Archives: Morning Breakouts

"This year on World Water Day, Thursday, March 22, the United Nations highlights the critical role water plays in food security, at a time when water supplies are already under severe strain in many parts of the world," VOA News reports. As the world's population expands, "the demand for water is growing along with the demand for food," and agriculture accounts for 70 percent of water use worldwide, the news service notes (Baragona, 3/21). Additional information on World Water Day, which is coordinated by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is available online from U.N. Water (3/22).

"As we mark World Water Day, the alarming statistics underlying water scarcity are worth repeating. Worldwide 2.7 billion people are currently affected by water shortages," Manish Bapna, acting president of the World Resources Institute (WRI), and Betsy Otto, director of WRI's Aqueduct Project, write in a Forbes opinion piece, noting that population growth, increasing food demand, and climate change threaten access to water. "Clean, abundant water is essential for life and economic growth. Since it is a finite resource, we need to find solutions that will ensure we can use water more efficiently and mange water systems more wisely," they state.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday announced his charitable foundation will "spend $220 million over the next four years to discourage tobacco use in developing countries, as he seeks to promote strategies around the world that curbed smoking in his city," the Wall Street Journal reports (McKay, 3/21). Bloomberg announced "the new funding for Bloomberg Philanthropies on Thursday at the 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Singapore," Reuters writes, noting "[t]he commitment takes the foundation's total pledge to the cause to almost $600 million" (Begley et al., 3/22).

All across the country, state legislatures and governors are grappling with bills designed to limit access to abortion or contraception. In Virginia, it's affecting a U.S. Senate race.

In a 5-to-4 decision, the justices said states are generally immune from suits by employees who are refused time-off to recover from an illness.

The justices rule that two patents are invalid because they cover a natural phenomenon.

Mitt Romney took home the win in the Illinois Primary Tuesday and expressed support for Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan that would reduce spending on Medicare and Medicaid. Rick Santorum, in the meantime, continues his quest against the health reform law.

This week the WHO brought together lawmakers from across Southeast Asia in Bangkok "to discuss how to bolster their health systems back home," IRIN reports. Meeting participants were "called on to advocate the boosting of health spending, workforces and access to health care in their home countries in addition to drafting 'healthy public policies,' such as conducting health assessments before large infrastructural projects are undertaken," the news service writes.

"On Tuesday, a global alliance of researchers and scientists -- led by the Stop TB Partnership, an umbrella group of health groups -- unveiled a 'blueprint' to develop a new vaccine [against tuberculosis (TB)] that aims to disrupt transmission in hard-hit countries and communities," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The blueprint calls for the groups to work together to test new vaccine candidates, and to coordinate fundraising for expansive and expensive human trials, representing the first comprehensive plan of the sort," the news service writes (Wonacott, 3/20).

"At a public event [held Tuesday] on Capitol Hill, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria spotlighted the contributions of public-private partnerships to the Global Fund's lifesaving work," a joint press release (.pdf) reports. The event highlighted the "unique and essential roles" that partners like Chevron, the Coca-Cola Company, (RED) and PEPFAR play in improving lives around the globe, "[f]rom assistance in drug delivery, to supplying much-needed resources, to mobilizing consumer markets, to in-country partnerships," according to the press release. "The partners highlighted at the Capitol Hill event have not only provided funding, but have also brought their individual expertise to the Global Fund, sharing their knowledge and building bridges between the public, private and health sectors," the press release states (3/20).