Regulation

SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers rejected legislation that would have banned pesticides with so-called “forever” chemicals from use on California’s farms, a restriction strongly opposed by the state’s billion-dollar agriculture community.

Assembly Bill 1603 by Assemblymember Nick Schultz (D-Burbank) would have phased out the use of pesticides that contain perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS chemicals, a family of compounds that can be lasting and harmful to humans.

Representatives for agricultural groups argued at committee hearings last month that banning the chemicals was an overreach that would result in higher numbers of imports of food from other states and stifle innovation in developing new pesticides.

The latest version of the bill, which will be considered when the state legislature resumes its session next month, requires the state to list pesticides with PFAS in its public database.

“I’m disappointed,” Schultz said in an interview with the Times, adding that he intends to still push to phase out PFAS chemicals.

The bill marks the latest back-and-forth over PFAS, chemicals that are found in many different consumer, commercial and industrial products and are known as forever chemicals because some of their components don’t easily break down.

State regulators and environmental groups disagree on the definition of the chemicals, making it difficult to find a consensus on regulations or health risks.

Gov. Gavin Newsom last year vetoed a bill that would have prohibited the sale and distribution of popular consumer products, including cookware, dental floss and cleaning products, that contain PFAS chemicals.

The governor, in his veto message, cited affordability concerns. At the same time, the state has passed various laws intended to protect people from PFAS, including banning them in food packaging and firefighting foam.

Studies show that exposure to certain levels of PFAS may lead to decreased fertility and developmental delays in children and increase the risk of cancers, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and the vast majority of PFAS chemicals have not been tested for human health effects.

The Environmental Working Group, or EWG, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., released a study in March that found that nearly 40% of California’s conventionally grown fruits and vegetables tested contained PFAS residues, including 90% of peaches and nectarines.

The EWG, one of the bill’s supporters, uses a broader criteria to define PFAS than the state and federal authorities.

A spokesperson for California’s Dept. of Pesticide Regulation, which oversees pesticide use, said the EWG report looked at detections of the PFAS, but the state “looks at how the detections compare to federal tolerance levels.”

At a June Senate committee hearing on Schultz’s bill, EWG’s chief science officer, David Andrews, said that PFAS pesticides “fall into a regulatory blind spot.” He also said regulators, including the state, have “been inadequate with respect to evaluating immune system harm or the cumulative impacts of these very small PFAS.”

A spokesperson for the Dept. of Pesticide Regulation declined to comment on Schultz’s bill.

Taylor Triffo, a representative for a coalition of California agricultural associations, said at a different Senate hearing in June that the bill’s original language to ban new PFAS chemicals “would deny California farmers access to [the] next generation of crop protection tools that are safer, more targeted, require lower use rates and help address emerging pests and diseases.”

Representatives for agriculture groups said at hearings last month that they don’t object to the state flagging PFAS chemicals in the state database.

Nearly half of the country’s vegetables and more than three-quarters of its fruits and nuts come from California, according to the state.

Sen. Anna Caballero (D-Merced), chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, called pesticide use a “balance” at the June hearing before voting for the amended version.

“Part of the challenge agriculture is facing right now is pest invasion from other countries where the critters have moved on plants and in soil and have come into the state,” she said. “We’ve got to do everything, I think, we can to maintain our agricultural production, because we produce products that are produced almost nowhere else in the country.”

Isabella Quinonez, assistant director of Public Affairs at the California Farm Bureau, said her group objected to the original bill because it would have restricted products based on their chemical class rather than on a pesticide’s scientific evaluation of risk.

“We’re confident in the Department of Pesticide Regulation’s rigorous, science-based regulatory process, which includes residue studies, groundwater monitoring, and ongoing reevaluations,” Quinonez said.

Schultz told The Times he hopes to work with the Dept. of Pesticide Regulation on oversight in the coming years. He rejected any premise that there is “absolutely nothing to worry about, nothing off [with PFAS], because that’s just inconsistent with the science.”

Times staff writer Susanne Rust contributed to this report.

Regulator proposes checks on 453 US-registered jets over seats that may be incorrectly installed.

The US aviation authority has warned that seats on hundreds of Boeing 737 MAX planes could have been installed incorrectly and may require inspection.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Monday that the issue relates to 453 jets registered in the US and proposed requiring airlines to inspect the seats.

If not installed correctly, the seats could come loose during an emergency landing and “injure passengers and crew members”, the FAA said, adding that they could also “block the aisle and slow an evacuation”.

The proposed order would apply only to US-registered planes because the FAA does not regulate foreign airlines.

Regulators in other countries, however, often follow FAA orders when the issue affects aircraft operating in their markets.

A Boeing spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that the company had issued guidance to operators ‌on the matter in December 2025.

“We support the FAA making that guidance mandatory,” the spokesperson said in an email.

The warning adds to years of scrutiny of Boeing’s safety record.

A cabin panel blew off an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 in January 2024, forcing an emergency landing and prompting the FAA to ground 171 jets.

Investigators later found that the panel was missing four key bolts.

The scrutiny intensified after a spate of other accidents around the world, as well as the death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett in March 2024 while he was providing evidence for a safety lawsuit against the firm.

In June 2025, the US National Transportation Safety Board said Boeing had failed to provide adequate training, guidance and oversight to prevent the Alaska Airlines incident.

There are nearly 2,300 737 MAX jets operating around the world, including 823 in the US, according to aviation advisory and intelligence firm IBA.

White House hails pledge that seeks to shield consumers from the cost of energy for data centres as ‘historic’.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has said it will expand a voluntary pledge seeking to shield consumers from the energy costs of the rapid expansion of data centres, mostly used by artificial intelligence companies.

The White House announced on Thursday that it would add state governors and electricity companies to the agreement, first announced with tech and AI firms in March. But the US administration stopped short of any enforceable protections.

The White House called the expansion of the pledge “historic”, saying 200 additional utilities, data centre developers and states would join it.

The pledge is a “public commitment that hyperscalers, AI companies, and the utilities and data-center developers behind them will build, bring, or buy every kilowatt their facilities need — and cover every dollar of the infrastructure that delivers it”.

It says consumers would not foot the bill for AI’s energy needs.

In remarks about the pledge at the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, Trump called on the gathered executives and governors to sell the public on data centres, stressing that the cities and towns that have them will be “rich.”

“You have to convince your community. You can’t fight it. You have to go with it,” Trump said.

“If you don’t take all that money, somebody else is going to take it. You might as well do it yourselves.”

The US president has been a strong advocate for AI, which has become an enormous source of investment and a key priority for the country’s powerful tech sector. Trump has approached the sector, which includes some of his close allies, with a light regulatory touch during his second term.

But increased electricity demand from AI data centres could spur an increase in monthly utility bills between 15 and 40 percent by the year 2030, according to an analysis by the consulting and technology services company ICF.

A May Gallup poll suggested that seven out of 10 people in the US oppose the construction of AI data centres in their area, with about 48 percent saying they were strongly opposed. Slightly more than 25 percent said they favoured such efforts, with only 7 percent saying they strongly favoured them.

Concerns over the impact of such centres on the cost of utilities, such as electricity and water, are commonly cited as reasons for opposition, along with quality of life concerns and scepticism about the benefits of AI.

Some elections across the country have seen AI data centre construction emerge as a prominent issue, but the industry has pushed forward with plans to rapidly scale up infrastructure for the technology.

A poll from Johns Hopkins University in June suggested that Americans strongly favour greater regulation of AI, and about 60 percent of respondents said they expected AI to increase inequality over the next decade.

Four in 10 respondents said that AI companies stand to increase their power the most from the expansion of the technology, while just one in 10 said that individuals would gain the most.

OpenAI has revealed that one of its artificial intelligence models independently stole login credentials and hacked into another technology company’s system, in what is widely seen as one of the first known incidents of AI systems acting autonomously.

“We had a significant security incident during evaluation of our models,” CEO Sam Altman posted on X on Tuesday.

The incident comes as calls mount from technology rights advocates for stricter guardrails on rapidly evolving AI systems.

They have grown so powerful in a short span of time that alarming phenomena such as deepfakes and sophisticated cyberscams are becoming the norm.

Earlier this year, a number of software engineers quit their jobs at top companies such as Anthropic and AI in protest against how the technologies are being built.

“AI is accelerating the discovery and exploitation of vulnerabilities,” OpenAI said in a lengthy statement on Tuesday that detailed the latest incident.

“The primary lesson from this incident is that model security and safety must keep pace with rapidly advancing capabilities.”

Here’s what we know about the breach:

What has happened?

OpenAI said two of its models found their way out of an isolated, no-internet access environment – or a sandbox – and hacked into the systems of tech company Hugging Face on their own.

The models involved are the latest GPT-5.6 Sol model and an unreleased model the company said is “even more capable,” than its latest version.

Hugging Face hosts openly sourced AI models and resources. The two OpenAI agents discovered vulnerabilities in Hugging Face’s servers and proceeded to steal login details and then hack into the company’s systems.

The incident occurred during an OpenAI internal testing session designed to assess the models’ cybersecurity capabilities. OpenAI had removed standard safety measures for the test.

Both sought to cheat their way through a problem during the test, OpenAI said. They went to “extreme lengths to achieve a rather narrow testing goal” and “found ways to gain access to secret information that it could use to cheat the evaluation”.

OpenAI’s security team detected the unusual activity internally, but details of the breach came to light following a joint investigation by both companies.

What has Hugging Face said?

Hugging Face disclosed last Thursday that its servers were hacked by an unknown but sophisticated agent acting on its own. The company discovered the breach through its own AI-assisted detection.

“This one was different from anything we had handled before in one important way: it was driven, end to end, by an autonomous AI agent system,” the company said.

Following OpenAI’s disclosure that its models were involved in the breach, both sides conducted an ongoing joint investigation this week.

“We suspected last week’s cyberattack might have come from a frontier lab, given the sophistication of the agent. Turns out it did!” CEO Clement Delangue posted on X on Tuesday.

Hugging Face’s staff “strongly believe there was no malicious intent on their part,” Delangue added, referring to OpenAI.

Why does this matter?

Cybersecurity experts have previously sounded the alarm over the potential, extreme capabilities of AI systems and the dangers they pose.

But until now, there have been few real-life cases proving those concerns like this one.

Many warn that incidents like these could become commonplace and that AI systems pose a threat to financial, security and other sensitive data systems.

OpenAI revealed in a separate incident earlier this week that the unreleased, more powerful model had escaped an isolated environment during another test.

Anthropic, OpenAI’s rival, had similar issues with its most powerful agent to date, the Claude Mythos Preview model.

During a stress test of an early version, the model found its way out of a sandbox, gained internet access and emailed the supervising researcher that it had escaped and then wiped evidence of its activity. Anthropic halted a planned public release of the model afterwards.

In April, the US Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department convened a meeting with bank CEOs where officials warned about the cybersecurity risks posed by Mythos. Canada’s federal banking regulator has also warned financial institutions about the model’s capabilities.

The OpenAI breach also appears to make the case for companies like Hugging Face, which rely on open source systems, as opposed to more secretive AI development platforms like OpenAI.

“This incident, possibly the first of its kind, proves a point we’ve long believed: AI safety won’t be solved by any single company working in secret,” Hugging Face’s Delangue was quoted as saying in OpenAI’s statement.

“It will be solved in the open, collaboratively, with broad access to AI for every defender, everywhere,” he added.

ChatGPT maker says an autonomous agent escaped a controlled test and accessed AI firm Hugging Face’s servers.

ChatGPT creator OpenAI has said that two of its most advanced artificial intelligence models broke out of a controlled test and hacked another AI company.

OpenAI said on Tuesday that the “unprecedented cyber incident” took place during an internal exercise meant to test its models’ cyber capabilities.

Instead, an autonomous agent powered by the AI models – the newly released GPT 5.6 Sol and an unreleased “even more capable” model – escaped the test environment and reached the open internet. It then used stolen login details and found a previously unknown security flaw to access Hugging Face servers, the company said.

OpenAI claims that the hack represented the agent going to “extreme lengths” to retrieve information that would help satisfy the testing goals.

Hugging Face cofounder Clement Delangue said the company had suspected that a frontier lab was behind the attack, and that he believed there was no malicious intent on OpenAI’s part.

“It’s quite mind-blowing that all of this happened autonomously!” he wrote, adding that it “might be the first incident of its kind”.

Greg Casar, a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas, called the incident “alarming”.

“AI is developing extremely fast with no real regulations to keep us safe,” he said, calling for mandatory independent safety testing, mandatory disclosure of security incidents, and international cooperation.

The disclosure comes weeks after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a framework to vet the national security risks of the most advanced AI systems before their public release.

Experts have repeatedly sounded the alarm over AI-enabled cyberattacks and models slipping beyond human control. Last month, AI developer Anthropic urged the industry to pause development of its most powerful systems.

The Chinese leader called for more international cooperation in developing the technology at a conference in Shanghai.

Artificial intelligence should not be dominated by one country, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said, urging international cooperation on development at a major conference in Shanghai.

Xi also emphasised the importance of a “people-centred” approach to AI technology in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference on Friday.

The conference showcases the cutting-edge technology Xi hopes will soon rival that of the United States.

Chinese AI models are gaining ground on the most powerful offerings from the US, attracting global users with lower costs.

But how to govern the booming sector has become a topic of debate amid concerns over the deployment of AI in military combat and its use by hackers or criminals.

In his address, Xi spoke of China’s role in ensuring equitable access to AI capacity-building for developing countries to prevent the creation of “new historical injustices”.

To that end, he announced China’s plans to cooperate with international bodies, including from Africa, Latin America, Asia and BRICS countries, to provide AI-related opportunities.

“AI development should not be a solo performance by a single country, but a symphony of international cooperation,” Xi said. “We should jointly oppose overstretching the national security concept in the field of AI or placing one country’s security over that of others.”

‘Ensure AI is always under human control’

The US and European Union have imposed restrictions on Chinese tech imports, citing national security concerns, while recent tussles between Washington and American AI labs have raised questions about who controls access to top technology.

In May, the US Commerce Department issued a notice affirming its restrictions on shipments of semiconductors to subsidiaries of Chinese companies located outside China amid concerns about loopholes in Washington’s export control regime.

The guidance said its licensing requirements for the export of advanced AI chips applied to all businesses with headquarters or a parent company in China.

At Friday’s conference, Xi also stressed the need for a “people-centred” approach to AI with humans at the wheel.

“We should put in place laws and regulations, technological monitoring, early warning, and emergency response systems, in order to … ensure AI is always under human control,” he said.

AI has become a strategic pillar of China’s industrial policy, driven by state investment aimed at building a domestic ecosystem, from chip production to consumer use.

Daily consumption in China of “tokens” – the industry unit of AI usage – has increased a thousandfold over the past two years, according to state media citing officials.

As Al Jazeera reported earlier, China, while lagging behind the US in access to the most cutting-edge semiconductors, holds the edge in powering the huge data centres that run on AI chips.

A typical data centre can consume as much electricity as 100,000 households, while next-generation “hyperscale” facilities can gobble up as much power as two million homes, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

China’s access to an abundant supply of cheap electricity places it in the ideal position to meet such colossal energy demands.

It already generates more than twice as much electricity as the US, a lead that is expected to widen amid an aggressive state-led investment in the country’s energy grid.

July 9 (UPI) — The Trump administration on Thursday proposed to roll back a Biden-era rule on emissions from heavy duty diesel trucks because it is “unworkable.”

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed lowering requirements for heavy truck emissions systems because of issues with the technology for new trucks and penalties for older vehicles that do not measure up, the agency said in a press release.

The change is expected by the administration to save up to $6,000 per new truck and could help save truckers roughly $12 billion, Fox News and The Hill reported.

The change will shorten government requirements for engine warranties to 100,000 miles, from 450,000 miles, and will delay a requirement that trucks meet emissions standards for their first 650,000 miles — an increase from the first 435,000 miles — for three years.

“This proposal to eliminate engine deratements and reform the Biden-era … requirements will lower costs, increase safety and keep our nation’s food supply moving,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in the release.

The Biden administration rule was aimed at strengthening rules about nitrogen oxide emissions by improving maintenance and repair requirements over a longer period of time.

Critics have said that the new rule will weaken clean air protections and potentially affect Americans’ health, but the administration has countered that lowering business and consumer costs are an essential focus and that environmental concerns are overblown.

July 1 (UPI) — Mexico will launch a national debate on artificial intelligence and social media after the 2026 FIFA World Cup concludes in a move aimed at laying the groundwork for future regulatory framework.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said the process will begin after July 19 and will bring together lawmakers, technology experts, academics, media representatives and parents to discuss the impact of digital platforms and artificial intelligence on different areas of society.

Sheinbaum emphasized that the process will be conducted under the government’s stated premise of not infringing on freedom of expression.

Among the issues to be discussed are mental health, protection of children and adolescents, concentration of power among major technology platforms, development of artificial intelligence and the possibility of establishing limits on cellphone use in schools.

“The discussion should be opened on the control of platforms: Who controls them? How many people own these platforms? How is that power concentrated?” the president said during her Tuesday morning news conference.

Sheinbaum also raised the need to examine who controls the development of artificial intelligence, what regulatory frameworks exist in other countries, what benefits they offer and what risks they pose for Mexico.

“It is very important for Mexico to enter this regulatory process without resorting to censorship,” she said.

The announcement prompted immediate reactions on social media, where experts, civil society organizations, academics and users began debating the scope of possible regulation.

While some argued that Mexico’s legal framework needs to be updated to address the challenges posed by digital platforms and artificial intelligence, others expressed concern that poorly drafted legislation could become a tool to limit criticism or restrict freedom of expression.

News outlet Sinaloa Hoy reported that the proposal comes at a time when social media has become the primary source of information and political criticism for young people.

According to opinion polls, including one conducted by consulting firm Enkoll, the president has a 44% disapproval rating among people ages 18 to 24.

Mexican political analyst Juan Ortiz wrote on X that regulation may be necessary, “but a poorly written rule could end up punishing political criticism under the pretext of protecting minors or combating disinformation.”

“In San Luis Potosí, its ‘regulation’ of AI ended with women journalists being detained,” he said.

Mexican attorney Gildo Garza also questioned the announcement, arguing that regulation could become a mechanism to control public discourse.

In a post on X, he warned that previous experiences in Venezuela and Nicaragua show how initial narratives about protection or regulation ultimately resulted in restrictive laws, judicial persecution and punishment of critical voices.

According to a report by the Anáhuac Universities Network, the path toward digital legislation in Mexico has been marked by intense activity in Congress. Since April 2023, lawmakers have introduced 85 legislative initiatives to create laws or amend existing ones to regulate artificial intelligence and the digital environment.

The vast majority of those proposals, 67, have remained stalled or are pending approval. That has been attributed to a lack of consensus, technical complexity and concerns among various sectors that such measures could affect freedom of expression.

Canberra says tech platforms are still letting too many children bypass its under-16 social media ban.

Australia says it will double fines on social media companies that fail to keep children off their platforms, accusing Big Tech of dodging the spirit of its under-16 ban.

The government said on Saturday that new legislation would raise the maximum penalty for systemic breaches from 49.5 million to 99 million Australian dollars ($31m to $68m) and give the eSafety Commissioner stronger powers to force platforms to comply.

The regulator is investigating possible breaches by Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.

“It’s clear Big Tech are not doing enough to comply with the law – there are still too many children on social media,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

“These changes reflect the seriousness with which we take any failure by social media companies to comply.”

The ban, which came into force on December 10, made Australia a global test case for countries trying to curb children’s access to social media. The United Kingdom, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and New Zealand are among those watching or considering similar restrictions.

But children have continued to evade the rules by using accounts registered to older people, creating fake profiles or logging in through private browsers.

A peer-reviewed evaluation published this month in the British Medical Journal found “insufficient evidence” that the ban had sharply reduced social media use among young people. Researchers surveyed more than 400 children before the measure took effect and again three months later, finding “substantial circumvention” of the rules.

The government says more than five million accounts held by under-16s have been blocked, but Communications Minister Anika Wells said platforms were still falling short.

“Based on the regular updates I receive from the eSafety Commissioner, it is clear to me that social media platforms are adopting tricks straight out of the Big Tech playbook and doing the bare minimum to get by,” Wells said.

“Social media platforms are some of the richest and most powerful companies in the world, and we’re serious about holding them to account,” she added.

The new powers would allow the eSafety Commissioner to demand documents and evidence from platforms, age-checking companies and app stores.

Platforms must show they have taken “reasonable steps” to keep under-16s out. Some use artificial intelligence to estimate ages, while users can also verify their age with a government ID.

The final journey

“By mid-June it is over,” Evansis says.

The mature cicadas, dark-shelled and spent, begin flying towards the Umrong River in large numbers and drop into the rapids. The river fills with them. Along the banks, dead cicadas collect against wet stones and bamboo roots, their wings plastered flat by the current.

Locals call it niangtaser suicide. Hajong offers a simpler explanation: Cicadas are naturally drawn to sound and movement, and the fast-moving river may trigger that instinct in their final hours.

For the fish below the surface, it is a feast. For the forest above, closure.

The journey that began four years earlier beneath the ground ends in the same river that separates Livi’s home from the sanctuary.

Not everyone has watched that cycle for as long as Kewstar Majaw.

At 92, he has witnessed more emergences than almost anyone alive in the village. He served in the Indian Army. He loves watching football. And every four years, without fail, he waits for his noisy visitors.

For Kewstar, the passing of the cicadas has become another way of measuring life. World Cups came and went. Governments changed. Forests retreated. But every four years, if the rains arrived on time and the bamboo still held, the forest sang.

As a boy, he would follow his parents into the forest carrying bamboo containers, the sound reaching them before the insects came into view. In those days, the niangtaser was everywhere. Behind houses. In the trees along village paths. Young ones, mature ones – the forest floor was alive with them.

The chorus was so loud, he recalls with a laugh, that people stuffed cotton into their ears to bear it.

The insect did not need to be searched for. It found you.

Kewstar sits quietly for a moment. At his age, he has watched the forest retreat, the bamboo thin, and the chorus fade with each passing emergence. The insect that once appeared on his doorstep now requires a torch and a walk in the dark to be found.

“It was everywhere,” he says softly. “Now you have to go looking for it.”

In a few weeks, the cicadas will disappear beneath the earth once more,  keeping time in darkness until the cycle begins again. By the next emergence, another football World Cup will be under way somewhere else in the world.

Whether Saiden’s forests will still sing with them depends on what survives until then.

It’s called the Joint Awami Action Committee, and it’s being accused of fuelling protests in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The group has been demonstrating against a rule that sets aside legislative seats for refugees from India-administered Kashmir who live in Pakistan. They say it gives them disproportionate influence in the divided region.

But the government says any change would require constitutional reform.

The issue has long been a subject of political debate in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. But how will its government deal with tensions rising once again?

Presenter: Imran Khan

Guests:
Maria Iqbal Tarana – Senior leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz

Sahar Khan – Nonresident fellow at the Institute for Global Affairs

Imtiaz Gul – Executive director at the Center for Research and Security Studies

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday gave his endorsement to a January study by the Department of Health and Human Services that calls for cutting the number of vaccines recommended for every American child.

An executive order from Trump directs federal agencies to align their policies behind the study, which recommended an overhaul long called for by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The study found that the United States recommends more childhood vaccines than many peer nations.

The Trump administration previously moved to narrow the number of recommended childhood vaccines in response to the report, but the move was blocked by a federal judge in Massachusetts. The administration is appealing the decision.

The study recommends vaccinating all children against 11 diseases. Several others would be recommended only for high-risk groups or when doctors recommend them in what’s called “shared decision-making.” That includes vaccines for flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis and RSV.

Trump’s order adds weight behind the study at a time when the administration had appeared to be trying to shift focus away from Kennedy’s more contentious vaccine policies and toward topics with more widespread support among medical professionals, such as healthful eating.

The order directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review the study and “take any appropriate steps” to update its vaccine recommendations. It says the CDC should “provide maximum flexibility to parents and doctors” and directs agencies to make sure all actions, regulations and funding are aligned with the study.

The order adds that any changes should ensure that Americans retain their current access to vaccines.

States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. While CDC requirements often influence those state regulations, some states have begun creating their own alliances to counter the Trump administration’s guidance on vaccines.

Trump directed the Department of Health and Human Services to carry out the study in December.

Kennedy is a longtime activist against vaccines and has sought ways to inject his skepticism about the shots into national guidance, running counter to the overwhelming consensus of medical experts. Last year, he announced the CDC would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women, though public health experts said they saw no new data to justify the change.

Last June, he fired a 17-member CDC vaccine advisory committee and later installed several of his own replacements, including vaccine skeptics.

The January report found that vaccine recommendations for American children had increased in recent decades. It also highlighted countries where no vaccines are required to attend school.

Binkley writes for the Associated Press.

Parisians cooled off in the city’s Saint-Martin canal as an unprecedented heatwave pushed temperatures across Europe far above seasonal norms. Swimmers ignored long-standing bans, swimming outside designated bathing sites.

Africa’s Payments landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, fueled by advanced technologies and a surge in Cross-Border Trade. With AI and modular financial solutions taking root, African markets are quickly adopting faster, more secure, and seamless Payment experiences. But this shift isn’t just about digitisation—it’s about building a more resilient and inclusive financial ecosystem that empowers both businesses and individuals. 

Embracing Complexity: The Catalyst for Modular Design

Africa’s Payments ecosystem isn’t a single, uniform market—it’s a complex tapestry of 54 countries, each with unique currencies, regulatory standards, and varying financial infrastructures. For corporates and financial institutions, this diversity presents challenges, but it also creates fertile ground for innovation. 

The very intricacies that complicate Cross-Border Payments also encourage creative, technology-driven solutions that are tailored to local needs. This dynamic landscape invites forward-thinking approaches, making Africa a proving ground for Payment innovations with the potential to transform how value moves across the continent and beyond.

Africa’s diverse regulatory landscape demands adaptability in Cross-Border Payments. With each nation enforcing unique licensing, settlement, and risk rules, achieving a unified platform remains a significant challenge. Adding to the complexity is the growing insistence on local data storage to meet data sovereignty requirements, making compliance and technology integration even more intricate.

Instead of allowing regulatory hurdles to impede progress, industry leaders are using these complexities to build more adaptable and resilient systems. They’re advancing modular, “plug-and-play” platforms with strong governance, clear data separation, and flexible hybrid cloud infrastructure. This approach turns obstacles into opportunities for real innovation and growth.

This drive toward modularity has accelerated the adoption of Banking as a Service (BaaS), recasting Payments from a cost center into a strategic growth lever. Where corporates once saw Cross-Border Payment infrastructure as a burdensome expense, BaaS now allows secure, compliant Payment capabilities to be embedded directly into business platforms. 

With a single integration, companies can navigate regulatory complexity, unlocking new revenue streams and harnessing Payment data to refine operations, understand customers, and deliver tailored services. Payments have become more than transactions—they’re a source of insight and innovation, fueling growth and competitive advantage.

AI as a Strategic Accelerator

Artificial Intelligence is transforming Transaction Banking in Africa, acting as a catalyst that enhances human expertise to improve efficiency and transparency. Rather than relying on the traditional first-in, first-out approach, AI now enables financial institutions to sort and route queries by urgency and complexity, streamlining exceptions and prioritising immediate needs. This reduces manual intervention and turnaround times, freeing teams to focus on deeper client relationships and higher-value tasks that improve service quality and satisfaction.

But AI’s impact goes far beyond boosting efficiency—it is transforming security and fraud detection across Africa’s digital Payments. As digital adoption rises, so does financial crime. AI uses real-time, behavior-based analytics to monitor transactions and learn each client’s typical patterns. This allows quick detection of anomalies and proactive fraud prevention, improving accuracy and reducing unnecessary disruptions while safeguarding customer trust.

As financial institutions adopt advanced AI systems, strong governance becomes critical. Without careful oversight, AI models built on limited or skewed data can unintentionally reinforce biases—delaying Payments or impacting service for certain groups. To maintain trust and fairness, banks must ensure they have strong accountability, transparent training of AI models and proactive monitoring so algorithms serve all customers equitably and uphold the highest industry standards.

The Rise of Regional Payment Rails

Intra-African trade is experiencing unprecedented growth. As more businesses look beyond national borders, the demand for fast, accessible, and reliable Payment systems has never been greater. This surge in regional commerce is prompting the development of innovative Payment infrastructures that make Cross-Border transactions more seamless and inclusive.

Moving beyond the confines of Domestic Mobile Money networks, Telecom companies are developing Payment rails to enable real-time Payments that cross African borders with ease. This shift is especially transformative for small and medium-sized enterprises, opening fresh opportunities for growth and Cross-Border collaboration. By promoting interoperability and removing costly intermediaries, these regional networks make Payments faster, more affordable, and increasingly accessible.

As these Telecom-driven platforms continue to expand, they are enabling Africa’s Multi-Rail Payments ecosystem. Their ability to foster resilience, scalability, and efficiency is setting the stage for a future where regional Trade is not just possible, but practical for businesses of all sizes. This wave of innovation is redefining the landscape, ensuring that regional Payment Rails support and propel Africa’s economic growth for years to come.

Global Trade Dynamics and the Currency Shift

Africa’s Cross-Border Trade is being reshaped by ongoing US dollar shortages and shifting macroeconomic forces. For import-dependent markets, these scarcities delay settlements, increase transaction costs, and tie up vital working capital. This environment demands new solutions and is pushing businesses to seek more efficient, reliable ways to move value across borders.

Concurrently, the region is experiencing rising Trade flows with Asia, and African businesses are rapidly adopting alternative Payment infrastructures. Platforms like the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and greater use of the Chinese Renminbi offer new settlement options and critical flexibility. This shift reduces reliance on established networks such as Swift, giving companies more robust and diversified Payment infrastructure. As a result, importers and exporters can count on greater predictability, faster settlements, and lower intermediary costs—ultimately accelerating and scaling Cross-Border Trade across Africa.

Orchestrating the Future

Africa’s financial future is emerging as an ecosystem that is intelligent, instant, and seamlessly connected. Thriving in this landscape will require more than just advanced technology. It demands a clear understanding of local realities and global shifts. The leaders will be those who turn Africa’s complexity into intuitive, secure, and streamlined client experiences—setting new standards for growth, resilience, and trust in the continent’s rapidly evolving Payments Sector.

Fake online advertisements and social media groups are luring people in Jordan with promises of “quick profits” from cheap gold with sellers disappearing once funds have been transferred or customers defrauded with counterfeit and substandard metals, Jordanians tell Al Jazeera.

Mohammed Nassar said he was quoted a price for gold lower than local market rates due to an “online store” claiming it was exempt from manufacturing fees, government licensing costs or shop rents.

The Jordanian shopper transferred the money to secure what he thought was a bargain before the website disappeared and Nassar realised he had become the victim of a scam.

In another case, a young woman named Tala Al-Habashneh told Al Jazeera that she bought gold through a social media platform after agreeing with the seller and transferring the promised amount.

On closer examination of the product, she found that her gold was counterfeit, mixed with other metals and lacking any official stamps or invoices to prove its origin or carat.

Tala immediately filed a complaint with the Cybercrime Directorate of Jordan’s Public Security Directorate. The case is pending.

Government monitoring

Wafaa Al-Momani, assistant director general for Regulatory Affairs and director of the Jewelry Directorate at the Jordan Standards and Metrology Organisation (JSMO), told Al Jazeera that the institution is the only entity in the kingdom responsible for monitoring precious metal jewellery – such as gold, silver and platinum – and overseeing jewellery trading.

All imported jewellery is examined and stamped by the JSMO before being released onto the market, she said, while local workshops are also required to submit jewellery for inspection and verification before it can be sold.

Al-Momani said her organisation has received some complaints about companies, websites and social media groups engaged in fraud by “promoting the buying and selling of gold, especially broken gold [used or damaged], through unlicensed individuals”.

The JSMO is monitoring sellers engaged in fraud in coordination with security authorities to prevent jewellery from being sold outside licensed shops.

Al-Momani said the JSMO is tightening oversight of gold shops and sellers in the kingdom and said any store found selling unstamped jewellery or violating legal standards will face legal penalties but also warned Jordanians that buying gold through unofficial channels “does not guarantee that the jewellery conforms to legal standards or carats”.

Adornment and treasure

Rabhi Allan, the head of the Jordanian Association of Jewelry and Goldsmiths, explained that gold remains a traditional means of saving and investment for Jordanians as well as an accessory, quoting the popular saying: “Gold is an adornment and a treasure.”

However, he described the sale of gold through social media as “alien to Jordanian society” and stressed that transactions of this “cash commodity” should only take place via official shops with invoices clearly stating the weight, carat and labour costs of the product.

He said the association had filed complaints with the Cybercrime Directorate against unlicensed and anonymous sites, noting that these pages “appear and disappear without warning”, a situation that leaves victims without the ability to secure their consumer rights.

The association has documented numerous complaints and court cases resulting from gold sales conducted through social media platforms that often use edited or fabricated images and fake offers to attract buyers.

Others offer gold at prices significantly below market value to lure buyers, but the product sold is often counterfeit, nonexistent or contains far less of the precious metal than advertised.

He urged citizens to buy gold only via licensed and accredited shops that display official prices and issue proper invoices to protect buyers’ rights.

While questions have been raised about whether some gold sales conducted through social media could be linked to illegal activities, Allan said the cases monitored so far appear to be “individual incidents that do not amount to money laundering”.

Security warning

The Cybercrime Unit of the Public Security Directorate also warned citizens against buying gold through social media advertisements and confirmed that the body has received multiple complaints of fraud linked to the trade.

Colonel Amer Al-Sartawi, Public Security Directorate spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that the grievances ranged from cases where money was wired to fraudsters who subsequently disappeared without delivering the promised gold to incidents in which buyers received counterfeit pieces made from other less valuable metals, such as copper or iron.

Al-Sartawi urged citizens not to deal with such pages and to buy gold exclusively from licensed and accredited shops.