The post EPA Launches A ‘Back-To-Basics’ Blueprint To Help Rural Drinking Water Systems appeared first on edhat.

By Sophie Tanno, CNN

London (CNN) — A British woman who was denied permanent birth control through the UK’s national health service on the grounds she might regret the decision has won her case with the country’s health ombudsman after a 10-year battle.

Leah Spasova, a psychologist from Oxfordshire, spent years trying to obtain sterilization on the NHS when at the same time her health provider funds vasectomies for men.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), which investigates complaints about the NHS, determined that a local health body was denying women, but not men, funding for sterilization.

Spasova raised the complaint after she was denied a request for sterilization funding from the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (ICB), which covers an area of southern England.

“I have been enquiring about sterilization for 10 years and was just passed back and forth between services,” Spasova said.

“Then the ICB turned down my request for funding.”

Conducting her own research into the ICB’s approach, she found the organization “did not follow the widely recognized principle that clinicians provide advice, but patients ultimately make decisions about their own bodies.”

The ombudsman determined that the ICB did not routinely fund female sterilization and cited cost concerns and Spasova’s risk of regretting the procedure as reasons for refusing her – factors not applied to men seeking vasectomies

“Rejecting my application for sterilization on the basis of regret means they were taking on liability for my feelings,” Spasova said.

The ICB’s approach was unfair, inconsistent, and based on subjective reasoning, the PHSO found.

It also found that women were not given the same opportunity as men to make an informed decision about sterilization.

Paula Sussex, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, said there were concerns that the health service was letting patients down.

“This case shows the power of the patient voice. Leah complained about her experience and the ICB is now reviewing its sterilization policy,” she said.

Spasova described the ICB’s policies as “absolutely discriminatory.”

“There is continuing widespread inequality in how permanent contraception is accessed with concerns about fairness and respect for women’s bodily autonomy remain unresolved.”

The NHS authority which now oversees health services for those who live in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire, said that it accepts the PHSO’s findings and has introduced a new policy to ensure that patients who meet the criteria are able to access female sterilization.

Female sterilization involves blocking a woman’s fallopian tubes and is over 99% effective. It is comparable to a vasectomy, a permanent method of male contraception, but female sterilization requires more invasive surgery and is less easy to reverse.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

The post UK woman wins right to receive permanent birth control after exposing double standards in health service appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN

(CNN) — It’s exciting to think of bionic humans who have cracked the code to stop aging. But perhaps less glamorous and much more important to the longevity game is tackling chronic disease.

About 6 in 10 young adults in the United States report having one or more chronic conditions, but by older adulthood, that number grows to 9 in 10, according to a 2025 study.

Even as people pursue methods to add more years to their lives, conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer are major drivers of both mortality and disability, particularly in later life.

While a wave of tech investors is pushing gadgets, supplements and programs designed to make people feel like they will live forever, journalist Kara Swisher has been investigating the methods that actually lead to healthy long lives in her series, “Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever.” Her latest episode, premiering Saturday, May 2, at 9 p.m. ET, investigates medical advancements that offer some promise against chronic disease for more of the population.

“What I’m interested in is increasing longevity for everybody,” Swisher said. “Healthy longevity, not just longevity for longevity’s sake. It’s longevity for good living and healthy living, and that you don’t die of stupid diseases. … It’s so preventable.”

Think of it similarly to how improving sanitation meant later generations in the United States didn’t have to experience cholera, she said. Or medications that we now may take for granted changed life-threatening conditions into illnesses with reliable treatment, said Dr. Steven Austad, scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research and distinguished professor and endowed chair of healthy aging research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“Antibiotics changed everything, and these could potentially change everything,” Austad said, speaking of the latest medical developments against chronic disease.

The link between disease and aging

Many of the tech entrepreneurs investing in the longevity space misunderstand the science of aging, Austad said. Primarily, they don’t get that there is no simple code to crack, and the biology behind the aging process is complicated.

Aging is something that happens to everyone, even the healthiest people, and it makes them more vulnerable to developing chronic disease, he said. “Aging is not a disease, but it makes us more vulnerable to diseases.”

Not only does aging make people more vulnerable, it also makes it more difficult for people to recover from chronic diseases.

Aging can bring out conditions that a person may be predisposed to from birth, said Dr. Nir Barzilai, president of the Academy for Health and Lifespan Research and professor of medicine and genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

A person may be born with a gene that makes it more likely they will develop dementia, but cognitive problems won’t emerge until their 60s, 70s or 80s, Barzilai said. “You need the aging process to bring it out,” he noted.

Although chronic diseases do not solely impact older populations, preventing these diseases could mean longer lives and more enjoyment of the years added.

Changing the body’s response to chronic disease

Some of the most promising technologies for longevity will need to be prescribed, not bought.

Alzheimer’s disease, for example, may one day be prevented through a technology called CRISPR, a gene-editing tool codeveloped by Nobel laureate in chemistry Dr. Jennifer Doudna, who is Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair in Biomedical and Health Sci

By Auzinea Bacon, CNN

(CNN) — Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) on Saturday reported $11.35 billion in operating earnings and a record cash pile in the first quarter under CEO Greg Abel, the successor to famed investor Warren Buffett.

Berkshire Hathaway’s massive cash pile rose to more than $397 billion in the first quarter, up from the $373 billion at the end of 2025. Operating earnings were up nearly 18% from last year, but fell short of estimates that Berkshire would earn $11.56 billion, according to FactSet data.

Net income attributable to Berkshire shareholders in the first quarter rose to roughly $10.1 billion, more than double from $4.6 billion last year.

Berkshire earned $1.7 billion from insurance underwriting — a 28% increase from the same time last year — though Geico, which leads the conglomerate’s insurance underwriting business, reported a 34% drop in earnings.

This is Abel’s first quarterly report as the head of Berkshire. He stepped into the role at the start of 2026 and penned the annual letter to shareholders in February. Abel will take center stage on Saturday at Berkshire’s so-called “Woodstock for Capitalists” in downtown Omaha, Nebraska — former chief executive Buffett’s hometown.

Abel has big shoes to fill. Buffett, 95, attracted huge crowds to the event, with thousands flocking to hear the Oracle of Omaha’s market wisdom. Buffett frequently turned into a brand mascot for the likes of Squishmallow, Fruit of the Loom and other Berkshire companies.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

The post Berkshire Hathaway reports record cash pile in Greg Abel’s first quarter as CEO appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Auzinea Bacon, CNN

(CNN) — Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) on Saturday reported $11.35 billion in operating earnings and a record cash pile in the first quarter under CEO Greg Abel, the successor to famed investor Warren Buffett.

Berkshire Hathaway’s massive cash pile rose to more than $397 billion in the first quarter, up from the $373 billion at the end of 2025. Operating earnings were up nearly 18% from last year, but fell short of estimates that Berkshire would earn $11.56 billion, according to FactSet data.

Net income attributable to Berkshire shareholders in the first quarter rose to roughly $10.1 billion, more than double from $4.6 billion last year.

Berkshire earned $1.7 billion from insurance underwriting — a 28% increase from the same time last year — though Geico, which leads the conglomerate’s insurance underwriting business, reported a 34% drop in earnings.

This is Abel’s first quarterly report as the head of Berkshire. He stepped into the role at the start of 2026 and penned the annual letter to shareholders in February. Abel will take center stage on Saturday afternoon at Berkshire’s so-called “Woodstock for Capitalists” in downtown Omaha, Nebraska — former chief executive Buffett’s hometown.

Abel has big shoes to fill. Buffett, 95, attracted huge crowds to the event, with thousands flocking to hear the Oracle of Omaha’s market wisdom. Buffett, who now serves as chairman of Berkshire, frequently turned into a brand mascot for the likes of Squishmallow, Fruit of the Loom and other Berkshire companies.

Berkshire owners are still getting to know Abel, who has been with the conglomerate since 2000 and was named to the board in 2018, but was less visible than Buffett and former vice chairman Charlie Munger. Abel officially took over as CEO on January 1, 2026.

“Warren brought this amazing commitment to Berkshire and deep understanding. And I want (owners) to know that remains, that there’s a team — myself included — that are absolutely committed and have a deep understanding of Berkshire, and we bring that same passion every day,” Abel told CNBC.

Abel said the event will include speaking about Berkshire’s “evolution” and introducing other managers.

Buffett, who led Berkshire for six decades, attended the annual meeting on Saturday.

“Greg is doing everything I did and then some, and he’s doing it better in all cases. He’s the right person. So that decision, we score 100%,” he said from his seat in the crowd.

Berkshire’s largest holding is in Apple, Buffett noted Saturday. The tech giant reported better-than-expected earnings and iPhone sales were up 22% compared to a year ago. The company’s stock is now up about 36% from a year ago and Tim Cook recently announced he would step down as CEO.

Such investments provide returns “without any work by us, which is our preferred way of operating,” Buffett said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

The post Here’s how Berkshire Hathaway did in its first quarter without Warren Buffett as CEO appeared first on News Channel 3-12.