Latest news with #Jabbour
Global News
7 days ago
- General
- Global News
Nova Scotia gardeners, homeowners endure Japanese beetle infestations
There's something bugging homeowners and gardeners across Nova Scotia this month, and it's not ticks. The Japanese beetle population has grown in recent years – decimating flowers and foliage all over Canada. Joanne Fancy says the pests have surrounded her Halifax-area property and are preying on her willow, maple and birch trees, as well as bordering vegetation. She's spent some $1,200 trying to get rid of them, including the use of professional extermination services. 'I'm not going to say kill, but they destroy the look of the landscaping. It's disheartening,' she said of the invasive beetles. View image in full screen A pair of Japanese beetles skeletonize a raspberry leaf, with many other leaves already damaged. Sharon Pfeifer / Global News Fancy isn't alone. Experts have been swarmed with questions from concerned landowners across the province. Story continues below advertisement 'This time of year, my phone is ringing off the hook. Every year it seems to be worse and worse,' said Paul Manning, an environmental sciences professor at Dalhousie University. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Many people have turned to Japanese Beetle traps. But local gardening expert, Niki Jabbour, says they have to be used properly or they could just add to the pest problems. 'Anybody who's got a trap in their yard will tell you it's full of Japanese beetles. But only about, you know, 75 per cent of the beetles will go in it,' she said. 'So you'll be attracting more beetles to your yard, but not trapping all of them.' 1:55 Vancouver takes on destructive Japanese Beetle If you do plan on using a trap, she recommends placing it as far away from your garden as possible. Story continues below advertisement 'The problem with these buckets or traps is that beetles are relatively clumsy fliers. So they can be attracted from a long way in, based on the smell,' added Manning. 'They can fly in, hit the bucket and then bounce out and end up feeding on something totally different.' Manning and Jabbour both say there's no need to shell out on expensive solutions. 'Something that doesn't involve buying anything that does help impact the overall population, is handpicking. So put on a pair of garden gloves, take a bucket of soapy water, you can add a little dash of vegetable oil to it as well,' said Jabbour. 'Grab (the bugs) with your gloved hand and throw them into the bucket of soapy water.' Manning adds it's a 'pretty humane way of killing them.' 'If you can do that once a day at around 5 to 7 (p.m.), that's something you can do to give your tree a fighting chance,' he said. — with a file from Rebecca Lau
Time of India
21-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Dubai expat builds mini Burj Khalifa using 2 million recycled chopsticks
Students at The Arbor School are helping build the structure by bundling chopsticks, auditing waste, and calculating its environmental impact/ Image courtesy:Khallej Times In a city known for its architectural audacity, one Dubai-based entrepreneur is taking sustainability to soaring new heights quite literally. Charles Jabbour, a Lebanese businessman with a deep-rooted passion for environmental innovation, is in the final stretch of constructing a six-metre-tall replica of the Burj Khalifa, made entirely from recycled bamboo chopsticks. But this is no quirky art installation. The project, dubbed the Burj Bambusa, is a carefully engineered symbol of how cities like Dubai can rethink waste and embrace the circular economy, one disposable utensil at a time. The Big Idea: Giving Chopsticks a Second Life Jabbour's vision was born not from a desire to impress, but to confront a quiet yet staggering reality: millions of disposable chopsticks are used and discarded in Dubai every week. He estimates that the two million chopsticks being used in this project represent roughly one week's worth of consumption across the city's restaurants. 'We are using close to two million chopsticks, which I believe is about the equivalent number used at restaurants in a week in Dubai,' Jabbour told Khaleej Times, a local news outlet. Rather than let that volume go to waste, Jabbour has been collecting these utensils from across the city for the past 18 months, working in partnership with well-known restaurant brands like The Noodle House, Wagamama, and Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo Staff at these venues help gather used chopsticks, which Jabbour's team later sanitises, processes, and repurposes. The scale of his ambition extends beyond this one project. Through his company, Art & Culture LLC, Jabbour operates a micro-factory in Dubai under the ChopValue franchise, a global circular economy venture based in Vancouver. There, discarded chopsticks are transformed into sleek, functional products such as tables, chopping boards, coasters, and even custom furniture, all through a carbon-neutral, community-based production model. 'As it currently stands, the majority of chopsticks in restaurants are used once and then thrown out,' he noted. 'This represents a tragic waste of resources, including wood, energy, and water, but also represents a great opportunity.' A School Project That's Bigger Than Education To bring his vision to life, Jabbour partnered with The Arbor School in Al Furjan, a progressive academic institution known for embedding sustainability and ecological literacy into its curriculum. The school, in collaboration with Jabbour's team, has named the project the Burj Bambusa, and students have been hands-on in nearly every phase of construction. From waste audits and structural design assessments to bundle preparation and environmental impact calculations, students, teachers, and parents alike have contributed to building the six-metre tower. The initiative has become a powerful educational tool, illustrating what can be achieved when environmental theory meets action. 'By getting the school involved, we can demonstrate to the next generation how an item with a very short lifespan, treated as waste by many, can still have an enduring new purpose,' Jabbour told Khaleej Times. The Arbor School has embraced the project not just as an exercise in construction, but as a full-circle lesson in circular design, resourcefulness, and collaboration, all cornerstones of a sustainable future. From Skyscraper to Side Table: A Lifecycle with Meaning Once completed, expected within three weeks of its May start, the structure won't simply stand as a temporary monument. Jabbour plans to relocate it briefly for public viewing, after which the same chopsticks will be dismantled and reprocessed into long-lasting products. 'There is a little bit of irony that these chopsticks will actually be around for longer now than they would have been for the purpose for which they were first designed,' Jabbour reflected. 'That is reassuring to know, and even better for the forests, our ecosystem, and the planet.' This sentiment strikes at the core of Jabbour's message: sustainability is not just about avoiding harm; it's about actively extending the life and value of everyday materials. His operations are currently geared toward diverting 250 tonnes of chopsticks annually from UAE landfills, an environmental intervention that's both measurable and meaningful. 'The project also shows the power of up-cycling,' Jabbour added, 'and how this imaginative and growing sector can develop not only attractive new products using items destined for landfill but also create jobs for those who wish to pursue a sustainable career direction.'
Medscape
12-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Emerging Treatment Strategies Benefit Older Adults With ALL
CHICAGO — Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) remains challenging to treat in older adult patients due to biological factors and poor treatment tolerance. But a variety of treatment approaches beyond chemotherapy-only regimens are making inroads in this challenging disease. That's the message Elias Jabbour, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, delivered during an educational session at American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2025. 'Our data show that 5-year overall survival (OS) for patients aged 65+ years remains less than 20, despite all the treatment advances we've seen in the past decade,' Jabbour told attendees. Referring to a review article he co-authored that was published recently in JAMA Oncology , Jabbour noted that these poorer outcomes are due to both disease characteristics and patient characteristics. Regarding disease characteristics, ALL in older adults is more likely to be of B-cell origin, with a greater co-expression of myeloid antigens. It may also have more adverse cytogenetic abnormalities, including Philadelphia positivity, t(4;11), low hypoploidy/near triploidy. It may also have less high hyperdiploidy, t(12;21), and normal karyotype. These traits make ALL in older adults more refractory to primary chemotherapy, Jabbour said. Patient characteristics that contribute to poorer outcomes in ALL include lower male to female ratio, reduced renal function, and a tendency to have worse mucositis. A history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is common, Jabbour said, noting the importance of establishing a baseline ejection fraction before beginning treatment. With an estimated past malignancy rate of 8%-16% in this population, these factors all combine to lead to more early deaths, Jabbour added. Jabbour noted that immunotherapies like blinatumomab and inotuzumab have shown promise, with similar response rates in older and younger patients. He summarized results from the trials that established immunotherapy as standard of care in relapsed or refractory ALL. Data published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 2017 showed that the median OS for patients in the blinatumomab group was 7.7 months vs 4.0 months for those in the standard chemotherapy group. More patients had a marrow complete response (CR) in the blinatumomab group than in the chemotherapy group, at 44% vs 25%. Data published in the NEJM in 2016 found that patients who received inotuzumab were more likely to have a marrow CR than those in the chemotherapy group (74% vs 31%). Jabbour also shared data from two studies that stratified patients by age. With blinatumomab, the overall response rate (ORR) was 56% in patients aged 65 years or older compared with 46% in patients younger than 65 years, according to data published in Cancer. Jabbour also shared data from one of his own trials published in Cancer that found that inotuzumab had an ORR of 81% in patients aged 55 years or older vs 80% in those younger than 55 years. 'Then, we asked if we could take these drugs to the frontline and spare the need for intensive chemotherapy for older patients and those with comorbidities,' Jabbour said. 'In 2010, we designed the mini-hyper-CVD regimen with significantly trimmed chemotherapy, then added inotuzumab. Subsequently we added blinatumomab as a consolidation approach and the 10-year follow-up data looked good.' Jabbour shared a list of seven teams of researchers currently testing frontline blinatumomab and inotuzumab combinations in newly diagnosed ALL in older adults. 'All are reporting promising results compared to historical data,' he said. 'We've made progress and survival of older patients is approaching 50% where historically were at 20% overall survival.' The next frontier has been to remove chemotherapy altogether, Jabbour said. 'As investigators, we have to make every effort to move into a chemotherapy-free approach for these vulnerable patients.' This chemotherapy-free approach combining blinatumomab and inotuzumab with TKIs has yielded encouraging results, Jabbour said. 'We know immunotherapies are better than chemotherapy; therefore, it's time to combine them with TKIs,' he said. 'We must prevent central nervous system (CNS) relapses because patients are living longer, and these CNS relapses are what's limiting our progress.' Jabbour highlighted the TKI ponatinib, noting that his and other groups have shown that the use of ponatinib has increased minimal residual disease (MRD)-negative CRs, as well as significantly increasing event-free survival. Ongoing trials are evaluating further optimizations, including integrating CAR T-cell therapy. 'We are measuring MRD by next-generation sequencing (NGS) at 10-6. If a patient is NGS MRD-negative, then we maintain the TKI and do not go for transplant,' Jabbour said. 'In patients who are NGS MRD-positive, we are offering them CAR T cells. If they become MRD-negative, we maintain the TKI; otherwise, we go for transplant.' That means, Jabbour said, that ALL has gone from a disease where transplant was the only way to cure patients to potentially being able to offer CAR T and the promise of finite therapy to these patients. 'We are walking away from chemotherapy because the combination of blinatumomab and a TKI are inducing survival at 4 years of 80%-90%,' he said. 'Moving forward, it's time to integrate immunotherapy fully into the frontline setting, along with bispecific antibody-drug conjugates and CAR T cells.' Jabbour noted that randomized studies are ongoing, with results expected by 2027. 'I hope we will then have a new standard of care for these patients,' he later told Medscape Medical News . Jabbour disclosed having relationships with AbbVie, Adaptive Biotechnologies, Amgen, Ascentage Pharma Group, Astellas Pharma, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Incyte, Pfizer, and Takeda.
The Age
31-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Woollahra's $10.6m failed sale offers a lesson in contract law
But behind the scenes, the $1.06 million deposit owed on the exchange was fast becoming a matter of contention given claims Jabbour's first cheque bounced, and the sale was later secured by a bank transfer of $100,000. That equates to less than 1 per cent of the purchase price. As Longhurst pursued his buyer for the outstanding amount, Gibson claimed she only became aware Jabbour had paid a fraction of the deposit until more than six weeks after the deal was due to settle, by which time they had already given Jabbour more time to finance her purchase, and the market had started its downward trajectory. Gibson further claims she enlisted Longhurst on a 1.1 per cent commission, but that he reduced that by $16,000 after he broke the non-disclosure agreement by emailing his database with the bullish sale price. The commission was never paid. The details behind the failed sale are set to be contested in the Supreme Court in coming months after Gibson launched legal proceedings in a bid to recoup her losses against Jabbour, Longhurst, and the agency's director, Michael Pallier. Like Longhurst, Jabbour declined to comment for this story, so it remains unknown why she didn't complete on the sale, although their defences in the matter have been lodged with the court. Pallier said he is included in the summons purely because he is the Sotheby's licensee, and had nothing to do with the sale. But Pallier did back his leading agent Longhurst, ranking him among Sotheby's – and Sydney's – top sales guns. Longhurst's own purchase of an almost $27 million home in Vaucluse recently made headlines in The Australian Financial Review, given it was the former home of Telstra executive director Maxine Brenner and her husband, founder Jodee Rich. Longhurst has form when it comes to selling high-end houses on a minimal deposit. Two years ago, he set a then-house price record in Paddington of $14 million when he sold the historic double terrace Brompton to Monte Carlo-based art adviser Richard Thompson. But Thompson never settled on the purchase, and the seller Jacqueline Bailey was left with less than a 5 per cent deposit and the need to move back into the house before she relisted it a year later. It eventually sold last September after what was ultimately a more than 18-month campaign, and for nearer to $12.5 million. The binding nature of a sale contract and the 10 per cent deposit that is owed (regardless of what is agreed as an initial deposit) was most famously laid bare by Hollywood star Toni Collette and her former husband, musician Dave Galafassi in 2011 when they exchanged to buy a Paddington terrace for $6.35 million. In Supreme Court proceedings that followed it was revealed that they later pulled out of the deal because they did not have the money. The sellers Industrie Clothing co-founders Nick and Susie Kelly later resold the house for $5.5 million, and sued Collette and Galafassi for the difference. The celebrity former couple not only had to forfeit their 10 per cent deposit, but more than $600,000 in damages.
Sydney Morning Herald
31-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Woollahra's $10.6m failed sale offers a lesson in contract law
But behind the scenes, the $1.06 million deposit owed on the exchange was fast becoming a matter of contention given claims Jabbour's first cheque bounced, and the sale was later secured by a bank transfer of $100,000. That equates to less than 1 per cent of the purchase price. As Longhurst pursued his buyer for the outstanding amount, Gibson claimed she only became aware Jabbour had paid a fraction of the deposit until more than six weeks after the deal was due to settle, by which time they had already given Jabbour more time to finance her purchase, and the market had started its downward trajectory. Gibson further claims she enlisted Longhurst on a 1.1 per cent commission, but that he reduced that by $16,000 after he broke the non-disclosure agreement by emailing his database with the bullish sale price. The commission was never paid. The details behind the failed sale are set to be contested in the Supreme Court in coming months after Gibson launched legal proceedings in a bid to recoup her losses against Jabbour, Longhurst, and the agency's director, Michael Pallier. Like Longhurst, Jabbour declined to comment for this story, so it remains unknown why she didn't complete on the sale, although their defences in the matter have been lodged with the court. Pallier said he is included in the summons purely because he is the Sotheby's licensee, and had nothing to do with the sale. But Pallier did back his leading agent Longhurst, ranking him among Sotheby's – and Sydney's – top sales guns. Longhurst's own purchase of an almost $27 million home in Vaucluse recently made headlines in The Australian Financial Review, given it was the former home of Telstra executive director Maxine Brenner and her husband, founder Jodee Rich. Longhurst has form when it comes to selling high-end houses on a minimal deposit. Two years ago, he set a then-house price record in Paddington of $14 million when he sold the historic double terrace Brompton to Monte Carlo-based art adviser Richard Thompson. But Thompson never settled on the purchase, and the seller Jacqueline Bailey was left with less than a 5 per cent deposit and the need to move back into the house before she relisted it a year later. It eventually sold last September after what was ultimately a more than 18-month campaign, and for nearer to $12.5 million. The binding nature of a sale contract and the 10 per cent deposit that is owed (regardless of what is agreed as an initial deposit) was most famously laid bare by Hollywood star Toni Collette and her former husband, musician Dave Galafassi in 2011 when they exchanged to buy a Paddington terrace for $6.35 million. In Supreme Court proceedings that followed it was revealed that they later pulled out of the deal because they did not have the money. The sellers Industrie Clothing co-founders Nick and Susie Kelly later resold the house for $5.5 million, and sued Collette and Galafassi for the difference. The celebrity former couple not only had to forfeit their 10 per cent deposit, but more than $600,000 in damages.
