TotalEnergies can do without Russian gas: CEO


By AFP
February 11, 2026


The Yamal LNG plant is located in the Arctic circle, some 2500 km from Moscow - Copyright AFP/File Maxim ZMEYEV

French fossil fuels giant TotalEnergies said Wednesday it will abide by a European ban on imports of Russian liquefied natutral gas (LNG) due to come into force next year and said it can easily replace the supplies.

The company still holds a 20-percent stake in the massive Yamal natural gas field in Siberia and ships LNG from there to Europe.

“We’ve always clearly stated that we’ll follow regulations which are adopted,” chief executive Patrick Pouyanne told journalists.

“We’ll no longer have the right to import LNG from Russia” into Europe, he added, “but we’ll remain a shareholder in Yamal”.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, most Western companies have sold off their Russian operations and holdings, or at least isolated them, as Western sanctions have made trading in most goods difficult.

Pouyanne confirmed that TotalEnergies continues to receive “dividends” from its stake in Yamal, but cannot incorporate them into its earnings. The funds remain in Russia, he added.

While EU nations cut their imports of Russian natural gas by pipeline, some of that was replaced by LNG imports.

Last December, EU states and lawmakers reached an agreement to ban all Russian natural gas imports from the autumn of 2027 in order to deny Moscow a key source of funding for its war effort in Ukraine.

Russian gas has fallen from 45 percent of total EU natural gas imports in 2021 to 19 percent in 2024.

“We were criticised for continuing to import (Russian) LNG, but we did it to ensure supply security and avoid prices rising sky high” during the energy crisis provoked after the start of the war in 2022, said Pouyanne.

Numerous new LNG projects are set to go online in 2027 and 2028, which should ensure better supplies and lower prices, something Pouyanne said was “good news for European consumers”.

This means TotalEnergies “can do without this LNG” from Russia, he added.

Earlier Wednesday the company reported a 17 percent drop in net profit last year to $13.1 billion due to declining oil and gas prices.

The company, which has faced criticism from environmental campaigners over its continued focus on climate-warming fossil fuels, has designated natural gas as one of its strategic priorities.

Berlin Film Festival to open with a rallying cry ‘to defend artistic freedom’


By AFP
February 12, 2026


Image: — © AFP Odd ANDERSEN

Jastinder KHERA with Antoine GUY in Paris

The Berlin Film Festival will kick off on Thursday evening with an eclectic selection of films reflecting current upheavals, and with Wim Wenders, one of Germany’s most illustrious directors, heading the jury.

Against the backdrop of polarisation and repression, “it’s more critical than ever that we defend our artistic freedom”, festival director Tricia Tuttle told AFP.

German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer said the 76th edition of the festival would be a testament to the fact that “screenplays, cameras and screens are not mere artistic tools, but weapons in the fight for freedom and human dignity”.

“We must not allow the despots in Tehran or Caracas to win,” he said in a statement.

Berlin is the first major international festival in the world’s film calendar and has a reputation for topical and progressive programming.

This year’s edition takes place against the backdrop of international tensions, the bloody crackdown on protests in Iran and global threats to human rights.

The opening film, “No Good Men” by Iran-born Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat, tells the story of Naru, a reporter at a Kabul TV station separated from her husband on account of his infidelities who questions her beliefs about men during a fateful assignment.

The film is set in the run up to the Taliban’s seizure of power in 2021, which led Sadat herself to leave the country. She now lives in Hamburg.

“It’s about Afghan women’s experience, which you wouldn’t see if it wasn’t for Shahrbanoo’s work,” Tuttle said.

– ‘Biting satire’ –

The festival’s opening ceremony, starting at 7:00 pm (1800 GMT), will honour Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, who won the Best Actress Oscar in 2023 for “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once”.

More than 200 films will be shown over the 10 days of the festival, of which 22 will be in competition for the Golden Bear, which last year was scooped by Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud’s film “Dreams”.

Stars will be hitting the red carpet at the 76th Berlinale – Copyright AFP RALF HIRSCHBERGER

As was the case last year, a majority of the films being shown this year were made by women directors, as were nine of the 22 films in official competition.

In comparison with Cannes or Venice, Berlin attracts fewer big productions with A-list-heavy casts.

But that is not to say there are no big names on the programme.

“The Weight” features Russell Crowe and Ethan Hawke in a tale of a man forced to smuggle gold through the lethal wilderness of Depression-era rural Oregon.

Southern Germany stands in for the US Northwest in the film, one of an increasing number of American productions choosing to shoot abroad to save on costs.

In the official competition section, one of the most eagerly awaited films is “Rosebush Pruning” from Berlinale favourite Karim Ainouz, billed as “a biting satire about the absurdity of the traditional patriarchal family”.

The cast boasts Elle Fanning, Callum Turner, Jamie Bell and Pamela Anderson, who are sure to be some of Saturday’s red-carpet highlights.

German actress Sandra Hueller, who attracted international acclaim for her roles in “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest”, stars in “Rose”, in which she plays a woman passing herself off as a male soldier returning to a German village in the early 17th century.

Also in the competition section, Amy Adams stars as a woman leaving rehab and confronting buried trauma in Kornel Mundruczo’s “At The Sea”, while in Beth de Araujo’s “Josephine”, Channing Tatum plays the father of a child traumatised by witnessing a violent crime.

WHO urges US to share Covid origins intel


By AFP
February 11, 2026


The Covid-19 pandemic killed millions, shredded economies and turned people's lives upside-down - Copyright AFP Sergei SUPINSKY

Robin MILLARD

The World Health Organization on Wednesday urged Washington to share any intelligence it may be withholding on the Covid-19 pandemic’s origins, despite the United States quitting the WHO.

The global catastrophe killed an estimated 20 million people, according to the UN health agency, while shredding economies, crippling health systems and turning people’s lives upside-down.

The first cases were detected in Wuhan in China in late 2019, and understanding where the SARS-CoV-2 virus came from is seen as key to preventing future pandemics.

On his first day back in office in January 2025, US President Donald Trump handed the WHO his country’s one-year withdrawal notice, which cited “the organisation’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Trump’s administration has officially embraced the theory that the virus leaked from a virology laboratory in Wuhan.

But the WHO said Washington did not hand over any Covid origins intelligence before marching out the organisation’s door.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recalled that some countries have publicly said “they have intelligence about the origins — especially the US”.

Therefore, several months ago, the UN health agency wrote to senior officials in the United States, urging them to “share any intelligence information that they have”, he told a press conference on Wednesday.

“We haven’t received any information,” Tedros lamented.

“We hope they will share, because we haven’t still concluded the Covid origins,” and “knowing what happened could help us to prevent the next” pandemic.

The WHO’s investigations have proved inconclusive, pending further evidence, with all hypotheses still on the table.

Tedros asked any government which had intelligence on the Covid-19 pandemic’s origins to share the information so that the WHO will be able to reach a conclusion.



– Critical information ‘obstructed’ –



Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s epidemic and pandemic threat management chief, said: “We continue to follow up with all governments that have said that they have intelligence reports, the US included.

“We don’t have those reports to date,” she said, other than those in the public domain.

As the US notice countdown expired on January 22, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the WHO had “obstructed the timely and accurate sharing of critical information that could have saved American lives”.

They also claimed the WHO had “tarnished and trashed everything that America has done for it”.

“The reverse is true,” the WHO said in reply.

The WHO constitution does not include a withdrawal clause.

But the United States reserved the right to withdraw when it joined the WHO in 1948 — on condition of giving one year’s notice and meeting its financial obligations in full for that fiscal year.

The notice period has now expired but Washington has still not paid its 2024 or 2025 dues, owing around $260 million, according to data published by the WHO.

Sanofi says board has removed CEO Paul Hudson


By AFP
February 12, 2026


Paul Hudson was ousted after six years on the job - Copyright AFP/File MIGUEL MEDINA

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi has removed Paul Hudson as chief executive, thanking him Thursday for “valuable contributions” but without giving any reason for his surprise exit.

Belen Garijo, currently chief executive of Germany’s Merck KGaA and previously a Sanofi vice president, will take over at the group’s AGM in April, the company said.

“Belen Garijo’s brilliant international career attests to her strategic vision and her ability to drive profound and value-creating transformations,” board chairman Frederic Oudea said in a statement.

“She has the experience and profile to accelerate the pace, strengthen the quality of execution of strategy and lead the next growth cycle of the company, which is essential to build the group’s future.”

Hudson took over at Sanofi in 2019 after previous stints at Novartis and AstraZeneca.

His removal came less than a month after Sanofi reported that sales rose 6.2 percent last year to 43.6 billion euros ($51.8 billion).

In a statement at the time, Hudson said: “In 2026, we expect sales to grow by a high single-digit percentage and business EPS to grow slightly faster than sales.

“We anticipate profitable growth to continue over at least five years.”

But analysts said Sanofi had recently suffered setbacks in drug development, and its share price has lost a fourth of its value over the past year. The stock slumped 4.5 percent on Thursday after Hudson’s ousting.

The company is looking in particular for new drugs success as its blockbuster anti-inflammation treatment Dupixent, which had sales of more than 15 billion euros last year, will lose its patent protection in five years.

“Potential management change at Sanofi had been debated for a while now following Sanofi’s R&D strategy hitting potholes,” analysts at the investment group Jefferies said in a statement.

In December however the US Food and Drug Administration doused hopes for its tolebrutinib drug by refusing to approve it for a form of multiple sclerosis.

Sanofi’s stock also took a beating last September when amlitelimab, to treat atopic dermatitis, after discouraging study results, after previously disappointing investors in May with a study failure for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Paul Hudson was “excellent at selling dreams”, Jean-Louis Peyren of the Fnic-CGT pharmaceutical industry union told AFP.

“Instead of having a financier who does more marketing than anything else, we hope that if it’s a doctor, she will be more focussed on treatment needs than financials,” he said in reference to Garijo.

“Whether there will be more management changes (R&D?) remains to be seen, but Merck did manage to hire credible R&D operators from places like AstraZeneca,” the Jefferies analysts said.

Belgian police raid EU commission in real estate probe


By AFP
February 12, 2026


The European Commission sold 23 properties to the Belgian state in 2024 

- Copyright AFP/File Nicolas TUCAT

Police raided the premises of the European Commission in Brussels Thursday in a probe into a 2024 real estate deal done with the Belgian state, a source close to the investigation told AFP.

A spokesman for the EU executive said it was “aware of an ongoing investigation” into the sale of 23 commission buildings, and was “confident that the process was conducted in a compliant manner”.

Valued at 900 million euros ($965 million at the time, equivalent now to $1.1 billion), the sale came as the commission moved to shrink its office space by a quarter with more staff working from home since the Covid pandemic.

Searches were carried out at commission premises early on Thursday, a source close to the investigation told AFP, confirming a report by the Financial Times.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) confirmed only that it was “conducting evidence-collecting activities in an ongoing investigation” involving the commission.

The commission said it was “committed to transparency and accountability and will cooperate fully with EPPO and the competent Belgian authorities on this issue”.

The properties in question were acquired by a Belgian sovereign wealth fund, which planned to renovate them so they are more sustainable and put them back on the market as businesses and housing.

Brussels wants to transform the European Quarter where most EU institutions are located so that it becomes more people-friendly.

For the commission, the sale went towards the aim of occupying fewer buildings, which are more energy-efficient, as its need for office space declined post-pandemic.

The EPPO is the independent public prosecution office of the EU, responsible for investigating crimes against the bloc’s financial interests.

Trump ends immigration crackdown in Minnesota


By AFP
February 12, 2026


Copyright AFP Charly TRIBALLEAU

President Donald Trump’s pointman on Thursday announced the end of aggressive immigration operations in Minnesota that triggered large protests and nationwide outrage following the killing of two US citizens.

Thousands of federal agents including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have in recent weeks conducted sweeping raids and arrests in what the administration claims are targeted missions against criminals.

“I have proposed and President Trump has concurred that this surge operation conclude,” Trump official Tom Homan told a briefing outside Minneapolis. “A significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue through the next week.”

The operations have sparked tense demonstrations in the Minneapolis area, and the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti less than three weeks apart last month led to a wave of criticism.

Homan raised the prospect that the officers would deploy to another location but gave no details, as speculation is rife about which city might be targeted next.

“In the next week, we’re going to deploy the officers here on detail, back to their home stations or other areas of the country where they are needed. But we’re going to continue to enforce immigration law,” he said.

Campaigning against illegal immigration helped Trump get elected in 2024, but daily videos from Minnesota of violent masked agents, and multiple reports of people being targeted on flimsy evidence, helped send Trump’s approval ratings plummeting.

The case of Liam Conejo Ramos, five, who was detained on January 20, also stoked anger.



– ‘Trump’s leadership’ –



After killings of Good and Pretti, the Republican president withdrew combative Customs and Border Protection commander Gregory Bovino and replaced him with Homan who sought to engage local Democratic leaders.

Minneapolis is a Democratic-run “sanctuary” city where local police do not cooperate with federal immigration officials.

Opposition Democrats have called for major reforms to ICE, including ending mobile patrols, prohibiting agents from concealing their faces and requiring warrants.

If political negotiations over ICE fail in Washington, the Department of Homeland Security could face a funding shortfall starting Saturday.

Customs and Border Protection and ICE operations could continue using funds approved by Congress last year, but other sub-agencies such as federal disaster organization FEMA could be affected.

Homan said that some officers would stay behind in Minnesota but did not give a figure.

“The Twin Cities, Minnesota in general, are and will continue to be, much safer for the communities here because of what we have accomplished under President Trump’s leadership,” Homan said at the briefing on the outskirts of Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul.

He said more than 200 people had been arrested in the course of the operation for interfering with federal officers, but gave no estimate for the number of immigration-linked arrests and deportations.

Thousands of Venezuelans stage march for end to repression

By AFP
February 12, 2026


University students who oppose the Venezuelan government march on Youth Day in Caracas on February 12, 2026 - Copyright AFP FRANCK FIFE

Thousands of Venezuelans demonstrated on Thursday to demand the release of all remaining political prisoners and full freedoms a month after the overthrow of autocratic leader Nicolas Maduro.

“We are not afraid,” the demonstrators chanted at the first major opposition rally since Maduro’s capture by US forces, creating scenes that would have been unthinkable during his repressive rule.

Elsewhere in Caracas, thousands of people attended a counter-demonstration in support of the post-Maduro government allowed to remain in place by President Donald Trump, who asserts that he in effect controls Venezuela and its oil wealth.

The opposition demonstration called by student organizations came as lawmakers prepared to debate a bill granting amnesty to all political prisoners for alleged offenses over 27 years of socialist rule.

Referring to the slow release of prisoners over the past five weeks, the demonstrators chanted: “Not one or two, but all.”

“Amnesty now!” read a banner hanging at the entrance to the Central University of Venezuela, where the demonstrators gathered.

“We spend a lot of time underground, silent in the face of all the repression Venezuela experienced…but today we are rising up and uniting to put forward demands for the country,” Dannalice Anza, a 26-year-old geography student, told AFP.

“VENEZUELA WILL BE FREE! Long live our students!,” exiled opposition leader Maria Corina Machado wrote on X, alongside a video of a Caracas street thronged with demonstrators, some of whom waved Venezuelan flags.

The administration of Maduro’s successor, Delcy Rodriguez, organized a counter-demonstration, which attracted thousands of pro-Maduro demonstrators on Venezuela Youth Day.

China carbon emissions ‘flat or falling’ in 2025: analysis


By AFP
February 11, 2026


Smoke rises from chimneys at a power plant during sunset in Taicang, in eastern China's Jiangsu province - Copyright AFP/File STR

Sara Hussein

China’s emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide were “flat or falling” in 2025, analysis showed Thursday, but progress remains fragile and it is not yet clear that emissions have peaked.

China is the world’s biggest emitter of the gases that drive climate change, and has committed to peaking emissions by 2030, though some analysts expect it will do so early.

Last year, emissions fell in almost all major sectors, including power generation as China’s massive renewable expansion meets growing demand, according to the analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) for climate website Carbon Brief.

That mean CO2 emissions likely declined 0.3 percent for 2025.

There is some uncertainty about figure because of margins of error around some of the numbers involved, including coal consumption.

“Because the relative drop is so small, we can’t say with certainty yet that it’s a fall, therefore the ‘flat or falling,'” explained CREA lead analyst Lauri Myllyvirta.

But the analysis suggests it is the first time that emissions have stayed flat or declined for a full calendar year at a time when energy demand was rising.

The most recent decline in emissions came during the pandemic and was linked to lockdowns.

Last year’s decline extends a “flat or falling” trend in emissions dating back to March 2024 and driven partly by China’s massive installation of renewable energy.

That has helped drive down emissions in the power sector despite growing demand.

Emissions across industry have also dropped, most notably in building materials, as construction slows, but also in transport with the growing uptake of electric vehicles.

Still, the progress is fragile.

Emissions from the chemical industry grew sharply in 2025, and are set to continue rising.

While the sector is still a relatively small emitter compared to other industries, it is having an outsize impact because of how fast its emissions are growing, the analysis found.

And while emissions have now been trending downwards or stagnant for almost two years, any decline is not yet substantial.

“This means that a small jump in emissions could see them exceed the previous peak level,” the analysis warned.

That would scupper hopes of China peaking emissions earlier than a 2030 target, something analysts say could easily be achieved.

“Whether emissions increase or decrease by a fraction of a percent year-on-year change only has symbolic significance,” Myllyvirta told AFP.

“The really significant implication is that emissions aren’t rising rapidly like they did until 2023,” he said.

But “they’re also not falling the way that they need to for China to start making progress towards the carbon neutrality target.”

There is still space for China to speed up the fall in emissions, notably further scaling up renewables.

While capacity is being added at record speed, it has not always translated into power generation, partly due to grid congestion.

Grid reforms could alleviate that and help push emissions down quicker.

Storage capacity, primarily from batteries, is also growing rapidly and could help increase the share of power generated from renewables.

Coal still dominates China’s power generation, but it fell by nearly two percent last year, despite rising electricity demand, data reviewed by AFP showed this week.

UN climate chief says ‘new world disorder’ hits cooperation


By AFP
February 12, 2026


One of the most climate-threatened corners of the planet, scientists fear Tuvalu will be uninhabitable this century - Copyright AFP/File TORSTEN BLACKWOOD

Hazel Ward with Laurent Thomet in Paris

The UN’s climate chief on Thursday urged countries to unite against an “unprecedented threat” to international cooperation from pro-fossil fuel forces — issuing the appeal as US President Donald Trump rattles the global order.

Simon Stiell, the head of the United Nations climate body, spoke in Istanbul as Turkey prepares to host the COP31 climate summit on its Mediterranean coast later this year, with Australia leading the negotiations.

“COP31 in Antalya will take place in extraordinary times. We find ourselves in a new world disorder,” Stiell said in an address alongside the president-designate of COP31, Turkish environment minister Murat Kurum.

“This is a period of instability and insecurity. Of strong arms and trade wars. The very concept of international cooperation is under attack,” he said.

Stiell made his plea as climate action is competing with concerns over security and economic growth around the world.

Trump has championed oil, gas and coal while moving to withdraw the United States from the UN’s bedrock climate treaty after pulling out of the Paris Agreement, the landmark deal reached in 2015 on curbing global warming.

The American leader, who has called global warming a “hoax”, was poised Thursday to revoke a landmark scientific finding that underpins US regulations aimed at curbing planet-warming pollution.

Trump has also rattled European allies with his desire to acquire Greenland, as shrinking Arctic sea ice is turning the region into a strategic battleground.



– ‘Antidote to the chaos’ –



Other nations have resisted moving away from oil, gas and coal.

The COP30 summit in Brazil late last year ended with a modest deal that lacked any explicit mention of fossil fuels amid opposition from oil giants such as Saudi Arabia, coal producer India and others.

The United States, the world’s top economy and second-biggest polluter after China, shunned COP30.

The last three years have been the hottest globally on record, driven by rising greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change.

Stiell warned that international climate cooperation was “under unprecedented threat: from those determined to use their power to defy economic and scientific logic, and increase dependence on polluting coal, oil and gas”.

“Those forces are undeniably strong. But they need not prevail. There is a clear alternative to this chaos and regression,” he said.

“And that is countries standing together, building on all we have achieved to date, to make it (international global cooperation) go further and faster.”

He noted that investment in clean energy was more than double that of fossil fuels last year, while renewables overtook coal as the top electricity source.

Stiell urged nations to deliver on their 2023 agreement at COP28 in Dubai to triple clean energy capacity by 2030 and transition away from fossil fuels, and for the most ambitious to form “coalitions of the willing”.

“Climate cooperation is an antidote to the chaos and coercion of this moment, and clean energy is the obvious solution to spiralling fossil fuel costs, both human and economic,” he said.

ECO CRIMINALS

Here's why Trump is dangerously wrong about how climate change threatens our health

The Conversation
February 14, 2026 

The Trump administration took a major step in its efforts to unravel America’s climate policies on Thursday, when it moved to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding — a formal determination that six greenhouse gases that drive climate change, including carbon dioxide and methane from burning fossil fuels, endanger public health and welfare.

But the administration’s arguments in dismissing the health risks of climate change are not only factually wrong, they’re deeply dangerous to Americans’ health and safety.

As physicians, epidemiologists and environmental health scientists, we’ve seen growing evidence of the connections between climate change and harm to people’s health. Here’s a look at the health risks everyone face from climate change.
Extreme heat

Greenhouse gases from vehicles, power plants and other sources accumulate in the atmosphere, trapping heat and holding it close to Earth’s surface like a blanket. Too much of it causes global temperatures to rise, leaving more people exposed to dangerous heat more often.

Most people who get minor heat illnesses will recover, but more extreme exposure, especially without enough hydration and a way to cool off, can be fatal. People who work outside, are elderly or have underlying illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney diseases are often at the greatest risk.

Heat deaths have been rising globally, up 23 percent from the 1990s to the 2010s, when the average year saw more than half a million heat-related deaths. Here in the U.S., the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome killed hundreds of people.

Climate scientists predict that with advancing climate change, many areas of the world, including U.S. cities such as Miami, Houston, Phoenix and Las Vegas, will confront many more days each year hot enough to threaten human survival.

Extreme weather

Warmer air holds more moisture, so climate change brings increasing rainfall and storm intensity and worsening flooding, as many U.S. communities have experienced in recent years. Warmer ocean water also fuels more powerful hurricanes.

Increased flooding carries health risks, including drownings, injuries and water contamination from human pathogens and toxic chemicals. People cleaning out flooded homes also face risks from mold exposure, injuries and mental distress.

Climate change also worsens droughts, disrupting food supplies and causing respiratory illness from dust. Rising temperatures and aridity dry out forests and grasslands, making them a set-up for wildfires.
Air pollution

Wildfires, along with other climate effects, are worsening air quality around the country.

Wildfire smoke is a toxic soup of microscopic particles (known as fine particulate matter, or PM2.5) that can penetrate deep in the lungs and hazardous compounds such as lead, formaldehyde and dioxins generated when homes, cars and other materials burn at high temperatures. Smoke plumes can travel thousands of miles downwind and trigger heart attacks and elevate lung cancer risks, among other harms.

Meanwhile, warmer conditions favor the formation of ground-level ozone, a heart and lung irritant. Burning of fossil fuels also generates dangerous air pollutants that cause a long list of health problems, including heart attacks, strokes, asthma flare-ups and lung cancer.
Infectious diseases

Because they are cold-blooded organisms, insects are directly influenced by temperature. So with rising temperatures, mosquito biting rates rise as well. Warming also accelerates the development of disease agents that mosquitoes transmit.

Mosquito-borne dengue fever has turned up in Florida, Texas, Hawaii, Arizona and California. New York state just saw its first locally acquired case of chikungunya virus, also transmitted by mosquitoes.

And it’s not just insect-borne infections. Warmer temperatures increase diarrhea and foodborne illness from Vibrio cholerae and other bacteria and heavy rainfall increases sewage-contaminated stormwater overflows into lakes and streams. At the other water extreme, drought in the desert Southwest increases the risk of coccidioidomycosis, a fungal infection known as valley fever.

Other impacts

Climate change threatens health in numerous other ways. Longer pollen seasons increase allergen exposures. Lower crop yields reduce access to nutritious foods.

Mental health also suffers, with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress following disasters, and increased rates of violent crime and suicide tied to high-temperature days.

Young children, older adults, pregnant women and people with preexisting medical conditions are among the highest-risk groups. Lower-income people also face greater risk because of higher rates of chronic disease, higher exposures to climate hazards and fewer resources for protection, medical care and recovery from disasters.

Policy-based evidence-making

The evidence linking climate change with health has grown considerably since 2009. Today, it is incontrovertible.

Studies show that heat, air pollution, disease spread and food insecurity linked to climate change are worsening and costing millions of lives around the world each year. This evidence also aligns with Americans’ lived experiences. Anybody who has fallen ill during a heat wave, struggled while breathing wildfire smoke or been injured cleaning up from a hurricane knows that climate change can threaten human health.


Yet the Trump administration is willfully ignoring this evidence in proclaiming that climate change does not endanger health.

Its move to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding, which underpins many climate regulations, fits with a broader set of policy measures, including cutting support for renewable energy and subsidizing fossil fuel industries that endanger public health. In addition to rescinding the endangerment finding, the Trump administration also moved to roll back emissions limits on vehicles – the leading source of U.S. carbon emissions and a major contributor to air pollutants such as PM2.5 and ozone.
It’s not just about endangerment

The evidence is clear: Climate change endangers human health. But there’s a flip side to the story.

When governments work to reduce the causes of climate change, they help tackle some of the world’s biggest health challenges. Cleaner vehicles and cleaner electricity mean cleaner air — and less heart and lung disease. More walking and cycling on safe sidewalks and bike paths mean more physical activity and lower chronic disease risks. The list goes on. By confronting climate change, we promote good health.

To really make America healthy, in our view, the nation should acknowledge the facts behind the endangerment finding and double down on our transition from fossil fuels to a healthy, clean energy future.

By Jonathan Levy, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University; Howard Frumkin, Professor Emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington;

Jonathan PatzProfessor of Environmental Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Vijay LimayeAdjunct Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This article includes material from a story originally published Nov. 12, 2025.

US lawmaker moves to shield oil companies from climate cases


By AFP
February 12, 2026


Dozens of cases against oil copmanies modeled on successful actions against the tobacco industry in the 1990s are playing out in state and local courts -- including claims of injuries, failure-to-warn, and even racketeering

 - Copyright AFP/File Patrick T. Fallon

Issam AHMED

A US lawmaker is drafting legislation to block a wave of state and local climate-damage lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, advancing a top priority of the oil and gas industry.

Republican Representative Harriet Hageman announced the effort during a hearing on Wednesday, following a letter last year from a group of attorneys general from conservative-led states urging the creation of a federal “liability shield” similar to the one Congress granted gunmakers in 2005.

Hageman also targeted so-called climate “superfund” laws, enacted in New York and Vermont and under consideration in other states, which require fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of climate-related damages tied to the destabilization of the global climate system.

“Clearly, this is an area in which Congress has a role to play,” Hageman, of the oil-rich western state of Wyoming, told Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“To that end, I’m working with my colleagues in both the House and Senate to craft legislation tackling both these state laws and the lawsuits that could destroy energy affordability for consumers.”

Dozens of cases modeled on successful actions against the tobacco industry in the 1990s are playing out in state and local courts — including claims of injuries, failure-to-warn, and even racketeering, meaning acting like a criminal enterprise.

Michigan last month sued oil majors in federal court, alleging they had acted as a cartel in an unlawful conspiracy by preventing meaningful competition from renewable energy.

Environmental advocates see such lawsuits as crucial means for climate accountability as President Donald Trump’s second term has seen the United States go all-in to boost fossil fuels and block renewables.

Some cases have been dismissed, and none have yet gone to trial — though crucially, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to intervene and block them.

Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s largest trade group, spoke out against the cases in a keynote address last month.

Material on API’s website confirms the group wishes to “Protect US energy producers and consumers from abusive state climate lawsuits and the expansion of climate ‘superfund’ policies that bypass Congress and threaten affordability.”

Richard Wiles, president of the nonprofit Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement the announcement was proof “the fossil fuel industry is panicking and pleading with Congress for a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

Any legislation however could face an uphill battle since Republicans only enjoy a slim majority in the House of Representatives and bills normally require 60 votes in the Senate, where they hold 53 seats of the 100 seats.

Greece’s Cycladic islands swept up in concrete fever


By  AFP
February 12, 2026


Milos Mayor Manolis Mikelis has called the construction project on the island an 'environmental crime' - Copyright AFP Aris MESSINIS

Yannick PASQUET

On the sloping shoreline of the Greek Aegean island of Milos, a vast construction site has left a gaping wound into the island’s trademark volcanic rock.

The foundations are for a hotel extension that attracted so much controversy last year that the country’s top administrative court ended up temporarily blocking its building permit.

Construction machinery still dots the site for a planned 59-room extension to the luxury resort, some of whose suites have their own swimming pools.

Milos Mayor Manolis Mikelis calls the project an “environmental crime”.

“The geological uniqueness of Milos is known worldwide. We don’t want its identity to change,” he told AFP in his office, adorned with a copy of the island’s most famous export, the Hellenistic-era statue of the love goddess Venus.

Fuelled by a tourism boom, real estate fever has broken out across the Cyclades archipelago, threatening to destroy iconic landscapes of whitewashed houses and blue church domes.

In December, several mayors from the Cyclades as well as the Dodecanese — which includes the highly touristic islands of Rhodes and Kos — sounded the alarm.

“The very existence of our islands is threatened,” they warned in a resolution initiated by the mayor of Santorini, Nikos Zorzos.

Tourism has become “a field for planting luxury residences to sell or rent,” said Zorzos, whose island — a top global destination — welcomes roughly 3.5 million visitors for a population of 15,500.



– Rejecting ‘plunder’ –



The “Cycladic islands are not grounds for pharaonic projects”, the mayors continued.

V Tourism, the company operating the hotel, argues that the expansion was approved in 2024 with “favourable opinions from all competent authorities”.

But Mikelis, the mayor, noted that there are legislation “loopholes” when it comes to construction.

Like Santorini, Milos is a volcanic isle that is home to one of Greece’s most unique beaches, Sarakiniko.

With its spectacular white formations rounded by erosion, the so-called ‘moon beach’ has bathers packed tighter than an astronaut’s suit during summertime.

Yet Sarakiniko is not protected under Greek law.

Another hotel project there was blocked last year, and the environment ministry has given the owners a month’s time to fill in its construction dig.



– ‘Voracious’ –



Ioannis Spilanis, emeritus professor at the University of the Aegean, says what is happening in the Cyclades “is voracious, predatory real estate”.

Once marginal land intended for grazing “have become lucrative assets. (Locals) are offered very attractive prices that are still low for investors.”

“Then you build or resell for ten times more,” he said.

In Ios, a small island with a vibrant nightlife, a single investor — a Greek who made a fortune on Wall Street — now owns 30 percent of the island, the mayors said in their December statement.

Tourism contributes between 28 and 33.7 percent of GDP, according to the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), making it a key sector that has propped up the country’s economy for decades.

Arrivals have been breaking record after record with more than 40 million visitors in 2024, a performance that was likely surpassed in 2025.

In Milos, which has more than 5,000 inhabitants, 48 new hotel projects are currently underway, according to the mayor, and 157 new building permits were awarded from January to the end of October 2025, according to the state statistical body.

On Paros, which has also experienced a real estate frenzy for several years, 459 building permits were granted over the same period, and on Santorini, 461.

The most ambitious projects in Greece are classified as “strategic investments”, a fast-track procedure created in 2019 to facilitate investments deemed priorities.

But “there’s often no oversight,” said Spilanis, the academic.



– Golden goose –



And many of the new constructions are far removed from traditional Cycladic architecture.

But the tourism industry is a vital source of income on islands which are usually deserted in winter, and offering few other job prospects.

“This island is a diamond, but unfortunately in recent years it’s become nothing but money, money, money,” fumes a resident who spends half the year in Germany.

“But if I say that in public, everyone will jump down my throat!” she said.

In a 2024 report, the state ombudsman of the Hellenic Republic stressed the deterioration in quality of life on islands where residents can no longer find housing, as many owners prioritise lucrative short-term rentals, while waste management and water resources are also under major strain.

But there are signs of a slowdown in the Cyclades.

Santorini last year saw a 12.8-percent drop in air arrivals between June and September, while Mykonos had to settle for a meagre 2.4-percent increase.