Despite Donald Trump’s unrelenting attacks on renewable energy, there’s a quiet revolution happening on US grids.
A failure in the helium flow of the SLS rocket has prompted NASA to delay the Artemis II moon mission. Rather than March 6, the launch is now targeted for April.
Next month, the Earth will come between the sun and the moon, causing the moon to take on an eerie reddish hue.
What scientists thought were four separate star clusters are actually part of one nearly invisible system.
A 2023 law championed by Republicans requires the CDC have a director confirmed by the Senate. For months, though, it’s had only acting directors—and the White House won’t say when that will change.
Massive data centers for generative AI are bad for the Earth. How about launching them into orbit?
A new report finds that of 154 specific claims about how AI will benefit the climate, just a quarter cited academic research. A third included no evidence at all.
WHO today announced that Libya has eliminated trachoma as a public health problem, a landmark victory for public health in WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region. This hard-won achievement protects future generations from preventable blindness and provides a powerful reminder that countries can overcome neglected tropical diseases despite persisting challenges.
As patients and employers look for alternatives to pricey GLP-1 drugs, Silicon Valley startup Twin Health is using AI and wearable sensors to help people make healthier choices.
Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded a weeklong round of negotiations on draft annex for Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) – a key component of the WHO Pandemic Agreement.
The fifth meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group on the WHO Pandemic Agreement (IGWG) – set up by the World Health Assembly (WHA) last year to negotiate the PABS annex – wrapped up over the weekend after productive discussions from 9–14 February 2026.
You can never truly empty a box. Why? Zero-point energy.
Snowpack levels across a wide swath of western US states are among the lowest seen in decades, even as regulators struggle to negotiate water rights in the region.
WHO statement on a planned hepatitis B birth dose vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau.
As the EPA moves to roll back the endangerment finding, which allows it to regulate greenhouse gases, experts predict uncertainty for business and a protracted legal fight.
Meditation isn’t thinking about nothing. New research reinforces that it’s a mind-altering, dynamic state that promotes focus, learning, and well-being.
As next-generation telescopes map this outer frontier, astronomers are bracing for discoveries that could reveal hidden planets, strange structures, and clues to the solar system’s chaotic youth.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging countries to accelerate efforts to ensure that millions of people living with cataract can access simple, sight‑restoring surgery – one of the most effective and affordable interventions to prevent avoidable blindness.
Are you speechless watching US figure skater Ilia Malinin on the ice? Science explains how it’s possible the Quad God can do more than four full rotations in the air.
The site Realfood.gov uses Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot to dispense nutrition information—some of which contradicts the government’s new guidelines.
General Galactic, cofounded by a former SpaceX engineer, plans to test its water-based propellant this fall. If successful, it could help usher in a new era of space travel. That's a big “if.”
Among those Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently named to a federal autism committee are people who tout dangerous treatments and say vaccine manufacturers are “poisoning children.”
Red and blue states alike have introduced legislation in recent weeks that would halt data center development, citing concerns from climate to high energy prices.
For two weeks, medical experts monitor the astronauts as they remain indoors, live in isolation, and avoid physical touch, all to prevent harmful microbes from traveling to space.
For years, quad axel jumps seemed impossible. Then Ilia Malinin landed one in 2022. As he heads to the Milano Cortina Games, everyone wants to know what’s next.
Joint statement by the UNFPA Executive Director, UNICEF Executive Director, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Women Executive Director, WHO Director-General, and UNESCO Director-General on the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation
In 2026 alone, an estimated 4.5 million girls – many under the age of five – are at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM). Currently, more than 230 million girls and women are living with its lifelong consequences.
Today, on the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, we reaffirm our commitment to end female genital mutilation for every girl and every woman at risk, and to continue working to ensure those subjected to this harmful practice have access to quality and appropriate services.
Female genital mutilation is a violation of human rights and cannot be justified on any grounds. It compromises girls’ and women’s physical and mental health and can lead to serious, lifelong complications, with treatment costs estimated at about US$ 1.4 billion every year.
Interventions aimed at ending female genital mutilation over the last three decades are having an impact, with nearly two-thirds of the population in countries where it is prevalent expressing support for its elimination. After decades of slow change, progress against female genital mutilation is accelerating: half of all gains since 1990 were achieved in the past decade reducing the number of girls subjected to FGM from one in two to one in three. We need to build on this momentum and speed up progress to meet the Sustainable Development Goal target of ending female genital mutilation by 2030.
We know what works. Health education, engaging religious and community leaders, parents and health workers and the use of traditional and social media are effective strategies to end the practice. We must invest in community-led movements – including grassroots and youth networks – and strengthen education through both formal and community-based approaches. We need to amplify prevention messages by involving trusted opinion leaders, including health workers. And we must support survivors by ensuring they have access to comprehensive, context-tailored health care, psychosocial support, and legal assistance.
Every dollar invested in ending female genital mutilation yields a tenfold return. An investment of US$ 2.8 billion can prevent 20 million cases and generate US$ 28 billion in investment returns.
As we approach 2030, gains achieved over decades are at risk as global investment and support wane. Funding cuts and declining international investment in health, education, and child protection programmes are already constraining efforts to prevent female genital mutilation and support survivors. Further, the growing systematic pushback on efforts to end female genital mutilation, compounded by dangerous arguments that it is acceptable when carried out by doctors or health workers, adds more hurdles to elimination efforts. Without adequate and predictable financing, community outreach programmes risk being scaled back, frontline services weakened, and progress reversed – placing millions more girls at risk at a critical moment in the push to meet the 2030 target.
Today we reaffirm our commitment and efforts with local and global public and private partners, including survivors, to end female genital mutilation once and for all.
First preventive campaign in over three years launches in Mozambique, with others planned in Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Up to four in ten cancer cases worldwide could be prevented, according to a new global analysis from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The study examines 30 preventable causes, including tobacco, alcohol, high body mass index, physical inactivity, air pollution, ultraviolet radiation – and for the first time – nine cancer-causing infections.
The World Health Organization (WHO) today launched its 2026 global appeal to ensure millions of people living in humanitarian crises and conflicts can access health care.
Progress made during the six years, since the declaration of COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, in preparing for a future pandemic, and what remains to be done.
Marking World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that millions of people living with NTDs continue to face profound and often unseen suffering due to discrimination, social stigma and untreated mental health conditions. Under the rallying theme "Unite. Act. Eliminate.", WHO and partners urge governments to integrate mental health care into NTD elimination efforts, ensuring that no one is left behind in pain or isolation.
Healthy food in schools can help children develop healthy dietary habits for life, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which released a new global guideline on evidence-based policies and interventions to create healthy school food environments.
WHO regrets the United States’ notification of withdrawal from WHO – a decision that makes both the United States and the world less safe. The notification of withdrawal raises issues that will be considered by the WHO Executive Board at its regular meeting starting on 2 February and by the World Health Assembly at its annual meeting in May 2026.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Member States this week advanced their negotiations on the Pathogen Access and Benefit‑Sharing (PABS) system in a resumed session of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on the WHO Pandemic Agreement. The PABS system is a core element of the agreement adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2025.
During the session held on 20–22 January 2026, Member States continued text‑based negotiations on outstanding issues in the draft annex and exchanged views aimed at narrowing differences and identifying areas of convergence.
“I am encouraged by the progress we have made in several areas, with signs of emerging consensus for some parts of the Pathogen Access and Benefit‑Sharing system,” said IGWG Bureau co‑chair Ambassador Tovar da Silva Nunes, of Brazil. “As we look ahead to the fifth session, the focus will be on the outstanding, complex issues. The resumed session has helped us gain a clearer picture of where we stand.”
Established by the WHA, the IGWG is tasked, as a priority, with drafting and negotiating the PABS system, which is intended to enable safe, transparent and accountable sharing of pathogens with pandemic potential and their genetic sequence information, alongside the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use, including vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.
The resumed session was held following a request by Member States to extend the fourth meeting of the IGWG, which convened in December 2025.
“Member States have engaged in constructive discussions this week," said IGWG Bureau co-chair Mr Matthew Harpur, of the United Kingdom. "As we make progress towards the May deadline, I am encouraged by their willingness to work together and bridge differences to deliver an effective Pathogen Access and Benefit‑Sharing system."
Further meetings of the IGWG are scheduled in the coming months as Member States continue their negotiations.
“A strong Pathogen Access and Benefit‑Sharing system will be a cornerstone of a safer and more equitable world,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “I thank countries for their commitment to multilateral solutions.”
The outcome of IGWG’s work will be submitted to the Seventy‑ninth World Health Assembly in May 2026 for its consideration.