Month: February 2024

Taylor Swift Chases Album of Year Record at Female-Focused Grammys 

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LOS ANGELES — Luminaries of the music business gather to hand out the annual Grammy awards on Sunday at a red-carpet ceremony that may culminate with another record for Taylor Swift.

The 34-year-old pop superstar in the middle of the world’s highest-grossing tour is competing for an unprecedented fourth album of the year trophy with “Midnights.”

No other artist in the 66-year Grammys history has claimed the coveted honor four times. Music legends Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder won three each.

The awards will be broadcast live on CBS and streamed on Paramount+ PARA.O starting at 5 p.m. PT (0100 GMT). Comedian Trevor Noah returns for a fourth stint to host the ceremony at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles.

Heavy rain is forecast to hit southern California on Sunday. Grammy organizers said the pre-ceremony red carpet would be held under tents to protect nominees from the weather.

Swift is not a lock for the album award. Industry pundits said it could go to “SOS” from R&B artist SZA, who would be the first Black woman since Lauryn Hill 25 years ago to win the category as a lead artist. SZA, singer of dark ballad “Kill Bill,” leads all Grammy nominees this year with nine nods.

“It’s very tight between SZA for ‘SOS’ and Taylor for ‘Midnights,'” said Billboard awards editor Paul Grein, who gave the edge to SZA. “They are overdue for an R&B/hip-hop winner.”

Women figure prominently in the 2024 Grammys field. Just one man, Jon Batiste, made the cut among eight nominees for the album prize. Other contenders include Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Rey and boygenius, the band featuring Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus.

Swift also is vying for song of the year, a writing honor that she has never won despite widespread accolades for her lyrics. “Anti-Hero,” her examination of self-doubt, faces competition from Miley Cyrus empowerment anthem “Flowers” and others.

Music from the blockbuster “Barbie” movie received 12 nominations, including record of the year for Billie Eilish’s ballad “What Was I Made For?”

Contenders in the best new artist field include rapper Ice Spice, country singer Jelly Roll, R&B and pop singer Victoria Monet, singer-songwriter Coco Jones and folk-pop singer Noah Kahan.

Scheduled performers on the Grammys stage include SZA, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, Dua Lipa, Luke Combs and Burna Boy. U2 will perform live from the Sphere in Las Vegas.

Winners were chosen by the musicians, producers, engineers and others who make up the Recording Academy. The group has worked to diversify its membership in recent years by inviting more women and people of color to its ranks.

Organizers also added a handful of new categories this year, including best African music performance. 
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Crane Who Fell for Keeper Dies at 42

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WASHINGTON — One of the great interspecies love stories of our time has come to an end.

Walnut, a white-naped crane and internet celebrity, has died at age 42. She is survived by eight chicks, the loving staff at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and by Chris Crowe, a human zookeeper whom Walnut regarded as her mate for nearly 20 years.

“Walnut was a unique individual with a vivacious personality,” Crowe said, in a statement released by the National Zoo. “I’ll always be grateful for her bond with me.”

The tale of Walnut (and Chris) has inspired internet fame and the occasional love song. It dates back to the bird’s 2004 arrival at the institute’s campus in Front Royal, Virginia.

The chick of two wild cranes who had been brought to the U.S. illegally and were later rescued by the International Crane Foundation, Walnut was hand-raised by people and bonded with her human caretakers. That preference continued when she came to the institute; she showed no interest in breeding and even attacked male crane suitors.

But white-naped cranes are considered vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Today, fewer than 5,300 remain in their native habitats in Mongolia, Siberia, Korea, Japan and China due to habitat loss, pollution, nest predation and poaching. And as the offspring of two wild-caught cranes, Walnut’s genes were not represented in U.S. zoos. So convincing Walnut to breed was regarded as a priority.

In stepped Crowe, who, according to a zoo statement, won her over by “observing and mimicking” the institute’s male white-naped cranes’ actions during breeding season.

Videos show Crowe offering Walnut food as well as grass and leaves for nest-building materials. When he flaps his arms in front of her, the tall majestic bird flaps excitedly in response and dances in a half-circle with her head bobbing. Once Crowe had gained her trust, he was able to artificially inseminate her using sperm from a male crane.

The unique arrangement proved wildly successful, and Walnut had eight chicks. The fertilized eggs were given to other white-napped crane pairs who tended to them as their own. Of the eight white-napped cranes currently living at the institute, one is Walnut’s chick and another is her grand-chick.

The relationship also seems to have been beneficial for Walnut’s health; at 42, she nearly tripled the median life expectancy of 15 years for white-naped cranes in human care.

Walnut was born in Wisconsin in the summer of 1981. She was named after a local Wisconsin restaurant’s popular walnut pie dessert.

Starting on the morning of Jan. 2, keepers noticed that Walnut wasn’t eating or drinking. Not even offers of her favorite treats — frozen-thawed mice, peanuts and mealworms — couldn’t spark her appetite. Veterinarians administered fluids and antibiotics and drew blood for analysis. But her health continued to decline and Walnut was eventually hospitalized. She died peacefully, surrounded by an animal care team; an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be renal failure.

“She was always confident in expressing herself, an eager and excellent dancer, and stoic in the face of life’s challenges,” Crowe said. “Walnut’s extraordinary story has helped bring attention to her vulnerable species’ plight. I hope that everyone who was touched by her story understands that her species’ survival depends on our ability and desire to protect wetland habitats.” 
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Who Freed Flaco? Owl’s Escape From New York Zoo Remains a Mystery

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new york — This New York love story begins with a criminal act of sabotage. 

Under cover of darkness a year ago Friday, someone breached a waist-high fence and slipped into the Central Park Zoo. Once inside, they cut a hole through a steel mesh cage, freeing a majestic Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco who had arrived at the zoo as a fledgling 13 years earlier. 

Immediately, Flaco fled the park, blinking his big orange eyes at pedestrians and police on Fifth Avenue before flying off into the night. 

In the year since his dramatic escape, Flaco has become one of the city’s most beloved characters. By day he lounges in Manhattan’s courtyards and parks or perches on fire escapes. He spends his nights hooting atop water towers and preying on the city’s abundant rats. 

To the surprise of many experts, Flaco is thriving in the urban wilds. An apex predator with a nearly 6-foot (2-meter) wingspan, he has called on abilities some feared he hadn’t developed during a lifetime in captivity, gamely exploring new neighborhoods and turning up unexpectedly at the windows of New Yorkers. 

“He was the underdog from the start. People did not expect him to survive,” said Jacqueline Emery, one of several birders who document the owl’s daily movements and share them online with his legions of admirers. “New Yorkers especially connect to him because of his resilience.” 

But as Flaco enters his second year in the spotlight, it can be easy to forget that his freedom is the result of a crime, one that has improbably remained unsolved. 

‘This was a crime’

The break-in happened steps from the shared headquarters of the New York City Parks Department and the Central Park Zoo, in the vicinity of at least one surveillance camera. 

But if they have collected any evidence on a potential suspect, police and zoo authorities have declined to share it. Since the zoo suspended efforts to re-capture Flaco in February 2023, there has been no public information about the crime. 

Privately, the zoo has sought to soften descriptions of Flaco’s former living conditions, in a minivan-sized structure decorated with a painted mountain vista, barely twice the width of Flaco’s extended wings. 

In internal emails obtained through a Freedom of Information request, zoo officials urged the Parks Department not to publicly describe Flaco as “raised in captivity.” Likewise, the term “escape” should be avoided. 

“That puts the blame on the animal rather than the perpetrator,” the zoo’s then-communications director, Max Pulsinelli, wrote in one email. “This was a crime.” 

In the absence of official information, theories of the crime abound — a youthful prank, perhaps, or an attempted owl heist gone awry? For many invested in Flaco’s fate, the most plausible explanation is that he was freed for ideological reasons. 

Proponents of the animal liberation theory point to the seemingly targeted nature of the crime, as well as the limitations of the owl’s modest enclosure. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was someone who loved Flaco and wanted him free,” said Nicole Barrantes, a wildlife campaign manager with World Animal Protection, who started a petition against Flaco being returned to the zoo. “His habitat was ridiculous. It was the saddest thing ever.” 

Break-ins and vandalism have long been tactics some activists have used to free animals. Such actions are often made public by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, an anonymous online database. 

The group’s spokesperson, Jerry Vlasak, said no one had come forward to claim responsibility for Flaco’s escape. “We never received a communique,” he said. “But we’re certainly glad it happened.” 

A spokesperson for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which has operated the zoo since 1988, did not respond to the claims that Flaco’s zoo habitat was inadequate. 

“This was a criminal act that jeopardized the safety of the bird,” the zoo said in a statement, adding that they are continuing to monitor reports of Flaco’s activity and wellbeing and are “prepared to resume recovery efforts if he shows any sign of difficulty or distress.” 

Threats in the city

Even with his proficient hunting skills, Flaco faces many threats in the city, including a grave risk of consuming rodenticide through a poisoned rat. In 2021, another beloved Central Park owl, Barry, was fatally struck by a truck after ingesting a lethal dose of rat poison that may have impaired her flying. 

“All the hazards are still there,” cautioned Suzanne Shoemaker, the director of the Owl Moon Raptor Center in Maryland. “He’s shown some good instincts to be able to make it this far. He’s also lucky.” 

Flaco spent his initial months of freedom mostly in Central Park, which is loaded with wildlife, but has lately preferred more urban sections of Manhattan. There has been some speculation that he has been looking for a mate, though he most certainly won’t find one. Eurasian eagle owls aren’t native to North America. 

Stories of zoo animals breaking loose in the middle of the country’s densest city have long captured the public imagination, while often ushering in calls for reforms. 

Following a series of bird thefts and “senseless” animal beatings in the 1970s, administrators ordered immediate security upgrades and the redesign of some pens at the zoo, which the city’s parks commissioner at the time described as “Rikers Island for animals” because of poor living conditions. 

A few years later, when a group of vandals made off with a boa constrictor and a parrot named “Peanuts,” officials accused the perpetrators of stealing the animals for “voodoo rites.” 

Since those days the zoo has been substantially redesigned. 

Wildlife groups have long warned that owls can be used as sacrifices in certain religious ceremonies — particularly birds like Flaco, who boasts prominent ear tufts. The Eurasian eagle-owl is also commonly used in falconry, selling for as much as $3,000. 

But while some have suggested Flaco was targeted for either financial or spiritual purposes, such speculation would seem undermined by the fact that he emerged from his damaged cage and into the bustling cityscape unscathed. 

On a recent night on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, one of the Flaco’s most dedicated observers, David Barrett, struck an ambivalent tone when asked how New Yorkers should think about the crime that made him an avian celebrity. 

“To me, the folk hero is Flaco,” said Barrett, who runs the X account Manhattan Bird Alert, documenting the bird’s whereabouts in real time. “It’s an amazing thing: He lives his whole life in captivity and in a matter of days he taught himself to fly and to hunt rats.” 

Tuning his ears skyward, Barrett listened for the signature hoot that had echoed across Broadway on so many recent nights. 

“It’s not our business to try to solve crimes,” he said. “We’re just glad he’s here.” 
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Music from Africa Rising on Global Charts, with Help from TikTok

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LOS ANGELES — When the biggest names in music gather Sunday for the industry’s top honors at the Grammy Awards, they will hand out a new trophy for best African music performance.

The prize reflects the growing popularity of Afrobeats, and other music from the continent, which is gaining a global audience with help from social media platforms such as short-form video app TikTok.

Afrobeats originated in West Africa, primarily Ghana and Nigeria, though the term is often used as a catch-all for various music styles coming from Africa. It features percussion rhythms mixed with various genres from rap to jazz, R&B and others.

Modern Afrobeats “has a feel-good groove to it,” said Heran Mamo, R&B and hip-hop reporter at Billboard magazine, which created a U.S. Afrobeats chart in 2022. “It’s bound to reach a wider audience because it already contains a little bit of everything for everyone.”

On Spotify, Afrobeats music was streamed 13.5 billion times in 2022, up from 2 billion in 2017.

In another milestone, Nigerian singer Burna Boy became the first African artist to sell out a U.S. stadium when he played New York’s Citi Field last summer.

Musicians in the running for the new Grammy on Sunday include Tyla, a 22-year-old South African singer. She hit the top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart with the danceable Water, an example of a genre known as amapiano, a jazz- and piano-infused sound.

A TikTok executive in South Africa had noticed Tyla gaining attention in her local market back in 2020, and reached out to her with tips on how to maximize her presence on the app.

Water was released in July 2023, after Tyla signed with Sony Music Entertainment’s 6758.T Epic Records.

By September, TikTok users were replicating Tyla’s dance moves in the #WaterChallenge. To date, 1.5 million videos have been created using the song, and the #WaterChallenge hashtag has been viewed 1.8 billion times, according to TikTok.

“I think that TikTok has played the role of incubator, but also the distributor to the billion-plus global users and it’s just really landed,” said Ole Obermann, global head of music at TikTok.

Tyla’s success illustrates the power of TikTok and YouTube to help artists find fan bases around the world, a role once reserved for music labels.

“The proliferation of streaming along with new social media platforms (e.g. TikTok) has accelerated artist discovery, and have provided new mediums for artists to grow their fan bases globally,” Bank of America Securities analyst Jessica Reif Cohen said in a research note predicting media trends for 2024.

TikTok remains controversial in the United States because of its ownership by Chinese company ByteDance, which critics view as a security risk. The Biden administration has banned the app on U.S. government devices. TikTok officials say they have rigorous safeguards in place and they reject allegations of spying on user data.

The app also is in a dispute with Universal Music GroupUMG.AS over how much it pays for use of songs from Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and others. Music from many Universal artists was unavailable on TikTok as of Friday.

For U.S. teenagers, TikTok ranks as the second-most common music discovery source behind YouTube, according to a recent MIDiA Research survey that showed 45% of 16- to 19-year-olds found new music through the platform.

Other Afrobeats artists who found audiences on TikTok include Nigerian rapper Rema. He collaborated with Selena Gomez for a remix of his song Calm Down, which hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won an award for best Afrobeats at MTV’s Video Music Awards last September.

TikTok is helping to forge new connections between U.S. and African artists. Obermann said he played a short clip of a song called Ojapiano from Nigerian musician KCee for Ryan Tedder, a songwriter and lead singer for the band OneRepublic.

Tedder liked the sound so much that he immediately reached out to KCee, who jumped on a plane from Lagos to Los Angeles two days later so the pair could make a remix of the song.

Obermann hopes the soon-to-be-released remix will give new life to Ojapiano, a combination of amapiano and a Nigerian flute called Oja, and keep fueling the Afrobeats craze.

“This is going to be a big, growing genre,” Obermann said.
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New Amazon TV Series Filmed in Hong Kong but Unavailable There

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Hong Kong  — Frustrated Hong Kong residents say they have been unable to watch the online TV series Expats, starring Hollywood star Nicole Kidman, which was launched globally on Amazon Prime Video late last week and focuses on the former British colony.

The six-part show, directed by Chinese-born American filmmaker Lulu Wang, is based on a novel by Korean American author Janice Y. K. Lee.

The plot revolves around the lives of three women in Hong Kong in 2014, and the scenes include numerous Hong Kong elements. In addition to settings in familiar tourist sites such as Victoria Harbor, it reproduces scenes of the 2014 Hong Kong protests, also known as the Umbrella Movement, when protesters took to the streets holding umbrellas, demanding the right to choose the city’s chief executive.

It is still unclear whether the decision to block the program in Hong Kong was a business decision or whether it was due to interference from authorities there. Analysts suspect that local Amazon Prime users are unable to watch the program because of those reproduced scenes of the 2014 protests.

Some also worry it may be another sign of Beijing’s broader crackdown on the arts.

A Hong Kong government spokesperson told RFA: “We have no comment on the operational arrangements of individual businesses.”

A spokesperson for the Hong Kong government issued a statement late last month saying that the current Film Censorship Ordinance only regulates films and does not apply to streaming or Internet platforms.

VOA reached out to Amazon Prime Video’s Hong Kong office for comment on why the show is not available in the city but did not receive any response by the time of publication.

“Since this movie was shot in Hong Kong, the director of the movie is of Chinese origin, and the content has a lot to do with the true events, ordinary Hong Kong citizens will definitely want to see a show that truly reflects Hong Kong society,” said Guo Zhenming, a Chinese independent film director.

Guo told VOA he believes self-censorship by Amazon may have kept the show from airing in Hong Kong.

Kenny Ng, a film censorship expert at Hong Kong Baptist University, believes that the matter is not directly related to the Hong Kong government.

“So many new shows are created on earth every day,” Ng said. “I don’t believe that the officials of the Hong Kong government have the ability to know that such a series is about to be released. The current Hong Kong censorship regulations govern films shown in theaters, not streaming platforms. … A series not being shown is often the result of a compromise made after negotiations.”

He believes Amazon may have made a business decision to abandon the Hong Kong market for this show based on the territory’s political situation and social atmosphere.

Ng believes that no matter whose decision it was, Hong Kong people’s freedom to watch the show has certainly been violated. He said many Hong Kong people are going to movie and TV show websites in China to look for the show.

“If the public had a choice, they might not be so eager to see this show. But now they suddenly cannot see it, everyone is doing everything possible to go and see it,” he said.

He said there will always be a market for banned shows.
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China Launches Rocket as Commercial Missions Pick Up Pace

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BEIJING — A small but powerful Chinese rocket capable of carrying payloads at competitive costs delivered nine satellites into orbit Saturday, Chinese state media reported, in what is gearing up to be another busy year for Chinese commercial launches. 

The Jielong-3, or Smart Dragon-3, blasted off from a floating barge off the coast of Yangjiang in southern Guangdong province, the second launch of the rocket in just two months. 

Developed by China Rocket Company, a commercial offshoot of a state-owned launch vehicle manufacturer, Jielong-3 made its first flight in December 2022. 

President Xi Jinping has called for the expansion of strategic industries including the commercial space sector, deemed key to building constellations of satellites for communications, remote sensing and navigation. 

Also Saturday, Chinese automaker Geely Holding Group launched 11 satellites to boost its capacity to provide more accurate navigation for autonomous vehicles. 

Last year saw 17 Chinese commercial launches with one failure, among a record 67 orbital launches by China. That was up from 10 Chinese commercial launches in 2022, including two failures. 

In 2023, China conducted more launches than any other country except for the United States, which made 116 launch attempts, including just under 100 by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. 

Critical to the construction of commercial satellite networks is China’s ability to open more launch windows, expand rocket types to accommodate different payload sizes, lower launch costs and increase the number of launch sites.
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X Chromosome Linked to Autoimmune Diseases

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WASHINGTON — Women are far more likely than men to get autoimmune diseases, when an out-of-whack immune system attacks their own bodies — and new research may finally explain why.

It’s all about how the body handles females’ extra X chromosome, Stanford University researchers reported Thursday — a finding that could lead to better ways to detect a long list of diseases that are hard to diagnose and treat.

“This transforms the way we think about this whole process of autoimmunity, especially the male-female bias,” said University of Pennsylvania immunologist E. John Wherry, who wasn’t involved in the study.

More than 24 million Americans, by some estimates up to 50 million, have an autoimmune disorder — diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and dozens more. About 4 of every 5 patients are women, a mystery that has baffled scientists for decades.

One theory is that the X chromosome might be a culprit. After all, females have two X chromosomes while males have one X and one Y.

The new research, published in the journal Cell, shows that extra X is involved — but in an unexpected way.

Our DNA is carried inside each cell in 23 pairs of chromosomes, including that final pair that determines biological sex. The X chromosome is packed with hundreds of genes, far more than males’ much smaller Y chromosome. Every female cell must switch off one of its X chromosome copies, to avoid getting a toxic double dose of all those genes.

Performing that so-called X-chromosome inactivation is a special type of RNA called Xist, pronounced like “exist.” This long stretch of RNA parks itself in spots along a cell’s extra X chromosome, attracts proteins that bind to it in weird clumps, and silences the chromosome.

Stanford dermatologist Dr. Howard Chang was exploring how Xist does its job when his lab identified nearly 100 of those stuck-on proteins. Chang recognized many as related to skin-related autoimmune disorders — patients can have “autoantibodies” that mistakenly attack those normal proteins.

“That got us thinking: These are the known ones. What about the other proteins in Xist?” Chang said. Maybe this molecule, found only in women, “could somehow organize proteins in such a way as to activate the immune system.”

If true, Xist by itself couldn’t cause autoimmune disease or all women would be affected. Scientists have long thought it takes a combination of genetic susceptibility and an environmental trigger, such as an infection or injury, for the immune system to run amok. For example, the Epstein-Barr virus is linked to multiple sclerosis.

Chang’s team decided to engineer male lab mice to artificially make Xist — without silencing their only X chromosome — and see what happened.

Researchers also specially bred mice susceptible to a lupus-like condition that can be triggered by a chemical irritant.

The mice that produced Xist formed its hallmark protein clumps and, when triggered, developed lupus-like autoimmunity at levels similar to females, the team concluded.

“We think that’s really important, for Xist RNA to leak out of the cell to where the immune system gets to see it. You still needed this environmental trigger to cause the whole thing to kick off,” explained Chang, who is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports The Associated Press’ Health and Science Department.

Beyond mice, researchers also examined blood samples from 100 patients — and uncovered autoantibodies targeting Xist-associated proteins that scientists hadn’t previously linked to autoimmune disorders. A potential reason, Chang suggests: standard tests for autoimmunity were made using male cells.

Much more research is necessary but the findings “might give us a shorter path to diagnosing patients that look clinically and immunologically quite different,” said Penn’s Wherry.

“You may have autoantibodies to Protein A and another patient may have autoantibodies to Proteins C and D,” but knowing they’re all part of the larger Xist complex allows doctors to better hunt disease patterns, he added. “Now we have at least one big part of the puzzle of biological context.”

Stanford’s Chang wonders if it may even be possible to one day interrupt the process.

“How does that go from RNA to abnormal cells, this will be a next step of the investigation.”
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Beheading Video Gone from YouTube, But Questions Remain

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NEW YORK — A graphic video from a Pennsylvania man accused of beheading his father that circulated for hours on YouTube has put a spotlight yet again on gaps in social media companies’ ability to prevent horrific postings from spreading across the web.

Police said Wednesday that they charged Justin Mohn, 32, with first-degree murder and abusing a corpse after he beheaded his father, Michael, in their Bucks County home and publicized it in a 14-minute YouTube video that anyone, anywhere could see.

News of the incident — which drew comparisons to the beheading videos posted online by the Islamic State militants at the height of their prominence nearly a decade ago — came as the CEOs of Meta, TikTok and other social media companies were testifying in front of federal lawmakers frustrated by what they see as a lack of progress on child safety online. YouTube, which is owned by Google, did not attend the hearing despite its status as one of the most popular platforms among teens.

The disturbing video from Pennsylvania follows other horrific clips that have been broadcast on social media in recent years, including domestic mass shootings livestreamed from Louisville, Kentucky; Memphis, Tennessee; and Buffalo, New York — as well as carnages filmed abroad in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the German city of Halle.

Middletown Township Police Capt. Pete Feeney said the video in Pennsylvania was posted at about 10 p.m. Tuesday and online for about five hours, a time lag that raises questions about whether social media platforms are delivering on moderation practices that might be needed more than ever amid wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and an extremely contentious presidential election in the U.S.

“It’s another example of the blatant failure of these companies to protect us,” said Alix Fraser, director of the Council for Responsible Social Media at the nonprofit advocacy organization Issue One. “We can’t trust them to grade their own homework.”

A spokesperson for YouTube said the company removed the video, deleted Mohn’s channel and was tracking and removing any re-uploads that might pop up. The video-sharing site says it uses a combination of artificial intelligence and human moderators to monitor its platform but did not respond to questions about how the video was caught or why it wasn’t done sooner.

Major social media companies moderate content with the help of powerful automated systems, which can often catch prohibited content before a human can. But that technology can sometimes fall short when a video is violent and graphic in a way that is new or unusual, as it was in this case, said Brian Fishman, co-founder of the trust and safety technology startup Cinder.

That’s when human moderators are “really, really critical,” he said. “AI is improving, but it’s not there yet.”

The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a group set up by tech companies to prevent these types of videos from spreading online, was in communication with its all of its members about the incident on Tuesday evening, said Adelina Petit-Vouriot, a spokesperson for the organization.

Roughly 40 minutes after midnight Eastern time on Wednesday, GIFCT issued a “Content Incident Protocol,” which it activates to formally alert its members – and other stakeholders – about a violent event that’s been livestreamed or recorded. GIFCT allows the platform with the original footage to submit a “hash” — a digital fingerprint corresponding to a video — and notifies nearly two dozen other member companies so they can restrict it from their platforms.

But by Wednesday morning, the video had already spread to X, where a graphic clip of Mohn holding his father’s head remained on the platform for at least seven hours and received 20,000 views. The company, formerly known as Twitter, did not respond to a request for comment.

Experts in radicalization say that social media and the internet have lowered the barrier to entry for people to explore extremist groups and ideologies, allowing any person who may be predisposed to violence to find a community that reinforces those ideas.

In the video posted after the killing, Mohn described his father as a 20-year federal employee, espoused a variety of conspiracy theories and ranted against the government.

Most social platforms have policies to remove violent and extremist content. But they can’t catch everything, and the emergence of many newer, less closely moderated sites has allowed more hateful ideas to fester unchecked, said Michael Jensen, senior researcher at the University of Maryland-based Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, or START.

Despite the obstacles, social media companies need to be more vigilant about regulating violent content, said Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“The reality is that social media has become a front line in extremism and terrorism,” Ware said. “That’s going to require more serious and committed efforts to push back.”

Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at the media advocacy group Free Press, said among the tech reforms she would like to see are more transparency about what kinds of employees are being impacted by layoffs, and more investment in trust and safety workers.

Google, which owns YouTube, this month laid off hundreds of employees working on its hardware, voice assistance and engineering teams. Last year, the company said it cut 12,000 workers “across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions,” without offering additional detail.
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Too Pretty? Easter Poster of Jesus Prompts Criticism in Spain

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MADRID — A poster in the southern Spanish city of Seville that depicts a young, handsome Jesus wearing only a loincloth has unleashed a storm on social media, with some calling it an affront to the figure of Christ and others posting lewd remarks and memes poking fun at the image.

The poster by internationally recognized Seville artist Salustiano García Cruz shows a fresh-faced Jesus without a crown of thorns, no suffering face and minuscule wounds on the hands and ribcage. It was commissioned and approved by the General Council of Brotherhoods, which organizes the renowned and immensely popular Holy Week processions ahead of Easter in Seville.

As soon as it was unveiled last week criticism of it went viral on social media and a debate erupted over how a resurrected Christ should be depicted. Many called it a disgrace, inappropriate, too pretty, modernist and out of line with Seville’s Easter tradition.

Spain is predominantly Catholic and church traditions such as marriage, baptisms and religious parades are immensely popular both among believers and nonbelievers. A campaign on Change.org to have the poster of Jesus withdrawn was signed by some 14,000 people from around the country.

The artist, García, defended the work and dismissed the poster’s critics as old fashioned.

“There is nothing revolutionary in the painting,” García told Atlas news agency. “There is contemporaneity, but all the elements that I have used are elements that have been used in the last seven centuries in sacred art.

“I don’t see at what point, at what element, people who don’t like it don’t like it,” he said.

In another interview published by El Mundo daily, Garcia responded to criticism from conservative groups that the depiction of Jesus was “effeminate” or “homoerotic.”

“A gay Christ because he looks sweet and is handsome, come on! We are in the 21st century,” García said.

The artist said he used his son, Horacio, as the model for the poster.

“It caught us a little more by surprise because everything was done with respect,” Horacio Garcia told Atlas.

“A lot of controversy comes from the fact that the model is too good, the Christ too handsome, too attractive,” he said. But it hasn’t been all bad: Horacio Garcia said he also has received many compliments and good wishes from people.

The General Council of Brotherhoods has so far ignored calls to replace the poster before Holy Week at the end of March. In past years, some posters for different Catholic celebrations were withdrawn following criticism.

Seville Mayor José Luis Sanz labeled the controversy “artificial.”

“I like the poster,” he said, adding that not all Holy Week posters can be the same each year. “Some posters are riskier, some more classical, some are more daring.”
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Carl Weathers, Linebacker-Turned-Actor in ‘Rocky,’ ‘Predator’ Movies, Dies

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NEW YORK — Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker who became a Hollywood action movie and comedy star, playing nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” movies, facing off against Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Predator” and teaching golf in “Happy Gilmore,” has died. He was 76.

Matt Luber, his manager, said Weathers died Thursday. His family issued a statement saying he died “peacefully in his sleep.”

Weathers was comfortable flexing his muscles on the big screen in “Action Jackson” as well as joking around on the small screen in such shows as “Arrested Development.” He was perhaps most closely associated with Creed, who made his first appearance as the cocky, undisputed heavyweight world champion in 1976’s “Rocky,” starring Sylvester Stallone.

“It puts you on the map and makes your career, so to speak. But that’s a one-off, so you’ve got to follow it up with something. Fortunately, those movies kept coming, and Apollo Creed became more and more in people’s consciousness and welcome in their lives, and it was just the right guy at the right time,” he told The Daily Beast in 2017.

Most recently, Weathers appeared in all three seasons of the Disney+ hit “The Mandalorian,” for which he earned an Emmy nomination in 2021.

Creed, who appeared in the first four “Rocky” movies, memorably died in the ring of 1984’s “Rocky IV,” going toe-to-toe with the hulking, steroid-using Soviet Ivan Drago, played by Dolph Lundgren.

Weathers went on to 1987’s “Predator,” where he flexed his pecs alongside Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura and a host of others, and 1988’s nouveau blaxploitation flick “Action Jackson.”

He later added a false wooden hand to play a golf pro for the 1996 comedy classic “Happy Gilmore” opposite Adam Sandler and starred in Dick Wolf’s short-lived spin-off series “Chicago Justice” in 2017.

He also voiced Combat Carl in the “Toy Story” franchise.

Weathers grew up admiring actors such as Woody Strode, whose combination of physique and acting prowess in “Spartacus” made an early impression. Others he idolized included actors Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte and athletes Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali, stars who broke the mold and the color barrier.

“There are so many people that came before me who I admired and whose success I wanted to emulate, and just kind of hit the benchmarks they hit in terms of success, who created a pathway that I’ve been able to walk and find success as a result. And hopefully I can inspire someone else to do good work as well,” he told the Detroit News in 2023.

Growing up in New Orleans, Weathers started performing in plays as early as grade school. In high school, athletics took him down another path, but he would reunite with his first love later in life.

Weathers played college football at San Diego State University — he majored in theater — and went on to play for one season in the NFL, for the Oakland Raiders, in 1970.

After the Raiders, he joined the Canadian Football League, playing for two years while finishing his studies during the offseason at San Francisco State University. He graduated with a B.A. in drama in 1974.

After appearing in several films and TV shows, including “Good Times,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “Starsky & Hutch,” as well as fighting Nazis alongside Harrison Ford in “Force 10 From Navarone,” Weathers landed his knockout role — Creed. He told The Hollywood Reporter that his start in the iconic franchise was not auspicious.

He was asked to read with the writer, Stallone, then unknown. Weathers read the scene but felt it didn’t land and so he blurted out: “I could do a lot better if you got me a real actor to work with,” he recalled. “So I just insulted the star of the movie without really knowing it and not intending to.”

Weathers is survived by two sons.
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US Hurricane Center’s Forecasts to Expand to Include Inland Areas

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ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — The “cone of uncertainty” produced by the National Hurricane Center to forecast the location and ferocity of a tropical storm is getting an update this year to include predictions for inland areas, where wind and flooding are sometimes more treacherous than damage to the coasts. 

The Miami-based hurricane center said Thursday on the X social media platform that the new, experimental forecast tool will be ready around August 15, just before the traditional peak of the hurricane season that begins June 1. 

“This experimental graphic will help better convey wind hazard risk inland in addition to coastal wind hazards,” the center said in the post. 

The traditional cone in use for years generally shows the forecast track of a hurricane or tropical storm but is focused on wind and storm surge along the coasts — and forecasters always warn not to focus on the center line alone. Heavy rains and strong winds can be deadly and cause significant damage inland, which happened in 2022 with Hurricane Ian, when 149 people died in Florida. 

The goal of the expanded forecast cone is to make sure people who don’t live along a coast are aware of the dangers they could still face, said Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the hurricane center. The new cone features colors to show which places face threats in a much broader way than before. If someone lives in one of those areas, “you are under risk,” Rhome said. 

There’s growing evidence that the impacts of climate change — such as rising sea levels — are making the most severe hurricanes even more intense and increasing the likelihood that a developing hurricane will rapidly intensify and lead to more flooding and more powerful storm surges battering coastlines, experts say. 

After Ian blasted across the Fort Myers, Florida, area — where the most people died and the worst damage was caused — the storm kept dumping rain and toppling trees across a wide swath of the state of Florida. Floods were reported around Orlando and its theme parks, south to Kissimmee, east to Daytona Beach, and in central Florida’s cattle and citrus country. 

Ian produced between 10 and 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain across much of central Florida, the hurricane center reported. 

People near rivers were deeply and possibly unexpectedly affected. After Ian slogged through inland DeSoto County and the Peace River flooded the community, Fire Chief Chad Jorgensen urged residents to flee, saying the river was unpredictable and dangerous. 

The first named storm of 2024 will be Alberto. The 2023 season saw 20 named storms, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including seven hurricanes. Only Hurricane Idalia struck the U.S., coming ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region of Florida’s Gulf Coast but also causing significant inland flooding. 
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Scientists Try to Assess Wars’ Impact on Environment, Climate Change

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Countries waging wars are more focused on winning battles than mitigating their environmental impact. But researchers — who say the environmental impact of active conflicts is substantial — are trying to measure wars’ effects. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. Carla Babb contributed.
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NASA’s Tiny Helicopter on Mars Makes Final Flight

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A great space success story comes to an end. And SpaceX is at it again with a busy week of launches. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.
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Staggering Rise in New Cancer Cases Projected in 2050  

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Geneva — New cancer cases are projected to rise by 77% to more than 35 million in 2050 from an estimated 20 million new cases and 9.7 million deaths in 2022, according to new data released Thursday by the World Health Organization’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

The report, which is being issued ahead of World Cancer Day February 4, projects the greatest relative increases in cancer cases will occur in lower human development index (HDI) settings. That is a reference to a tool developed by the United Nations to measure a country’s level of social and economic development.

“We expect the global population of the world to rise from eight billion currently in 2022 to almost 10 billion, 9.7 billion, by 2050 and this will have a large impact on the number of new cancer cases,” said Freddie Bray, head of the cancer surveillance branch at IARC.

“You will see a 142% increase in cancer cases predicted by 2050 in low HDI countries. These are the countries that have fewer resources to manage the cancer burden,” he said, noting that cancer deaths likewise are projected to almost double in 2050.

The report cites tobacco, alcohol, and obesity as key factors behind the increasing global incidence of cancer, with air pollution a major environmental risk factor.

New estimates show lung cancer to be the most commonly occurring cancer worldwide with 2.5 million new cases in 2022. Female breast cancer ranked a close second, followed by colorectal, prostate, and stomach cancers.

The report said breast cancer was the most diagnosed and leading cause of death for women. For men it was lung cancer.

Bray observed that, “One in five men and one in five women will develop cancer in a lifetime and around one in nine men and one in 12 women will develop and die from the disease.”

The global estimates reveal striking inequities in the cancer burden, with people in poorer, less developed countries most at risk. Isabelle Soerjomataram, deputy head of the cancer surveillance branch at IARC, says that is particularly true for breast cancer.

“Women in lower HDI countries are 50% less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than women in high HDI countries, yet they are at a much higher risk of dying of the disease due to late diagnosis and inadequate access to quality treatment,” she said.

A World Health Organization survey of 115 countries shows most countries do not adequately finance cancer and palliative care services, as part of universal health coverage, a situation that disproportionately affects underserved, poorer populations.

“Health care expenditure, particularly in cancer is increasing,” said Andre Ilbawi, WHO technical lead on cancer. “New technologies, population aging, and more people accessing more complex services are straining health budgets. Out of pocket payment in cancer is high and often push families into poverty,”

When people diagnosed with cancer are told they must pay out of pocket, Ilbawi said they are less likely to seek help, receive treatment and complete their care.

“That makes cancer more deadly and more expensive for economies, particularly as the burden of cancer increases,” he said, noting that governments can break this cycle by investing in cancer services.

“Cancer does not need to be expensive and should not be a death sentence,” he said.

“This is not the time to turn away. This is the time to double down and make those investments in cancer prevention and control or else we will be dealing with inequities that are even worse than what we see today.”

Soerjomataram also stressed the urgency of investing in prevention to address the growing global cancer burden and global inequities in cancer outcomes.

“Investing in prevention is becoming very key because we cannot treat our way out of cancer,” she said. “Treatment and providing access to care is important in preventing cancer so that no one is suffering from it.”
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History of AI

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From counting machines to neural networks, the development of artificial intelligence has paralleled emerging brain science. Writer, Matt Dibble; graphic designer, Kateryna Stepchenko; motion designer, Valeryia Rusak; narrator, Hayde Fitzpatrick.
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Lunar Night Puts Japan’s Lander Back to Sleep

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TOKYO — After a brief awakening, Japan’s Moon lander is out of action again but will resume its mission if it survives the two-week lunar night, the space agency said Thursday.

The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) touched down last month at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way.

As the sun’s angle shifted, it came back to life for two days this week and carried out scientific observations of a crater with its high-spec camera.

“After completing operation from 1/30 (to) 1/31, #SLIM entered a two-week dormancy period during the long lunar night,” space agency JAXA said on X, formerly Twitter.

“Although SLIM was not designed for the harsh lunar nights, we plan to try to operate again from mid-February, when the Sun will shine again on SLIM’s solar cells.”

JAXA said SLIM was able to “successfully complete observations… as originally planned” with its multiband spectroscopic camera and could study more target areas than initially expected.

The space agency also on Thursday posted a black-and-white photo of the rocky surface taken by the spacecraft.

It followed other grainy images sent back from the mission to investigate an exposed area of the moon’s mantle, the inner layer usually deep beneath its crust.

SLIM, dubbed the “Moon Sniper” for its precision landing technology, touched down within its target landing zone on Jan. 20.

The feat was a boon for Japan’s space program after a string of recent failures, making the nation only the fifth to achieve a “soft landing” on the moon, after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.

But during its descent, the craft suffered engine problems and ended up on its side, meaning the solar panels were facing west instead of up.

Russia, China and other countries from South Korea to the United Arab Emirates are also trying their luck to reach the moon.

U.S. firm Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander began leaking fuel after takeoff in January, dooming its mission. It likely burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere on its return.

NASA has also postponed plans for crewed lunar missions under its Artemis program.
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Russian Rock Band in Thailand Deported to Israel

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Bangkok — Members of the Russian-Belarus rock band Bi-2 who have been held in Thailand on immigration charges have been allowed to fly to Israel amid concerns they would be deported to Russia over the groups anti-war stance.

The band had been performing a concern in Phuket, a popular island in Thailand, but were arrested by Thai immigration officials for working without a permit last week.

The members were initially held in Phuket before being moved to detention in Bangkok.

Bi-2 has been a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s foreign ministry accused the group of supporting terrorism. Previously Moscow had labeled Yegor “Lyova” Bortnik, the band’s front man, as a foreign agent over his comments opposing Russian’s war in Ukraine.

Statements of the band’s detention in Thailand have been regularly posted on social media accounts. Some blamed the group’s legal troubles on outside pressure on Thailand.

Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director for Human Rights Watch, said Thailand made the right decision.

“Human rights concerns won out in Thailand’s decision to let all the Bi-2 band members travel to the safety of Israel. Bangkok was right to refuse Moscow’s demands to send these activist artists back to face certain persecution and worse in Russia. But while this particular Russian trans-national repression gambit failed, there is little doubt the Kremlin’s rights-abusing autocrats will keep trying to silence exiled Russian critics by hook or by crook, wherever they can,” he said in a press statement.

The seven-member band, which includes citizens of Russia, Israel and Australia, had been in diplomatic limbo after initial plans to deport them to Israel were cancelled. But Bortnik was allowed to fly alone to Tel Aviv earlier this week.

The band’s official Telegram channel confirmed they have left Thailand. “All musicians of the Bi-2 band have left Thailand safely and are heading to Tel Aviv. Details tomorrow.”

Given Thailand’s close relationship with Moscow, there were concerns that the band members could be sent back to Russia or Belarus.

Thailand has not ratified the U.N.’s 1951 Refugee Convention, meaning it has no specific domestic legal framework for protection of urban refugees and asylum-seekers.  But Thailand did pass the Act on Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance in 2022.

“In the enforced disappearance act, in article 13 Thai authorities or officials are not allowed to send anyone or deport anyone to a country if it is believed that those countries are going to violate human rights or human dignity,” Krisanaphong Poothakool, vice president and chairman of the Faculty of Criminology and Justice Administration a Rangsit University, told VOA.

Bangkok and Moscow are close trade partners, and Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin praised the two countries’ long-standing close relationship after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing in October.

Thailand is also a popular holiday destination for Russians. But in recent years, the Southeast Asian country has seen an influx in arrivals of Russians fleeing conscription for the war in Ukraine.

Thailand saw more than 1 million arrivals from Russia in 2023, one of the country’s highest numbers of international visitors. Thai authorities expect that number to double this year after Bangkok extended Russia’s arrival period to 90 days.

Since Putin ordered Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine two years ago, Moscow has been hit with western sanctions, and international isolation has somewhat impacted the nation’s economy. Russian tourists have been unable to visit a host of western countries, but Thailand and other Asian countries welcomed arrivals.

Thailand also chose to abstain from a U.N. vote to condemn Russia for its so-called annexation of four territories in Ukraine in 2022.

Mark S. Cogan, associate professor of peace and conflict studies at Kansai University, Japan said Thailand didn’t want to disrupt relations with Israel.

“Thailand has a history of evaluating cases like this based on economic relationships and perceived threats to national security. When the risk is low that it would not violate either, as many were Belarusian and others had dual Israeli citizenship, I think the Thai government had every reason to allow them to get on a flight to Israel,” he told VOA.

“With so many new opportunities, and FTAs (free trade agreements) forthcoming, the environment is different. Srettha was less likely to disrupt a mutually beneficial relationship by securing their release into Israeli hands and maintain a growing relationship with the Netanyahu government,” he said.

But Cogan said under Thailand’s previous military government led by Prayut Chan-o-Cha, the decision might have been different.

“It’s possible that the result might have been different under Prayut as the landscape was more dire. Prayut around the time of APEC was very concerned about post-pandemic recovery and pleaded with Putin to open up more flights to Thailand. It’s very difficult to guess a ‘what if’ scenario, but it would not have been out of character for him to do so,” he added.
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