the right resources, and the happy ending of bringing their money, could actually end up being a tragic Italian opera, where no one actually agrees to anything and everyone loses,” Soria said.

Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s former environment minister and the COP16 president, said she’s hopeful of “a good message from Rome.”

“That message is that still, even with a very fragmented geopolitical landscape, with a world increasingly in conflict, we can still get an agreement on some fundamental issues,” Muhamad said in a statement. “And one of the most important is the need to protect life in this crisis of climate change and biodiversity.”

Global wildlife populations have plunged on average by 73% in 50 years, according to an October report from the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London.

“Biodiversity is basically essential to our livelihoods and well-being,” Chandler said. “It’s essential to the the air we breathe, the water we drink, rainfall that food systems rely on, protecting us from increasing temperatures and increasing storm occurrences as well.”

Chandler said deforestation in the Amazon has far-reaching impacts across South America, just as it does in the Congo Basin and other major biodiverse regions worldwide.

“We know that has an impact on rainfall, on food systems, on soil integrity in other countries. So it’s not just something that’s kind of small and isolated. It’s a widespread problem,” she said.
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LONDON — More than 1,000 musicians including Kate Bush and Cat Stevens on Tuesday released a silent album to protest proposed changes to Britain’s copyright laws which could allow tech firms to train artificial intelligence models using their work.

Creative industries globally are grappling with the legal and ethical implications of AI models that can produce their own output after being trained on popular works without necessarily paying the creators of the original content.

Britain, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants to become an AI superpower, has proposed relaxing laws that currently give creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the right to control the ways their material may be used.

The proposed changes would allow AI developers to train their models on any material to which they have lawful access, and would require creators to proactively opt out to stop their work being used.

The changes have been heavily criticized by many artists, who say it would reverse the principle of copyright law, which grants exclusive control to creators for their work.

“In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?” said Bush, whose 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill” enjoyed a resurgence in 2022 thanks to Netflix show “Stranger Things.”

The co-written album titled “Is This What We Want?” features recordings of empty studios and performance spaces to represent what organizers say is the potential impact on artists’ livelihoods should the changes go ahead.

A public consultation on the legal changes closes later on Tuesday.

Responding to the album, a government spokesperson said the current copyright and AI regime was holding back the creative industries, media and AI sector from “realizing their full potential.”

“We have engaged extensively with these sectors throughout and will continue to do so. No decisions have been taken,” the spokesperson said, adding that the government’s proposals will be set out in due course.

Annie Lennox, Billy Ocean, Hans Zimmer, Tori Amos and The Clash are among the musicians urging the government to review its plans.

“The government’s proposal would hand the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies, for free, letting those companies exploit musicians’ work to outcompete them,” said organizer Ed Newton-Rex, the founder of Fairly Trained, a non-profit that certifies generative AI companies for fairer training data practices.

“The UK can be leaders in AI without throwing our world-leading creative industries under the bus.”
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U.S. tech giant Apple has announced plans to create some 20,000 jobs and invest $500 billion over the next four years in the United States. 

Apple says it will expand teams and facilities in nine states across the country and that it aims to open a 23,200-square-meter server manufacturing facility in Texas in 2026. 

The announcement comes just days after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with U.S. President Donald Trump. 

“We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our long-standing U.S. investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country’s future,” Cook said on the investment. 

“From doubling our Advanced Manufacturing Fund, to building advanced technology in Texas, we’re thrilled to expand our support for American manufacturing. And we’ll keep working with people and companies across this country to help write an extraordinary new chapter in the history of American innovation,” he added in a company statement. 

Trump thanked Cook and Apple for the investment on Monday morning on the social media platform Truth Social. 

“Apple has just announced a record $500 billion investment in the United States of America. The reason, faith in what we are doing, without which, they wouldn’t be investing 10 cents,” Trump said. 

Most of Apple’s consumer goods are currently assembled and produced overseas. Many of them, assembled in China, are liable to 10% tariffs imposed by Trump earlier in February. 

To reduce its reliance on international supply chains, Apple announced in January that it had begun mass producing its own chips at an Arizona factory owned by TSMC, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. 

The TSMC Arizona factory, along with legislation aimed at increasing U.S. semiconductor production, were two of Trump’s largest industrial policy moves during his first term. 

In a release on its website, Apple said the $500 billion commitment includes the company’s work with thousands of suppliers across all 50 states, direct employment, Apple Intelligence infrastructure and data centers, corporate facilities, and Apple TV+ production in 20 states.  

Apple said it is also set to open a manufacturing academy in Michigan, offering training led by engineers and local university staff to support mid-sized manufacturing firms in areas like project management and manufacturing processes.

 
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Sydney — Australia’s online safety regulator fined messaging platform Telegram about $640,000 on Monday for its delay in answering questions about measures the app took to prevent the spread of child abuse and violent extremist material.

The eSafety Commission in March 2024 sought responses from social media platforms YouTube, X and Facebook to Telegram and Reddit, and blamed them for not doing enough to stop extremists from using live-streaming features, algorithms and recommendation systems to recruit users.

Telegram and Reddit were asked about the steps they were taking to combat child sexual abuse material on their services. They had to respond by May, but Telegram submitted its response in October.

“Timely transparency is not a voluntary requirement in Australia and this action reinforces the importance of all companies complying with Australian law,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement.

Telegram’s delay in providing information obstructed eSafety from implementing its online safety measures, Grant said.

Telegram said it had fully responded to all eSafety’s questions last year, with no outstanding issues.

“The unfair and disproportionate penalty concerns only the response time frame, and we intend to appeal,” the company said in an email.

Australia’s spy agency in December said one in five priority counterterrorism cases investigated involved youths.

The messaging platform has been under growing scrutiny around the world since its founder Pavel Durov was placed under formal investigation in France in August in connection with alleged use of the app for illegal activities.

Durov, who is out on bail, has denied the allegations.

Grant said Big Tech must be transparent and put in place measures to prevent their services from being misused as the threat posed by online extremist materials poses a growing risk.

“If we want accountability from the tech industry we need much greater transparency. These powers give us a look under the hood at just how these platforms are dealing, or not dealing, with a range of serious and egregious online harms which affect Australians,” Grant said.

If Telegram chooses to ignore the penalty notice, eSafety would seek a civil penalty in court, Grant said. 
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SUSONO — Woven City near Mount Fuji is where Japanese automaker Toyota plans to test everyday living with robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous zero-emissions transportation.

Daisuke Toyoda, an executive in charge of the project from the automaker’s founding family, stressed it’s not “a smart city.”

“We’re making a test course for mobility so that’s a little bit different. We’re not a real estate developer,” he said Saturday during a tour of the facility, where the first phase of construction was completed.

The Associated Press was the first foreign media to get a preview of the $10 billion Woven City.

The first phase spans 47,000 square meters (506,000 square feet), roughly the size of about five baseball fields. When completed, it will be 294,000 square meters (3.1 million square feet).

Built on the grounds of a shuttered Toyota Motor Corp. auto plant, it’s meant to be a place where researchers and startups come together to share ideas, according to Toyoda.

Ambitious plans for futuristic cities have sputtered or are unfinished, including one proposed by Google’s parent company Alphabet in Toronto; “Neom” in Saudi Arabia; a project near San Francisco, spearheaded by a former Goldman Sachs trader, and Masdar City next to Abu Dhabi’s airport.

Woven City’s construction began in 2021. All the buildings are connected by underground passageways, where autonomous vehicles will scuttle around collecting garbage and making deliveries.

No one is living there yet. The first residents will total just 100 people.

Called “weavers,” they’re workers at Toyota and partner companies, including instant noodle maker Nissin and Daikin, which manufactures air-conditioners. Coffee maker UCC was serving hot drinks from an autonomous-drive bus, parked in a square surrounded by still-empty apartment complexes.

The city’s name honors Toyota’s beginnings as a maker of automatic textile looms. Sakichi Toyoda, Daisuke Toyoda’s great-great-grandfather, just wanted to make life easier for his mother, who toiled on a manual loom.

There was little talk of using electric vehicles, an area where Toyota has lagged. While Tesla and Byd emerged as big EV players, Toyota has been pushing hydrogen, the energy of choice in Woven City.

Toyota officials acknowledged it doesn’t expect to make money from Woven City, at least not for years.

Keisuke Konishi, auto analyst at Quick Corporate Valuation Research Center, believes Toyota wants to work on robotic rides to rival Google’s Waymo — even if it means building an entire complex.

“Toyota has the money to do all that,” he said.
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MANILA, PHILIPPINES — A village in the densely populated Philippine capital region launched a battle against dengue Wednesday by offering a token bounty to residents for captured mosquitos — dead or alive.

The unusual strategy adopted by the Addition Hills village in Mandaluyong City reflects growing concern after the nearby city of Quezon declared an outbreak of the mosquito-borne illness over the weekend. Eight more areas reported an upsurge in cases of the potentially deadly viral infection.

At least 28,234 dengue cases have been recorded in the Philippines this year up to Feb. 1, a 40% increase compared to the same period last year, according to health department statistics. Quezon City declared a dengue outbreak Saturday after deaths this year reached 10 people, mostly children, out of 1,769 residents infected.

A urban village of more than 100,000 residents living in crowded neighborhoods and residential condominium towers, Addition Hills has done clean-ups, canal declogging and a hygiene campaign to combat dengue. But when cases spiked to 42 this year and two young students died, village leader Carlito Cernal decided to intensify the battle.

“There was an alarm,” Cernal told The Associated Press. “I found a way.”

Residents will get a reward of one Philippines peso (just over 1 cent) for every five mosquitos or mosquito larva they turn in, Cernal said.

Critics warned the strategy could backfire if desperate people start breeding mosquitoes for the reward. Cernal said that was unlikely because the campaign would be terminated as soon as the uptick in cases eases.

As the campaign began, about a dozen mosquito hunters showed up at the village office. Miguel Labag, a 64-year-old scavenger, handed a jug with 45 dark mosquito larvas squirming in some water and received a reward of nine pesos (15 cents).

“This is a big help,” Labag said, smiling. “I can buy coffee.”

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection found in tropical countries worldwide. It can cause joint pain, nausea, vomiting and rashes, and in severe cases can cause breathing problems, hemorrhaging and organ failure. While there is no specific treatment for the illness, medical care to maintain a person’s fluid levels is seen as critical.

Officials in another village in Quezon City were considering releasing swarms of frogs to eat mosquitoes.

Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said it’s crucial to clean up mosquito breeding sites, and for anyone who might be infected to seek immediate medical attention. Despite an increase in dengue infections, the Philippines has managed to maintain low mortality rates, he said.

Dengue cases surged unexpectedly ahead of the rainy season, which starts in June, likely because of intermittent downpours that have left stagnant pools of water where dengue-causing mosquitos can breed, Health Undersecretary Alberto Domingo said, adding that climate change was likely contributing to off-season downpours.
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CAIRO — A cholera outbreak in a southern Sudanese city killed nearly 60 people and sickened about 1,300 others over the last three days, health authorities said Saturday.

The outbreak in the southern city of Kosti was blamed mainly on contaminated drinking water after the city’s water plant stopped due to an attack by a notorious paramilitary group, the Health Ministry said. The group has been fighting the country’s military for about two years.

The ministry said in a statement the disease killed 58 people and sickened 1,293 others between Thursday and Saturday.

The ministry said it has taken a series of measures to fight the outbreak, including launching a vaccination campaign against cholera in the city.

The disease killed more than 600 and sickened over 21,000 others between July and October last year.

Cholera is a highly contagious disease that causes diarrhea, leading to severe dehydration and could be fatal if not immediately treated, according to WHO. It’s transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food or water.
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CAIRO — A cholera outbreak in a southern Sudanese city killed nearly 60 people and sickened about 1,300 others over the last three days, health authorities said Saturday.

The outbreak in the southern city of Kosti was blamed mainly on contaminated drinking water after the city’s water plant stopped due to an attack by a notorious paramilitary group, the Health Ministry said. The group has been fighting the country’s military for about two years.

The ministry said in a statement the disease killed 58 people and sickened 1,293 others between Thursday and Saturday.

The ministry said it has taken a series of measures to fight the outbreak, including launching a vaccination campaign against cholera in the city.

The disease killed more than 600 and sickened over 21,000 others between July and October last year.

Cholera is a highly contagious disease that causes diarrhea, leading to severe dehydration and could be fatal if not immediately treated, according to WHO. It’s transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food or water.
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JABALIA, GAZA STRIP — A third mass polio vaccination campaign began in Gaza on Saturday, AFP journalists reported, with the aim of delivering the first dose to nearly 600,000 children across the Palestinian territory.

Scores of children under the age of 10 received the dose at a mosque in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, where a blistering Israeli military assault last year reduced many buildings to rubble.

The vaccination campaign involves multiple U.N. agencies, including the Israeli-boycotted U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees, or UNRWA, and comes at a time when Israel and Hamas are observing a ceasefire that has largely halted the fighting.

The United States, United Kingdom and other Western nations designate Hamas as a terror group.

The World Health Organization said the campaign aims to vaccinate more than 591,000 children by Feb. 26.

“Over 1,700 UNRWA team members will take part in this campaign,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X. “This campaign follows a recent detection of polio in wastewater, putting the lives of children at risk.”

The previous two drives were conducted in late 2024 after the highly contagious disease resurfaced in Gaza for the first time in over 20 years.

After more than 16 months of war between Israel and Hamas, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire.

Even before the hostilities began, the territory had been struggling under an Israeli-imposed blockade for more than 15 years.

Much of the water infrastructure has been destroyed, leaving sewage to stagnate in open pools near densely populated neighborhoods — conditions that contributed to the reemergence of the virus last autumn.

The WHO reported on Feb. 19 that traces of poliovirus had again been detected in wastewater samples.

Polio is highly contagious and can cause paralysis, primarily affecting children under the age of 5. The disease has been nearly eradicated worldwide.

Hoping for a lasting truce, Bassam al-Haou, a resident of Jabalia, brought his daughters to receive the vaccine.

“I also hope for stability for our innocent children so they can remain safe from violence,” he told AFP.

The war erupted following Hamas’s unprecedented terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. A fragile ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19.
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JABALIA, GAZA STRIP — A third mass polio vaccination campaign began in Gaza on Saturday, AFP journalists reported, with the aim of delivering the first dose to nearly 600,000 children across the Palestinian territory.

Scores of children under the age of 10 received the dose at a mosque in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, where a blistering Israeli military assault last year reduced many buildings to rubble.

The vaccination campaign involves multiple U.N. agencies, including the Israeli-boycotted U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees, or UNRWA, and comes at a time when Israel and Hamas are observing a ceasefire that has largely halted the fighting.

The United States, United Kingdom and other Western nations designate Hamas as a terror group.

The World Health Organization said the campaign aims to vaccinate more than 591,000 children by Feb. 26.

“Over 1,700 UNRWA team members will take part in this campaign,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X. “This campaign follows a recent detection of polio in wastewater, putting the lives of children at risk.”

The previous two drives were conducted in late 2024 after the highly contagious disease resurfaced in Gaza for the first time in over 20 years.

After more than 16 months of war between Israel and Hamas, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire.

Even before the hostilities began, the territory had been struggling under an Israeli-imposed blockade for more than 15 years.

Much of the water infrastructure has been destroyed, leaving sewage to stagnate in open pools near densely populated neighborhoods — conditions that contributed to the reemergence of the virus last autumn.

The WHO reported on Feb. 19 that traces of poliovirus had again been detected in wastewater samples.

Polio is highly contagious and can cause paralysis, primarily affecting children under the age of 5. The disease has been nearly eradicated worldwide.

Hoping for a lasting truce, Bassam al-Haou, a resident of Jabalia, brought his daughters to receive the vaccine.

“I also hope for stability for our innocent children so they can remain safe from violence,” he told AFP.

The war erupted following Hamas’s unprecedented terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. A fragile ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19.
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The measles outbreak in rural West Texas has grown to 90 cases across seven counties, the state health department posted online Friday, and 16 people are hospitalized. 

In neighboring eastern New Mexico, the measles case count is up to nine, though state public health officials said Thursday there’s still no evidence this outbreak is connected to the one in Texas. 

The West Texas cases are concentrated in eight counties in West Texas.  

Texas state health department data shows that most of the cases are among people younger than 18. Twenty-six cases are in kids younger than 4 and 51 are in kids 5-17 years old. Ten adults have measles, and three cases are pending an age determination. The Ector County Health Department told the Odessa American its case was in a child too young to be vaccinated. 

State health officials have said this outbreak is Texas’ largest in nearly 30 years. Health department spokeswoman Lara Anton said last week that cases have been concentrated in a “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community — especially among families who attend small private religious schools or are homeschooled. 

In New Mexico, all of the cases are in Lea County, which borders Gaines County in Texas. The state health department has said people may have been exposed at a grocery store, an elementary school, a church, hospital and a pharmacy in Hobbs, New Mexico. 

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Most kids will recover from the measles if they get it, but infection can lead to dangerous complications like pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death. 

The vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella is safe and highly effective in preventing measles infection and severe cases of the disease. 

The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old. The vaccine series is required for kids before entering kindergarten in public schools nationwide. 

Before the vaccine was introduced in 1963, the U.S. saw some 3 million to 4 million cases per year. Now, it’s usually fewer than 200 in a normal year. 

There is no link between the vaccine and autism, despite a now-discredited study and health disinformation. 

In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called “herd immunity.” 

But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots. 

The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60.  

Gaines County has one of the highest rates in Texas of school-aged children who opt out of at least one required vaccine, with nearly 14% of K-12 children in the 2023-24 school year. Health officials say that number is likely higher because it doesn’t include many children who are homeschooled and whose data would not be reported. 

Health workers are hosting regular vaccination clinics and screening efforts in Texas, as well as working with schools to educate people about the importance of vaccination and offering shots. 

New Mexico health officials are also hosting several vaccination clinics in Hobbs next week. 
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PARIS — Ice loss from the world’s glaciers has accelerated over the past decade, scientists said on Wednesday, warning that melting may be faster than previously expected in the coming years and drive sea levels higher.

The world’s glaciers, which are important climate regulators and hold freshwater resources for billions, are rapidly melting as the world warms.

In a first-of-its-kind global assessment, an international team of researchers found a sharp increase in melting over the past decade, with around 36% more ice lost in the 2012-23 period than in the years from 2000-11.

On average some 273 billion tons of ice are being lost per year — equivalent to the world population’s water consumption for 30 years, they said.

The findings are “shocking” if not altogether surprising as global temperatures rise with humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions, said Michael Zemp, a professor at the University of Zurich, who was a co-author of the assessment published in the journal Nature.

Overall, researchers found that the world’s glaciers have lost around 5% of their volume since the turn of the century, with wide regional differences ranging from a 2% loss in Antarctica to up to 40% in the European Alps.

Zemp said that regions with smaller glaciers are losing them faster, and many “will not survive the present century.”

The research — coordinated by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), The University of Edinburgh and research group Earthwave — was an effort to bring together field and satellite measurements to create a “reference estimate” for tracking ice loss.

Zemp, who leads the WGMS, said the team’s observations and recent modelling studies suggest that glacier melt this century will be faster than projected in the most recent assessment by United Nations IPCC climate experts.

“Hence, we are facing higher sea-level rise until the end of this century than expected before,” he told AFP, adding that glacier loss would also impact fresh water supplies, particularly in central Asia and the central Andes.

Glaciers are the second-largest contributor to global sea-level rise — after the rise caused by the expansion of seawater as it warms.

The nearly 2 centimeters of sea level rise attributed to glacier melt since 2000 means almost 4 million more people on the world’s coasts made vulnerable to flooding, scientists have estimated.

‘Survival strategy’

So far smaller glaciers are the main contributors to sea level rise, but Martin Siegert, a professor at the University of Exeter who was not involved in the study, said the research was “concerning.”

That is because it predicts further glacier losses and could indicate how Antarctica and Greenland’s vast ice sheets react to global warming.

“Ice sheets are now losing mass at increasing rates — six times more than 30 years ago — and when they change, we stop talking centimeters and start talking meters,” he said.

Glaciers have been a key bellwether for human-caused climate change for decades, with WGMS data going back more than a century.

In the 20th century, assessments were based on field measurements from some 500 glaciers — involving scientists digging a hole on the top to record the amount of fresh snow that year and then assessing ice amounts lost on the “tongue” where the melting ice flows.

More recently, satellites have allowed scientists to better track changes across the world’s 275,000 glaciers — using cameras, radar, lasers and methods to assess the Earth’s mass.

In January, the United Nations said saving the world’s glaciers was an important “survival strategy” for the planet.

To do that, “you have to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, it is as simple and as complicated as that,” said Zemp.

“Every tenth of a degree warming that we avoid saves us money, saves us lives, saves us problems.”
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After China’s DeepSeek gained global recognition, some argue that the U.S.-China rivalry in AI may be upended. In addition, the Chinese Communist Party is actively offering to help developing countries strengthen their AI capacity building. Observers said that China is selling its AI software to targeted regions, which can challenge U.S. AI and serve as a strategy for Chinese companies to get more business overseas.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 
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An asteroid heading toward Earth will likely miss its chance to wipe out the planet. Plus, a possible new source of fuel for future flight. And the northern lights as only seen from above. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.
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BRUSSELS — The European Commission said Thursday it had approved 920 million-euro of German state aid, or $960 million, to Infineon Technologies for the construction of a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in Dresden.

The measure will allow Infineon to complete the MEGAFAB-DD project, which will be able to produce a wide range of different types of computer chips, the Commission said.

Chipmakers across the globe are pouring billions of dollars into new plants, as they take advantage of generous subsidies from the United States and the EU to keep the West ahead of China in developing cutting-edge semiconductor technology.

The European Commission has earmarked 15 billion euros for public and private semiconductor projects by 2030.

“This new manufacturing plant will bring flexible production capacity to the EU and thereby strengthen Europe’s security of supply, resilience and technological autonomy in semiconductor technologies, in line with the objectives set out in the European Chips Act,” the Commission said in a statement.

The Commission said the plant — which is slated to reach full capacity in 2031 — will be a front-end facility, covering wafer processing, testing and separation, adding that its chips will be used in industrial, automotive and consumer applications.

The aid will take the form of a direct grant of up to 920 million euros to Infineon to support its overall investment, amounting to 3.5 billion euros. Infineon, Germany’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, which was spun off from Siemens 25 years ago, has said the plant will be the largest single investment in its history.

Infineon has agreed with the EU to ensure the project will bring wider positive effects to the EU semiconductor value chain and invest in the research and development of the next generation of chips in Europe, the Commission said.

It will also contribute to crisis preparedness by committing to implement priority-rated orders in the case of a supply shortage, in line with the European Chips Act. 
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WASHINGTON — Chinese social media users are not impressed by the newly released AI model Grok 3 by Elon Musk’s xAI, retaining their preference and support for DeepSeek, the free China-made AI model that rivals leading Western competitors while costing significantly less to train.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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WASHINGTON — A German study shows that the cancer detection rate improves by almost 18% when doctors get help from artificial intelligence.  

For the study, radiologists — doctors who analyze the results of mammograms and other diagnostic tests — used artificial intelligence to examine the mammograms of more than 460,000 German women between the ages of 50 and 69. They found one more cancer for every 1,000 women than humans alone did, according to researchers. It was the largest real-world exploration to date into the use of AI to help detect breast cancer.  

“The breast cancer detection rate is better, and this is really strong evidence,” said Dr.  Alexander Katalinic, of the University of Lubeck in Germany, who was the study’s principal investigator. “And based on this evidence, we should start to use more AI in breast cancer screening, and in the end, this should be standard.”  

The mammograms of 463,094 German women were examined between July 2021 and February 2023. About half were reviewed by two radiologists, which is standard procedure in Germany. In just over half of the cases, the humans were assisted by AI.  When AI was involved, the breast cancer detection rate was 6.7 per 1,000 women, compared to 5.7 per 1,000 women screened solely by humans. 

“AI really is suitable for replacing human readers to a certain extent,” Katalinic said. “But how far do you want to go? This is not only a question of science, it’s also a social question. How is the society’s trust in AI?”  

The study found that AI also helped reduce the number of false positive results. Artificial intelligence, however, did miss some cancers. 

“The AI is not perfect in the same way that the humans are not perfect,” said Stefan Bunk, cofounder of Vara, a health care technology company in Berlin that developed the artificial intelligence used in the study. “There were 20 cases in our study where the AI said this case is normal but actually a radiologist found cancer.”  

Humans, however, missed a malignancy 10 times more than the AI, according to the study results.  

“AI, unlike humans, doesn’t get tired, right?” Bunk said. “AI works in the same way at 2 a.m. in the morning like in the middle of the day. So, it’s definitely an advantage, and it’s also one of the reasons why I think AI finds cancers that otherwise humans would miss.” 

AI could help reduce the workload for radiologists, freeing them to focus on more complex cases, according to Bunk, who added that increasing reliance on AI could lead to the risk of losing human expertise over time. 

“Those complex cases — those cases where you need to take into account multiple angles, where you need to talk to the patient, right — is something where expertise and an actual radiologist is very important and should continue to be trained,” Bunk said.   

Dr. Wei Yang, a professor in breast radiology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, believes increased use of AI could energize radiologists. 

“I think that the advent of AI is an opportunity and a trigger for us to become more excited about our field so that highly trained radiologists will have the open space, the time and the concentration to focus on more complex tasks,” Yang said. 

Using a human radiologist along with artificial intelligence offers the best of both worlds, according to Katalinic. 

“The combination of a human together with AI is much better than only having the human reading,” he said. 

Yang, who was not involved in the study, is encouraged by the results.  

“The data is very compelling,” she said. “The increased cancer detection rate, the reduction in the false positive callbacks and the potential impact this can have on the workforce and burnout. So overall, very, very positive.” 
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