Big Pharma

LONDON—The world’s leading experts on influenza met this week to discuss the threat posed to humans by a strain of H5N1 avian flu that has caused record numbers of bird deaths around the world in recent months. The group of scientists, regulators and vaccine manufacturers meets twice a year to decide which strain of seasonal […]

Buoys, floats, nets and massive fishing ropes are among the 50,000 pieces of garbage collected from beaches in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Two dozen environmentalists spent a fortnight combing beaches in the state’s rugged southwest for plastic flakes, rope fragments and other rubbish strewn along the shores. Cleanup coordinator Matt Dell said the

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va.—The newly released Advanced Placement (AP) African American Studies coursework has become the new front to fighting critical race theory (CRT) in schools in America. The focal point is whether the AP course—taught in high schools for students to earn college credits—is a vehicle for CRT, a Marxist framework that views issues through

LOS ANGELES—Heavy snow and rain pounded California and other parts of the West on Friday in the nation’s latest winter storm, while tens of thousands of people in Michigan suffered in freezing temperatures days after one of the worst ice storms in decades caused widespread power outages. Days of winter storms blacked out nearly 1

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the first over-the-counter (OTC) at-home test for both the flu and COVID-19, which can have similar symptoms such as cough and fever. “The test provides independent diagnoses for COVID-19, Flu A, and Flu B,” Lucira Health, the test’s manufacturer, previously announced. The Lucira COVID-19 & Flu Test, which is

DETROIT—New vehicle sales in the United States are expected to increase in February, but the decision by General Motors Co. to cut production of large pickup trucks at a U.S. plant points to new challenges for Detroit’s automakers. The major Detroit pickup truck brands are sitting on growing inventories of unsold vehicles, according to Cox

The federal disaster aid program will soon be made conditional, requiring future applications to show adaptation to climate change in order to be eligible, said Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair, as the government launches a review of the program. Blair was in British Columbia this week to provide the second instalment of disaster aid for the

A film-industry weapons supervisor made her first formal court appearance Friday on a felony charge in the shooting death of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin on the set of a Western movie. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney said his client will plead not guilty, but the judge did not take that plea during the virtual court

Two major energy providers have floated the idea of charging residents in New South Wales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) households more to feed solar power into the grid during the day. The new feed-in tariffs would affect households during the sunniest part of the day, under proposals from Evoenergy and Essential Energy to

House Republicans are launching a probe of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s response to the Feb. 3 derailment of a freight train that resulted in toxic chemicals being released into the air, water, and soil in Ohio. In a letter to Buttigieg, 21 GOP lawmakers from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability expressed concerns