The administration is not only allowing more greenhouse gases. It is undermining the nation’s ability to understand and respond to a hotter planet.When the Trump administration declared two weeks ago that it would largely disregard the economic cost of climate change as it sets policies and regulations, it was just the latest step in a multipronged effort to erase global warming from the American agenda.But President Trump is doing more than just turning a blind eye to the fact that the planet is growing hotter. He is weakening the country’s capacity to understand global warming and to prepare for its consequences.The administration has dismantled climate research, firing some of the nation’s top scientists, and gutted efforts to chart how fast greenhouse gases are building up in the atmosphere and what that means for the economy, employment, agriculture, health and other aspects of American society. The government will no longer track major sources of greenhouse gases, data that has been used to measure the scale and identify sources of the problem for the past 15 years.“We’re not doing that climate change, you know, crud, anymore,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Fox Business on May 8.By getting rid of data, the administration is trying to halt the national discussion about how to deal with global warming, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The notion of there being any shared factual reality just seems to be completely out the window,” he said.At the same time, through cuts to the National Weather Service and by denying disaster relief through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the administration has weakened the country’s ability to prepare for and recover from hurricanes, wildfires, droughts and other extreme weather that is being made worse by climate change.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Last year saw more than 3,600 attacks on health workers, hospitals and clinics in conflict zones, a record figure reflecting “new levels of horror”, a new report has found.The total is 15% higher than in 2023 and includes air, missile and drone strikes on hospitals and clinics, as well as the looting and takeover of facilities and arrest and detention of health workers.More than a third of the attacks took place in Gaza and the West Bank, but there were also hundreds recorded in Ukraine, Lebanon, Myanmar and Sudan.Leonard Rubenstein, the chair of the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC), which authored the report, warned that the rise comes at the same time as “attempts by perpetrators to limit legal protections for healthcare and civilians in war”.He cited sanctions imposed on international criminal court (ICC) staff by US president Donald Trump for having charged Israelis with war crimes, and a 2023 law passed by Russia’s Duma that criminalised cooperation with the ICC.Rubenstein said: “On average, in 2024, healthcare came under attack 10 times a day across the world’s war zones. Each of these assaults brings terror, trauma, and in too many cases, injury, destruction and death.“Attacks on healthcare undermine the ability to care for people when it is needed most, in war.”There were 3,623 recorded incidents in 2024, including 1,111 where health facilities were damaged or destroyed, 927 where health workers were killed, 473 where health workers were arrested and 140 where health workers were kidnapped. Most of the incidents – 81% – were attributed to state actors.More than 55% of health worker arrests in 2024 were made by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The SHCC points to reports of physical and sexual abuse inside detention facilities. Nearly half of the deaths were reported from Lebanon, and most were emergency medical responders killed during the IDF’s Operation Northern Arrows.Explosive weapons are used in an increasing proportion of attacks against healthcare, the report warned, up from 36% of incidents in 2023 to 48% last year. Much of the rise was accounted for by the increased use of drones.The figures in the report are probably an undercount, it said, due to the difficulty of collecting accurate information during conflict.Christina Wille, director of Insecurity Insight, who led the report’s data collection, said: “There has been a complete erosion in the respect for international humanitarian law and the responsibility to protect healthcare in conflict.”She called for a “decisive response”, adding: “Justice must be pursued and accountability enforced.”The report calls on UN member states to “collectively reject efforts to reinterpret international humanitarian law that undermine their purpose of protecting healthcare in armed conflict” and “end impunity by encouraging investigations, data sharing, prosecutions through the ICC and empowering monitoring bodies”.It also calls for support for declarations and treaties that would strengthen protections for civilians in armed conflicts, and a review of military doctrines and protocols to put greater emphasis on safety for healthcare.

Seventeen years after her debut feature Let the Blue River Run, Korean director Kang Mi-Ja returns with this devastating tale of love and addiction, adapted from Kwon Yeo-sun’s novel. The film’s lo-fi aesthetics – unvarnished digital cinematography, minimally edited static shots – strips the already compact narrative down to pure, elemental passions. After a chance encounter at a wedding party, lonelyhearts Su-hwan (Kim Seol-jin) and Yeong-gyeong (Han Ye-ri Minari) cling on to each other for emotional shelter, their connection simultaneously fuelled and imperilled by the latter’s debilitating alcoholism.The shared baggage of romantic betrayals and financial uncertainty is revealed rather swiftly in a rare dialogue-heavy scene; the rest of the film prioritises body language over words. After this hasty introduction, to ask viewers to immediately plunge into the depths of the characters’ sufferings is quite a demanding request. And yet the extraordinary performances from the lead actors, along with Kang’s eye for framing, beautifully fill out the missing gaps. The world around the couple is a void of indifference, filled with nondescript apartment buildings and forlorn bars. Together, these outsiders soften the harsh edges of city life; trained in dance, Kim Seol-jin and Han Ye-ri imbue their every gesture with a stunning physicality. A recurring composition of the doomed lovers locked in a nurturing embrace grows overwhelmingly moving with each episode, as external forces pull the pair apart.Channelling Yeong-gyeong’s drunken blackouts, the elliptical structure of Spring Night conveys how misfortunes can arrive quietly, then all at once. But for such a melancholic plot, the film never veers into miserabilism. Instead of fetishising sorrow and despair, Kang grounds the atmosphere of hopelessness in concrete visual details that are decidedly unsentimental. This is not a sob story, but a slice of reality.

8 hours agoShareSaveYang Tian and James ChaterBBC NewsShareSaveReutersFormer US President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.Biden received the news on Friday after he saw a doctor last week for urinary symptoms.Here’s what you need to know about prostate cancer and its treatment options.What is prostate cancer?Prostate cancer affects tissue of the prostate gland, the part of the male reproductive system that helps make semen. It is located between the penis and the bladder.According to the NHS, it usually develops slowly, meaning some live for decades without symptoms or needing treatment.In Biden’s case, the cancer is aggressive, and his family are said to be reviewing options for treatment.Biden was diagnosed following urinary symptoms, one of the most common signs of prostate cancer. That’s because it is often detected only when the prostate is big enough to have impacted the urethra, the tube that connects the bladder to the penis.Those symptoms can include needing to urinate more frequently, as well as a slow or weak urinary stream.Screening for prostate cancer is part of routine presidential health inspections, according to Dr Jeffrey Kuhlman, former White House doctor under President Barack Obama.Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in American men, according to the American Cancer Society, behind lung cancer.There will be more than 300,000 new cases in the US this year, according to projections by the American Cancer Society. About one in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime.While it is “not uncommon” for men in their 80s to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, the grade and stage of Biden’s cancer are “more advanced than most men would encounter” at diagnosis, Dr Ryan Cleary, urologist at MedStar Health, told the BBC.What is the Gleason score? The former president’s prostate cancer is “characterised by a Gleason score of 9”, his office said in the statement announcing his diagnosis.In the US, the Gleason score is a common way of grading the capacity for cells from the primary tumour to spread round the body – also known as metastatic cancer.Specifically, it refers to how abnormal the cancer cells look in a sample under a microscope. The scale runs from six to 10, with a higher number indicating a more aggressive cancer.The scale starts at six because it is calculated by combining the two most common patterns of cancer cells found in a patient. The lowest score assigned to cancerous cells is three. That’s why the lowest Gleason score for a cancer diagnosis is six.A Gleason score of nine, such as Biden’s, means it is a “high-grade cancer”. Cancer cells with a score of nine look very abnormal and are likely to grow quickly.What are Biden’s treatment options?Biden’s cancer is aggressive in nature and has already spread to his bones.According to Dr Jamin Vinod Brahmbhatt, a urologist at Orlando Health Medical Group, this level of spread does limit the treatment options.While there are medical based treatments such as chemotherapy, steroids and hormone therapy available, none of them are “curative”, he said.”There are more medical options to stabilise the patient and control the cancer, but it never gets rid of the cancer completely.”Biden’s cancer is also said to be hormone sensitive, which means the cancer uses hormones to grow or develop.These types of cancers can be managed by drugs that block or lower the amount of hormones in the body.Dr Brahmbhatt said while this “opens up the toolkit” of treatment options for Biden, it was going to take “weeks or months” to see how he responds.Dr Kuhlman said Biden could also have the option of entering “clinical trials for advanced disease” if he meets the inclusion criteria.Biden and his family are said to be reviewing treatment options.What is his prognosis?In Sunday’s statement, Biden’s office said since the cancer appeared to be hormone-sensitive, that “allows for effective management”.The full details of Biden’s case are not known. Dr Cleary said: “Generally, about a third of patients will still be alive after five years of metastatic prostate cancer.”However, advanced stages of prostate cancer can limit a person’s lifespan and lead to symptoms that make daily life harder.Dr Kuhlman said it was important to consider treatments that maintain Biden’s quality of life in the next few years.”If there’s any inspiration in this, it is to go and get yourself checked out whether you have symptoms or not,” Dr Brahmbhatt said.

While prognoses for prostate cancer patients were once measured in months, experts say that advances in treatment and diagnosis now improve survival by years.Prostate cancer experts say that former President Joseph R. Biden’s diagnosis is serious. Announced on Sunday by his office, the cancer has spread to his bones. And it is Stage 4, the most deadly of stages for the illness. It cannot be cured.But the good news, prostate cancer specialists said, is that recent advances in diagnosing and treating prostate cancer — based in large part on research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the Defense Department — have changed what was once an exceedingly grim picture for men with advanced disease.“Life is measured in years now, not months,” said Dr. Daniel W. Lin, a prostate cancer specialist at the University of Washington.Dr. Judd Moul, a prostate cancer expert at Duke University, said that men whose prostate cancer has spread to their bones, “can live 5, 7, 10 or more years” with current treatments. A man like Mr. Biden, in his 80s, “could hopefully pass away from natural causes and not from prostate cancer,” he said.Mr. Biden’s office said the former president had urinary symptoms, which led him to seek medical attention.But, Dr. Lin said, “I highly doubt his symptoms were due to cancer.”Instead, he said, the most likely scenario is that a doctor did an exam, noticed a nodule on Mr. Biden’s prostate and did a blood test, the prostate-specific antigen test. The PSA test looks for a protein released by cancer cells, and can be followed up by an M.R.I. The blood test and the M.R.I. would have pointed to the cancer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

12 hours agoShareSavePhilippa RoxbyHealth reporterShareSaveGetty ImagesGPs in England and their patients are to help the NHS find more victims of the contaminated blood scandal.It is thought thousands of people could have been exposed to the hepatitis C virus through contaminated blood transfusions in the 1970s, 80s and 90s; part of a scandal which affected more than 30,000 people in the UK.From June, patients signing up to a GP practice, who received a blood transfusion before 1996, will be offered a test for hepatitis C.The BBC revealed the scale of undiagnosed cases last year, as people with life-threatening liver damage caused by the virus over many years continue to be identified.’Horrifying impact’Hepatitis C can now be treated by modern anti-viral drugs to eliminate the virus for most patients.But if it goes undetected and undiagnosed there may not be any noticeable symptoms for some time and it can infect the liver and cause serious damage, leaving the organ beyond repair.Family photoMaureen Arkley, who died last year, was diagnosed with hepatitis C and cirrhosis of the liver in 2023, more than 40 years after she had an operation involving multiple blood transfusions. These were on her medical records but she was not told by her GP or anyone in the NHS that she could have been exposed to the virus.BBC News highlighted her case as one of many people let down by the lack of testing following the infected blood scandal.It is one of the biggest treatment disasters in NHS history – 3,000 people who were infected with HIV and hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products have died.Many of the victims were haemophiliacs, who were given infected blood products as part of their treatment.Many thousands more were given transfusions using contaminated blood after accidents, emergencies or childbirth.Maureen died in February 2024, five months after her diagnosis and 47 years after a blood transfusion infected her. “The end was utterly horrific, she weighed less than four stone when she died,” her daughter Victoria told the BBC.Diagnosing the unawareNHS England says around 400,000 people each year, born before 1996, will be asked if they have ever had a blood transfusion through the online GP registration form.This was a move recommended in the Infected Blood Inquiry report, published in May 2024.If a previous blood transfusion is confirmed, patients will be able to test themselves for hepatitis C at home, using a finger prick blood test which is then posted to a lab for analysis.Tests can also be carried out at GP surgeries, sexual health clinics and other places, NHS England says.The charity Hepatitis C Trust is also encouraging anyone who had a blood transfusion before 1996, including current GP patients, to get tested.”Every two weeks we hear from someone infected with hepatitis C through a transfusion who is only now finding out,” said the charity’s chief executive, Rachel Halford.”All of these people have had hepatitis C for more than three decades; some are very ill. A more proactive approach is critical to reaching and diagnosing those who remain unaware of their infection.”NHS England medical director Prof Stephen Powis said the “simple change” to the GP registration process was “a vital step forward” to ensure nobody affected by contaminated blood is “undiagnosed and unsupported”.”The failures of the contaminated blood scandal have had a horrifying impact for patients and their families for decades, and I would like to reiterate our deepest apologies for the role the health service played in the suffering and loss for so many,” he added.Health officials say the risk of getting an infection from a blood transfusion or from blood products since screening of blood donations was introduced, is very low.All blood donations have been screened for HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C since September 1991.In Wales and Northern Ireland, GPs are already testing current and new patients, who meet the criteria, for hepatitis C.The Scottish Government said GP surgeries and NHS Boards had been asked to offer testing to any patients who had a blood transfusion before 1996, and not already been tested.Opt-out testing for HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B will also start being rolled out in some A&E departments, a government spokesperson said.