Month: March 2023

Microplastic Pollution Impairs Seabird Gut Health

Scientists have long known that wild seabirds ingest bits of plastic pollution as they feed, but a new study Monday shows the tiny particles don’t just clog or transit the stomach but can subvert its complex mix of good and bad bacteria, too.

Plastic-infested digestive tracts from two species of Atlantic seabirds, northern fulmars and Cory’s shearwaters, showed a decrease of mostly beneficial “indigenous” bacteria and more potentially harmful pathogens.

There was also an increase in antibiotic-resistant and plastic-degrading microbes, researchers reported in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

The findings suggested that certain types of microplastic may be leeching chemicals that disrupt the birds’ so-called gut microbiome.

Microplastics — produced when plastic products break down in the environment — are directly and indirectly ingested across most animal food chains.

They can be found in every corner of the world, from the deepest trenches of oceans to the top of Mount Everest.

In humans, they have been detected in the blood, breast milk and placentas.

The new study supports previous findings that prolonged ingestion of microplastics causes an imbalance of healthy and unhealthy bacteria in the stomach, a condition known as gut dysbiosis.

The implications are far-reaching.

Like humans, birds have evolved with a vast network of microbes, including bacteria, that live in our bodies in communities called microbiomes.

Some microbes cause diseases, but most exist as “friendly” bacteria with a critical role in digestion, immune response and other critical functions.

“There’s a symbiosis that goes on — and that’s the case in the seabirds as well as in humans,” lead author Gloria Fackelmann of Ulm University in Germany told AFP.

Little is known about the effects of individual microbes on the body.

But overall, a growing body of research points to the harmful impacts of microplastics on animal health.

The tiny particles — less than 5 millimeters in diameter — can cause cell death and allergic reactions in humans.

Chemicals in microplastics have also been linked to increased risks of cancer, reproductive problems and DNA mutations.

The authors hope the findings in seabirds will spur related studies for humans.

“If this man-made substance could alter our microbiome, I think that should make people think,” said Fackelmann.

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Twitter Celebs Balk at Paying Elon Musk for Blue Check Mark

William Shatner, Monica Lewinsky and other prolific Twitter commentators — some household names, others little-known journalists — could soon be losing the blue check marks that helped verify their identity on the social media platform. 

They could get the marks back by paying up to $11 a month. But some longtime users, including 92-year-old Star Trek legend Shatner, have balked at buying the premium service championed by Twitter’s billionaire owner and chief executive Elon Musk. 

After months of delay, Musk is gleefully promising that Saturday is the deadline for celebrities, journalists and others who’d been verified for free to pony up or lose their legacy status. 

“It will be glorious,” he tweeted Monday, in response to a Twitter user who noted that Saturday is also April Fools’ Day. 

After buying Twitter for $44 billion in October, Musk has been trying to boost the struggling platform’s revenue by pushing more people to pay for a premium subscription. But his move also reflects his assertion that the blue verification marks have become an undeserved or “corrupt” status symbol for elite personalities and news reporters. 

Along with verifying celebrities, one of Twitter’s main reasons to mark profiles with a free blue check mark starting about 14 years ago was to verify politicians, activists and people who suddenly find themselves in the news, as well as little-known journalists at small publications around the globe, as an extra tool to curb misinformation coming from accounts that are impersonating people. 

Lewinsky tweeted a screenshot Sunday of all the people impersonating her, including at least one who appears to have paid for a blue check mark. She asked, “what universe is this fair to people who can suffer consequences for being impersonated? a lie travels half way around the world before truth even gets out the door.” 

Shatner, known for his irreverent humor, also tagged Musk with a complaint about the promised changes. 

“I’ve been here for 15 years giving my (clock emoji) & witty thoughts all for bupkis,” he wrote. “Now you’re telling me that I have to pay for something you gave me for free?” 

Musk responded that there shouldn’t be a different standard for celebrities. “It’s more about treating everyone equally,” Musk tweeted. 

For now, those who still have the blue check but apparently haven’t paid the premium fee — a group that includes Beyoncé, Stephen King, Barack and Michelle Obama, Taylor Swift, Tucker Carlson, Drake and Musk himself — have messages appended to their profile saying it is a “legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable.” 

But while “the attention is reasonably on celebrities because of our culture,” the bigger concern for open government advocate Alex Howard, director of the Digital Democracy Project, is that impersonators could more easily spread rumors and conspiracies that could move markets or harm democracies around the world. 

“The reason verification exists on this platform was not simply to designate people as notable or authorities, but to prevent impersonation,” Howard said. 

One of Musk’s first product moves after taking over Twitter was to launch a service granting blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 a month. But it was quickly inundated by imposter accounts, including those impersonating Nintendo, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Musk’s businesses Tesla and SpaceX, so Twitter had to temporarily suspend the service days after its launch. 

The relaunched service costs $8 a month for web users and $11 a month for iPhone and iPad users. Subscribers are supposed to see fewer ads, be able to post longer videos and have their tweets featured more prominently. 

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Artist Paints Contemporary Native American Life

Artist Danielle SeeWalker says she is attempting to paint an accurate and insightful representation of contemporary Native American life. Her work is on exhibit in the Western U.S. state of Colorado. VOA’s Scott Stearns gives us a look.

Camera: Scott Stearns

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Spain, Morocco Hope Joint Bid for World Cup Will Patch Up Differences

When Morocco stunned Spain – and the world – with a dramatic penalty shootout victory in last year’s World Cup, authorities feared riots would break out.  

None did and Morocco made history by becoming the first African nation to reach the semi-finals in what is arguably the world’s biggest sporting event. 

Now, with the dust barely settled, Morocco has launched a joint bid with Spain and Portugal to stage the same competition in 2030.   

Close neighbors who at times fall out over issues like immigration and autonomy, Madrid and Rabat want to join forces to host the World Cup, in a move analysts say signals closer relations between the two countries.  

“The Kingdom of Morocco announced, together with Spain and Portugal, a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup,” Rabat announced in a statement on March 15. “This joint bid, which is unprecedented in football history, will bring together Africa and Europe, the northern and the southern Mediterranean, and the African, Arab and Euro-Mediterranean worlds. It will also bring out the best in all of us – in effect a combination of genius, creativity, experience and means.”  

Relations improving 

The move to share the bid between Spain and Morocco comes after Madrid last year changed its policy on the disputed territory of Western Sahara and backed Morocco’s claim to create an autonomous region under its control.   

Co-hosted bids from either Latin America or Europe are likely to be picked in 2024.  

Haizam Amirah-Fernandez, a senior analyst for the Mediterranean and Arab world at the Real Institute Elcano, a think tank in Madrid, said the idea for the three-country bid was not new.  

“This has been an idea since 2018. (Spanish prime minister) Pedro Sánchez suggested the idea. But at that time FIFA (football’s world governing body) did not admit joint bids by different countries, so they discounted it,” he told VOA.   

He said if the joint bid proves successful, it could bring dividends.  

“For neighboring countries, with very tense relations on so many levels, it is always positive to have joint projects, especially projects which have an emotional level like football,” Amirah-Fernandez said.  

He said it was “interesting” that the announcement was made separately by both Morocco and Spain, but it was not clear why this happened.  

If part of the 2030 World Cup is held in Morocco, it remains to be seen whether any matches are played in the disputed territories of Western Sahara.  

Any games in a territory which has been subject to military action and political controversy may risk prompting security risks and attracting the wrong kind of headlines for FIFA.  

Political, economic advantages 

Paul Brannagan, a professor of sports management at Manchester Metropolitan University, jointly wrote a book examining Qatar’s bid for the 2022 World Cup, with Danyel Reiche, visiting professor at Georgetown University in Qatar.  The book is called Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup: Politics, Controversy, Change.  

“You cannot ever take out politics from sport. For countries to survive these days, they must operate like businesses. Of course, to stage the World Cup, they are going to look at the political advantages,” Brannagan told VOA.  

“What we are seeing now is a drive to co-host these World Cups. In part this is to try to limit political controversy. If Qatar had shared the World Cup with the United Arab Emirates, it would have taken the heat off Qatar.” he noted.  

World Cups spread over three countries, like the 2026 competition in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, may not be very easy for fans to enjoy given the logistical problems of attending games.  

“Fans are not at the forefront of FIFA’s mind. (FIFA) will go where there is new markets and new money. (For FIFA) this idea of sharing is great because you get a lot more for your money,” Brannagan said.  

He said the bid by Morocco, Spain and Portugal may appeal to FIFA because they would see it as an opportunity to improve political and trade relations between Rabat and Madrid.  

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Burmese Pythons, Other Invasive Animals, Devour the Competition in Florida

Florida has captured more than 17,000 Burmese pythons since 2000, but tens of thousands more are likely roaming the Florida Everglades. That’s a concern because the reptiles, which are not native to the area, are gobbling up the competition.

“[Pythons] can take out one of our apex predators, which are alligators and crocodiles, and then it’ll take down some of the other native animals that are small mammals — some of the rats, the mice, the marsh bunnies — things that are supposed to be food for other things,” says Mike Hileman, park director of Gatorland, a theme park and wildlife preserve in Orlando. “So, they compete with our native animals, and because they’re a more dominant species, they win that battle.”

The Everglades is among the world’s most unique and delicate ecosystems. The python invasion is upsetting the fragile balance of the 6 million-square-kilometer wetlands preserve, which is home to rare and endangered species like manatees, the Florida panther and the American crocodile.

“Once a species starts reproducing in the wild, and they have a system that works for them, it’s almost next to impossible to eradicate them,” Hileman says.

Florida is grappling with the most severe invasive animal crisis in the continental United States. The invasives flourish in the state’s subtropical climate, characterized by hot, humid summers and wet, mild winters. There are more than 500 non-native plant and wildlife species in the state, some of which — like pythons — are taking over the habitat and threatening the environment.

“They form almost like a monoculture of the invasives, and when your biodiversity plummets, then the environment isn’t as able to withstand perturbations like climate change,” says Kurt Foote, a ranger with the National Park Service and natural resource management specialist at Fort Matanzas National Monument in St. Augustine. “Nature relies on variety, and when you don’t have variety, it’s just more susceptible to collapse.”

There is a flourishing reptile pet trade in Florida. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew destroyed a Burmese python breeding facility, releasing the animals into the wild. The Category 5 hurricane also leveled thousands of homes, setting numerous exotic pets free.

However, the very first Burmese python was found in the Everglades in 1979, more than a decade before Hurricane Andrew, and was probably a pet that escaped or was intentionally released by its owner. Florida residents are no longer allowed to keep Burmese pythons as pets.

“Animals can be a lot of work. The parrots are loud; they live almost 80 years. Tortoises can get really big and live 100 years. So, it’s a big commitment to have a lot of these animals,” says Kylie Reynolds, deputy director of Amazing Animals Inc., a nonprofit exotic animal preserve in St. Cloud that takes in non-native animals that were once people’s pets.

“People sometimes just go, ‘You know, it’s nice in Florida. We’ll just let it loose.’… Maybe they think their animal would be happier free. But again, they could compete for our natural resources with our native wildlife,” Reynolds says.

In addition to Burmese pythons, Florida’s most problematic invasive animals include lionfish, feral hogs, Argentine black and white tegu lizards, and Cuban tree frogs, which can be found in many parts of the state, including Fort Matanzas.

“They’re a bigger tree frog than what we have here by quite a bit, and they’re also fairly omnivorous, and they will eat the native tree frogs,” Foote says. “Like a lot of invasives, when they get here, they don’t have the things that predated them or competed with them in their homelands. They get here and without that pressure, they’re able to really breed and reproduce.”

Feral hogs, originally brought to Florida by Spanish explorers in the 1500s, cause millions of dollars’ worth of damage to crops each year. The animals, which are found statewide, disrupt the soil in areas such as Lake Apopka in Mount Dora that biologists are trying to restore.

“We’re planting native vegetation. … A lot of times, they’re rare or endemic species,” says Ben Gugliotti, land manager of Lake Apopka North Shore, a nature preserve. “The hogs will come in and root up those areas, basically destroying the planting areas that we’re trying to restore. And then also actually create a secondary opening for invasive plant species that move into those disturbed soil areas.”

Argentine black and white tegu lizards are on the mind of Cheryl Millett, manager of The Nature Conservancy’s Tiger Creek preserve in Babson Park, which sits on Florida’s oldest and highest land mass.

“It’s a biodiversity hotspot. And yeah, we have a lot of things that … don’t exist anywhere else,” Millett says. “And if we lost them here, we wouldn’t have them anymore on Earth.”

She’s most concerned about tegu lizards, which haven’t reached Tiger Creek yet but have been spotted nearby. They can grow up to 1.5 meters long.

“They found baby gopher tortoises in the guts of tegu lizards that have been found in South Florida,” Millett says. “They can eat baby gopher tortoises. I’m really worried about their potential impact here.”

Gopher tortoises are listed as federally endangered. They are a keystone species, which means they are critical to the surrounding ecosystem because they provide shelter for hundreds of other animals.

“[Tegu lizards] love gopher tortoise burrows, and they’ve been found using gopher tortoise burrows in South Florida,” Millett says. “Gopher tortoises create these burrows. They’re like 10 feet deep, and can be 30 feet long, and they harbor over 300 different species in them.”

Florida spends more than $500 million a year trying to contain invasive species and the damage they cause. Officials organize hunts, exotic pet amnesty programs, and utilize other methods to combat invasive species. But it might come down to educating the future.

“Our generation, we already have preconceived ideas. We’re lost. We’re not going to change anything,” says Hileman of Gatorland, who speaks to school groups about wildlife conservation. “We’ve got to get with the little guys, and we got to get them on the same team so they can spread that message to their kids as they get older.”

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Army Pulls Recruiting Ads after Jonathan Majors’ Arrest

The arrest of actor Jonathan Majors has upended the Army’s newly launched advertising campaign that was aimed at reviving the service’s struggling recruiting numbers. 

Majors, who authorities said was arrested Saturday in New York on charges of strangulation, assault and harassment, was the narrator of two ads at the heart of a broader media campaign that kicked off at the start of the NCAA’s March Madness college basketball tournament. 

Army leaders were hopeful that the popularity of the star of the recently released “Creed III” and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania,” would help them reach the youth audience. 

In a statement Sunday, the Army’s Enterprise Marketing Office said that the Army was aware of Majors’ arrest and was “deeply concerned by the allegations.” It added that while Majors “is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete.” 

New York City police said the actor was involved in a domestic dispute with a 30-year-old woman. “The victim informed police she was assaulted,” a police spokesperson said in a statement. 

A lawyer for Majors, Priya Chaudhry, said in a statement Sunday there was evidence clearing Majors and that the actor “is provably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows.” 

The Army ads, titled “Overcoming Obstacles” and “Pushing Tomorrow,” are part of the plan to revive the Army’s “Be All You Can be” motto. They highlighted the history of the Army and some of the many professions that recruits can pursue. 

The “Be All You Can Be” slogan dominated its recruiting ads for two decades starting in 1981. A nearly two-minute preview video, made available before the campaign rollout in early March, featured soldiers jumping out of airplanes, working on helicopters, climbing obstacle courses and diving underwater. A voiceover said: “We bring out the best in the people who serve, because America calls for nothing less.” 

In the Army’s worst recruiting year in recent history, the service fell 25% short of its goal to enlist 60,000 recruits in 2022. The new ads were a key element in the Army’s drive to find creative new ways to attract recruits and ensure that the service has the troops it needs to help defend the nation.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the Army has set a difficult goal for this year: aiming to bring in 65,000 recruits, which would be 20,000 more than in 2022. 

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Twitter: Parts of its Source Code Leaked Online

Some parts of Twitter’s source code — the fundamental computer code on which the social network runs — were leaked online, the social media company said in a legal filing on Sunday that was first reported by The New York Times. 

According to the legal document, filed with the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California, Twitter had asked GitHub, an internet hosting service for software development, to take down the code where it was posted. The platform complied and said the content had been disabled, according to the filing. Twitter also asked the court to identify the alleged infringer or infringers who posted Twitter’s source code on systems operated by GitHub without Twitter’s authorization. 

Twitter, based in San Francisco, noted in the filing that the postings infringe copyrights held by Twitter. 

The leak creates more challenges for billionaire Elon Musk, who bought Twitter last October for $44 billion and took the company private. Since then, it has been engulfed in chaos, with massive layoffs and advertisers fleeing. 

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission is probing Musk’s mass layoffs at Twitter and trying to obtain his internal communications as part of ongoing oversight into the social media company’s privacy and cybersecurity practices, according to documents described in a congressional report. 

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‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ Film Comes Out Blazing With $73.5M

“John Wick: Chapter 4,” the fourth installment in the Keanu Reeves assassin series, debuted with a franchise-best $73.5 million at the box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Lionsgate film, starring Reeves as the reluctant-but-not-that-reluctant killer John Wick, exceeded both expectations and previous opening weekends in the R-rated franchise. Since first launching in 2014 with “John Wick” ($14 million on its opening weekend), the Chad Stahelski-directed series has steadily grown as a ticket-seller with each sequel. The 2017 follow-up opened with $30.4 million, and the 2019 third chapter, “Parabellum,” debuted with $56.8 million.

But “Chapter 4,” running two hours and 49 minutes and costing at least $100 million to produce, is the biggest film yet in the once-lean action series. Critics also said it was a franchise high point, scoring 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The film, which drew a 69% male audience, added $64 million overseas. It’s Lionsgate’s biggest success of the pandemic era.

“When you make a fourth in an action franchise, you have to expect it to go down. That is the nature of these franchises,” said Joe Drake, chairman of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. “But we kept seeing signals and it was wonderful to see the movie they delivered. We saw the audience wanting more.”

Though “John Wick” has been bigger at the box office with each new release — an enviable and rare trajectory among Hollywood franchises — “Chapter 4” brings some finality to Reeves’ character. The actor hasn’t entirely dismissed continuing the series, telling interviewers, “Never say never.”

Regardless, the franchise is set to keep humming. A spin-off titled “Ballerina” starring Ana de Armas and co-starring Reeves has already been shot. The miniseries “The Continental,” with Mel Gibson, is upcoming on Peacock.

“Chad and Keanu have created this world and that world continues to expand. I don’t know what all the edges of that world are, still,” said Drake. “As best they can, they’ll continue to try to seduce Keanu to come back and do things. He gets beat up in these shows. He really does. And at the end he’s like, ‘I’m not doing it anymore.’ Then you watch him sit in the theater and feel that audience.”

“So, we’re going to continue to look for ways to meet that demand.”

The release of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” which included a surprise premiere at SXSW, was also bittersweet. Lance Reddick, who plays the Continental Hotel concierge, Charon, in the films, unexpectedly died at the age of 60 a week before the film’s release.

But the success of “John Wick: Chapter 4” adds to a strong start in 2023 for Hollywood. After ticket sales rebounded to about 67% of pre-pandemic levels last year, the release lineup is steadier and more packed this year. Sequels have led the way, including “Creed III” and “Scream VI.” Ticket sales are up 28% from last year, according to the data firm Comscore.

But there have been some exceptions. After its disappointing $30.5 million debut last weekend, the superhero sequel “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” slumped to second place with $9.7 million in its second weekend. The Warner Bros. release dropped steeply, tumbling 68% from its launch.

“Scream VI” took third place with $8.4 million in its third weekend, bringing its total thus far to $90.4 million domestic and $139.3 million worldwide. “Creed III” followed in fourth with $8.4 million. Michael B. Jordan’s sequel is up to $140.9 million domestic.

The weekend’s other new releases were more modest.

Zach Braff’s “A Good Person,” starring Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman, opened at 530 theaters. The MGM release grossed $834,000. IFC Films’ “The Lost King,” with Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan, debuted with $575,000 in 753 locations.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

  1. “John Wick: Chapter 4,” $73.5 million.

  2. “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” $9.7 million.

  3. “Scream VI,” $8.4 million.

  4. “Creed III,” $8.4 million.

  5. “65,” $3.3 million.

  6. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” $2.4 million.

  7. “Cocaine Bear,” $2.1 million.

  8. “Jesus Revolution,” $2 million.

  9. “Champions,” $1.5 million.

  10. “Avatar: The Way of Water,” $1.4 million.

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US House Speaker Says Lawmakers to Move Forward with TikTok Bill 

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday lawmakers will move forward with legislation to address national security worries about TikTok, alleging China’s government had access to the short video app’s user data.

In the United States, there are growing calls to ban TikTok, owned by China-based company ByteDance, or to pass bipartisan legislation to give President Joe Biden’s administration legal authority to seek a ban. Devices owned by the U.S. government were recently banned from having the app installed.

“The House will be moving forward with legislation to protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist Party,” McCarthy said on Twitter.

 

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared before a U.S. House Committee for about five hour on Thursday and lawmakers from both parties grilled him about national security and other concerns involving the app, which has 150 million American users.

In Thursday’s hearing, the TikTok CEO was asked if of the app, has spied on Americans at Beijing’s request. Chew answered, “No.”

Republican Representative Neal Dunn then referenced the company’s disclosure in December that some China-based employees at ByteDance improperly accessed TikTok user data of two journalists and were no longer employed by the company. He repeated his question about whether ByteDance was spying.

“I don’t think that spying is the right way to describe it,” Chew said. He went on to describe the reports as involving an “internal investigation” before being cut off.

McCarthy, a Republican, said in a tweet on Sunday, “It’s very concerning that the CEO of TikTok can’t be honest and admit what we already know to be true — China has access to TikTok user data.”

The company says it has spent more than $1.5 billion on data security efforts under the name “Project Texas” which currently has nearly 1,500 full-time employees and is contracted with Oracle Corp ORCL.N to store TikTok’s U.S. user data.

Rather than appease lawmakers’ concerns, Chew’s appearance before Congress on Thursday “actually increased the likelihood that Congress will take some action,” Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, the Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told ABC News on Sunday.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump lost a series of court rulings in 2020 when he sought to ban TikTok and another Chinese-owned app, WeChat, a unit of Tencent 0700.HK.

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Five Planets Will Be Lined Up in Night Sky This Week

Keep an eye to the sky this week for a chance to see a planetary hangout.

Five planets — Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars — will line up near the moon.

Where and when can you see them?

The best day to catch the whole group is Tuesday. You’ll want to look to the western horizon right after sunset, said NASA astronomer Bill Cooke.

The planets will stretch from the horizon line to around halfway up the night sky. But don’t be late: Mercury and Jupiter will quickly dip below the horizon around half an hour after sunset.

The five-planet spread can be seen from anywhere on Earth, as long as you have clear skies and a view of the west.

“That’s the beauty of these planetary alignments. It doesn’t take much,” Cooke said.

Do I need binoculars?

Maybe. Jupiter, Venus and Mars will all be pretty easy to see since they shine brightly, Cooke said. Venus will be one of the brightest things in the sky, and Mars will be hanging out near the moon with a reddish glow. Mercury and Uranus could be trickier to spot, since they will be dimmer. You’ll probably need to grab a pair of binoculars.

If you’re a “planet collector,” it’s a rare chance to spot Uranus, which usually isn’t visible, Cooke said. Look out for its green glow just above Venus.

Does this happen often?

Different numbers and groups of planets line up in the sky from time to time. There was a five-planet lineup last summer and there’s another one in June, with a slightly different makeup.

This kind of alignment happens when the planets’ orbits line them up on one side of the sun from Earth’s perspective, Cooke said.

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North Sea Shell Survey Brings Out Volunteers

Hundreds of volunteers descended on the beaches of the North Sea coast this weekend to collect sea shells as a measure of the sea’s biological diversity.

While there is a serious scientific purpose to the exercise, it is also a fun day out on the coast for Belgian, French and Dutch families with kids.

On Saturday, Natascha Perales and her children marked a wide spiral pattern on the sand in Middelkerke, in Flanders, and filled their plastic buckets with shells.

The harvests were taken to a sorting center run by volunteers, to be counted and divided up by species.

“We found mussels, oysters, cockles, at least six different species,” 40-year-old Perales told AFP. “It’s a great activity, despite the weather.”

Braving stiff gusts of wind, the dozen participants kept the Middelkerke collection point busy.

Laurence Virolee, 41, came with her three children.

“We learned a lot of things,” she said. “Last year we took part in a clean-up day on the beach. It’s important for the kids to see the evolution in biodiversity and make them aware of the climate.”

The collections took place along 400 kilometers of coastline and around 800 people took part in three countries, with France joining the sixth annual event for the first time.

In total, around 38,000 shells were brought in, roughly as many as in last year’s event.

Invasive species

“Shells are a good indicator of the state of biodiversity in the North Sea, ” explained Jan Seys, who organizes the survey for the Flanders Marine Institute.

“Last year, 15% of the shells found belonged to exotic species,” he said, amid fears that foreign shellfish species might become an invasive danger to native organisms. “We have seen, for example the Atlantic Jackknife Clam appearing on our coasts.”

The volunteers were also on the lookout for shells with holes in them, trying to measure the spread of predatory sea snails preying on shellfish.

Near the beach, retired biologist Joris Hooze, 75, taught volunteers how to examine mollusks under his microscope and distinguish their differences.

“We’ve seen organisms that normally live in warm waters turning up more and more,” he said. “It’s a sign of climate change.”

The European Union wants to clean up the seas around its coasts and restore the natural ecosystem by 2030. To do that, it has assigned 800 million euros ($861,600,000) in funding to the task.

“If we’re going to hit that target, we’ll need the general public,” said Seys. As well as its scientific value, the shell hunt served to raise awareness, he added.

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Hundreds Gather in Madrid to Sing for Peace in War-Torn Ukraine

Choirs from across the world joined their voices to sing for peace in Ukraine Sunday, with nearly 300 singers gathering in Madrid where the initiative began a year ago. 

Under cloudless blue skies, singers from 46 choirs in and around the Spanish capital gathered outside the Reina Sofia art museum and began singing at midday (1000 GMT) in an event involving thousands of others across Europe and Latin America.

This year, choirs joined from 81 locations in nine countries, with 1,000 singers from Ukraine joining their voices with others from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Portugal and Venezuela.

Standing in the museum square, they sang “Dona Nobis Pacem,” the Hebrew slaves’ chorus from Verdi’s Nabucco and finally “Sing an Anthem for Our Peace,” which was written specially by U.S. composer Jim Papoulis. 

The simultaneous event, which was broadcast live on YouTube, was organized by Choirs for Peace, an initiative started by Madrid choir a month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine whose first event drew over 25,000 singers. 

“We are here to support Ukraine and say we need peace now, that we have to stop this war,” said Elvira Polyenova, a 48-year-old Ukrainian soprano who used to perform at the Odesa opera house, and who sang the opening solo in “There is Peace.” 

“Music unites people, so the choir is a perfect instrument for spreading messages of peace and unity,” said Mariano Garcia, choir director at Santiago Apostol church which started Choirs for Peace last year.

“Although its power of influence is limited, we believe all choral music has the capacity to make us all a little more aware … and might even reach those with the capacity to decide,” he told AFP.

After seeing last year’s event, Elena Redondo, 54, decided to join a choir so she could be part of this year’s initiative.

“We all forget there’s not only this war in Ukraine but others all over the world, and we seem to get used to it. So, events like this are an important wake-up call,” she said. “Music changes many things, not only on a global level, but also on an individual level, it really changes the way you see things. I think it’s important to join together with other voices.”

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Former F1 Champ Fined Nearly $1 Million for Racist, Homophobic Remarks

A former Formula One champion has been fined nearly $1 million in damages for racist and homophobic remarks about Lewis Hamilton, the sport’s only Black driver.

Nelson Piquet, 70, a three-time Formula One champion, used a Brazilian racial and homophobic slur in a 2021 television interview about a crash, involving Hamilton and Max Verstappen, who is in a relationship with Piquet’s daughter.

Piquet’s comments went viral, and he has since apologized.

World champion Hamilton called for “archaic mindsets” to change after footage of the interview emerged.

A court statement noted that Piquet has apologized, but it also said his words “affect not only the individual rights of the victim, but the values of the entire community, and of the black population and the LGBTQIA+ community in particular.”

Judge Pedro Matos de Arrudo said the nearly $1 million fine was allotted “so that, as a society, we can someday be free from the pernicious acts that are racism and homophobia.”

Four human rights groups brought the charges to court.

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Ignoring Experts, China’s Sudden Zero-COVID Exit Cost Lives, AP Finds

When China suddenly scrapped onerous zero-COVID measures in December, the country wasn’t ready for a massive onslaught of cases, with hospitals turning away ambulances and crematoriums burning bodies around the clock.

Chinese state media claimed the decision to open up was based on “scientific analysis and shrewd calculation,” and was “by no means impulsive.” But in reality, China’s ruling Communist Party ignored repeated efforts by top medical experts to kickstart exit plans until it was too late, The Associated Press found.

Instead, the reopening came suddenly at the onset of winter, when the virus spreads most easily. Many older people weren’t vaccinated, pharmacies lacked antivirals, and hospitals didn’t have adequate supplies or staff — leading to as many as hundreds of thousands of deaths that may have been avoided, according to academic modeling, more than 20 interviews with current and former China Center for Disease Control and Prevention employees, experts and government advisers, and internal reports and directives obtained by the AP.

“If they had a real plan to exit earlier, so many things could have been avoided,” said Zhang Zuo-Feng, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Many deaths could have been prevented.”

Experts estimate that many hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions, may have died in China’s wave of COVID-19 — far higher than the official toll of fewer than 90,000, but still a much lower death rate than in Western countries. However, 200,000 to 300,000 deaths could have been prevented if the country was better vaccinated and stocked with antivirals, according to modeling by the University of Hong Kong. Some scientists estimate even more lives could have been saved.

“It wasn’t a sound public health decision at all,” said a China CDC official, declining to be named to speak candidly on a sensitive matter. “It’s absolutely bad timing … this was not a prepared opening.”

For two years, China stood out for its tough but successful controls against the virus, credited with saving millions of lives as other countries struggled with stop-and-start lockdowns. But with the emergence of the highly infectious omicron variant in late 2021, many of China’s top medical experts and officials worried zero-COVID was unsustainable.

In late 2021, China’s leaders began discussing how to lift restrictions. As early as March 2022, top medical experts submitted a detailed reopening strategy to the State Council, China’s cabinet. The existence of the document is being reported for the first time by the AP.

But discussions were silenced after an outbreak the same month in Shanghai, which prompted Chinese leader Xi Jinping to lock the city down. Chinese public health experts stopped speaking publicly about preparing for an exit, as they were wary of openly challenging a policy supported by Xi.

By the time the Shanghai outbreak was under control, China was months away from the 20th Party Congress, the country’s most important political meeting in a decade, making reopening politically difficult. So the country stuck to mass testing and quarantining millions of people.

“Everybody waits for the party congress,” said one medical expert, declining to be named to comment on a sensitive topic. “There’s inevitably a degree of everyone being very cautious.”

At the Congress in mid-October, top officials differing with Xi were sidelined. Instead, six loyalists followed Xi onstage in a new leadership lineup, signaling his total domination of the party.

With the congress over, some voices in the public health sector finally piped up. In an internal document published October 28, obtained by The Associated Press and reported here for the first time, Wu Zunyou, China’s CDC chief epidemiologist, criticized the Beijing city government for excessive COVID-19 controls, saying it had “no scientific basis.” He called it a distortion of the central government’s zero-COVID policy, which risked “intensifying public sentiment and causing social dissatisfaction.”

At the same time, he called the virus policies of the central government “absolutely correct.” One former CDC official said Wu felt helpless because he was ordered to advocate for zero-COVID in public, even as he disagreed at times with its excesses in private.

Wu did not respond to an email requesting comment. A person acquainted with Wu confirmed he wrote the internal report.

Another who spoke up was Zhong Nanshan, a doctor renowned for raising the alarm about the original COVID outbreak in Wuhan. He wrote to Xi personally, telling him that zero-COVID was not sustainable and urging a gradual reopening, said a person acquainted with Zhong.

In early November, then-Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, China’s COVID czar, summoned experts from sectors including health, travel and the economy to discuss adjusting Beijing’s virus policies, according to three people with direct knowledge of the meetings. On November 10, Xi ordered adjustments.

The next day, Beijing announced 20 new measures tweaking restrictions, such as reclassifying risk zones and reducing quarantine times. But at the same time, Xi made clear, China was sticking to zero-COVID.

The government wanted order. Instead, the measures caused chaos.

With conflicting signals from the top, local governments weren’t sure whether to lock down or open up. Policies changed by the day.

In late November, public frustration boiled over. A deadly apartment fire in China’s far west Xinjiang region sparked nationwide protests over locked doors and other virus control measures. Some called on Xi to resign, the most direct challenge to the Communist Party’s power since pro-democracy protests in 1989.

Riot police moved in, and the protests were swiftly quelled. But behind the scenes, the mood was shifting.

References to zero-COVID vanished from government statements. State newswire Xinhua said the pandemic was causing “fatigue, anxiety and tension,” and that the cost of controlling it was increasing day by day.

Days after the protests, Sun held meetings where she told medical experts the state planned to “walk briskly” out of zero-COVID. The final decision was made suddenly, and with little direct input from public health experts, several told the AP.

“None of us expected the 180-degree turn,” a government adviser said.

Many in the Chinese government believe the protests accelerated Xi’s decision to scrap virus controls entirely, according to three current and former state employees.

“It was the trigger,” said one, not identified because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media.

On December 6, Xi instructed officials to change COVID-19 controls, Xinhua reported.

The next day, Chinese health authorities announced 10 sweeping measures that effectively scrapped controls, canceling virus test requirements, mandatory centralized quarantine and location-tracking health QR codes. The decision to reopen so suddenly caught the country by surprise.

“Even three days’ notice would have been good,” said a former China CDC official. “The way this happened was just unbelievable.”

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Intel Co-Founder, Philanthropist Gordon Moore Dies at 94

Gordon Moore, the Intel Corp. co-founder who set the breakneck pace of progress in the digital age with a simple 1965 prediction of how quickly engineers would boost the capacity of computer chips, has died. He was 94.

Moore died Friday at his home in Hawaii, according to Intel and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Moore, who held a Ph.D. in chemistry and physics, made his famous observation — now known as “Moore’s Law” — three years before he helped start Intel in 1968. It appeared among several articles about the future written for the now-defunct Electronics magazine by experts in various fields.

The prediction, which Moore said he plotted out on graph paper based on what had been happening with chips at the time, said the capacity and complexity of integrated circuits would double every year.

Strictly speaking, Moore’s observation referred to the doubling of transistors on a semiconductor. But over the years, it has been applied to hard drives, computer monitors and other electronic devices, holding that roughly every 18 months a new generation of products makes their predecessors obsolete.

It became a standard for the tech industry’s progress and innovation.

“It’s the human spirit. It’s what made Silicon Valley,” Carver Mead, a retired California Institute of Technology computer scientist who coined the term “Moore’s Law” in the early 1970s, said in 2005. “It’s the real thing.”

‘Wisdom, humility and generosity’

Moore later became known for his philanthropy when he and his wife established the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which focuses on environmental conservation, science, patient care and projects in the San Francisco Bay area. It has donated more than $5.1 billion to charitable causes since its founding in 2000.

“Those of us who have met and worked with Gordon will forever be inspired by his wisdom, humility and generosity,” foundation president Harvey Fineberg said in a statement.

Intel Chairman Frank Yeary called Moore a brilliant scientist and a leading American entrepreneur.

“It is impossible to imagine the world we live in today, with computing so essential to our lives, without the contributions of Gordon Moore,” he said.

In his book “Moore’s Law: The Life of Gordon Moore, Silicon Valley’s Quiet Revolutionary,” author David Brock called him “the most important thinker and doer in the story of silicon electronics.”

Helped plant seed for renegade culture

Moore was born in San Francisco on Jan. 3, 1929, and grew up in the tiny nearby coastal town of Pescadero. As a boy, he took a liking to chemistry sets. He attended San Jose State University, then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated with a degree in chemistry.

After getting his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1954, he worked briefly as a researcher at Johns Hopkins University.

His entry into microchips began when he went to work for William Shockley, who in 1956 shared the Nobel Prize for physics for his work inventing the transistor. Less than two years later, Moore and seven colleagues left Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory after growing tired of its namesake’s management practices.

The defection by the “traitorous eight,” as the group came to be called, planted the seeds for Silicon Valley’s renegade culture, in which engineers who disagreed with their colleagues didn’t hesitate to become competitors.

The Shockley defectors in 1957 created Fairchild Semiconductor, which became one of the first companies to manufacture the integrated circuit, a refinement of the transistor.

Fairchild supplied the chips that went into the first computers that astronauts used aboard spacecraft.

Called Moore’s Law as ‘a lucky guess’

In 1968, Moore and Robert Noyce, one of the eight engineers who left Shockley, again struck out on their own. With $500,000 of their own money and the backing of venture capitalist Arthur Rock, they founded Intel, a name based on joining the words “integrated” and “electronics.”

Moore became Intel’s chief executive in 1975. His tenure as CEO ended in 1987, thought he remained chairman for another 10 years. He was chairman emeritus from 1997 to 2006.

He received the National Medal of Technology from President George H.W. Bush in 1990 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2002.

Despite his wealth and acclaim, Moore remained known for his modesty. In 2005, he referred to Moore’s Law as “a lucky guess that got a lot more publicity than it deserved.”

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Betty, sons Kenneth and Steven, and four grandchildren.

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Indigenous Artists Help Skateboarding Earn Stamp of Approval

Years ago, skateboarding was branded as a hobby for rebels or stoners in city streets, schoolyards and back alleys. Those days are long gone.

Skateboarding, which has Native Hawaiian roots connected to surfing, no longer is on the fringes. It became an Olympic sport in 2020. There are numerous amateur and professional skateboarding competitions in the U.S. And on Friday, the U.S. Postal Service issued stamps that laud the sport — and what Indigenous groups have brought to the skating culture.

Di’Orr Greenwood, 27, an artist born and raised on the Navajo Nation in Arizona whose work is featured on the new stamps, says it’s a long way from when she was a kid and people always kicked her out of certain spots just for skating.

“Now it’s like being accepted on a global scale,” Greenwood said. “There’s so many skateboarders I know that are extremely proud of it.”

The postal agency debuted the “Art of the Skateboard” stamps at a Phoenix skate park. The stamps feature skateboard artists from around the country, including Greenwood and Crystal Worl, who is Tlingit Athabascan. William James Taylor Jr., an artist from Virginia, and Federico “MasPaz” Frum, a Colombian-born muralist in Washington, D.C., round out the quartet of featured artists.

The stamps underscore the prevalence of skateboarding, especially in Indian Country where the demand for skate parks is growing.

The artists see the stamp as a small canvas, a functional art piece that will be seen across the U.S. and beyond.

“Maybe I’ll get a letter in the mail that someone sent me with my stamp on it,” said Worl, 35, who lives in Juneau, Alaska. “I think that’s when it will really hit home with the excitement of that.”

Antonio Alcalá, USPS art director, led the search for artists to paint skate decks for the project. After settling on a final design, each artist received a skateboard from Alcalá to work on. He then photographed the maple skate decks and incorporated them into an illustration of a young person holding up a skateboard for display. The person is seen in muted colors to draw attention to the skate deck.

Alcalá used social media to seek out artists who, besides being talented, were knowledgeable about skateboarding culture. Worl was already on his radar because her brother, Rico, designed the Raven Story stamp in 2021, which honored a central figure in Indigenous stories along the coast in the Pacific Northwest.

The Worl siblings run an online shop called Trickster Company with fashions, home goods and other merchandise with Indigenous and modern twists. For her skate deck, Crystal Worl paid homage to her clan and her love of the water with a Sockeye salmon against a blue and indigo background.

She was careful about choosing what to highlight.

“There are certain designs, patterns and stories that belong to certain clans and you have to have permission even as an Indigenous person to share certain stories or designs,” Worl said.

The only times Navajo culture has been featured in stamps is with rugs or necklaces. Greenwood, who tried out for the U.S. Women’s Olympic skateboarding team, knew immediately she wanted to incorporate her heritage in a modern way. Her nods to the Navajo culture include a turquoise inlay and a depiction of eagle feathers, which are used to give blessings.

“I was born and raised with my great-grandmother, who looked at a stamp kind of like how a young kid would look at an iPhone 13,” Greenwood said. “She entrusted every important news and every important document and everything to a stamp to send it and trust that it got there.”

Skateboarding has become a staple across Indian Country. A skate park opened in August on the Hopi reservation. Skateboarders on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in eastern Arizona recently got funding for one from pro skateboarder Tony Hawk’s nonprofit, The Skatepark Project. Youth-organized competitions take place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Dustinn Craig, a White Mountain Apache filmmaker and “lifer” skateboarder in Arizona, has made documentaries and short films on the sport. The 47-year-old remembers how skateboarding was seen as dorky and anti-establishment when he was a kid hiding “a useless wooden toy” in his locker. At the same time, Craig credits skateboarding culture as “my arts and humanities education.”

So he is wary of the mainstream’s embrace, as well as the sometimes clique-ish nature, of today’s skateboarding world.

“For those of us who have been in it for a very long time, it’s kind of insulting because I think a lot of the popularity has been due to the proliferation of access to the visuals of the youth culture skateboarding through the internet and social media,” Craig said. “So, I feel like it really sort of trivializes and sort of robs Native youth of authenticity of the older skateboard culture that I was raised on.”

He acknowledges that he may come off as the “grumpy old man” to younger Indigenous skateboarders who are open to collaborating with outsiders.

The four skateboards designed by the artists will eventually be transferred to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, said Jonathan Castillo, USPS spokesperson.

The stamps, which will have a printing of 18 million, are available at post offices and on the USPS website. For the artists, being part of a project that feels low-tech in this age of social media is exciting.

“It’s like the physical thing is special because you go out of your way to go to the post office, buy the stamps and write something,” Worl said.

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Lithium Discovery Seen as Mixed Blessing in India’s Kashmir

The discovery of major lithium deposits is being seen as a mixed blessing in India’s troubled Kashmir region, where hopes for a major economic boost are tempered by fears of human displacement and damage to the territory’s fragile ecology.

The finding of the lithium, key to the manufacture of batteries used in electric cars and other electronic devices, is likely very good news for India as a whole, promising to save the country billions of dollars as it seeks to move its economy away from fossil fuels.

It also offers the hope of good-paying jobs in Kashmir, where investment has been in decline amid political uncertainty and frequent internet shutdowns since the Indian government revoked the region’s autonomous status in 2019.

But residents in the southwestern Reasi district of Jammu & Kashmir where the deposits are located say they are torn between those hopes and a fear of being driven off their land to make way for mining operations, as well as concern about the impact on local vegetation and wildlife.

The Geological Survey of India has estimated the area holds 5.9 million metric tons of lithium valued at around $410 billion, although further studies will be needed to determine the quality of the lithium and confirm it can be recovered.

If initial hopes are borne out, the deposit would represent a significant share of the world’s known lithium reserves, which were estimated last year by the U.S. Geological Survey at just 80.7 million tons. The Indian government plans to hold auctions for the reserves as early as June, with the caveat that refined lithium can only be processed within India.

“The scale of the reserves is significant and can — if proven to be commercially viable — reduce India’s reliance on imports of lithium-ion cells, which are a key component for EV batteries and other clean energy technologies,” said Siddharth Goel, a senior policy adviser at the Canada-based International Institute for Sustainable Development, in an interview with VOA.

“These reserves could potentially be a huge carrot to attract investment into domestic battery manufacturing and other clean energy technologies,” he said.

Having a domestic source of lithium would dramatically improve India’s prospects of meeting its goal of achieving 30% electric vehicle penetration for private cars, 70% for commercial vehicles, and 80% for two and three-wheelers by 2030.

India’s ministry of commerce data shows that India spent around $3.2 billion importing lithium between 2018 and 2021, money that would remain in the country if the lithium could be produced domestically. By speeding its transition to electric vehicles, India also hopes to reduce its dependency on imported oil.

“It will help India reduce import bill substantially and boost domestic production if the entire reserve can be extracted sustainably and is economically viable,” said Pradeep Karuturi, a researcher at the India-based OMI Foundation, a new-age policy research and social innovation think tank.

“However, it may take years for actual output so it’s important for India to create a cohesive multi-dimensional policy to strengthen energy security,” he said.

Effect on environment

Kashmiri environmentalists are more focused on the impact that lithium extraction will have on the ecology of the scenic Himalayan region. A report published by an environmental organization, the Nature Conservancy, notes that proven technologies for lithium extraction require vast amounts of land and can result in the removal of native vegetation.

Earlier this month, a group of NGOs including Climate Front Jammu, Environmental Awareness Forum and Nature Human Centric People’s Movement organized a climate strike at Press Club Jammu to express their concerns.

The founding director of Climate Front India, Anmol Ohri, told VOA the mining could cause irreversible harm to the ecosystem and adversely affect the indigenous and local communities near the mining area.

“If regulations are not stringent enough, this discovery could result in the communities surrounding the region abandoning their homes and relocating to urban areas, resulting in a loss of cultural heritage,” he said.

Kulwant Raj, a local resident and former candidate in area elections, said residents are pleased about the economic prospects that the deposits represent but simultaneously fear the government will confiscate their land.

While not opposed to mining in the area, Raj told VOA, the locals would like to be relocated to someplace nearby and compensated with government jobs.

Goel said it is important for the government of India to look to the experience of other countries as it seeks to balance the economic benefits of the lithium discovery with the environmental and social safeguards demanded by residents.

“Meaningful representation and participation of local communities in decision-making are essential to prevent community opposition to lithium mining,” he said. “As India is looking to export li-ion batteries, ensuring an environmentally friendly mining process is also essential to attract investment from large international companies given the growing global scrutiny of the battery value chain’s environmental footprint.”

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Threat of US Ban Grows After TikTok Lambasted in Congress 

A U.S. ban of Chinese-owned TikTok, the country’s most popular social media for young people, seems increasingly inevitable a day after the grilling of its CEO by Washington lawmakers from across the political divide. 

But the Biden administration will have to move carefully in denying 150 million Americans their favorite platform over its links to China, especially after a previous effort by then-President Donald Trump was struck down by a U.S. court. 

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew endured a barrage of questions by U.S. lawmakers who made clear their belief that the app best known for sharing jokes and dance routines was a threat to U.S. national security as well as being a danger to mental health. 

In a tweet, TikTok executive Vanessa Pappas deplored a hearing “rooted in xenophobia.”   

With both Republicans and Democrats against him at Congress, Chew must now confront a White House ultimatum that TikTok either sever ties with ByteDance, its China-based owners, or be banned in America. 

Bipartisan legislation

A ban will depend on passage of legislation called the RESTRICT ACT, a bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate this month that gives the U.S. Commerce Department powers to ban foreign technology that threatens national security. 

When asked about Chew’s tumultuous hearing, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre repeated the White House’s support of the legislation, which is one of several proposals by Congress to ban or squeeze TikTok. 

The sell-or-be-banned order tears up 2.5 years of negotiations between the White House and TikTok to find a way for the company to keep running under its current ownership while satisfying national security concerns. 

Those talks resulted in a proposal by TikTok called Project Texas in which the personal data of U.S. users stays in the United States and would be inaccessible to Chinese law or oversight. 

But the White House turned sour on the idea after officials from the FBI and the Justice Department said that the vulnerabilities to China would remain. 

“It’s hard for TikTok to prove a negative. ‘No, we’re not turning over any data to the Chinese government.’ Look at how skeptical our European partners are about U.S. companies where we have a strong legal system,” said Michael Daniel, executive director of the Cyber Threat Alliance, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to cybersecurity. 

Presently, the White House’s preferred solution is that TikTok sever ties with ByteDance either through a sale or a spinoff. 

“My understanding is that what has been … insisted on is the divestment of TikTok by the parent company,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday.

Impossible to achieve? 

But that option is riddled with difficulties, with many experts saying that TikTok cannot function without ByteDance, which develops the app’s industry-leading technology. 

“ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok and the golden jewel algorithm at the center of this security debate is a hot-button issue that will not necessarily be solved just by a spinoff or sale of the assets,” said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities. 

Proving the point, China has ruled out giving the go-ahead for a TikTok sale, citing its own laws to protect sensitive technology from foreign buyers. 

That leaves a ban of TikTok that would undeniably benefit domestic rivals Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube. 

One unknown is whether a death sentence for TikTok will cost Washington politically among voters. 

Through a ban, “a democracy will be taking steps that impede the ability of young Americans to express themselves and earn a livelihood,” said Sarah Kreps, professor of government at Cornell University. 

Does the lawmakers’ grilling of the TikTok CEO minimize the danger of political blowback? 

“I want to say this to all the teenagers … who think we’re just old and out of touch,” said Representative Dan Crenshaw, a Republican. “You may not care that your data is being accessed now, but there will be one day when you do care about it.”

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COVID-19, Global Crises Hinder Progress in Ending TB

In marking World TB Day, health officials warn the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple global crises are setting back years of progress in fighting tuberculosis and eventually ending the deadly disease.

Tuberculosis, an ancient disease that some say goes back to biblical times, kills more people than any other infectious disease. The World Health Organization says 1.6 million people globally died from TB in 2021 and an estimated 10.6 million people were newly infected.

Tuberculosis – a bacterial infection of the lungs – is a preventable, treatable and curable disease.

Significant inroads have been made in battling tuberculosis, with the WHO saying that TB deaths have dropped by nearly 40 percent globally since 2000. Additionally, the organization reports an estimated 74 million lives were saved through TB diagnosis and treatment.

While acknowledging the promising results, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said progress in the fight against TB recently has stalled and even been reversed.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and conflicts in many countries have severely disrupted services to prevent, detect and treat TB.”

As a result, he said the “WHO last year reported an increase in TB deaths for the first time in more than a decade” as well as an increase in the number of people falling ill with TB and drug-resistant TB.

He deplored the enormous impact of the ongoing epidemic on families and communities.

“We cannot truly end TB unless we address its drivers.”

Those, he said, included conditions of “poverty, malnutrition, diabetes, HIV, tobacco and alcohol use, poor living and working conditions, stigma and discrimination.”

The WHO says the largest number of new TB cases – 46% – occurred in the Southeast Asian region (or Southeast Asia), followed by the African region with 23% and the Western Pacific with 18%.

While the numbers remain high, WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti observed that the continent has made progress in recent years in combating TB. For example, she noted that deaths in the region have fallen by 26% between 2015 and 2021.

“We do still face some challenges, notably delayed diagnosis and testing, since 40 percent of people living with TB did not know their diagnosis or the disease was not reported in 2021.

“Moreover, an estimated 1 million people are living with TB in the region, yet to be detected,” she said.

WHO chief Tedros’ five-year flagship initiative on TB, which he launched in 2018, seeks to build on the progress achieved by improving delivery of quality care to people living with TB.

Under the program, the WHO has provided two new TB drugs and 12 new TB diagnostic tests to more than 100 countries.

Tereza Kasaeva, director of the WHO’s global tuberculosis program, said the WHO, for the first time, has recommended “a fully oral, two to three times shorter and more effective treatment, including for the most severe forms of multi-resistant TB.”

Jeff Acebo, a TB and HIV survivor from the Philippines and a member of the WHO’s civil society task force, welcomed the development.

He said for too long, people with multidrug resistant TB “have struggled with painful injections, longer regimens, side effects and catastrophic out-of-pocket costs.

“We strongly urge governments, especially one with [a] high burden of TB, to roll out and accelerate the implementation of the novel six-month all-oral regimen treatment,” which he said “would improve the quality of life” for those suffering from the disease.

Given its success, Tedros said, “we have decided to extend the initiative for a further five years, until 2027 and broaden its scope.”

In 2015, the United Nations set a target date of 2030 to end the global TB epidemic as part of its sustainable development goals. In September, world leaders will meet in New York for the second high-level meeting on TB to invigorate the flagging process.

Tedros said he believes the meeting should be a turning point in the fight against TB – if leaders make real and lasting commitments to invest the financial resources needed to end it.

Lucica Ditiu, executive director of the Stop TB Partnership, echoed those sentiments.

“We have new innovations now to help us save lives—new diagnostic tools, shorter, less toxic treatment regimens and new digital tools,” she said.

“When we add the political muscle that the UNHLM [U.N. high level meeting] will gather to the many dedicated health care professionals already in the front lines,” she said, “ending TB looks increasingly possible.”

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Invasive Animals Wreak Havoc in Florida

Florida’s warm weather attracts millions of visitors, including animals that outstay their welcome. Wildlife brought in from somewhere else has seriously damaged the ecosystem in Florida, home to the most severe invasive animal crisis in the continental United States. VOA’s Dora Mekouar has more from Orlando. Camera: Adam Greenbaum Produced by: Dora Mekouar, Adam Greenbaum

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What To Do When Research to Stop a Pandemic Could Start One Instead

What would turn bird flu – the kind that’s killed millions of birds around the world and a few hundred people – into the next deadly pandemic?

Scientists want to know so they can get ahead of it. That’s why, in 2010, two groups of researchers were studying an avian influenza virus that killed about half of the people it infected but does not spread easily among them. They infected ferrets with it to see what it would take to make it more transmissible. Ferrets’ lungs and airways are a lot like ours.

“They would infect a ferret, wait a certain amount of time, take the virus that comes out of that ferret and infect the next ferret,” said University of Michigan microbiologist Michael Imperiale.

After 10 rounds, the virus had mutated into a much more dangerous form. “They didn’t have to transfer it from one ferret to the next,” he said. “If they put the ferrets in close proximity, those ferrets could transfer to each other.”

That virus has pandemic potential.

The scientists figured out what parts of the virus had mutated to make it spread more easily. That could help experts looking out for the next dangerous virus, they said, and it could help develop drugs and vaccines against it.

On the other hand, the researchers had just created a new, deadly, easy-to-spread disease threat. If it were to get out of the lab somehow, it could start a global pandemic.

Lab leaks are rare but they do happen. SARS escaped from labs in Singapore, Taiwan and China in the early 2000s. A lab accident in Britain led to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in livestock.

“It just shows that even the best labs in the world are not totally protected from accidents,” said Harvard University epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch. “Humans are fallible.”

The bird flu experiments set off alarm bells when the researchers went to publish their results in 2011, according to Rutgers University microbiologist Richard Ebright.

“I think everyone hearing the result was surprised, first, that anyone would be so ethically challenged as to conduct such an experiment; and second, surprised that there were no mechanisms of oversight whatsoever that would prevent a researcher from conducting such an experiment,” he said.

Not everyone thought the experiments were fundamentally a bad idea. But they did kick off a push for more oversight.

That kind of research is worthwhile under two conditions, according to University of Michigan microbiologist Imperiale.

“Is it addressing a pressing biomedical issue, [for which] we have to have the answer? Is that really the only, or the best way to get it such that other approaches just will not get you to the answer you need? And if the answer to those two questions are yes, then let’s figure out a way to do it safely,” he said.

U.S. health authorities set up a framework to ask those questions and decide what research should get funding.

However, Ebright said, “that framework was sound on paper but it has not actually occurred in practice.”

He said that several research projects that should have gotten extra scrutiny did not, including U.S.-funded research in Wuhan, China on what would make coronaviruses more infectious to people. Ebright contends that research could have been the source of the COVID-19 virus.

Where COVID-19 came from is fiercely debated. But the coronavirus pandemic has drawn more scrutiny of research on germs with pandemic potential.

“It reminds us that this is no laughing matter. It does not have to be a 50 percent lethal virus to cause global societal disruption and a lot of damage and that we need to be really careful,” Lipsitch said.

“I think it has spurred some more cautious thought about oversight but the oversight really still is not in place,” he added.

A U.S. advisory board has recommended ways to tighten the guidelines. Experts say they are a step in the right direction but loopholes remain. Some say they should be law, not guidelines.

On the other hand, Lipsitch noted, “there’s a real risk that Congress will overreact and unduly restrict very valuable and completely safe research in an effort to restrict less valuable and more dangerous research.”

Plus, the rules would only apply to U.S.-funded research. Other countries need to do the same, Imperiale said.

“If this is not some sort of international consensus, we’re not accomplishing what we really want to accomplish here, which is keeping the world safe,” he said. “Because, as we all know, infectious agents don’t respect national borders.”

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Cameroon, Gabon Reinforce Travel Restrictions After Equatorial Guinea Confirms Marburg Cases

Cameroon and Gabon have stepped up border security after neighboring Equatorial Guinea confirmed a spreading Marburg virus has killed at least nine people. Despite the controls, people are still traveling across the porous borders, raising fears the virus that causes hemorrhagic fever could spread. 

At the government primary school in Kye-Ossi, a town on Cameroon’s southern border with Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, children sing that regular hand washing protects people from diseases.

Mireille Evan, head teacher of the school, said more than 15 children from Equatorial Guinea attended classes in Kye-Ossi on Friday. She said those children were separated from their Cameroonian peers and obliged to wash their hands before attending classes.

Evan said Cameroon’s public health ministry officials informed her that movement across the border was restricted because of an outbreak of the Marburg virus in Equatorial Guinea. She said it is not her duty to stop children from attending classes.

Cameroon’s ministries of basic and secondary education said that several hundred children cross every day from Kie Ntem, an administrative unit in Equatorial Guinea, to study in Kye-Ossi alongside scores of children from Gabon. 

Also, several hundred merchants cross borders to Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon each day to conduct business, according to CEMAC, a regional economic bloc.

Authorities in Equatorial Guinea said the Marburg outbreak has killed nine people, but the World Health Organization said the death toll may be as high as 20.

Cameroon’s public health ministry said Friday that it had held discussions with health officials in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea on ways to stop or reduce the spread of the disease.

Felix Nguele Ngule, governor of Cameroon’s South Region, where Kye-Ossi is located, said surveillance and travel restrictions have been reinforced along the borders. 

“What we can assure the population is that the surveillance system has been activated, health staff are mobilized and even the administrative authorities at the border are equally mobilized to monitor the disease,” he said. “We want to thank the World Health Organization and the Red Coss that have joined us to see into it that that disease should not cross the border and enter our country.”

However, Nguele said the porous borders make it difficult for Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea police to fully control the movement of people.

On February 14, Cameroon’s health ministry reported two suspected cases of Marburg virus in the country after a first deadly outbreak in neighboring Equatorial Guinea.

Gabon’s state broadcaster, RTG, on Friday reported that after the second Marburg outbreak in Equatorial Guinea in less than two months, the government of Gabon reinforced its contingency plan of zero contamination of Marburg virus disease.

RTG reported Libreville had also dispatched a team of technicians to identify an isolation area for possible suspected cases in border areas.

Cameroon and Gabon said civilians should avoid contact with animals and people who have traveled to Equatorial Guinea and make sure people with fever, fatigue, and blood-stained vomit and diarrhea are isolated.

The WHO said Marburg is transmitted to people from fruit bats, spreads among people through bodily fluids, and has a fatality rate of up to 88%. 

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