Maldives becomes the first ever nation to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of three critical diseases.

The Republic of Maldives has become the first ever country to achieve the end of mother-to-child transmission of Hepatitis B, HIV, and Syphilis, according to a press release issued by the World Health Organization on 13 October 2025. Mother-to-child transmission of HIV and Syphilis in the country was achieved in 2019, with the conformation this month that mother-to-child transmission of Hepatitis B has been eliminated making the Maldives the world's first county to achieve 'triple-elimination' of these diseases.

A mother is using traditional Maldivian cooking utensils to prepare a meal for her children. Ibrahim Asad/WHO Maldives.

Maldives forms part of the WHO Southeast Asia Region, which (confusingly) also includes most South Asian countries, and is based in New Delhi. It is estimated that across this region, more than 24 000 pregnant women were infected with Syphilis, an and over 8000 babies were born with the congenital form of the disease. In the same year, more than 25 000 pregnant women received treatment to prevent them passing on HIV to their babies. Figures relating to mother-to-child transmission of Hepatitis B are not available, but more than 24 million people across the region are living with the disease.

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the Spirochaete Bacterium Treponema pallidum. The symptoms of Syphilis can be variable, and it can go through long periods of dormancy, making the disease difficult to diagnose without modern testing methods. Syphilis infection in pregnant women leads to a raised risk of miscarriage, and infants born with the disease are prone to physical deformities, damage to the liver and spleen, and neurological problems. Syphilis can be treated with a range of antibiotics, including penicillin, although the development of a vaccine has proved difficult.

Scanning electron microscope image of Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of Syphilis. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Wikimedia Commons.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, is a form of Lentivirus which causes infections in Humans, spread through sexual intercourse or exchange of blood. Notably, the Virus infects the cells of the Human immune system, where it is hard for that immune system to attack, and eventually leads to a breakdown of the immune system known as AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), during which the body becomes vulnerable to a wide range of infections, including many by micro-organisms which are not usually pathogenic. Untreated, HIV invariably leads to AIDS, and AIDS is invariably fatal, but, as with Syphilis, HIV infections can go through long phases of dormancy, leaving infected people unaware that they have the disease. Neither an effective vaccine nor a cure for HIV has yet been developed, however, it is possible to suppress the infection with a combination of anti-viral drugs, allowing patients to lead relatively normal lives, as long as their supply of antivirals is not interrupted. Children born to mothers with HIV are not automatically infected, as the Virus is usually unable to cross the placenta, but there is a high chance of infection during birth if the mother is not receiving treatment.

Scanning electron microscope image of an HIV virion. Hockley et al. (1988). 

Hepatitis B is Viral infection of Humans, primarily targeting the cells of the liver. It can be transmitted through sexual intercourse, blood-to-blood infections, or from mother-to-child during pregnancy. Hepatitis B is seldom fatal, but untreated it can cause recurring bouts of debilitating nausea, accompanied by jaundice, vomiting, stomach cramps, and exhaustion. Untreated Hepatitis B can leave patients vulnerable to cirrhosis and liver cancer, which can prove fatal. Not all people infected with Hepatitis B ever develop symptoms, though children born with the infection are both more prone to symptoms and more prone to severe symptoms. An effective vaccine has been available for Hepatitis B since 1991. Most adults infected with Hepatitis B fight of the infection on their own, although it can be treated with a range of anti-viral drugs.

Hepatitis B Virus cells. Graham Beards/Wikimedia Commons.

Maldives has achieved its 'triple elimination' through a combination of extensive free anti-natal care, testing for all three diseases, and vaccinations against Hepatitis B, with around 95% of pregnant women in the country thought to have been reached. These policies form part of a system of free universal healthcare for all residents of the islands, including migrants, with over 10% of the country's GDP being invested in healthcare. 

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Eris approaches opposition.

The dwarf planet 136199 Eris will reach opposition (i.e. be directly opposite the Sun seen from Earth) on Saturday 18 October 2025 at 7.10 am GMT. This means that it will both be at its closest to the Earth this year, about 94.64 AU (94.56 times the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, or about 14, 147 000 000 km), and completely illuminated by the Sun. While it is not visible to the naked eye observer, the planets have phases just like those of the Moon; being further from the Sun than the Earth, 136199 Eris is 'full' when directly opposite the Sun. 

The orbit and position of 136199 Eris at 7.00 am GMT on Saturday 18 October 2025. JPL Small Body Database Browser.

Although this coincides with a Waxing Cresent Moon, the prospects for viewing withough a very poweful telescope is not as good. The dwarf planet will be in the constellation of Cetus and at its highest point in the sky at about midnight local time from anywhere on Earth (this is because the rising and setting of objects in the sky is caused by the Earth's rotation, not the movement of the object). (Even at it's very brightest 136199 Eris will only have a Magnitude of 18.6, making it almost impossible to see with any but the largest of Earth-based telescopes, and where resolvable it will only be possible to see it as a point of light indistinguishable from a faint star.

136199 Eris orbits the Sun on an eccentric orbit tilted at an angle of 44.1° to the plane of the Solar System, which takes it from 35.9 AU from the Sun (35.9 times the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 97.5 AU from the Sun (97.5 times the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun. With an average distance of 67.74 AU, 136199 Eris completes one orbit around the Sun every 558 years. This means that the planet is almost stationary compared to the faster moving Earth, so that it reaches Opposition only four days later each year than the year before, and reaches Solar Conjunction (when it is directly on the opposite side of the Sun to the Earth), roughly six months later.

The orbit and position of 136199 Eris at 7.00 am GMT on Saturday 18 October 2025, showing the inclination of its orbit relative to that of the plain of the Solar System. JPL Small Body Database Browser.

136199 Eris was discovered on 5 January 2005 by a team led by Mike Brown of the Palomar Observatory in California. With a diameter of 2326 km it is considered to be the second largest dwarf planet in the Solar System (after 134340 Pluto) as well as the sixteenth largest body in the Solar System, excluding the Sun (though several moons, including our own, are larger). It is also the largest body in the Solar System never to have been visited by a spacecraft (again, with the exception of the Sun). 136199 Eris has a single moon, Dysnomia, which has a diameter of about 700 km and obits at a distance of about 37 350 km.

Labelled Hubble Space Telescope Image of 136199 Eris, showing its satellite Dysnomia. Captured on 12 June 2007. Mike Brown/NASA/European Space Agency/Wikimedia Commons.

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Flood at Venezuelan mine kills fourteen miners.

Fourteen miners are believed to have died in a flood at a the Cuatro Easquinas Gold Mine in El Callao in Venezuela on Sunday 11 October 2025. The event has been associated with heavy rains in the area, with local media reporting six hours of rain before the collapse, and caused the main shaft of the mine to collapse, trapping miners in three underground shafts. One miner who escaped reported a 'volcano of water' erupting in the mine, which suggests an underground breach from a flooded deposit. Rescue workers were forced to pump water out of the mine before entering, finding no survivors who had not escaped immediately.

Water being pumped from a mine in El Callao, Venezuela, following a flood on 12 October 2025. AP.

Gold mining is a major industry in Venezuela, but the sector is also notoriously lawless and exploitative, with few safety precautions in place in many mines, and miners often poorly paid and poorly educated. Rumours of forced labour are common, and attempts by law enforcement agencies to impose some order on the sector have been met with resistance, with many mines controlled by politicians, criminal groups, and even militants from neighbouring Colombia. From 2018 to 2023, and then from 2024 onwards, the US has placed an embargo on gold exports from Venezuela, as part of a wider set of economic sanctions against the country. However, this has led to further criminalisation of the sector, with production rates unaltered and a lucrative industry smuggling gold through other nations springing up.

Venezuela has a wet tropical climate with a rainy season that lasts from April 20 November, and flooding and other rainfall-related events are not uncommon. A warming global climate is leading to higher rainfall levels, with flooding and landslides becoming more common, placing strain on the country's already weak infrastructure. 

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Apis (Apis) aibai: A new species of Honeybee from the Early Pleistocene of Japan.

Honeybees, Apis spp., are important pollinators in modern ecosystems and agricultural settings, with one species, Apis mellifera being the world's most abundant domesticated Insect. There are nine described species of extant Honeybees, split into three genera, Cavity-nesting Honeybees Apis (Apis), Small Honeybees Apis (Micrapis), and Giant Honeybees Apis (Magaapis), although the Domestic Honeybee does not appear to fit into any of these, and may be a hybrid. Apis mellifera is found over a wide area of Asia, Africa, and Europe, but other extant species of Honeybee are restricted to tropical and subtropical areas of South and Southeast Asia, with the exception of Apis cerana, which has a range extending into temperate parts of East Asia. 

A number of Fossil Honeybee species have been described from the Oligocene and Miocene of Europe, East Asia, and North America, most of which are assigned to extinct subgenera. These include Apis (Cascapis) nearctica, Miocene, from Nevada, Apis (Priorapis) vetusta, Oligocene, Apis (Synapis) henshawi, Oligo-Miocene, and Apis (Cascapis) armbrusteri, Miocene, from Germany, Apis (Synapis) petrefacta, Oligocene, from Czechia, Apis (Synapis) miocenica, and Apis (Synapis) dalica, both Miocene, from China, Apis (Synapis) longtibia, and Apis (Megapis) lithohermaea, both Miocene, from Japan. Thus, of the three extant subgenera, only Apis (Megapis) has a fossil record, although phylogenetic reconstructions suggest that all three originated towards the end of the Eocene. A number of subfossil Honeybees are also known from Latest Pleistocene and Holocene deposits, all of which have been ascribed to living species.

In a paper published in the journal Zookeys on 13 October 2025, Yui Takahashi of the Keio Yochisha Elementary School, and Jun-ichi Takahashi of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Kyoto Sangyo University, describe a new species of Honeybee from the Early Pleistocene Teragi Group, of Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.

The Teragi Group comprises a series Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene lake deposits outcropping across eastern Tottori and northwestern Hyogo prefectures in southwestern Japan. The sedimentary deposits are interspersed with volcanic deposits, mostly from pyroclasic flows, the whole being contained within a volcanic collapse basin called the Teragi Cauldron. Fossils within this sequence come from the Haruki Mud, a series of sandstones and siltstones, with volcanic tuff layers, laid down between 2.8 and 2.2 million years ago. These deposits produce abundant Plant and Insect fossils, and although well known to fossil collectors, have not been extensively studied by scientists. An analysis of leaf fossils from the Haruki Mud suggests that the ancient lake was surrounded by temperate woodland.

Locality of the studied specimen. (A) Map of the Japanese Islands; (B) Distribution of the Teragi Cauldron between Tottori and Hyogo prefectures. (C) Simplified geological map of the Teragi Cauldron, representing the fossil locality; (D) Photo of the riverside fossil locality (35°29'39.41"N, 134°26'24.53"E), with whitish tuffaceous siltstones. Takahashi & Takahashi  (2025).

As with many Insect groups, it is possible to classify Bees entirely upon the venation of their wings, which has been shown to be a good proxy for taxonomic relationships. Based upon this, Takahashi and Takahashi feel confident in assigning the new species to subgenus level, identifying it as Apis (Apis) aibai, where 'aibai' honours the Japanese palaeontologist Hiroaki Aiba, who has studied the Umigami site from which the new fossil comes, and described a species of Nymphalid Butterfly from that site, for his contributions to Earth science education through the use of fossil collection activities.

Photographs of Apis (Apis) aibai (SOU-002). (A) Fossil-bearing piece (38.3 mm × 67.1 mm × 9.8 mm);  (B) Studied fossil reflecting dorsal view of SOU-002. Takahashi & Takahashi  (2025).

Apis (Apis) aibai is described from a single specimen, SOU-002, held in the collection of the Museum of  Unique Insect Fossils, in the town of Shin’onsen in Hyogo Prefecture. It is a middle-sized worker Honeybee preserved as a compression fossil with no counterpart. This specimen is 9.81 mm in length, but part of the head is missing, so it was probably about 10 mm long in life. 

Takahashi and Takahashi did not carry out a full phylogenetic analysis for Apis (Apis) aibai, but based upon its wing venation, they suggest that its closest known relative is probably Apis (Apis) nigrocincta, an extant species found in the Philippines and Indonesia. This suggests that the two species form a single clade (group of species with shared ancestry) which once had a wider distribution, including temperate Japan as well as the tropical regions of the Philippines and Indonesia. It has also previously been suggested that Apis (Apis) nigrocincta is the closest living relative of Apis cerana, the only native Honeybee species found in Japan today, suggesting that the three may form a single group.

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Magnitude 7.4 Earthquake off the coast of Mindanao Island, Philippines.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recorded a Magnitude 7.4 Earthquake at a depth of 23 km about 48 km to the northeast of  the town of Manay in Davao Oriental Province on Mindanao Island, Philippines, slightly before 9.45 am local time (slightly before 1.45 am GMT) on Friday 10 October 2025. At least seven people have been reported dead following the Earthquake, including a woman struck by falling debris and two patients who suffered heart attacks in hospitals. A large number of buildings have been damaged, including a hospital, and several hundred people are reported to have been injured. The event  was felt across the southeastern Philippines, and triggered a tsunami warning in parts of the Philippines and Japan, although in the event no major wave damage occurred. The initial event has been followed by a series of large aftershocks, some of which have had magnitudes in excess of 6.0.

The location of the 2 December 2023 Mindanao Earthquake. USGS.

The geology of the central Philippines is Complex. The west of Mindanao Island is located on the Banda (or Sunda) Microplate, and the east on the Philippine Plate, which is being subducted beneath the Sunda (or Banda) Microplate along the central part of the island. Immediately to the east of the Island the Pacific Plate is being subducted along the Philippine Trench, and passes beneath eastern Mindanao as it sinks into the Earth. This is not a smooth process, an the plates constantly stick together then break apart again as the pressure builds up, resulting in Earthquakes.

Subduction beneath the Philippines. Yves Descatoire/Singapore Earth Observatory.

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