Follow Voice of America - Science & Health, filter it, and define how you want to receive the news (via Email, RSS, Telegram, WhatsApp etc.) https://follow.it/voanews21 Sat, 09 Dec 2023 20:00:12 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig92SaBCGQjDbnn9ye8UNv30 After seven weeks held hostage in the tunnels of Gaza, they are finally free to laugh and chat and play. But some of the children who have come back from captivity are still reluctant to raise their voices above a whisper. In theory, they can eat what they want, sleep as much as they choose and set aside their fears. In practice, some have had to be convinced there’s no longer a need to save a cherished bit of food in case there is none later. At last, the 86 Israelis released during a short-lived truce between their government and Hamas are home. But the October 7 terror attack by Hamas on roughly 20 towns and villages left many of the children among them without permanent homes to go back to. Some of their parents are dead and others are still held hostage, foreshadowing the difficulty of the days ahead. And so, step by step, these children, the mothers and grandmothers who were held alongside them, and their families are testing the ground for a path to recovery. No one, including the physicians and psychologists who have been treating them, is sure how to get there or how long it might take. “It’s not easy in any way. I mean, they’re back. They’re free. But you can definitely see what they went through,” said Yuval Haran, whose family is celebrating the reunion with his two nieces, their mother and grandmother, while yearning for the return of the girls’ father, who remains a captive. “We’re trying to give them love, to give them hugs, to give them control back of their life,” said Haran, visibly exhausted by the stress of the past two months, but every bit as busy now as he rushes to fix bicycles and set up bank accounts for those who have returned. “I think that’s the most important thing, to give them the sense that they can decide now.” It was clear as soon as the youngest were helped from helicopters that captivity had been brutal. “They looked like shadows of children,” said Dr. Efrat Bron-Harlev of Schneider Children’s Medical Center in suburban Tel Aviv, who helped treat more than two dozen former captives, most of them youngsters. Some had not been allowed to bathe during the entirety of their captivity. Many had lost up to 15% of their total weight, but they were reluctant to eat the food they were served. Asked why, the answer came in whispers: “Because we have to keep it for later.” One 13-year-old girl recounted how she’d spent the entirety of captivity believing that her family had abandoned her, a message reinforced by her kidnappers, Bron-Harlev said. “They told me that nobody cares for you anymore. Nobody’s looking for you. Nobody wants you back. You can hear the bombs all around. All they want to do is kill you and us together,” the girl told her doctors. After enduring such an experience, “I don’t think it’s something that will leave you,” said Dr. Yael Mozer-Glassberg, who treated 19 of the children released. “It’s part of your life story from now on.” “Be very, very quiet” In the days since the hostages were freed, nearly all have been released from hospitals and rejoined their families, including some welcomed back by thousands of well-wishers. Doctors and others charged with treating the former hostages spent weeks preparing for their return. But the reality of caring for so many who endured such extremes has stunned physicians, starting with the reluctance of many children to speak. “Most of them talk about needing to be very quiet. At all times. Not to stand up. Not to talk. Of course, not to cry. Not to laugh. Just to be very, very quiet,” said Bron-Harlev, the physician. “What these children have gone through is simply unimaginable.” Despite that, at times now some appear to be thriving. Noam Avigdori, 12, who was released with her mother, has spent the past week trading jokes with her father and meeting with friends, and has even ventured out to a store. “When I say, ‘Noam, do this, go do that,’ she says, ‘Dad, you know what happened to me.’ And she knows that she can squeeze that lemon and … she’s enjoying it,” her father, Hen Avigdori, said in an interview. But there are also nights when his daughter wakes up screaming, Avigdori said this week at a separate news conference. Nearly all those who have been freed have said little publicly about the conditions of their captivity. Their families say officials have told them not to disclose details of their individual treatment, for fear of putting those still being held in further jeopardy. But interviews with their families, doctors and mental health professionals, as well as statements released by officials and others, make clear that while all the hostages suffered, their experiences in captivity varied significantly. Different experiences Some were isolated from their fellow hostages. Others, like Noam Avigdori and her mother, Sharon, were held together with relatives, making it possible for the 12-year-old to act as something like an older sibling to the young cousins who were held with her. “Everyone who was with a family member or with friends was in much better condition” when they were released, said Dani Lotan, a clinical psychologist at Scheider who treated some of the former hostages. That varies, though, even within families. In the weeks they were imprisoned, Danielle Aloni and her 5-year-old daughter, Emilia, established a close friendship with one of the imprisoned Thai farm workers, Nutthawaree Munkan. Last week, after all were released, the girl sang to a delighted Munkan when they were reunited in a video call, reciting the numbers she learned in Thai during captivity. But Emilia’s cousins, 3-year-old twins, are having a difficult time since their return. In captivity, Sharon Aloni was held with her husband and one of the twin girls in a small room, together with eight or so others. The couple spent “10 agonizing days” believing their other daughter had been killed, when she was snatched away shortly after they were taken into Gaza, Aloni’s brother Moran Aloni told reporters. That lasted until the day Sharon insisted to her husband that she could hear the cries of their missing daughter, Emma. Minutes later, a woman appeared without explanation to bring them the child, a joyous reunion that allowed mother and daughters to stay together throughout the remainder of their captivity. But a couple of days before they were released, the girls' father was taken away and his whereabouts remain unknown. Now free, the girls wake up crying in the middle of the night, Moran Aloni said. Emma won’t allow anyone to leave her side. They have gotten used to speaking up again, but their mother still whispers. Varying amounts of food Many former hostages have recounted being given meager amounts of food. But the rations seemed to vary from group to group with little explanation, said Mozer-Glassberg, a senior physician at Schneider. One family told doctors they each were given a biscuit with tea at 10 every morning and, from time to time, a single dried date. At 5 p.m., they were served rice. It wasn’t enough, but day after day of worry left their appetites withered. One 15-year-old girl recounted not eating for days so she could give her share of the food to her 8-year-old sister. Some of the 23 Thai hostages released recently told caregivers they were each given roughly a half liter of water and then had to make it last for three days. Sometimes, they said, it was saltwater. One group of former captives reported being allowed to bathe three times over seven weeks with buckets of cold water. But one child never bathed at all, doctors say. “Many of them talk about feeling very hungry. Very, very hungry. Many of them talk about feeling very dirty, not being able to clean, not being able to go to the bathroom,” Bron-Harlev said. Recuperation will be difficult The process of recuperation from such prolonged trauma will be slow and piecemeal, doctors say. And while the adults may be better able to process what they have experienced, their recovery poses its own challenges. Many, particularly the older and infirm, remain weak after losing 9 kilos (20 pounds) or more because of the meager rations provided by their captors. When they speak, their families hear notes of resilience, but also of fragility. Margalit Moses, a 78-year-old cancer survivor who has long struggled with multiple health problems, is back on the medications she was deprived of as a captive. But she remains too weak to walk more than a few steps. “I think two months was up to the very, very last limit of her body hanging in there,” her niece Efrat Machikawa said. In the days since Moses returned, she has been savoring pleasures that once seemed trivial, such as peeling a fresh orange and lingering over crossword puzzles, her niece said. Yaffa Adar, 85, a Holocaust survivor who was seized from her kibbutz and hustled into Gaza on golf cart, talks at length with her family about her time in captivity. But the days since have become more difficult as she grapples with what happened to her and the community she cherished, granddaughter Adva Adar said. “She’s incredibly mentally strong, but you can see how the hell got into her soul,” the younger Adar said. “It’s in the way she looks at the world, the way she looks at people.” In the hospitals, doctors, social workers and psychologists were careful about how they talked with the former hostages, not wanting to magnify their trauma. But as they settle in, both children and adults are confronting the toll of the October attack that captivity kept hidden from them. Throughout the seven weeks she was held, Shoshan Haran, her daughters and grandchildren had to wonder what had happened to her husband. “We had to tell them my father was murdered,” Yuval Haran said. In the days ahead, he and others acknowledge, they will face questions about how to move forward without those who were killed or remain missing. But for most, it is far too soon.]]> Sat, 09 Dec 2023 19:17:18 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig92SaBCGQjDbnn9ye8UNv30 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig9h9VDgSbu6FV1cWWor9YPv The future of fossil fuels is at the center of the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, where many activists, experts and nations are calling for an agreement to phase out the oil, gas and coal responsible for warming the planet. On the other side: energy companies and oil-rich nations with plans to keep drilling well into the future. In the background of those discussions are carbon capture and carbon removal, technologies most, if not all, producers are counting on to meet their pledges to get to net-zero emissions. Skeptics worry the technology is being oversold to allow the industry to maintain the status quo. “The industry needs to commit to genuinely helping the world meet its energy needs and climate goals — which means letting go of the illusion that implausibly large amounts of carbon capture are the solution,” International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said before the start of talks. What is carbon capture? Many industrial facilities such as coal-fired power plants and ethanol plants produce carbon dioxide. To stop those planet-warming emissions from reaching the atmosphere, businesses can install equipment to separate that gas from all the other gases coming out of the smokestack and transport it to where it can be permanently stored underground. And even for industries trying to reduce emissions, some are likely to always produce some carbon, such as cement manufacturers that use a chemical process that releases CO2. “We call that a mitigation technology, a way to stop the increased concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere,” said Karl Hausker, an expert on getting to net-zero emissions at World Resources Institute, a climate-focused nonprofit that supports sharp fossil fuel reductions along with a limited role for carbon capture. The captured carbon is concentrated into a form that can be transported in a vehicle or through a pipeline to a place where it can be injected underground for long-term storage. What is carbon removal? Then there's carbon removal. Instead of capturing carbon from a single, concentrated source, the objective is to remove carbon that's already in the atmosphere. This already happens when forests are restored, for example, but there's a push to deploy technology, too. One type directly captures it from the air, using chemicals to pull out carbon dioxide as air passes through. For some, carbon removal is essential during a global transition to clean energy that will take years. For example, despite notable gains for electric vehicles in some countries, gas-fired cars will be operating well into the future. And some industries, like shipping and aviation, are challenging to fully decarbonize. “We have to remove some of what’s in the atmosphere in addition to stopping the emissions,” said Jennifer Pett-Ridge, who leads the federally supported Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s carbon initiative in the United States, the world's second-leading emitter of greenhouse gases.   How is it going? Many experts say the technology to capture carbon and store it works, but it’s expensive, and it’s still in the early days of deployment. There are about 40 large-scale carbon capture projects in operation around the world capturing roughly 45 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, according to the International Energy Agency, or IEA. That’s a tiny amount — roughly 0.1% — of the 36.8 billion metric tons emitted globally as tallied by the Global Carbon Project. The IEA says the history of carbon capture “has largely been one of unmet expectations.” The group analyzed how the world can achieve net zero emissions, and its guide path relies heavily on lowering emissions by slashing fossil fuel use. Carbon capture is just a sliver of the solution — less than 10% — but despite its comparatively small role, its expansion is still behind schedule. The pace of new projects is picking up, but they face significant obstacles. In the United States, there’s opposition to CO2 pipelines that move carbon to storage sites. Safety is one concern; in 2020, a CO2 pipeline in Mississippi ruptured, releasing carbon dioxide that displaced breathable air near the ground and sent dozens of people to hospitals. The federal government is working on improving safety standards. Who supports carbon capture? The American Petroleum Institute says oil and gas will remain a critical energy source for decades, meaning that for the world to reduce its carbon emissions, rapidly expanding carbon capture technology is “key to cleaner energy use across the economy.” A check of most oil companies' plans to get to net-zero emissions also finds most of them relying on carbon capture in some way. The Biden administration wants more investment in carbon capture and removal, too, building off America's comparatively large spending compared with the rest of the world. But it’s an industry that needs subsidies to attract private financing. The Inflation Reduction Act makes tax benefits much more generous. Investors can get a $180-per-ton credit for removing carbon from the air and storing it underground, for example. And the Department of Energy has billions to support new projects. “What we are talking about now is taking a technology that has been proven and has been tested but applying it much more broadly and also applying it in sectors where there is a higher cost to deploy,” said Jessie Stolark, executive director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, an industry advocacy group. Investment is picking up. The EPA is considering dozens of applications for wells that can store carbon. And in places such as Louisiana and North Dakota, local leaders are fighting to attract projects and investment. Who is against it? Some environmentalists argue that fossil fuel companies are holding up carbon capture to distract from the need to quickly phase out oil, gas and coal. “The fossil fuel industry has proven itself to be dangerous and deceptive,” said Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity. There are other problems. Some projects haven’t met their carbon removal targets. A 2021 U.S. government accountability report said that of eight demonstration projects aimed at capturing and storing carbon from coal plants, just one had started operating at the time the report was published despite hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. Opponents also note that carbon capture can serve to prolong the life of a polluting plant that would otherwise shut down sooner. That can especially hurt poorer, minority communities that have long lived near heavily polluting facilities.]]> Sat, 09 Dec 2023 17:35:52 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig9h9VDgSbu6FV1cWWor9YPv https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig_0hyXPBQAlvOT5HJgy6HUf Majestic cedar trees towered over dozens of Lebanese Christians gathered outside a small mid-19th century chapel hidden in a mountain forest to celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, the miracle in which Jesus Christ, on a mountaintop, shined with light before his disciples. The sunset’s yellow light coming through the cedar branches bathed the leader of Lebanon’s Maronite Church, Patriarch Beshara al-Rai, as he stood at a wooden podium and delivered a sermon. Then the gathering sang hymns in Arabic and the Aramaic language. For Lebanon’s Christians, the cedars are sacred, these tough evergreen trees that survive the mountain’s harsh snowy winters. They point out with pride that Lebanon’s cedars are mentioned 103 times in the Bible. The trees are a symbol of Lebanon, pictured at the center of the national flag. The iconic trees in the country's north are far from the clashes between Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops along the Lebanon-Israel border in recent weeks against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war. The long-term survival of the cedar forests is in doubt for another reason, as rising temperatures due to climate change threaten to wipe out biodiversity and scar one of the country’s most iconic heritage sites for its Christians. The lush Cedars of God Forest, some 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) above sea level near the northern town of Bcharre, is part of a landscape cherished by Christians. The preserve overlooks the Kadisha Valley — Aramaic for “sacred” — where many Christians took refuge from persecution over Lebanon’s tumultuous history. One of the world’s largest collections of monasteries remains hidden among the thick trees, caves and rocky outcroppings along the deep, 35-kilometer (22-mile) valley. The United Nations’ culture agency UNESCO in 1998 listed both the cedar forest and the valley as World Heritage Sites. They’ve become popular destinations for hikers and environmentalists from around the world. A growing number of Lebanese of all faiths visit as well, seeking fresh air away from the cities. “People from all religions visit here, not just Christians … even Muslims and atheists,” said Hani Tawk, a Maronite Christian priest, as he showed a crowd of tourists around the Saint Elisha Monastery. “But we as Christians, this reminds us of all the saints who lived here, and we come to experience being in this sacred dimension.” Climate change and mismanagement Environmentalists and residents say the effects of climate change, exacerbated by government mismanagement, pose a threat to the ecosystem of the valley and the cedar forest. “Thirty or 40 years from now, it’s quite possible to see the Kadisha Valley’s biodiversity, which is one of the richest worldwide, become much poorer,” said Charbel Tawk, an environmental engineer and activist in Bcharre — unrelated to Hani Tawk. Lebanon for years has felt the heat of climate change, with farmers decrying lack of rain and forest fires wreaking havoc on pine forests north of the country, similar to blazes that scorched forests in neighboring Syria and nearby Greece. Residents across much of the country, struggling with rampant electricity cuts, could barely handle the summer’s soaring heat. Temperatures have been above 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) in Bcharre, not uncommon along Lebanon’s coastal cities but unusual for the mountainous northern town. Nuns in the medieval Qannoubin Monastery, perched on the side of a hill in the Kadisha Valley, fanned themselves and drank water in the shade of the monastery’s courtyard. They reminisced about when they could sleep comfortably on summer nights without needing much electricity. Impact already seen Already, there are worrying signs of the impact on the cedars and Kadisha. Warmer temperatures have brought larger colonies of aphids, which feed on the bark of cedar trees and leave a secretion that can cause mold, Charbel Tawk said. Bees normally remove the secretion, but they have become less active. Aphids and other pests also last longer in the season and reach higher altitudes because of warmer weather. Such pests threaten to stunt or damage cedar growth. Tawk worries that if temperatures continue to change like this, cedars at lower altitudes might not be able to survive. Fires are becoming more of a potential danger. Cedar trees usually grow at an altitude from 700 up to 1,800 meters (about 1 mile) above sea level. Tawk’s organization has planted some 200,000 cedars over the years at higher altitudes and in areas where they were not present. Some 180,000 survived. “Is it climate change or whatever it is happening in nature that these cedars are able to survive at 2,100 to 2,400 meters?” Tawk asked, while checking on a grove of cedars on a remote hilltop. Mitigating solutions Local priests and environmental activists have urged Lebanon's government to work with universities to do a wide-ranging study on temperature changes and the impact on biodiversity. But Lebanon has been in the throes of a crippling economic crisis for years. State coffers are dried up, and many of the country’s top experts are rapidly seeking work opportunities abroad. “There is nothing today called the state. … The relevant ministries, even with the best intentions, don’t have the financial capabilities anymore,” Bcharre Mayor Freddy Keyrouz said. He and the mayors of nearby towns have asked residents to help with conservation initiatives and Lebanese diaspora abroad to help with funding. The Maronite Church has strict rules to protect the Cedars of God Forest, including keeping development out of it. Kiosks, tourist shops and a large parking lot have been set far away from the forest. “We don’t allow anything that is combustible to be brought into the sacred forest,” said Charbel Makhlouf, a priest at Bcharre’s Saint Saba Cathedral. The Friends of the Cedar Forest Committee, to which Tawk belongs, has been looking after the cedar trees for almost three decades, with the church’s support. It has installed sensors on cedar trees to measure temperature, wind and humidity, watching for worsening conditions that could risk forest fires. Trouble beyond the forest Below the forest, in the Kadisha Valley, Tawk points to other concerns. In particular, the spread of cypress trees threatens to crowd out other species, “breaking this equilibrium that we had in the valley,” he said. “We’ve seen them increase and tower over other species, whether it’s taking sunlight, wind or expanding their roots,” he said. "It will impact other plants, birds, insects and all the reptile species down there.” Steps to protect the valley have actually hurt its biodiversity by removing human practices that had been beneficial, Tawk said. In the past, herders grazing their goats and other livestock in the valley helped prevent the spread of invasive species. Their grazing also reduced fire hazards, as did local families collecting deadwood to burn in the winter. But residents left the valley when it became a heritage site and the Lebanese government implemented strict regulations. Few live there now other than a handful of priests and nuns. “Trees have overtaken places where people lived and farmed,” Tawk said. “Now a fire could move from one end of the valley to the other.” Sitting in a cave near the Qannoubine Monastery, Father Hani Tawk listened to the variety of birds chirping in the valley. He said he believes in the community’s faith and awareness of nature, engrained since their ancestors took refuge here. “When you violate that tree, you’re intruding on a long history, and possibly the future of your children,” he said.]]> Sat, 09 Dec 2023 10:05:44 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig_0hyXPBQAlvOT5HJgy6HUf https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig-CPocoxJbzAilmFkX7M1Jw One of the biggest and brightest stars in the night sky will momentarily vanish as an asteroid passes in front of it to produce a one-of-a-kind eclipse. The rare and fleeting spectacle, late Monday into early Tuesday, should be visible to millions of people along a narrow path stretching from central Asia's Tajikistan and Armenia, across Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain, to Miami and the Florida Keys and finally, to parts of Mexico. The star is Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in the constellation Orion. The asteroid is Leona, a slowly rotating, oblong space rock in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Astronomers hope to learn more about Betelgeuse and Leona through the eclipse, which is expected to last no more than 15 seconds. By observing an eclipse of a much dimmer star by Leona in September, a Spanish-led team recently estimated the asteroid to be about 55 kilometers wide and 80 kilometers long. There are lingering uncertainties over those predictions as well as the size of the star and its expansive atmosphere. It's unclear if the asteroid will obscure the entire star, producing a total eclipse. Rather, the result could be a "ring of fire" eclipse with a miniscule blazing border around the star. If it's a total eclipse, astronomers aren't sure how many seconds the star will disappear completely, perhaps up to 10 seconds. "Which scenario we will see is uncertain, making the event even more intriguing," said astronomer Gianluca Masa, founder of the Virtual Telescope Project, which will provide a live webcast from Italy. An estimated 700 light-years away, Betelgeuse is visible with the naked eye. Binoculars and small telescopes will enhance the view. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. Betelgeuse is thousands of times brighter than our sun and some 700 times bigger. It's so huge that if it replaced our sun, it would stretch beyond Jupiter, according to NASA. At just 10 million years old, Betelgeuse is considerably younger than the 4.6 billion-year-old sun. Scientists expect Betelgeuse to be short-lived, given its mass and the speed at which it's burning through its material. After countless centuries of varying brightness, Betelgeuse dimmed dramatically in 2019 when a huge bunch of surface material was ejected into space. The resulting dust cloud temporarily blocked the starlight, NASA said, and within a half year, Betelgeuse was as bright as before. Scientists expect Betelgeuse to go supernova in a violent explosion within 100,000 years.]]> Sat, 09 Dec 2023 06:41:14 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig-CPocoxJbzAilmFkX7M1Jw https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig8t6Xx62xkdYOzdsCmHakzH European Union negotiators clinched a deal Friday on the world's first comprehensive artificial intelligence rules, paving the way for legal oversight of technology used in popular generative AI services such as ChatGPT that have promised to transform everyday life and spurred warnings of existential dangers to humanity.  Negotiators from the European Parliament and the bloc's 27 member countries overcame big differences on controversial points, including generative AI and police use of facial recognition surveillance, to sign a tentative political agreement for the Artificial Intelligence Act.  "Deal!" tweeted European Commissioner Thierry Breton, just before midnight. "The EU becomes the very first continent to set clear rules for the use of AI."  The result came after marathon closed-door talks this week, with the initial session lasting 22 hours before a second round kicked off Friday morning.  Officials were under the gun to secure a political victory for the flagship legislation but were expected to leave the door open to further talks to work out the fine print, likely to bring more backroom lobbying.  Out front The EU took an early lead in the global race to draw up AI guardrails when it unveiled the first draft of its rulebook in 2021. The recent boom in generative AI, however, sent European officials scrambling to update a proposal poised to serve as a blueprint for the world.  The European Parliament will still need to vote on it early next year, but with the deal done, that's a formality, Brando Benifei, an Italian lawmaker co-leading the body's negotiating efforts, told The Associated Press late Friday.  "It's very, very good," he said by text message after being asked if it included everything he wanted. "Obviously we had to accept some compromises but overall very good."   The eventual law wouldn't fully take effect until 2025 at the earliest and threatens stiff financial penalties for violations of up to $38 million (35 million euros) or 7% of a company's global turnover.  Generative AI systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT have exploded into the world's consciousness, dazzling users with the ability to produce humanlike text, photos and songs but raising fears about the risks the rapidly developing technology poses to jobs, privacy and copyright protection, and even human life itself.  Now, the U.S., U.K., China and global coalitions like the Group of Seven major democracies have jumped in with their own proposals to regulate AI, though they're still catching up to Europe.  'A powerful example' Strong and comprehensive regulation from the EU "can set a powerful example for many governments considering regulation," said Anu Bradford, a Columbia Law School professor who's an expert on EU and digital regulation. Other countries "may not copy every provision but will likely emulate many aspects of it."  AI companies that will have to obey the EU's rules will also likely extend some of those obligations to markets outside the continent, she said. "After all, it is not efficient to retrain separate models for different markets," she said.  Others are worried that the agreement was rushed through.  "Today's political deal marks the beginning of important and necessary technical work on crucial details of the AI Act, which are still missing," said Daniel Friedlaender, head of the European office of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a tech industry lobby group.  The AI Act was originally designed to mitigate the dangers from specific AI functions based on their level of risk, from low to unacceptable. But lawmakers pushed to expand it to foundation models, the advanced systems that underpin general purpose AI services like ChatGPT and Google's Bard chatbot.  Foundation models looked set to be one of the biggest sticking points for Europe. However, negotiators reached a tentative compromise early in the talks, despite opposition led by France, which called instead for self-regulation to help homegrown European generative AI companies competing with big U.S. rivals, including OpenAI's backer Microsoft.  Also known as large language models, these systems are trained on vast troves of written works and images scraped off the internet. They give generative AI systems the ability to create something new, unlike traditional AI, which processes data and completes tasks using predetermined rules.  Under the deal, the most advanced foundation models that pose the biggest "systemic risks" will get extra scrutiny, including requirements to disclose more information, such as how much computing power was used to train the systems.  Elevation of threats Researchers have warned that these powerful foundation models, built by a handful of big tech companies, could be used to supercharge online disinformation and manipulation, cyberattacks or creation of bioweapons.  Rights groups also caution that the lack of transparency about data used to train the models poses risks to daily life because they act as basic structures for software developers building AI-powered services.  What became the thorniest topic was AI-powered facial recognition surveillance systems, and negotiators found a compromise after intensive bargaining.  European lawmakers wanted a full ban on public use of facial scanning and other "remote biometric identification" systems because of privacy concerns, while governments of member countries wanted exemptions so law enforcement could use them to tackle serious crimes like child sexual exploitation or terrorist attacks.  Civil society groups were more skeptical.  "Whatever the victories may have been in these final negotiations, the fact remains that huge flaws will remain in this final text," said Daniel Leufer, a senior policy analyst at the digital rights group Access Now. Along with the law enforcement exemptions, he also cited a lack of protection for AI systems used in migration and border control, and "big gaps in the bans on the most dangerous AI systems." ]]> Sat, 09 Dec 2023 03:36:46 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig8t6Xx62xkdYOzdsCmHakzH https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig8t6Xx62xkdYF1cWWor9YPv Thousands of tons of dead sardines have washed up on a beach in northern Japan for unknown reasons, officials said Friday. The sardines and some mackerel washed ashore in Hakodate on Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido on Thursday morning, creating a silver blanket along a stretch of beach about a kilometer long. Residents said they have never seen anything like it. Some gathered the fish to sell or eat. The town, in a notice posted on its website, urged residents not to consume the fish. Takashi Fujioka, a Hakodate Fisheries Research Institute researcher, said he has heard of similar phenomena before, but it was his first time to see it. He said the fish may have been chased by larger fish, become exhausted due to a lack of oxygen while moving in a densely packed school, and were washed up by the waves. The fish also may have suddenly entered cold waters during their migration, he said. The decomposing fish could lower oxygen levels in the water and affect the marine environment, he said. "We don't know for sure under what circumstances these fish were washed up, so I do not recommend" eating them, Fujioka said.]]> Sat, 09 Dec 2023 03:36:05 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig8t6Xx62xkdYF1cWWor9YPv https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig9dW_AT-I6NSnn9ye8UNv30 The U.S. Commerce Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Friday $1 million in funding to improve the collection of Arctic climate data. In a statement, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the U.S. Arctic region — which consists of the state of Alaska — is warming faster than any region in the United States and demands immediate action. She said the new funding — part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included money for clean energy development — will provide "data and tools that can build climate resilience and strengthen our economy and national security." The $1 million in funding will be used to solicit grant ideas from institutions of higher education, other nonprofits or commercial organizations to help improve climate and data collection, with a focus on Alaskan communities. In the same statement, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said, the call for grant proposals is designed to both gather data and help Alaskan rural and Indigenous communities. "Providing communities with environmental information that allows them to make informed decisions in the face of a changing climate is the foundation of creating a more climate resilient nation," he said. The most recent NOAA National Climate Assessment indicates Alaska is warming at a rate that is two to three times faster than the lower 48 states, and the Arctic as a whole is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the global average.]]> Sat, 09 Dec 2023 00:33:59 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig9dW_AT-I6NSnn9ye8UNv30 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig8hMEujFC-DqCejEQ2Mq9rY In a letter leaked to news organizations this week, OPEC Secretary-General Haitham Al Ghais urged member nations to reject any agreement from the U.N. climate summit targeting fossil fuels rather than emissions. In the letter dated Wednesday referencing a draft agreement on climate change action at the 28th U.N. climate conference — known as COP28 — in Dubai, the OPEC leader said, "It seems that the undue and disproportionate pressure against fossil fuels may reach a tipping point with irreversible consequences.” The letter goes on to say, “I … respectfully urge all esteemed OPEC Member Countries and Non-OPEC Countries participating in the CoC and their distinguished delegations in the COP 28 negotiations to proactively reject any text or formula that targets energy i.e. fossil fuels rather than emissions." The contents of the letter were reported Friday by multiple news organizations, including Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Bloomburg, which verified the letter’s authenticity. OPEC declined when asked to comment. The reports come as negotiations among 197 countries on a final climate summit agreement are underway ahead of a deadline Tuesday, when the conference is scheduled to end. Fossil fuels — oil, coal and natural gas — have been a focus of the discussions since COP28 opened last week, with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling for an end to their use. At least 80 countries have called for a COP28 deal that calls for an eventual end to fossil fuel use, as scientists urge ambitious action to avert the worst impacts of climate change. The focus is on meeting the goal of the 2015 Paris climate agreement: keeping global temperature increase this century less than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. At Friday’s climate summit plenary session, COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, from OPEC member nation and summit host United Arab Emirates, said, once again, that a shift away from fossil fuels is “inevitable” and “essential.” He added, though, that any energy transition “must be orderly and responsible.” Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.]]> Fri, 08 Dec 2023 23:33:08 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig8hMEujFC-DqCejEQ2Mq9rY https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig-FTBSr6zf9Acb1naedg1wr The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved a pair of gene therapies for sickle cell disease, including the first treatment based on the breakthrough CRISPR gene editing technology.  The agency approved Lyfgenia from bluebird bio, and a separate treatment called Casgevy by partners Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics.  Both the therapies were approved for people aged 12 years and older.  The Vertex/CRISPR gene therapy uses the breakthrough gene editing technology that won its inventors the Nobel Prize in 2020.  Sickle cell disease is a painful, inherited blood disorder that can be debilitating and lead to premature death. It affects an estimated 100,000 people in the United States, most of whom are Black.  In sickle cell disease, the body makes flawed, sickle-shaped hemoglobin, impairing the ability of red blood cells to properly carry oxygen to the body's tissues.  The sickle cells tend to stick together and can block small blood vessels, causing intense pain. It also can lead to strokes and organ failure.  U.S.-listed shares of CRISPR therapeutics were up 1.6%, while Vertex Pharmaceuticals stock was down 1.4%. Shares of bluebird bio were halted for trading ahead of the news.  Makers of both the therapies have pitched them as one-time treatments, but data on how long their effect lasts is limited. The only longer-term treatment for sickle cell disease is a bone marrow transplant.  "I actually am very reticent to call them a cure. I prefer to call them a transformative therapy because patients will still have sickle cell disease on the other side of gene therapy," said Dr Sharl Azar, medical director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.  Bluebird bio's sickle cell therapy is designed to work by inserting modified genes into the body through disabled viruses to help the patient's red blood cells produce normal hemoglobin.  For Vertex's therapy, patients must have stem cells harvested from their bone marrow. The cells are then sent to manufacturing facilities where they are edited using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Once the cells are incubated, they are infused back into the patient during a month-long hospital stay.  Both gene therapies can take several months and involve high-dose chemotherapy, but this has potential risks of infertility.  "Not everybody who undergoes chemotherapy will end up having infertility, but the majority of them will," said Dr Azar.   While the risk can be managed by fertility preservation methods like freezing eggs and sperm banking, this is only covered by insurance for cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy and not those receiving gene therapy, said Dr. Azar.  He said the out-of-pocket expense on it can be as high as $40,000.  FDA staff in documents released ahead of an October meeting of a panel of independent experts on Vertex's therapy had also flagged concerns of unintended genomic alterations from the treatment.  The company plans to assess potential long-term safety risks through a 15-year follow-up study after approval.  Vertex's CRISPR therapy is also under an FDA review for another blood disease, transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia, with a decision expected by March 30. ]]> Fri, 08 Dec 2023 20:18:40 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig-FTBSr6zf9Acb1naedg1wr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig9qgYsqQxhO-SlmFkX7M1Jw Black people make up about 38% of Mississippi's population, but a new study shows that Black women were four times more likely to die of causes directly related to pregnancy than white women in the state in 2020. "It is imperative that this racial inequity is not only recognized, but that concerted efforts are made at the institutional, community, and state levels to reduce these disparate outcomes," wrote Dr. Michelle Owens and Dr. Courtney Mitchell, leaders of the Maternal Mortality Review Committee that conducted the study. The Mississippi State Department of Health published the findings Wednesday. The committee said 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in Mississippi between 2016 and 2020 were considered preventable, and cardiovascular disease and hypertension remain top contributors to maternal mortality. Women need comprehensive primary care before, during and after pregnancy, but many people live in areas where health care services are scarce, Owens and Mitchell wrote. "A substantial portion of this care is being shouldered by smaller hospitals with limited resources, many of whom are facing possible closure and limiting or discontinuing the provision of obstetrical services, further increasing the burdens borne by the individuals and their communities," they wrote. The Maternal Mortality Review Committee was formed in 2017, and its members include physicians, nurses, public health experts and others who work in health care. The committee found that from 2016 to 2020, Mississippi's pregnancy-related mortality rate was 35.2 deaths per 100,000 live births. The study did not provide a comparable five-year number for the U.S. but said the national rate was 20.1 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2019 and 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020. Mississippi has long been one of the poorest states in the U.S., with some of the highest rates of obesity and heart disease. A state health department program called Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies offers care management and home visits for pregnant women and for infants who are at risk of having health problems. "Losing one mother is too many," Dr. Daniel Edney, the state health officer, said in a news release about the maternal mortality study. The committee recommended that Mississippi leaders expand Medicaid to people who work in lower-wage jobs that don't provide private health insurance — a policy proposal that Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has long opposed. Earlier this year, Reeves signed a law allowing postpartum Medicaid coverage for a full year, up from two months. Medicaid expansion is optional under the health care overhaul that then-President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010, and Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not taken the option. The non-expansion states have Republican governors, Republican-controlled Legislatures or both. "Medicaid expansion should be incorporated for rural hospitals to remain open and include access to telehealth services," the Maternal Mortality Review Committee leaders wrote. "There is a need for rural healthcare facilities to provide higher levels of critical care, recruit and retain adequate providers, and have access to life saving equipment, especially in the most vulnerable areas of the state." The study examined deaths that occurred during or within one year after pregnancy. It defined pregnancy-related deaths as those "initiated by pregnancy, or the aggravation of an unrelated condition by the physiologic effects of pregnancy" and pregnancy-associated deaths as those "from a cause that is not related to pregnancy." Pregnancy-related deaths during the five years included 17 homicides and four suicides, plus 26 instances of substance abuse disorder contributing to the maternal death and 30 instances of mental health conditions other than substance abuse disorder contributing to a death. The study also said obesity contributed to 32 maternal deaths and discrimination contributed to 22. It noted that some pregnancy-related deaths could have more than one contributing factor. The committee recommended that health care providers develop procedures and training to address maternal patients with severe complaints for the same health concern, including training to eliminate bias or discrimination.]]> Fri, 08 Dec 2023 06:41:08 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig9qgYsqQxhO-SlmFkX7M1Jw https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig_wuKqkObl-snn9ye8UNv30 Environmental watchdogs accused a Mexico-based startup Thursday of violating international trade law by selling a health supplement made from endangered totoaba fish to several countries including the U.S. and China. Advocates told The Associated Press they also have concerns that the company, The Blue Formula, could be selling fish that is illegally caught in the wild. The product, which the company describes as "nature's best kept secret," is a small sachet of powder containing collagen taken from the fish that is designed to be mixed into a drink. Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, to which Mexico and the U.S. are both signatories, any export for sale of totoaba fish is illegal, unless bred in captivity with a particular permit. As a listed protected species, commercial import is also illegal under U.S. trade law. The environmental watchdog group Cetacean Action Treasury first cited the company in November. Then on Thursday, a coalition of environmental charities — The Center for Biological Diversity, National Resources Defense Council and Animal Welfare Institute — filed a written complaint to CITES. The Blue Formula did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment. The company claims on its website to operate "100%" sustainably by sourcing fish from Cygnus Ocean, a farm which has a permit to breed totoaba, and using a portion of their profits to release some farmed fish back into the wild. However, Cygnus Ocean does not have a permit for commercial export of their farmed fish, according to the environmental groups. The farm also did not immediately respond to a request from the AP for comment. While the ecological impact of breeding totoaba in captivity is much smaller relative to wild fishing, advocates like Alejandro Olivera, the Center for Biological Diversity's Mexico representative, fear the company and farm could be used as a front. "There is no good enforcement of the traceability of totoaba in Mexico," said Olivera, "so it could be easily used to launder wild totoaba." Gillnet fishing for wild totoaba is illegal and one of the leading killers of critically endangered vaquita porpoise, of which recent surveys suggest less than a dozen may exist in the wild. Gillnetting is driven by the exorbitant price for totoaba bladders in China, where they are sold as a delicacy for as much as gold. The Blue Formula's supplement costs just under $100 for 200 grams. In October U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized over $1 million worth of totoaba bladders in Arizona, hidden in a shipment of frozen fish. Roughly as much again was seized in Hong Kong the same month, in transit from Mexico to Thailand.]]> Fri, 08 Dec 2023 06:27:04 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig_wuKqkObl-snn9ye8UNv30 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig_FjmrkwBBtMuzdsCmHakzH NASA celebrates a quarter century of human cooperation in space. Plus, a busy week of space launches, and 'America’s Dad' wants you to see the moon like those who’ve been there. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space]]> Thu, 07 Dec 2023 22:10:22 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig_FjmrkwBBtMuzdsCmHakzH https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig__VzOm8MBmYHn9ye8UNv30 A new optical ground station has been built by the Australian National University to help the U.S. space agency, NASA, and others explore space and safely reach Mars. The Australian team has developed a new type of space communication using lasers. Researchers say the system will allow them to connect with satellites and NASA-crewed missions beyond low-Earth orbit. The project is supported by the Australian Space Agency’s Moon to Mars initiative. The Australian National University Quantum Optical Ground Station is based at the Mount Stromlo Observatory, near Canberra. It is a powerful telescope that will support high-speed advanced communications with satellites orbiting at distances from low-Earth orbit to the moon. Kate Ferguson, associate director for strategic projects at the Australian National University Institute for Space, told VOA current communication systems relying on radio frequencies can be slow and cumbersome. “I am sure some of us remember the grainy pictures that we got of the moon landing that came from the Apollo era," Ferguson said. "So, again the current radio frequency systems, they have these much slower data rates and especially over really long distances.  For space exploration those become very slow but with optical communications we will be able to increase the rate of that communication.” She said the new system, based on powerful lasers that are invisible to the naked eye, will transform communications in space. “What we are aiming to do is to be able to receive high-definition video from future crewed missions. Not only will that be great for us here on Earth, seeing what is happening with the astronauts on these types of missions, but it will improve the connectivity between those missions," she said. "And what we are doing here is optical communication, which uses laser beams to communicate and these offer much higher speeds and increased security over the current systems and this is really important for us to be getting that data down and being able to use it here on Earth.” Scientists say the Australian-developed systems will be compatible with NASA missions. They say the laser-based technology will improve astronauts’ ability to connect with Earth from the moon and also allow high-definition video to be sent from the moon and Mars. NASA has said previously that astronauts could be sent on a mission to the red planet by the mid-to-late 2030s.  ]]> Thu, 07 Dec 2023 11:22:54 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig__VzOm8MBmYHn9ye8UNv30 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig9Qtri6DNkLAV1cWWor9YPv Iran said Wednesday that it had sent a capsule into orbit capable of carrying animals as it prepares for human missions in coming years.  A report by the official IRNA news agency quoted Telecommunications Minister Isa Zarepour as saying the capsule was launched 130 kilometers into orbit.  Zarepour said the launch of the 500-kilogram capsule was aimed at sending Iranian astronauts to space in coming years. He did not say whether any animals were in the capsule.  He told state TV that Iran planned to send astronauts into space by 2029 after further tests involving animals.  State TV showed footage of a rocket named Salman carrying the capsule.  Iran occasionally announces successful launches of satellites and other spacecraft. In September, Iran said it sent a data-collecting satellite into space. In 2013, Iran said it sent a monkey into space and returned it successfully.  Reports said the country's Defense Ministry built and launched the Salman rocket, while the capsule was built by the Iranian civil space agency. Media reports did not say where the launch took place. Iran usually makes launches from Imam Khomenei Space Center in northern Semnan province.  Iran says its satellite program is for scientific research and other civilian applications. The U.S. and other Western countries have long been suspicious of the program because the same technology can be used to develop long-range missiles.  In 2020, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it put the Islamic republic's first military satellite into orbit, unveiling what experts described as a secret space program.]]> Thu, 07 Dec 2023 02:14:40 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig9Qtri6DNkLAV1cWWor9YPv https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig-M6m8k534COqCY3L745TL_ After a first-day blur of rare quick action and agreement, negotiators at a critical United Nations climate summit finished their first week Wednesday in a more familiar place: the murky middle where momentum and roadblocks intertwine. “Negotiations ... are a mixed picture right now. We see big differences between individual states in some areas,” German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan said, “but there is a will to make progress.” U.S. Special Envoy John Kerry, said, “We have done a lot in this first week, and we’ve accomplished real things.” Proponents who are calling for a ground-shifting phase-out of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal have hope for the first time in years, but also see where the possibility could be torpedoed. Key issues of financial help for poor nations to decarbonize and how to adapt to warming need much more work, officials said. That contrasts with the first day when the conference — called COP28 — put into effect a climate compensation fund and started seeing its coffers grow to more than $720 million. U.N. Climate Secretary Simon Stiell on Wednesday warned against putting “a tick on the box" for that victory and thinking it solves the multitrillion-dollar problem of financial aid that's needed to help cut emissions worldwide. “We need COP to deliver a bullet train to speed up climate action. We currently have an old caboose chugging over rickety tracks,” Stiell said. Adnan Amin, the No. 2 official in the COP and a veteran U.N. diplomat, was a bit more optimistic, saying all negotiations have ups and downs. This one, he said, is in that time when “there's still a buzz. There's still positivity.” Discussions have been focused on the so-called Global Stocktake — a status of where nations are with meeting their climate goals to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times and how they can get there. On Tuesday, negotiators produced a new draft of the text, but it had so many possibilities in its 24 pages that it didn’t give much of a hint of what will be agreed upon when the session ends next week. Negotiators for 197 countries are going over the document word by word to see what they can live with and what they can't, Amin said. “They have so many demands and needs. But I think it provides a very good basis for moving forward.” Cedric Schuster, the chair of the Association of Small Island States, said failing on the Global Stocktake would “make it significantly more difficult to leave this COP saying we can achieve the 1.5 C limit.” He said major emitters and developed countries need to take the lead and ramp up efforts to phase out fossil fuels. "If we fail, the consequences will be catastrophic,” he said. While U.N. officials highlight worries about finance and adaptation, many at the Dubai conference are focused on language about what to do about fossil fuels. Burning coal, oil and natural gas are the chief causes of climate change. For the first time in nearly three decades of talks, the idea of getting rid of all three of them is on the agenda and a serious possibility. “We have seen options about fossil fuel phase-out in the text. And while it’s historic to have them, they’re not enough,” said environmental activist Romain Ioualalen of Oil Change International. He pointed to 106 nations signing a document calling for a phase-out, which was mentioned by many world leaders when they made speeches in the first few days. “The situation we’re in right now, it was unthinkable just three COPs ago to have these debates on the phase-out of all fossil fuels,” Ioualalen said. “There’s definitely momentum in the conversation. There’s definitely opposition, of course. And that’s what’s to be expected. But that’s what we need to solve. “We've never been closer to an agreement for sure,” he said.]]> Wed, 06 Dec 2023 18:26:09 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig-M6m8k534COqCY3L745TL_ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig8jj5-7mxwAg11cWWor9YPv Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended his handling of COVID-19 on Wednesday at a public inquiry into the pandemic, saying his government “got some things wrong” but did its best. Johnson began two days of questioning under oath by lawyers for the judge-led inquiry about his initial reluctance to impose a national lockdown in early 2020 and other fateful decisions. Johnson opened his testimony with an apology “for the pain and the loss and the suffering of the COVID victims,” though not for any of his own actions. Four people stood up in court as he spoke, holding signs saying: “The Dead can’t hear your apologies," before being escorted out by security staff. “Inevitably, in the course of trying to handle a very, very difficult pandemic in which we had to balance appalling harms on either side of the decision, we may have made mistakes,” Johnson said. “Inevitably, we got some things wrong. I think we were doing our best at the time.” Johnson had arrived at the inquiry venue at daybreak, several hours before he was due to take the stand, avoiding a protest by relatives of some of those victims. Among those wanting answers from the inquiry are families of some of the more than 230,000 people in the U.K. who died after contracting the virus. A group gathered outside the office building where the inquiry was set, some holding pictures of their loved ones. A banner declared: “Let the bodies pile high” — a statement attributed to Johnson by an aide. Another sign said: “Johnson partied while people died.” Johnson was pushed out of office by his own Conservative Party in mid-2022 after multiple ethics scandals, including the revelation that he and staff members held parties in the prime minister’s Downing Street offices in 2020 and 2021, flouting the government’s lockdown restrictions. Former colleagues, aides and advisers have painted an unflattering picture of Johnson and his government over weeks of testimony. Former Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance said Johnson was “bamboozled” by science. In diaries that have been seen as evidence, Vallance also said Johnson was “obsessed with older people accepting their fate.” Former adviser Dominic Cummings, now a fierce opponent of Johnson, said the then-prime minister asked scientists whether blowing a hair dryer up his nose could kill the virus.  Former senior civil servant Helen McNamara described a “toxic,” macho culture inside Johnson's government, and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, the country’s top civil servant, called Johnson and his inner circle “basically feral.” Johnson defended his government, saying it contained “challenging” characters “whose views about each other might not be fit to print, but who got an awful lot done.” The U.K. has one of the highest COVID-19 death tolls in Europe, with the virus recorded as a cause of death for more than 232,000 people. Johnson said he was “not sure” whether his government's decisions had caused excess deaths. He said deciding when to impose lockdowns and other restrictions had been “painful.” “People point, quite rightly, to the loss of education, the economic damage, the missed cancer and cardiac appointments, and all the other costs," he said. “When it came to the balance of the need to protect the public and protect the (health service), and the damage done by lockdowns, it was incredibly difficult." Johnson agreed in late 2021 to hold a public inquiry after heavy pressure from bereaved families. The probe, led by retired Judge Heather Hallett, is expected to take three years to complete, though interim reports will be issued starting next year. The inquiry is divided into four sections, with the current phase focusing on political decision-making. The first stage, which concluded in July, looked at the country’s preparedness for the pandemic. Johnson has submitted a written evidence statement to the inquiry but has not handed over some 5,000 WhatsApp messages from several key weeks between February and June 2020. They were on a phone Johnson was told to stop using when it emerged that the number had been publicly available online for years. Johnson later said he’d forgotten the password to unlock it. A Johnson spokesman said the former prime minister had not deleted any messages but a “technical issue” meant some had not been recovered. ]]> Wed, 06 Dec 2023 13:53:54 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig8jj5-7mxwAg11cWWor9YPv https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig-Ci5bSS_9NKZVjH6qdYdAk Countries need to increase their taxes on alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, saying too few states were using tax to incentivize healthier behaviors. After studying taxation rates, the WHO said the average global tax rate on such "unhealthy products" was low, and hiking taxes could result in healthier populations. "WHO recommends that excise tax should apply to all sugar-sweetened beverages [SSBs] and alcoholic beverages," the U.N. health agency said in a statement. Excise taxes target particular goods and services. The WHO said 2.6 million people a year die from drinking alcohol, while more than eight million die from having an unhealthy diet. "Implementing tax on alcohol and SSBs will reduce these deaths," it said. It would not only help cut down use of these products but also give companies an incentive to make healthier products, it added. The WHO said that although 108 countries do impose some taxation on SSBs, globally, excise taxes on average represent just 6.6 percent of the price of a soda. Half of those countries also tax water, the WHO noted — something not recommended by the U.N. agency. "Taxing unhealthy products creates healthier populations. It has a positive ripple effect across society — less disease and debilitation and revenue for governments to provide public services," said Rudiger Krech, the WHO's health promotion director. "In the case of alcohol, taxes also help prevent violence and road traffic injuries." The Geneva-based WHO on Tuesday released a manual on alcohol tax policy and administration for its 194 member states. It said minimum pricing, combined with taxation, could curb consumption of cheap booze and reduce drink-related hospitalizations, deaths, traffic violations and crimes. "A significant body of research has demonstrated that people who engage in heavy episodic drinking tend to drink the cheapest available alcoholic beverages," it said. Some 148 countries apply national excise taxes on alcoholic drinks. "However, wine is exempted from excise taxes in at least 22 countries, most of which are in the European region," the WHO said. Globally, on average, the excise tax in the price of the most sold brand of beer is 17.2 percent, while for the most sold brand of the most sold type of spirits, it is 26.5 percent, the organization claimed. "A pressing concern is that alcoholic beverages have, over time, consistently become more affordable," said WHO assistant director-general Ailan Li. "But increasing affordability can be curbed using well-designed alcohol tax and pricing policies." The manual said the drinks industry often argues that alcohol taxes hit the poorest hardest — but said this ignores the "disproportionate harm per liter for alcohol consumers in lower socioeconomic groups."]]> Tue, 05 Dec 2023 20:33:46 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig-Ci5bSS_9NKZVjH6qdYdAk https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig8zokLHqSE_yqCY3L745TL_ Countries at the COP28 climate conference are considering calling for a formal phase-out of fossil fuels as part of the U.N. summit's final deal to tackle global warming, a draft negotiating text seen on Tuesday shows. The proposal is set to spark heated debate among the nearly 200 countries at the two-week conference in Dubai, with some Western and climate-vulnerable states pushing for the language to be used and many oil and gas producers keen to leave it out. Research published on Tuesday showed global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are set to hit a record high this year, fueling concerns among scientists that efforts to combat climate change are not enough to avert its worst impacts. The draft of what could be the final agreement from COP28, released by the U.N. climate body on Tuesday, proposed "an orderly and just phase-out of fossil fuels" which if adopted would mark the first global deal to end the oil age. On the COP28 main stage, the CEOs of several major energy firms argued in favour of oil and gas, highlighting their progress in areas such as cutting the greenhouse gas methane. "We are big guys and we can do big things. We can deliver results and we will have to report them very soon," said Jean Paul Prates, CEO of Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras. "The energy transition will only be valid if it's a fair transition," he added. At least 2,400 fossil fuel lobbyists registered for this year's summit, an analysis of U.N. registration data published by Kick Big Polluters Out showed, outnumbering the delegates from the 10 most climate vulnerable countries combined. Climate activists staged several small protests against the presence of the fossil fuel industry. The Marshall Islands, meanwhile, unveiled a national plan to adapt to rising sea levels, a recognition that the impacts of warming are already hitting its shores. "While we hope for a world where the world fulfils the promise of the Paris Agreement to contain climate change, as an extremely climate vulnerable country we need to be realistic and honest about the difficult path ahead," said Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, the country's climate envoy. Negotiating Text The draft text for a COP28 final deal includes three options for dealing with fossil fuels. The first is "an orderly and just phase-out". In U.N. parlance, the word "just" suggests wealthy nations with a long history of burning fossil fuels would phase out fastest. The second calls for "accelerating efforts towards phasing out unabated fossil fuels". And a third would be to avoid mentioning a phase-out at all. The United States, the 27 countries of the European Union and climate-vulnerable small island states are pushing for a fossil fuel phase-out to drive the deep CO2 emissions reductions scientists say are needed this decade. Even so, none of the world's major oil and gas-producing countries have plans to eventually stop drilling for those fuels, according to the Net Zero Tracker, an independent data consortium including Oxford University. "We're not talking about turning the tap off overnight," German Climate Envoy Jennifer Morgan said. "What you're seeing here is a real battle about what energy system of the future we are going to build together." Big producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia have resisted past proposals for a phase-out. David Waskow, director of World Resources Institute's international climate initiative, said he does not think a COP28 outcome was possible without a clear mandate for moving away from global reliance on oil, gas and coal. "I don't think we're going to leave Dubai without some clear language and some clear direction on shifting away from fossil fuels," he added. The draft text also includes language calling for the scaling up of carbon capture technology, which is likely to draw pushback from some countries worried such nascent technologies are being used to justify the continued use of fossil fuels. Fossil Fuel Emissions Rising On the sidelines of COP28, U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry launched an international plan involving 35 countries to boost nuclear fusion, a nascent technology that would seek to harness the intense process that powers the sun. "There is potential in fusion to revolutionize our world," Kerry said. Fusion is among a number of ambitious and sometimes unlikely ideas aimed at helping speed decarbonization. Countries are expected to emit a total 36.8 billion metric tons of CO2 from fossil fuels in 2023, a 1.1% increase from last year's record, according to the Global Carbon Budget report by scientists from more than 90 institutions. The emissions performance pulls the world further away from preventing global warming exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, it said. For daily comprehensive coverage on COP28 in your inbox, sign up for the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter here.]]> Tue, 05 Dec 2023 19:03:56 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig8zokLHqSE_yqCY3L745TL_ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig8gDe0op2WGsylmFkX7M1Jw Trouble with playground bullies started for Maria Ishoo's daughter in elementary school. Girls ganged up, calling her "fat" and "ugly." Boys tripped and pushed her. The California mother watched her typically bubbly second-grader retreat into her bedroom and spend afternoons curled up in bed. For Valerie Aguirre's daughter in Hawaii, a spate of middle school "friend drama" escalated into violence and online bullying that left the 12-year-old feeling disconnected and lonely. Both children received help through telehealth therapy, a service that schools around the country are offering in response to soaring mental health struggles among American youth. Now at least 16 of the 20 largest U.S. public school districts are offering online therapy sessions to reach millions of students, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. In those districts alone, schools have signed provider contracts worth more than $70 million. The growth reflects a booming new business born from America's youth mental health crisis, which has proven so lucrative that venture capitalists are funding a new crop of school teletherapy companies. Some experts raise concerns about the quality of care offered by fast-growing tech companies. As schools cope with shortages of in-person practitioners, however, educators say teletherapy works for many kids, and it's meeting a massive need. For rural schools and lower-income students in particular, it has made therapy easier to access. Schools let students connect with online counselors during the school day or after hours from home. "This is how we can prevent people from falling through the cracks," said Ishoo, a mother of two in Lancaster, California. Ishoo recalls standing at her second-grader's bedroom door last year and wishing she could get through to her. "What's wrong?" the mother would ask. The response made her heart heavy: "It's NOTHING, Mom." Last spring, her school district launched a teletherapy program and she signed up her daughter. During a month of weekly sessions, the girl logged in from her bedroom and opened up to a therapist who gave her coping tools and breathing techniques to reduce anxiety. The therapist told her daughter: You are in charge of your own emotions. Don't give anyone else that control. "She learned that it's OK to ask for help, and sometimes everyone needs some extra help," Ishoo said. The 13,000-student school system, like so many others, has counselors and psychologists on staff, but not enough to meet the need, said Trish Wilson, the Lancaster district's coordinator of counselors. Therapists in the area have full caseloads, making it impossible to refer students for immediate care, she said. But students can schedule a virtual session within days. "Our preference is to provide our students in-person therapy. Obviously, that's not always possible," said Wilson, whose district has referred more than 325 students to over 800 sessions since launching the online therapy program. Students and their parents said in interviews they turned to teletherapy after struggling with feelings of sadness, loneliness, academic stress and anxiety. For many, the transition back to in-person school after distance learning was traumatic. Friendships had fractured, social skills deteriorated and tempers flared more easily. Schools are footing the bill, many of them using federal pandemic relief money as experts have warned of alarming rates of youth depression, anxiety and suicide. Many school districts are signing contracts with private companies. Others are working with local health care providers, nonprofits or state programs. Mental health experts welcome the extra support but caution about potential pitfalls. For one, it's getting harder to hire school counselors and psychologists, and competition with telehealth providers isn't helping. "We have 44 counselor vacancies, and telehealth definitely impacts our ability to fill them," said Doreen Hogans, supervisor of school counseling in Prince George's County, Maryland. Hogans estimates 20% of school counselors who left have taken teletherapy jobs, which offer more flexible hours. The rapid growth of the companies raises questions about the qualifications of the therapists, their experience with children and privacy protocols, said Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, executive director of Counseling in Schools, a nonprofit that helps schools bolster traditional, in-person mental health services. "As we give these young people access to telehealth, I want to hear how all these other bases are covered," he said. One of the biggest providers, San Francisco-based Hazel Health, started with telemedicine health services in schools in 2016 and expanded to mental health in May 2021, CEO Josh Golomb said. It now employs more than 300 clinicians providing teletherapy in over 150 school districts in 15 states. The rapid expansions mean millions of dollars in revenue for Hazel. This year, the company signed a $24 million contract with Los Angeles County to offer teletherapy services to 1.3 million students for two years. Other clients include Hawaii, which is paying Hazel nearly $4 million over three years to work with its public schools, and Clark County schools in the Las Vegas area, which have allocated $3.25 million for Hazel-provided teletherapy. The districts of Miami-Dade, Prince George's and Houston schools also have partnered with Hazel. Despite the giant contracts, Golomb said Hazel is focused on ensuring child welfare outweighs the bottom line. "We have the ethos of a nonprofit company but we're using a private-sector mechanism to reach as many kids as we can," Golomb said. Hazel raised $51.5 million in venture capital funding in 2022 that fueled its expansion. "Do we have any concerns about any compromise in quality? The resounding answer is no." Other providers are getting into the space. In November, New York City launched a free telehealth therapy service for teens to help eliminate barriers to access, said Ashwin Vasan, the city's health commissioner. New York is paying the startup TalkSpace $26 million over three years for a service allowing teens aged 13 to 17 to download an app and connect with licensed therapists by phone, video or text. Unlike other cities, New York is offering the service to all teens, whether enrolled in private, public or home schools, or not in school at all. "I truly hope this normalizes and democratizes access to mental health care for our young people," Vasan said. Many of Hawaii's referrals come from schools in rural or remote areas. Student clients have increased sharply in Maui since the deadly August wildfires, said Fern Yoshida, who oversees teletherapy for the state education department. So far this fall, students have logged 2,047 teletherapy visits, a three-fold increase from the same period last year. One of them was Valerie Aguirre's daughter, whose fallout with two friends turned physical last year in sixth grade, when one of the girls slapped her daughter in the face. Aguirre suggested her daughter try teletherapy. After two months of online therapy, "she felt better," Aguirre said, with a realization that everyone makes mistakes and friendships can be mended. In California, Ishoo says her daughter, now in third grade, is relaying wisdom to her sister, who started kindergarten this year. "She walks her little sister to class and tells her everything will be OK. She's a different person. She's older and wiser. She reassures her sister," Ishoo said. "I heard her say, 'If kids are being mean to you, just ignore them.'"]]> Mon, 04 Dec 2023 04:09:28 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig8gDe0op2WGsylmFkX7M1Jw https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig_bk12iLdyPTps0ohxaO6Yr A drone buzzed back and forth above rows of verdant orange trees planted near Nabeul, eastern Tunisia. The black unmanned aircraft, equipped with a multi-lens camera and sensors, has been enlisted by Tunisian farmers to help adapt to years of drought and erratic weather patterns caused by climate change. "The seasons are not like they were before where we knew exactly what to do," said farmer Yassine Gargouri, noting temperatures now can begin to climb as early as May while in August there have been unusual summer rains. He hired start-up RoboCare to scan the trees from the air and assess their hydration levels, soil quality and overall health — to prevent irreversible damage. The technology "provides us with information on how much water each plant needs, no more, no less," he said. The use of modern technologies in agriculture is globally on the rise, including in North Africa where countries rank among the world's 33 most water-stressed, according to the World Resources Institute. RoboCare, employing about 10 people, is the only company in Tunisia, according to its 35-year-old founder Imen Hbiri, to use drones to help farmers combat the impacts of climate change and reduce costs, crop losses and water consumption. "Resorting to modern technologies in the sector of agriculture has become inevitable," Hbiri told AFP while monitoring the drone's path on her computer screen. 'Challenge of tomorrow' The daughter of farmers, the entrepreneur knows well the limits of existing farming methods. Now, in just a few clicks, she can access scans that detect signs of illness or malnourishment before they are visible to the naked eye. On the screen, fields appear in RGB (red, green, blue) imagery — the greener the plants, the healthier. Farmers can then use medicine-filled sprinklers mounted to the drones to target the sickly plants with more precision and consequently less expense. "By relying on this technology, we can save water consumption by up to 30 percent and reduce about 20 percent of the cost of fertilizers and medicine, while raising crop production by 30 percent," Hbiri explained. Gargouri, who spends about 80 percent of his budget on fertilizers and other remedies, says this technology is the future. "We must adapt to these upheavals," Gargouri added. "It's the challenge of tomorrow." Tunisia is currently experiencing its eighth year of drought (four of which were consecutive) in recent years, according to its agriculture ministry. The country's dams, which are the primary source for drinking water and irrigating crops, are currently only filled to about 22 percent capacity. And about 20 dams — mostly located in the south — have gone completely out of service. In neighboring countries, water scarcity is also a major issue. Licensing hurdles Morocco — where agriculture accounts for 13 percent of the gross domestic product, 14 percent of exports and 33 percent of jobs — also suffered its worst drought in four decades in 2022. Only about three percent of nearly two million Moroccan farmers use new technologies in their fields, Loubna El Mansouri, director of the digital center at Morocco's agriculture ministry, told AFP. A study they conducted found that using drones to water crops could use "less than 20 liters of water to irrigate one hectare compared to nearly 300 liters" used with traditional methods, Mansouri added. Similarly, Algeria's agriculture ministry said it was using drones and satellite imagery for mapping "to optimize the use of agricultural land by evaluating its characteristics and suitability for production", local media reported. For the use of these technologies to become widespread, however, Hbiri says the law needs to be changed in Tunisia and awareness raised. Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia ban the use of unmanned drones without a permit, which in the case of commercial uses can take months to be issued. Hbiri hopes authorities will help start-ups reach more farmers as she estimates "only 10 percent of farmers in Tunisia depend on this type of technology." "We want to focus our work on the use of technology and not spend time and effort on administrative issues and moving between departments and banks, which is slowing our progress," she said.]]> Sun, 03 Dec 2023 16:57:41 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/83j6SFS5ig_bk12iLdyPTps0ohxaO6Yr