cancer

Antonia Lambert intially noticed something was wrong with her daughter Delilah in March, before it was discovered in June that she had a rare and serious condition

When Antonia Lambert took her 17-month-old daughter Delilah-Rose Lambert to the opticians earlier this year, she had no idea what was about to transpire.

Antonia, 20, had noticed her daughter’s left eye shine white and wanted to find out why. After the opticians referred her to the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby, they attended an appointment, after which they were sent home when nothing was found.

When Delilah started rubbing her left eye constantly and developed a fear of the dark just weeks later, Antonia, from South Killingholme in North Lincolnshire, was referred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

It was there that doctors made a tragic discovery. In June, three months after symptoms had first been noticed, Delilah was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma. According to the NHS, this is a rare type of eye cancer that can affect young children.

Following the diagnosis, which Delilah’s family believed caused her fear of the dark because she could see less, Antonia’s daughter had to have her entire left eye removed.

Although Delilah has now been given a temporary prosthetic, it will be a few more weeks before she receives a longer-lasting one. While the situation cannot be changed, hairdresser Antonia believes that, had they not been initially dismissed, her daughter might still have her left eye.

Speaking about the beginnings of their horrific ordeal, Antonia spoke about how she first came to notice something was wrong with her daughter.

She said: “We had a lamp on in our room and one of her pupils looked white. We didn’t think much of it but she started to get wobbly so we took her to get her eyes tested.

“[Before her diagnosis], she refused to settle in her room and would cry for hours until I put a light on or took her out of that room.”

Antonia also spoke about how hard it was to hear that her daughter had such a difficult diagnosis. She said: “There were so many emotions at the time and I didn’t know how to feel. I sat and cried for days.

“I think most of the frustration was with our local hospital because they decided her eye wasn’t important enough to examine at the start and it made me think that it could have been different. The tumour might have been smaller if she was seen earlier and they could have potentially saved her eye.”

Despite the heartbreak, Antonia is determined to raise awareness of retinoblastoma so that other parents know what symptoms to look for and can act quickly.

She urged: “You need to trust your gut and push as much as possible. We didn’t push enough at the start, but we kept going and going – and she ended up getting her eye removed.

“It’s not massively common. We were told 30 to 40 kids a year in the UK get diagnosed with this. You don’t think it’s going to be you – until it is.

“Opticians don’t usually test children’s eyes under four unless there are concerns, but if you spot anything unusual, you definitely need to get their sight checked.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the NHS Humber Health Partnership said: “We are sorry to hear about the difficulties Miss Lambert and her daughter encountered at Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital earlier this year.

“We would be keen for her to contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service team so we can discuss the issues with her in more detail and allow us to investigate fully.”

Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose is mourning the loss of her mother, Gina Michelle DeBose, who has died at age 57 after battling Stage 3 ovarian cancer.

The “West Side Story” actor and Broadway star announced her mother’s death Tuesday on Instagram, sharing photos of the two of them over the years — from the younger DeBose’s childhood to her historic win at the Academy Awards in 2022.

“I couldn’t be more proud of her and how she fought this insidious disease over the past 3 years,” DeBose wrote.

Ariana DeBose, 34, said in her tribute that her mother was her “favorite person, my biggest fan and toughest critic. My best friend.” The “Love Hurts” actor said her mother “fought like hell” to support her daughter’s ambitions, adding that her accolades — which include BAFTA, Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe awards — belong equally to her mother.

The actor said her mother was a longtime public school teacher who devoted her life to educating young people. She was “the greatest advocate” for arts education, she said, adding that the death of the elder DeBose would deeply impact her mother’s community: “She was a force of epic proportion.”

Actors including “Abbott Elementary” star Quinta Brunson, “Insecure” alumna Yvonne Orji, former “Dancing With the Stars” pro Julianne Hough and celebrity fitness trainer Amanda Kloots rallied around DeBose in the comments section as she broke the news. In addition to paying tribute to her mother, DeBose highlighted several charities where supporters could donate in her mother’s honor.

“My greatest and most proud achievement will always be to have made her proud,” DeBose wrote. “I love you mommy. Now travel amongst the seas, the winds and the angels as I know you always loved to do.”

Antiques Road Trip star Angus Ashworth has recalled a heartwarming moment in his career

Antiques Road Trip star Angus Ashworth left a guest “in tears” with a valuation after his wife’s cancer battle.

The BBC antiques expert and auctioneer, who currently appears on The Yorkshire Auction House, admitted that emotions often run high when dealing with the estate of a loved one who has passed away.

In an exclusive chat with the Express, Angus shared some touching experiences with owners of antiques.

He explained that while he often witnesses “incredible” reactions, there have been those who are “just in it for the money” over the years.

Angus revealed: “We’ve had a lot of good reactions. It’s usually people that are not doing it for the money. They’re doing it because they’ve got to clear the house, so they’ve never really considered the value. It’s just part of the process, then all of a sudden you tell them they’ve made £10,000.

“There’s been several like that where they’re absolutely speechless. We’ve had some incredible reactions. People genuinely do break down into tears,” reports the Express.

“On the telly, a chap’s wife was badly ill [with cancer] and he wanted to raise enough money to get a second-hand stairlift put in to help her mobility.

“He was hoping to raise £2,000 because that’s what he needed for the stairlift and we made him £9,000. He just couldn’t comprehend it.”

The TV auctioneer went on: “You’ve always got to be mindful when you step into a house. You’ve got to read the room, and read the client. Everybody’s situation is different – some of them, it’s very straightforward and businesslike.

“But what you’ve got to remember is even if something is not saleable, and doesn’t have a commercial value, it has a sentimental value. I’ve always gone by the mantra that whenever you talk about something, you’ve got to remember it belonged to somebody’s late father, mother, brother.

“That might be their prize item. You can be enthusiastic about something, just because it’s not [worth much commercially]. There’s a lot of empathy that’s got to be given, put yourself in their shoes.”

He added: “I suppose that’s partly why people get us in – because we can take a non-attached approach to it, we can just do the job. But there are odd stories you get where you go, ‘Ugh, that’s tough’.”

Angus then recalled meeting a woman who was moving to Spain to start a new life after her son had died.

“I’d not long had children at that point and I was [holding back tears]. Every once in a while you’re just… taken aback,” he said.

Angus further shared: “A slightly different one that hasn’t aired yet was a military veteran who was badly injured and suffered very badly with PTSD, and we were the first people he’d let in his house for 15 years. That was a different sort of emotional.

“He got us because we’ve got the military connection and he felt he could let us in – that was a massive step for him. It’s not always about people who are deceased. It’s a unique job.”

He concluded: “Then you get clients where it’s all about the money and they’re there to the penny, saying ‘You didn’t quite get what we were thinking’. Auctions are like that – some things will do better than expected, some things will do worse.”

Antiques Road Trip airs on BBC One and BBC Two. The Yorkshire Auction House is available to stream on Discovery+

Brookside was the gritty soap that shocked the nation, smashed taboos, and made suburban cul-de-sacs the stage for explosive drama. But what happened to the cast?

Brookside, the groundbreaking soap that shocked the nation and turned ordinary suburban streets into a hotbed of drama, was a staple of British television for over two decades.

The show, which first aired on Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, followed the everyday lives of its characters, dealing with everything from heart-wrenching break-ups to shocking crimes that reflected real issues in the UK. The Liverpool-based soap ran for an impressive 21 years before its final episode aired on 4 November 2003.

Created by Phil Redmond, Brookside was never one to shy away from controversial topics – it was responsible for the UK’s first pre-watershed lesbian kiss and tackled subjects such as domestic abuse, incest, and even a body buried under a patio.

Now, the beloved soap is poised for a comeback – featuring in an unprecedented crossover with Hollyoaks.

READ MORE: ITV axes Noel Edmonds’ big TV comeback after just one series despite huge launchREAD MORE: ITV fans accuse Alan Titchmarsh of ‘ruining’ garden as foster parents left sobbing

After Brookside concluded on November 4th 2003, Hollyoaks stepped up as Channel 4‘s premier continuing drama. The show began production on a portion of Brookside’s former set, which remains its filming location to this day.

As Hollyoaks gears up to celebrate its 30th anniversary this October, it plans to commemorate the occasion with a special episode that pays homage to both Brookside and their shared creator, Sir Phil Redmond.

The upcoming crossover episode will delight viewers with the reappearance of beloved, classic Brookside characters to celebrate this significant event.

But what became of the Brookside cast once the cameras stopped rolling? From heartbreaking losses to surprising career changes, here’s a look at where some of the show’s biggest stars ended up.

Dean Sullivan (Jimmy Corkhill)

Jimmy, a troubled drug addict turned teacher, was one of Brookside’s longest-serving characters. Portrayed by Dean Sullivan, he joined the series in 1986 and was involved in many major storylines.

Tragically, Dean passed away in 2023 at the age of 68 after a battle with prostate cancer, a diagnosis he had bravely shared just months before his death. He had been diagnosed in 2018 and had been receiving treatment.

Following his passing, fans and former co-stars paid their respects.

Sue Jenkins (Jackie Corkhill)

Jackie Corkhill, played by Sue Jenkins, was the long-suffering wife of Jimmy Corkhill, enduring his emotional turmoil and schemes in many of the show’s most gripping storylines.

Since the end of the show, Sue has continued her acting career with roles in Coronation Street, Holby City, and Doctors, as well as theatre productions. Now 66, she is a vocal advocate for arts education and is married to David Fleeshman, with whom she has three children, Richard, Emily and Rosie.

Anna Friel (Beth Jordache)

Beth Jordache, portrayed by Anna Friel, became a cultural icon when she was involved in the first pre-watershed lesbian kiss on British television, a storyline that made international headlines. The episode aired in January 1994, also featuring Margaret Clemence, played by Nicola Stephenson.

Anna has since built a highly successful acting career on both sides of the Atlantic, starring in shows like Pushing Daisies, Marcella, and The Girlfriend Experience. Now 48, she is an award-winning actress and a regular on the red carpet.

She has been married twice and has one child.

Claire Sweeney (Lindsey Corkhill)

Claire Sweeney played Lindsey Corkhill, a member of the troubled Corkhill family, who found herself caught up in love triangles, dodgy dealings, and emotional confrontations. Lindsey started as a recurring character before being promoted to the regular cast in 1995.

Actress Claire shot to fame following Brookside, transitioning into musical theatre, releasing an album, and becoming a Loose Women panellist. She has recently made a comeback to the soap world with a stint on Coronation Street.

Earlier this year, Claire delighted Brookside enthusiasts as she returned to the West Derby houses where the programme was originally filmed. The 53-year-old shared numerous photographs and videos on Instagram from her impromptu nostalgic journey.

In her Instagram video, Claire revealed to followers that whilst she had visited the location the previous year, she had spotted a “beautiful little surprise” beneath the Brookside sign commemorating Dean Sullivan, who portrayed her on-screen father Jimmy.

Michael Starke (Sinbad Sweeney)

Sinbad Sweeney was a window cleaner with a heart of gold. He became a viewer favourite after joining the programme in 1984.

Actor Michael Starke subsequently featured in The Royal, Coronation Street, and even enjoyed a role in Benidorm. He has also established himself as a pantomime regular and serves as a dedicated ambassador for Liverpool’s cultural scene.

Now 67, his latest role saw him portray a taxi driver in Hollyoaks from 2021 to 2023.

Jennifer Ellison (Emily Shadwick)

Emily’s storyline concluded in devastating fashion, with her character’s tragic plunge from a window ranking among Brookside’s most shocking departures. Actress Jennifer switched gears to pop music, reality TV (Dancing on Ice, Hell’s Kitchen), and theatre, before launching her own dance academy in Liverpool.

She also starred in the West End and now leads a quieter life centred around family.

She is married to Rob Tickle and they have three children.

Louis Emerick (Mick Johnson)

Mick Johnson was the straight-talking single dad and mini-mart owner with a strong moral compass. He made his final appearance on 22 August 2001, having first appeared in 1989.

Actor Louis Emerick, 64, has continued his acting career in TV dramas and soaps, including Coronation Street and Doctors, and has performed in theatre tours across the UK.

Where are the others?

Several cast members left the industry altogether – some moved abroad, others stepped away from the limelight. A few, like Ray Quinn (who briefly appeared in the later years), reinvented themselves entirely.

Ray went on to become a singer and X Factor finalist, with a stage career.

READ MORE: Rare luxury watches made out of rubbish shoppers ‘couldn’t be happier with’

Jerry Jones was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma in 2010 but overcame it with the help of an experimental trial drug, the Dallas Cowboys owner revealed this week.

“I was saved by a fabulous treatment and great doctors and a real miracle [drug] called PD-1 [therapy],” Jones told the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday. “I went into trials for that PD-1 and it has been one of the great medicines.

“I now have no tumors.”

Jones told the Morning News that he was diagnosed with cancer in June 2010 and began treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston soon after. In the decade that followed, Jones said, he underwent lung surgery twice and lymph node surgery two times as well.

He did not indicate when he began the PD-1 therapy.

According to the American Cancer Society, PD-1 is a protein that acts as an “off switch” to keep certain immune cells — T cells — from attacking normal cells. PD-1 inhibitor therapy blocks this protein to help the immune system better find and attack cancer cells.

Jones, 82, serves as the Cowboys’ president and general manager in addition to his role as owner. The first public mention of his diagnosis appears to have come during Episode 5 of the Netflix docuseries “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys,” which will be released Tuesday.

While telling an anecdote about a completely different subject — his relationship with former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson — Jones casually mentions that “12 or so years ago … I had some cancer treatment” at MD Anderson.

The Morning News followed up on that comment during its wider-range interview with Jones.

Talent agent Brandon Blackstock, who was the ex-husband of pop star Kelly Clarkson and the father of their two children, died Thursday after losing his battle with melanoma.

Butte-Silver Bow County coroner Dan Hollis confirmed Blackstock’s cause of death to The Times on Monday. He also confirmed that Blackstone died at his home in Montana under hospice care and surrounded by his family, as first reported by People. The coroner said Blackstock’s manner of death was natural causes.

The official cause of death clarifies information shared by Blackstock’s family, who announced his death last week in a statement shared with The Times and on social media. Blackstock “bravely battled cancer for more than three years,” the statement said, not giving specifics. Melanoma is a kind of skin cancer that first affects cells that help produce pigment for skin color, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Blackstock’s family announced his death shortly after Clarkson postponed four August shows in her Studio Sessions residency in Las Vegas for personal reasons. She wrote in an Instagram post that “this past year, my children’s father has been ill and at this moment, I need to be fully present for them.”

Clarkson and Blackstock married in 2013 and split in 2020, finalizing their divorce in 2022. They share a daughter and a son. Blackstock also had two children from his first marriage.

Since her ex-husband’s death, footage of Clarkson wiping away tears during a July 26 show in Las Vegas resurfaced on social media. In the video, the “American Idol” alumna reflects on the changes she had on her song “Piece by Piece,” which she first wrote about Blackstock.

As she tells her audience about rewriting a more mature version of the number she turns away, seemingly overcome with emotion. “I’m really trying to pull it together,” Clarkson says, later wiping her eyes as fans cheer.

“Screw it, let’s just sing it. This is ‘Piece by Piece,’” she says, carrying on.

It’s unclear when Clarkson will make up the postponed August shows, but she has several performances scheduled for November, according to her website. The 18-show residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace was announced in February and kicked off on the Fourth of July.

THE early signs of cancer could be detected by listening to a patient’s voice, scientists say.

Using AI, subtle changes in the acoustics of a person’s voice helped pick up lesions in people diagnosed with voice box cancer.

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Researchers believe AI could be trained to hear these changes within a “couple of years”.

There are around 2,000 new cases of voice box (laryngeal) cancer in the UK each year.

A hoarse voice for more than three weeks can be a key symptom, and should be investigated by a GP.

Using AI for diagnosis could spell the end of uncomfortable tests currently used, such as a biopsy or nasendoscopy, in which a thin tube with a video camera is passed through the nose down the back of the throat.

The American team, part of the ‘Bridge2AI-Voice’ project, gathered voice recordings of 300 patients, some of whom had voice box cancer.

They studied at least six features of voice acoustics: the mean fundamental frequency (pitch); jitter, variation in pitch within speech; shimmer, variation of the amplitude; and the harmonic-to-noise ratio.

There were “marked” differences between men with and without cancer or a voice box disorder, such as nodules or polyps, specifically the harmonic-to-noise ratio, according to the findings published in the journal Frontiers in Digital Health.

It’s possible the same will be found for women with a larger dataset.

One of the study’s authors, Dr Phillip Jenkins, of Oregon Health & Science University, said: “To move from this study to an AI tool that recognises vocal fold lesions, we would train models using an even larger dataset of voice recordings, labelled by professionals.

“We then need to test the system to make sure it works equally well for women and men.

“Voice-based health tools are already being piloted.

“I estimate that with larger datasets and clinical validation, similar tools to detect vocal fold lesions might enter pilot testing in the next couple of years.”

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The symptoms of voice box cancer

Cancer Research UK have said there are four key symptoms of laryngeal cancer to look out for:

PIANIST and co-founder of Derek and the Dominos, Bobby Whitlock, has died at the age 77. 

The rock icon died of cancer after a short battle with the illness as his heartbroken wife leads the tributes.

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His manager, Carole Kaye, confirmed his death this morning saying he died at home in Texas at 1:20am.

The legendary rockstar surrounded by his loved ones when he passed.

More to follow… For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos.

Like us on Facebook at TheSunUS and follow us on X at @TheUSSun

It’s been seven months since I looked up from my desk here in The Times’ El Segundo office and saw smoke roiling over the horizon.

The sky behind the billowing dove-gray clouds was still blue and clear. Across the county, people who would not live to see the next sunrise still watered their plants and chatted with neighbors and went about their business. I snapped a photo of the Palisades fire, unaware that I was looking at an entity already in the process of changing Los Angeles irrevocably.

The Eaton fire erupted hours later. By the following afternoon there was no distinction between smoke and sky, just that acrid, asphyxiating gray that made eyes water and chests tighten throughout Los Angeles County.

For days, we breathed in each other’s lives. Flames took the contents of our homes — photographs, plastic toys, car batteries, attic insulation, every coat of paint and varnish applied across the decades — and reduced them to microscopic particles that wafted across the region, went into our windpipes, leached into our blood and settled in our brains.

At work I wrote obituaries, sorted through the medical examiner’s database, and listened to grieving people describe their loved ones’ finest qualities and heartbreaking final hours.

A total of 31 people died as a direct result of injuries sustained in the Palisades and Eaton fires. The remains of the last known victim, 74-year-old Juan Francisco Espinoza, were discovered just weeks ago in the wreckage of his Altadena home.

Smoke from the Palisades fire, seen from the window of the L.A. Times’ office in El Segundo, on Jan. 7.

(Corinne Purtill / Los Angeles Times)

The disaster’s true toll is likely far higher. Just this week, a research team compared the number of deaths Los Angeles County logged between Jan. 5 and Feb. 1 to those counted in previous, non-pandemic years. This year’s count was much higher than expected. Researchers estimate that the fires led to the deaths of an additional 440 people in January alone, through interrupted healthcare and hazardous air quality.

It’s the beginning of a long reckoning with the potential health consequences of the toxic pollutants that the fires unleashed into our air, soil and water.

It will almost certainly be impossible to attribute any individual case of cancer, dementia or cardiovascular failure — to name a few of the health issues associated with exposure to wildfire smoke — to a person’s proximity to the L.A. fires.

Similarly, it’s impossible to pinpoint the degree to which climate change exacerbates any individual natural disaster. But it’s highly likely that a chaotic climate contributed to the intensity of January’s firestorms.

Two extraordinarily wet years produced an explosion of vegetation that dried out over an unusually warm summer and unusually dry winter. The region was a tinderbox, and when the Santa Ana winds hit with the force of a hurricane, ignitions turned quickly into uncontrolled catastrophes.

In the last decade, wildfires have unleashed enough fine particulate pollution to reverse years’ worth of hard-won improvements under the Clean Air Act and other antipollution measures.

These itty-bitty particles of soot, measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter, are fine enough to cross the barriers between the outer branches of our lungs and the blood, and the blood and the brain.

Such particles can originate from vehicle exhaust, construction projects, campfires and even volcanic eruptions. But wildfires are a particularly insidious source.

Compared with other sources, wildfire smoke “contains a higher fraction of ultrafine particles — particles 25 times smaller than PM2.5 — that can move directly from the nose into the brain, potentially damaging brain cells and eventually leading to dementia,” said Joan Casey, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of Washington.

“The other thing that differs is how people are exposed to wildfire smoke. Unlike other sources of PM2.5, [in which] exposure might be relatively constant throughout the year, people are often exposed to a few days of extreme wildfire smoke annually,” Casey said. “Think about it this way: it might be fine to drink one glass of wine per day, but some of these wildfire smoke events are like drinking four bottles of wine in an evening, which can overwhelm the body’s defense and harm health.”

That punch may land particularly heavy when the smoke comes from urban fires like January’s disaster.

Casey pointed to a paper that came out earlier this year looking at the relative toxicity of different types of wildfire smoke.

That research team found that smoke originating from fires that burned buildings had higher concentrations of lead, nickel and other carcinogenic substances than smoke from fires that burned primarily organic material.

After examining air pollution data captured at 700 air quality monitors over a 15 year-period, the researchers found that the share of pollutants that could be attributed to wildfire “significantly increased over time,” they wrote, “with wildfire-attributed concentrations of multiple carcinogenic metals significantly higher by the end of our sample.”

The team estimated that exposure to wildfire smoke may have caused 47 additional cases of cancer in the U.S. between 2006 and 2020 that would not have otherwise developed.

Momentous as a cancer diagnosis is for any individual, in the context of the national population this is a minuscule and statistically insignificant increase in context, they pointed out — there are more than 1 million new cancer diagnoses in the U.S. per year.

But most of that wildfire smoke was generated by “traditional” wildfires that mostly burn trees, brush and plants. We don’t know what the burden will be from increasing exposure to incinerated batteries, machinery, plastic and cars, said Emma Krasovich Southworth, a doctoral candidate at Stanford and co-author of the study.

“Given that we’re seeing more urban fires . . . we would expect that this risk to public health could change,” she said. “Even though [wildfire smoke] hasn’t added a significant cancer burden in the past, that’s not to say it won’t in the future.”

As anyone affected by January’s fires in any capacity knows, disasters of this magnitude also create an enormous amount of acute and chronic stress, which itself alters brain structure and function.

In a paper exploring the potential health effects of the fires, Casey and colleagues noted multiple ways that the upheaval and displacement they caused could contribute to ongoing mental health issues.

“Those evacuating face extreme stress and impacts on mental health, even years after the events,” they wrote. “Even when homes are not damaged or destroyed, evacuation disrupts multiple dimensions of people’s lives, including work, education, community gatherings, and health care access.”

This column looks often at the economic costs and consequences of a changing climate. There is also a toll our brains and bodies, a physical burden we all take on when the environment falls apart.

L.A.’s fires have reshaped the city. It is also possible that they have triggered changes in our very cells whose consequences we can’t yet see, and will become apparent to us long after the last lot has been cleared.

“I think [the fires have] the potential to be devastating to human health, especially over the long term,” Krasovich Southworth said. “We might see the immediate uptick of certain things that we know happen when exposed to [fire], like asthma or other respiratory issues. But I think the longer-term exposures to these chemicals . . . could be really devastating to the community.”

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our Boiling Point podcast here.

MICKY Higham sat down with his two sons and spelled it out after receiving the news he dreaded – this time will be different.

For years, the hooker rolled the blows in a career that saw him play for Leigh, Wigan, Warrington and St Helens.

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He toughed it out against the very best for England and Great Britain. This battle, though, is off the field.

Noticing a lump on his right buttock turned out to be something much more serious – a 10cm cancerous tumour, with tests finding the disease had spread and the devastating diagnosis of stage four widespread metastasized cancer.

And the pain caused this time around is far more significant after it returned, three years after fighting off a metastatic malignant melanoma.

“Originally, I just kept it really low key,” said Higham, who has started immunotherapy treatment. “I said, ‘Lads, I’ve just found another lump. I’ll have to get it sorted next time.’

“Harry, my eldest, is 21 in January and they’re not stupid. He got wind.

“So I sat them down last Sunday and said, ‘Listen, it’s going to be a bit worse this time fellas. I just need to give your mum some help around the house.’

“I’m not missing them playing rugby, Harry at Swinton and Alex for Leigh Miners Rangers. I’m not missing that as they’re a big reason why I keep fighting and going.

“I found a small lump on my right bum cheek. I had an issue with my toe too and thought, ‘It’s a bit sore. I might just have a bit of a knock.’

“So I left it a week or two, then I thought, ‘The pain’s a bit more.’ It went down my leg a bit, so I felt the lump again and thought, ‘It doesn’t feel like a knock. That feels really hard.’

“I told my doctor and he said, ‘Let’s get it checked in after the last time.’ It was a cancerous tumour on my right glute, then I had some more scans.

“A PET scan really showed up the melanoma. It’s come to the shoulders, it’s in my arms, my hips. It’s come to my legs.

“It’s in my chest, my groins and in my lymph nodes. It was a pretty widespread and stage four, so it was a real kick in the teeth.

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“I’m quite shocked how quick the pain’s come on. Each week, you’re like, ‘Wow, it’s coming on more there.’

“This one’s a tougher battle, but I’m ready to attack it. I’ve never had anything given to me in life and I’ve always had to work hard for things.

“I may be struggling a bit but I’m ready for it.”

Higham, 44, is keeping up the traits that saw him through his last cancer battle – his relaxation and his determination.

The pain means he has had to step back from the gym he owns and radio punditry duties for the time being – but if you think he is sat at home moping, think again.

He has already sorted the first event as he looks to raise funds – with a target of £50,000 just beaten after £25,000 then £40,000 was met.

A bucket collection was held outside and inside the ground at Friday’s match between two of his former clubs – the Leopards and Wolves – while Leigh owner Derek Beaumont has launched a special fundraising shirt.

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Higham will also walk from his hometown of Leigh to the Monton area of Salford on Sunday, August 24 and typically, the thought of doing it for others is at the forefront of his mind.

“I want to give something back to the Christie and Macmillan because for the last three years they’ve been fantastic,” Higham added.

“My pain was quite severe last week but they just said, ‘Come in, we’ll check you out. We’ll change your medication and provide some relief, literally within days.

“I can’t really put into words the work they do. I’m not one for shouting but sometimes you’ve got to get on board, don’t you?”

Higham’s condition and treatment under Manchester’s Christie Hospital means he can see the toll it is taking on wife Kate.

After the last cancer fight, it is something he did nit want to see again – but just like him, she is doing her bit as he looks to get on a European drug trial after being turned down for a UK one.

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He told SunSport: “I obviously had a big setback with that. To get on a clinical trial, I had to have my blood done.

“All the enzymes have got to be pretty level with everybody and mine are a lot higher than everybody else. I was told it could be down to being a sportsperson over the years.

“To give myself the best chance of getting it down, I did Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and didn’t move off the couch.

“Unfortunately, it was still too high but even though Kate’s doing it tougher than me, she and her friend have been having a good look around and there is something.

“Because I’ve got my immuno now, every three weeks for the next four months, it’s 12 weeks and they’ll re-scan me.

“The immuno might do the job but if not, we might look at the option if there’s something available there.”

*YOU can donate to the fundraising appeal for Micky Higham at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/emma-worrall-2.

Greg Papa, the legendary sports radio voice in the Bay Area, is stepping away from his broadcasting duties while undergoing treatment for cancer, he announced Friday.

Papa, the radio voice of the San Francisco 49ers and a longtime host on KNBR (680 AM), did not specify the type of cancer he is battling in a statement released by the radio station but said he expects a full recovery.

“As I fully focus on my treatment and work toward a full recovery, I’m stepping away from my broadcasts but look forward to returning soon,” Papa said. “Thanks to everyone for your prayers and good wishes as I begin this fight.”

Papa, 62, began his career doing radio play-by-play for the Indiana Pacers in 1984 but launched a decades-long career in the Bay Area when hired by the Golden State Warriors in 1986.

He transitioned to television in the ‘90s, calling games for the San Antonio Spurs. He also called baseball games on TV, beginning with the Oakland Athletics before jumping to the San Francisco Giants in the mid-2000s.

When play-by-play announcer Dave Flemming’s microphone went dead for 10 seconds after Barry Bonds hit his 715th career home run to pass Babe Ruth on the all-time list in 2006, Papa took over the broadcast and explained what had transpired.

“To lose a mic like that, I’ve never seen it,” Papa said. “I’ve never been a part of something like this.”

Flemming was distraught but took it in stride with Papa’s help.

“I think it’s the last gasp of the curse of the Bambino,” Flemming joked. “Now, I’m starting to rethink my whole world.”

Papa’s coworkers rallied to support him when the diagnosis was announced.

“Greg is not just our teammate at The Sports Leader, he’s one of the most iconic play-by-play men in the history of our beloved Bay Area,” said Brian Murphy, the popular longtime KNBR talk show host. “Nobody else has done the Warriors, Raiders, Giants, A’s and 49ers like Greg, so he has every Northern California fan base rooting hard for him to come out healthy and get back behind the mic.”

Papa, a three-time winner of the California sportscaster of the year award, has been the radio play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco 49ers since the 2019 season. His contract with the 49ers extends through the 2028 season.

“The 49ers family extends our unwavering love and support to Greg Papa and his family following his recent cancer diagnosis,” the 49ers said in a statement. “We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming him back to the radio booth as the ‘voice of the 49ers’ whenever he is ready.”

The cause of death for Hulk Hogan, pro wrestling icon and reality TV star, has been unveiled a week after he died at age 71.

A medical document reviewed on Thursday by The Times reveals that Hogan (born Terry Bollea) died of acute myocardial infarction, a heart attack, in other words. This reaffirms details that Florida police shared in an announcement of Hogan’s death last week. In a statement on Facebook, the Clearwater Police Department said that on the morning of July 24, it responded to a call for cardiac arrest, adding that first responders took Hogan to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

At the time, a representative for the wrestler also confirmed his death to The Times: “We are heartbroken. He was such a great human being and friend.”

The medical report, which confirmed his death was natural, also revealed that Hogan had a history of atrial fibrillation (AFib) and lived with “leukemia CLL.” The Mayo Clinic describes CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) as “a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow.” Hogan was also approved for cremation, according to the document.

Hogan gained popularity as a pro wrestler in the 1980s but expanded his legacy with endeavors in film, TV and politics. He famously broke into the national spotlight in 1983 when he signed with the WWE, formerly the World Wrestling Federation. He was known for his blond hair, dark spray tan, red and yellow ensembles and his infectious energy in the ring. He also pursued acting, with credits including “The A-Team,” “Love Boat,” “Suddenly Susan,” “Walker, Texas Ranger” and the animated “Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling” that featured him and other WWF stars in live-action segments. His TV career also notably includes the family reality TV series “Hogan Knows Best,” which included children Brooke and Nick.

He became vocal in politics later in life. Hogan became a vocal supporter of President Trump, channeling his wrestling persona at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

“We lost a great friend today, the ‘Hulkster,’” President Trump wrote last week on Truth Social. “Hulk Hogan was MAGA all the way — Strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart. He gave an absolutely electric speech at the Republican National Convention, that was one of the highlights of the entire week. He entertained fans from all over the World, and the cultural impact he had was massive. To his wife, Sky, and family, we give our warmest best wishes and love. Hulk Hogan will be greatly missed!”

Also paying tribute were WWE, Vice President JD Vance, and fellow former star wrestler Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Children Nick and Brooke each paid tribute to their famous father. Last week, Nick Hogan penned an emotional Instagram tribute to his “best friend” and “best dad in the world.”

Brooke broke her silence on her father’s death earlier this week on Instagram, reflecting on their bond, which she says “has never broken, not even in his final moments.”

“I know he’s at peace now, out of pain, and in a place as beautiful as he imagined. He used to speak about this moment with such wonder and hope,” she wrote. “Like meeting God was the greatest championship he’d ever have.”

A BELOVED children’s author who wrote over 150 books has died aged 87.

Allan Ahlberg produced a host of bestselling nursery classics during a stellar career as an author.

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Some of his most famous work includes lasting favourites Peepo!, The Baby’s Catalogue and Each Peach Pear Plum.

He came to writing in his late thirties, when his wife Janet grew tired of illustrating non-fiction and asked him to write a story for her to illustrate.

Allan later recalled the moment was “as if she turned a key in my back and I was off”.

The Ahlbergs went on to produce 37 books together, and Allan also wrote more than 100 others, some in Janet’s lifetime, and some since her death from breast cancer in 1994.

Following Janet’s death, Allan worked with illustrators such as Raymond Briggs and Bruce Ingman.

His career came full circle in a series of collaborations with his daughter Jessica including Half a Pig and a pop-up set of anarchic variations on the tale of Goldilocks.

Belinda Ioni Rasmussen, CEO of Walker Books Group, which published some of his books, said: “He was enormously playful in spirit and language and had the ability to make you smile in one sentence.

“Allan inspired generations of children’s writers, inspired all of us who worked with him, and inspired artists to make some of their very best work.”

Two scenes. Two storytellers. Two visions for a climate-altered American West.

On an overcast spring morning, I hopped a low metal fence off a lonely dirt road in the Nevada desert, following botanist Naomi Fraga. She assured me she’d done this before — these were public lands, after all. We were 100 miles east of Yosemite, out in the middle of nowhere, except I’d long since learned there’s no such thing as nowhere. The desert may look barren, but its mountains and valleys teem with life. And precious metals.

Fraga led me up a small hill, the soil chalky-white and rich with lithium, a key ingredient in lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. We moved slowly, not wanting to trample any endangered wildflowers.

Wait, were those the flowers? The Tiehm’s buckwheat I’d come hundreds of miles to see?

“Very tiny,” Fraga confirmed. “When it flowers, its flower stalks might come about 4 or 5 inches high.”

“It snows here in this elevation zone,” she added, roughly 6,000 feet above sea level. “It’s a very cold desert, and when it’s cold, Tiehm’s buckwheat is just lying in wait, waiting for spring.”

For a flower that’s spurred high-stakes litigation, detailed scientific study and global news coverage, it was pretty ugly, at least in its dormant winter state. The clumps of gray-green buckwheat looked almost like mold.

Clumps of Tiehm’s buckwheat near the planned Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine.

(Sammy Roth / Los Angeles Times)

For Fraga, the flower’s current appearance is beside the point. Tiehm’s buckwheat doesn’t grow anywhere else in the world — just here, across three square miles of Esmeralda County. She’s enthralled by its role in an ecosystem of pollinators and bighorn sheep. She’s awestruck by its ability to survive winter snow and 120-degree heat.

“I just have an enormous amount of respect for the organisms that make this their home,” she said. “I feel like it brings for a reverence for harsh living, and ways in which life will find a way.”

The question now: Can Tiehm’s buckwheat survive a lithium mine?

Fraga doesn’t think so. Bernard Rowe disagrees.

The day after I met Fraga, Rowe took me to the same area. We drove down the dirt road past the metal fence, to a spectacular basin where his employer, Australia-based Ioneer, is preparing to dig for lithium.

“The good thing is, this is a natural amphitheater, and it is hidden from really everywhere,” Rowe said. “You’ve got the ring of volcanic rocks that completely surrounds this basin.”

Sight lines don’t matter to an endangered flower. But contrary to claims made by conservationists, Rowe said the Rhyolite Ridge mine won’t drive Tiehm’s buckwheat to extinction. He noted that mining activities won’t touch any subpopulations of Tiehm’s buckwheat — although the quarry could come as close as a dozen feet.

“We had to make sure we put buffer zones. We had to map all the plants,” he said.

So who’s right?

Bernard Rowe, managing director at Ioneer, discusses the company’s planned lithium mine in Esmeralda County, Nevada.

(Jonathan Shifflett)

It would be easy to make the company look like the bad guy. After all, here’s a profit-seeking foreign corporation seeking to exploit America’s public lands in the name of environmental progress. Potentially at the expense of an endangered species. With only a band of hardy activists standing in the way.

It’s a good story. Arguably an accurate story. And yet…

And yet the climate crisis makes everything complicated. To phase out oil and natural gas — whose combustion fills the air with deadly pollution and fuels devastating storms, wildfires and heat waves — we’ll need enormous amounts of lithium, for electric vehicle batteries and solar energy storage to keep the lights on after dark. Most of the world’s lithium is currently produced in Australia and China, and at destructive evaporation ponds in Chile.

Those geopolitical dynamics help explain why lithium mining has garnered bipartisan support even as President Trump kills other clean energy projects. The Biden administration approved Rhyolite Ridge last year, then backed the developer with a $996-million loan. The Trump administration has let both decisions stand.

Already, Rowe estimated, the U.S. consumes 100,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year for electric car batteries.

“By the time you add in grid batteries, hand tools, recreational vehicles, cellphones … it will soon be hundreds of thousands of tons,” he said. “And into the future, it’ll be 1 million tons of domestic demand.”

Let’s say the Rhyolite Ridge’s critics are right, and the mine would, in fact, annihilate Tiehm’s buckwheat. Is that a reasonable price to pay for ditching oil-burning cars and shutting down gas-fired power plants?

The answer might depend on your vantage point.

Botanist Naomi Fraga examines Tiem’s buckwheat on a hill near the planned site of the Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine.

(Jonathan Shifflett)

Take Fraga. She was born and raised in Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley and is now a botany professor at Claremont Graduate University. She started doing research in Nevada a few years before the COVID-19 pandemic. She sees Rhyolite Ridge as part of a landscape so unique it might be a national monument were it in California.

Rowe, meanwhile, grew up in an Australian farm town. He was inspired to study geology by a university lecturer’s tales of travel and adventure, which led him to the mining industry. He’s spent 20 years splitting his time between Sydney and Nevada, where he helped identify the value in Rhyolite Ridge’s mineral deposits.

Part of the value is lithium. The rest is boron, a durable, heat-resistant metalloid. Rowe could riff for hours about the vast array of products that require boron, including steel alloys, carpet fibers, car parts, wind turbine magnets and many types of glass, including cookware, windshields, TV screens and thermal insulation.

Right now, Turkey is the world’s top boron producer by far. Rhyolite Ridge was a rare find.

“Most other metal deposits — copper, gold — they can be quite young, in terms of a few million years old. Or they can be hundreds of millions, even a billion years old,” Rowe said. “You don’t find old boron deposits.”

For Rowe, Rhyolite Ridge is treasure buried in plain sight. For Fraga, it’s just the latest example of callous outsiders attempting to exploit Nevada’s public lands — a history that began with silver mining and continues with housing development, solar farms and nuclear waste storage. Nevada is already home to America’s only active lithium mine, not far from Rhyolite Ridge. The Thacker Pass mine is also under construction near the Oregon border.

Angelenos driving electric vehicles ought to think about how their choices affect Nevada, Fraga suggested.

“There’s a real tension there, where we need to avert the worst of the climate crisis. But in doing so, we can cause real harm to ecosystems,” she said.

So how do we resolve that tension?

Tiehm’s buckwheat in bloom.

(Naomi Fraga)

I put off writing this column for three months because I didn’t have a good answer. How could I defend the mine when it might doom an endangered species? Yet how could I condemn it when we need lithium, and when so few large-scale clean energy projects don’t face environmental conflicts?

As far as the sparring parties are concerned, the facts speak for themselves. Ioneer points to a biological opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluding that its mine is “not likely to jeopardize the continued existence” of Tiehm’s buckwheat or “result in the destruction or adverse modification of its critical habitat.”

Conservationists counter that when the Fish and Wildlife Service declared the flower an endangered species in 2022, the agency described “mineral exploration and development” as one of the “greatest threats” to the flower. The Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Shoshone Defense Project and Great Basin Resource Watch sued federal officials over their approval of the mine last year, contending they rushed the environmental review.

It’s possible we’ll never know who’s right. Ioneer is scrambling to secure new funding after the South African firm Sibanye-Stillwater — which was supposed to invest $490 million — backed out this year amid falling global lithium prices. Ioneer said this month it wouldn’t start construction until at least March. If and when the company is ready to start digging, the groups in the lawsuit could ask the judge to block construction.

But whatever happens at Rhyolite Ridge, these types of questions aren’t going away — especially in the American West, where public lands have traditionally supplied big cities with energy, water and food. We’ll need to be more thoughtful than ever about how we use land. We’ll need to get comfortable evaluating trade-offs.

In an ideal world, we’d never have to choose between lithium mines and lovely flowers. Or at least, we’d find ways to resolve these types of conflicts amicably — and quickly, because climate chaos is coming fast.

Sometimes it’s possible. Alas, sometimes we’ll have to choose.

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our Boiling Point podcast here.

For more climate and environment news, follow @Sammy_Roth on X and @sammyroth.bsky.social on Bluesky.

Ryne Sandberg, a Hall of Fame second baseman who became one of baseball’s best all-around players while starring for the Chicago Cubs, has died. He was 65.

Sandberg was surrounded by his family when he died at his home on Monday, according to the team.

Sandberg announced in January 2024 that he had been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer. He had chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and then said in August 2024 that he was cancer-free.

But he posted on Instagram on Dec. 10 that his cancer had returned and spread to other organs. He announced this month that he was still fighting, while “looking forward to making the most of every day with my loving family and friends.”

Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said Sandberg “will be remembered as one of the all-time greats in nearly 150 years of this historic franchise.”

“His dedication to and respect for the game, along with his unrelenting integrity, grit, hustle, and competitive fire were hallmarks of his career,” Ricketts said in the team’s statement.

Sandberg was born and raised in Spokane, Wash. He was selected out of high school by Philadelphia in the 20th round of the 1978 amateur draft.

He made his major league debut in 1981 and went one for six in 13 games with the Phillies. In January 1982, he was traded to Chicago along with Larry Bowa for veteran infielder Ivan De Jesus.

It turned into one of the most lopsided deals in baseball history.

Sandberg hit .285 with 282 homers, 1,061 RBIs and 344 steals in 15 years with Chicago. He made 10 All-Star teams — winning the Home Run Derby in 1990 — and took home nine Gold Gloves.

“Ryne Sandberg was a legend of the Chicago Cubs franchise and a beloved figure throughout Major League Baseball,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “He was a five-tool player who excelled in every facet of the game thanks to his power, speed and work ethic.”

Even with Sandberg’s stellar play, the Cubs made just two postseason appearances while he was in Chicago.

He was the National League MVP in 1984, batting .314 with 19 homers, 84 RBIs, 32 steals, 19 triples and 114 runs scored. Chicago won the NL East and Sandberg hit .368 (seven for 19) in the playoffs, but the Cubs were eliminated by San Diego after winning the first two games of the NLCS at Wrigley Field.

The 1984 season featured what Cubs fans still call “The Sandberg Game,” when he homered twice and drove in seven runs in a 12-11 victory over St. Louis in 11 innings on June 23.

Chicago paid tribute to Sandberg and that game when it unveiled a statue of the infielder outside Wrigley Field on that date in 2024.

Ryne Sandberg throws a ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the 2015 NLDS between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals.

(Paul Beaty / Associated Press)

“He was a superhero in this city,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said during a TV broadcast of the team’s game on July 20. “You think about [Michael] Jordan, Walter Payton and Ryne Sandberg all here at the same time, and I can’t imagine a person handling their fame better, their responsibility for a city better than he did.”

Sandberg led Chicago back to the playoffs in 1989, hitting .290 with 30 homers as the Cubs won the NL East. He batted .400 (eight for 20) in the NLCS, but Chicago lost to San Francisco in five games.

Sandberg set a career high with an NL-best 40 homers in 1990 and drove in a career-best 100 runs in 1990 and 1991, but he never made it back to the postseason. He retired after the 1997 season.

“When you examine the offense and defense, you’ll find some years where he was the best player you’ve ever seen in your life,” former Cubs first baseman Mark Grace said.

Sandberg was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005, receiving 76.2% of the vote by the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America in his third try on the ballot. The Cubs retired his No. 23 that same year.

“Ryne Sandberg had a relentless work ethic and an unshakable positive outlook,” Hall of Fame chair Jane Forbes Clark said. “With it, he inspired all those who knew him.”

Sandberg also managed Philadelphia from August 2013 to June 2015, going 119-159. He got the interim job when Charlie Manuel was fired, and he resigned with the Phillies in the middle of a difficult 2015 season.

Cohen writes for the Associated Press.

The Nolans singer spoke of the emotional moment on ITV’s Good Morning Britain

Anne Nolan has opened up about the emotional moment she found out she was cancer free.

The Nolans singer, and sister of Loose Women’s Coleen Nolan, has battled breast cancer twice.

Earlier this year, the family lost Linda to the disease, while Bernie died of the same illness in 2013.

Anne, 74, received the news just days ago that she was cancer-free, having been first diagnosed in 2000 and then 20 years later.

Appearing on Monday’s Good Morning Britain, she shared the emotional journey she’s faced, and the relief at her health update.

“It’s been very traumatic, when I received the letter a few weeks ago, I picked it up, and it said NHS, and I thought, ‘Oh I don’t want to know, I’m not sure if I want to know if it’s bad news.’

“And I put it aside for about ten minutes, and after a while my logical brain kicked in and said, ‘You have to find out, you need to know’.

“I opened it and it was all good news, and I had a bit of a weep at the beginning.

“I feel lucky, blessed, relieved, and then emotional thinking about my sisters having gone through the same thing but not surviving.”

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.

This is a breaking showbiz story and is being constantly updated. Please refresh the page regularly to get the latest news, pictures and videos. You can also get email updates on the day’s biggest stories straight to your inbox by signing up for our newsletters.

Amid a string of setbacks for clean energy — tariffs, the Trump administration, Tesla’s declining sales numbers — California officials delivered a big win last month, approving the nation’s largest solar-plus-storage project.

Planned for 14 square miles in Fresno County, the project will provide up to 1,150 megawatts of solar energy and 4,600 megawatts-hours of battery storage. Dubbed the Darden project, it should be able to power 850,000 homes after dark. The developer, Intersect Power, will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes over time.

And because Darden will be built on retired farmland in an area running low on water, rather than pristine public lands in the desert, there are few environmental conflicts. No Joshua trees to chop down or endangered tortoises to displace. An easy place to build renewable energy and slow the climate crisis.

So why are many farmers in water-scarce parts of California fighting the solar industry?

State lawmakers are under pressure from Big Ag to kill or rewrite legislation that would make it easier to convert farmland to solar production. The Legislature rejected a similar bill last year, despite looming regulations that will require Central Valley farmers to pump less groundwater.

In southeastern California, meanwhile, the powerful Imperial Irrigation District — which controls more Colorado River water than the entire state of Arizona — voted this month to oppose further solar development on Imperial Valley farmland, even as a climate-fueled megadrought drains the river’s major reservoirs.

Again, why are farmers gumming up the clean energy transition?

“Agricultural land is very productive, and it’s something that we want to protect,” said J.B. Hamby, vice chair of the Imperial Irrigation District’s board of directors. “There’s ample opportunity to develop solar in other places.”

“One in 6 jobs in the Imperial Valley is directly tied to agriculture,” he added.

The California Aqueduct runs between farmland and a solar plant in Kern County, carrying water south from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Big Ag groups are making a similar argument in the Central Valley, where Assembly Bill 1156 would boost solar by weakening a law called the Williamson Act, which is designed to keep lands in crop production.

“The bill removes that smart approach to land-use decisions, where you’re [putting] solar on the least-productive agricultural lands,” said Peter Ansel, director of policy advocacy for the California Farm Bureau Federation.

On the surface, those talking points sound fair. But they’re not the whole story.

State officials need to get real about the enormous amounts of renewable energy we still need to build to replace deadly, destructive fossil fuels — an estimated 60 gigawatts of solar, wind and battery capacity in the next decade (and twice that much by 2045). For context, California has never used more than 52 gigawatts of electricity at one time before. The huge jump is partly due to the expected rise in electric vehicles and data centers.

Thus far, many of the biggest solar plants in the western U.S. have been built on public lands in the desert, where the Obama and Biden administrations encouraged renewable energy. But conservation activists have increasingly raised concerns over harm to wildlife habitat and endangered species, slowing development.

To Shannon Eddy — executive director of the Large-scale Solar Assn., a California trade group — promoting more solar on farmland is an obvious response. That’s one reason her group is sponsoring AB 1156.

“We have to add more clean energy to the grid than we have ever added in the history of the electricity grid,” she said. “And somehow we have to find a way to look at this through a shared lens, understanding that if we are not able to reduce climate emissions by 50% globally by 2030, we’re toast.”

I wouldn’t go quite so far. If we fail to cut climate pollution nearly in half by 2030 — which scientists say is needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — the world won’t suddenly end.

But heat waves, wildfires, storms and droughts will keep getting worse. Which is why we should do everything we can to avoid that outcome. Like trading some productive farmland for some badly needed clean energy.

A smoldering home during the Eaton fire on Jan. 8.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The details of AB 1156 are complicated, but the results would be simple.

Across California, 16 million acres — about half the state’s farms and ranches — are protected by the Williamson Act. The 1965 law offers lower property taxes for landowners who agree to keep their holdings in agricultural use or open space. For a grower to renege on a Williamson Act contract — for instance, if they want to sell to a home developer — they have to pay a big fee, or else wait out the duration of their contract.

It’s a good deal for farmers — and, historically, a good way to prevent suburban sprawl.

The problem arises when a solar company finds a farmer who wants to stop cultivating some or all of their lands, but those lands still have years remaining on a Williamson Act contract. Solar companies work on thin margins, and Williamson Act cancellation fees can derail otherwise viable projects. That’s especially true now that Congress and President Trump have eviscerated federal incentives for renewable energy.

AB 1156 would let growers in water-stressed areas suspend their contracts to enable solar development, without anyone paying the fee. The solar company would pay full property taxes. Local officials would need to sign off.

And again: If less water inevitably means lost farmland, why not incentivize solar?

“You’re going to be restoring revenue to not only the landowner, but also to the local economy,” Eddy said.

Conservation activist Kim Delfino, president of consulting firm Earth Advocacy, often finds herself at loggerheads with the solar industry over large-scale projects in the desert. But she and one of her clients, the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife, support AB 1156 — even though there are burrowing owls and a handful of other sensitive critters that have come to depend on agricultural lands.

“There’s no free lunch,” Delfino told me. “Anytime you put a project somewhere, it’s probably going to have some kind of environmental or habitat impacts.”

And that’s the crux of the challenge: There are lots of reasons to say no to clean energy in your community, even as we all collectively need it. Change is hard. It’s no surprise that farmers embracing solar are being drowned out by their neighbors who want to preserve agrarian communities as they’ve existed for a century.

Farmworkers weed rows of romaine lettuce outside Holtville, Calif., in the Imperial Valley.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

If California wants to soften opposition to solar, it should try to support farmworkers who see solar as a threat to their livelihoods — even if climate-driven water shortages would have threatened their jobs regardless.

Dustin Mulvaney, an environmental studies professor at San José State, recently co-wrote a paper on solar and environmental justice in the Imperial Valley. He said state officials should require solar companies to pay for more “community benefits” to make up for lost jobs, but not such high fees that companies stop building.

“It’s not a huge, profitable industry. They struggle,” Mulvaney acknowledged.

It’s hard to know what the future holds for Imperial County, which already has 13,000 acres of solar on farmland. The county supervisors are responsible for approving solar projects, not the irrigation district.

Here’s hoping the supervisors recognize that some change is inevitable. Even if they don’t approve every project, they could prod developers toward marginal farmland with lower-quality soil.

In the Central Valley, conditions are more likely to hinge on AB 1156, which passed the Assembly last month and is moving through the Senate. Lawmakers should send it to Gov. Gavin Newsom despite opposition from the farm bureau and other agricultural groups that are demanding amendments.

The farm bureau has argued that letting landowners out of their Williamson Act contracts except under extremely narrow circumstances would be unfair. Were it not for the climate crisis, that argument might have merit.

The thing is, there is a climate crisis. California should act like it.

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our Boiling Point podcast here.

For more climate and environment news, follow @Sammy_Roth on X and @sammyroth.bsky.social on Bluesky.

A COMMON sugar substitute used in fizzy drinks, yoghurts and gum could be used to combat one of the deadliest kinds of cancer.

Researchers fermented the zero calorie sweetener and tested it against pancreatic cancer – finding that it killed off malignant cells but didn’t harm healthy ones.

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Stevia is a shrub-like herb used to sweeten drinks and desserts instead of sugar, which can also be bought as powder or tablets.

Previous research has suggested that stevia leaf extracts could have potential “anticancer effects”.

But isolating specific substances within the herb that could help protect against cancer and using them has remained challenging.

Researchers from Hiroshima University suggested fermenting stevia with bacteria can structurally change the extract and produce bioactive metabolites – compounds that can impact living organisms.

Study author Masanori Sugiyama, a professor in the Department of Probiotic Science for Preventive Medicine, said fermentation – or “microbial bio-transformation” – could “enhance the pharmacological efficacy of natural plant extracts” like stevia.

The team tested their theory out against pancreatic cancer cells.

“Pancreatic cancer is a highly malignant tumour of the digestive system with a poor prognosis,” co-author Prof Narandalai Danshiitsoodol said.

“Globally, the incidence and mortality rates of pancreatic cancer continue to rise, with a five-year survival rate of less than 10 per cent.

“The primary reason pancreatic cancer is considered one of the deadliest cancers is its subtle, insidious onset, with most patients being diagnosed at an advanced stage and missing the optimal treatment window.

“Furthermore, pancreatic cancer is highly invasive and prone to metastasis, showing significant resistance to existing treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, resulting in very limited therapeutic efficacy.

“Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify new and effective anticancer compounds, particularly those derived from medicinal plants.”

Researchers used lactic acid bacteria to ferment stevia extracts.

They isolated over 1200 strains from fruits, vegetables, flowers, and medicinal plants and evaluated their health benefits.

They finally landed on Lactobacillus plantarum SN13T strain (FSLE) derived from banana leaves “to enhance the antioxidant and anticancer activities of stevia leaf extract through fermentation”.

They tested fermented and non-fermented stevia extracts against pancreatic cancer cells in lab dishes.

Fermented stevia killed pancreatic cancer cells more efficiently than the non-fermented extract, the study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences found.

This suggested that “the fermentation process enhances the bioactivity of the [stevia] extract”, Prof Sugiyama said.

Researchers tested out different fermentation levels to see which was most effective against cancer cells.

Lower concentrations didn’t kill cancer cells immediately, but they slowed their growth.

Healthy kidney cells were mostly unaffected by the stevia extracts.

Researchers plan to study how fermented stevia affects cancer in mice next, to see how various dosages will work in living organisms.

“The present study has substantially enhanced our understanding of the mechanism of action of the Lactobacillus plantarum SN13T strain in the fermentation of herbal extracts, while also offering a valuable research perspective on the potential application of probiotics as natural anti-tumour agents,” Prof Danshiitsoodol said.

In the UK, about 10,800 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year and 9,600 pass away from it, according to Cancer Research UK.

It’s the fifth most common cause of cancer death.

Since the early 1990s, pancreatic cancer incidence rates have increased by 18 per cent in the UK.

The disease is often diagnosed at a late stage because it frequently lacks noticeable symptoms in the early stages.

Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation can help extend patients’ lives.

A blood test to pick up early signs of pancreatic cancer is being trialled in patients with a recent diagnosis of type 2 diabetes – a known risk factor for the disease.

Meanwhile, researchers at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic have developed a new type of jab to fight pancreatic cancer.

Vice President Joe Biden, who has traveled to some America’s leading medical centers in recent weeks as part of what he has called his moonshot to cure cancer, will soon take his quest to the Vatican.

Biden will address a major conference on the progress of regenerative medicine in Vatican City on April 29, the vice president’s office said Wednesday.

The gathering, hosted by the Stem for Life Foundation and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture, will also draw leading physicians, ethicists and philanthropists to discuss the potential of emerging research to treat cancer and other diseases. The initiative has been championed by Pope Francis, who worked as a chemist before he entered the priesthood and has written in support of scientific progress.

Biden will be the latest leading U.S. political figure to attend a major gathering at the Vatican. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, will travel there this week to address a separate summit on social, economic and environmental issues.

Other details on the vice president’s three-day trip to Rome and the Vatican, including a possible meeting with Francis, had not yet been determined, his office said.

Biden, the nation’s first Catholic vice president, attended Francis’ papal inauguration in 2013 and attended multiple events during the Catholic leader’s visit to the U.S. last fall, including his address to Congress and departure from Philadelphia after the World Meeting of Families there.

Biden has praised Francis’ message of inclusion, writing in Time magazine that the pope “put a welcome sign on the front door of the Church.” Biden has also spoken of Francis’ personal empathy toward him and his family since the death last May of Biden’s eldest son, Beau, and the role of his faith in coping with personal tragedy.

The vice president’s effort to cure cancer, first announced by Biden as he said last fall that he would not run for president, was formally launched this year in President Obama’s State of the Union address. Biden has since traveled to Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University and other research centers as part of his effort to bring stakeholders together in search of a cure.

Follow @mikememoli for more news out of Washington.

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Former NFL linebacker and special teams player Bryan Braman, who rose from undrafted free agent to Super Bowl champion, died Thursday morning after a battle with cancer. He was 38.

“You look at his journey and beating the odds to make it to the NFL after going undrafted,” Braman’s agent Sean Stellato told KPRC-TV in Houston. “Not only making it, but producing and becoming a world champion, he had a real hard journey. … To die at age 38, the game of football and his family are hurting today. He was a staple for what football and underdogs are about.”

Stellato told the station that he had learned from one of Braman’s closest friends that the former Long Beach City College player “took his last breath while surrounded by friends and family.”

Braman graduated from Shadle Park High School in Spokane, Wash., and redshirted for a year at Idaho before playing at LBCC in 2007 and 2008. He transferred to West Texas A&M in 2009.

After going undrafted in 2011, Braman signed with the Houston Texans and remained for three seasons, playing in 46 games, mostly on special teams. In the final game of his rookie season, Braman earned the admiration of Texans fans when he tracked down and tackled Tennessee’s Marc Mariani after losing his helmet earlier in the play. The following season, Braman was a Pro Bowl alternate on special teams.

“We are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Bryan Braman,” the Texans wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Braman family during this difficult time.

Braman went on to play for the Philadelphia Eagles from 2014-2016, then signed with them again late in the 2017 season for a playoff run that culminated in a 41-33 victory against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.

“During his four seasons in Philadelphia, Bryan was a loyal teammate, a supporter of the community, and a valuable member of our Super Bowl LII-winning team,” the Eagles said in a statement. “More importantly, he was a devoted father who passionately loved his family and everyone around him.”

According to a GoFundMe page set up for Braman in February, he was battling “a very rare form of cancer.” Several of Braman’s former teammates contributed to the fund, including retired Texans defensive end J.J. Watt, who donated $10,000.

On Thursday, Watt also paid tribute to his late teammate on X.

“Rest in Peace brother,” Watt wrote in a post that also featured a photo of Braman in his Texans uniform. “Gone far too soon.”