Analysis reveals increasing addiction and intensity of e-cigarette use by US adolescents

The recently released 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey data show that 2.55 million adolescents use e-cigarettes and 27.6% of adolescents use e-cigarettes daily.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL

• Among U.S. middle and high school students, e-cigarette initiation age dropped, and intensity of use and addiction increased between 2014 and 2021

• By 2019 more e-cigarette users were using their first tobacco product within 5 minutes of waking—an indicator of addiction—than for cigarettes and all other tobacco products combined

BOSTON – A new analysis published in JAMA Network Open by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in collaboration with a retired UCSF professor reveals ongoing and worsening adolescent e-cigarette addiction in the United States.

In the analysis of data from the annual National Youth Tobacco Survey, a nationally-representative survey of middle and high school students in grades 6–12, researchers found that e-cigarette prevalence among youth peaked in 2019 then declined, but e-cigarette initiation age dropped between 2014 and 2021,and intensity of use and addiction increased after the introduction of protonated nicotine products

Protonated nicotine is created by adding acid to the e-cigarette liquid, which makes the nicotine easier to inhale. Since Juul pioneered protonated nicotine, it has been widely adopted by other e-cigarette companies.

Age at first use of e-cigarettes fell by 1.9 months per year, while age at first use of cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco did not change significantly. By 2017, e-cigarettes became the most common first tobacco product used.

E-cigarette nicotine addiction, measured as the odds of use within 5 minutes of waking, an indicator of addiction, increased over time. By 2019 more youth e-cigarette users were using their first tobacco product within 5 minutes of waking than for cigarettes and all other products combined. The percent of sole e-cigarette users who used e-cigarettes within 5 minutes of waking was around 1% through 2017, but then it increased every year, reaching 10.3% youth using their first e-cigarette within 5 minutes of waking by 2021.

Median e-cigarette use also increased from 3–5 days per month in 2014–2018 to 6–9 days per month in 2019–2020 and 10–19 days per month in 2021.

The recently released 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey data show that 2.55 million adolescents use e-cigarettes and 27.6% of adolescents use e-cigarettes daily. The comparable numbers reported in this paper for 2021 were 2.1 million and 24.7%.

“The increasing intensity of use of modern e-cigarettes highlights the clinical need to address youth addiction to these new high nicotine products over the course of many clinical encounters,” says senior author Jonathan P. Winickoff, MD, MPH, a pediatrician at MGH and a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. First author Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, a retired UCSF professor of medicine, adds, “In addition, stronger regulation including state and local comprehensive bans on the sale of flavored tobacco products such as voting YES on Proposition 31 on California’s November ballot, should be implemented.”

Abra Jeffers, PhD, is an additional coauthor.

This work was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute.

About the Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The Mass General Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with annual research operations of more than $1 billion and comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments. In August 2022, Mass General was named #5 in the U.S. News & World Report list of "America’s Best Hospitals."

This work was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute.

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.40671 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Nicotine Addiction and Intensity of e-Cigarette Use by Adolescents in the US, 2014 to 2021

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Nov-2022

Nicotine addiction, intensity of e-cigarette use by adolescents

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: In this survey study of 151,000 students in grades 6 to 12, age at initiation of e-cigarette use decreased and intensity of use and addiction increased between 2014 and 2021. By 2019, more e-cigarette users were using their first tobacco product within 5 minutes of waking than users of cigarettes and all other tobacco products combined. These findings suggest that clinicians need to be ready to address youth addiction to these new highly addictive nicotine products during many clinical encounters, and stronger regulation is needed, including comprehensive bans on the sale of flavored tobacco products.

Authors: Jonathan P. Winickoff, M.D., M.P.H., of Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.40671)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.40671?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=110722

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is the new online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

High levels of sweet and fruit-flavour chemicals in ‘tobacco-flavoured’ e-cig liquids

Recent trend coincides with restrictions on sale of flavours likely to appeal to young people

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMJ

There are now high levels of sweet and fruit-flavoured chemicals likely to appeal to young people in e-cigarette liquids ostensibly marketed as ‘tobacco-flavoured’, compared with a decade ago, finds research published today in a special supplement* of the journal Tobacco Control.

This recent trend coincides with the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ban on the sale of cartridge based flavoured e-cigarettes–with the exception of menthol and tobacco flavours–in a bid to limit their appeal to young people. And it suggests that manufacturers are managing to get round the regulations, say the researchers.

E-liquid formulations have been evolving rapidly over the past decade, and flavour chemicals are particularly important because young people like fruit, candy, and sweet flavours, say the researchers. 

And disposable products, such as Puff, which are particularly popular with young people, aren’t covered by the FDA’s ban.

The researchers therefore wanted to find out if e-cigarettes marketed as ‘tobacco flavoured’ contained sweet and fruit flavour chemicals that would likely appeal to young people.

They drew on their extensive database (UCR/PSU Electronic Cigarette Data Collection) of e-liquid and aerosol flavour chemicals, acids, reaction products and metals, to identify any trends and changes in chemical composition and levels since 2010-11.

They compared the number and amount of flavour chemicals in 63 ‘tobacco-flavoured’ e-cigarette refill fluids purchased between 2011 and 2019 and 2 popular pod-style e-cigarette brands—JUUL and Puff. 

Tobacco-flavoured products purchased in 2010 and 2011 had very few flavour chemicals, overall, the levels of which were generally very low. 

Nearly two thirds (63%) of the refill fluids bought before 2019 had levels of flavour chemicals  below 2 mg/ml, and most (84%) were below 5 mg/ml.

But the total number and level of flavour chemicals in ‘tobacco flavoured’ refill fluids purchased in 2019 and in Puff Bar Tobacco e-cigarettes, were higher than expected. 

Among the 13 refill products bought in 2019, more than half (54%) had total flavour chemical levels above 10 mg/ml. Products with total flavour chemicals of more than 10 mg/ml contained 1 to 5 dominant flavour chemicals (each more than 1 mg/ml).  

The 5 most frequently used flavour chemicals in ‘tobacco flavoured’ e-liquids were predominantly fruity and caramellic: ethyl maltol (sweet or caramel, 60%); corylone (caramellic, maple, 44%); menthol (33%); vanillin (25%), maltol and triacetin (fruity, creamy, 24%). 

Nine sweet and fruit flavour chemicals, used mainly in products bought in 2016 and 2019, were at levels above 2 mg/ml.  

JUUL has marketed two tobacco flavours, ‘Classic’ and ‘Virginia’. Total flavour chemical levels for both these products were below 0.35 mg/ml, while levels of the individual chemicals were, in most cases, equal to, or less than, 0.05 mg/ml. 

Different flavour chemicals were used in the ‘Classic’ and ‘Virginia’ products, suggesting these were added intentionally to create distinct tastes for each product. 

Puff ‘Tobacco’, on the other hand, had 27 different flavour chemicals adding up to a total of 34.3 mg/ml. Individual chemicals ranged from 0.03 to 15 mg/ml. 

Four flavour chemicals (vanillin, ethyl maltol, ethyl vanillin and corylone), which were the highest (range 2.07–15 mg/ml), are typically used in sweet-flavoured e-cigarette products, such as Dewberry Cream, which is popular with young vapers, note the researchers.

For the dominant flavour chemicals found in both brands, levels of vanillin were 300 times higher in Puff than in JUUL, while ethyl maltol was 239 times higher, and corylone 41 times higher. 

The total number of flavour chemicals used in Puff Bar Tobacco was greater than those found in nearly all (94%) the refill fluids evaluated. 

“Concern has been raised previously about the safety of flavour chemicals when inhaled at these high concentrations,” point out the researchers.

 “Although these particular flavours are Generally Regarded As Safe by the Flavor Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA) for ingestion, FEMA has not evaluated them for inhalation toxicity.”

They conclude: “It is important for the FDA to identify and quantify flavour chemicals before authorising Premarket Tobacco Applications (PMTA) for two reasons. 

“First, flavour chemicals are often used in e-liquids without safety data at concentrations much higher than those found in other consumer products. Second, our data show that e-cigarette manufacturers are manipulating e-liquid formulations apparently to circumvent flavour chemical regulations.” 

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JOURNAL

Tobacco Control

DOI

10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2022-057484 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Ethyl maltol, vanillin, corylone and other conventional confectionery-related flavour chemicals dominate in some e-cigarette liquids labelled ‘tobacco’ flavoured

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Nov-2022

Starved yeast poisons clones

When starved of glucose, yeast kills its own clones and other surrounding microorganisms to survive in a newly discovered phenomenon named latecomer killing

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

 

IMAGE: THERE ARE MORE THAN 1,500 KNOWN TYPES OF YEAST. SOME ARE ESSENTIAL FOR BAKING AND BREWING, WHILE OTHERS CAN CAUSE INFECTIONS WHICH AFFECT HUMAN AND ANIMAL HEALTH. view more 

CREDIT: 2022 ROHAN MEHRA

Yeast is not the simple single-celled microorganism we once thought, but a competitive killer. When starved of glucose, yeast releases a toxin that will poison other microorganisms that have entered its surrounding habitat, even its own clones. This venomous phenomenon was previously unknown and contributes to our understanding of unicellular microorganism behavior, the evolution of unicellular to multicellular organisms, as well as having potentially useful applications for the food industry.

Bread baking became a popular new hobby during the pandemic, so nowadays you’ll probably find a small packet of dried yeast stashed away in many a kitchen cupboard. For thousands of years, this little living fungus has been a staple part of our diet, enabling us to enjoy fluffy bread, sweet wine and frothy beer. Until recently, yeast was thought to be a simple unicellular (single cell) microorganism, but researchers at the University of Tokyo have now discovered it has a murderous survival strategy.

“In the critical survival situation of glucose starvation, yeasts release toxins into their habitat which kill other microorganisms while the yeast itself acquires resistance,” explained Assistant Professor Tetsuhiro Hatakeyama from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “We have called this phenomenon latecomer killing. We were even more surprised to find that the toxins produced by yeasts can also kill their nonadapted clones, so they are at risk of killing not only invading microorganisms but also their own offspring. Such seemingly risky and almost suicidal behavior had not previously been found in a single-celled organism or even considered to exist.” 

Although cooperative forms of behavior are well known in many bacteria and fungi, this research is the first prominent finding of competitiveness occurring in clonal cells in unicellular organisms. This has important implications for our understanding of the ecology of microorganisms, as well as why some specific microorganisms grow during fermentation while others do not. To make this discovery, the team grew clonal cells (i.e., derived from the same parental cell) separately under glucose-limited and glucose-rich conditions. When the cells were combined, their growth patterns showed that yeast cells which had already adapted to glucose starvation were able to poison latecomers and keep food resources for themselves.

“Our research reveals a surprisingly selfish side to yeast behavior,” said Hatakeyama. “The phenomenon we discovered is similar to a thought experiment proposed by the ancient Greek philosopher Carneades of Cyrene, called the plank of Carneades: If a sailor escapes from a shipwreck by holding on to a plank that is capable of supporting barely one person, and then pushes away another sailor who comes after him, will he be charged with murder?” The researchers suggest that this strategy may help yeast avoid mass starvation of the population, while also aiding selection of toxin-producing offspring that are more likely to continue their lineage. The strategy was observed in several different types of yeast — initially taken from beer, bread and wine — which could mean that this phenomenon may occur more widely across this diverse species.

This discovery could be used to develop useful growth control mechanisms for economically important species of yeast, such as those used in the food industry. Although not included in this study, it may also pave the way to better controlling types of yeast which can negatively affect human and animal health. The team would next like to explore the implications of this discovery for cell evolution. “For the development of multicellular organisms, not only mutual activation of cellular growth but also mutual inhibition of cellular growth or programmed cell death in clonal cells is required,” explained Hatakeyama. “Fungi are known to tend to an evolutionary transition between unicellularity and multicellularity more readily than other organisms, so we would like to unravel the relationship between the latecomer killing and the evolution of multicellular organisms. We hope this research will make a significant contribution to our understanding of ecosystem development and evolutionary transitions.”

CAPTION

Yeast cells poisoned by toxins made by clonal cells. Dead cells are marked using a dye.

CREDIT

2022 Oda et. al

Paper Title: Arisa H. Oda, Miki Tamura, Kunihiko Kaneko, Kunihiro Ohta, Tetsuhiro S. Hatakeyama "Autotoxin-mediated latecomer killing in yeast communities" PLOS Biology. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001844

Funding: This work was supported by the Osumi Foundation for Basic Sciences, the Sumitomo Foundation, Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (Project No. 19K16070), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “Constraints and Directions of Evolution” (Project No. 17H06386, 20H04862), Japan Creative Research Promotion Agency (Project No. JPMJCR18S3) and Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (JP20wm0325003).

Useful Links:

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: https://www.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/eng_site/

Department of Basic Science: http://www.dbs.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/index.html 

Research Center for Complex Systems Biology: http://rcis.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/

press-releases.adm@gs.mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp

About the University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo is Japan's leading university and one of the world's top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world's top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 4,000 international students. Find out more at www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on Twitter at @UTokyo_News_en.

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JOURNAL

PLoS Biology

DOI

10.1371/journal.pbio.3001844 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Autotoxin-mediated latecomer killing in yeast communities

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Nov-2022

Smithsonian receives $10 million donation to support research and education on climate resilience

The gift will establish the Adrienne Arsht Community-Based Resilience Solutions Initiative, a multi-year program to study tropical resilience and educate the public about the role of resilience.

Grant and Award Announcement

SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The Smithsonian has received a $10 million donation from business leader and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht to advance climate resilience research and education. The donation will launch the Adrienne Arsht Community-Based Resilience Solutions Initiative, a multi-year program to research tropical resilience and educate the public about the role resilience—the ability to prepare for and respond to global change—plays in shaping the world around us.
The donation will fund the establishment of a center for resilience and sustainability within the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. This center will study the resilience and sustainability connecting complex tropical systems, such as rainforests, and the people who depend on these systems. In addition, the center will build from resilience found in natural systems, working with partners and communities to devise and field-test solutions. Program areas will include scaling up of Smithsonian programs that restore and rewild natural rainforest communities, encourage more environmentally conscious fishing practices, and work to understand the risks, triggers and tipping points in tropical forests and reefs.
STRI also will develop a suite of bilingual educational and outreach tools focused on resilience. With the support of staff scientists, fellows, students, and partners, STRI will develop a collection of socio-ecological teaching case studies that can be used to develop courses for policy makers and field practitioners, aimed at improving the integration of rapidly evolving science findings in decision making.
“People and communities around the world are increasingly threatened by changing climates, and Adrienne’s generous donation will help the Smithsonian in its efforts to help find solutions,” said Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch. “Her gift will strengthen the Smithsonian’s climate resilience research in Latin America and beyond, as well as create new opportunities to educate our children about the importance of sustainability, resilience and conservation.” 
This gift marks the first time Arsht has made a substantial donation to the Smithsonian. Arsht, Chair Emerita of TotalBank in Florida, has long supported the arts with donations to the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center in New York and the Center for Performing Arts in Miami. Arsht also has made two significant contributions to the Atlantic Council, a non-partisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., where she funded and created the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center and the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center.
“With Adrienne’s thoughtful and generous gift, we can conduct the research to make the planet more sustainable and help lead the country in discussions about what resilience means,” said Ellen Stofan, the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for Science and Research. “All of us at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, and our colleagues from across the Smithsonian, are energized and inspired by this important contribution,” added STRI’s director, Joshua Tewksbury.
“The Smithsonian Institution shares my vision on how to build a more resilient world where people and nature can thrive together,” Arsht said. “I am excited to see how this gift, combined with the Smithsonian’s 175-year history of data collection and educational leadership, helps the Institution inspire the next generation of leaders.”
Other new programs funded by this donation include the Smithsonian’s 15-stop virtual resilience tour, which will partner the Smithsonian’s science units with its arts and culture museums and programs to explore different interpretations of resilience. The tour targets young adults and includes virtual, 3D, augmented reality and in-person experiences focused on planetary sustainability. Another key component of this initiative is the Smithsonian Resilience Fund, an Institution-wide competitive grant program to foster and elevate resilience work across all Smithsonian museums and centers to seed the Institution’s vision for sustainability.
Overall, this initiative will serve as a catalyst and platform for promoting and conducting scientific research in Panama and across the tropics and increase the reach, relevance, and impact of research findings.

AT&T, FEMA and Argonne National Laboratory collaborate to launch climate risk and resilience portal for U.S. communities

Business Announcement

DOE/ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY

The portal will help improve America’s preparedness for future climate extremes.

What’s the news?

AT&T, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory today announced the launch of the Climate Risk and Resilience Portal (ClimRR), which advances access to cutting-edge science for climate projections to help improve America’s preparedness for future climate extremes.

This announcement comes as world leaders gather for the United Nations climate change conference COP27.

“Argonne is excited to launch this cutting-edge climate portal with AT&T and FEMA, which will give communities across the country free and open access to actionable climate data.” — Argonne Director Paul Kearns

Using climate science modeling that is among the most sophisticated methodologies worldwide, ClimRR gives state, local, tribal and territorial emergency managers and community leaders free access to localized data about future climate risks that can be used to explore strategies for resilience. Initial hazards included in ClimRR are temperature, precipitation, wind and drought conditions. Additional risks, such as wildfire and flooding, will be added in the coming months.

AT&T originally commissioned Argonne’s Center for Climate Resilience and Decision Science to produce the climate projections in ClimRR for the company’s own adaptation efforts. Through this collaboration, AT&T has made the data used in ClimRR publicly available.

Click for related video: "Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announces Climate Risk and Resilience Portal." 

Why is this important?

One in three Americans say they have been personally affected by an extreme weather event in the past two years. These climate impacts, which are becoming more frequent and intense, can vary not just from state to state, but even at the local level.

ClimRR provides peer-reviewed climate data sets in a nontechnical format and puts high-resolution, forward-looking climate insights into the hands of those who need them most. Community leaders and public safety officials can now understand how increasing climate risks will affect their populations. Access to this information will assist leaders as they strategically invest in infrastructure and response capabilities to protect communities for future generations.

What are people saying? 

“While fortifying the AT&T network against climate change is critical for the millions of people who rely on the connectivity we provide, resiliency can’t be built in a vacuum,” said Charlene Lake, chief sustainability officer and SVP-Corporate Social Responsibility at AT&T. ​“Our world is interdependent. We want other organizations and communities to see where they’re potentially vulnerable to climate change and take steps to become resilient. That’s why we’re excited to make our data publicly available and to work closely with FEMA and Argonne to get it into the right hands.”

“FEMA works with a wide range of stakeholders across the public and private sectors to achieve the goals outlined in our 2022-2026 Strategic Plan,” said FEMA’s Acting Deputy Administrator, Victoria Salinas. ​“These goals include leading the whole of community in climate resilience as well as promoting and sustaining a ready FEMA and a prepared nation. ClimRR will help us make progress against these critical objectives.”

“Argonne is excited to launch this cutting-edge climate portal with AT&T and FEMA, which will give communities across the country free and open access to actionable climate data,” said Argonne Director Paul Kearns. ​“Harnessing the power of our supercomputers, we are making cutting-edge climate data available to the public sector and local planning officials to help them better understand local climate change risks and take the needed actions to become more climate resilient.”

What else should you know?

Climate projections from ClimRR can be overlayed with community and infrastructure information sourced from the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT). Combining data from ClimRR and RAPT allows users to understand local-scale climate risks in the context of existing community demographics and infrastructure, including the location of vulnerable populations and critical infrastructure.

AT&T assesses climate factors in its own operations to ensure the company’s infrastructure can meet customer needs in the face of increasing threats from climate change. Risks like flooding, wildfire, drought and wind are integrated into network resilience efforts and infrastructure planning processes. The company has accumulated years of experience interpreting the data. This expertise helped inform the creation of ClimRR to ensure the climate projections are actionable for local communities.

The data in ClimRR was produced by Argonne using the dynamical downscaling method, which simulates the many different processes affecting the atmosphere, ocean and land. This results in projections for a broader range of climate variables than the often-used statistical downscaling method and has the potential to improve estimates of extreme events at a local scale. 

How else does AT&T support FEMA? FEMA also selected AT&T to modernize its communications capabilities and enhance its ability to help people before, during and after disasters. FEMA is using FirstNet®, Built with AT&T — America’s public safety network built with and for first responders — to stay connected when it matters most.

More information about AT&T’s environmental sustainability efforts and goals can be found on the company’s website.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.

Cities under strain: India's predicted urban boom
Author: AFP|Update: 08.11.2022 04:05


Mumbai, one of India's biggest cities, grew by about eight million people in the past 30 years -- equivalent to the entirety of New York City's population / © AFP

India is projected to see an explosion in its urban population in the coming decades, but its cities already cannot cope and climate change will make living conditions harsher still.

The metropolis of Mumbai, one of India's biggest, grew by some eight million people in the past 30 years -- the rough equivalent of the whole of New York City -- to a population of 20 million, and is forecast to add another seven million by 2035.

Like other Indian megacities, Mumbai's housing, transport, water and waste management infrastructure has not kept pace, with around 40 percent of people living in slums.

These crowded collections of ramshackle buildings, side by side with some of India's richest neighbourhoods, often have no regular water, power supply or proper sanitation.

As the world's population approaches eight billion, most of them in the developing world, it is a situation replicated globally.

A worker bathes outside a factory in the Dharavi slums of Mumbai, where water and waste management infrastructure have not kept pace with growth / © AFP

Those living on the outskirts of Mumbai commute for hours to work, with many hanging out of doors on packed trains, and others travelling by car or motorbike on clogged, pothole-filled roads that flood during the monsoon.

In the biggest slum, Dharavi of "Slumdog Millionaire" fame, where a million people live, Mohammed Sartaj Khan arrived from rural Uttar Pradesh as a teenager and works in a tannery.

"My childhood was wonderful in the village. It has a peaceful environment unlike the crowd here," Khan, now 35, told AFP in Dharavi's warren of lanes.

"When I came here, I saw people running like ants," he said. "The way ants keep walking in their lanes despite the crowd... Nobody cares about others."

But in his village, he added, "people don't have money".

At first, he earned 6,000 rupees ($70) a month in Mumbai but now operates a machine and makes four times that, most of which he sends back to his wife and children -- whom he can seldom afford to visit.

- Premature deaths -

India is projected to see an explosion in its urban population in the coming decades

 / © AFP

The UN projects that India's population will rise from its current 1.4 billion to overtake China's and peak at 1.7 billion in the 2060s, before dropping back to 1.5 billion by the start of the next century.

By 2040, 270 million more people will live in Indian cities, according to the International Energy Agency, driving carbon emissions higher from power generation and transport, and from the production of steel and concrete to house them.

Overcrowding, shoddy infrastructure and severe air, water and noise pollution are part of everyday life in India's megacities.

About 70 percent of the billions of litres of sewage produced in urban centres every day goes untreated, a government report said last year.

Every winter, the capital New Delhi, home to 20 million people, is cloaked in toxic air pollution that, according to one Lancet study, caused almost 17,500 premature deaths in 2019.

- Droughts and floods -

Children in Mumbai's Dharavi slums climb onto a window to catch a glimpse of a promotional event for a cartoon channel / © AFP

Millions of people in Indian cities have no regular running water and rely on deliveries by truck or train.

People in Delhi and elsewhere are digging ever-deeper wells as groundwater levels sink.

Chennai in southeastern India ran out of water in the summer of 2019, a crisis blamed on both insufficient rains and urban sprawl onto former wetlands.

At the same time, urban flooding is increasingly frequent.

The tech hub of Bengaluru -- formerly Bangalore -- has some of India's worst traffic congestion and saw inundations in September blamed on unauthorised construction.

Natural catastrophes are forecast to cause more and more misery for India's cities as the planet's climate warms and makes weather more volatile.

Scientists believe the annual monsoon rainy season is becoming more erratic and more powerful, causing more flooding and also more droughts.

Rising temperatures are making Indian summers ever more scorching, particularly in urban areas full of concrete trapping the heat. This year, India saw its hottest March on record.

And while Covid-19 did not affect India's slums as badly as some had feared, overcrowding puts them at risk in future epidemics.

Some experts believe more investment in India's rural economy could stem migration to already packed cities / © AFP

Poonam Muttreja from the Population Foundation of India said more investment in the rural economy could stem migration to cities, while new incentives could encourage people to move to smaller urban centres.

"Poor people, especially migrants in cities, are at the worst risk of climate change, whether it is the changes in the weather or flooding, jobs, lack of infrastructure," Muttreja told AFP.

"India has to have a paradigm shift. And instead of complaining, we need to start doing something."

Mexican state launches probe after prosecutors accused of covering up femicide


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -A Mexican anti-corruption authority said on Monday it had launched an investigation into the state attorney's office of Morelos, after a top official accused prosecutors there of covering up the killing of a young woman found on a highway last week.


Protest demanding justice after the death of Ariadna Fernanda Lopez, a 27-year-old woman who was found dead on a highway in Morelos state, in Mexico City© Thomson Reuters


FILE PHOTO: Mexico City’s Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum interviewed in Mexico City© Thomson Reuters

Hours earlier, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum accused Morelos' state attorney's office of covering up the killing of 27-year-old Ariadna Lopez, after it ruled out evidence of violence and said she had died of alcohol intoxication.



Protest demanding justice after the death of Ariadna Fernanda Lopez, a 27-year-old woman who was found dead on a highway in Morelos state, in Mexico City© Thomson Reuters

An investigation by Mexico City prosecutors later concluded Lopez had died of multiple force trauma, and revealed security footage showing a man who claimed to be Lopez's friend carrying a body from a Mexico City apartment after she disappeared on Oct. 30.

Cyclists found Lopez's body in neighboring Morelos state days later and shared photos online to help identify her.


The Morelos prosecutors' office could not be reached for comment.

"In this case it is evident the Morelos prosecutors' office wanted to hide the femicide, presumably because of links with the presumed killer," said Sheinbaum, who has been tipped to become Mexico's first woman president in a 2024 vote.



Protest demanding justice after the death of Ariadna Fernanda Lopez, a 27-year-old woman who was found dead on a highway in Morelos state, in Mexico City© Thomson Reuters

"It was the duty of Morelos' prosecutors' office to carry out the investigation," she added. "Without the intervention from Mexico City, this femicide would have gone unpunished."

Morelos is a central state with one of the highest rates of femicide in a country where some 10 women on average are killed every day

Morelos' state anti-corruption prosecutors' office said later on Monday it had opened an investigation into "possible crimes" committed by employees of the attorney's office during the investigation into Lopez's death. It said it has begun its investigation autonomously to clarify the alleged acts of corruption.



Protest demanding justice after the death of Ariadna Fernanda Lopez, a 27-year-old woman who was found dead on a highway in Morelos state, in Mexico City© Thomson Reuters

Mexican authorities said two people linked to Lopez's alleged killing were in police custody.

On Friday, authorities said five women were found dead in Morelos.

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice; Editing by Sarah Morland, Aurora Ellis and Leslie Adler)

US: Protect Louisiana, Texas land for rare burrowing snake


This photo provided the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows U.S. Forest Service biologist Steve Shively holding “Mr. Snake,” a threatened Louisiana pinesnake kept for education and outreach, on July 11, 2022, at the USFS office in the Evangeline Unit of the Calcasieu District of Kisatchie National Forest, near Alexandria, La. The U.S. government has proposed protecting four areas in Louisiana and two in Texas as critical habitat for the constrictor, which eats pocket gophers and takes over their burrows in longleaf pine savannas. 

(Ian Fischer/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)

JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Mon, November 7, 2022 

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Four areas in Louisiana and two in Texas should be protected as critical habitat for a rare snake that eats pocket gophers and takes over the rodents' burrows, the federal government says.

Louisiana pinesnakes, which produce the largest eggs and hatchlings of any U.S. snake, have been protected as threatened since 2018.

Their decline is largely due to the drastic reduction and fragmentation of grassy longleaf pine savannas with sandy soil. And since Louisiana pinesnakes' 5-inch-long (12.7-centimeter) eggs are so big that they lay only three to five at a time, losses are hard to replace.

The snakes grow to 5 feet long (1.5 meters) but are hard to count because they spend more than half their time underground. They also are camouflaged on brown pine needles, with black, brown and russet patches on a buff to yellowish background.

National forests cover most of four areas that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed as critical habitat. Private land — including some covered by conservation agreements — comprises all of the smallest, in Texas, and virtually all of the biggest, in north Louisiana where the largest known population lives.

Critical habitat is a limited protection, affecting only contracts using federal money or requiring federal permits. Other critical habitat decisions have sparked challenges by landowners and dissension over what lands qualify for such designation.

In north Louisiana's Bienville Parish, private owners hold more than 99% of a proposed area about the size of Milwaukee — roughly 95 square miles (246 square kilometers). The smallest area, about 8 square miles (20 square kilometers) in Scrappin’ Valley, Texas, is all privately held.

However, the Scrappin’ Valley land is already managed for endangered little red-cockaded woodpeckers, which also need open-canopied pine savannas, said Don Dietz, consulting biologist for a family that owns 70% of the land.

“Red-cockaded woodpeckers eat a lot of ants, which need the open area below. So the habitat is essentially the same,” Dietz said.

Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the environmental nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, said, “Far too few private landowners care about nature and ensuring species like the Louisiana pinesnake survive. When it does happen it's really great."

The Fish and Wildlife Service said two of seven known pinesnake populations are in Texas, but Dietz was dubious. He said he tried unsuccessfully for a decade to trap Louisiana pinesnakes to prove they lived in Scrappin' Valley.

“I want to believe there’s some out there, but in Texas there may not be,” Dietz said.

Other populations live in Louisiana's Bienville, Grant, Natchitoches, Sabine, and Vernon parishes, the federal agency said.

Big Cypress State Park makes up about 0.5% of the proposed Bienville unit. Another 8.4 square miles (22 square kilometers) are part of a conservation agreement benefiting the snake, according to Fish and Wildlife's economic analysis.

The Weyerhaeuser Co. announced in 2020 that it had a 30-year agreement to manage land in Bienville Parish for the Louisiana pinesnake.

Weyerhaeuser said it is working to understand how the federal proposal “would overlap and potentially impact the acres of critical habitat we are currently protecting for the Louisiana pinesnake.”

The company said in 2020 that state and federal biologists helped it identify two areas totaling about 2.8 square miles (7.25 square kilometers) as the most important for the snake. It said it would convert about 440 acres (180 hectares) from loblolly to longleaf pine and keep another 1,383 acres (560 hectares) with an open canopy and grassy forest floor.

Wildlife and Fisheries wouldn’t say whether Weyerhaeuser's longleaf conversion and open canopy areas are within the proposed federal critical habitat.

Wherever they are, it “isn’t really enough to help the Louisiana pinesnake on Weyerhaeuser land," Greenwald said. Louisiana pinesnake populations need blocks of more than 11 square miles (28.5 square kilometers) of mostly unfragmented habitat, according to the federal analysis.

Also proposed as critical habitat in Louisiana are about 89 square miles (230 square kilometers) in Rapides Parish, more than 68 square miles (176 square kilometers) in Vernon Parish and about 41 square miles (106 square kilometers) in Grant Parish. Different parts of the Kisatchie National Forest make up most of each.

The second Texas area would cover nearly 25 square miles (65 square kilometers) in Angelina and Jasper counties, mostly in the Angelina National Forest.

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To see all of AP’s environmenta

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Richard Branson must face lawsuit in U.S. over Virgin Galactic space travel problems


Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson departs with his crew prior

 to boarding at Spaceport America

Jonathan Stempel
Mon, November 7, 2022 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday said British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson must face shareholder claims he concealed problems in Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc's spaceship program, and sold hundreds of millions of dollars of stock at inflated prices.

While dismissing most claims in the proposed class action, U.S. District Judge Allyne Ross in Brooklyn said shareholders could try to prove that Virgin and Branson defrauded them into overpaying for the space tourism company's shares, which now trade more than 90% below their February 2021 peak.

Shareholders can sue over July 2019 statements that Virgin had made "great progress" overcoming "hurdles" to commercial spaceflight, despite a near-disastrous test flight five months earlier when its rocket plane Unity suffered critical damage.

Branson must also defend his July 2021 statement that his own just-completed flight on Unity, where he soared 50 miles (80.47 km) above the earth, had been "flawless" though Unity had strayed from its assigned airspace.

In a 55-page decision, Ross said shareholders also could sue over approximately $301 million of stock that Branson sold the month after the flight.

Lawyers for Virgin and Branson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In seeking a dismissal, they said there was no proof of intent to defraud, and that the defendants had thoroughly disclosed safety and design issues in developing commercial space travel, "unquestionably a high-risk proposition."

Laurence Rosen, a lawyer for the shareholders, declined to comment.

Virgin is based in Tustin, California, and went public in October 2019 by merging with a special purpose acquisition vehicle, Social Capital.

The lawsuit covers shareholders who owned the stock of either from July 10, 2019, to Oct. 14, 2021, when Virgin grounded Unity and delayed its commercial space travel service. Its shares fell 16.8% the next day, to $20.01.

Branson, 72, is worth $3.7 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

In Monday afternoon trading, Virgin shares were up 5 cents at $4.97.

The case is Kusnier et al v. Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 21-03070.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Italy directs NGO rescue ship with 89 migrants to port

Mon, November 7, 2022 

MILAN (AP) — After waiting at sea for days, the German humanitarian group Mission Lifeline said Monday that Italy has directed its migrant rescue ship with 89 people on board to proceed to the port of Reggio Calabria.

The 25-meter (80-foot) ship Rise Above entered Italian waters over the weekend without consent because of storm-swollen seas, after rescuing 95 people in the central Mediterranean. Six were evacuated at sea due to medical emergencies.

"We are relieved that waiting on the high seas is over. The situation on board has become more and more critical in the past few days and hours," Mission Lifeline spokeswoman Hermine Poschmann said. “We expect that the Italian authorities give everyone access to a legally compliant asylum procedure and that people do not have to stay on our ship any longer than necessary.”

Italy has refused to assign migrant rescue ships with a port of safety as it takes a hard line with nongovernmental organizations operating in the central Mediterranean. Instead, it has been instructing them to ports, where authorities allow only vulnerable people to disembark. Italian authorities insist the boats must then return to international waters with those not deemed vulnerable.

The far-right-led government of Premier Giorgia Meloni is insisting that countries whose flag the ships fly take on the migrants, and that the burden shouldn't fall on Italy alone.

Poschmann said that Mission Lifeline has asked Germany to take in more people.

Two other NGO-run boats are docked in Catania, one with 35 people that Italy won't allow to disembark, the other with 214 people. Both ships are refusing to leave, saying that under international law all people rescued at sea are vulnerable and entitled to a safe port.

A fourth ship, the Ocean Viking operated by SOS Mediterannee, remains in international waters off Sicily with 234 rescued people. Its first rescue was 17 days ago.

Riccardo Campochiaro, lawyer of the German charity organization SOS Humanitarian, talks to reporters during a press conference at the port of Catania, Sicily, southern Italy, Monday, Oct. 7, 2022. The captain of the German organization's rescue ship, the Humanity 1, refused Italian orders to leave the Sicilian port Sunday after Italian authorities refused to let 35 of the migrants on his ship disembark — part of directives by Italy's new far-right-led government targeting foreign-flagged rescue ships. 

AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli

FASCISM U$A

Trump and his far-right allies have stoked a dangerous climate that increases the likelihood of violence far beyond midterms, extremism experts warn


John Haltiwanger
Mon, November 7, 2022 

Political violence experts warn that Trump and his allies are fomenting a dangerous climate.


They're normalizing "aggression and violence" against political opponents, an extremism researcher said.


"Republican campaign ads have been riven with violent language and imagery," an expert on political violence said.

A home invasion and violent attack against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband prompted renewed concerns about the contentious political climate in the US and the potential for more political violence surrounding the midterm elections.

Pelosi is one of the Democrats most vilified by former President Donald Trump and his far-right allies. Experts on extremism and political violence warn that Trump and his MAGA compatriots are fomenting a dangerous climate that increases the likelihood that opponents of the GOP will be targeted with violence, underscoring that the threat extends well beyond midterms.


"I am quite concerned about violence surrounding the midterms, but I think it would be a mistake to assume that the threat of violence stops after the midterm elections," Kurt Braddock, a professor of public communication at American University who studies far-right extremism, told Insider. "Regardless of the outcomes of the elections, certain beliefs and norms have been cultivated (particularly among the far-right elements of the Republican party) that tacitly approve of aggression against targets on the left."

Since Trump entered the White House in 2017, far-right politicians and pundits have "grown increasingly emboldened to use language that — purposefully or incidentally — normalizes aggression and violence against political enemies," Braddock said, emphasizing that the effects of that normalization don't end with the midterms.

"It's an issue we will be contending with for some time," Braddock said.

Shannon Hiller, the head of the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University, told Insider that she's confident US elections will remain safe and secure — including the midterms.

"What I'm more concerned about is the post-election period, when these persistent, unfounded claims of election fraud and calls for violence could intersect to spur individuals to violent action," Hiller added, "This is part of what our research showed following the 2020 election — where local officials of both parties faced really awful threats and harassment especially in states where leaders pushed these unfounded claims. It's one reason why we call on all officials and leaders across the country to reject this type of rhetoric."

'Millions of Americans believe violence is justified'

An explosion caused by a police munition is seen while supporters of President Donald Trump gather in front of the US Capitol Building in Washington DC on January 6, 2021.

REUTERS/Leah Millis

Throughout Trump's presidency, top experts on democracy and political violence offered routine warnings that he was stoking a dangerous climate in the US that could spiral out of control. The fatal riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, which was largely provoked by Trump's lies about the election, offered ample evidence that their concerns had been well-founded. Nearly two years after the Capitol riot, they haven't stopped ringing alarm bells — particularly as Republicans continue to target their opponents with incendiary rhetoric.

"Republican campaign ads have been riven with violent language and imagery," Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace and expert on political violence, told Insider. Kleinfeld emphasized that pro-Trump Republicans have not just been going after Democrats, but also anyone in the party perceived as disloyal to Trump (often referred to as RINOs, or "Republicans in name only").

Republicans like Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, who refused to embrace Trump's effort to overturn the election and sit on the House January 6 select committee, have faced levels of demonization similar to prominent Democrats like Pelosi, as well as death threats.

"It's actually hard to get regular people to commit violence, but it's made easier when people are made to seem less than human, they are turned into threats, and violence is posited as defensive. MAGA politicians have been doing all three," Kleinfeld, who testified before the House committee investigating January 6, said.

David DePape, the man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer, allegedly broke into the couple's San Francisco home looking for the House Speaker and intended to take her hostage. DePape allegedly told police he was "sick of the insane fucking level of lies coming out of Washington, DC" and that he wanted to have a little chat with the speaker. San Francisco's District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the attack was "politically motivated."

Kleinfeld said the attack Pelosi's husband was an example of stochastic terrorism, or an act of violence in which the perpetrator is inspired by language or rhetoric that dehumanizes and demonizes the targeted group or individual. As one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington for years, Pelosi has been one of the biggest targets of violent far-right rhetoric and conspiracy theories.

Prominent far-right figures, including Trump and Fox News' Tucker Carlson, have spread conspiracy theories about the Pelosi attack — suggesting, without evidence, that there's more to story. It's part of a broader trend.

DePape had shared an array of conspiratorial content on social media, including posts that echoed Trump's false claim the 2020 election was stolen.

"We are now at a point where millions of Americans believe violence is justified as a defensive measure, and are convinced by movements such as Q that their enemies are satanic or inhuman," Kleinfeld said, adding, "A religious revival of Q imagery has been traveling the country with General Michael Flynn, Trump's son, and other supporters in advance of the midterms, spreading this belief that a fight between good and evil is underway. This is dangerous stuff."

'Political violence is here to stay'

A member of the Proud Boys wearing a t-shirt that reads "death to liberals" stands with other Proud Boys in Freedom Plaza during a protest on December 12, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

Braddock, the far-right extremism researcher at American University, said it's clear that the attacker was targeting the House Speaker and that the perpetrator was "motivated by ideas that are often amplified by elements of the far-right," which includes elected officials and pundits.

Trump devotees treat Pelosi — the highest-ranking Democrat in office during Trump's presidency — as the "prime villain in far-right disinformation and conspiracies," Braddock said, adding that this was especially clear on January 6 when "right-wing extremists" stormed the Capitol building and sought her out. The attack on Paul Pelosi followed the same track, but on a smaller scale.

By sowing doubts about the integrity of US elections and lashing out at people tied to his legal woes — and warning that there will be "big problems" if he's indicted — Trump continues to speak to "a part of his constituency who are looking for a reason to become violent," Braddock warned.

Trump has a massive audience and millions of people listening to what he says. Even if he doesn't mean to incite violence, when Trump uses provocative language it's "likely that at least a few of his devoted followers will interpret what he says as actual calls to violent action," Braddock said.

"This form of political violence is here to stay. It is clear that many parts of the right-wing have no problem amplifying information that paints political adversaries to be 'dealt with,'" Braddock said, "Until those parts of the right-wing disavow manifest violence and abandon rhetoric that normalizes it, we will continue to see these kinds of attacks."