AMSTERDAM – The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has rejected a licence for an Alzheimer’s treatment which slows cognitive decline. The EMA said the benefits of lecanemab did not counterbalance the risk of serious side effects, especially bleeding and swelling in the brain.

The medicines regulator in the UK, the MHRA, is still considering whether to grant a licence, and a decision is expected soon. The drug was approved in the United States earlier this year.

In trials, lecanemab was shown to slow cognitive decline by about a quarter in patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s researchers hailed the trial results as “historic” because no previous drug had convincingly shown that the underlying mechanism of the disease could be slowed. Lecanemab works by clearing a rogue protein called amyloid, which builds up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

Even if the drug was to be approved in the UK, it would then be up to health bodies – such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) – to decide whether the drug represents value for money and should be recommended to patients. Lecanemab costs about £20,000 per patient per year in the US. The EMA said that although patients given lecanemab, whose brand name is Leqembi, had delayed cognitive decline, the effects were small.

It said the most important safety concern was the frequent occurrence of amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA), that involve swelling and bleeding in the brain. The EMA said: “Although most cases of ARIA in the main study were not serious and did not involve symptoms, some patients had serious events, including large bleeds in the brain which required hospitalisation.” Overall it found the benefits of the treatment were not enough to outweigh the risks. (BB)…[+]

JASPER – The fierce wildfire which swept through the Canadian town of Jasper in recent days melted cars to the road and turned homes to ash.

The first images of the devastation at the famous tourist town have emerged, after a 100m (328ft) firewall swept through late on Wednesday. It has been difficult to get a sense of the scale of what happened because the fire burned out-of-control for days. Some 25,000 people were evacuated from the town and the Jasper National Park, in Alberta.

On Friday, authorities from Jasper National Park said 358 of the 1,113 structures in town had been destroyed by the fire, which was caused by a lightning storm.However, all critical infrastructure was protected, including the hospital, library and firehall. A list of addresses where buildings were damaged is being finalised and will be released “shortly”, authorities said.

One local who does know he has lost his home is Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland, who came back to the town with other officials on Friday. He stood in front of what remained of his home, reduced to a few charred cement blocks, and said: “Now, it’s well, it’s just memories of family and fire.”

Mr Ireland spoke of a photograph lost to the flames, where he was just a two-year-old sitting on some moving boxes next to a birthday cake at that very house. He had lived at the same address for 67 years. “So many others are going to go through this same thing,” he told local media. (BBC)…[+]

GAZA – Israel’s military has struck a school near Deir al-Balah, a city in central Gaza, killing at least 30 Palestinians and injuring more than 100, according to the Hamas-run ministry of health.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Telegram that a Hamas command and control centre was embedded inside the Khadija School. The IDF added that Hamas used the compound as a hiding place to direct and plan attacks and store weapons. Gaza’s health ministry said footage showed the victims were civilians and most of them were children. The BBC verified a video that shows children among the injured.

Gaza’s civil defence service said the school was sheltering displaced people. Hamas said in a statement on Telegram that the report the school was being used for military purposes was “false” and “displaced, sick and wounded people, most of whom were women and children” were killed.

Witness Mustafa Rafati told the BBC the explosion shook his body and he fell from the blow. Afraid, he said he ran inside the school and saw body parts in a “terrifying scene.” “I was shocked,” he said. Verified video from the scene shows a chaotic situation, with people running around a compound covered in rubble. Men carry two bloodied children in their arms while a woman hugs another, and a group carries an injured man on a stretcher. A body lies on the ground covered in a blanket.

The IDF said that before the strike it took steps to reduce the risk to civilians “including the use of appropriate munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence”. Gaza’s health ministry said 53 people had been killed and 189 injured since Saturday morning due to IDF bombing in Deir al-Balah and the southern city of Khan Younis. The strike occurred as Israel continues its months-long military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The war started when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell spoke out against the Deir al-Balah strike on X, writing that it occurred “at the same time an already very fragile population is asked to relocate again and again, with no end in sight”.

“Ceasefire has to happen now,” he wrote. Ceasefire talks, led by the head of the CIA, Bill Burns, are scheduled to begin on Sunday between representatives from Qatar, Egypt and Israel. The Deir al-Balah strike was reported as the IDF ordered civilians on Saturday morning in southern parts of Khan Younis to evacuate to an “adjusted humanitarian area” in al-Mawasi, a region along the coast. (BBC)…[+]

SOUTH AFRICA – South African police have detained 95 Libyan nationals for questioning on suspicion of receiving training at a secret military camp.

Police said on Friday that they had carried out a morning raid on the alleged military camp, located at a farm in White River in Mpumalanga province in the north of the country. “We are not arresting them now, but we are taking them in for questioning and will investigate any criminal activity,” said police spokesman Donald Mdhluli.

“The site was said to be a training camp for a security company, but it is a military base by the looks of things,” he said, adding that the owner of the security company was a South African national. Police said the operation to arrest the Libyans and close down the camp began two days ago. Television footage from the scene showed a heavy police presence outside the suspected camp, which included green military-style tents and sandbags.

National police spokeswoman Athlenda Mathe said in a post on X that the Libyans said they were entering the country on study visas to train as security guards, but police investigations suggested they had received military training. It was not immediately clear whether the 95 individuals were affiliated to any group. Libya is still riven by conflict and civil war more than a decade after the 2011 NATO-backed overthrow of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

The country is divided between the internationally recognised government based in Tripoli and a rival administration in the east. “We categorically deny that the apprehended group is affiliated with our government or that we have any connection to their dispatch or assignment,” the government in Tripoli said on Friday, adding that it was monitoring the case. (Al Jazeera)…[+]

MARACAIBO –  The journey from the Venezuelan capital of Caracas to the coastal city of Maracaibo should only take about nine hours. For Maria Corina Machado, however, it took closer to 12.

Machado, a popular opposition leader, had hit the road in the final days of Venezuela’s presidential race to campaign on behalf of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the candidate hoping to unseat President Nicolas Maduro. But as she travelled between cities, Machado noticed government forces had blocked the roads. Gas stations were mysteriously closed along her route.

Machado has grown accustomed to such obstacles, though. As she explained at a news conference at her party headquarters in Maracaibo on July 24, she sees the obstructions as the last gasp of an authoritarian government struggling to maintain its grip on power. “This is a confession from a regime that knows it is defeated,” Machado said, as she cited yet another example: efforts to deny accreditation to citizens wishing to act as poll monitors.

“But just like we have overcome all these obstacles, we’re also going to overcome this one.”  On Sunday, Venezuelans head to the polls to vote for the presidency. But Maduro, the socialist president who has been in power since 2013, has struggled in the polls, trailing Gonzalez by wide margins. An opposition victory could bring nearly a quarter century of socialist rule to a close. Opposition leaders like Machado, however, warn that Maduro will not leave office without a fight. They anticipate the Maduro government will continue to sabotage their efforts — even if it means subverting democracy at the ballot box. (Al Jazeera)…[+]