Anxiety over income and unfair feedback dominates working lives of delivery riders, drivers and “digital labour” workers in UK’s gig economy – with many reporting physical pain and hours spent working without pay waiting for the app to ping.

A new study peels back the curtain on what motivates people to switch Medicare Advantage plans or leave MA altogether. The inability to access the care they needed, and dissatisfaction with the quality of the care they received, had much more to do with switching to another MA plan than the costs they had to pay, the study finds. More than half of Medicare participants are in MA plans.

About The Study: Between 2021 and 2023, prevalence of current cannabis use increased among adults age 65 or older nationally, with key demographic subgroups experiencing marked increases. Adults with the highest incomes initially had the lowest prevalence of cannabis use vs other income levels, but by 2023, they had the highest prevalence, which may indicate better access to medical cannabis given its costs. 

About The Study: This study demonstrates that the artificial sweetener neotame was a ubiquitous constituent of popular disposable e-cigarettes sold in the U.S. in 2024, including those containing no nicotine or the nicotine analogue 6-methylnicotine. Neotame is 7,000 to 13,000 times sweeter than table sugar and is 35 to 65 times sweeter than aspartame.

A novel study reveals a significantly higher concentration of recreational (nonmedical) cannabis retailers in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas and neighborhoods with greater proportions of populations of color across 18 US states in which cannabis use is legal for adults. The study, appearing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, offers critical insights for policymakers and public health officials, underscoring the need for strategies to ensure equitable distribution of cannabis retailers.

To meet Europe’s demand for green hydrogen, governments and the private sector have high hopes for production in Africa. A study led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now shown that the financing costs for production facilities in African countries would be much higher than previously assumed. Only 2 percent of around 10,000 investigated locations would be competitive for exports to Europe. This would require price and offtake guarantees from European governments.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, countries that are friendly with Russia have been exporting more military equipment to Russia - despite Western sanctions. This is shown by a recently published study.