New printing process advances 3-D capabilities
by University of Massachusetts Lowell

This tensile object was created using 3D injection printing, a new technology invented by UMass Lowell Plastics Engineering Prof. David Kazmer. Credit: David Kazmer

More durable prosthetics and medical devices for patients and stronger parts for airplanes and automobiles are just some of the products that could be created through a new 3-D printing technology invented by a UMass Lowell researcher.


Substances such as plastics, metals and wax are used in 3-D printers to make products and parts for larger items, as the practice has disrupted the prototyping and manufacturing fields. Products created through the 3-D printing of plastics include everything from toys to drones. While the global market for 3-D plastics printers is estimated at $4 billion and growing, challenges remain in ensuring the printers create objects that are produced quickly, retain their strength and accurately reflect the shape desired, according to UMass Lowell's David Kazmer, a plastics engineering professor who led the research project.

Called injection printing, the technology Kazmer pioneered is featured in the academic journal Additive Manufacturing posted online last week.

The invention combines elements of 3-D printing and injection molding, a technique through which objects are created by filling mold cavities with molten materials. The marriage of the two processes increases the production rate of 3-D printing, while enhancing the strength and properties of the resulting products. The innovation typically produces objects about three times faster than conventional 3-D printing, which means jobs that once took about nine hours now only take three, according to Kazmer, who lives in Georgetown.

"The invention greatly improves the quality of the parts produced, making them fully dense with few cracks or voids, so they are much stronger. For technical applications, this is game-changing. The new process is also cost-effective because it can be used in existing 3-D printers, with only new software to program the machine needed," Kazmer said.
The process took about 18 months to develop. Austin Colon of Plymouth, a UMass Lowell Ph.D. candidate in plastics engineering, helped validate the technology alongside Kazmer, who teaches courses in product design, prototyping and process control, among other topics. He has filed for a patent on the new technology.


Explore furtherResearchers invent technology to remedy 3-D printing's 'weak spot'

More information: David O. Kazmer et al, Injection printing: additive molding via shell material extrusion and filling, Additive Manufacturing (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.addma.2020.101469

Satellite survey shows California's sinking coastal hotspots
by Arizona State University  JULY 31, 2020

Coastal elevation in California. Coastal zones, which are defined to be those with elevations less than 10 m, are shown in red. Segments of the coast with elevations higher than 10 m are colored by a yellow gradient. Credit: USGS NED.

A majority of the world population lives on low lying lands near the sea, some of which are predicted to submerge by the end of the 21st century due to rising sea levels.


The most relevant quantity for assessing the impacts of sea-level change on these communities is the relative sea-level rise—the elevation change between the Earth's surface height and sea surface height. For an observer standing on the coastland, relative sea-level rise is the net change in the sea level, which also includes the rise and fall of the land beneath observer's feet.

Now, using precise measurements from state-of-the-art satellite-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) that can detect the land surface rise and fall with millimeter accuracy, an Arizona State University research team has, for the first time, tracked the entire California coast's vertical land motion.

They've identified local hotspots of the sinking coast, in the cities of San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz and San Francisco, with a combined population of 4 to 8 million people exposed to rapid land subsidence, who will be at a higher flooding risk during the decades ahead of projected sea-level rise.

"We have ushered in a new era of coastal mapping at greater than 1,000 fold higher detail and resolution than ever before," said Manoochehr Shirzaei, who is the principal investigator of the NASA-funded project. "The unprecedented detail and submillimeter accuracy resolved in our vertical land motion dataset can transform the understanding of natural and anthropogenic changes in relative sea-level and associated hazards."

The results were published in this week's issue of Science Advances.

The research team included graduate student and lead author Em Blackwell, and faculty Manoochehr Shirzaei, Chandrakanta Ojha and Susanna Werth, all from the ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration (Werth has a dual appointment in the School of Geography and Urban Planning).

Em Blackwell had a keen interest in geology, and as Blackwell began graduate school, the applications of InSAR drew them to pursue this project. InSAR uses radar to measure the change in distance between the satellite and ground surface, producing highly accurate deformation maps of the Earth's surface at 10s m resolution over 100s km spatial extent.

Land subsidence can occur due to natural and anthropogenic processes or a combination of them. The natural processes comprise tectonics, glacial isostatic adjustment, sediment loading, and soil compaction. The anthropogenic causes include groundwater extraction and oil and gas production.


As of 2005, approximately 40 million people were exposed to a 1 in 100-year coastal flooding hazard, and by 2070 this number will grow more than threefold. The value of property exposed to flooding will increase to about 9% of the projected global Gross Domestic Product, with the U.S., Japan, and the Netherlands being the countries with the most exposure. These exposure estimates often rely only on projections of global average sea level rise and do not account for vertical land motion.

The study measured the entire 1350-kilometer long coast of California from 2007-2018, compiling 1000s of satellite images over time, used for making a vertical land motion map with 35-million-pixel at ~80 m resolution, comprising a wide range of coastal uplift and subsidence rates. Coastal communities' policymakers and the general public can freely download the data (link in supplemental data).

The four metropolitan areas majorly affected in these areas included San Francisco, Monterey Bay, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

"The vast majority of the San Francisco Bay perimeter is undergoing subsidence with rates reaching 5.9 mm/year," said Blackwell. "Notably, the San Francisco International Airport is subsiding with rates faster than 2.0 mm/year. The Monterey Bay Area, including the city of Santa Cruz, is rapidly sinking without any zones of uplift. Rates of subsidence for this area reach 8.7 mm/year. The Los Angeles area shows subsidence along small coastal zones, but most of the subsidence is occurring inland."

Areas of land uplift included north of the San Francisco Bay Area (3 to 5 mm/year) and Central California (same rate).

Going forward in the decades ahead, the coastal population is expected to grow to over 1 billion people by 2050, due to coastward migration. The future flood risk that these communities will face is mainly controlled by the rate of relative sea-level rise, namely, the combination of sea-level rise and vertical land motion. It is vital to include land subsidence into regional projections that are used to identify areas of potential flooding for the urbanized coast.

Beyond the study, the ASU research team is hopeful that others in the scientific community can build on their results to measure and identify coastal hazards more broadly in the U.S. and around the world.


Explore further Study says seas may be rising faster than thought

More information: "Tracking California's sinking coast from space: Implications for relative sea-level rise" Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba4551

Journal information: Science Advances

Provided by Arizona State University

Texas cave sediment upends meteorite explanation for global cooling

by Baylor University JULY 31,2020

Archaeologic excavations at Hall's Cave exposed sediments for geochemical analysis that span from circa 20,000 to 6,000 years. Credit: Michael Waters, Texas A&M University

Texas researchers from the University of Houston, Baylor University and Texas A&M University have discovered evidence for why the earth cooled dramatically 13,000 years ago, dropping temperatures by about 3 degrees Centigrade.

The evidence is buried in a Central Texas cave, where horizons of sediment have preserved unique geochemical signatures from ancient volcanic eruptions—signatures previously mistaken for extraterrestrial impacts, researchers say.

The resolution to this case of mistaken identity recently was reported in the journal Science Advances.

"This work shows that the geochemical signature associated with the cooling event is not unique but occurred four times between 9,000 and 15,000 years ago," said Alan Brandon, Ph.D., professor of geosciences at University of Houston. "Thus, the trigger for this cooling event didn't come from space. Prior geochemical evidence for a large meteor exploding in the atmosphere instead reflects a period of major volcanic eruptions."

After a volcano erupts, the global spread of aerosols reflects incoming solar radiation away from Earth and may lead to global cooling post eruption for one to five years, depending on the size and timescales of the eruption.

The study indicates that the episode of cooling, scientifically known as the Younger Dryas, was caused by numerous coincident Earth-based processes, not an extraterrestrial impact.

"The Younger Dryas, which occurred about 13,000 years ago, disrupted distinct warming at the end of the last ice age," said co-author Steven Forman, Ph.D., professor of geosciences at Baylor University.

The Earth's climate may have been at a tipping point at the Younger Dryas, possibly from the ice sheet discharge into the North Atlantic Ocean, enhanced snow cover and powerful volcanic eruptions that may have in combination led to intense Northern Hemisphere cooling, Forman said.
"This period of rapid cooling is associated with the extinction of a number of species, including mammoths and mastodons, and coincides with the appearance of early human occupants of the Clovis tradition," said co-author Michael Waters, Ph.D., director of the Center for the First Americans at Texas A&M University.

University of Houston scientists Brandon and doctoral candidate Nan Sun, lead author, accomplished the isotopic analysis of sediments collected from Hall's Cave in the Texas Hill Country. The analysis focused on difficult measurements at the parts per trillion on osmium and levels of highly siderophile elements, which include rare elements like iridium, ruthenium, platinum, palladium and rhenium. The researchers determined the elements in the Texas sediments were not present in the correct relative proportions to have been added by a meteor or asteroid that impacted Earth.

That meant the cooling could not have been caused by an extraterrestrial impact. It had to have been something happening on Earth. But what?

"The signature from the osmium isotope analysis and the relative proportion of the elements matched that previously reported in volcanic gases," Sun said.

Kenneth Befus, Ph.D., volcanologist at Baylor University, added that "these signatures were likely the result of major eruptions across the Northern Hemisphere, including volcanoes in the Aleutians, Cascades and even Europe."

"I was skeptical. We took every avenue we could to come up with an alternative explanation or even avoid this conclusion," Brandon said. "A volcanic eruption had been considered one possible explanation but was generally dismissed because there was no associated geochemical fingerprint."

A volcanic cause for the Younger Dryas is a new, exciting idea, he said. Whether a single major eruption of a volcano could drive the cooling observed, however, is still an open question, the researchers said.

Volcanic eruptions cause their most severe cooling near the source, usually in the year of the eruption, with substantially less cooling in the years after the eruption. The Younger Dryas cooling lasted about 1,200 years, so a sole volcanic eruptive cause is an important initiating factor, but other Earth system changes, such as cooling of the oceans and more snow cover were needed to sustain this colder period, Forman said.

This research underscores that extreme climate variability since the last ice age is attributed to unique Earth-bound drivers rather than extraterrestrial mechanisms. Such insights are important guidance for building better models of past and future climate change.


Explore further Research reveals how volcanic eruptions affect El Niño

More information: "Volcanic origin for Younger Dryas geochemical anomalies ca. 12,900 cal B.P." Science Advances (2020). advances.sciencemag.org/lookup … .1126/sciadv.aax8587

Journal information: Science Advances

Provided by Baylor University

How human sperm really swim: New research challenges centuries-old assumption

by University of Bristol    JULY 31, 2020

The sperm tail moves very rapidly in 3D, not from side-to-side in 2D as it was believed. Credit: polymaths-lab.com  VIDEO AT THE END 

A breakthrough in fertility science by researchers from Bristol and Mexico has shattered the universally accepted view of how sperm 'swim'.

More than three hundred years after Antonie van Leeuwenhoek used one of the earliest microscopes to describe human sperm as having a "tail, which, when swimming, lashes with a snakelike movement, like eels in water", scientists have revealed this is an optical illusion.
Using state-of-the-art 3-D microscopy and mathematics, Dr. Hermes Gadelha from the University of Bristol, Dr. Gabriel Corkidi and Dr. Alberto Darszon from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, have pioneered the reconstruction of the true movement of the sperm tail in 3-D.

Using a high-speed camera capable of recording over 55,000 frames in one second, and a microscope stage with a piezoelectric device to move the sample up and down at an incredibly high rate, they were able to scan the sperm swimming freely in 3-D.
The ground-breaking study, published in the journal Science Advances, reveals the sperm tail is in fact wonky and only wiggles on one side. While this should mean the sperm's one-sided stroke would have it swimming in circles, sperm have found a clever way to adapt and swim forwards.

"Human sperm figured out if they roll as they swim, much like playful otters corkscrewing through water, their one-sided stoke would average itself out, and they would swim forwards," said Dr. Gadelha, head of the Polymaths Laboratory at Bristol's Department of Engineering Mathematics and an expert in the mathematics of fertility.

"The sperms' rapid and highly synchronized spinning causes an illusion when seen from above with 2-D microscopes—the tail appears to have a side-to-side symmetric movement, "like eels in water", as described by Leeuwenhoek in the 17th century.

"However, our discovery shows sperm have developed a swimming technique to compensate for their lop-sidedness and in doing so have ingeniously solved a mathematical puzzle at a microscopic scale: by creating symmetry out of asymmetry," said Dr. Gadelha.

"The otter-like spinning of human sperm is however complex: the sperm head spins at the same time that the sperm tail rotates around the swimming direction. This is known in physics as precession, much like when the orbits of Earth and Mars precess around the sun."

Computer-assisted semen analysis systems in use today, both in clinics and for research, still use 2-D views to look at sperm movement. Therefore, like Leeuwenhoek's first microscope, they are still prone to this illusion of symmetry while assessing semen quality. This discovery, with its novel use of 3-D microscope technology combined with mathematics, may provide fresh hope for unlocking the secrets of human reproduction.

Sperm tail moves like a precessing spinning top that cancels out the one-sided swimming stroke in an ingenious corkscrew motion: Symmetry is achieved through asymmetry, enabling human sperm to swim forwards. Credit: polymaths-lab.com

"With over half of infertility caused by male factors, understanding the human sperm tail is fundamental to developing future diagnostic tools to identify unhealthy sperm," adds Dr. Gadelha, whose work has previously revealed the biomechanics of sperm bendiness and the precise rhythmic tendencies that characterize how a sperm moves forward.

Dr. Corkidi and Dr. Darszon pioneered the 3-D microscopy for sperm swimming.
"This was an incredible surprise, and we believe our state-of the-art 3-D microscope will unveil many more hidden secrets in nature. One day this technology will become available to clinical centers," said Dr. Corkidi.

"This discovery will revolutionize our understanding of sperm motility and its impact on natural fertilization. So little is known about the intricate environment inside the female reproductive tract and how sperm swimming impinge on fertilization. These new tools open our eyes to the amazing capabilities sperm have," said Dr. Darszon.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/watch-3d-video-reveal-how-sperm-really-swim

Explore further

Doing more with less: Sperm without a fully active tail move faster and more efficiently, new study finds
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-sperm-fully-tail-faster-efficiently.html

More information: "Human sperm uses asymmetric and anisotropic flagellar controls to regulate swimming symmetry and cell steering" Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba5168

Journal information: Science Advances 

Provided by University of Bristol

700-km Brazil 'megaflash' sets lightning record: UN

The UN weather agency measures lightning using satellite imagery technology

The UN's weather agency announced Thursday the longest lightning bolt on record—a single flash in Brazil on October 31, 2018 that cut the sky across more than 700 kilometers.

That is equivalent to the distance between Boston and Washington DC in the United States, or between London and Basel, Switzerland, the World Meteorological Organization said in a statement.

WMO's committee of experts on weather and climate extremes also reported a new world record for the duration of a lightning flash, with a single flash that developed continuously over northern Argentina on March 4, 2019 lasting for a full 16.73 seconds.The new "megaflash" records, which were verified with new satellite lightning imagery technology, were more than double the previous known record-holders, WMO said.

The previous record for the longest detected distance for a single lightning flash was 321 kilometers (199 miles), measured on June 20, 2007 in the US state of Oklahoma, WMO said.

The previous duration record was 7.74 seconds, measured on August 30, 2012 in southern France, it said.

'Extraordinary records'

The new measurements reveal "extraordinary records from single lightning flash events," Randall Cerveny, the chief rapporteur in the WMO expert committee, said in the statement.

"It is likely that even greater extremes still exist, and that we will be able to observe them as lightning detection technology improves," he said.

The previous records were assessed using data collected by ground-based so-called lightning mapping array networks, which many lightning scientists acknowledge face upper limits in the scale of lightning that can be observed, WMO said.

It hailed recent advances in space-based lightning mapping that allow for measuring "flash extent and duration continuously over broad geo-spatial domains."

This has allowed for the detection of "previously unobserved extremes in lightning occurrence, known as 'megaflashes'," Michael J. Peterson, of the Space and Remote Sensing Group of Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US, said in the statement.

Megaflashes, he said, "are defined as horizontal mesoscale lightning discharges that reach hundreds of kilometers in length."

The UN agency occasionally reveals quirky weather-related milestones, like in 2016 revealing a record wave measurement of a behemoth that towered 19 metres (62.3 feet)—taller than a six-storey building—above the North Atlantic.

All such records are stored in the WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes.

The archive currently includes two other lightning-related extremes.

One is for the most people killed by a single direct strike of lightning, when 21 people died in Zimbabwe in 1975 as they huddled for safety in a hut that was hit.

The other is for an indirect strike, when 469 people died in Dronka, Egypt when lightning struck a set of oil tanks in 1994, causing burning oil to flood the town.


Explore further France strikes with longest-lasting lightning bolt

Smoke from Navy ship fire in San Diego contained toxic chemicals

THE WAR MACHINE IS TOXIC

Air sampling has revealed that the Navy ship that burned in San Diego Bay early this month blanketed nearby communities with smoke containing toxic chemicals. ... Testing found more than a dozen potentially harmful substances, such as benzene, chloromethane and acetonitrile.

THEY ARE MADE FOR DEATH WITH NO CONCERN FOR LINGERING CHRONIC ILLNESS OF SURVIVORS

Smoke from Navy ship fire in San Diego contained toxic chemicals

A golfer plays on as a fire burns on the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego on July 12.
(Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images )

By JOSHUA EMERSON SMITH
JULY 27, 2020

SAN DIEGO —
Air sampling has revealed that the Navy ship that burned in San Diego Bay early this month blanketed nearby communities with smoke containing toxic chemicals.

As black smoke poured off the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, people in portside communities complained of headaches and nausea, and residents as far north as Escondido reported smelling smoke from the blaze.

The findings from the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District contradict earlier statements by the Navy that “there’s nothing toxic in there.” Testing found more than a dozen potentially harmful substances, such as benzene, chloromethane and acetonitrile.

Still, state and local air-quality officials agreed residents have little to fear. Their relatively brief exposure to the toxic smoke is unlikely to cause any negative, long-term health effects, according to a review of the data by the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

“At those levels, over that short period of time, there were no known great health risks,” said Donna Durckel, spokeswoman for the county’s air district.

Mostly, the fire produced fine particulate matter, a common pollutant created by everything from lighting bonfires to driving cars and trucks.

Community members have started organizing under the banner Navy Ship Fire Community Advocates. The group is working with several law firms to explore potential legal action against the federal government.

The group maintains that the Navy should have alerted residents to the potential impacts sooner. It’s now calling for the military to draft an emergency notification plan.

The San Diego air district issued the Navy a notice of violation for creating a public nuisance and contaminating the air a day after the fire started on July 12. The action will probably result in a negotiated financial penalty.

Top district officials said there was little the Navy could do to control the smoke after the fire started.

“Because of the magnitude of this incident, it would have been difficult to avoid these violations,” said Mahiany Luther, chief of compliance for the air district. “I’m not aware of any measure that they could have implemented to prevent the impact on the communities.”

Smith writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

WHICH  CALLS BULLSHIT ON THIS 

Regulators: San Diego Ship Fire Smoke Not a Health Risk7.28.20

FILE - Smoke rises from the USS Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego Sunday, July 12, 2020, in San Diego after an explosion and fire Sunday on board the ship at Naval Base San Diego. Smoke from the fire that ravaged a Navy warship in San Diego Bay contained elevated levels of toxins, but air-quality authorities said area residents had little to fear. The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District found that smoke from the USS Bonhomme Richard contained a dozen potentially harmful substances, such as benzene chloromethane and acetonitrile, the San Diego Union-Tribune Reported. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)


SAN DIEGO (AP) — Smoke from the fire that ravaged a Navy warship in San Diego Bay contained elevated levels of toxins, but air-quality authorities said area residents had little to fear.

The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District found that smoke from the USS Bonhomme Richard contained a dozen potentially harmful substances, such as benzene chloromethane and acetonitrile, the San Diego Union-Tribune Reported.

RELATED

Navy: Ship Fire in San Diego Extinguished

Officials: Firefighting System Was Inoperable on Navy Ship

“At those levels, over that short period of time, there were no known great health risks,” said Donna Durckel, spokeswoman for the county’s air district.

The fire mostly produced a common pollutant known as fine particulate matter.

The district issued the Navy a notice of violation for creating a public nuisance and contaminating the air.

The fire began July 12 and swept through much of the ship, which was docked for a long period of maintenance. The Navy has yet to say whether the vessel will be repaired.

Content copyright the Associated Press. © copyright 2020. All rights reserved.

New report reveals toxic chemicals in smoke from USS Bonhomme Richard
While multiple chemicals were present, they believe the chemical Benzene in the toxic smoke was not at levels causing health concerns.


Author: Chris Gros (Reporter)
Published: 7:01 AM PDT July 28, 2020

NATIONAL CITY, Calif. — San Diego County’s Air Pollution Control District released a report stating that the smoke from the USS Bonhomme Richard was full of toxic chemicals. The report directly contradicts what Navy officials initially told the public.

The state’s Office of Environmental Hazard Assessment also reviewed the samples taken of the air. While chemicals were present, they believe the chemical Benzene in the toxic smoke was not at levels causing health concerns.

However, it wasn’t just elevated levels of Benzene found in the samples. The smoke also contained chloromethane and acetonitrile.

The samples were taken from sites nearby the burning ship, the closes one being Sherman Elementary. Residents from as far away as Vista reported seeing smoke and smelling a plastic or electrical-like odor.
People who live in Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, and National City are especially concerned. Advocates say these areas have suffered the most because of the air pollution from the fire. Many families were forced into lockdown because of the smoke. The advocate said, “I began hearing from elders in the community that they couldn't breathe, they had to close their windows in the heat. They were struggling and had very little support and no one was communicating with them."

A group has been created to ask that a contingency plan be put in place in case another fire or something similar happens again. They are also calling on the Navy to improve communication with neighboring residents.

The full "Elevated Compound Data Report" can be found below.
https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/apcd/PDF/Misc/APCD-Elevated-Compounds-Data-071220.pdf

RELATED: Chief of Naval Operations in San Diego to inspect ravaged USS Bonhomme Richard


RELATED: Fire aboard USS Bonhomme Richard extinguished after 5 days


RELATED: Crews make progress as a fire aboard USS Bonhomme Richard burns for a 4th day


RELATED: Crews continue fighting fire aboard USS Bonhomme Richard for 3rd day


RELATED: Crews continue to fight fire aboard USS Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego


RELATED: Smoke from USS Bonhomme Richard visible for miles


RELATED: 21 hospitalized with injuries from fire, explosion on USS Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego

Which Notable Republicans Are Voting For Biden In The Fall Election?

By Wesley Dockery
08/01/20

Although many Republicans are sticking with President Donald Trump in the fall election, some conservative voices are refusing to vote for the incumbent, and instead have declared their support for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Most notably, the Lincoln Project PAC, a Republican-backed group opposing Trump's re-election, have expressed their support for Biden. Conservative attorney George Conway, the husband of Trump’s assistant Kellyanne Conway, revealed in March that he had donated the maximum allowable amount to Biden’s campaign. Steve Schmidt, a campaign strategist who ran John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, also backs Biden.

Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Arizona senator, has said she will vote for Biden, saying “politics is personal” for her. Trump has routinely mocked John McCain, saying in 2015 that he was “not a war hero.”

In June, former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced his endorsement of Biden, on CNN's “State of the Union.” Powell, a Republican who served in George W. Bush's cabinet, said Trump had “drifted away” from the Constitution. Powell also supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.


Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and a former Republican presidential candidate, said she would vote for Biden due to his character.

“I am encouraged that Joe Biden is a person of humility and empathy and character. I think he’s demonstrated that through his life. And I think we need humility and empathy everywhere in public life right now. And I think character counts,” Fiorina told The Atlantic in June.

Bill Weld, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, has suggested he would back Biden over Trump. “Could I vote for a Democrat? Hell yes. If it's Trump against Joe Biden, I'm with Biden in a heartbeat,” said during a CNN conference in October.

Philippines losing virus war, doctors warn Duterte

Issued on: 01/08/2020 -

The Philippines imposed one of the harshest lockdowns in the world in mid-March, that kept people at home except to buy food and seek health treatment Ted ALJIBE AFP/File

Manila (AFP)

Dozens of doctors' groups on Saturday warned that the Philippines was losing the coronavirus fight, urging President Rodrigo Duterte to tighten a recently eased lockdown as cases surged and hospitals turned away patients.

Eighty medical associations representing tens of thousands of doctors signed the open letter, a day after the country posted a record single-day count of more than 4,000 new infections, pushing the total past 93,000.

"Healthcare workers are united in sounding off a distress signal to the nation -- our healthcare system has been overwhelmed," the letter said

"We are waging a losing battle against COVID-19, and we need to draw up a consolidated, definitive plan of action."

An increasing number of health workers have fallen ill or quit their jobs, while some packed hospitals are now refusing to admit new patients, it added.

The government has blamed poor compliance with health protocols for the sharp increase in infections.

The country imposed one of the harshest lockdowns in the world in mid-March, that kept people at home except to buy food and seek health treatment.

But the government recently loosened the restrictions to allow people to return to work after predictions that the Philippine economy will fall into recession, with millions of jobs already lost.

In the open letter, doctors urged Duterte to put the capital Manila and surrounding provinces back under "enhanced community quarantine" until August 15 to give the country time to "refine our pandemic control strategies".

In response, Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque said the government was balancing the health and economy of the nation.

"The strict lockdown in Metro Manila has served its purpose, and we need to intensify other strategies," he added.

Health department officials earlier this week acknowledged hospital bed availability was drying up and the government has had limited success in hiring new doctors, nurses and other health care workers.

The letter said contact tracing was "failing miserably" and public transport and workplace settings were often unsafe.

Lei Alfonso, an official of the Philippine Society of Public Health Physicians, told a news conference on Saturday that the developments "will push us to the brink to become the next New York City, where Covid-19 patients die at home or (on) stretchers".

President Duterte on Thursday called on Filipinos to keep faith in his ability to swiftly procure a vaccine to be produced by China, a key supporter of his rule.

© 2020 AFP

Italy's Lampedusa new target of far-right anger over migrants

THE OLD IMPERIAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ABANDON THEIR COLONIES

Issued on: 01/08/2020 - 04:12Modified: 01/08/2020 - 04:10

Most of the recent arrivals hail from Tunisia, a country battling high unemployment and political instability Alberto PIZZOLI AFP

Lampedusa (Italy) (AFP)

Out in the Mediterranean, under a baking sun, fisherman Ezio Billeci comes across a boat of vulnerable migrants and calls for help, but for hours the only response he gets from Italian authorities is to "stand by".

The episode off the island of Lampedusa symbolises what critics say is the government's lax response to managing migration in a period exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic -- accusations led by the anti-immigrant far-right.

Most of the recent arrivals hail from Tunisia, a country battling high unemployment and political instability. But Italy has its own financial woes -- figures released Friday showed it plunged deep into recession -- prompting resentment towards so-called economic migrants.

Several episodes in recent days of breakouts from overcrowded reception centres have also sparked fears among local populations that the migrants who did not respect quarantine orders could be spreading the virus throughout Italy.

Exasperated local mayors have appealed for help from the government, which has in some cases sent in army back-up.

Far-right rising star Giorgia Meloni, head of the Brothers of Italy party, accused the centre-left ruling coalition this week of having used draconian measures this spring to ensure Italians respected the coronavirus lockdown, but was now letting migrants roam free.

"You have the nerve to chase people on the beach with drones, and now you allow thousands of illegal immigrants to enter Italy, transgress our borders and violate quarantine, wandering around infected," she said in an angry address to parliament.

- No emergency? -

Many of the small boats carrying Tunisians to Italy land on the tiny island of Lampedusa. Its ex-mayor Giusi Nicolini, who won the UNESCO Peace Prize in early 2017 for her efforts with migrants, has insisted there "is no emergency".

"They say we are overrun (with migrants) for political purposes," she said in an interview this week with La Stampa daily.

A widely-circulated photograph of a Tunisian family with straw sunhats and trolley suitcases arriving by boat with their pet poodle fuelled the far-right, as did a video of beach-going tourists watching as new migrants disembarked on nearby rocks.

"The illegal immigrants are arriving in droves, even with poodles who've clearly escaped from Libyan camps," quipped opposition chief Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigrant League, Italy's most popular party.

On Thursday, Lampedusa's local League representative, along with the centre-right Forza Italia party, filed a complaint against Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese, accusing her of destroying nascent tourism on the island.

According to Italy's interior ministry, nearly half of the 11,191 migrants who have arrived in Italy this year through July 24 have set sail from Tunisia. Of them, nearly 4,000 are Tunisian citizens.

Over 2,000 migrants arrived last week alone, according to the UN Refugee Agency -- more than double the previous week.

- 'Look the other way' -

The interior ministry has acknowledged that the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 in Tunisia has fed an "exceptional flow of economic migrants" to Italy's borders, while the virus has made managing numerous daily arrivals more complex.

After specifically singling out Tunisians escaping mandatory quarantine, Lamorgese said Wednesday that the army would guard reception centres, while two ships of 600 places each would be available soon to hold migrants during quarantine.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has remained silent about the recent arrivals, reflecting tensions within the party over how to respond, given that Salvini famously built his voter base on an anti-immigrant policy that the left has failed to counter.

Salvini, who faces trial later this year for allegedly illegally detaining migrants by refusing to let them disembark from a rescue ship, insists that charity ships and others who save migrants at sea encourage more people to attempt the dangerous journey.

"But I can't do that, I can't. Lives at sea should be saved. Full stop," he said.

© 2020 AFP

S. Korean sect leader arrested for hindering virus efforts
AMERICA SHOULD DO THE SAME WITH THEIR RIGHT WING RELIGIOUS LEADERS WHO DISMISS COVID-19 RULES
Issued on: 01/08/2020 - 06:24Modified: 01/08/2020 - 06:22

Lee Man-hee, head of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus - POOL/AFP

Seoul (AFP)

The elderly leader of a secretive South Korean sect at the centre of the country's early coronavirus outbreak was arrested on Saturday for allegedly hindering the government's effort to contain the epidemic.

Lee Man-hee, 88, is the head of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which is often condemned as a cult.

People linked to the church accounted for more than half of the South's 4,000-plus coronavirus cases in February when the country was enduring one of the worst early outbreaks in the world.


As of July 19, those connected with the church made up 38 percent of all confirmed coronavirus cases in the country, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lee is accused of giving inaccurate records of church gatherings and false lists of its members to health authorities.

He was taken into custody early Saturday "after the Suwon District Court granted an arrest warrant at 1:20 am", a court spokesperson told AFP.

The judge said there "have been circumstances indicating systematic attempts to destroy evidence" by Lee, Yonhap news agency reported.

Shincheonji has claimed its members face social stigma and discrimination if their beliefs become publicly known, dissuading some from responding to official inquiries.

Lee is also accused of embezzling 5.6 billion won ($4.69 million) from church funds and holding religious events at public facilities without approval.

He apologised back in March for the spread of the disease.

The South has since been returning largely to normal, appearing to have brought the outbreak under control with an extensive "trace, test and treat" programme.

Officials in the east Asian nation of 52 million announced 31 new cases Saturday, taking the total to 14,336.

© 2020 AFP