AFP UK

Humans can probably live to at least 130, and possibly well beyond, though the chances of reaching such super old age remain vanishingly small, according to new research.

The outer limit of the human lifespan has long been hotly debated, with recent studies making the case we could live up to 150 years, or arguing that there is no maximum theoretical age for humans.

The new research, published Wednesday in the Royal Society Open Science journal, wades into the debate by analysing new data on supercentenarians — people aged 110 or more — and semi-supercentenarians, aged 105 or more.

While the risk of death generally increases throughout our lifetime, the researchers’ analysis shows that risk eventually plateaus and remains constant at approximately 50-50.

“Beyond age 110 one can think of living another year as being almost like flipping a fair coin,” said Anthony Davison, a professor of statistics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), who led the research.

“If it comes up heads, then you live to your next birthday, and if not, then you will die at some point within the next year,” he told AFP.

Based on the data available so far, it seems likely that humans can live until at least 130, but extrapolating from the findings “would imply that there is no limit to the human lifespan,” the research concludes.

The conclusions match similar statistical analyses done on datasets of the very elderly.

“But this study strengthens those conclusions and makes them more precise because more data are now available,” Davison said.

The first dataset the team studied is newly released material from the International Database on Longevity, which covers more than 1,100 supercentenarians from 13 countries.

The second is from Italy on every person who was at least 105 between January 2009 and December 2015.

– ‘One in a million’ –

The work involves extrapolating from existing data, but Davison said that was a logical approach.

“Any study of extreme old age, whether statistical or biological, will involve extrapolation,” he said.

“We were able to show that if a limit below 130 years exists, we should have been able to detect it by now using the data now available,” he added.

Still, just because humans can theoretically reach 130 or beyond, doesn’t mean we’re likely to see it anytime soon.

For a start, the analysis is based on people who have already achieved the relatively rare feat of making it to well over 100.

And even at age 110, your chances of making it to 130 are “about one in a million… not impossible but very unlikely,” said Davison.

He thinks we could see people reaching 130 within the century, as more people make it to supercentenarian status, increasing the chances of one becoming that one in a million.

“But in the absence of major medical and social advances, ages much over this are highly unlikely ever to be observed,” he added.

For now, the oldest person on record is Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the confirmed age of 122.

Her true age was the subject of some controversy, with claims of a possible fraud, but in 2019 several experts said a review of the evidence confirmed her age.

Other pretenders to the throne of oldest person ever have a long way to go. The oldest verified living person in the world is Japan’s Kane Tanaka, a comparatively youthful 118.

Scientists have discovered a new lizard species in Peru, the national conservation agency said Tuesday.

The new species, called Liolaemus warjantay, was found in the Peruvian Andes at an altitude of 4,500 meters (14,700 feet), according to a statement from the National Service of Natural Areas Protected by the State.

“A valuable contribution of Peru’s protected natural areas to the world is the recent discovery of a new species of lizard,” the statement said.

The lizard’s head is dark gray, and females have pale yellow eyelids.

The discovery was registered a few weeks ago in cooperation with scientists from Argentina, Chile and Bolivia.

The Cotahuasi Subbasin Landscape Reserve, where the lizard was found, is a protected area in the Arequipa region in southwestern Peru, with an area of 490,550 hectares (1,900 square miles).

NASA is poised to send its first spacecraft to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids to glean new insights into the solar system’s formation 4.5 billion years ago, the space agency said Tuesday.

The probe, called Lucy after an ancient fossil that provided insights into the evolution of human species, will launch on October 16 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Its mission is to investigate the group of rocky bodies circling the Sun in two swarms, one preceding Jupiter in its orbital path and the other trailing behind it.  

After receiving boosts from Earth’s gravity, Lucy will embark on a 12-year journey to eight different asteroids —- one in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter and then seven Trojans.

“Despite the fact that they really are in a very small region of space, they’re very physically different from one another,” Hal Levison, the mission’s principal scientist told reporters, about the Trojan asteroids, which number more than 7,000 in total.

“For example, they have very different colors, some are grey, some are red,” he added, with the differences indicating how far away from the Sun they might have formed before assuming their present trajectory.

“Whatever Lucy finds will give us vital clues about the formation of our solar system,” added Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division.

Lucy will fly by its target objects within 250 miles (400 kilometers) of their surfaces, and use its onboard instruments and large antenna to investigate their geology, including composition, mass, density and volume.

The ship was built by Lockheed Martin and includes over two miles of wire and solar panels that, placed end-to-end, would be as tall as a five-story building.

It will be the first solar-powered to venture this far from the Sun, and will observe more asteroids than any other spacecraft before it. The total mission cost is $981 million.

The researchers who discovered Lucy the fossil in Ethiopia in 1974 named her after the Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” which they were playing loudly at the expedition camp.

In a nod to this heritage, the official logo of the NASA mission is diamond shaped.

Youth activists on Tuesday called out decades of “empty words and promises” from world leaders as they demanded action — and money — to tackle global warming ahead of a pivotal UN climate summit.

With just weeks to go before the COP26 meeting in Glasgow, seen as crucial to the viability of the Paris climate agreement, campaigners used the opening of a three-day event in Milan to lambast governments’ failure to address the crisis.

Swedish wunderkind Greta Thunberg slammed governments for “shamelessly congratulating themselves” for insufficient pledges to cut emissions and promises of financing. 

Hurling leaders’ own words back at them, the 18-year-old laid bare to delegates at the Youth4Climate event the gap between words and action.

“There is no Planet B, there is no planet blah, blah, blah,” Thunberg said to warm applause.

Echoing a speech by COP26 summit host Boris Johnson in April, she continued: “This is not about some expensive politically correct dream of bunny hugging, or build back better, blah blah blah, green economy, blah blah blah, net zero by 2050, blah blah blah, climate neutral blah blah blah.

“This is all we hear from our so-called leaders: words, words that sound great but so far have led to no action, our hopes and dreams drowned in their empty words and promises,” said Thunberg.

Some 400 youth activists from nearly 200 countries gathered in Milan will submit a joint declaration to a ministerial meeting at the end of the week, as a lead-in to COP26 in November in Glasgow. 

“Our leaders’ intentional lack of action is a betrayal of all present and future generations,” said Thunberg.

She said governments had been “shamelessly congratulating themselves while still failing to come up with the long overdue funding” for developing nations.

Ugandan youth activist Vanessa Nakate echoed Thunberg’s exasperation at leaders’ lack of urgency. 

“How long must children sleep hungry because their farms have been washed away, because their crops have been dried up because of the extreme weather conditions?” she asked attendees. 

“How long are we to watch them die of thirst and gasp for air in the floods? World leaders watch this happen and allow this to continue.”

– ‘Show us the money’ –

COP26 is vital for the effective implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which saw countries commit to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius.

The landmark deal aims for a safer warming cap of 1.5C. 

But six years after the accord was struck, countries still haven’t agreed how it will work in practice. 

Among long-overdue issues still outstanding for COP26 is how each country’s carbon cuts will be counted, as well as how the fight against climate change is financed. 

Nations already suffering from extreme floods, droughts and storms supercharged by rising seas have called on developed countries at COP26 to make good on a decade-old promise to provide $100 billion each year to help them recover and adapt. 

COP26 President Alok Sharma told delegates on Tuesday that the summit was a chance for “developed countries to make good on their promise of money to support developing countries dealing with rising impact of climate change”.

Host Britain says it wants the Glasgow summit to keep the 1.5C temperature goal viable, specifically by seeking a global agreement to phase out coal power. 

However the United Nations this month said that the latest round of country emissions reductions plans still puts Earth on course for a “catastrophic” 2.7C of warming.

“It’s time for our leaders to stop talking and start acting, it’s time for the polluters to pay, it’s time to keep promises,” said Nakate. 

“No more empty promises, no more empty summits, no more empty conferences. It’s time to show us the money.”

Brussels on Tuesday called on Volkswagen to pay out all European consumers — and not just German ones — affected by the “Dieselgate” scandal in which the automaker tampered with vehicle emissions to cheat pollution tests.

EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said in a statement that VW “is not willing to work with consumer organisations to find appropriate solutions for consumers,” noting that it so far is only making payouts to German and US purchasers of its vehicles.

“All consumers need to be compensated,” Reynders said.

But a VW spokesperson curtly responded to the EU appeal by saying: “Our legal position is unchanged.”

In an interview with AFP, Reynders accused VW of “bad faith” by trying to exclude European customers outside Germany from compensation by drawing out legal processes.

“I think it’s up to us to let European consumers know that a company has chosen to run out the clock in a bid to avoid paying compensation even as convictions keep piling up,” he said.

BEUC, an EU-wide consumer organisation, welcomed Brussels’s stance. “Such a statement is long overdue,” it said, calling it “another clear signal that the tide is turning for Volkswagen”.

The German car giant has already paid out damages, refunds and court fees of around 32 billion euros ($37 billion) in relation to the scandal.

Most has been disbursed in the United States, whose courts and regulators vigorously took up the matter.

The company has agreed to pay 750 million euros to 235,000 car owners in Germany.

But it is fending off thousands of individual and collective claims lodged in many territories, including in EU countries, which would greatly expand its financial exposure if they succeed.

VW said in July it had won 95 percent of the cases against it, after a court in Italy ordered the company to pay 63,000 Italian customers a settlement worth more than 200 million euros.

The crisis hit Volkswagen in 2015 when it was revealed it had installed devices in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide that greatly reduce nitrogen oxide emissions when subjected to pollution testing. 

The company admitted to the trickery and pleaded guilty to fraud in the United States in 2017.

– ‘Political pressure’ –

The tampering scandal has since ensnared other top European automakers, including BMW, Porsche, Daimler, Renault, Peugeot and Fiat-Chrysler.

Last month, four former VW managers went on trial in Germany on fraud charges related to “Dieselgate”. The trial of former chief executive Martin Winterkorn, 74, was split off into separate proceedings to start at a yet-to-be-announced date because of ill health.

It was the second significant criminal trial in relation to the scandal. Another, involving Rupert Stadler, the former boss of Volkswagen subsidiary Audi, began a year ago and is still ongoing.

Judges are trying to nail down who in the company was aware of the emissions-cheating software used and who gave the green light to the plan.

Reynders acknowledged to AFP that his appeal to VW constituted no more than “political pressure”. But he pointed out the longer-term damage to its brand if it continues its strategy.

“The risk Volkswagen runs in this case in reputational risk,” he said. “It’s really a trust question for consumers.”

He suggested that VW draw a line under the matter by extending pay-outs to all European customers who bought one of its altered diesel vehicles on the basis of the average compensation ordered by courts in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

He said that that average sum came in around 3,000 euros per vehicle. He declined to estimate what that would amount to across the EU for the automaker.

Reynders noted that the numbers of affected consumers included 150,000 in the Netherlands, 400,000 in Belgium and 900,000 in France.

Youth activists on Tuesday called out decades of “empty words and promises” from world leaders as they demanded action — and money — to tackle global warming ahead of a pivotal UN climate summit.

With just weeks to go before the COP26 meeting in Glasgow, seen as crucial to the viability of the Paris climate agreement, campaigners used the opening of a three-day event in Milan to lambast governments’ failure to address the crisis.

Swedish wunderkind Greta Thunberg slammed governments for “shamelessly congratulating themselves” for insufficient pledges to cut emissions and promises of financing. 

Hurling leaders’ own words back at them, the 18-year-old laid bare to delegates at the Youth4Climate event the gap between words and action.

“There is no Planet B, there is no planet blah, blah, blah,” Thunberg said to warm applause.

Echoing a speech by COP26 summit host Boris Johnson in April, she continued: “This is not about some expensive politically correct dream of bunny hugging, or build back better, blah blah blah, green economy, blah blah blah, net zero by 2050, blah blah blah, climate neutral blah blah blah.

“This is all we hear from our so-called leaders: words, words that sound great but so far have led to no action, our hopes and dreams drowned in their empty words and promises,” said Thunberg.

Some 400 youth activists from nearly 200 countries gathered in Milan will submit a joint declaration to a ministerial meeting at the end of the week, as a lead-in to COP26 in November in Glasgow. 

“Our leaders’ intentional lack of action is a betrayal of all present and future generations,” said Thunberg.

She said governments had been “shamelessly congratulating themselves while still failing to come up with the long overdue funding” for developing nations.

Ugandan youth activist Vanessa Nakate echoed Thunberg’s exasperation at leaders’ lack of urgency. 

“How long must children sleep hungry because their farms have been washed away, because their crops have been dried up because of the extreme weather conditions?” she asked attendees. 

“How long are we to watch them die of thirst and gasp for air in the floods? World leaders watch this happen and allow this to continue.”

– ‘Show us the money’ –

COP26 is vital for the effective implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which saw countries commit to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius.

The landmark deal aims for a safer warming cap of 1.5C. 

But six years after the accord was struck, countries still haven’t agreed how it will work in practice. 

Among long-overdue issues still outstanding for COP26 is how each country’s carbon cuts will be counted, as well as how the fight against climate change is financed. 

Nations already suffering from extreme floods, droughts and storms supercharged by rising seas have called on developed countries at COP26 to make good on a decade-old promise to provide $100 billion each year to help them recover and adapt. 

COP26 President Alok Sharma told delegates on Tuesday that the summit was a chance for “developed countries to make good on their promise of money to support developing countries dealing with rising impact of climate change”.

Host Britain says it wants the Glasgow summit to keep the 1.5C temperature goal viable, specifically by seeking a global agreement to phase out coal power. 

However the United Nations this month said that the latest round of country emissions reductions plans still puts Earth on course for a “catastrophic” 2.7C of warming.

“It’s time for our leaders to stop talking and start acting, it’s time for the polluters to pay, it’s time to keep promises,” said Nakate. 

“No more empty promises, no more empty summits, no more empty conferences. It’s time to show us the money.”

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg opened a youth climate summit on Tuesday by lambasting three decades of government inaction, accusing world leaders of having “drowned” future generations with “empty words and promises”.

Speaking weeks ahead of a crunch UN climate meeting in Glasgow, Thunberg accused governments of “shamelessly congratulating themselves” for insufficient pledges to cut emissions and promises of financing. 

Hurling leaders’ own words back at them, the 18-year-old laid bare to delegates at the Youth4Climate event in Milan the gap between words and action.

“There is no Planet B, there is no planet blah, blah, blah,” Thunberg said to warm applause.

Echoing a speech by COP26 summit host Boris Johnson in April, she continued: “This is not about some expensive politically correct dream of bunny hugging, or build back better, blah blah blah, green economy, blah blah blah, net zero by 2050, blah blah blah, climate neutral blah blah blah.

“This is all we hear from our so-called leaders: words, words that sound great but so far have led to no action, our hopes and dreams drowned in their empty words and promises,” said Thunberg.

The three-day event in Milan gathers some 400 youth activists from nearly 200 countries, who will submit a joint declaration to a ministerial meeting at the end of the week as a lead-in to COP26 in November in Glasgow. 

“Our leaders’ intentional lack of action is a betrayal of all present and future generations,” said Thunberg.

She said governments had been “shamelessly congratulating themselves while still failing to come up with the long overdue funding” for developing nations.

Ugandan youth activist Vanessa Nakate echoed Thunberg’s exasperation at leaders’ lack of urgency. 

“How long must children sleep hungry because their farms have been washed away, because their crops have been dried up because of the extreme weather conditions?” she asked attendees. 

“How long are we to watch them die of thirst and gasp for air in the floods? World leaders watch this happen and allow this to continue.”

– ‘Time for money’ –

COP26 is being billed as vital for the continued viability of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which saw countries commit to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius.

The landmark deal aims for a safer warming cap of 1.5C. 

But six years after the accord was struck, countries still haven’t agreed how it will work in practice. 

Among long-overdue issues still outstanding for COP26 is how each country’s carbon cuts will be counted, as well as how the fight against climate change is financed. 

Nations already suffering from extreme floods, droughts and storms supercharged by rising seas have called on developed countries at COP26 to make good on a decade-old promise to provide $100 billion each year to help them recover and adapt. 

COP26 President Alok Sharma told delegates on Tuesday that “now is the time for the developed countries to make good on their promise of money to support developing countries dealing with rising impact of climate change”.

Host Britain says it wants the Glasgow summit to keep the 1.5C temperature goal viable, specifically by seeking a global agreement to phase out coal power. 

However the United Nations this month said that the latest round of country emissions reductions plans still puts Earth on course for a “catastrophic” 2.7C of warming.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg opened a youth climate summit on Tuesday by lambasting three decades of government inaction, accusing world leaders of having “drowned” future generations with “empty words and promises”.

Speaking weeks ahead of a crunch UN climate summit in Glasgow, Thunberg accused governments of “shamelessly congratulating themselves” for insufficient pledges to cut emissions and promises of financing. 

Hurling leaders’ own words back at them, the 18-year-old laid bare to delegates at the Youth4Climate event in Milan the gap between words and action.

“There is no Planet B, there is no planet blah, blah, blah,” Thunberg said to warm applause.

Echoing a speech by COP26 summit host Boris Johnson in April, she continued: “This is not about some expensive politically correct dream of bunny hugging, or build back better, blah blah blah, green economy, blah blah blah, net zero by 2050, blah blah blah, climate neutral blah blah blah.

“This is all we hear from our so-called leaders: words, words that sound great but so far have led to no action, our hopes and dreams drowned in their empty words and promises,” said Thunberg.

The three-day event in Milan gathers some 400 youth activists from nearly 200 countries, who will submit a joint declaration to a ministerial meeting at the end of the week as a lead-in to COP26 in November in Glasgow. 

“Our leaders’ intentional lack of action is a betrayal of all present and future generations,” said Thunberg.

She said governments had been “shamelessly congratulating themselves while still failing to come up with the long overdue funding” for developing nations.

COP26 is being billed as vital for the continued viability of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which saw countries commit to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius.

The landmark deal aims for a safer warming cap of 1.5C. 

But six years after the accord was struck, countries still haven’t agreed how it will work in practice. 

Among long-overdue issues still outstanding for COP26 is how each country’s carbon cuts will be counted, as well as how the fight against climate change is financed. 

Nations already suffering from extreme floods, droughts and storms supercharged by rising seas have called on developed countries at COP26 to make good on a decade-old promise to provide $100 billion each year to help them recover and adapt. 

Host Britain says it wants the Glasgow summit to keep the 1.5C temperature goal in play, specifically by seeking a global agreement to phase out coal power. 

However the United Nations this month said that the latest round of country emissions reductions plans still puts Earth on course for a “catastrophic” 2.7C of warming.

The Philippines has approved Covid-19 jabs for children as young as 12, an aide to President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday, as the country battles surging infections fuelled by the hyper-contagious Delta variant.

Duterte’s government has been skewered over the glacial rollout of vaccines, with just over a quarter of the adult population fully vaccinated nearly seven months after the first doses were delivered.

The daily case rate has soared, often exceeding 20,000, with hospitals struggling to handle the influx of patients as vaccine supplies dribble into the country.

Inoculating children is seen as a key step towards reopening schools in the Philippines, which is one of the few countries in the world to have kept them shut since the start of the pandemic. 

The government recently announced plans for a pilot reopening of 120 primary and high schools, but few details have been released.

Kids will be allowed to receive the jabs from next month, presidential spokesman Harry Roque told reporters, as the vaccination drive is widened to include all adults not previously prioritised for shots.

The Philippines’ food and drug regulator recently approved the Pfizer and Moderna jabs for kids aged 12 and above.

The move follows other countries such as Britain, the United States and Australia in approving specific jabs for adolescents. 

The World Health Organization is still conducting trials on vaccinations for children and has only recommended that adolescents at high risk of contracting Covid-19 receive Pfizer shots.

Although children are considered less at risk of severe Covid, there are concerns that the highly contagious Delta variant could lead to more serious cases. 

The government has previously set a target of vaccinating 70 percent of adults by the end of the year. In the national capital region more than 72 percent are fully protected, Roque said.

The country has recorded 2.5 million infections, including over 37,000 deaths, since March 2020.

In a pre-recorded speech broadcast Tuesday, Duterte said people refusing vaccines could be forced by police to get inoculated. 

“If everybody does not comply with the vaccines… then the police must go in and intervene in your private life so that you cannot be a danger to society,” he said.

A three-day blaze that completely incinerated two giant Tesla batteries at a vast energy storage site in Australia was probably sparked by a coolant leak, safety regulators said Tuesday.

The fire broke out on July 30 in a 13-tonne lithium “Megapack” battery, which is the size of a shipping container, and then spread to a second battery at the site near Geelong, in Victoria state southwest of Australia’s second city Melbourne.

It took firefighters three days to bring under control. No injuries were reported.

“The most likely root cause of the incident was a leak within the Megapack cooling system that caused a short circuit that led to a fire in an electronic component,” said a technical probe by the safety regulator Energy Safe Victoria.

The fire spread within the first battery and then to the adjacent battery, it said in the review, which relied on a Tesla investigation, an examination of the scene, video footage and data from the incident.

The battery site — one of the largest globally — is designed to store energy produced by renewables and send power to the grid.

The state regulator said it had told Telsa that it had “no objection” to work resuming on commissioning the Victoria Big Battery project, built by French renewable energy firm Neoen using Tesla batteries.

Following the technical review, Energy Safe Victoria said it would now determine if there were any safety breaches and, if so, decide on any enforcement action.

The safety regulator said Tesla must provide the final results of its own investigation into why the fire spread to the second battery.

It said both Tesla and Neoen had cooperated in the probe.

The probe found that the first battery to catch fire was in service for 13 hours before being switched to an “offline” mode, which turned off its monitoring system and prevented alarms from being sounded.

It recommended a series of changes to prevent a new fire including checking each battery’s cooling system for leaks and improving the alarm and surveillance systems.

Designers were working to “fully mitigate” the risk of fire spreading from one battery to another, it said.