Month: December 2022

British Nurses Set to Begin First-Ever Strike as Pay Dispute Deepens

National Health Service nurses in Britain will strike on Thursday in their first-ever national walkout as a bitter dispute with the government over pay ramps up pressure on already-stretched hospitals at one of the busiest times of year.

An estimated 100,000 nurses will strike at 76 hospitals and health centers on Thursday, canceling thousands of non-urgent operations, such as hip replacements, and tens of thousands of outpatient appointments in Britain’s state-funded NHS.

Britain is facing a wave of industrial action this winter, with strikes crippling the rail network and postal service, and airports bracing for disruption over Christmas.

Inflation running at more than 10%, trailed by pay offers of around 4%, is stoking tensions between unions and employers.

Of all the strikes though, it will be the sight of nurses on picket lines that will be the standout image for many Britains this winter.

“It is deeply regrettable some union members are going ahead with strike action,” health minister Steve Barclay said.

“I’ve been working across government and with medics outside the public sector to ensure safe staffing levels — but I do remain concerned about the risk that strikes pose to patients.”

Considered a national treasure

The widely admired nursing profession will shut down parts of the NHS, which since its founding in 1948 has developed national treasure status for being free at the point of use, hitting health care provision when it is already stretched in winter and with backlogs at record levels due to COVID delays

Barclay said patients should continue to seek urgent medical care and attend appointments unless they have been told not to.

The industrial action by nurses on Thursday and December 20 is unprecedented in the British nursing union’s 106-year history, but the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said it has no choice as workers struggle to make ends meet.

Nurses want a 19% pay rise, arguing they have suffered a decade of real-terms cuts and that low pay means staff shortages and unsafe care for patients. The government has refused to discuss pay.

The government in Scotland avoided a nursing strike by holding talks on pay, an outcome that the RCN had hoped for in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but Barclay is not budging.

The government has said it cannot afford to pay more than the 4-5% offered to nurses, which was recommended by an independent body, and that further pay increases would mean taking money away from frontline services.

The RCN has accused the government of “belligerence.” It said as late as Tuesday that the strikes could still be stopped if the government was prepared to negotiate.

Some treatments exempt from strike

Some treatment areas will be exempt from strike action the RCN has said, including chemotherapy, dialysis and intensive care.

Polling ahead of the nursing strike showed that a majority of Britains support the action, but once the walkouts are underway, politicians will be closely monitoring public opinion.

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Mars Rover Captures 1st Sound of Dust Devil on Red Planet

What’s a dust devil sound like on Mars? A NASA rover by chance had its microphone on when a whirling tower of red dust passed directly overhead, recording the racket.

It’s about 10 seconds of not only rumbling gusts of up to 25 mph (40 kph), but the pinging of hundreds of dust particles against the rover Perseverance. Scientists released the first-of-its-kind audio Tuesday.

It sounds strikingly similar to dust devils on Earth, although quieter since Mars’ thin atmosphere makes for more muted sounds and less forceful wind, according to the researchers.

The dust devil came and went over Perseverance quickly last year, thus the short length of the audio, said the University of Toulouse’s Naomi Murdoch, lead author of the study appearing in Nature Communications. At the same time, the navigation camera on the parked rover captured images, while its weather-monitoring instrument collected data.

“It was fully caught red-handed by Persy,” said co-author German Martinez of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.

A 1-in-200 chance

Photographed for decades at Mars but never heard until now, dust devils are common at the red planet. This one was in the average range: at least 400 feet (118 meters) tall and 80 feet (25 meters) across, traveling at 16 feet (5 meters) per second.

The microphone picked up 308 dust pings as the dust devil whipped by, said Murdoch, who helped build it.

Given that the rover’s SuperCam microphone is turned on for less than three minutes every few days, Murdoch said it was “definitely luck” that the dust devil appeared when it did on Sept. 27, 2021. She estimates there was just a 1-in-200 chance of capturing dust-devil audio.

Of the 84 minutes collected in its first year, there’s “only one dust devil recording,” she wrote in an email from France.

A helicopter named ‘Ingenuity’

This same microphone on Perseverance’s mast provided the first sounds from Mars — namely the Martian wind — soon after the rover landed in February 2021. It followed up with audio of the rover driving around and its companion helicopter, little Ingenuity, flying nearby, as well as the crackle of the rover’s rock-zapping lasers, the main reason for the microphone.

These recordings allow scientists to study the Martian wind, atmospheric turbulence and now dust movement as never before, Murdoch said. The results “demonstrate just how valuable acoustic data can be in space exploration.”

On the prowl for rocks that might contain signs of ancient microbial life, Perseverance has collected 18 samples so far at Jezero Crater, once the scene of a river delta. NASA plans to return these samples to Earth a decade from now. Ingenuity has logged 36 flights, the longest lasting almost three minutes.

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Hacker Claims Breach of FBI’s Critical-Infrastructure Forum 

A hacker who reportedly posed as the chief executive of a financial institution claims to have obtained access to the more than 80,000-member database of InfraGard, an FBI-run outreach program that shares sensitive information on national security and cybersecurity threats with public officials and private sector individuals who run U.S. critical infrastructure.

The hacker posted samples purportedly from the database to an online forum popular with cybercriminals last weekend and said the asking price for the entire database was $50,000. 

The hacker made the disclosures to independent cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs, who broke the story. The hacker called the vetting process surprisingly lax. 

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Krebs reported that the agency told him it was aware of a potential false account and was looking into the matter. 

InfraGard’s members include business leaders, information technology professionals, and officials of the military, state and local law enforcement, and the government who are involved in overseeing the safety of such things as the electrical grid, transportation, health care, pipelines, nuclear reactors, the defense industry, dams, water plants and financial services. Founded in 1996, it is the FBI’s largest public-private partnership, with local alliances affiliated with all its field offices. It regularly shares threat advisories from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and serves as a behind-closed-doors social media site for select insiders. 

The database has the names, affiliations and contact information of tens of thousands of InfraGard users. Krebs first reported its theft on Tuesday. 

The hacker, going by the username USDoD on the BreachForums site, said on the site that records of only 47,000 of the forum’s members — slightly more than half — include unique emails. The hacker also posted that the data contained neither Social Security numbers nor dates of birth. Although fields existed in the database for that information, InfraGard’s security-conscious users had left them blank. 

However, the hacker, according to Krebs, claimed to have been messaging InfraGard members, posing as the financial institution’s CEO, to try to obtain more personal data that could be criminally weaponized. 

The AP reached the hacker on the BreachForums site via private message. The person would not say whether a buyer for the records had been found or answer other questions, but did say that Krebs’ article “was 100% accurate.” 

The FBI did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on how the hacker was able to trick it into approving the InfraGard membership. Krebs reported that the hacker had included a contact email address under the person’s control, as well as the CEO’s real mobile phone number, when applying for InfraGard membership in November. 

Krebs quoted the hacker as saying InfraGard approved the application in early December and the email account was used to receive a one-time authentication code. 

Once inside, the hacker said, the database information was easy to obtain with simple software script.

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There’s Progress Eliminating Some American Indian Mascots, But Not All

Tolerance for Native American-themed sports mascots is wearing thin across the United States. New York is the latest state to ban them from public schools. Activists say conversations about the mascots — and respect and equality are long overdue. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. Cecily Hilleary and Lynn Davis contributed to this report.

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Ethiopians File Lawsuit Against Meta Over Hate Speech in War

Two Ethiopians have filed a lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, over hate speech they say was allowed and even promoted on the social media platform amid heated rhetoric over their country’s deadly Tigray conflict.

Former Amnesty International human rights researcher Fisseha Tekle is one petitioner in the case filed Wednesday and the other is the son of university professor Meareg Amare, who was killed weeks after posts on Facebook inciting violence against him.

The case was filed in neighboring Kenya, home to the platform’s content moderation operations related to Ethiopia. The lawsuit alleges that Meta hasn’t hired enough content moderators there, that it uses an algorithm that prioritizes hateful content and that it acts more slowly to crises in Africa than elsewhere in the world.

The lawsuit, also backed by Kenya-based legal organization the Katiba Institute, seeks the creation of a $1.6 billion fund for victims of hate speech.

A Facebook spokesman, Ben Walters, told The Associated Press they could not comment on the lawsuit because they haven’t received it. He shared a general statement: “We have strict rules which outline what is and isn’t allowed on Facebook and Instagram. Hate speech and incitement to violence are against these rules and we invest heavily in teams and technology to help us find and remove this content.” Facebook continues to develop its capabilities to catch violating content in Ethiopia’s most widely spoken languages, it said.

Ethiopia’s two-year Tigray conflict is thought to have killed hundreds of thousands of people. The warring sides signed a peace deal last month.

“This legal action is a significant step in holding Meta to account for its harmful business model,” said Flavia Mwangovya of Amnesty International in a statement pointing out that the Facebook posts targeting its former researcher and the professor were not isolated cases.

The AP and more than a dozen other media outlets last year explored how Facebook had failed to quickly and effectively moderate hate speech in cases around the world, including in Ethiopia. The reports were based on internal documents obtained by whistleblower Frances Haugen.

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Fraud Charges Unsealed in Arrest of Crypto Magnate Bankman-Fried

Law enforcement officials and financial services regulators have filed a raft of criminal and civil charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange company FTX, alleging wide-ranging fraud that eventually brought down the company, which was valued at $32 billion earlier this year.

The Department of Justice on Tuesday morning unsealed an indictment charging Bankman-Fried with eight criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, actual wire fraud, money laundering, and violation of laws governing donations to politicians and political parties.

At the request of U.S. prosecutors, Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested on Monday evening at his home in the Bahamas, where the headquarters of FTX is located. The U.S. and the Bahamas have an extradition treaty, and Bankman-Fried is expected to be transferred to U.S. custody in the near future.

‘House of cards’

Earlier Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued its own set of civil charges, also accusing Bankman-Fried of “years-long fraud” that included hiding information from investors, diverting customer funds to a hedge fund he owned, using other customer funds to make political donations, and to purchase hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate.

“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “The alleged fraud committed by Mr. Bankman-Fried is a clarion call to crypto platforms that they need to come into compliance with our laws.”

Also on Tuesday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a lawsuit against Bankman-Fried.

Rapid rise, rapid fall

In the short time since its founding in 2019, FTX grew to be one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, and Sam Bankman-Fried — often referred to as “SBF” — became one of the industry’s most recognizable figures. He was a regular speaker at business conferences, gave testimony before Congress, and was seen by many as a model cryptocurrency executive.

The list of investors who plowed billions of dollars into FTX is long and distinguished, including Sequoia Capital, SoftBank Group, Tiger Global Management, and Third Point Ventures.

Earlier this year, Bankman-Fried positioned his company as a savior for the broader crypto industry when a broad selloff of cryptocurrencies left many firms in the space reeling. FTX extended lines of credit to crypto lender BlockFi and crypto broker Voyager Digital in an effort to help them weather the storm. Both BlockFi and Voyager eventually filed for bankruptcy protection.

Signs of trouble

In September, news reports began raising questions about the relationship between FTX and Alameda Research, a hedge fund owned by Bankman-Fried which was supposed to be a completely separate corporate entity from FTX.

However, it gradually became clear that the two companies were actually closely connected. Media reports began to reveal that a large share of Alameda’s assets was tied up in an illiquid crypto token called FTT, which was issued by FTX. Over several days in early November, customers rushed to pull their money from accounts with FTX, sending the company into a massive liquidity crisis and forcing it to stop processing customer withdrawals.

After several days of attempts to arrange a rescue package, including a briefly considered sale of FTX to Binance, its largest competitor, FTX, Alameda, and more than 100 affiliated companies filed for bankruptcy.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department and the SEC alleged that Alameda actually had “virtually unlimited” access to funds held by FTX on behalf of its customers.

The charges against Bankman-Fried claim that Alameda illegally used those funds to invest in highly illiquid cryptocurrency tokens, as well as to make “undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations.”

Before its collapse, cryptocurrency investors around the world had placed billions of dollars in their accounts with FTX. In large part because of transfers to Alameda, FTX is facing an estimated shortfall of $8 billion.

‘I made a lot of mistakes’

Against the advice of his attorneys, Bankman-Fried has given a number of interviews to news organizations since his company declared bankruptcy. His contention has been that, while he may have made mistakes, he never intended to defraud anyone.

In early December, Bankman-Fried told The Wall Street Journal that he could not account for money that FTX customers transferred to Alameda Research.

In an appearance at a conference sponsored by The New York Times, he said, “Clearly I made a lot of mistakes. There are things I would give anything to be able to do over again. I did not ever try to commit fraud on anyone. I was excited about the prospects of FTX a month ago. I saw it as a thriving, growing business. I was shocked by what happened [in November.]”

His claims contradict the allegations leveled by prosecutors in the indictment unsealed Tuesday, which accuse Bankman-Fried of “willfully and knowingly” defrauding investors and customers.

‘Utter failure’ of controls

Last month, control of FTX and its constituent companies was turned over to John Ray III, an attorney and corporate insolvency specialist who has been brought on to manage multiple companies facing bankruptcy, including the failed energy giant Enron in the early 2000s. His primary task will be to assemble all the remaining assets of FTX in an effort to recover some of the money its customers lost in the exchange’s collapse.

Ray appeared at a hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, during which he described a company that lacked even the most basic corporate governance structures and was run by a small cabal ill-equipped for the job of running a multi-billion dollar corporation.

In prepared testimony, Ray said, “[N]ever in my career have I seen such an utter failure of corporate controls at every level of an organization, from the lack of financial statements to a complete failure of any internal controls or governance whatsoever.”

In the broadest sense, Ray said, the company’s failure was the result of the “absolute concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals who failed to implement virtually any of the systems or controls that are necessary for a company that is entrusted with other people’s money or assets.”

Under questioning, Ray said that the asset recovery process will take months to complete, and will not make FTX customers whole. “At the end of the day, we’re not going to be able to recover all the losses here,” he said.

The committee had also expected to hear from Bankman-Fried on Tuesday, but the FTX founder’s arrest on Monday made that impossible.

Lawmakers angry

The allegations of fraud and mismanagement at FTX have raised calls in Washington for action by Congress to rein in the cryptocurrency industry, which operates under a poorly defined set of regulatory rules.

House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters on Tuesday said that she was “deeply troubled” by the revelations coming out about FTX. At the same hearing, U.S. Representative Patrick McHenry, who will take over the chairmanship when Republicans assume control of the House next month, criticized Bankman-Fried but said that he still sees “promise” in digital assets.

Others were less tolerant of the industry, with Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat, calling the entire industry “a garden of snakes.”

Industry representatives urged lawmakers to tread carefully when it comes to establishing new rules for cryptocurrencies.

“Following the failure of FTX International, it’s understandable that lawmakers want to do something, but they should be wary of passing legislation in haste that would do more harm than good,” Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association, wrote on Monday. “Instead, Congress should take its time to investigate the issues we’ve seen and work closely with the crypto industry to find solutions that benefit everyone.”

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South African Researchers Develop New Method to Clean Mining-Polluted Water 

A South African researcher has developed a way to remove contaminants from water used in mining that could help clean up the dirty industry. The award-winning ion exchange method not only cleans the water but captures polluting metals that can then be re-purposed.

At a Johannesburg laboratory, researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand have developed a way to clean acid mine drainage (AMD).

AMD is the runoff of pollutants like sulfuric acid and heavy metals that secrete into waterways, affecting wildlife and rural mining communities.

AMD is often found at gold and coal mines, which are plentiful in South Africa.

Tamlyn Naidu is a post-doctoral research fellow involved in the project.

“What we wanted to do is minimize environmental impact for a lot of these communities that are afflicted by AMD. They have been born into mining communities, they work in mining communities, they’re either scared to report it or to complain about it, because this is their livelihood,” she said.

The ion exchange filtration system that Naidu and her colleagues have developed uses countless polystyrene beads, each the size of a pinhead, which the water passes through.

Unlike a coffee filter, which physically blocks coffee grounds from passing through with water, the beads grab the contaminants in the water chemically.

The passing water, which can be scaled up to clean 1,000 liters an hour, then comes out clear.

“This project though, does something extra. It also wants to extract from the water valuable materials. So what has been identified in some of these streams, especially coal mining streams, is that the acid that’s produced from the mine waters actually dissolves out some rare earth metals,” says Ed Hardwick, the owner of Cwenga Technologies, which is a partner in the research.

Rare earth metals are in huge demand globally because they can be used in new technology like electric vehicles. Being able to extract them adds a financial incentive to cleaning up AMD.

Naidu said she hopes this can empower communities by monetizing the extracted materials from the AMD.

“Ultimately, from this project, we want community members to be involved in something that’s easy for them to operate, that they can extract value from and start, you know, seeing the value that companies have been taking onto the land and taken away from them. And yeah, I guess adding to their quality of life,” she says.

A method to clean up AMD that can be monetized would be good news for the government and communities that are now burdened with the costly task.

“If this was going to be an incentive, it should be on the incentive of the state and that any monies that are obtained from the separation of those minerals that can be repurposed, that can be used, is then fed back into one rehabilitation, but also two, into creating sustainable economies for the communities that are impacted,” says Tarisai Mugunyani, an attorney with the Center for Environmental Rights in Johannesburg.

Researchers say they are hopeful their filtration system, which can be adapted to clean the unique chemistry of AMD at any site, will soon be adopted widely.

It has already gained international attention with Naidu taking the first prize for emerging talents breakthroughs at the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin last month.

Naidu said several companies in mining and technology sectors have contacted her about becoming involved.

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BTS Member Jin Begins Military Duty at Front-Line Boot Camp

Jin, the oldest member of K-pop supergroup BTS, began his 18 months of mandatory military service at a front-line South Korean boot camp Tuesday as fans gathered near the base to say goodbye to their star.

Six other younger BTS members are to join the military in coming years one after another, meaning that the world’s biggest boy band must take a hiatus, likely for a few years. Their enlistments have prompted a fierce domestic debate over whether it’s time to revise the country’s conscription system to expand exemptions to include prominent entertainers like BTS, or not to provide such benefits to anyone.

With lawmakers squabbling at Parliament and surveys showing sharply split public opinions over offering exemptions to BTS members, their management agency said in October that all members would perform their compulsory military duties. Big Hit Music said that both the company and the members of BTS “are looking forward to reconvening as a group again around 2025 following their service commitment.”

Jin, who turned 30 earlier this month, entered the boot camp at Yeoncheon, a town near the tense border with North Korea, for five weeks of basic military training together with other new conscript soldiers, the Defense Ministry said. After the training involving rifle shooting, grenade throwing and marching practices, he and other conscripts would be assigned to army units across the country.

About 20-30 fans — some holding Jin’s photos — and dozens of journalists gathered near the camp. But a vehicle carrying Jin moved into the camp without him getting out. The BTS official Twitter account later posted photos showing Jin with other members, likely at the camp, with a message saying: “Our bro!! Have a safe service!! Love you.”

One image showed smiling members touching Jin’s shaved head.

“I want to wait (for) Jin and see him go into the military and wish him all the best,” Mandy Lee from Hong Kong said before Jin’s entrance to the camp.

“Actually it’s complicated. I wanna be sad. I wanna be happy for him,” said Angelina from Indonesia. “Mixed feelings. He has to serve (for) his country.” Angelina, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.

A couple dozen fans could be seen as a small turnout given Jin’s huge popularity. But Jin and his management agency had earlier asked fans not to visit the site and notified them there wouldn’t be any special event involving the singer, in order to prevent any issue caused by crowding.

Authorities still mobilized 300 police officers, soldiers, emergency workers and others to maintain order and guard against any accidents. Strict safety steps were expected as South Korea is still reeling from the devastating Halloween crush in October in Seoul that killed 158 people. 

Jin — whose real name is Kim Seok-jin — wrote on the online fan platform Weverse earlier Tuesday that “It’s time for a curtain call.” He posted a photo of himself Sunday with a military buzz cut and a message saying, “Ha ha ha. It’s cuter than I had expected.”

By law, all able-bodied South Korean men must serve in the military for 18-21 months under a conscription system established to deal with threats from North Korea. But the law gives special exemptions to athletes, classical and traditional musicians, and ballet and other dancers if they have won top prizes in certain competitions and enhance national prestige. K-pop stars and other entertainers aren’t given such benefits even if they gain worldwide fame and win big international awards.

Jin had faced an impending enlistment because the law disallows most men from further delaying their military service after they turn 30.

“Those in the pop culture sector experience little bit of disadvantages and unfairness, compared with those in the pure art sector or athletes,” Jung Duk-hyun, a pop culture commentator, said. “This will likely continue to be an issue of controversy so I wonder if it must be discussed continuously.”

Exemptions or dodging of duties are a highly sensitive issue in South Korea, where the draft forces young men to suspend their studies or professional careers. Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup previously said it would be “desirable” for BTS members to fulfill their military duties to ensure fairness in the country’s military service.

Chun In-bum, a retired lieutenant general who commanded South Korea’s special forces, said the government must move to repeal any exemptions as the military’s shrinking recruitment pool is “a very serious” problem amid the country’s declining fertility rate.

BTS was created in 2013 and has a legion of global supporters who call themselves the “Army.” Its other members are RM, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook, who is the youngest at 25. The group expanded its popularity in the West with its 2020 megahit “Dynamite,” the band’s first all-English song that made BTS the first K-pop act to top Billboard’s Hot 100. The band has performed in sold-out arenas around the world and was even invited to speak at United Nations meetings. 

Hybe Corp., the parent company of Big Hit, said in October that each member of the band for the time being would focus on individual activities scheduled around their military service plans. In October, Jin released “The Astronaut,” a single co-written by Coldplay.

Jung, the commentator, said sold projects could give BTS members much-needed time to develop themselves after working together as a group for many years. But Cha Woo-jin, a K-pop commentator, said it’s unclear if BTS would enjoy the same popularity as a group when they get together again after finishing their military duties in a few years.

In August, Lee, the defense minister, said BTS members who are serving would likely be allowed to continue practicing and to join other non-serving BTS members in overseas group tours.

Cha said K-pop’s global influence wouldn’t be hurt much because of BTS members’ enlistments as they “appear to represent K-pop but aren’t everything of K-pop.” Chung agreed, saying that other K-pop groups like BLACKPINK, Stray Kids and Aespa could rise further. 

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DRC’s Conflict Displaced Struggle for Health Care

Fighting between the Democratic Republic of Congo’s military and rebels has since March displaced nearly 400,000 people, with most IDP camps in Nyiragongo territory, where health centers are struggling to cope. Ruth Omar Esther visited a medical center in Nyiragongo and has this report.

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New Zealand Imposes Lifetime Ban on Youth Buying Cigarettes

New Zealand on Tuesday passed into law a unique plan to phase out tobacco smoking by imposing a lifetime ban on young people buying cigarettes.

The law states that tobacco can’t ever be sold to anybody born on or after January 1, 2009.

It means the minimum age for buying cigarettes will keep going up and up. In theory, somebody trying to buy a pack of cigarettes 50 years from now would need ID to show they were at least 63 years old.

But health authorities hope smoking will fade away well before then. They have a stated goal of making New Zealand smoke-free by 2025.

The new law also reduces the number of retailers allowed to sell tobacco from about 6,000 to 600 and decreases the amount of nicotine allowed in tobacco that is smoked.

“There is no good reason to allow a product to be sold that kills half the people that use it,” Associate Minister of Health Dr. Ayesha Verrall told lawmakers in Parliament. “And I can tell you that we will end this in the future, as we pass this legislation.”

She said the health system would save billions of dollars from not needing to treat illnesses caused by smoking, such as cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and amputations. She said the bill would create generational change and leave a legacy of better health for youth.

Lawmakers voted along party lines in passing the legislation 76 to 43.

The libertarian ACT party, which opposed the bill, said many small corner stores, known in New Zealand as dairies, would go out of business because they would no longer be able to sell cigarettes.

“We stand opposed to this bill because it’s a bad bill and its bad policy, it’s that straightforward and simple,” said Brooke van Velden, ACT’s deputy leader. “There won’t be better outcomes for New Zealanders.”

She said the gradual ban amounted to “nanny-state prohibition” that would end up creating a large black market. She said prohibition never worked and always ended with unintended consequences.

The law does not affect vaping, which has already become more popular than smoking in New Zealand.

Statistics New Zealand reported last month that 8% of New Zealand adults smoked daily, down from 16% ten years ago. Meanwhile, 8.3% of adults vaped daily, up from less than 1% six years ago.

Smoking rates remain higher among Indigenous Māori, with about 20% reporting they smoked.

New Zealand already restricts cigarette sales to those aged 18 and over, requires tobacco packs to come with graphic health warnings and cigarettes to be sold in standardized packs.

New Zealand in recent years also imposed a series of hefty tax hikes on cigarettes.

The law change was welcomed by several health agencies. Health Coalition Aotearoa said the new law represented the culmination of decades of hard-fought advocacy by health and community organizations.

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Explainer: Why Fusion Could Be a Clean-Energy Breakthrough

The Department of Energy planned an announcement Tuesday on a “major scientific breakthrough” at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of several sites worldwide where researchers have been trying to develop the possibility of harnessing energy from nuclear fusion. 

It’s a technology that has the potential to one day accelerate the planet’s shift away from fossil fuels, which are the major contributors to climate change. The technology has long struggled with daunting challenges. 

Here’s a look at exactly what nuclear fusion is, and some of the difficulties in turning it into the cheap and carbon-free energy source that scientists believe it can be. 

What is nuclear fusion? 

Look up, and it’s happening right above you — nuclear fusion reactions power the sun and other stars. 

The reaction happens when two light nuclei merge to form a single heavier nucleus. Because the total mass of that single nucleus is less than the mass of the two original nuclei, the leftover mass is energy that is released in the process, according to the Department of Energy. 

In the case of the sun, its intense heat — millions of degrees Celsius — and the pressure exerted by its gravity allow atoms that would otherwise repel each other to fuse. 

Scientists have long understood how nuclear fusion has worked and have been trying to duplicate the process on Earth as far back as the 1930s. Current efforts focus on fusing a pair of hydrogen isotopes — deuterium and tritium — according to the Department of Energy, which says that particular combination releases “much more energy than most fusion reactions” and requires less heat to do so. 

How valuable would this be?

Daniel Kammen, a professor of energy and society at the University of California at Berkeley, said nuclear fusion offers the possibility of “basically unlimited” fuel if the technology can be made commercially viable. The elements needed are available in seawater. 

It’s also a process that doesn’t produce the radioactive waste of nuclear fission, Kammen said. 

How are scientists trying to do this? 

One way scientists have tried to recreate nuclear fusion involves what’s called a tokamak — a doughnut-shaped vacuum chamber that uses powerful magnets to turn fuel into a superheated plasma (between 150 million and 300 million degrees Celsius) where fusion may occur. 

The Livermore lab uses a different technique, with researchers firing a 192-beam laser at a small capsule filled with deuterium-tritium fuel. The lab reported that an August 2021 test produced 1.35 megajoules of fusion energy — about 70% of the energy fired at the target. The lab said several subsequent experiments showed declining results, but researchers believed they had identified ways to improve the quality of the fuel capsule and the lasers’ symmetry. 

“The most critical feature of moving fusion from theory to commercial reality is getting more energy out than in,” Kammen said. 

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Franco-US Satellite Set for Unprecedented Survey of Earth’s Water

A Franco-U.S. satellite is due for launch this week on a mission to survey with unprecedented accuracy nearly all water on Earth’s surface for the first time and help scientists investigate its impact on Earth’s climate.

For NASA and France’s space agency CNES, which have worked together in the field for 30 years, it’s a landmark scientific mission with a billion-dollar budget.

French President Emmanuel Macron went to NASA’s Washington headquarters at the end of November alongside U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.

He highlighted the liftoff — scheduled for early Thursday on the U.S. West Coast — of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission to monitor the levels of oceans, lakes and rivers, including in remote locations.

Its predecessor, TOPEX/Poseidon, launched in 1992, was also a Franco-U.S. joint venture that measured ocean surface to an accuracy of 4.2 centimeters (1.7 inches).

It aided the forecast of the 1997-1998 El Nino weather phenomenon and improved understanding of ocean circulation and its effect on global climate.

The 2.2-metric ton SWOT mission will be put into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The satellite’s primary payload is an innovative instrument to measure the height of water called KaRin, or Ka-band radar interferometer. Its two antennas, separated by a big boom, create parallel swaths of data.

“We’re going to get 10 times better resolution than with current technologies to measure sea-surface height and understand the ocean fronts and eddies that help shape climate,” said NASA Earth Science Division Director Karen St. Germain.

“It’s like looking at a car number plate from space when before we could only see a street,” added Thierry Lafon, SWOT project leader at the CNES.

The stakes are high. While the impact of major ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream is known, more local flows and eddies covering dozens of kilometers remain more of a mystery.

But they too affect sea water surface temperatures and heat transfer as well as the absorption by the oceans of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

SWOT will improve weather and climate modeling, the observation of coastal erosion and help track how fresh and saltwater bodies change over time.

With an “optimal” orbit of 890 kilometers (about 550 miles) above Earth, Lafon said SWOT will “take in all the components that affect water levels such as tides and the sun.”

NASA said SWOT will survey nearly all water on Earth’s surface for the first time.

It will monitor water levels, surface areas and quantities at more than 20 million lakes with shores of more than 250 meters. The entire length of rivers more than 100 meters wide will also be observed.

Water management, flood and drought prevention will be improved, said Lafon.

Flying the satellite to Vandenberg from the Thales Alenia Space (TAS) site in Cannes, southern France, proved a headache.

“Due to the conflict in Ukraine, there were no more Antonov 124s available, and the 747 cargo is too small,” said TAS project leader Christophe Duplay. “We decided to ask the [U.S. Air Force] to provide one of its C-5 Galaxies.”

And that meant counting on NASA to have the air force supply one of its rare giant aircraft to ship the huge payload.

SWOT has an estimated three-year lifetime — although Lafon said “nothing precludes the mission to last five to eight years” — and is set to become the first satellite to make a controlled reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, reducing the amount of space debris, in line with the French space operations act.

Nearly 80% of the 400 kilos (880 pounds) of onboard fuel will be used to that end.

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US to Announce ‘Breakthrough’ on Fusion Energy

The United States Department of Energy on Tuesday is expected to announce that its scientists have been able to engineer a nuclear fusion reaction that produced more energy than it consumed, a landmark achievement in a decadeslong search for a way to generate clean and waste-free nuclear power.

The pending announcement, first reported by the Financial Times and subsequently confirmed by other media organizations, will identify the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California as the site of the experiment.

On Monday, the department announced that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm would announce “a major scientific breakthrough” at a news conference Tuesday.

The announcement comes at a time when the Biden administration has directed renewed effort and funding to the development of clean power generation, with a particular emphasis on fusion energy. The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act contained significant funding for research in the field.

Just because scientists have been able to engineer an energy-positive fusion reaction does not mean that any meaningful changes to the way humans generate power are on the horizon. Experts said that while the work is important, daunting technological barriers remain in the way of systems that could deploy fusion energy at scale.

A long journey

Scientists have long known that when two atoms are fused together to form a new element, large amounts of energy are released. The sun, for example, is essentially an enormous fusion reactor in which superheated particles come together with tremendous force, forming new particles and releasing excess energy as heat.

As long ago as the 1940s, scientists began experimenting with fusion reactors. While they have long been able to generate fusion reactions, until now, those reactions have always required inputs of energy that exceeded the amount they ultimately produced.

The reason a net-positive fusion reaction has been so elusive is in large part because scientists have to generate extreme conditions in the laboratory in order to make the reactions occur. Typically, enormous lasers are used to heat isotopes of hydrogen to temperatures in the millions of degrees Celsius. The resulting plasma is then confined under extremely high pressure, causing the isotopes to come together with enough force that they fuse into a different element, releasing energy as heat when they do.

An important element of the announcement on Tuesday will be the way in which the government defines a “net positive” energy result. Typically, that means that the reaction being measured produced more energy than the laser beams directed at the hydrogen. However, the lasers used in the experiment are far from perfectly efficient, meaning that it takes more energy to power them than they ultimately bring to bear on their targets.

For a fusion reaction to be “net positive” in the sense of generating more energy than the total energy put into the experiment — including waste — the reaction would have to produce substantially more energy than that consumed by the laser beams directed at the hydrogen.

Enormous engineering challenges

Maintaining equipment that can tolerate such extreme temperatures is extraordinarily difficult, and finding a way to create reactors that can tolerate the stresses involved in the process for long periods of time is one of the many challenges facing researchers in the field.

Ian H. Hutchinson, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that it was important not to read too much into preliminary reports, noting that prior to the official announcement few details of what, precisely, the scientists at the NIF have achieved was known.

“It seems an important scientific confirmation of inertial fusion ignition, but I would hesitate to call it a ‘breakthrough,’” Hutchinson said in an email exchange with VOA. “The NIF program is not aimed at fusion energy production but at understanding fusion explosions. Useful energy production from miniature fusion explosions still faces enormous engineering challenges, and we don’t know if those challenges can be overcome.”

The NIF is most closely associated with the United States’ nuclear weapons program, and its primary purpose is to recreate nuclear explosions on a small and controllable scale, allowing for the maintenance of the country’s nuclear arsenal without the need for destructive full-scale testing.

Benefits of fusion

There are several reasons why scientists have spent so many years in search of a means of making fusion reactors viable sources of energy.

If fusion reactors were to replace fossil fuels as an energy source, it would dramatically reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, reducing one source of global warming.

Unlike fission reactors, which use highly enriched radioactive materials like uranium and plutonium as fuel, fusion reactors can theoretically be fueled by hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, meaning that the fuel supply for a fusion reactor is essentially infinite.

Also, unlike fission reactors, fusion reactors do not produce highly radioactive waste, eliminating the need to safely store materials that will continue to be dangerous, in some cases, for thousands of years.

Finally, despite the extreme conditions under which fusion occurs, fusion reactors are considered to be safer to operate than fission reactors, which must be constantly monitored in order to avoid conditions leading to destabilization and explosion. In the two worst nuclear disasters in history, explosions at nuclear facilities at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union in 1986 and at Fukushima in Japan in 2011 forced the evacuation of thousands of people and rendered vast expanses of both countries uninhabitable.

 

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Kawananakoa, ‘Last Hawaiian Princess,’ Dies at 96 

Abigail Kinoiki Kekaulike Kawananakoa, the so-called last Hawaiian princess whose lineage included the royal family that once ruled the islands and an Irish businessman who became one of Hawaii’s largest landowners, died on Sunday. She was 96.

Her death was announced Monday morning at ‘Iolani Palace, America’s only royal residence where the Hawaiian monarchy dwelled but now serves mostly as a museum. The announcement came from Paula Akana, executive director of Iolani Palace, and Hailama Farden of Hale O Na Ali’i O Hawaii, a royal Hawaiian society.

No cause of death was given.

She held no formal title but was a living reminder of Hawaii’s monarchy and a symbol of Hawaiian national identity that endured after the kingdom was overthrown by American businessmen in 1893.

“She was always called princess among Hawaiians because Hawaiians have acknowledged that lineage,” Kimo Alama Keaulana, assistant professor of Hawaiian language and studies at Honolulu Community College, said in a 2018 interview. “Hawaiians hold dear to genealogy. And so genealogically speaking, she is of high royal blood.”

He called her “the last of our alii,” using the Hawaiian word for royalty: “She epitomizes what Hawaiian royalty is – in all its dignity and intelligence and art.”

James Campbell, her great-grandfather, was an Irish businessman who made his fortune as a sugar plantation owner and one of Hawaii’s largest landowners.

He married Abigail Kuaihelani Maipinepine Bright. Their daughter, Abigail Campbell Kawananakoa, married Prince David Kawananakoa, who was named an heir to the throne.

After the prince died, his widow adopted young Abigail, which strengthened her claim to a princess title. She acknowledged in an interview with Honolulu Magazine in 2021 that had the monarchy survived, her cousin Edward Kawananakoa would be in line to be the ruler, not her.

“Of course, I would be the power behind the throne, there’s no question about that,” she joked.

As an only child of an only child, Kawananakoa received more Campbell money than anyone else and amassed a trust valued at about $215 million.

She funded various causes over the years, including scholarships for Native Hawaiian students, opposing Honolulu’s rail transit project, supporting protests against a giant telescope, donating items owned by King Kalakaua and Queen Kapi’olani for public display, including a 14-carat diamond from the king’s pinky ring, and maintaining Iolani Palace.

Critics have said because there are other remaining descendants of the royal family who don’t claim any titles, Kawananakoa was held up as the last Hawaiian princess simply because of her wealth and honorific title.

Hawaiian activist Walter Ritte said many Hawaiians aren’t interested in whether she was a princess and that her impact on Indigenous culture was minimal.

“We didn’t quite understand what her role was and how she could help us,” Ritte said.

Many Hawaiians couldn’t relate to her, he said. “We call it the high maka-maks,” he said using a Hawaii Pidgin term that can mean upper class.

Born in Honolulu, Kawananakoa was educated at Punahou, a prestigious prep school. She also attended an American school in Shanghai and graduated from the all-female Notre Dame High School in Belmont, California, where she was a boarding student.

She was engaged briefly to a man, but most of her long-term relationships were with women.

“She was always curious about what people would do for money,” said Jim Wright, who was her personal attorney since 1998 until she fired him in 2017 during a bitter court battle over control of her trust.

He recalled a time when the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu asked for a $100,000 gift to mark the canonization of St. Marianne. She told him she would give the church the money only if she could get a photo of Pope Benedict XVI accepting her check, Wright said.

When the bishop agreed, Kawananakoa was disappointed. “She was really hoping they would tell her to buzz off,” Wright said.

Meanwhile, she found the Dalai Lama’s refusal to accept her monetary gifts in 2012 pleasing, Wright said: “She was so pleased that somebody actually had some integrity.”

One of her passions was breeding racehorses.

She was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2018, with the American Quarter Horse Association noting she was the industry’s “all-time leading female breeder at the reins of an operation that has produced the earners of more than $10 million.”

One of her horses, A Classic Dash, won $1 million in 1993 in New Mexico’s All-American Futurity.

Aside from drawing attention with her racehorses, Kawananakoa gained notoriety when she sat on an Iolani Palace throne for a Life magazine photo shoot in 1998. She damaged some of its fragile threads.

The uproar led to her ouster as president of Friends of Iolani Palace, a position she had held for more than 25 years.

The battle over control of her trust began when a judge approved Wright as a trustee after she suffered a stroke. She claimed she wasn’t impaired, fired Wright and married Veronica Gail Worth, her partner of 20 years.

Court filings in the case alleged the wife physically abused Kawananakoa. Attorneys for the couple disputed the claims.

In 2018, Kawananakoa attempted to amend her trust to ensure that her wife would receive $40 million and all her personal property, according to court records.

In 2020, a judge ruled that Kawananakoa was unable to manage her property and business affairs because she was impaired.

For hearings in the case, her wife would drive them to a handicapped stall near the back entrance of a downtown Honolulu courthouse in a black Rolls Royce.

“My wife? Oh, wifey,” she said in a video interview her publicist released in 2019 to respond to allegations raised in the court case, including how her wife was treating her. “If it wasn’t for Gail, I wouldn’t be as normal as you see me now,” she said in the video showing her coiffed hair, made-up face and red manicure.

It was “heartbreaking,” she said, to be unable to fulfill her obligation to the Hawaiian people amid legal wrangling over her trust.

“My heritage dictates that I must take care of the Hawaiian people,” she said during one court hearing.

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Golden Globe Nominations Led by ‘Banshees,’ ‘Everything Everywhere’

After scandal and boycott plunged the Hollywood Foreign Press Association into disarray and knocked its annual award show off television for a year, the Golden Globes geared up Monday for its return by showering nominations on “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Everything Everywhere all at Once.”

The nominations were read by father-daughter duo George and Mayan Lopez on NBC’s “Today” morning show. The nominees for best film, drama, are: “The Fabelmans,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Elvis,” “Tar” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

The nominees for best film, comedy or musical, are: “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” “Babylon” and “Triangle of Sadness.”

Martin McDonagh’s feuding friends tale “The Banshees of Inisherin” led all films with eight nominations. The madcap metaverse film “Everything Everywhere all at Once” came in second with six nominations.

Among the nominees for best actor in a drama is Brendan Fraser. Fraser has said he won’t attend the Globes after he said he was groped in 2003 by Philip Berk, a longtime HFPA member and former president of the organization.

The Globes will be telecast January 10, with stand-up comedian Jerrod Carmichael hosting.

The Globes are trying to mount a comeback this year. A Los Angeles Times investigation in early 2021 found that the group then had no Black members, a revelation compounded by other allegations of ethical improprieties. Many stars and studios said they would boycott the show. Tom Cruise returned his three Globes.

NBC last year canceled the telecast that would have taken place this past January. Instead, the Golden Globes were quietly held in a Beverly Hilton ballroom without any stars in attendance. Winners were announced on Twitter.

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France to Offer Free Condoms for Those 25 and Younger

French President Emmanuel Macron says free condoms will be available in pharmacies for any adult up to the age of 25 starting next year.

The new measure comes as the rate of sexually transmitted diseases and inflation are both on the rise in France.

Originally, Macron announced that the condoms would be available to people between the ages of 18 to 25, but he was challenged on social media about not making the condoms available to minors and he decided to expand the program to anyone up to the age of 25. 

Girls and women already receive free birth control in France. 

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.

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EXPLAINER-UN Nature Summit Puts Industry on Alert to Disclose More

Industry executives have joined activists and negotiators from nearly 200 countries at this month’s U.N. nature summit in Montreal, where negotiations on a global pact to protect nature could lead to tougher disclosure requirements for businesses.

Sectors such as mining, agriculture, oil and fashion are under scrutiny at the COP15 talks, due to their heavy impact on nature with activities that can contaminate soil, foul waterways or pollute the air.

As negotiators work to agree on conservation targets by the summit’s scheduled end on December 19, momentum is building for a measure to require businesses to disclose their harm to the environment.

The measure, as currently drafted, would also ask companies to halve those negative impacts by 2030, which could mean additional costs for businesses, said Franck Gbaguidi, senior analyst for energy, climate and resources at the Eurasia Group risk advisory.

But a weak deal without global agreement on how businesses should behave could also raise company costs — by opening the door to a global patchwork of different biodiversity regulations and requirements that makes compliance more difficult, Eurasia Group said in a policy statement.

Here is a look at how key sectors could be affected by the COP15 talks:

Fashion/Retail

Fashion and retail are facing pressure from consumers and governments to reduce waste and emissions throughout their operations.

For them, a strong deal that forces all companies to report any harm would work toward assuaging some consumer concerns.

In a letter to world governments in October, more than 330 companies including Swedish fashion giant H&M Group, furniture maker IKEA, British pharmaceutical and biotech company GSK and Switzerland’s Nestle came out in support of a COP15 deal that includes mandatory disclosure of companies’ environmental impacts by 2030.

Smaller companies with limited resources for monitoring and accounting could find a disclosure requirement more challenging.

Mining

For companies mining metals and coal, an environmental disclosure requirement could force companies to reveal the impacts not just from the blasting and drilling they do on site, but also from the logging and deforestation carried out in creating access roads.

Mining companies are also concerned about the central goal of the COP15 talks — to set aside 30% of Earth’s land and ocean areas for conservation by 2030. That could cut into areas rich with resources for extraction.

“There are going to be some places which are just going to be ‘no go areas’, and that can be hard for the mining sector,” said Aimee Boulanger, executive director of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance.

The International Council on Mining and Metals, which represents 26 of the world’s largest mining companies, would back a deal that sets “a level playing field” with uniform rules in all regions, said the group’s chief executive, Rohitesh Dhawan.

Agriculture

With new disclosure rules, the farming sector would face an increased burden of reporting on activities like land clearing and pesticide use.

Hefty reporting obligations could burden smaller farms and ranches, some industry groups warned.

“A lot of our producers are family businesses,” said Larry Thomas, manager environment and sustainability with the Canadian Cattle Association.

The agriculture sector will likely escape a separate proposed goal to slash pesticide in half, said the Eurasia Group analyst Gbaguidi, following opposition from developing countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay due to food shortages and higher prices.

“Because of the food crisis, a lot of emerging markets are just not as open as they would have been on setting bold targets related to the agricultural sector,” Gbaguidi said.

Oil

Following COP15, oil companies are expected to ramp up their internal resources for reporting on and disclosing how oil drilling and exploration activities impact nature as well, Gbaguidi said.

The American Petroleum Institute did not respond to a request for comment on the COP15 talks.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said the country’s oil and natural gas industry wants to minimize marine and land disturbances, while also quickly restoring lands degraded by their operations to natural landscapes, CAPP spokesperson Jay Averill said.

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US Teases ‘Major’ Science News Amid Fusion Energy Reports

The U.S. Department of Energy said Sunday it would announce a “major scientific breakthrough” this week, after media reported a federal laboratory had recently achieved a major milestone in nuclear fusion research.

The Financial Times reported Sunday that scientists in the California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) had achieved a “net energy gain” from an experimental fusion reactor.

That would represent the first time that researchers have successfully produced more energy in a fusion reaction — the same type that powers the Sun — than was consumed during the process, a potentially major step in the pursuit of zero-carbon power.

Energy Department and LLNL spokespeople told AFP they could not comment or provide confirmation regarding the FT report, but said US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm would “announce a major scientific breakthrough” on Tuesday.

The LLNL spokesperson added that their “analysis is still ongoing.”

“We look forward to sharing more on Tuesday when that process is complete,” she said.

The fusion reaction that produced a 120 percent net energy gain occurred in the past two weeks, the FT said, citing three people with knowledge of the preliminary results.

The Washington Post later reported two people familiar with the research confirmed the development, with a senior fusion scientist telling the newspaper, “To most of us, this was only a matter of time.”

Nuclear fusion is considered by some scientists to be a potential energy of the future, particularly as it produces little waste and no greenhouse gases.

“If this fusion energy breakthrough is true, it could be a game changer for the world,” tweeted Ted Lieu, a member of Congress from California.

Fusion differs from fission, the technique currently used in nuclear power plants, by fusing two atomic nuclei instead of splitting one.

The LLNL fusion facility consists of almost 200 lasers the size of three football fields, which bombard a tiny spot with high levels of energy to initiate a fusion reaction.

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‘Tár,’ ‘Everything Everywhere’ Tie for LA Critics’ Top Award

Todd Field’s symphonic backstage drama “Tár” and the existential comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once” tied for top honors with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in awards announced Sunday. 

The critics group opted to split its best film award between the two acclaimed films. “Tár,” which was also chosen as best film by the New York Film Critics Circle, cleaned up in other categories as well. Field won for both directing and screenplay, and Cate Blanchett, who stars as an internationally renowned conductor, won best lead performance. The critics, who don’t separate award by gender, also gave best lead performance to Bill Nighy for the “Ikiru” remake “Living.” 

“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the madcap metaverse movie from Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, also picked up an award for Ke Huy Quan, for supporting performer. The former child star added to his rapidly increasingly awards haul for his lauded comeback performance. The other supporting performer winner was Dolly de Leon from Ruben Östlund’s class satire “Triangle of Sadness.” 

Other winners from LAFCA included Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio” for best animation; Jerzy Skolimowski’s “EO” for best non-English language film; and Laura Poitras’ “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” for best documentary. 

The critics will hand out their awards at a gala on January 14. The French filmmaker Claire Denis was previously announced as the recipient of the group’s career achievement award. Last year, the LAFCA awarded Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” best film. 

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Golden Globes to Unveil Nominations as Censured Awards Eye Comeback

Boycotted by A-listers and studios last year, the Golden Globes will attempt to rebuild their reputation as one of Hollywood’s top award shows with organizers unveiling this year’s nominees on Monday.   

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which organizes the film and television awards, has scrambled to reform itself since long-harbored criticisms of the group’s practices went public in early 2021.   

Tinseltown completely distanced itself from the Globes last January over voters’ lack of diversity, alleged corruption and lack of professionalism, and the show took place behind closed doors.   

But broadcaster NBC has gambled that it is time to bring back the glitzy gala, which will take place in Beverly Hills on January 10.  

Tinseltown is waiting to see which stars will show up. Much of that will depend on who is nominated.   

Tom Cruise and Brendan Fraser are both seen as strong contenders this awards season for their lead roles in “Top Gun: Maverick” and “The Whale,” respectively.   

But Cruise last year returned his three Golden Globes to the HFPA in protest at its behavior, and Fraser has said he will not attend the awards if he is nominated.    

“It’s because of the history that I have with them. And my mother didn’t raise a hypocrite,” Fraser told GQ last month.   

Fraser has alleged that a former HFPA president, Philip Berk, sexually assaulted him at an industry event in 2003. Berk denies the incident and has since been expelled from the group for calling Black Lives Matter a “racist hate movement.”   

In response to last year’s controversy, HFPA expanded its voting body to include people with more diverse backgrounds, banned members from accepting gifts, and halted its in-person press conferences with stars, which were often derided for the improper behavior of some members.   

“This is really not the old HFPA anymore,” President Helen Hoehne recently told The Hollywood Reporter.   

“I respect Brendan Fraser’s decision. … And I personally, sincerely hope there’s a way for us to move forward and we are able to regain Mr. Fraser’s trust, along with the trust of the entire entertainment community,” she added.’   

Still, powerful Hollywood publicists remain divided over the Globes, with some expressing skepticism about the reforms — and a reluctance to return to the event with their stars.   

A plan by U.S. billionaire Todd Boehly to spin off the awards show into a for-profit entity and pay salaries to members has raised eyebrows. 

The Golden Globes honor both film and television. Unlike the Oscars, the show divides its movies into “drama” and “comedy or musical” categories — hence boosting the star power by increasing the number of nominees.   

Steven Spielberg’s deeply personal “The Fabelmans” is widely seen as the drama frontrunner.   

Other contenders include Cruise’s long-awaited “Top Gun” sequel, Baz Luhrmann’s rock-and-roll biopic “Elvis,” and “Women Talking,” a book adaptation about sexual abuse in a religious colony.   

“Everything Everywhere All At Once,” Michelle Yeoh’s highly original sci-fi set in a tax office, which became a word-of-mouth hit early in the year, is tipped in the comedy film categories.    

So are star-studded whodunnit sequel “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” and Irish black comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin.” 

Fraser and Austin Butler, the 31-year-old actor who plays Presley in “Elvis,” are expected to land drama acting nominations, as is Cate Blanchett as a ruthless classical conductor in “Tar.” 

On the comedy side, Yeoh and “Banshees” star Colin Farrell are among the favorites.   

“Lopez vs. Lopez” stars George Lopez and Mayan Lopez will present the nominations for the 80th Golden Globes on NBC’s “Today” program from 1335 GMT Monday. 

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Indonesia Balancing Climate, Energy Needs in Effort to Reduce Coal Use

One of the challenges of fighting climate change is balancing the need to shift to cleaner sources of energy in the future with the need to keep the lights on in the here and now. It’s no different for Indonesia, with its rapidly growing economy, as VOA’s Yuni Salim explains in this report narrated by Nova Poerwadi.

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NASA’s Orion Capsule Blazes Home From Test Flight to Moon 

NASA’s Orion capsule made a blisteringly fast return from the moon Sunday, parachuting into the Pacific off Mexico to conclude a test flight that should clear the way for astronauts on the next lunar flyby.

The incoming capsule hit the atmosphere at Mach 32, or 32 times the speed of sound, and endured reentry temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) before splashing down west of Baja California near Guadalupe Island. A Navy ship quickly moved in to recover the spacecraft and its silent occupants — three test dummies rigged with vibration sensors and radiation monitors.

NASA needed a successful splashdown to stay on track for the next Orion flight around the moon, currently targeted for 2024. Four astronauts will make the trip. That will be followed by a two-person lunar landing as early as 2025.

Astronauts last landed on the moon 50 years ago Sunday. After touching down on Dec. 11, 1972, Apollo 17’s Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent three days exploring the lunar surface, the longest stay of the Apollo era. They were the last of the 12 moonwalkers.

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