ARE WE GLOWING IN THE DARK SPARKY
JUST LIKE CHERNOBYL, WILDLIFE IS THRIVING AT FUKUSHIMA ALMOST A DECADE AFTER NUCLEAR DISASTER

BY ROSIE MCCALL ON 1/7/20

VIDEO 01:26
‘Little Sunfish’ Underwater Robot To Inspect Fukushima Nuclear Plant Damage


Ten years on from one of the 21st century's greatest disasters, new research suggests wildlife in Fukushima is not just surviving—but thriving in the absence of humanity.

A vast and comprehensive collection of wildlife photos analyzed in a study published in the Journal of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment documents more than 20 species that have recolonized the area around the plant—including macaques, raccoon dogs, the Japanese hare and, most prevalent of all, wild boar.

"Our results represent the first evidence that numerous species of wildlife are now abundant throughout the Fukushima Evacuation Zone, despite the presence of radiological contamination," James Beasley, a wildlife biologist from the University of Georgia, said in a statement.

Immediately after a tsunami sent Fukushima's nuclear plant over the edge in 2011, an evacuation zone was erected and the government evacuated those living within 715 miles of the accident.

From 2016, humans have been gradually allowed back into the zone. However, there seems to be some hesitancy, with fewer than five percent of the original population choosing to return. Today, the area remains largely deserted—an apparent boon for the animals that live there, if this new study is anything to go by.

Animals like the macaque appear to be enjoying life without 

humans in the Fukushima evacuation zone.UGA

Beasley and colleagues gathered and compared photographic data from three zones that differ in terms of human habitation. The first covered an area where humans were excluded due to high levels of contamination. The second an area where humans are restricted due to a lesser but still reasonably high level of contamination and the third that remains inhabited, which served as a control.

In total, Beasley and colleagues collected more than 267,000 wildlife photos captured over 120 days. The images show several species are flourishing in the exclusion zone, popping up more frequently in areas that are entirely uninhabited by humans than those that are. The wild boar—the most abundant species studied—cropped up in more than 46,000 photographs. The researchers found that it was three times more abundant in the human-excluded zone than the human-inhabited zone.

There was one exception to the rule: the Japanese serow, a goat-like animal (and a national symbol of Japan) that appeared to prefer rural upland areas inhabited by humans. The species usually keeps its distance from humans and this strange behavior may be an adaptive strategy to dodge the robustly stocked wild boar communities living elsewhere, the researchers say.

Japanese serow appeared to prefer the rural upland areas 

inhabited by humans.UGA

The post-disaster wildlife boom is reminiscent of Chernobyl, the site of another nuclear disaster that has since seen species such as wolves and other mammals flock to the area now largely deserted by humans.

"Although it may seem counterintuitive, research from our group and others suggests numerous species of large mammals actually increased in the landscape surrounding Chernobyl in the first several years after the accident, and that populations of many species are now abundant and widespread throughout the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone," Beasley told Newsweek.

"Given that the amount of radiation released from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant was substantially lower than releases at Chernobyl, it is not surprising that we are now seeing evidence of these same types of population-level responses in mammals at Fukushima."

"However, what was unexpected is the rate and extent to which populations of wild boar and other species routinely in conflict with people have increased in number, despite extensive control efforts to reduce populations of these species in evacuated areas."

Beasley was previously involved in another study (published in 2017) that found diverse and efficient scavenging communities in the area.

"The [Chernobyl Exclusion Zone] is increasingly being seen as having huge conservation value—it now represents one of the largest wildlife sanctuaries in Europe," Jim Smith, a professor of environmental science at the University of Portsmouth in the UK who specializes in Chernobyl and Fukushima, told Newsweek. Adding helicopter surveys suggest large mammal populations at Chernobyl began to increase only about a year after the accident.

"I think that radioactivity levels in significant parts of the exclusion zone are now safe for humans, but I'd like to see the zone remain as a protected area for wildlife."

However, while it may be an in both cases abundance is not necessarily indicative of animal health—a fact the researchers themselves are keen to point out. Indeed, research has suggested that long-term exposure to radiation could damage animal reproductivity, although its full effect on animal health is unknown.

"Based on these studies it is clear that if there are any health-related impacts from exposure, they are not manifesting in widespread impacts to populations of these species," Beasley told Newsweek. "We know that radiation has the potential to cause mutations at the molecular level, impact reproduction, and cause other types of cellular damage."

Thomas Hinton, a professor at the Institute of Environmental Radioactivity at Fukushima University, said: "This research makes an important contribution because it examines radiological impacts to populations of wildlife, whereas most previous studies have looked for effects to individual animals."

Raccoon dogs are thriving in zones uninhabited by humans.NONE

ROGUE NATION STATE
U.S. BREAKS INTERNATIONAL LAW IF IT REFUSES IRAN'S TOP DIPLOMAT ENTRY FOR U.N., EXPERTS SAY
BY TOM O'CONNOR ON 1/7/20

The United States would be breaking international law if it refused to grant Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif a visa to enter the country and attend a United Nations meeting in New York this Friday, experts say.

After a number of news outlets reported Monday that President Donald Trump's administration would deny Zarif entry, the Iranian diplomat himself confirmed Tuesday the reports in an interview with CBS News. He said U.S. officials were turning him away "because they fear someone will go there and tell the truth to the American people." Zarif was expected to address the U.N. Security Council and speak with journalists regarding the U.S.' assassination Thursday of top Iranian military leader, Revolutionary Guards Quds Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani, in Iraq.

Zarif said he would still find an audience as "the world is not limited to New York" and "you can speak with American people from Tehran too." It remained unclear, however, whether or not the U.S. had formally refused Zarif.

"Last night, we were informed by the U.N. that based on the information it received from the U.S., FM Zarif's visa to address the security council will not be issued, but we have not received any communication about it from the U.S. mission," Iranian U.N. mission spokesperson Alireza Miryousefi told Newsweek Tuesday.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters earlier Tuesday "we don't comment on visa matters," but argued that the Trump administration "will always comply with our obligations under the U.N. requirements and the Headquarters Agreement, and we will do so in this particular instance and more broadly every day."

The 1947 U.N. Headquarters Agreement Act secured New York as the host city for the international body's main building and requires the U.S. to allow access to diplomats. Washington has nonetheless long reserved the right to block individuals of its own choosing, but experts such as Jose Alvarez, Herbert and Rose Rubin Professor of International Law, at the New York University School of Law, told Newsweek this could not be justified.

ranian Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

 attends the 74th United Nations General Assembly on 

September 25, 2019 in New York City. The top Iranian

diplomat sought to advance President Hassan Rouhani's 

bid to for regional countries to join a Coalition for HOPE,

 or Hormuz Peace Endeavor.

SPENCER PLATT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

"The U.S. is indeed obligated to issue a visa to all U.N. invitees under the HQ Agreement," Alvarez told Newsweek. "This has been the subject of considerable contestation in the past but the law (treaty) is clear."

"Any legitimate U.S. national security concerns can be handled as they have in the past (as with respect to U.N. invitations to Palestinian leaders)—severe transit restrictions on those issued the visa to travel to and from the U.N. (usually 25-mile radius from Columbus Circle with to and from area airports)," he added.

Zarif and his delegation in New York were subject to restrictions limiting their movement to just six blocks from their mission and the U.N. Headquarters in Manhattan ahead of last September's U.N. General Assembly. Zarif ultimately got his visa after speculation then too that the Trump administration may not grant it.

Still, both Iran and Russia accused the U.S. at the time of denying visas to some other members of their delegations. Under Trump's predecessor, former President Barack Obama, the U.S. also denied Iran's then-U.N. ambassador Hamid Aboutalebi a visa in April 2014 for his alleged role the hostage crisis that erupted when Iranian revolutionaries stormed Washington's embassy in Tehran in 1979. The snub came even as Washington and Tehran were engaged in nuclear talks.

The resulting deal, finalized in 2015, saw a brief warming in relations between the two longtime foes as China, the European Union, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. agreed to grant Iran sanctions relief in exchange for the Islamic Republic severely curbing its nuclear activities. In 2018, Trump unilaterally left the accord, imposing new, strict sanctions on Iran as he accused the country of sponsoring militant groups abroad and pursuing destabilizing missile development.

The U.S. Has Tens of Thousands of Troops Near Iran, Here's Where They Are
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The rest of the nuclear deal's signatories continue to support the embattled arrangement, even as Europe struggled to maintain its end of the bargain under threat of U.S. sanctions, and Iran drastically reduced its own commitments in the wake of Soleimani's slaying—the international legality of which has also been widely called into question. Kevin Jon Heller, an associate professor of public international law at the University of Amsterdam, said that the Trump administration's potential refusal to grant Zarif a visa and other violations of global agreements have become an unfortunate hallmark of this presidency.

"There is no question that the Trump administration threatens the international rules-based order," Heller, who is also a professor of law at Australian National University, told Newsweek.

"International law has always suffered from a lack of effective enforcement mechanisms, especially when the rule-breaker is a powerful state like the U.S., which has a permanent veto in the Security Council," he added. "But the Trump administration is different than its predecessors, which by and large tried to offer international-law justifications for their actions (torture, drones, the invasion of Iraq, etc), even if those justifications were often not particularly convincing."

As for the Iranian foreign minister's status, Heller says he does "not believe the U.S. has any grounds for refusing to issue Zarif a visa for the upcoming meeting of the Security Council, because he is a formal legal representative of Iran." The expert points to two specific sources.

Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat 

gives a speech at the U.N. General Assembly in Geneva,

 Switzerland, on December 13, 1988. The U.S. barred 

Arafat from entering the United States and speaking in 

New York at the U.N. Headquarters.

SHEPARD SHERBELL/CORBIS SABA/GETTY IMAGES

The first is Article 105(2) of the U.N. Charter, which states: "Representatives of the Members of the United Nations and officials of the Organization shall... enjoy such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the independent exercise of their functions in connexion with the Organization"⁠—something Zarif cannot do without entry.

Secondly, Section of 11 of the 1947 Headquarters Agreement, provides that "[t]he federal, state or local authorities of the United States shall not impose any impediments to transit to or from the headquarters district of (1) representatives of Members... on official business." Last time Zarif was in town, he promoted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's bid for a Coalition for HOPE, or Hormuz Peace Endeavor, in both meetings with journalists, including Newsweek, and at the General Assembly itself.

Though the situation in the Persian Gulf has only grown tenser and ties between Washington and Tehran worse, Section 12 of the same agreement specifically notes that the U.S. must allow travel "irrespective of the relations existing between the Governments of the persons referred to in that section and the Government of the United States."

As Alvarez earlier alluded to, the U.S. has a history of refusing its treaty obligations on a self-proclaimed national security exception. In 1988, the outgoing administration of President Ronald Reagan denied Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat a visa to enter the U.S. "in order to safeguard its own security" ahead of that year's General Assembly—forcing the international gathering to host its meeting in the Swiss capital of Geneva as Washington refused to budge.

"This is, of course, the problem," Heller told Newsweek. "The U.N. could and no doubt will insist that the U.S. grant Zarif a visa, but there is little it can do if the U.S. refuses."

"It is possible, of course, that the U.N. would move out of the U.S. completely if the U.S. ever became much too aggressive about denying visas to foreign representatives it doesn't like," he added. "But that is obviously extraordinarily unlikely."

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WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES TRUMP WOULD LIKELY VETO BILL REGULATING 'FOREVER CHEMICALS' IN DRINKING WATER
BY JEFFERY MARTIN ON 1/7/20 
POISONED WATER, POISONED AIR, POISONED SOIL THANKS TO TRUMP'S ENVIRONMENTAL POISONING AGENCY EPA

VIDEO
00:47
MIT Scientists Develop Technique For Cleaning Water With Electricity

WE HAVE BEEN DOING THIS IN THE CLEANING INDUSTRY

 FOR OVER A DECADE NOW

Tuesday, the White House indicated that it would veto the PFAS Action Act of 2019 legislation designed to keep harmful chemicals out of groundwater should it pass through the House and the Senate.

Sponsored by Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, the act is designed to reduce involuntary human exposure to PFAS, which are chemicals used in products like non-stick cookware and flame retardant foams. PFAS are known as "forever chemicals" because they are not expelled from the human body once they are ingested. Traces of PFAS, which have been linked to the formation of certain kinds of cancer, have been found in multiple sources of drinking water across the country.

"PFAS is a clear threat to human health and our environment," wrote Dingell in a November 2019 statement.

"The reality is a lot of contamination is connected to military sites and the Defense Department," Dingell's statement continued. "We are continuing to champion strong provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act to identify PFAS as a hazardous substance for the purpose of clean up under the EPA's Superfund program and facilitate coordinated response between local communities and the military."

But the Trump administration "strongly opposes" the passage of the act because it would not be cost-effective.

The White House said it would likely veto an environmental 

 designed to keep harmful 'forever chemicals' out of the

 nation's groundwater in a statement on Tuesday.

SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY

In a statement Tuesday, the Executive Office of the President said the bill would "supersede existing statutory requirements" that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from making proper decisions about the treatment of PFAS in the environment.

"By doing so," the statement read, "the bill would create considerable litigation risk, set problematic and unreasonable rulemaking timelines and precedents, and impose substantial, unwarranted costs on Federal, State, and local agencies and other key stakeholders in both the public and private sectors."

According to the White House, the bill would also "require the Administration to bypass well-established processes, procedures, and legal requirements of the Nation's most fundamental environmental laws," including the Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.

"By truncating the rulemaking process," the White House's statement continued, "this legislation risks undermining public confidence in the EPA's decisions, and also risks the imposition of unnecessary costs on States, public water systems, and others responsible for complying with its prescriptive mandates."

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If the bill were "presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill," the statement concluded.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for further comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Drinking water in Michigan, North Carolina and other states have been found to contain PFAS, as have military bases. A Department of Defense report released in March 2018 stated that over 1,600 military installations had groundwater wells that tested positive for PFAS over the safety limit established by the EPA.

As previously reported by Newsweek, drinking water at the Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster, New Jersey has also tested positive for PFAS, with levels twice as high as what the EPA considers to be safe.

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KOALAS WHO MANAGE TO SURVIVE AUSTRALIAN WILDFIRES 'FACE DEATH BY STARVATION,' SAYS CONSERVATION GROUP
BY BRENDAN COLE ON 1/3/20 
VIDEO
01:19
New South Wales Premier Declares Bushfire State Of Emergency As Thousands Flee Australia South Coast

Wildfires in Australia have scalded koalas' habitat to such an extent that even when the flames are finally doused, the animals that survived will suffer a drawn-out death, a spokesperson for the New South Wales Conservation Council has warned.

Prior to the fire season, populations of the indigenous marsupial had already declined in the state by nearly a third over the last three decades, due in part to climate change and pressure from dwindling habitats caused by agricultural and forestry development.

Already vulnerable because of their dietary reliance on the flammable oil-containing eucalyptus tree, the koala's inability to move quickly has made it fodder for the flames' ferocity, with some estimates suggesting that up to a third of the 25,000 animals in the New South Wales have perished during the fire season.

A koala named Peter is treated at The Port Macquarie 

Koala Hospital on November 29, 2019. Since then, wildfires 

have devastated the iconic Australian animal's habitats.

NATHAN EDWARDS/GETTY IMAGES

Council spokesperson James Tremain said that even before the fires, the koala was in mortal danger of extinction in the next 50 years. Not adapted to handle long heatwaves, many had died in Pilliga Forest in the center of the state, once a stronghold for the animal.

"Before the fires, the biggest threat to koalas was the direct destruction of their habitat by land clearing for agriculture and forestry for timber.

"Now we have this hammer blow of the wildfires that have basically roasted them in the trees, destroyed their habitat and isolated their populations.

"They have been incinerated, and the ones lucky enough to escape then face death by starvation. It is a cruel situation that the species is facing."

"It is really out of control. We have never seen anything like it, so much habitat has been lost.

He said that the isolation of the animal's habitats poses a challenge, because even if a local population perishes, there will be a source population nearby that can repopulate.

"But these fires have been so devastating that even those source populations appear to have been destroyed."

At least 19 people have died and thousands of properties destroyed already. The punishment that the flames have meted out to the wildlife population is considerable, with the University of Sydney estimating that as many as half a billion mammals, birds and reptiles have perished.

"It is a wildlife holocaust—I don't use that word lightly—I don't know how else you can describe it," Tremain told Newsweek.

Firefighters tackle a bushfire near Batemans Bay in New 

South Wales on January 3, 2020. A state of emergency 

has been declared across much of Australia's heavily 

populated southeast in an unprecedented months-long 

bushfire crisis.PETER PARKS/GETTY IMAGES

The group Wildlife Rescue (WIRES) told Newsweek that its volunteers were continuing to enter bushfire zones to rescue injured and orphaned animals once the areas had been declared safe by the National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS).

WIRES spokesperson John Grant said: "We have never experienced fires of this ferocity and over such a wide area, so the impacts are unknown as it is uncharted territory.

"These bushfires have come on the back of an ongoing drought and so many native animal species were already under stress so it is difficult to know whether the native animals coming into our care are the result of exhaustion and dehydration from the drought or from escaping the fires."

The extent of the blazes and the smoke they have belching out have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

They also gave, albeit briefly, the country's capital city, Canberra, with a population of less than half a million, the unwelcome distinction of being the world's most polluted city, according to air quality ranking website Air Visual.

---30---

CALIFORNIA SEA LION NAMED MANDALORIAN EUTHANIZED AFTER BEING SHOT TWICE WITH PELLET RIFLE
BY EWAN PALMER ON 1/8/20 AT 5:17 AM EST

WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE ESPECIALLY PEOPLE WITH GUNS

VIDEO
Animal Cruelty In the U.S.: Best And Worst States For Animal Protection Laws

A rescued California sea lion who was found on a beach suffering from gunshot wounds in December has been euthanized, it has been revealed.

The one-and-a-half-year-old female sea lion yearling, named Mandalorian, was found in distress by the Pacific Marine Mammal Center (PMMC) in Newport Beach on December 15 after receiving a call from the Newport Beach Animal Control.

Mandalorian was seen to have two distinct wounds, one of which was a draining abscess on her dorsal back. The center's veterinary team also noted that she had trouble moving as a result of her injuries.

It was later determined following a radiograph that the animal had been shot twice, most likely with a pellet rifle. The PMMC released an X-ray showing the pellets or bullet fragments still inside her chest area.

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Mandalorian was then monitored for the next week, but her health continued to decline.

"At that point, a difficult decision was made and the animal was humanely euthanized on December 22, 2019," the PMMC said in a statement.

An autopsy revealed that one of the bullets impacted the sea lion between her rib and adjacent vertebrae. The PMMC said the entry wound then likely became infected, causing severe muscle necrosis and a buildup of fluid in the chest cavity.

The second pellet was lodged in the musculature between Mandalorian's ribs.



The gunshot pellets will be sent to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Law Enforcement for further investigation.

Authorities said it will be extremely difficult to determine who shot at the sea lion.

"Given that there really isn't a way to trace most of the bullets, or in this case pellets, there isn't much enforcement can do," Justin Viezbicke, marine mammal stranding coordinator at the NOAA, told the Orange County Register.

"We do document and keep track to watch for patterns."
A female sea who was found in December on a California beach with two gunshot wounds has been euthanized.PACIFIC MARINE MAMMAL CENTER

Krysta Higuchi, a spokesperson for the PMMC, told the Los Angeles Times: "We don't know who did this—if it was a fisherman, or if it was someone frustrated that the animal was on their boat, or if it was a little kid playing with their BB gun.

"We just want to educate the public that there are other ways to co-exist with these animals."

Under the Marine Protection Act, people found purposely injuring animals such as sea lions face up to one year in prison and a fine of at least $28,250.

"Unfortunately, what we saw is taking place up and down the Pacific Coast," said Peter Chang, CEO at PMMC.

"These are disgusting and intentional acts, many of which are premeditated. We know there are many out there that feel like they are competing with the sea lions for the same resources.

"However, there's a pathway for us to cohabitate with these precious marine mammals, and shooting them is not the way."

The NOAA has been contacted for further comment.

Mandalorian pictured following her rescue from Newport Beach last month.PACIFIC MARINE MAMMAL CENTER

ARIZONA REPUBLICAN PROPOSES TRIO OF LAWS THAT WOULD ALLOW SCHOOLS TO DISCRIMINATE AGAINST TRANSGENDER STUDENTS
BY AILA SLISCO ON 1/8/20 AT 12:33 AM EST

ANOTHER BATHROOM BILL
I THINK THESE GUYS ARE AFRAID TO PEE 
NEXT TO A WOMAN PEEING STANDING UP

VIDEO
Mario Lopez: It's 'Dangerous' For Parents To Support Transgender Children

A Republican Arizona state representative has introduced three laws that propose mandating binary sex identification on state documents and legally allowing public school employees to discriminate against transgender students by referring to them with incorrect pronouns.

Rep. John Fillmore proposed House Bill 2082 for the upcoming legislative session, according to a Tuesday report in the Arizona Mirror. The bill would prevent public schools from penalizing employees who use incorrect pronouns for transgender students. It would also prohibit schools from requiring that employees use correct pronouns for students, unless the pronoun "corresponds to the sex listed on that student's birth certificate."

A recent incident that would likely have had a different outcome under the proposed law involved an Arizona teacher who was fired in September 2019. The teacher allegedly insisted on using incorrect pronouns for transgender students, and failed one student for a school project that referred to gender identity. The teacher was also said to have lowered the grade of a student that admitted to being an atheist while proselytizing Christianity and attempting to distribute Bibles to students in class.

Although the law would seemingly help teachers legally discriminate against transgender students, Fillmore insisted the proposal was aimed at helping schools focus on issues like simple math instead of "sexual stuff."

"We've got to get back to 2 plus 2 is 4 and keep basic educational items to allow our kids to grow up and to function in society. And all of this sexual stuff, I don't think should be out there at all," Fillmore told Capitol Media Services.

It's unclear which sexual issues Fillmore believes would be avoided with the new law. Gender identity does not have a direct relationship to sexuality.

One of the three proposed anti-transgender laws would

 prevent schools from taking any action against employees 

who refuse to refer to students by their preferred pronouns.

GETTY

The two other anti-transgender laws proposed by Fillmore deal with amending statutes to mandate binary sex designation on birth certificates and official identification. Although current state law does not have any specific requirement, House Bill 2081 would amend the law to force birth certificates "to include information that indicates the individual's sex as either male or female."

House Bill 2080 would force government agencies, departments, boards and commissions to exclusively refer to people as either male or female on all documents. This law may be aimed at preventing gender-neutral identification from being issued, which has become available in a growing number of states. State Rep. Rosanna Gabaldon, a Democrat, has introduced a competing bill that would make "nonbinary" an option in Arizona.

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Fillmore claimed he doesn't "have a problem with the LGBT community," while suggesting that the proposed laws would help Arizona society by avoiding "dealing with" the issue of people being transgender, claiming that society didn't have "any problems" for thousands of years, when he says there were "two biological sexes."

"For thousands of years we've had two biological sexes and we haven't had any problems," said Fillmore. "So now if you start introducing all of this other stuff you really muddy the waters up. And I don't think it behooves society, the state of Arizona, and especially the school districts, to be dealing with this."

Other bills sponsored by Fillmore include an effort to prevent schools from teaching economic and social implications of environmental science in order to avoid what Fillmore calls "indoctrination in global warming" and a proposal to eliminate the requirement that children be vaccinated to attend public school.

---30---

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER SIX GENETIC LINKS TO ANXIETY IN LARGEST-EVER STUDY ON SUBJECT

BY HUNTER MOYLER ON 1/8/20

VIDEO
5 Tips For Combating Anxiety



In what they termed the "largest [genome-wide association study] of anxiety traits to date," a team of scientists from two universities and two veterans healthcare offices have identified six genetic variants linked to the development of anxiety disorders.

To find these genetic markers, researchers examined genetic and health data derived from 200,000 veterans of the United States Armed Forces, which was compiled in the Million Veteran Program, a national research program funded by the government to determine "how genes, lifestyle and military exposures affect health and illness."

"This is the richest set of results for the genetic basis of anxiety to date," Joel Gelernter, the co-lead author of the study, said in a Yale press release.

The researchers, who represented Yale University, the Veterans Affairs (VA) San Diego Healthcare System, the Veteran Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System and the University California, San Diego, shared their findings in a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry on Tuesday.

Newsweek contacted the study's senior author, Murray Stein, but did not receive a reply before publication.

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According to information from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders are one of the most prevalent mental health issues in the U.S., and affect some 40 million adults in the country every year. A number of factors contribute to the development of an anxiety disorder, including past life experiences, brain chemistry and genetic makeup.

"While there have been many studies on the genetic basis of depression, far fewer have looked for variants linked to anxiety, disorders of which afflict as many as 1 in 10 Americans," Stein, a staff psychiatrist in the VA San Diego Healthcare System, said in the press release from Yale.

In their analysis of the veterans' genomic data, they found six genetic variants associated with higher risks of developing anxiety disorders. Five of these were found in white Americans, while an additional one was found in black Americans.

Dan Levey of the VA Connecticut Healthcare Center and Yale University, another author of the study, said that it was important to include data from minorities in the study.

"Minorities are underrepresented in genetic studies, and the diversity of the Million Veteran Program was essential for this part of the project," Levey said in a news release from the VA. "The genetic variant we identified occurs only in individuals of African ancestry, and would have been completely missed in less diverse cohorts."

The variants that were determined to relate to anxiety disorders were found on chromosomes 1, 3, 6, 7 and 20. One of the variants, the one on chromosome 7, was previously identified to be correlated with higher occurrences of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Another variant, the one on chromosome 7, was associated with the reception of the sex hormone estrogen. However, researchers cautioned those reading the study from drawing conclusions on if this explains why women are affected by anxiety disorders twice as frequently as men. While women veterans were included in this study, more than 90 percent of the veterans whose data is part of the Million Veteran Program are male. Thus, the researchers cited that more research is necessary to confirm or disprove the suspicion.

"This work provides new insights into genetic risk mechanisms underpinning anxiety and related psychiatric disorders," the authors of the study wrote.

A metal plaque on the facade of the Department of Veterans 

Affairs building in Washington, D.C., features a quotation

 by Abraham Lincoln. A study using data compiled by the 

Department of Veterans Affairs was used to determine

 six genetic variants linked to anxiety.

ROBERT ALEXANDER/GETTY

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PSYCHOLOGY

Vaping May Be Just As Bad As Smoking When It Comes to Lung Disease-Causing Bacteria

BY KASHMIRA GANDER ON 12/17/19 

PASCAL KISZON/GETTY

VIDEO
What are E-Cigarettes?

Vaping may carry the same risk as cigarette smoke when it comes to making the lungs more susceptible to infections, scientists have found.

To reach their conclusion, researchers grew bacteria in a lab, and exposed them to e-cigarette vapour and cigarette smoke. The bugs in question—Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa—can live in the lungs without causing problems.

But they often lurk in the lungs of people with conditions such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), bronchitis and asthma, study co-author Dr. Deirdre Gilpin of the School of Pharmacy at Queen's University Belfast told Newsweek, where they can cause infections and increase inflammation.

"This can result in the lungs becoming damaged and not able to function well," Gilpin said.

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When the team treated the bacteria with cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vapour, they became more virulent, or potentially harmful, in a way that could lead to diseases such as COPD and asthma, Gilpin explained. The findings were published in the journal Respiratory Research.

She said she didn't expect to find the changes in bacteria exposed to e-cigarette vapour to be the same, and sometimes greater, than those seen with cigarette smoke. "This suggests that vaping may carry the same risk as cigarette smoke in increasing the susceptibility to bacteria infection," Gilpin said.


However, she also highlighted the team generated smoke and vapour in the lab in the same way. But in real life people smoke and vape differently, as the latter requires a deeper inhalation, and people may vape for longer at each session.



"It's possible that the effects we observed with vape could be potentially greater in real life," she said. Gilpin added there are thousands of different e-cigarette flavours on the market, some of which are toxic. Investigating these in the future and with more patient samples is "really important," she said.

"Ideally we would encourage, particularly young non-smokers, not to start vaping," Gilpin continued. She suggested people trying to quit smoking using alternative methods.

Dangers of Vaping: Facts and Statistics on Health Risks of E-Cigarettes

"Vaping is often quoted as being less harmful than smoking," Gilpin stressed. "But less harmful isn't the same as safe, and results from our study suggest that exposing lung bacteria to vape may carry the same risk as smoking.

"We urgently need more research about the long term effects of vaping on the lungs," she concluded.

Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School and a spokesperson for the American Lung Association, who did not work on the research, commented on the paper. Referring to the bacteria which populate the lungs, he told Newsweek the study "tells us that vaping may begin to change the microbiome of our lungs."

"Our lungs' normal microbiomes are made of bacteria that live in an ecological community in a symbiotic relationship with our lungs. When we allow the prevalence of more pathogenic bacteria to increase (e.g. Pseudomonas) and/or become more virulent, then we create a susceptibility to disease initiation and/or progression," explained Galiatsatos.

Asked whether those who use e-cigarettes should stop, he said doctors should tell their patients "to stop smoking, whether combustible or electronic cigarettes."

"More importantly, any activity that has the ability to weaken lung immune defenses and tip the microbiome in favor of pathogenic bacteria, then these persons will be more susceptible to lung-related diseases in the future," Galiatsatos said.

A stock image shows a man vaping. Scientists are investigating how the habit affects bacteria which

 live in the lungs.GETTY

Cynthia Erivo On the 'Powerful, Powerful' Role Music Played in Her Embodying the Spirit of Harriet Tubman
BY H. ALAN SCOTT ON 12/20/19 

ILLUSTRATION BY BRITT SPENCER

HARRIET - Official Trailer

Cynthia Erivo, the Tony, Emmy and Grammy-award winning artist, says the Oscar buzz around her most recent performance as Harriet Tubman in the film Harriet is "very overwhelming" and she "genuinely didn't expect it."

Already nominated for two Golden Globes for the role, Erivo breathes life into the often mysterious public image of the famous abolitionist and unofficial leader of the Underground Railroad.

Erivo says she hopes people learn more about the life lived before and after the period for which Harriet (born Araminta Ross, Erivo's Tubman takes her mother's name—Harriet—in the film after running to freedom) was famous. In order to tap into Tubman's soul, Erivo used a skill she knows a thing or two about: singing, a "powerful, powerful" tool to tap into the spirit of Tubman, and ultimately into the film's message of freedom.

"I think we need to use this film to inspire us to do good things and see the strength we have in ourselves," Erivo told Newsweek. "We as people have agency and the ability to bring about really good change."

Why do you think it's important for people to know Harriet Tubman's various names?

Getting to meet Araminta Ross, we get to humanize her and watch her grow. It took time to get from Araminta to Harriet.

What is often left out of Tubman's story is her military service and her work in the women's suffrage movement. Why are these parts of her story so important?

I don't think many people realize she worked in the army and the suffragette movement—much of that in the script we didn't have time to delve into. It's very exciting that a woman, particularly a woman of color, was one of the first women full stop to lead an armed raid and was a general in the army. There's a life story there that continued for a really long time.

Did the music in the film impact your performance?

Yes. It's a connection to the spirits. Negro spirituals were a way to send a message to one another. It's a powerful, powerful thing.

What sort of impact do you hope Tubman's story has on people?

To help or to make change should be a duty of ours. I hope it gives young men and women the courage and the confidence to see a woman who is the center of her narrative and to be strong and fast and mysterious and have this wonderful heart. It's an example that women can do anything.

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=HARRIET+TUBMAN

A Global Green New Deal Could Defeat the Far Right—And Save the Planet

 Opinion BY JOHN FEFFER ON 12/17/19 

RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/GETTY

VIDEO
2020: Race To Save The Planet - Promo

The best way to fight the rising far right is to go green. That's what dozens of academics, researchers, and activists told me over the course of 80 interviews this year.

Over the last decade, the radical right has come to power in the United States, Brazil, India, Poland, Hungary, and elsewhere. It has joined forces with autocrats in Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Thailand to create a new illiberal ecosystem. Together, they are challenging the rule of law, democratic governance, and the gains made by social movements that have expanded the rights of women and minorities.

The radical right has appealed to all those who feel threatened by the more rapid movement of capital and people across borders. The center parties that have pushed this project of globalization have lost at the polls, while the left has failed to articulate a clear alternative.

Yet despite its political successes, the radical right has an Achilles' heel. It has no credible response to the most urgent threat facing the planet: the current climate crisis.

For the last couple years, radical right leaders like Donald Trump and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro have ignored climate change and boosted support for extractive industries like oil and coal. Thanks to Trump, the United States is the only country to pull out of the Paris climate deal. Bolsonaro, meanwhile, reneged on Brazil's offer to host this year's climate confab, which is has just wrapped up in Madrid instead.

Despite these ostrich moves by Trump and Bolsonaro, the climate crisis hasn't gone away. In fact, it's gotten worse.

According to the most recent UN report, the world has utterly failed to restrain carbon emissions despite dire warnings from the scientific community. The two biggest offenders, the United States and China, actually increased their carbon emissions last year. The scientific consensus is that the world must execute a much faster pivot away from fossil fuels.

The radical right doesn't have a plan to reduce carbon emissions. One wing of the movement continues to deny that there even is a crisis. The other wing is focused on dealing with only the demographic effects of the climate crisis—by proposing higher walls to keep out a future wave of climate refugees.

By comparison, the various Green New Deals on the table offer a comprehensive response that addresses the scale of the problem.

The U.S. version offered by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ed Markey (D-MA) proposes significant investments in making America's infrastructure and transportation carbon-neutral. The Europeans and Canadians are pushing similar plans in parallel. The government in New Zealand, meanwhile, unveiled a "wellbeing budget" this year that also combines a reduction in carbon emissions with improving the livelihoods of those left behind by globalization.

A massive transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy is not only sensible from an environmental point of view. It also addresses the insecurity so many people feel about their economic future in an era of automation and downsizing. The Green New Deal—like its earlier World War II-era cousin, Franklin Roosevelt's New Dea —promises to be a major job creation program.

And not just for the Global North.

A major transfusion of money into the Green Climate Fund would help the Global South leapfrog over existing dirty technologies. By providing jobs in countries currently experiencing economic crisis throughout the Global South, these GNDs would also reduce the massive displacement of people who would otherwise be forced to migrate to find new opportunities—or more habitable land—abroad.

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The current global economic system is clearly broken, which has opened the way for a global far-right reaction. By contrast, the Green New Deal offers a set of principles of sustainability that can help restructure the global economy so that it helps people and the planet—while undermining the far right's appeal.

The radical right has won elections by ramping up fear: of others, of the future, of do-nothing government. It's time to turn that around and revive a politics of hope.

The 80 people I talked to pointed to the student climate strikes as the most promising movement at the moment. But as those students understand better than their elders, there's no politics without a planet. A Global Green New Deal is perhaps out last best hope to save that planet.

John Feffer directs the Foreign Policy In Focus project at the Institute for Policy Studies. He's the author of the new IPS study, The Battle for Another World: The Progressive Response to the New Right.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own.​​​​​