Companies quietly switching out toxic product ingredients in response to California law

Study provides a behind-the-scenes look at how Proposition 65 has influenced markets

Silent Spring Institute

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A new study by Silent Spring Institute and University of California, Berkeley shows how laws that promote greater transparency around harmful chemicals in products can shift markets toward safer products.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, focused on California’s right-to-know law called Proposition 65, or Prop 65. Under the law, the state of California maintains a list of approximately 900 chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm. Companies that sell products in California are required to warn people if their products could expose them to harmful amounts of the chemicals.

Until recently, there has been little research on the effectiveness of Prop 65, with some critics contending the law creates too many warnings with little impact on individual behaviors, while others argue the law is less effective than those that restrict or ban chemicals outright.

“We wanted to go deeper and understand to what extent the law has created more systems-level change,” says lead author Dr. Jennifer Ohayon, a research scientist at Silent Spring Institute. “What we found was that companies, rather than consumers, may be most affected by the law’s warning requirements. By increasing businesses’ awareness of chemicals in the supply chain, Prop 65 has caused them to shift away from using toxic substances, and that’s a positive step for public health.”

To assess the impact of Prop 65, Ohayon conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with business leaders at major global manufacturers and retailers. The businesses spanned more than a dozen sectors including home improvement, clothing, personal care, cleaning, and healthcare, among others. An analysis of the interviews found:

• 78% of interviewees said Prop 65 has prompted businesses to reformulate their products  
• 81% of manufacturers interviewed said they look to Prop 65 to know which chemicals to avoid when formulating their products or purchasing raw materials from suppliers
• 63% of manufacturers said that Prop 65 also drives the reformulation of their products sold outside of California.

“Companies are incredibly reluctant to put a label on a product that says it contains a chemical that causes cancer, and that was the biggest driving force behind their decisions to reformulate,” says Ohayon.

The researchers also saw impacts on the supply chain through third party “green” certification programs that have incorporated Prop 65 chemicals into their safety criteria. For instance, several major healthcare institutions said they encouraged their suppliers to use certifiers such as Green Seal, which prohibits Prop 65 chemicals in the cleaning products it certifies.

Under the law, companies can avoid triggering a warning requirement by reformulating their products to reduce the level of a Prop 65 chemical below a “safe harbor” threshold.

“What’s interesting is that companies consistently told us they would rather eliminate a Prop 65 chemical altogether than post a warning,” says co-author Dr. Meg Schwarzman, a physician and environmental health scientist at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. “By doing that, they avoid the threat of litigation, but they also reduce the risk to consumers and workers using the products.”

The study is the first to use in-depth interviews with representatives from diverse industry sectors to understand the influence of Prop 65 on internal corporate decision-making.

The work is also part of a larger research effort to collect metrics on the impact of Prop 65 at reducing people’s exposures to toxic chemicals. In a study published last fall, the Silent Spring and Berkeley team found levels of certain chemicals in people’s bodies went down both in California and nationwide in the years following the chemicals’ listing.

Ohayon explains this is consistent with the findings from her interviews. When companies reformulate their products to comply with Prop 65, they tend to apply those changes across all of their products, not just ones sold in California.

“In the absence of federal regulations, these findings underscore the important role that states, especially large ones like California, can play in protecting the broader public from chemicals that could harm their health,” says Ohayon.

 

Funding for this project was provided by the California Breast Cancer Research Program (Grant #23QB-1881) and charitable contributions to Silent Spring Institute.

Reference: Ohayon, J.L., C. Polsky, M.R. Schwarzman. 2025. How a Right-to-Know Law Shifts Industry Away from Chemicals of Concern: The Case of California’s Proposition 65. Environmental Science & Technology. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.4c07495

About Silent Spring Institute: Silent Spring Institute, located in Newton, Mass., is the leading scientific research organization dedicated to uncovering the link between chemicals in our everyday environments and women's health, with a focus on breast cancer prevention. Founded in 1994, the institute is developing innovative tools to accelerate the transition to safer chemicals, while translating its science into policies that protect health. Visit us at www.silentspring.org. 

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Journal

Environmental Science & Technology

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.4c07495 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

How a Right-to-Know Law Shifts Industry Away from Chemicals of Concern: The Case of California’s Proposition 65

Article Publication Date

12-Feb-2025

 

Can math save content creators? A new model proposes fairer revenue distribution methods for streaming services

Researchers at the Universidad Miguel Hernández (UMH) in Spain have developed a mathematical model with three rules designed to improve revenue sharing on streaming platforms.

Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche

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As more consumers turn to subscription-based platforms, the distribution of revenue in streaming services has become a crucial issue in the digital economy. Content creators and artists argue that the current models are opaque, frequently neglecting the needs of creators. In response, researchers at UMH have proposed a model based on three allocation rules that could be applied according to various fairness criteria.

"Our model is based on three main approaches: the equal division rule, which divides revenue equally among services; the proportional rule, which allocates revenue according to each service's total consumption; and the subscriber-proportional rule, which assigns a subscriber's fee based on their specific consumption," explains UMH Professor Juan Carlos Gonçalves Dosantos, a researcher at the Institute Center for Operational Research.

The challenge of distributing profits between creators and platforms is not unique to major services like Netflix and Spotify but also affects emerging platforms. Revenue structures in streaming—based on subscriptions, advertisements, and additional paid content—vary depending on each platform's business model. For example, Twitch generates revenue from subscriptions to streamers' channels, advertisements, donations, and the sale of virtual units like "Bits." This diversity of income sources and the complexity of user-creator interactions makes revenue distribution challenging. The UMH researchers have used mathematical models to explore how these profits can be fairly allocated based on different criteria.

Professor Joaquín Sánchez Soriano of UMH explains that the models allow for an analysis of how different types of content impact overall revenue: "On platforms like Twitch, we see that the type of content directly influences revenue. Our study shows that categories with fewer users but greater viewing time can be more lucrative under a proportional approach. On the other hand, the subscriber-proportional rule prioritizes categories that attract more viewers, regardless of viewing time."

The UMH study, published in the scientific journal Omega and conducted in collaboration with a researcher from the University of Granada, establishes clear guidelines for revenue distribution, which can help creators maximize their earnings and enable platforms to optimize their business models. "Our tool helps evaluate which content is more profitable and guides creators in adjusting their offerings to boost income," adds Sánchez Soriano.

The mathematical model developed at UMH is based on the concept of attribution problems, which aim to distribute resources (in this case, generated revenue) fairly among different services according to the number of subscribers and their consumption. "Each service is entitled to a share of the revenue based on its relevance and consumption, which presents a challenge due to the variety of content and its different impact on users," notes Gonçalves Dosantos.

To illustrate its operation, Gonçalves Dosantos provides an example: "Consider a streaming platform offering two products with two subscribers. Both pay the same subscription fee, but their usage differs. The first subscriber dedicates an hour exclusively to the first product, while the second watches one hour of each product."

Under the equal division rule, the revenue would be split equally, assigning 50% to each service regardless of viewing time. The proportional rule, which accounts for time, would allocate 67% of the revenue to the first service and 33% to the second. Finally, the subscriber-proportional rule, in addition to time, takes into account which product each subscriber consumes, assigning 75% of the revenue to the first product and 25% to the second.

This innovative approach could lead to a fairer distribution of profits, providing a clearer understanding of the economic dynamics in streaming services. By applying these mathematical models, platforms could improve transparency in revenue distribution, a crucial step in maintaining balanced relationships with creators. The UMH researchers argue that this would promote a greater diversity of voices and support the sustainability of digital businesses.

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Journal

Omega

DOI

10.1016/j.omega.2024.103233 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Revenue distribution in streaming

 

Global warming and mass extinctions: What we can learn from plants from the last ice age

New analysis methods, applied to ancient plant DNA, reveal how hard-hit plants were and are by global warming

Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research

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image: 

Floating drilling platform for extracting sediment cores from lakes, Alaska.

view more 

Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / Weihan Jia

Global warming is producing a rapid loss of plant species – according to estimates, roughly 600 plant species have died out since 1750 – twice the number of animal species lost. But which species are hit hardest? And how does altered biodiversity actually affect interactions between plants? Experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute have tackled these questions and, in two recent studies, presented the answers they found buried in the past: using fragments of plant genetic material (DNA) deposited in lake sediments, they were able to gain new insights into how the composition of flora changed 15,000 to 11,000 years ago during the warming at the end of the last ice age, which is considered to be the last major mass extinction event before today. This comparison can offer an inkling of what might await us in the future. The researchers have just published their findings in the journal Nature Communications. 

“Everyone knows that the woolly mammoth went extinct, but virtually no-one mentions the plants that were lost at the end of the last ice age,” says Prof Ulrike Herzschuh from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). “Until recently, we lacked suitable methods for investigating the extinction of plant species in detail.” In terms of fossil plant remains, mainly pollen was used, which doesn’t allow individual species to be identified and therefore offers no evidence of which species have died out.“Using cutting-edge methods, we analysed old DNA from sediment cores taken from lakes in Alaska and Siberia, which allowed us to reconstruct the changes in vegetation in these regions.” The cores contain fragmented DNA from deposited plant biomass from the past 30,000 years, which the experts enriched, sequenced, and compared with databases for identification purposes at special-purpose labs for old DNA. 

Temperature can change how plants interact

“We’ve now been able to determine in detail when and where species appeared and disappeared in Alaska and Siberia,” says Ulrike Herzschuh. “Our research shows that the composition of plant species changed substantially at the end of the last ice age, and that this was accompanied by fundamental changes in the ecological conditions.” The researchers identified a connection between temperature and plant-to-plant interactions: in cold climate periods, plant species support one another, while they mainly compete during warm periods. “In the DNA from the lake sediments, we found e.g. many cushion plants, which most likely supported the expansion of other species by forming sheltered habitats,” says Ulrike Herzschuh. This has effects on both biodiversity and richness range size. 

In a warmer climate, woody plant species dominate: 'Today, we see that plant diversity declines due to the migration of trees and shrubs into tundra regions, whereas during cold periods, higher plant diversity prevailed.

What does that tell us about vegetation changes in the high latitudes, where cushion plants still play a pivotal role today? In today’s Arctic, this supportive quality could actually threaten their own survival. “Since the warming of the Arctic has already progressed quite far, woody plants can survive even in the high latitudes. The cushion plants could facilitate their spreading, hastening their own extinction in the process.”

Which plant species are particularly at risk?

The end of the last ice age also caused some types of vegetation to disappear entirely – as the experts were able to confirm using their new methods. Take the mammoth steppe, for example: during the last ice age, this type of vegetation spread across the Northern Hemisphere, only to die out during the transition to the current age. In this regard, identifying the extinct plant species was especially challenging. “To identify the species that no longer existed, we had to use a trick,” Ulrike Herzschuh explains. Normally, species are identified on the basis of DNA fragments, which are compared with the entries in genetic databases. But these databases include information on today’s plants, not on extinct species. “We examined all the DNA fragments from our cores and then used statistical models to filter out those with unmistakeable similarities to modern plants, step by step.”

This also allowed the experts to determine which species could be at the greatest risk of extinction in a warming world: grasses and shrubs are at a higher risk of disappearing than woody plant species, which can spread further when temperatures rise. In addition, species in regions with high biodiversity are more often at risk than are less “special” species. One surprising finding: the extinction rate was at its highest at the beginning of the current warm phase – often with a delay of several thousand years after the actual environmental changes. “That means the full impacts of today’s human activities might not become apparent until the distant future.”

Relevance for today’s Arctic

The results of the two studies offer fundamental insights into how environmental changes in connection with warming affect biodiversity, and which mechanisms are central in this regard. As such, for the first time the experts were able to determine extinction rates for plants, which can now be used as reference data to better assess the ongoing changes in Arctic ecosystems. “Our studies show how important it is to understand biodiversity and ecological interactions, also in the long term, in order to better predict the impacts of climate change,” Ulrike Herzschuh summarises. “Using the information locked in old DNA from sediments, we can gain the fundamental knowledge needed to do so.”

Further information:

Courtin, J., Stoof-Leichsenring, K. R., Lisovski, S., Liu, Y., Alsos, I. G., Biskaborn, B., K., Diekmann, B., Melles, M., Wagner B., Pestryakova, L., Russel, J., Huang, Y., Herzschuh, U. (2025). Potential plant extinctions with the loss of the Pleistocene mammoth steppe. Nature Communications (doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-55542-x)

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-025-56176-3 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Plant interactions associated with a directional shift in the richness range size relationship during the Glacial-Holocene transition in the Arctic

 

Extensive study on telemedicine for diabetes and coronary heart disease – Senior author concludes: "The hype around medical apps needs to be put into perspective"

Technical University of Munich (TUM)

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Can telemedicine and exercise apps improve the health of people with type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease? A large study led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) shows that the positive effects are minimal. Study leader Prof. Martin Halle views the results as clear evidence of misplaced priorities in medical care. Direct care from medical professionals remains crucial.

Patients with type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease are at a particularly high risk of heart attacks, among other complications. Lifestyle changes, increased exercise, and dietary adjustments can significantly reduce these risks. A study conducted at eleven sites across Germany aimed to determine whether telemedicine and training apps could help with these lifestyle changes. The results have now been published in the renowned journal Nature Medicine.

For the study, 502 patients (84% of whom were men) were divided into two groups. The control group received standard medical care and was given standardized dietary recommendations and information material on physical activity. The second group instead received an individualized, app-supported home-based exercise program as well as personalized nutrition tips. During the first phase of the study, participants received regular phone calls providing feedback on their progress and other information about the program. In a second phase, they were asked to follow the exercises independently.

Low participant engagement

"After the first six months, we saw an improvement of -0.13 percentage points in long-term blood glucose in the intervention group," says lead author Dr. Stephan Müller. Although this is a small improvement, it is statistically significant. The training had no effect on other risk factors such as blood pressure or cholesterol levels. If only participants who followed the training and dietary guidelines are considered, the improvement is almost -0.3 percentage points, which is also relevant from a clinical perspective. There were other statistically significant effects on body weight, waist circumference and triglycerides, a type of fat found in the blood.  After the end of the second phase, there were no more benefits compared to the control group.

According to the researchers, participant cooperation, or adherence, was a crucial factor in the study's results. In the first six months, only 41 percent met the adherence criteria for the exercise regimen, meaning they participated 'sufficiently'. Among those who did not meet the adherence criteria, nearly half failed to achieve the prescribed exercise duration per week even once. What's more, around a quarter of all participants did not even start the training. Technology barriers may have been partly responsible for this. More than two thirds of the participants - average age 68 - stated that they generally found using apps and devices "rather difficult".

"High effort, low return"

According to senior author Martin Halle, Professor of Preventive Sports Medicine and Sports Cardiology at TUM, large studies like this are important to measure the actual success of app-based approaches. Germany is the first country in Europe to have medical digital services covered by health insurance. According to Halle, the significant shortage of doctors in Germany is a major factor driving high hopes for health promotion through apps and similar services.

"The individualized support we tested here was very time-consuming," says Martin Halle. "Our evaluation indicates that this considerable effort yielded a low return." This is certainly partly because those affected are at an age where many find it difficult to get to grips with new technologies, says Halle. "However, older people are the group that is particularly affected by these and similar illnesses."

"Our results clearly indicate that a holistic approach is necessary." The current hype surrounding medical apps needs to be put into perspective," says Halle. "Personal care remains an indispensable part of patient care. A purely app-based approach is not a solution, at least not for the German healthcare system."

 

Publication:

Mueller, S., Dinges, S.M.T., Gass, F. et al. Telemedicine-supported lifestyle intervention for glycemic control in patients with CHD and T2DM: multicenter, randomized controlled trial. Nat Med (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03498-w 

Further information:

• The study "Lifestyle intervention in chronic ischemic heart disease and diabetes (LeIKD)" was funded by the Federal Joint Committee (Innovationsfonds des Gemeinsamen Bundesausschusses).
• Prof. Martin Halle is a member of the TUM School of Medicine and Health.

Subject matter expert:

Prof. Dr. Martin Halle
Technical University of Munich
Chair of Preventive and Rehabilitative Sports Medicine
Tel: +49/ 89/289 24431
halle@tum.de
www.sport.mri.tum.de

TUM Corporate Communications Center contact:

Paul Hellmich
Media Relations
Tel. +49 (0) 89 289 22731
presse@tum.de
www.tum.de

---

Journal

Nature Medicine

DOI

10.1038/s41591-025-03498-w 

Method of Research

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Telemedicine-supported lifestyle intervention for glycemic control in patients with CHD and T2DM: multicenter, randomized controlled trial

Article Publication Date

7-Feb-2025

COI Statement

S.M. reported personal fees from Bristol-Myers Squibb (consulting services) outside the submitted work. E.B.W. reported grants from Boehringer Ingelheim and personal fees from Amarin, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, CVRx and Novartis outside the submitted work. A.L. reported personal fees from Medtronic, Abbott, Edwards Lifesciences, Boston Scientific, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Pfizer, Abiomed, Bayer and Boehringer Ingelheim outside the submitted work. F.E. reported personal fees from AstraZeneca, Bayer, Berlin Chemie, Boehringer Ingelheim, CVRx, Medtronic, Merck, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, PharmaCosmos, Resmed, Servier and Vifor Pharma; nonfinancial support from Novartis and grants from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Servier and Thermo Fischer Scientific outside the submitted work. R.W. reported personal fees from AstraZeneca, Bayer, BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, CVRx, Daiichi, Medtronic, Novartis, Pfizer, Pharmacosmos and Servier and research support from Boehringer Ingelheim, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and European Union and Medtronic outside the submitted work. V.A. reported personal fees from MSD, Berlin Chemie, Janssen, Coloplast and Novo Nordisk (consulting fees and honoraria for lectures) and is the president of the German Managed Care Association (2007–2022) outside the submitted work. M.H. reported honoraria for lectures from Abbott, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Daiichi Sankyo, Lilly, Medi, Novartis, Pfizer and Roche; consulting fees from Medical Park and is the past president of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (presidency 2020–2022) outside the submitted work. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Swedish woman jailed for keeping Yazidi slaves in Syria


By AFP
February 11, 2025


Thousands of women and children were taken and used as slaves by Islamic State fighters during a rampage through Yazidi villages in Iraq in 2014

 - Copyright AFP/File Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV

A Swedish court on Tuesday sentenced a 52-year-old woman to 12 years in prison on genocide charges, in the country’s first court case over crimes by the Islamic State group against the Yazidi minority.

Accused of keeping Yazidi women and children as slaves at her home in Syria in 2015, Lina Ishaq was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the Stockholm district court said in a statement.

The crimes warranted a sentence of 16 years, but taking a previous sentence into account it ordered her to spend 12 years behind bars, the court said. Prosecutors had demanded a life jail sentence.

The woman, a Swedish citizen, had already been sentenced to six years imprisonment in 2022 for allowing her 12-year-old son to be recruited as an IS child soldier.

Prosecutor Reena Devgun said she was happy with the convictions but she would likely appeal against the sentence.

“These are very, very severe crimes, and compared to other Swedish jurisprudence or Swedish sentencing traditions, I do think that there is room for a more severe sentence,” she told AFP.

The court said the case concerned nine Yazidi, six of whom were children at the time.

All the plaintiffs were captured by IS in attacks on Kurdish-speaking Yazidi villages that began in August 2014 in Sinjar, Iraq. Their male relatives were executed and thousands of women were taken.

After about five months of captivity, they arrived at Ishaq’s home in Raqqa.

“The woman kept them imprisoned and treated them as her property by holding them as slaves for a period of, in most cases, five months,” the court said.

– Forced conversion –

Their movement was restricted, they were made to perform chores and some were photographed in preparation to be transferred to other people as slaves.

“Given the fact that she participated in the onward transfer of the injured parties, she is also responsible for enabling their continued imprisonment and enslavement,” the court said.

Ishaq also forced the Yazidis, who practice their own religion, to “become practising Muslims” by making them recite Koran verses and pray four or five times a day.

She also called the injured parties “demeaning invectives such as ‘infidels’ or ‘slaves'”, the court said.

The court stressed “that the comprehensive system of enslavement” was one of “the crucial elements” implemented by IS in “the perpetration of the genocide, the crimes against humanity and gross war crimes that the Yazidi population was subjected to”.

As such, the court said “the woman shared the IS intent to destroy a religious group”.

Ishaq’s lawyer Mikael Westerlund said the woman had not decided whether to appeal, but said they were pleased the court had not handed down a life sentence as requested by the prosecution.

“It was important for the prosecution to sentence her for life,” he told AFP.

Around 300 Swedes or Swedish residents, a quarter of them women, joined IS in Syria and Iraq, mostly in 2013 and 2014, according to Sweden’s intelligence service Sapo.

Ishaq grew up in a Christian Iraqi family in Sweden but converted to Islam after meeting her late husband and Islamist Jiro Mehho, with whom she had six children, in the 1990s.

She travelled to Syria with her children in 2013. Mehho died in August 2013, and Ishaq moved to Raqqa in 2014 and re-married.

Page turner: Behind the Lee Enterprises cyberattack

By Dr. Tim Sandle
February 11, 2025
DIGITAL JOURNEY

The number of hacks has been increasing worldwide. — © AFP/File Noel Celis

Publishing corporation Lee Enterprises has confirmed that a cyberattack on its systems was behind disruption at dozens of its newspapers and media outlets, with the impact wave stretching across the U.S. Systems are now back to normal but the consequences of the attack continue to rumble on.

Lee Enterprises owns 72 daily newspapers and approximately 350 specialty publications in 26 states. The scope of the incident is significant, with Lee Enterprises claiming to reach more than 75 percent of U.S. residing adults in their largest markets and 25 million unique web and mobile visitors monthly.

The attack impacted employee systems, subscriber services, and VPN access, with print operations disrupted. The company has recently been investing significantly in digital transformation technologies.

As details of the Lee Enterprises cyber incident continue to emerge, David White, Co-Founder and President at Axio, a cyber risk management software firm, explains to Digital Journal about the significance of the breach.

White is an expert in cybersecurity frameworks and maturity models. He played a leadership role in developing versions 1 and 2 of the Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model (C2M2) in support of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Addressing the specific cyber-incident, White comments: “We don’t yet have full details on the Lee Enterprises cyber incident. While ransomware is a possibility, Lee has not disclosed the exact nature of the event. Some of its publications appear to be completely offline, while others, like the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, continue to operate at a reduced scale.”

There are general observations that can be made as a result of the incident. White picks out: “This incident underscores the critical importance of a cyber resilience strategy that enables continued operations under the duress of a cyber event.”

Standard business Reponses are no longer appropriate. White observes: “Many organizations focus on recovery and return-to-normal as their resilience strategies, but with disruptive cyber events becoming more frequent, organizations need both a protection strategy and a sustaining strategy that includes continuity planning, incident recovery, and full restoration to remain viable after an attack. These elements are often conflated, but each plays a distinct role.”

Explaining what he means by these concepts, White states: “Continuity ensures essential functions remain operational during an attack, such as manually processing transactions if systems go down. Recovery involves stopping the damage and initiating repairs, such as restoring system access and removing intruders. Restoration is the long-term process of returning to full operational capacity.”

Drawing on key lessons from history, White explains: “Clorox learned this firsthand. While they were able to recover and resume production after an attack, full restoration was delayed because their production lines, which handle regulated chemicals, required re-certification. Until that process was complete, they couldn’t ship products—demonstrating why organizations must plan for all three stages of resilience to minimize operational disruptions.”

Written By Dr. Tim Sandle
Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.

At least $53 billion needed to rebuild Gaza, UN estimates


By AFP
February 11, 2025

The Gaza Strip requires tens of billions of dollars in recovery and renovation aid after more than a year of war, according to the United Nations 

- Copyright AFP BASHAR TALEB

More than $53 billion will be required to rebuild Gaza and end the “humanitarian catastrophe” that has gripped the war-ravaged territory, including $20 billion in the first three years alone, the United Nations said Tuesday.

The global body said in a report that a “political and security framework” must also be put in place so that recovery and rebuilding can begin, and a groundwork can be laid for a political process to quickly end the Israeli occupation “and establish a viable two-State solution.”

Much of Gaza — including schools, hospitals and other civic infrastructure — has been reduced to rubble by a withering Israeli military offensive following an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

“The interim assessment offers an early indication of the enormous scale of recovery and reconstruction needs in the Gaza Strip,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the document, cautioning that it was not a full assessment.

“The report estimates the recovery and reconstruction needs in the short, medium and long term across the Gaza Strip at $53.142 billion. Of these, the near-term needs in the first three years are estimated to be around $20.568 billion,” he added.

In a resolution adopted in December calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, the UN General Assembly had asked Guterres to provide an assessment of the territory’s needs within two months.

The report assessed that with “over 60 percent of homes” destroyed in the year-plus war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, the housing sector requires around $15.2 billion.

The commerce and industry sector will need an estimated $6.9 billion, as will the health sector, according to the report.

Reviving the agricultural industry will take around $4.2 billion, transport will require $2.9 billion, water and sanitation an estimated $2.7 billion and education $2.6 billion.

The report also noted the particularly high costs of $1.9 billion anticipated for the environmental sector “as a result of the massive debris laced with unexploded ordnance and the high cost associated with removal of debris.”

The United Nations has estimated that the war has generated more than 50 million tons of debris, including human remains, unexploded ordnance, asbestos and other hazardous substances.

“Critically, the Palestinian Authority must be at the center of planning for and the implementation of recovery and reconstruction in Gaza,” Guterres said in the report, which was dated January 30.

That was days before US President Donald Trump said he wanted to “take over” Gaza, redevelop the territory and oust the more than two million Palestinians living there.

His plan has prompted a global backlash and has been rejected by Palestinians

Ford CEO says Trump policy uncertainty creating chaos


By AFP
February 11, 2025


Ford CEO Jim Farley, pictured in May 2023, said many of his company's US suppliers have international sources that are directly affected by tariffs - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File 

BILL PUGLIANO

The Trump administration’s tariff threats and animosity towards electronic vehicles are producing a “lot of cost and a lot of chaos” for Ford, the automaker’s chief executive said Tuesday.

While Trump has spoken about the priority of strengthening manufacturing in the United States, the administration thus far has been the source of tremendous “policy uncertainty” with constantly evolving tariff plans and a lack of clarity whether tax credits favoring EVs will be rolled back, he said.

Appearing at a financial conference, Jim Farley described Trump’s initial plan to enact 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada as a disaster for US companies that operate across the region, while providing an unfair advantage to European and Asian automakers that also import to the United States.

Trump last week suspended the tariffs for 30 days following concessions from Mexico and Canada. But they have not been removed as a possibility by the Trump administration, which yesterday announced plans to enact 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Farley said Ford buys most of those two metals from US firms, but that the company’s suppliers have international sources.

“So that price will come through, and there may be a speculative part of the market where prices come up because tariffs are even rumored,” Farley said.

“President Trump has talked a lot about making our US auto industry stronger, bringing more production here, more innovation,” Farley said, adding that these would be “signature accomplishments.”

But “so far what we’re seeing is a lot of cost and a lot of chaos,” he said.

Farley pointed to lingering questions about the Trump administration’s intentions on the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which included tax incentives for consumer EV purchases and for the building of EV factories.

An executive order on Trump’s first day signaled the potential elimination of tax credits favoring EVs.

Farley said Ford had already “sunk capital” in major investments in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.

“Many of those jobs will be at risk if the IRA is repealed or if big parts of it is repealed,” Farley said.

Gutting aid, US cedes soft power game to China


By AFP
February 11, 2025




When President Donald Trump froze nearly all US foreign aid, Cambodia was forced to suspend workers removing dangerous mines from the country — until China stepped in with the necessary funding.

In the Cook Islands, traditionally bound to New Zealand and friendly with the United States, the prime minister has announced plans to head to Beijing to sign a cooperation deal.

Successive US administrations have vowed to wage a global competition with China, described as the only potential rival for global leadership.

But as seen in Cambodia and the Cook Islands, two small but strategic countries, the United States has effectively ceded one of its main levers of influence.

The dramatic shift by Trump — following the advice of billionaire advisor Elon Musk — has put nearly the entire workforce on leave at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), marking the end of a key decades-old effort by the United States to exercise “soft power” — the ability of a country to persuade others through its attractiveness.

Trump has unapologetically turned instead to hard power, wielding tariffs against friends and foes and threatening military force to get his way, even against NATO ally Denmark over Greenland.

When John F. Kennedy created USAID, he pointed to the success of the Marshall Plan in rebuilding Europe and hoped that alleviating poverty would reduce the allure of the Soviet Union, the main adversary of the United States at the time.

Michael Schiffer, who served as USAID’s assistant administrator for Asia under former president Joe Biden, warned that China could become the dominant player in the developing world in areas from public health to policing.

“We’ll be sitting on the sidelines and then in a couple of years we’ll have a conversation about how we’re shocked that the PRC has positioned itself as the partner of choice in Latin America, Africa and Asia,” he said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

“At that point, the game will be over.”



– Will China step up? –



The United States has long been the top donor in the world, giving $64 billion in 2023.

A number of other Western countries, especially in Scandinavia, have been more generous compared with the sizes of their economies.

But Schiffer doubted they could replace the United States either in dollar terms or in the longstanding US role of mobilizing international aid to priorities around the world.

China’s aid is more opaque. According to AidData, a research group at the College of William and Mary, China has provided $1.34 trillion over two decades — but unlike Western nations, it has mostly provided loans rather than grants.

Samantha Custer, director of policy analysis at AidData, doubted there would be any “huge, dramatic increase in aid dollars from China,” noting Beijing’s focus on lending and the economic headwinds facing the Asian power.

Still, she said, the United States will struggle to counter perceptions it is no longer reliable.

“China can win the day by not even doing anything,” she said.

“You can’t partner with somebody who’s not there.”

Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said China is more interested in construction and benefiting its domestic industries, like building a hospital rather than training its doctors.

And with the freeze in USAID, China may have even less reason to step up aid.

“If they become the only game in town, it doesn’t generate strong incentives for China to compete and significantly increase development assistance,” he said.

One major gap will be conflict-related funding, said Rebecca Wolfe, an expert in development and political violence at the University of Chicago.

She pointed to Syria, where the Islamic State extremist group gained grounds in areas that lacked governance.

“Yes, the Chinese can come in and do the infrastructure. But what about the governance part?”

She said Western countries may not step up until they feel real effects, such as a new migrant crisis.

– Different soft power? –

Trump’s aid freeze is officially only a 90-day review, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that he issued waivers for emergency assistance.

But aid groups say effects are already being felt by the sweeping pause, from schools shutting down in Uganda to flood relief shelters under threat in South Sudan.

Hendrik W. Ohnesorge, a scholar of soft power, said Trump has a highly transactional worldview and is more attuned to hard power.

But Ohnesorge, managing director of the Center for Global Studies at the University of Bonn, said Trump also represented a new, post-liberal sort of soft power in a polarized world.

He noted that other leaders have styled themselves after Trump and gladly followed his lead.

For instance, Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, swiftly joined Trump in leaving the World Health Organization.

“Perhaps it may henceforth be better to even speak of US soft powers — in the plural — as there are starkly different visions of America and the world prevalent in the US today,” Ohnesorge said.