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Growing public conversations around menopause are shattering taboos. But they only help some women in the workplace.

A common intervention is needed to tackle the energy crisis and stay out of Putin’s trap.

The key defense document leaves room for interpretation, a senior Russian diplomat says

Russia is concerned over the growing number of scenarios allowing the use of nuclear weapons in the defense strategies of the US and other Western powers, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Saturday. This comes after the Pentagon released its updated nuclear posture earlier this week.

Speaking to RIA Novosti news agency, the diplomat said Moscow “is closely monitoring the evolution” of Western military doctrines, including those presented by nuclear powers – the US, the UK and France.

“We are also watching what is happening with delivery vehicles and with the weapons themselves,” Grushko added.

The diplomat voiced alarm over the general direction of key Western defense documents. Lamenting that “the language of nuclear strategies is quite vague”, Grushko noted that Moscow has seen “an increase in the number of scenarios, including outside of the nuclear context, which allow the use of nuclear weapons”.

Meanwhile, Grushko continued, Russia’s nuclear posture is very specific and “avoids any ambiguity.” The diplomat stressed that short of a direct nuclear strike, Russia could deploy atomic weapons “only if the very existence of the state is threatened.”

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Biden backtracks on nuclear pledge

On Thursday, the Pentagon released its 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS), along with the Nuclear Posture Review and Missile Defense Review. The document places “renewed emphasis on nuclear arms control, nuclear nonproliferation, and risk reduction,” while identifying Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran as four potential adversaries for nuclear weapons planning.

At the same time, Washington left the door open to such options as a nuclear first strike, while allowing for the use of such weapons of mass destruction to prevent conventional attacks. The decision to reject limits on the use of nukes comes amid rising tensions with Russia and China.

However, the document also stated that the “fundamental role” of US nuclear weapons “is to deter nuclear attacks” and Washington would consider deploying such measures only “in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its Allies and partners”.

The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that a nuclear war must never be fought, while warning Western countries against engaging in “provocative” rhetoric.

The UN health watchdog says the number of infections is rising globally

The number of people infected with tuberculosis (TB) has increased globally for the first time in nearly two decades, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The watchdog recorded a 4.5% year-on-year increase in 2021, with some experts claiming little attention is being paid to the dire situation since the disease mostly affects poorer regions.

In its report published on Thursday, the WHO revealed that a total of 10.6 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis last year, with 1.6 million more succumbing to the disease. The latter figure rose for the second consecutive year. The UN health agency clarified that the Covid-19 pandemic had contributed to the spike in TB-related deaths as lockdowns prevented many patients from getting a diagnosis or receiving treatment.

Commenting on the report’s findings, Dr. Lucica Ditiu, the executive director of the Stop TB Partnership, lamented that “despite this shockingly upward trend of TB mortality and infection rates, funding for fighting TB decreased in 2020 and 2021 from an already pathetically low level.”

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Speaking to Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, she questioned whether the lack of resources was down to the fact that the infection “affects mainly poor people from poorer countries, and it is more comfortable to simply neglect them.”

Ditiu’s concerns were echoed by Mel Spigelman, president of the TB Alliance, who described tuberculosis as the “quintessential disease of poverty,” and suggested that this means that it does not have the “political pressure and financial incentives behind it that do diseases that affect the more affluent parts of global society.”

According to a report by the Treatment Action Group and the Stop TB Partnership issued in December 2021, the total amount of global funding for tuberculosis research was $915 million in 2020 – falling markedly short of the $2 billion target set by the UN in 2018. However, most of that money ended up being invested in Covid vaccines, instead of tuberculosis vaccine research, the groups claimed.

The WHO also reported a decline in global funding for essential tuberculosis services from $6 billion in 2019 to $5.4 billion in 2021.

Tuberculosis is a viral and potentially deadly disease, which mostly affects the lungs. Malnourished individuals and those with a weakened immune system are particularly at risk of infection.

We travel across the US to ask what role conservative talk radio is playing in polarising American politics.

More than 2,000 RMT workers are staging another 24-hour stoppage after rejecting the latest pay offer.

Russia accuses Ukraine of a major drone attack on its Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

As Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro traded barbs with his leftist rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in the final debate ahead of Sunday’s presidential face-off, supporters of the two candidates gathered in their respective strongholds to watch the faceoff. The fiesty debate was as dramatic as a football match, but the fans were divided on the outcome.

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It was one of the strangest episodes in military history, an event so unusual that it was first treated as a myth.