11 views

Oct. 1, 2025, 6:00 AM EDTBy Denise ChowIf an asteroid is on a collision course with the moon, what should humanity do? Try to nudge the space rock out of the way before it strikes? Obliterate it with a nuclear explosion?Those are the questions explored in a recent paper from more than a dozen researchers, including several NASA scientists. And they’re not purely hypothetical: An asteroid known as 2024 YR4 is estimated to have a 4% chance of hitting the moon in 2032.Such a cosmic collision could produce debris “up to 1,000 times above background levels over just a few days, possibly threatening astronauts and spacecraft” in low-Earth orbit, the researchers wrote in the paper, which was uploaded to the preprint website arXiv on Sept. 15 but has yet to be peer-reviewed.To avoid creating that potentially dangerous debris field, one option is to nuke the asteroid, according to the paper — or trigger what the scientists call a “robust disruption” — before it reaches the moon. Cue the “Armageddon” movie references.But using a nuclear explosion to destroy an asteroid has never been tested, so the plan would come with a slew of major risks.Various key characteristics about asteroid 2024 YR4 aren’t known, including its mass, which would be critical in figuring out how to properly “disrupt” it without creating more problems.“If the explosion is not enough, you’re just going to create a debris field anyway,” said Julie Brisset, interim director of the Florida Space Institute, who wasn’t involved with the paper.Asteroid 2024 YR4 was first detected by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System station in Chile in December. NASA estimates that it measures up to 220 feet across, large enough to be considered a “city killer” because it could be capable of causing severe damage to a city or region on Earth.Experts initially thought there was a small chance the asteroid could hit our planet, and the probability of such an impact was estimated to be as high as 3% earlier this year. But a collision with Earth was later ruled out.With Earth now thought to be in the clear, asteroid 2024 YR4 has an estimated 4.3% chance of smacking into the moon.The authors of the recent paper suggested launching a mission to conduct reconnaissance of the asteroid, including estimating its mass from up close. After that, they proposed, an explosive device could be built, then deployed to the space rock.Alternatively, if destroying the asteroid with a nuclear explosion is too extreme, the researchers detailed how it could be nudged out of the way.NASA has some experience with that: In a first-of-its-kind test in 2022, its DART probe intentionally crashed into a small space rock known as Dimorphos to alter its trajectory. The maneuver was carried out 6.8 million miles from Earth and changed Dimorphos’ path in space, shortening its orbit by 33 minutes, according to NASA.But a successful deflection would also require knowing the mass of asteroid 2024 YR4, Brisset said.In response to an NBC News inquiry to NASA about the recent paper, Kelly Fast, the agency’s acting planetary defense officer, said in a statement that there are no plans to deflect or otherwise interfere with the asteroid.However, she said there are plans to study it early next year using the James Webb Space Telescope. Any findings could provide better insight into its orbital path.“If observed, the additional data could improve our knowledge of where the asteroid will be in December 2032,” Fast said, “and could drop the impact probability to 0%.”Even if space missions like those described in the paper could be carried out, there would be political considerations to navigate.Although no astronauts or long-term habitats are on the moon, that might not always be the case. China, for instance, has said it aims to land its astronauts on the moon by 2030. Chinese officials have also said the country may build a nuclear plant on the lunar surface to power a moon base that it plans to jointly operate with Russia. The United States plans to launch regular missions to the lunar surface before NASA eventually ventures to Mars. But NASA’s future missions and priorities remain in flux amid significant personnel cuts and President Donald Trump’s budget blueprint for NASA, which proposes slashing more than $6 billion from its budget.Detonating a nuclear device in space could also add tension to the burgeoning space race among the United States, China and other spacefaring countries, with potential conflicts over which countries and space agencies would lead or participate in the project, Brisset said.“It would probably be countries that have the technical capability to do it,” she said, “which maybe narrows it down to three or four, but would they want to work together?”Denise ChowDenise Chow is a science and space reporter for NBC News.

- Latest News - October 1, 2025

If an asteroid is on a collision course with the moon, should it be deflected or blown up? A paper from NASA scientists and other researchers explores the options.

Source.

TAGS:
10 views

Oct. 1, 2025, 5:33 AM EDTBy Jay GanglaniThe Taliban has denied imposing a nationwide internet ban, claiming instead that the blackout consuming Afghanistan was due to old fiber optic cables that were now being replaced. Wednesday’s announcement was the Taliban’s first public statement since a communications blackout hit the country of over 40 million people, disrupting everything from banking to travel and businesses to aid work. The Taliban’s Urdu language website Al-Emarah quoted spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid as saying that some people were spreading rumors about a ban on internet access in the country, which he said were not true.However, one senior Taliban leader in Kabul told NBC News: “We don’t understand what’s happening in the country. Nobody is telling us as majority of the people don’t have access to each other.” It comes after several provinces said last month they would shut down the internet after a government order to crackdown on immorality, fueling fears about new limits on access to the outside world.Internet watchdog NetBlocks said Monday that a near nationwide telecoms disruption was in effect. Less than two hours later, it announced that Afghanistan was “now in the midst of a total internet blackout.” A view of Kabul, on Monday night, following the nationwide telecoms outage.Wakil Kohsar / AFP via Getty ImagesThe United Nations urged Taliban authorities “to immediately and fully restore nationwide Internet and telecommunications access,” in a statement Tuesday.The shutdown has left millions of people from Afghanistan who now live outside the country distressed, with many unable to contact their loved ones. Flights out of the country have also been canceled, adding to the sense of chaos and isolation.Indiana resident Sofia Ramyar, 33, is one of them.Ramyar says that she hasn’t been able to contact her family, some of whom live in the capital Kabul. “The blackout has created a deep sense of isolation and has further silenced those already struggling to be heard,” Ramyar told NBC News. “This blackout has fully cut off the country from the digital world in a way we have never seen before.” Ramyar serves as an advisor to Afghans for Progressive Thinking (APT), a youth-led non-profit that focuses on advancing women’s rights and educational opportunities for girls. She added that the blackout has impacted her ability to serve those women, adding that her work “relies heavily” on online access and that the situation in Afghanistan continues to be “unpredictable.” “Their safety is always a concern,” she added. Naseer Kawoshger, 29, who left Afghanistan in 2020 and now works as a cashier at a grocery store in Chicago, said he has also been unable to speak with his family in Kabul. “When I sent a message to my sister, my brother, there was only one tick and I saw that the message wasn’t being sent,” Kawoshger said. “I don’t know what happened to my country, what happened to my family.”Aid officials have warned the blackout was hampering their operations in the country, which has been battered by a series of economic and humanitarian crises since the Taliban swept back to power in 2021 as the U.S. withdrew. The hardline Islamist regime has faced global criticism for its treatment of women, but has recently sought better ties with Washington.“Reliable communications are essential for our ability to operate, to deliver life-saving assistance, and to coordinate with partners,” Save the Children said in a statement Wednesday.Jay GanglaniJay Ganglani is NBC News’s 2025-26 Asia Desk Fellow. Previously he was an NBC News Asia Desk intern and a Hong Kong-based freelance journalist who has contributed to news publications such as CNN, Fortune and the South China Morning Post.Mushtaq Yusufzai and The Associated Press contributed.

- Latest News - October 1, 2025

The Taliban has denied imposing a nationwide internet ban, claiming instead that the blackout consuming Afghanistan was due to old fiber optic cables that were now being replaced.

Source link.

TAGS:
13 views

Oct. 1, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Abigail Brooks and Zinhle EssamuahWESTWEGO, Louisiana — Robin Phillip’s fresh haircut is dyed her favorite color — green. But beneath the dye job is a scar that runs along the side of her head, the result of two craniotomies. For years, Phillip, 45, suffered from what she thought were migraines. It wasn’t until early 2018, when she had to leave her warehouse shift to drive to the hospital, that she learned her headaches were a symptom of something more serious. She said she nearly crashed on the drive to the emergency room, blinded by pain. “The nurse said, ‘OK, what’s your pain from 1 to 10?’ I said 11, 12,” said Phillip. “They put me in the chair, and I don’t remember nothing after that.”Phillip awoke later to shocking news: She had an intracranial meningioma — a tumor of the lining of the brain. She needed emergency surgery.After the procedure, Phillip lost vision in her left eye and had to re-learn how to walk. Unable to work, she lost her apartment and moved in with her mother until she could get back on her feet. Robin Phillip during a radiation session in 2024. A mask holds her head in place for the treatment.Courtesy Robin Phillip“I was feeling lost, because where would I have possibly gotten a tumor from? I had a regular life. I did regular things,” she said. “What could have possibly caused this to happen to me?”Today, Phillip believes her birth control is to blame. For nearly 30 years, stopping only when she had her two children, she used Depo-Provera — a progestin shot given three times a year. She’s one of more than 1,000 women suing Pfizer, which makes the drug, alleging the company knew more about the risks and failed to warn users. Pfizer has moved to have the suit dismissed, arguing the case is pre-empted by a Food and Drug Administration decision, and says it stands behind the safety and efficacy of Depo-Provera.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 4 sexually active women in the United States have used Depo-Provera. Black women use it at nearly double the national rate. Meningiomas are usually not cancerous — meaning they don’t spread to other parts of the body — but they can be harmful depending on their size and where they grow. Phillip’s tumor was pressing on her optic nerve, causing vision problems.Recent researchIn recent years, several studies have shown a possible link between Depo-Provera use and an increased risk of developing meningioma. One of them, published earlier this month in JAMA Neurology, linked medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), the drug in Depo-Provera, with a twofold increase in risk for meningioma. The risk was greatest in women who used the contraceptive for more than four years or started after age 31.Another one, a 2024 study published in the The BMJ based on French data, found a fivefold increase in risk for meningioma for long-term Depo-Provera users. Doctors caution that the studies are observational, meaning they cannot prove the medication caused the tumors. Dr. David Raleigh, a radiation oncologist who specializes in brain tumors and who is the chair of meningioma research at the University of California San Francisco’s Department of Radiation Oncology, said that female sex hormones — progesterone in particular — are linked to meningioma. (Progestin, the hormone in Depo-Provera, is a synthetic version of progesterone.) Meningiomas are the only brain tumors that are more common in women than in men, he added.Still, Raleigh said this doesn’t necessarily mean that progesterone is causing a meningioma to form. “All the available data suggest that progesterone is fuel on the fire,” he said. “Progesterone didn’t necessarily start the fire, but the available data suggest that it’s like dumping gas on it.” He said that the recent studies linking Depo-Provera to meningioma give him pause.“Those of us in the business often recommend that patients with meningioma avoid hormone replacement therapy, use nonhormone based means of contraception, if possible, and to be cautious with pregnancy and fertility planning because of these very well documented associations,” he said. “These new studies only amplify those concerns and considerations.”The overall risk of developing meningioma remains small: About 39,000 meningiomas are diagnosed each year in the U.S.“Overall, meningioma is not common. This is not a type of tumor that we see very often,” said Dr. Colleen Denny, an OB-GYN at NYU Langone Health. “The likelihood of having a meningioma as a Depo user is incredibly low. It’s just that it’s incredibly, incredibly low for people who don’t use Depo.”The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) published a response to The BMJ study urging caution, saying that, “according to the study, five out of 10,000 women using medroxyprogesterone acetate may possibly develop meningioma compared to one out of 10,000 women not using the medication.”“The risk that they’re finding is incredibly small,” said Dr. Nisha Verma, senior adviser for reproductive health policy for advocacy at ACOG. “I think it is a consideration we can talk to patients about, among all of the considerations that patients go through.”“Uterine cancer is a lot more common than meningioma, and Depo reduces your risk of uterine cancer. So how do you balance that?” Denny said. “It’s complex, and it often depends on the individual patients.”Phillip says even that small risk would have been too much for her.“If I would have [known] from the get-go, I would have never took that shot,” she said. The lawsuitPhillip is now one of more than 1,000 women suing Pfizer, the maker of Depo-Provera, alleging that the company failed to warn them about the risk. “These women all have meningiomas. Many have surgery, some have radiation, and they’ve all had their lives greatly impacted,” said Ellen Relkin, a lawyer representing Phillip and some of the other plaintiffs. Phillip’s lawsuit points to several studies dating as far back as 1983 showing a link between progesterone and meningioma. The lawsuit says those studies created an “unassignable duty to investigate,” and that Pfizer should have studied the risks associated with Depo-Provera sooner. Phillip needed two surgeries to remove a meningioma. A scar from the operations runs down the side of her head.NBC News“Defendants willfully, wantonly, and intentionally conspired, and acted in concert, to ignore relevant safety concerns and to deliberately not study the long-term safety and efficacy of Depo-Provera, particularly in chronic long-term users of Depo-Provera,” the complaint says. Verma, of ACOG, said that hormonal birth control is well-studied before it hits the market.“Birth control methods that are commercially available have been studied extensively before becoming available to the public, and so we’ve studied every type of birth control. We’ve looked at safety measures,” she said. “We have guidelines that do intensive reviews of all of the data and help us support patients in what methods may be safer for them.”In a statement to NBC News, Pfizer said it stands behind the “safety and efficacy of Depo-Provera.” In a court filing earlier this month, the company asked a judge to dismiss the case, saying that it became aware of the risks of meningioma associated with Depo-Provera in 2023, and submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration to add a warning to the drug’s label. The application also requested adding warnings to two pills containing much lower doses of MPA. The FDA denied that request, according to the filing.The FDA declined NBC News’ request for comment, but in its denial letter to Pfizer, which is included in company’s filing, it said: “The findings of the available observational studies alone do not support the addition of a warning on Meningioma risk to medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA)-containing products.”A spokesperson for Pfizer told NBC News that because of the FDA’s denial, federal law pre-empts the company from changing the warning label on Depo-Provera.In an interview with NBC News, Phillips’ lawyer Relkin said Pfizer had enough information to study the possible risks associated with Depo-Provera on its own before 2023 and accused the company of making an “overbroad and half-baked” effort to warn patients by submitting an application to add a warning label to every medication containing MPA.“Depo-Provera is 150 milligrams. Three, four times a year, a very high dose,” Relkin said. “There are low-dose, 2.5 and 5 mg pills, where there’s no data showing that they cause a problem.”“The dose makes the poison,” she added. “By asking to change the label for all, they were inviting a rejection.”Pfizer denied that accusation in its court filing. “If FDA truly thought a meningioma warning was necessary for some products (and not others) … FDA could have ‘promptly’ communicated to Pfizer,” it wrote.Changes abroad Outside of the U.S., however, changes have been made to Pfizer’s label.The European Medicines Agency added meningioma as a “possible side effect” of drugs with high doses of medroxyprogesterone acetate in 2024, and Pfizer went on to communicate that risk to doctors in the European Union. Canada’s label for the drug, updated in 2024, includes meningioma in its “warnings and precautions” section, stating that “meningiomas have been reported following long-term administration of progestins, including medroxyprogesterone acetate.”In January, South Africa’s drug regulatory agency also recommended updating the drug label for MPA to include meningioma risk. Phillip’s lawsuit alleges that Pfizer knew of the potential risk years before those changes overseas were made, however, citing a 2006 Canadian drug label which lists meningioma as one of the “Post-Market Adverse Drug Reactions” — adverse events that are reported after a drug has already been approved. The 2006 label notes that “the nature of post-marketing surveillance makes it difficult to determine if a reported event was actually caused by DEPO-PROVERA.”“Just because something happened associated in time with something, it doesn’t mean that one thing caused the other,” said Dr. Janet Woodcock, a former FDA principal deputy commissioner. “It’s in a company’s best interest to put everything on there, because then if they’re sued, they’d say, ‘Well, it was in the fine print.’”Woodcock, who is not involved with the lawsuit, noted the FDA typically has the final word on drug labels.According to Pfizer’s court filings, the company resubmitted its application to the FDA in June 2025. Phillip, right, rings the bell on her last day of radiation treatment on March 25, 2024.Courtesy Robin Phillip“FDA has still not approved any meningioma warning, and Pfizer’s renewed request remains pending,” the filing said.Relkin said an earlier warning would have changed everything for Phillip and her other clients.After her surgery in 2018, Phillip continued to take Depo-Provera. Her doctors were unable to remove the entire tumor in 2018 and she needed a second surgery in 2022, followed by radiation treatment from 2022 to 2024.Even still, doctors weren’t able to remove the entire tumor because of how close it is to her optic nerve.Phillip says she continued taking Depo-Provera until she saw posts on social media in 2024 about the studies linking the drug to meningioma. Earlier this month, she had her first set of brain scans since going off the drug. She said her radiologist told her that the meningioma is shrinking. “My body is telling me, my head is telling me I don’t have that much pain like I used to have,” she said. Abigail BrooksAbigail Brooks is a producer for NBC News.Zinhle EssamuahZinhle Essamuah is a correspondent and anchor for NBC News.

- Latest News - October 1, 2025

Some women believe that the birth control shot caused their meningiomas, a tumor that grows from the lining of the brain.

Source link

TAGS:
8 views

Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 1, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Adam Edelman and Bridget BowmanThis is not the first time Virginia voters have braced for a government shutdown in a partisan standoff over Obamacare just a few weeks before they elect their next governor. In October 2013, the federal government shut down for 16 days after lawmakers failed to reach a deal to fund it. President Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders loudly blamed Republicans in Congress, dubbing it the “tea party shutdown” — and polls showed that the public overwhelmingly agreed. Weeks later, Democrat Terry McAuliffe eked out a narrow win in the Virginia governor’s election, defying a historical trend. In 11 of the last 12 Virginia governor’s races, voters elected the candidate of the party out of power in the White House. The lone exception was in 2013. Fast-forward to the present. Republicans control the White House, the federal government barreled into a shutdown at midnight Wednesday morning, and a race for governor in Virginia is weeks away. Democratic former Rep. Abigail Spanberger has so far led Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in both polling and fundraising.National Republicans are already aggressively casting blame on Democrats, who are pushing to include additional health care money in the government funding bill, for the shutdown. After Spanberger has spent the entire campaign leading in public polls, the new developments raise questions about whether a shutdown could threaten her path to victory — and block the same historical trend that had been working in her favor.“Something like this, depending how [Democrats] respond, could be a big opening” for Republicans, said Jimmy Keady, a Richmond-based Republican consultant. Keady said Republicans “have done a pretty good job” blaming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats more broadly for a shutdown. “You’re going to now have Democrats shutting down the government, and I think that has framed in a way where Republicans can push back on that narrative of who’s actually shutting the government down,” he said.Democrats have pushed for any funding deal to include measures that would extend expiring Obamacare subsidies and to undo President Donald Trump’s Medicaid cuts.Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress, but Democrats have leverage because it takes 60 votes to end debate on legislation in the Senate and the GOP holds 53 seats.Other Republicans expressed more ambiguity about how the blame game might play out in Virginia.”I don’t know how this is going to bounce. I think it depends how long it goes on,” said former Rep. Tom Davis, a Republican who represented a northern Virginia district from 1995 to 2008. Spanberger told NBC News in a statement that the shutdown would hurt Virginia’s economy, blaming Trump and Earle-Sears for the coming damage and connecting a government closure’s impact to the impact of cuts by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency this year.“Virginia families are already feeling the strain of high costs, and Virginia workers and business leaders are deeply worried about the impacts of an impending shutdown and the jobs cuts the Trump Administration is threatening,” Spanberger said. “Virginians are already facing the dire impacts of DOGE, reckless tariffs, and attacks on our healthcare, and now, once again, President Trump is escalating his attacks on Virginia jobs and our economy. And with each new attack, Winsome Earle-Sears refuses to stand up for Virginia’s workforce and economy.”President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House last week.Andrew Harnik / Getty ImagesEarle-Sears blamed Democrats for the looming shutdown, saying in an interview Tuesday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press NOW” that Spanberger should have urged Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, to agree to Republicans’ funding deal.“I’m hoping that my opponent, Abigail Spanberger, will tell her friends, Senators Kaine and Warner, who are from Virginia, not to shut down our government, to give a continuing resolution that’s clean — to vote for that, because you’re going to put all of those federal workers out of a job,” Earle-Sears said. “My opponent has been speaking about that all summer long, and she needs to come and tell them exactly that: Vote for a clean continuing resolution to keep our federal workers in their jobs.”Davis, the Republican former congressman whose Washington-area district is home to many federal workers, said those voters had already most likely turned on Trump this year after he, through DOGE, moved to shrink the federal workforce.“I think the administration has probably lost a lot of goodwill with federal employees after DOGE and the cuts here,” Davis said. “So in terms of who they’re likely to believe, I think it’s unclear at this point [if] what would ordinarily advantage the Republicans works for them.”A prolonged shutdown would most likely risk adding more strain on federal workers and members of the military, who would go without pay during a government closure. In addition, Trump has threatened to fire federal workers during a shutdown. A longer shutdown might also weigh down a broader U.S. economy that is already exhibiting signs of weakness.But Democrats still have history on their side.“Anything is possible, but you have a group of folks that use these elections in Virginia traditionally in the last 50 years to send a message to the party in the White House,” Davis said.Democrats, meanwhile, appear less concerned about being blamed, with lawmakers, party officials and Spanberger all expressing confidence that voters will view the shutdown as part and parcel of a broader trend of chaos in Washington sown and seeded by the Republicans who control the White House and both chambers of Congress.Still, the real effects federal government shutdowns have in Virginia generate some unpredictability.In an interview in February, around the time of the DOGE job cuts, Spanberger said she quickly learned as a member of Congress how dramatically shutdowns (and near-shutdowns) harmed her constituents.“When there are government shutdowns, Virginia is the most economically impacted state,” she said then. Her time in Congress started in the middle of a 35-day government shutdown during Trump’s first term.”When there’s even a threat of a government shutdown, we would just reiterate how damaging that is, because, in the threat of losing your salary for a small period of time, people don’t take their families out to eat. People don’t stop and buy kids candy at the convenience shop,” she said. “They don’t buy a new microwave if their microwave is on the fritz. That is only more profound at this moment, where people are worried about whether they might lose their job.”Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Earle-Sears’ biggest ally, has been linking the shutdown to national Democratic leaders like Schumer.Still, several Democratic members of Virginia’s congressional delegation were confident that voters would blame Trump for the shutdown and that the frustration would bleed into their feelings about Earle-Sears and other Republicans.“I think people recognize that Donald Trump is the chief chaos agent. So to the extent that there’s chaos, I don’t think it’s a hard sell to convince people that Donald Trump is the genesis of that chaos, and I think that hurts any candidate who’s aligned with Donald Trump, and in Virginia’s case this year that’s Winsome Sears and the Republican ticket,” Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw said.Democratic Rep. Jennifer McClellan said, “You’ve had Abigail Spanberger from Day 1 saying that she would stand up and fight for all Virginians, including those harmed by the actions of the Trump administration.“And you’ve had Winsome Sears, who’s either been silent or cheering Trump on or saying that all these federal workers that live in Virginia being fired is not a big deal,” she said, referring to Earle-Sears’ comments this year playing down the impact of the federal job cuts in Virginia.There are warning signs for both parties in recent polling, including some that underscore difficulties Democrats could face in deflecting blame.A national New York Times/Siena University poll conducted last week found 33% of registered voters say Democrats in Congress and Trump and Republicans in Congress deserve equal blame for a government shutdown. Another 26% say Trump and congressional Republicans would be to blame, while 19% say the same of Democrats in Congress. The poll did find some room for both parties to make their cases, with 21% saying they had not heard enough to weigh in the issue. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., said he had not spoken with Spanberger about a shutdown, but he said that he “can’t imagine that she wants a shutdown” and that voters would be likelier to blame Republicans because “they control the House, they control the Senate, they have the White House.”Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., said a shutdown “helps Democrats, because the Republicans aren’t even in town.” The GOP-controlled House left town after it passed a seven-week government funding bill and is not scheduled to return until Oct. 7.Asked whether he was concerned that Democrats — including Spanberger — would catch blame for a shutdown, Kaine said, “I think Virginians understand who’s at fault for this.”Adam EdelmanAdam Edelman is a politics reporter for NBC News. Bridget BowmanBridget Bowman is a national political reporter for NBC News.Megan Lebowitz contributed.

- Latest News - October 1, 2025

This is not the first time Virginia voters have braced for a government shutdown in a partisan standoff over Obamacare just a few weeks before they elect their next governor.

TAGS:
12 views

Sept. 30, 2025, 12:04 PM EDTBy Kaan OzcanNew cases of cancer have been rising among younger people, worrying patients and doctors about causes. A new study suggests increasing numbers of cases of early onset cancer are largely due to improved and more routine screening, while mortality rates among younger people haven’t changed.The study, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, compared rates of new diagnoses over the past three decades to mortality rates of the fastest-rising cancers in adults under 50. Of the eight cancers the research team studied, only two, colorectal and endometrial, showed increases in deaths. Other cancers included thyroid, anal, pancreatic, kidney, myeloma and small intestine. While breast and kidney cancers have increased in incidence, the mortality rates across all age groups have decreased in recent years.In fact, invasive breast cancer has been increasing faster in women under 50 than women over 50, at around a 1.4% increase per year from 2012 to 2021, according to the American Cancer Society. Similarly, colorectal cancer rates increased 2.4% per year in adults under 50 years and by 0.4% in adults 50-64 from 2012 to 2021. However, deaths have been halved for both because of earlier detection and improved treatment such as immunotherapies.Advances in screening technology and recommended screening at younger ages have allowed doctors to detect tumors at their earliest stages, including cases that may not ever negatively affect a person’s health.Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, senior investigator at the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Mass General Brigham hospital and a co-author of the study, said the harder doctors look for cancer, the more they are bound to find. “There really isn’t much more cancer out there,” Welch said. “We’re just finding stuff that’s always been there. That’s particularly true in things like the thyroid and the kidney.”The increase in “diagnostic scrutiny” for cancer adds to the uptick in some cancer case numbers. “Largely, what’s going on here is that people are getting tested more, and they’re getting more, if you will, powerful tests that can resolve smaller and smaller abnormalities,” he said. “This is largely simply unearthing things that have always been there.”Last year, the highly influential U.S. Preventive Services Task Force lowered the recommended age for first breast cancer screenings to 40, down from 50. And as deaths from colon cancer among people ages 45 to 49 ticked up, in 2021 the recommended age to start screening dropped from 50 to 45. Dr. Ahmed Jemal, senior vice president for surveillance, prevention and health services research at the American Cancer Society, said rising incidence rates can’t simply be chalked up to more and improved screening. Some of the causes are diet, obesity and physical inactivity.The study also pointed out that unnecessary treatments, such as surgery or radiation or chemotherapy, for cancers that aren’t “clinically meaningful” can cause multiple burdens for younger patients, Jemal said. A clinically meaningful cancer is considered dangerous and could spread if it is untreated. “You create not only cost burden, but you create anxiety,” Jemal said. Dr. Philippe E. Spiess, chief of surgery at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, said the psychosocial aspect of cancer is another significant consequence. “Once a patient physically knows they have a mass, there is a significant burden that you have related to knowing that,” he said.Rather than intervene with every cancer doctors find, Spiess said, it’s important for doctors to assess whether patients’ cancers are dangerous and at risk of harming them. If tumors are small enough to be considered nonlethal, doctors should work with patients to monitor and continually assess their risk.“As long as the patient is committed to observation and surveillance, I think the consideration there is that you’re really not losing anything,” Spiess said.Kaan OzcanKaan Ozcan is an intern with NBC News’ Health and Medical Unit. 

- Latest News - October 1, 2025

New cases of cancer have been rising among younger people, worrying patients and doctors about causes.

Source link

TAGS:
13 views

Oct. 1, 2025, 2:39 AM EDTBy Phil HelselFrom a dozen to just one: Scarred “32 Chunk” was crowned the fat bear champion of Alaska’s Brooks River, organizers announced Tuesday.The annual competition drew in tens of thousands of votes and lasted a week.Chunk beat out rival bear “856” in the final polling, 96,350 votes to 63,725, the organization that runs the livestream cameras at the Katmai National Park and Preserve said.”Chunk the Hunk. The Chunkster. 32 Chunk,” the organization, Explore, posted on X. “All hail the new king of Brooks River.”Fat Bear Week, a competition that began in 2014, opened for voting on Sept. 23 with 12 contenders.The bears have been trying to fatten up by gorging on salmon — including at times by only eating the skin, brains and eggs to focus on the most calories — before hibernating for the winter.Voters were instructed to choose “the bear you believe best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears.”Chunk is a male bear described as “very large” and weighing around 1,200 pounds. He has a distinctive scar and a broken jaw, which is healing but never expected to return to normal, according to Explore’s website.”The timing of the injury during the brown bear mating season and the nature of it strongly suggest that Chunk was injured in a fight with another bear,” the organization said.Katmai National Park and Preserve, on the Alaska Peninsula southwest of Anchorage, is known for its brown bears. The Brooks Camp at the mouth of the Brooks River draws visitors every year to watch the large animals. Salmon return upstream on the Brooks throughout the summer to spawn, and the bears are there to meet them with open jaws. Then, in September, the fish are weakened and dying and bears return to again chow down, the park says on its website.Katmai’s bears usually go to their dens to hibernate in October and November, according to the park.Phil HelselPhil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

- Latest News - October 1, 2025

From a dozen to just one: Scarred “32 Chunk” was crowned the fat bear champion of Alaska’s Brooks River, organizers announced Tuesday

Source link

TAGS: