Washington state again fails to live-track murder hornet
By SALLY HO

October 12, 2020


In this Oct. 7, 2020, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, a live Asian giant hornet is affixed with a tracking device before being released near Blaine, Wash. Washington state officials say they were again unsuccessful at live-tracking an Asian giant hornet while trying to find and destroy a nest of the so-called murder hornets. The Washington State Department of Agriculture said Monday, Oct. 12, 2020, that an entomologist used dental floss to tie a tracking device on a female hornet, only to lose signs of her when she went into the forest. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state officials said Monday they were again unsuccessful at live-tracking a “murder” hornet while trying to find and destroy a nest of the giant insects.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture said an entomologist used dental floss to tie a tracking device on a female hornet, only to lose signs of her when she went into a forest.

The hornet was captured on Oct. 5 and kept alive with strawberry jam, which she seemed to enjoy, said Sven Spichiger, a department entomologist.

Scientists then tied a tracking device onto her body and released her two days later onto an apple tree. They lost track of her after she went through some blackberry bushes, though officials believe the tracker was still attached at the time of its last signal.

“This one was a lot feistier,” Spichiger said.

A total of 18 hornets have been found in the state since they were first seen last year near the U.S.-Canadian border, the agriculture department said.

Officials earlier in the month reported trying to glue a radio tag to another live hornet so they could follow it back to its nest, but the glue did not dry fast enough. The radio tag fell off and the hornet ultimately could not fly.

In this Oct. 7, 2020, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, a live Asian giant hornet with a tracking device affixed to it sits on an apple in a tree where it was placed, near Blaine, Wash. Washington state officials say they were again unsuccessful at live-tracking an Asian giant hornet while trying to find and destroy a nest of the so-called murder hornets. The Washington State Department of Agriculture said Monday, Oct. 12, 2020, that an entomologist used dental floss to tie a tracking device on a female hornet, only to lose signs of her when she went into the forest. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)

The Asian giant hornet — the world’s largest at 2 inches (5 centimeters) — can decimate entire hives of honeybees and deliver painful stings to humans. Farmers in the northwestern U.S. depend on those honey bees to pollinate many crops, including raspberries and blueberries.

Despite their nickname, the hornets kill at most a few dozen people a year in Asia, and experts say it is probably far less. Hornets, wasps and bees typically found in the United States kill an average of 62 people a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.

The real threat from the ”murder” hornets is their devastating attacks on honeybee hives, and the time of year when they attack those hives is nearing, Spichiger said. He called it the “slaughter phase.”

2 remote Japan towns seek to host nuclear waste storage site
By MARI YAMAGUCHI

October 9, 2020


Masayuki Takahashi, head of Kamoenai Village, speaks during a press conference at the village on the northeastern coast of Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido, Friday, Oct. 9, 2020. A pair of remote northern towns struggling with rapidly graining and shrinking populations signed up for a preliminary government studies to possibly build a final repository site for high-level radioactive waste from nuclear plants as a way of surviving.(Kyodo News via AP)

TOKYO (AP) — Two remote towns in northern Japan struggling with rapidly graying and shrinking populations signed up Friday to possibly host a high-level radioactive waste storage site as a means of economic survival.

Japanese utilities have about 16,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel rods stored in cooling pools or other interim sites, and there is no final repository for them in Japan — a situation called “a mansion without a toilet.”

Japan is in a dire situation following the virtual failure of an ambitious nuclear fuel recycling plan, in which plutonium extracted from spent fuel was to be used in still-unbuilt fast breeder reactors. The problem of accumulating nuclear waste came to the fore after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Finding a community willing to host a radioactive dump site is difficult, even with a raft of financial enticements.

On Friday, Haruo Kataoka, the mayor of Suttsu town on the northwestern coast of Hokkaido, applied in Tokyo for preliminary government research on whether its land would be suitable for highly radioactive waste storage for thousands of years.

Later Friday in Kamoenai just north of Suttsu, village chief Masayuki Takahashi announced his decision to also apply for an initial feasibility study.

Suttsu, with a population of 2,900, and Kamoenai, with about 800 people, have received annual government subsidies as hosts of the Tomari nuclear power plant. But they are struggling financially because of a declining fishing industry and their aging and shrinking populations.

The preliminary research is the first of three steps in selecting a permanent disposal site, with the whole process estimated to take about two decades. Municipalities can receive up to 2 billion yen ($19 million) in government subsidies for two years by participating in the first stage. Moving on to the next stage would bring in more subsidies.

“I have tried to tackle the problems of declining population, low birth rates and social welfare, but hardly made progress,” Takahashi told reporters. “I hope that accepting research (into the waste storage) can help the village’s development.”

It is unknown whether either place will qualify as a disposal site. Opposition from people across Hokkaido could also hinder the process. A gasoline bomb was thrown into the Suttsu mayor’s home early Thursday, possibly by an opponent of the plan, causing slight damage.

Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki and local fisheries groups are opposed to hosting such a facility.

One mayor in southwestern Japan expressed interest in 2007, but faced massive opposition and the plan was spiked.

High-level radioactive waste must be stored in thick concrete structures at least 300 meters (yards) underground so it won’t affect humans and the environment.

A 2017 land survey map released by the government indicated parts of Suttsu and Kamoenai could be suitable for a final repository.

So far, Finland and Sweden are the only countries that have selected final disposal sites.

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Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi

Torlonia Collection of ancient marbles displayed in Rome
October 12, 2020


In this undated photo made available Monday, Oct. 12, 2020, ancient Greek and Roman marble statues are seen prior to going on display in the newly refurbished Villa Caffarelli, one of the Capitoline Museum’s exhibition spaces overlooking the ancient Roman Forum, in Rome. One of the most important private collections of ancient Greek and Roman marble sculptures is going on display Monday as part of the Eternal City’s 150th anniversary celebrations. (Fondazione Torlonia via AP)

ROME (AP) — One of the most important private collections of ancient Greek and Roman marble sculptures is going on display in Rome as part of the Eternal City’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

The 90 works from the Torlonia Collection were opening Monday in the newly refurbished Villa Caffarelli, one of the Capitoline Museum’s exhibition spaces overlooking the ancient Roman Forum. Organizers said there were plans to offer to lend the works to other museums, but said the coronavirus pandemic had put those plans on hold for now.



The 620-piece Torlonia Collection is considered one of the greatest private collections of classical art, featuring marble busts, reliefs, sarcophagi and statues. It was begun by one of Rome’s 19th century patricians, Prince Alessandro Torlonia, and was created in part from archaeological excavations of the Torlonia family’s various estates in Rome.

The selections presented in the new exhibit recount the history of the collection’s growth itself and include the 1884 catalogue the prince commissioned to show off his collection when he opened his own museum to house it.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini told a press conference Monday that it was unfortunate that COVID-19 restrictions would limit the number of people who can visit as well as the show’s near-term lending prospects. But he said the works “take your breath away.”

The new exhibit, which is open until June 29, is the fruit of a public-private collaboration among the culture ministry, the city of Rome, the Torlonia Foundation and key sponsor Bulgari, the Roman jeweler.

Young whales looking to dine flock to waters off NYC
By PATRICK WHITTLE and TED SHAFFREY October 7, 2020

An adolescent Humpback whale designated "Whale 0140," identified through patterns on the whale's fluke, is seen from the vessel American Princess during a cruise offered by Gotham Whale, as the cetacean is spotted off the northern New Jersey coast line Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020. According to Paul Sieswerda, President and CEO of Gotham Whale, sightings are up nearly a hundred fold from just a decade ago, with an abundance of menhaden seemingly driving the whale resurgence. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) 

MORE PHOTOS https://apnews.com/article/new-york-new-york-city-whales-fish-environment-0c338c0b07001a03424d1e50efdf2cf3/gallery/52ee241fa7c1461389a606377a0fa071

NEW YORK (AP) — If you’re young and hungry, the place to go is New York City — even if you weigh 25 tons and have a blowhole.

Whale watch captains and scientists around America’s most populous city say recent years have seen a tremendous surge in the number of whales observed in the waters around the Big Apple. Many of the whales are juvenile humpbacks, and scientists say they’re drawn to New York by an abundance of the small fish they love to eat.

There are numerous theories about why whales are suddenly flocking to the city, but one of the most widely held is that the menhaden population has grown around New York and New Jersey. Menhaden are small, schooling fish that humpbacks relish, and environmentalists believe cleaner waters and stricter conservation laws have increased their numbers near New York City.

Gotham Whale, a New York City-based whale research organization, made more than 300 observations of 500 total whales in 2019, said Paul Sieswerda, the nonprofit’s president. That’s up from three sightings of five whales in 2011, after which a steady climb began, he said.

“Somehow or other more and more whales seem to be getting the message that New York is a good place to dine,” Sieswerda said. “That kind of magnitude of increase is just phenomenal.”





The resurgence of whales in the New York-New Jersey Bight, a triangle-shaped indentation in the Atlantic coast, has attracted tourists who want to see and photograph the giant marine mammals. But the concentration of whales near New York City also poses risks to the mammals, as they ply some of the most heavily traversed waters on the planet.

The whales are essentially “playing in traffic” by feeding so close to busy shipping lanes, Sieswerda said. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has already declared an “unusual mortality event” for humpback whales from Maine to Florida in recent years due to an elevated number of deaths.

Since 2016, NOAA records show 133 humpback whales have died on the beaches and waters of the Atlantic coast. The 29 in New York were the most of any state. Of the dead whales examined, half had evidence of human interaction, such as a ship strike or entanglement in fishing gear.

The appearance of so many whales near New York City calls for environmental stewardship, said Howard Rosenbaum, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Ocean Giants Program. Environmental safeguards, such as the Clean Water Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act, likely helped bring the whales back to New York’s bustling waterways, and more protection can help keep them safe there, he said.

That will take nongovernmental organizations and state and federal agencies working together “to minimize the risk to animals that are using these habitats to feed,” Rosenbaum said. That could include implementing new regulations to protect the mammals from ship strikes, he said. Such rules have sometimes included speed reductions in areas where whales travel and feed.

The increased sighting of whales off New York City isn’t necessarily evidence that the total whale population is growing, said Danielle Brown, the lead humpback whale researcher with Gotham Whale and a doctoral student at Rutgers University.

The New York whales aren’t a standalone population, but rather members of feeding populations that mostly live farther north, such as in the Gulf of Maine, Brown said. And it’s unclear whether the whales are in New York because the larger population is growing.

Brown and other scientists have observed that the presence of the giant whales off New York City could take mariners by surprise, and that could put the mammals at risk of ship strikes or other hazards. Increasingly clean water and a growing diversity of fish to feed on could keep the whales in the New York area for the foreseeable future, she said.

“This is most likely going to continue, and we have to find a way to coexist with these large animals in our waters,” Brown said.

—-

Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

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On Twitter follow Patrick Whittle: @pxwhittle and Ted Shaffrey: @TedShaffrey

Connecticut city OKs renaming sewage plant for John Oliver
By DAVE COLLINS October 9, 2020

This video frame grab shows John Oliver from his "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" program on HBO, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020. On Aug. 22, Danbury, Conn., Mayor Mark Boughton announced a tongue-in-cheek move posted on his Facebook page to rename Danbury's local sewage treatment plant after Oliver following the comedian's expletive-filled rant about the city. Oliver then offered to donate $55,000 to charity if the city actually followed through with it. On Thursday, Oct. 8, the Danbury City Council voted 18-1 to rename the sewage plant after the comedian. (HBO via AP)


It’s official. Every time residents of Danbury, Connecticut, flush, they will be sending their special deliveries to the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant.

The City Council voted 18-1 Thursday night to rename the sewage plant after the comedian, who began a tongue-in-cheek battle with Danbury when he went on an expletive-filled rant against the city on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” in August.

Mayor Mark Boughton didn’t waste any time responding on social media. He posted a video of himself at the sewage plant saying the city was going to name it after Oliver.

“Why?” the Republican mayor asked. “Because it’s full of crap just like you, John.”
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That drew a delighted response from Oliver, but he went off against the city again because Boughton later said he was just joking.

Oliver upped the stakes on his Aug. 30 show by offering to donate $55,000 to local charities if Danbury actually followed through with renaming the plant.

“I didn’t know that I wanted my name on your (expletive) factory but now that you floated it as an option, it is all that I want,” Oliver said.

Boughton said Friday that the feud has been a good distraction from the coronavirus and other troubles of the times. He also said Oliver’s promised donations have helped spur local fundraising efforts for area food banks that could end up collecting a few hundred thousand dollars to feed needy families.

The mayor added he will be offering tours of the sewer plant for $500 donations to local food pantries.

“I think it’s been a home run. It’s been a lot of fun,” Boughton said of the spat. “If I can put food on people’s table for Thanksgiving by naming a sewer plant after a very popular comedian, we’ll do it all day long.”

Oliver has offered to provide the new sign for the plant that includes his name, as well as attend the ribbon-cutting, Boughton said. A timeline has not been finalized.

Representatives for Oliver and HBO had no immediate comment Friday.

It’s still not clear why Oliver singled out Danbury for a tongue-lashing. He first brought up the city during an August segment on racial disparities in the jury selection process, citing problems in a few Connecticut towns from decades ago. He noted Danbury’s “charming railway museum” and its “historic Hearthstone Castle.”

“I know exactly three things about Danbury,” he said. “USA Today ranked it the second-best city to live in in 2015, it was once the center of the American hat industry and if you’re from there, you have a standing invite to come get a thrashing from John Oliver — children included — (expletive) you.”

Megan Thee Stallion op-ed calls for protecting Black women
By ANDREW DALTON

Tory Lanez performs at HOT 97 Summer Jam 2019 in East Rutherford, N.J. on June 2, 2019, left, and Megan Thee Stallion attends the 5th annual Diamond Ball benefit gala in New York on Sept. 12, 2019. Megan Thee Stallion penned an op-ed on the failure to protect Black women on the morning that rapper Lanez had his first court hearing for felony charges that he shot her. She writes in the New York Times Tuesday that she was shocked to become a victim of violence from a man on July 12. She said she at first kept quiet about being shot because she feared backlash, and that fear has been justified. Lanez, appearing by phone at his court hearing, did not enter a plea to two felony counts, and his lawyer declined comment. (Photos by Scott Roth, left, Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)


LOS ANGELES (AP) — An op-ed by Megan Thee Stallion on the need to protect Black women was published Tuesday as rapper Tory Lanez had his first court hearing on felony charges alleging he shot her.

“I was recently the victim of an act of violence by a man,” she wrote in the New York Times, without naming Lanez. The op-ed was published shortly before a judge released him on bail and ordered him to stay away from her.

“After a party, I was shot twice as I walked away from him,” she wrote about the attacker. “We were not in a relationship. Truthfully, I was shocked that I ended up in that place.”

In the piece titled, “Why I Speak Up For Black Women,” the hip-hop star writes that “Black women are still constantly disrespected and disregarded in so many areas of life.”

In her first public comments on the matter since Lanez was charged Thursday, she explains why, on July 12, the night she was shot in the feet in the Hollywood Hills, she declined to tell police or otherwise publicize that her injuries were from gunfire.

“My initial silence about what happened was out of fear for myself and my friends,” she writes. “Even as a victim, I have been met with skepticism and judgment. The way people have publicly questioned and debated whether I played a role in my own violent assault proves that my fears about discussing what happened were, unfortunately, warranted.”

Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, made his court appearance by phone in Los Angeles on charges of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. He said only “yes, your honor” to a series of questions from the judge and did not enter a plea. His arraignment was postponed until Nov. 18.

Lanez’s bail was set at $190,000, which was promptly posted, and he was ordered to make no contact with Megan Thee Stallion and to surrender any guns he owns. He has been free since he was briefly jailed after an arrest on suspicion of illegal weapon possession on the day of the shooting.

His attorney Shawn Holley declined comment afterward.

The day after he was charged, Lanez said on Twitter that “the truth will come to the light” and “a charge is not a conviction.”

After teasing on Sept. 24 that he might tell his side of the story on social media later that night, he instead released a new album, “Daystar,” which currently sits at No. 10 on the Billboard album chart.

Prosecutors allege Lanez fired on Megan Thee Stallion, whose legal name is Megan Pete, after she got out of an SUV during an argument. If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of about 23 years.

In her op-ed, she puts her shooting and its aftermath in the context of larger issues for Black women, “who struggle against stereotypes and are seen as angry or threatening when we try to stand up for ourselves and our sisters.”

“We deserve to be protected as human beings,” she writes. “And we are entitled to our anger about a laundry list of mistreatment and neglect that we suffer.”

Megan Thee Stallion has had a breakout run in the past two years that has put her among the biggest stars in hip-hop. She was nominated for artist of the year at the MTV Video Music Awards, was the musical guest on the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live,” and her guest stint on the Cardi B song “WAP” helped turn the track — and music video — into a huge cultural phenomenon.

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton.

‘Driving While Black’ shows history of US Black motorists
today

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A new film examines the history of African Americans driving on the road from the Great Depression to the height of the Civil Rights movement.

“Driving While Black,” airing this week on most PBS stations in the U.S., show how the automobile liberated African Americans to move around the country while still navigating segregation and violence.

The film was inspired by Gretchen Sorin’s 2019 book, “Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights.” The book was a riveting story on how the automobile opened up opportunities for blacks in the U.S.

The car allowed African Americans to avoid segregated trains and buses throughout the American South and gave blacks a chance to travel across the country. Travel guides presented a modern-day Underground Railroad to show black travelers which hotels and restaurants would serve them.

The free movement opened the window to migration across the land and away from Jim Crow, bring in the modern Civil Rights Movement.

The project is one of many recent works examining travel by people of color despite discrimination and threats of racial violence. Candacy Taylor’s “Overground Railroad: The Green Book & Roots of Black Travel in America,” released last year, looks at how the Green Book, a travel guide for African Americans, helped black travelers navigate segregation and create a traveling network.

Congo activist fined for snatching 'looted' Paris museum artefact

Issued on: 14/10/2020 - 

French lawmakers voted to return prized artefacts to Benin and Senegal 

GERARD JULIEN AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

A Congolese activist who snatched an African artefact from a French museum to protest the looting of art during colonial times received a 1,000-euro fine for theft from a Paris court on Wednesday.

Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza grabbed a 19th century Chadian funerary post during a tour of the Quai Branly museum in Paris on June 12

Shouting "we're bringing it home" he then made for the exit with four other members of an association that campaigns for the return of stolen African art before being stopped by guards.

The protest, which one of the activists filmed and live-streamed on Facebook, was the first in a series by Diyabanza who has since snatched African artefacts in museums in the Netherlands and in the French port of Marseille.

He faces court cases in those cities too.

Wednesday's hearing came a week after French lawmakers voted to return prized artefacts to Benin and Senegal more than a century after they were looted by colonial forces and hauled back to Paris to be displayed in museums.

Benin will recover the throne of its 19th-century King Glele -- a centrepiece of the 70,000-odd African items held at the Quai Branly museum, which showcases indigenous art.

Senegal, meanwhile, will get back a sword and scabbard said to have belonged to Omar Saidou Tall, an important 19th century military and religious figure.

African leaders and activists have called on President Emmanuel Macron's government to go further and return more items.

Announcing plans to appeal his fine, Diyabanza told reporters after Wednesday's hearing that the "judges of a corrupt government" had no moral right to prevent him "going to get what belongs to us".

"We will continue the fight with whatever means we have," he said.

Three of the activists who accompanied him to Quai Branly museum received suspended fines of 250 euros ($294), 750 euros ($589) and 1,000 euros ($1,177).

A fourth was cleared of the charges.

- 90,000 African objects -

The judge acknowledged that their actions were "activist" in nature but said he was fining them to "discourage" further such stunts.

"You have other ways of drawing the attention of politicians and the public" to the issue of colonial cultural theft, he said.

An expert report commissioned by Macron in 2018 counted some 90,000 African works in French museums, most of them at the Quai Branly.

Britain has also faced calls to return artefacts, notably the Elgin Marbles to Greece and the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria.

Museums in Belgium and Austria also house tens of thousands of African pieces.

© 2020 AFP

Activist fined for dislodging African art from Paris museum
today



Congolese activist Mwazulu Diyabanza arrives at the Palais de Justice courthouse, in Paris, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020. The controversial Congolese activist and four others are going on trial Wednesday on aggravated theft charges for trying to remove a 19th century African funeral pole from a Paris museum, in a protest against colonial-era plundering of African art. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

PARIS (AP) — A Congolese activist was fined 2,000 euros ($2,320) Wednesday for trying to take a 19th-century African funeral pole from a Paris museum in a protest against colonial-era injustice that he streamed online.

The Paris court convicted Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza and two other activists of attempted theft, but the sentence stopped far short of what they potentially faced for their actions at the Quai Branly Museum: 10 years in prison and 150,000 euros in fines.

Activists and defense lawyers viewed the case as a trial about how former empires should atone for past crimes. Diyabanza’s museum action took place in June, amid global protests against racial injustice and colonial-era wrongs unleashed by George Floyd’s death on May 25 in the U.S. at the knee of a white policeman.
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In the Quai Branly protest, Diyabanza and other activists dislodged the funeral pole from its perch while he gave a livestreamed speech about plundered African art. Guards quickly stopped them. The activists argue that they never planned to steal the work but just wanted to call attention to its origins.

The presiding judge insisted the trial should focus on the specific funeral pole incident and that his court wasn’t competent to judge France’s colonial era.

French officials denounced the Quai Branly incident, saying it threatens ongoing negotiations with African countries launched by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2018 for legal, organized restitution efforts.

Diyabanza has staged similar actions in the Netherlands and the southern French city of Marseille. He accuses European museums of making millions on artworks taken from now-impoverished countries like his native Congo, and said the funeral pole, which came from current-day Chad, should be among the works returned to Africa.

Sculptor will be 1st Black woman to represent US at Biennale

By WILLIAM J. KOLE2 hours ago

In this 2020 photo provided by Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art, artist Simone Leigh poses for a photo at Stratton Sculpture Studios in Philadelphia. Leigh will be the first Black woman ever to represent the U.S. at Italy's prestigious Venice Biennale arts festival to be held in 2022. (Shaniqwa Jarvis/Simone Leigh and Hauser & Wirth via AP)

Simone Leigh is renowned for creating artworks that transcend race and gender to celebrate Black women and give them a voice. Now she’s sculpting her way into history.

She’ll be the first Black woman ever to represent the U.S. at the prestigious Venice Biennale arts festival, the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art said Wednesday.

Leigh, who lives in New York City and gives interviews infrequently, declined to comment — but it’s clear that the national reckoning with racial injustice has been on her mind.

“I’m so looking forward to a respite from this climate we are living through,” she said in a recent Instagram post

The Chicago native is creating a new series of sculptures for the U.S. pavilion at the 59th Biennale to be held in 2022, said the Boston museum, which is organizing a major exhibition of Leigh’s work to be displayed in 2023.

Leigh originally was to appear at next year’s Biennale, but the coronavirus pandemic prompted organizers to delay the 2021 edition by a year, Institute of Contemporary Art spokesperson Margaux Leonard told The Associated Press.

“At such a crucial moment in history, I can think of no better artist to represent the United States,” ICA director Jill Medvedow said in a statement.

“Over the course of two decades, Simone Leigh has created an indelible body of work that centers the experiences and histories of Black women,” she said, calling Leigh’s work “probing, timely and urgent.”

In this May 29, 2019 , file photo, a bronze bust of a Black woman entitled "Brick House," by Chicago artist Simone Leigh, stands among buildings and vegetation in the High Line park in New York. Leigh will be the first Black woman ever to represent the U.S. at Italy's prestigious Venice Biennale arts festival to be held in 2022. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

Founded in 1895, the every-other-year Biennale has become a leading venue for artists worldwide to call attention to war, racism, poverty, human trafficking and other issues preoccupying the planet.

Eva Respini, the ICA’s chief curator, said Leigh’s sculptures for the Biennale will highlight Black feminist thought, include works inspired by leading Black intellectuals and serve as “a beacon in our moment.”

Leigh, 53, is known for edgy, bold forms that draw from themes in African art. “Brick House,” her towering 16-foot-tall (5-meter-tall) bronze bust of a Black woman with braids, is currently installed on Manhattan’s elevated High Line greenway.

UnitedHealth tops profit forecast, finally hikes outlook
By TOM MURPHY

This July 12, 2019, photo shows the UnitedHealthcare headquarters in Minneapolis. UnitedHealth Group beat forecasts for its earnings in the third quarter, and the U.S.'s largest health insurance provider finally hiked its 2020 outlook after holding off while trying to sort out COVID-19’s impact. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)


UnitedHealth Group beat forecasts for its earnings in the third quarter, and the U.S.’s largest health insurance provider finally hiked its 2020 outlook after holding off while trying to sort out COVID-19’s impact.

Health insurers had approached 2020 forecasts cautiously so far this year, even though many reaped huge profits in the first half as the spreading pandemic kept people home and out of the health care system.

Both analysts and insurers have said they expected medical costs to rise in the second half of the year, as communities that had shut down opened back up and people felt more comfortable seeking elective surgeries.

UnitedHealth said Wednesday that both care patterns and prescription volumes approached normal levels in its recently completed quarter. The company now expects adjusted net earnings to range between $16.50 to $16.75 per share for 2020.

That’s up from a forecast it first laid out late last year for 2020 earnings of between $16.25 and $16.55 per share. UnitedHealth usually raises its forecast a couple times during the year.

The new range mostly exceeds the average forecast on Wall Street for earnings of $16.57 per share, according to FactSet.

Based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, UnitedHealth Group Inc. runs a health insurance business that covers about 48 million people, mostly in the United States.

Its Optum segment also runs one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit management operations as well as a growing number of clinics and urgent care and surgery centers. Operating earnings from that segment grew 8% to $2.6 billion in the quarter.

Overall, the company’s net income dropped 10% to $3.17 billion in the quarter, due in part to costs tied to the pandemic.

The company booked medical costs from COVID-19 care and testing. It also gave some customers premium breaks and temporarily waived fees like co-payments for doctor visits.

In addition to that, UnitedHealth’s commercial insurance enrollment, which includes employer-sponsored coverage, slipped. Many companies laid off workers earlier this year as the pandemic spread in the U.S. and the economy slowed down.

UnitedHealth’s adjusted earnings totaled $3.51 per share in the third quarter. Total revenue rose about 8% to $65.11 billion.

Analysts expected, on average, adjusted earnings of $3.10 per share in the quarter on $63.79 billion in revenue, according to financial data provider FactSet.

Company shares edged up about 1% to $334.51 in early-morning trading Wednesday.

Shares of UnitedHealth, a Dow Jones industrial average component, have hit several all-time high prices so far this year.