FILM

Why the Alt-right’s Real Power Is In the Narrative It Sells

“They’re hucksters,” says the director of White Noise, a new doc that focuses on three prominent right-wing figures: Richard Spencer, Mike Cernovich, and Lauren Southern.

November 3, 2020 Alissa Wilkinson VOX

Richard Spencer in White Noise., The Atlantic

One among a sea of unfortunate consequences of the last four years is that ordinary people have heard of many political figures who once would have been relegated to the fringe. There’s Mike Cernovich, a self-styled provocateur and meme creator who is an InfoWars regular. There’s Richard Spencer, the white nationalist leader who became especially notorious during the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017. And there’s Lauren Southern, a YouTube personality and anti-immigrant activist who famously supported the “Defend Europe” group, which opposes search-and-rescue operations for refugees in the Mediterranean Sea.

These three individuals are the focus of White Noise, an excellent new documentary from Daniel Lombroso, a journalist at the Atlantic. The film paints a portrait of the past few years of their lives, but more than that, it subtly exposes how much of the internet-fueled alt-right is driven by a desire to get rich, become well-known, and draw acolytes. Lombroso spent several years tagging along with Cernovich, Spencer, and Southern, attending their events, letting them talk, and quietly allowing them to do the work of unraveling their own arguments.

I recently spoke with Lombroso about how he secured this access, what he learned, and how it’s changed him. Our conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.



Students For Western Civilisation President George Hutcheson with Lauren Southern in White Noise.

The Atlantic
Alissa Wilkinson

How did you get connected with these subjects?
Daniel Lombroso

I started covering the alt-right as a reporter at the Atlantic way back in 2016, before the figures in the film were especially well known. It started with a series of short documentaries. I was actually the guy who caught a roomful of people breaking out into Nazi salutes [in 2016], which was a pivotal journalistic moment that solidified the alt-right as fundamentally a white nationalist — and potentially a neo-Nazi — movement.

So, I was covering the alt-right in short documentary form. I did a profile on Richard Spencer back before he was, you know, essentially synonymous with David Duke the way he is now.

Then I returned to my day job as a video producer at the Atlantic, covering all sorts of issues, but really carving out a niche around fundamentalism. I did a piece on far-right Christian media called Church Militant. I did a piece on Israeli settlers in the West Bank and spent two weeks there.

Then Charlottesville happened. It was eight months after the Nazi salute excerpt that went viral, and it was a pivotal moment for a million reasons. In the newsroom, we knew we had to do something deeper. So, I immediately circled up with Jeff Goldberg, the editor-in-chief [at the Atlantic], and Kasia [Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg], who ran Atlantic Studios. All of us had always wanted to do a feature. I think we didn’t know when it would happen or what it would be about, but right away when Charlottesville happened, and when Trump failed to disavow white nationalists, we knew that this had to be the story.
Alissa Wilkinson

So that was three years ago, and it’s evident in the film that several years elapse from the beginning to the end. What was it like to stick with them for so long?
Daniel Lombroso

I spent three years reporting out the film, beginning with Richard, then meeting [Mike] Cernovich, and then eventually getting access to Lauren [Southern]. She was the hardest and actually took eight months to negotiate access to. And for me, she’s the most pivotal to the film. She is a female face of racism, and she embodies such blatant contradictions.

The Atlantic was really great about giving me space. I basically work alone as a reporter and a filmmaker, so I’m a one-man band. I shot the film and directed it and co-produced it.

I started by reporting and filming with maybe 20 or 30 subjects on the right. It became clear to me pretty quickly that I didn’t want to just amplify a fringe voice, someone who wasn’t relevant, and make them relevant by giving them the credibility of the Atlantic. I quickly decided, along with Jeff and Kasia, that it had to be these three figures, because they have followings in the millions and a tremendous amount of influence. Cernovich can start a meme from his laptop in Orange County, and a few days later, it’s coming out of [Sean] Hannity’s mouth on Fox News and then eventually the president’s mouth.

It was a slow burn. After Charlottesville, I spent two or three months all over the country. By October or November of [2017], we were planning on those three [subjects]. And it took until May of the following year, eight months later, for Lauren to sign on.

From there, I just tracked their stories very closely. For Richard, it’s a little more than three years; with Mike and Lauren it’s more than two. At its core, White Noise is a “follow film.” To do that right, you need time. And thankfully the Atlantic gave me the space to do that.


Mike Cernovich in White Noise.

The Atlantic
Alissa Wilkinson

This film struck me as a portrait of what it takes to be a grifter today, or at least it explains the social and financial rewards inherent in taking extreme positions on the internet.

Daniel Lombroso

They’re opportunists, they’re hucksters, and I would say it’s fair to say they’re grifters, too. It’s tricky, because they do believe what they say — Cernovich a little bit less than the other two, but they definitely believe it enough to say it.

But, they’re also in it for the fame and for the money. I think Cernovich is the most extreme example of this. He starts the film very comfortable using the term “alt-right.” When that term becomes a little bit more toxic after Charlottesville, he says, “Fuck the Nazis,” and gets away from them and re-brands. And then at the end of the film, you see he’s selling supplements and lifestyle regimens.

Lauren is really interesting. She knows what her package is. She is very articulate, and she can use her looks, and she’s very convincing — and on YouTube, that’s the sort of thing that works. It almost feels Stalin-esque, like old Russian propaganda stuff; if you look down the barrel of the lens and say something that’s convincing, it feels true. And she’s able to back it up with pseudo-science that’s usually not accurate.

Their motivations are so mixed, and at its core, that’s what the film seeks to expose. The real power of the alt-right is that they’re selling a narrative, that they understand life, and that if you feel lost or depressed but follow them, you’ll be connected to the great history of white civilization.

By allowing you to sit with the subjects for so long, the film lets you see how mixed their motivations really are. They have a vested interest. They want to be famous. They want to get rich. And they are constantly contradicting the things that they believe.
Alissa Wilkinson

A challenge in this era seems to be figuring out how to write about these folks without aestheticizing them, without talking wonderingly about the “clean-cut” neo-Nazi. The film shows that a lot of what they’re doing is essentially leaning on an appealing aesthetic. They’re presenting a picture to people of who they could be. Are there special challenges in presenting that in film, which is a visual medium?
Daniel Lombroso

We didn’t want the film to glorify them in any way. That influenced everything from the scene selection to the shot selection. We had very spirited conversations about everything from the way we cover the subjects down to shot-level decisions. We screened for diverse audiences and built a really diverse team around the film.

What they’re doing is fundamentally aesthetic. They’re so obsessed with their appearance that it is obviously part of the story. I think it’s our responsibility as journalists to cover that ethically and responsibly, and to be highly critical. I think the film does that.

And you are missing the mark if you ignore it, because the appeal of the alt-right is to upper-middle-class, highly educated white kids in New York and LA. It’s hardly about the white nationalism. It’s about the community. It’s about a clique. It’s about the way you look and dress, and the way you say, “Hello” — all of their interesting codes of communication, different kinds of ways they communicate online but also in the physical sphere. That’s pretty fundamental to understanding the movement.


Lauren Southern with Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes in White Noise.

The Atlantic

In the film, you see that in various ways. In the conference at the beginning, when Richard says, “Hail Trump!” — we really dwell on the fact that they’re young. He says, “Stand up if you’re under the age of 30,” and the whole room stands. Most of those kids went to college — I interviewed a lot of them — and they are educated. They have a very clear aesthetic. You might call it Hitlerjugend, 20th-century fascism, but it’s like suit and tie, and they all have a haircut that they call “the fashy.”

Lauren’s package is all about her image. I have a story on this; she’s very conscious of her image and she uses it. She very consciously uses it. She’s an intelligent person and knows how to be convincing, but she knows the package she’s selling and uses it to maximize her effect and her influence.

There are really dangerous ways to cover that. I mean, there was a botched profile early on — I don’t want to call out who wrote it — that really dwelled on Richard being a dapper white nationalist. We’ve seen all sorts of iterations of that. I think it just comes down to being very, very careful, from the shot selection to the way you talk about the subjects. But their aesthetic is really fundamental to the whole project, in the way it always has been for fascist movements.
Alissa Wilkinson

So much about fascism is about the myths and legends that the look of it calls to mind.
Daniel Lombroso

Exactly.
Alissa Wilkinson

Sometimes when I’m watching a documentary, I feel like I’m just reading a magazine article. So one thing I appreciate about White Noise is how skillfully you use the visual medium to reinforce and undercut what people are saying out loud, or to get at elements that you couldn’t easily capture in a piece of writing. I’ll never get over the look on Cernovich’s face when he is hawking skin care products.
Daniel Lombroso

Or in the car wash. He’s sitting, depressed, going through a car wash.
Alissa Wilkinson

Are you looking for those images as you shoot?
Daniel Lombroso

When people watch a movie, they want to see a movie. What I’m really looking for are quiet, telling moments that don’t require dialogue. What destroys most Hollywood films is exposition, or saying something in dialogue that you would never say in real life, just to set up the audience. That’s the bane of everything I wanted to do. In the edit, I was trying to find ways to set up and say things that are very subtle.

I’m always looking for ways to let the subjects hang themselves. For instance, in one scene, Richard says very proudly, “I’m bigger than the movement” — which is insane for a million reasons. And then five minutes later in the film, which was the following day in real life, he gives a speech in a school of agriculture, and six people are there, maybe 10.

This is my first feature, but I’m always looking for visual ways to tell the story and to stay subtle. I think that’s ultimately a lot more powerful than a talking head or someone telling you, “This is a racist movement. Cernovich is a grifter.” I think it’s much more revealing when you just see him putting on facial serum and talking about how that’s his latest pivot.
Alissa Wilkinson

There’s a bit where Lauren is watching a video of herself talking, and she’s sitting with another woman who is side-eyeing her the whole time. It felt like that scene encapsulates something else the film shows: the kind of bubble that your subjects built around themselves to elevate their importance. Richard’s statement is a good example of that. They know they’re influential, but they also have surrounded themselves with people who keep saying “You’re influential” to them.

Did you get a sense of that while following them around? Were there times where you were, like, “Wow, your sense of reality is so far from reality”?
Daniel Lombroso

Absolutely. There’s so much disinformation on the far right. People just casually joke about things like Pizzagate, which is just false. There’s not even a basement at Comet Pizza, where [according to the disproven Pizzagate conspiracy theory] there was allegedly a pedophilia ring in the basement.

But all of them have a sense of inflated importance. I think that’s because they very intentionally surround themselves with yes men, or with people who play to their ego.

Richard is the most obvious example. He’s constantly followed by mostly younger kids in their 20s, college kids or kids right out of college, who have this dated but modernized fascist aesthetic. On a typical day, especially when I’m not filming and just sitting with them, they’re pouring him whiskey and buying him dinner and they’re fulfilling his every command. He has the air of a cult leader.


Lauren Southern livestreaming a rally in Berkeley, California in April 2017.
Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

With Lauren and Mike, it’s to a lesser extent. This might be surprising to people, but Mike is sort of a father figure to people in his sphere. In that alpha-male section of the alt-right, called “the manosphere” or whatever, people really trust Mike and turn to him for advice. So, when Lucian Wintrich — who we ultimately played down a little bit, he’s a far-right provocateur who started the “Twinks4Trump” meme — went through a breakup, Mike was one of his first calls. He wanted Mike’s advice. I think that’s what sets apart Mike from the other two characters: In his world, people really trust him, and that might be surprising.

Lauren is going through a transformation in the film, and ultimately, it’s an incomplete one. She’s always doubting herself. She gets her validation online, and I think the moment you mentioned is a really good example. Everything’s mediated through screens. She’s in Moscow, watching herself speaking in London through a screen, and then Brittany, who’s jealous of her, is side-eyeing her watching herself.

Lauren derives a lot of her confidence from comments, and she obsesses over negative comments and things that don’t go her way. That’s been hard for her, and continues to be hard for her. I think part of it is just that she was so young when she got into this, and this is all she knows. It’s all she’s ever known.
Alissa Wilkinson

That attention bubble seems so warping. I had the feeling watching White Noise that I had watching the two documentaries about Steve Bannon that’ve come out in the last few years, or that I have every time I read one of those explosive interviews that Isaac Chotiner does at the New Yorker. I wonder, why on earth would these people talk to a journalist or filmmaker, or let cameras follow them around? What do you think is the character trait or quality that makes a person willing to have a filmmaker follow them around for a few years when they know that person is is not sympathetic to their views?
Daniel Lombroso

Part of it is narcissism, and that comes across pretty clearly in the film. The other is that I work really small. I shoot alone, I’m a one-man band, and that helps neutralize them. They’re all willing to sit and give a quote here and there. But it’s sort of a misconception that the alt-right wants attention — they’re happy to give you a quote here and there, or sit for an interview, as long as they’re in control. This sort of unvarnished, all-access thing was incredibly difficult to achieve. And I think part of the reason they did it was that I was genuinely curious, and I kept coming back.

But part of it was their narcissism. I think they thought that they could outsmart me, that if they only depict a positive part of their life — for instance, Cernovich’s sunny, southern California life — that could help redeem him or rewrite his public image.

Part of it, too, especially with Lauren — I’m a little bit older than her, but I’m around her age, and we grew up experiencing a lot of the same things. So there are enough reference points in common that, when you’re spending hundreds of hours off-camera just killing time in an airport or getting lunch, there’s enough to talk about to kind of get them to that place where they’re willing to open up.

In the film, you see many of the juiciest moments. But all documentary filmmakers know that you spend hours and hours to get people to that point. The three minutes of Russia in the film was a 10-day trip. It was that way across the board.
Alissa Wilkinson

You said you covered fundamentalism in the past. Is there an overlap between fundamentalism and this topic?

Daniel Lombroso

There’s absolutely overlap. Extremism allows you to feel like you’re part of a historical narrative. You feel like you’re living for the past and for the future, that you’re part of something larger than your mundane, day-to-day, even boring experience.

I don’t mean to conflate these things because they are different, but you see that with far-right evangelicals. In the Church Militant piece, I interviewed a bunch of interns who were working at this far-right media company, and it was the same narrative. One of them said, “I was lost for years and years and years, wandering in the darkness, until I met Michael Voris,” the person who started Church Militant. It’s the same narrative.


Richard Spencer at CPAC in February 2017.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

With Israeli settlers — again, I don’t mean to conflate the situation there with white supremacy! — but there’s this feeling that in settling the West Bank they’re writing the next chapter of Jewish history. That’s a lot more fun, in a way, than just being a person who will die and everyone will forget you.

So, there is this gravitas to it. At its core, it’s the same appeal — a profoundly emotional or even metaphysical appeal.

Alissa Wilkinson

So you spent three years in the alt-right’s world. How did the experience change the way you think about American politics?

Daniel Lombroso

I don’t know that I was ever naïve enough to think that we lived in a post-racial America, but I was probably a little bit more hopeful going into the project, and now I’m a lot more cynical about the whole thing. The film is an unsympathetic eulogy to the alt-right. You see the figures fall off at the end, but their ideas are now so clearly part of our discourse. They’re on Fox News every night. There are newer influencers coming up who are saying things a whole lot worse. Tucker Carlson is now the highest-rated person on broadcast TV and he’s saying things that I heard Richard say three or four years ago.

It’s been very depressing to see the scale of white nationalism and conspiracy in both American and especially European politics, and I just don’t see it going away. I think it’s wrong to think that if Trump loses the election, it’s done and it’s over, because even if a section of his base lost, they’re still there. There are still kids who are finding these videos on YouTube and being radicalized by them.

In the way we talked about radical Islam, for better or for worse, as being a defining issue of the late ’90s and early ’00s, I think white domestic terrorism and white nationalism are issues we’re going to be dealing with for a long time.

White Noise is available to digitally rent on platforms including Apple TV and Google Play; see the website for details.

NYPD ends policy requiring hijab removal for mug shots

THE HIJAB IS A BABUSHKA


Volunteer Asma Kayal (C) demonstrates how a Hijab is worn during 'Meet-a-Muslim' day at the Worcester Islamic Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. 

File Photo by Matthew Healey/UPI | License Photo


Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The New York Police Department has agreed to no longer force women to remove hijabs for mug shots as part of a settlement of a federal lawsuit.

At issue, was a lawsuit filed two years ago by two Muslim women, Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz, who claimed they were embarrassingly forced to remove their hijab headscarves for mug shots after being arrested on low-level charges for violating orders of protection that were later dismissed.

"No one should be forced to undress just to be fed into a facial recognition database," the women's lawyer and founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Albert Cahn said in a statement. "New Yorkers are able to get a drivers' license or passport while wearing the hijab, and there's absolutely no reason for it to be removed by police."

The New York Police Department agreed in a settlement filed last week to change its policy to allow Muslim women who wear the headscarves to conform to Islamic standards of modesty to keep the hijab on during police photographs as along as their faces are unobstructed. The agreement applies to not only hijabs, but also other religious head coverings, such as burqa, turban, or wigs worn by Orthodox Jews.

"It was appalling that this was happening for many years in New York and that our city was betraying the values of religious inclusion," said the women's lawyer Albert Fox Cahn. "But now we won't see any more New Yorkers subjected to this discriminatory policy."The NYPD also agreed to train officers to "take all possible steps, when consistent with personal safety," to allow prisoners to keep their religious headwear on to protect "privacy, rights and religious beliefs."

According to the settlement, there is an exception for searches for weapons or contraband.

The police department also agreed to keep track of any incidents when prisoners were forced to remove religious headwear over the next three years.

The two women who filed the lawsuit alleged that the NYPD violated their constitutional rights, including the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment, and the rights of other people in their same situation. The settlement left outstanding monetary claims for damages.

"Now that the NYPD has agreed to end the policy, they still need to go a step further," Cahn added in his statement. "That's because this settlement doesn't address the thousands of New Yorkers who were subjected to this unlawful policy. That's why we're still fighting in court to make sure the NYPD pays for the harm its already inflicted."

Patricia Miller, chief of the Special Federal Litigation Division of the New York City Law Department, said in a statement Monday that the settlement was "a good reform" for the NYPD.

"It carefully balanced the department's respect for firmly held religious beliefs with the legitimate law enforcement need to take arrest photos, and should set an example for other police departments around the country," Miller said.

Diet affects skin gene expression in both healthy and atopic dogs

by University of Helsinki

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Researchers from the University of Helsinki, Finland examined 48 Staffordshire Bull Terriers, of which eight dogs—four healthy and four atopic—were selected for RNA sequencing where their skin gene expression was compared between both atopic and healthy dogs as well as between dogs that ate dry food or raw food. The diet appears to make a great difference in skin gene expression.

"Before the dietary intervention comparing atopic and healthy dogs, only a total of eight genes functioning in a range of ways in the skin were found, but the intervention increased this figure manifold. In other words, dietary intervention is extremely important for actual differences in gene expression to emerge," says researcher Johanna Anturaniemi from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki.

The effect of the diet on skin gene expression was mostly associated with the immune system, antioxidants and inflammatory processes. Raw food appeared to activate the skin's immune defense system as well as the expression of genes that increase antioxidant production or that have anti-inflammatory effects.

"A previously conducted study also demonstrated that diets based on raw meat engender an anti-inflammatory effect on blood gene expression," Anturaniemi says.

In terms of puppyhood, the researchers consider a particularly important finding the fact that the immune defense of dogs whose diet is based on raw food is activated. What is known is that in people suffering from atopic dermatitis, the development of immunity has been disturbed and that diverse exposure to microbes in childhood reduces the risk of becoming atopic.

The differences in skin gene expression between atopic and healthy dogs highlighted the possibility of deficiencies in the lipid metabolism and keratinocyte proliferation of atopic individuals. Both hold a key role in the normal functioning of the skin barrier. Additionally, the expression of genes that boost the formation of new blood vessels, a phenomenon known to be associated with the inflammatory response of the skin, was seen to have increased in atopic dogs. The findings support those made in prior studies.

"We identified several genes whose link with canine atopic dermatitis had not been reported earlier. Some of them are associated with previously known disturbed metabolic pathways, while the role of others in atopic dermatitis requires further investigation. Since the number of dogs involved in the study was small, the results can be considered preliminary. Indeed, the aim is to confirm them at a later date by utilizing the rest of the skin samples collected," Anturaniemi says.


Explore further Scientists identify unique subtype of eczema linked to food allergy
More information: Johanna Anturaniemi et al. The Effect of Atopic Dermatitis and Diet on the Skin Transcriptome in Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Frontiers in Veterinary Science (2020).

DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2020.552251
Provided by University of Helsinki

Cable failures endanger renowned Puerto Rico radio telescope

by Dánica Coto

In this Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020 file photo, provided by the Arecibo Observatory, shows the damage done by a broken cable that supported a metal platform, creating a 100-foot (30-meter) gash to the radio telescope's reflector dish in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Giant, aging cables that support the radio telescopes are slowly unraveling in this U.S. territory, threatening scientific projects that researchers say can't be done elsewhere on the planet. (Arecibo Observatory via AP)

The giant, aging cables that support one of the world's largest single-dish radio telescopes are slowly unraveling in this U.S. territory, pushing an observatory renowned for its key role in astronomical discoveries to the brink of collapse.

The Arecibo Observatory, which is tethered above a sinkhole in Puerto Rico's lush mountain region, boasts a 1,000-foot-wide (305-meter-wide) dish featured in the Jodie Foster film "Contact" and the James Bond movie "GoldenEye." The dish and a dome suspended above it have been used to track asteroids headed toward Earth, conduct research that led to a Nobel Prize and helped scientists trying to determine if a planet is habitable.

"As someone who depends on Arecibo for my science, I'm frightened. It's a very worrisome situation right now. There's a possibility of cascading, catastrophic failure," said astronomer Scott Ransom with the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves, a collaboration of scientists in the U.S. and Canada.

Last week, one of the telescope's main steel cables that was capable of sustaining 1.2 million pounds (544,000 kilograms) snapped under only 624,000 pounds (283,000 kilograms). That failure further mangled the reflector dish after an auxiliary cable broke in August, tearing a 100-foot hole and damaging the dome above it.

Officials said they were surprised because they had evaluated the structure in August and believed it could handle the shift in weight based on previous inspections.

It's a blow for the telescope that more than 250 scientists around the world were using. The facility is also one of Puerto Rico's main tourist attractions, drawing some 90,000 visitors a year. Research has been suspended since August, including a project aiding scientists in their search for nearby galaxies.

The telescope was built in the 1960s and financed by the Defense Department amid a push to develop anti-ballistic missile defenses. It's endured over a half-century of disasters, including hurricanes and earthquakes. Repairs from Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, were still underway when the first cable snapped.

Some new cables are scheduled to arrive next month, but officials said funding for repairs has not been worked out with federal agencies. Scientists warn that time is running out. Only a handful of cables now support the 900-ton platform.

"Each of the structure's remaining cables is now supporting more weight than before, increasing the likelihood of another cable failure, which would likely result in the collapse of the entire structure," the University of Central Florida, which manages the facility, said in a statement Friday.


University officials say crews have already noticed wire breaks on two of the remaining main cables. They warn that employees and contractors are at risk despite relying heavily on drones and remote cameras to assess the damage.

The observatory estimates the damage at more than $12 million and is seeking money from the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency that owns the observatory.

Foundation spokesman Rob Margetta said engineering and cost estimates have not been completed and that funding the repairs would likely involve Congress and discussions with stakeholders. He said the agency is reviewing "all recommendations for action at Arecibo."

This July 13, 2016 file photo shows one of the largest single-dish radio telescopes at the Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Giant, aging cables that support the radio telescopes are slowly unraveling in this U.S. territory, threatening scientific projects that researchers say can't be done elsewhere on the planet. (AP Photo/Danica Coto, File)

"NSF is ultimately responsible for decisions regarding the structure's safety," he said in an email. "Our top priority is the safety of anyone at the site."

Representatives of the university and the observatory said the telescope's director, Francisco Córdova, was not available for comment. In a Facebook post, the observatory said maintenance was up to date and the most recent external structural evaluation occurred after Hurricane Maria.

The most recent damage was likely the result of the cable degrading over time and carrying extra weight after the auxiliary cable snapped, the university said. In August, the socket holding that cable failed, possibly the result of manufacturing error, the observatory said.

The problems have interrupted the work of researchers like Edgard Rivera-Valentín, a Universities Space Research Association scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Texas. He had planned to study Mars in September during its close approach to Earth.

"This is the closest Mars was going to be while also being observable from Arecibo until 2067," he said. "I won't be around the next time we can get this level of radar data."

The observatory in Puerto Rico is considered crucial for the study of pulsars, which are the remains of stars that can be used to detect gravitational waves, a phenomenon Albert Einstein predicted in his theory of general relativity. The telescope also is used to search for neutral hydrogen, which can reveal how certain cosmic structures are formed.

"It's more than 50 years old, but it remains a very important instrument," said Alex Wolszczan, a Polish-born astronomer and professor at Pennsylvania State University.

He helped discover the first extrasolar and pulsar planets and credited the observatory for having a culture that allowed him to test what he described as wild ideas that sometimes worked.

"Losing it would be a really huge blow to what I think is a very important science," Wolszczan said.

An astronomer at the observatory in the 1980s and early 1990s, Wolszczan still uses the telescope for certain work because it offers an unmatched combination of high frequency range and sensitivity that he said allows for a "huge array" of science projects. Among them: observing molecules of life, detecting radio emission of stars and conducting pulsar work.

The telescope also was a training ground for graduate students and widely loved for its educational opportunities, said Carmen Pantoja, an astronomer and professor at the University of Puerto Rico, the island's largest public university.

She relied on it for her doctoral thesis and recalled staring at it in wonder when she was a young girl.

"I was struck by how big and mysterious it was," she said. "The future of the telescope depends greatly on what position the National Science Foundation takes ... I hope they can find a way and that there's goodwill to save it."


Explore further  Broken cable damages giant radio telescope in Puerto Rico

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Reviewing past neuroscience research that explores the neural mechanisms of aggression

by Ingrid Fadelli , Medical Xpress
Credit: David Clode, Unsplash

Aggression is a common behavior both among humans and other animals, which is known to be particularly important for defense, protection and survival. While psychologists and neuroscientists have been investigating aggression for several decades, recent technological advances have enabled the collection of increasingly precise and insightful data that has helped to identify many of the neural mechanisms associated with aggressive behaviors in different species.

Researchers at New York University School of Medicine recently reviewed some of the most recent findings of studies investigating the neural underpinnings of aggression in order to delineate what the neuroscience research community has so far discovered about this crucial behavior. In their paper, published in Nature Neuroscience, they delineate a 'core aggression circuit' composed of four subcortical brain regions that have been found to be linked to the manifestation of aggressive behaviors in multiple animal species.

"There have been significant advances in technology in the past 10 years, for instance, enabling the precise recording and manipulation of specific sets of cells in brain regions of interest," Julieta E. Lischinsky and Dayu Lin, the two authors of the review paper, told Medical Xpress. "These advances allowed neuroscientists to address a number of fundamental questions related to the study of aggression. In our article, we provide an overview of these advances and how they are paving the way towards a better understanding of the brain regions, cells and circuits responsible for aggression, as well as how it can be altered by the internal state of the animal."

In their review paper, Lischinsky and Lin tried to identify the fundamental principles and neural mechanisms underlying aggressive behaviors across a wide range of animal species. To do this, they analyzed past study findings and looked at the similarities and differences between how aggression manifests in three main types of animals, namely rodents, songbirds and primates.

Based on past observations, the researchers delineated what they refer to as a core aggression circuit (CAC); a set of four subcortical brain regions that are particularly active while animals are exhibiting aggressive behaviors. Lischinsky and Lin also highlight the existence of two parallel circuits that appear to drive motor actions of aggression. These include a circuit that involves the medial hypothalamus and the midbrain, which has been linked with innate aggressive actions (e.g., biting in mice) and a circuit that contains the hypothalamus, dopamine cells in the ventral tegmental area and ventral striatum, which appears to drive aggressive behaviors that are acquired over time (e.g., specific types of singing in songbirds).

"The relative importance of these aggression-driving circuits varies across species," Lischinsky and Lin explained. "In our paper, we also use past findings to describe the key circuits for controlling aggression. The hippocampus-lateral septum circuit is considered the major top-down control for rodents and birds, while the prefrontal cortex plays a more important role in modulating aggression in primates potentially through its primate-specific direct projection to the medial hypothalamus and its dense connection to the midbrain."

The recent paper authored by Lischinsky and Lin provides an overview of the main biological features of aggression across species and the neural substrates that are now known to play a key role in aggressive behaviors. While it does not present any new evidence, it could prove to be highly valuable for neuroscientists who are conducting research related to aggression, as it offers a clear summary and representation of the neural circuits associated with this particular behavior based on what neuroscientists have discovered about it so far.

"Our paper summarizes past findings that show how the same subcortical regions in the core aggression circuit are implicated in aggressive behaviors across species, despite the differences in aggression observed in these species," Lischinsky and Lin said. "This highlights how understanding the circuitry in other species such as rodents and songbirds can be very informative for uncovering the complexity of human aggression."

Although the majority of past studies investigating the neural underpinnings of aggression were carried out on animals, some of the findings could also apply to humans. As aggressive outbursts are associated with numerous psychiatric conditions, including conduct disorder and schizophrenia, the evidence that Lischinsky and Lin review in their paper could ultimately contribute to the development of more effective pharmacological or psychological treatments for these conditions, which are specifically designed to reduce aggressive behavior.

"Our plans for future investigation are to better understand more precisely the connectivity among CAC regions and their top-down control at the neuronal population level that results in aggressive actions," Lischinsky and Lin said. "We are also interested in how the circuit we delineate in our paper is modified in the short- and long-term by the internal state of the animals such as by energy level, reproductive state and experience, among others."


Explore further Researchers probe how aggression leads to more aggression

More information: Neural mechanisms of aggression across species. Nature Neuroscience(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-00715-2.
Journal information: Nature Neuroscience

Former piece of Pacific Ocean floor imaged deep beneath China

by Rice University

Seismic imaging in northeastern China revealed both the top (X1) and bottom (X2) boundaries of a tectonic plate (blue) that formerly sat at bottom of the Pacific Ocean and is being pulled into Earth's mantle transition zone, which lies about 254-410 miles (410-660 kilometers) beneath Earth's surface. Credit: F. Niu/Rice University

In a study that gives new meaning to the term "rock bottom," seismic researchers have discovered the underside of a rocky slab of Earth's surface layer, or lithosphere, that has been pulled more than 400 miles beneath northeastern China by the process of tectonic subduction.

The study, published by a team of Chinese and U.S. researchers in Nature Geoscience, offers news evidence about what happens to water-rich oceanic tectonic plates as they are drawn through Earth's mantle beneath continents.

Rice University seismologist Fenglin Niu, a co-corresponding author, said the study provides the first high-resolution seismic images of the top and bottom boundaries of a rocky, or lithospheric, tectonic plate within a key region known as the mantle transition zone, which starts about 254 miles (410 kilometers) below Earth's surface and extends to about 410 miles (660 kilometers).

"A lot of studies suggest that the slab actually deforms a lot in the mantle transition zone, that it becomes soft, so it's easily deformed," Niu said. How much the slab deforms or retains its shape is important for explaining whether and how it mixes with the mantle and what kind of cooling effect it has.

Earth's mantle convects like heat in an oven. Heat from Earth's core rises through the mantle at the center of oceans, where tectonic plates form. From there, heat flows through the mantle, cooling as it moves toward continents, where it drops back toward the core to collect more heat, rise and complete the convective circle.

Fenglin Niu is a professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Rice University. Credit: Rice University

Previous studies have probed the boundaries of subducting slabs in the mantle, but few have looked deeper than 125 miles (200 kilometers) and none with the resolution of the current study, which used more than 67,000 measurements collected from 313 regional seismic stations in northeastern China. That work, which was done in collaboration with the China Earthquake Administration, was led by co-corresponding author Qi-Fu Chen from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The research probes fundamental questions about the processes that shaped Earth's surface over billions of years. Mantle convection drives the movements of Earth's tectonic plates, rigid interlocked pieces of Earth's surface that are in constant motion as they float atop the asthenosphere, the topmost mantle layer and the most fluid part of the inner planet.


Where tectonic plates meet, they jostle and grind together, releasing seismic energy. In extreme cases, this can cause destructive earthquakes and tsunamis, but most seismic motion is too faint for humans to feel without instruments. Using seismometers, scientists can measure the magnitude and location of seismic disturbances. And because seismic waves speed up in some kinds of rock and slow in others, scientists can use them to create images of Earth's interior, in much the same way a doctor might use ultrasound to image what's inside a patient.

Niu, a professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Rice, has been at the forefront of seismic imaging for more than two decades. When he did his Ph.D. training in Japan more than 20 years ago, researchers were using dense networks of seismic stations to gather some of the first detailed images of the submerged slab boundaries of the Pacific plate, the same plate that was imaged in study published this week.

"Japan is located about where the Pacific plate reaches around 100-kilometer depths," Niu said. "There is a lot of water in this slab, and it produces a lot of partial melt. That produces arc volcanoes that helped create Japan. But, we are still debating whether this water is totally released in that depth. There is increasing evidence that a portion of the water stays inside the plate to go much, much deeper."

Northeastern China offers one of the best vantage points to investigate whether this is true. The region is about 1,000 kilometers from the Japan trench where the Pacific plate begins its plunge back into the planet's interior. In 2009, with funding from the National Science Foundation and others, Niu and scientists from the University of Texas at Austin, the China Earthquake Administration, the Earthquake Research Institute of Tokyo University and the Research Center for Prediction of Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions at Japan's Tohoku University began installing broadband seismometers in the region.

"We put 140 stations there, and of course the more stations the better for resolution," Niu said. "The Chinese Academy of Sciences put additional stations so they can get a finer, more detailed image."

In the new study, data from the stations revealed both the upper and lower boundaries of the Pacific plate, dipping down at a 25-degree angle within the mantle transition zone. The placement within this zone is important for the study of mantle convection because the transition zone lies below the asthenosphere, at depths where increased pressure causes specific mantle minerals to undergo dramatic phase changes. These phases of the minerals behave very differently in seismic profiles, just as liquid water and solid ice behave very different even though they are made of identical molecules. Because phase changes in the mantle transition zone happen at specific pressures and temperatures, geoscientists can use them like a thermometer to measure the temperature in the mantle.

Niu said the fact that both the top and bottom of the slab are visible is evidence that the slab hasn't completely mixed with the surrounding mantle. He said heat signatures of partially melted portions of the mantle beneath the slab also provide indirect evidence that the slab transported some of its water into the transition zone.

"The problem is explaining how these hot materials can be dropped into the deeper part of the mantle," Niu said. "It's still a question. Because they are hot, they are buoyant."

That buoyancy should act like a life preserver, pushing upward on the underside of the sinking slab. Niu said the answer to this question could be that holes have appeared in the deforming slab, allowing the hot melt to rise while the slab sinks.

"If you have a hole, the melt will come out," he said. "That's why we think the slab can go deeper."

Holes could also explain the appearance of volcanos like the Changbaishan on the border between China and North Korea.

"It's 1,000 kilometers away from the plate boundary," Niu said. "We don't really understand the mechanism of this kind of volcano. But melt rising from holes in the slab could be a possible explanation."

Explore further Distinct slab interfaces found within mantle transition zone
More information: Xin Wang et al, Distinct slab interfaces imaged within the mantle transition zone, Nature Geoscience (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-020-00653-5
Journal information: Nature Geoscience

'The global built environment sector must think in new, radical ways, and act quickly'

The construction sector, the real estate industry and city planners must give high priority to the same goal - to drastically reduce their climate impacts

CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Research News

  

The construction sector, the real estate industry and city planners must give high priority to the same goal - to drastically reduce their climate impacts. Powerful, combined efforts are absolutely crucial for the potential to achieve the UN's sustainability goals. And what's more - everything has to happen very quickly. These are the cornerstones to the roadmap presented at the Beyond 2020 World Conference.

Today, 55 percent of the world's population lives in cities. By 2050, that figure is estimated to have risen to 68 percent, according to the UN. Cities already produce 70 percent of the world's greenhouse gases. Buildings and construction account for 40 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Rapid urbanisation is bringing new demands that need to be met in ecologically, economically and socially sustainable ways.

"If we continue as before, we have no chance of even getting close to the climate goals. Now we need to act with new radical thinking and we need to do it fast, and increase the pace at which we work to reduce cities' climate impact. We must look for innovative ways to build our societies so that we move towards the sustainability goals, and not away from them", says Colin Fudge, Visiting Professor of urban futures and design at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.

As an outcome of the Beyond 2020 World Conference, Colin Fudge and his colleague Holger Wallbaum have established a "Framework for a Transformational Plan for the Built Environment". The framework aims to lay the foundation for regional strategies that can guide the entire sector in working towards sustainable cities and communities, and the goals of the UN Agenda 2030.

"The conference clearly demonstrated the growing awareness of sustainability issues among more and more actors in the sector. But it's not enough. Achieving the sustainability goals will require a common understanding among all actors of how they can be achieved - and, not least, real action. That is what we want to contribute to now", says Holger Wallbaum, Professor in Sustainable Building at Chalmers University of Technology, and host of Beyond 2020.

Chair of Sweden's Council for sustainable cities, Helena Bjarnegård, is welcoming their initiative.

"We are aware that we have to deliver change to address the climate, biodiversity, lack of resources and segregation. We need to develop sustainable living environments, not least for the sake of human health. The framework of a transformational plan for the built environment provides a provocative but necessary suggestion on concrete actions to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for one of the most important sectors", says Helena Bjarnegård, National architect of Sweden.

In the framework, Wallbaum and Fudge have added a detailed action plan for northwestern Europe that contains 72 concrete proposals for measures - intended as an inspiration for the rest of the world.

The proposals cover everything from energy efficiency improvements, research into new building materials, digital tools and renovation methods, to free public transport, more green spaces and cycle paths. They involve all actors from the entire sector - such as architects, builders, real estate companies, material producers and urban planners.

Several of the high-priority measures in northwestern Europe are under direct governmental responsibility:

• Higher taxes on carbon dioxide emissions and utilisation of land and natural resources - lower taxes on labour
• State support for energy-efficient renovation works
• A plan for large-scale production of sustainable, affordable housing
• Increased pace in the phasing out of fossil fuels in favour of electric power from renewables

"Here, governments, in collaboration with towns, cities and other sectors, have a key role, as it is political decisions such as taxation, targeted support and national strategies that can pave the way for the radical changes we propose. But all actors with influence over the built environment must contribute to change. In other parts of the world, it may be the business community that plays the corresponding main role", says Holger Wallbaum.

Wallbaum and Fudge are clear that their proposed measures are specifically intended for the countries of northwestern Europe, and that their work should be seen as an invitation to discussion. Different actors around the world are best placed to propose which measures are most urgent and relevant in their respective regions, based on local conditions, they claim.

"Key people and institutions in different parts of the world have accepted the challenge of establishing nodes for the development of regional strategies. From Chalmers' side, we have offered to support global coordination. Our proposal is that all these nodes present their progress for evaluation and further development at a world conference every three years - next in Montreal, in 2023", says Colin Fudge.

A thousand participants followed the Beyond 2020 conference, which was arranged by Chalmers 2-4 November in collaboration with Johanneberg Science Park, Rise (Research Institutes of Sweden), and the City of Gothenburg. As a result of the Corona pandemic, it was held online. The conference discussed methods for reducing climate footprints, lowering resource consumption, digital development and innovative transport. Among the speakers were authorities in sustainable construction, digitisation and financing from around the world.

Beyond 2020 has the status of a World Sustainable Built Environment Conference (WSBE). Organisers are appointed by iiSBE, a worldwide non-profit organisation whose overall goal is to actively work for initiatives that can contribute to a more sustainable built environment. The next WSBE will be held in Montreal in 2023.

More about: A roadmap for the built environment

In their newly established framework, Wallbaum and Fudge establish a general approach that each individual region in the world can use to identify the measures that are most urgent and relevant to achieving the goals of the UN Agenda 2030, based on local conditions. They identify the key questions that must be answered by all societal actors, the obstacles that need to be overcome and the opportunities that will be crucial for the sector over the next decade.

The work has been carried out in dialogue with prominent researchers and city planners around the world. Read more about the framework and download the material here: Framework document on a Transformational Plan for the Built Environment

More about: Action plan for the built environment sector in northwestern Europe

Wallbaum and Fudge have specified 72 acute sustainability measures in northwestern Europe (Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Belgium, Switzerland). A selection:

Establish renovation plans which focus on energy efficiencies for all existing property by 2023. Avoid demolition and new construction when it is possible to renovate.

• Halve emissions from production of building materials by 2025. The transition to greater usage of materials with lower climate impact needs to accelerate.
• Accelerate the phase out of fossil fuels in the transport sector in favour of electric power - with, for example, a ban on new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
• Double the amount of pedestrian and cycle paths in cities by 2030.
• Offer free municipal public transport for all school children and for everyone over the age of 70.
• Introduce the climate perspective as a mandatory element of the architectural industry's ethical guidelines.
• Increase the proportion of green spaces by 20 percent in all cities by 2030.
• Concentrate research on the development of new building materials with lower carbon footprints, digital tools for the built environment and new energy-efficient renovation methods.
• Read the entire action plan on the pages 20-23 in the Framework document on a Transformational Plan for the Built Environment

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Potential plumes on Europa could come from water in the crust

by Gretchen McCartney, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

This illustration of Jupiter's icy moon Europa depicts a cryovolcanic eruption in which brine from within the icy shell could blast into space. A new model proposing this process may also shed light on plumes on other icy bodies. Credit: Justice Wainwright

Plumes of water vapor that may be venting into space from Jupiter's moon Europa could come from within the icy crust itself, according to new research. A model outlines a process for brine, or salt-enriched water, moving around within the moon's shell and eventually forming pockets of water—even more concentrated with salt—that could erupt.

Europa scientists have considered the possible plumes on Europa a promising way to investigate the habitability of Jupiter's icy moon, especially since they offer the opportunity to be directly sampled by spacecraft flying through them. The insights into the activity and composition of the ice shell covering Europa's global, interior ocean can help determine if the ocean contains the ingredients needed to support life.

This new work that offers an additional scenario for some plumes proposes that they may originate from pockets of water embedded in the icy shell rather than water forced upward from the ocean below. The source of the plumes is important: Water originating from the icy crust is considered less hospitable to life than the global interior ocean because it likely lacks the energy that is a necessary ingredient for life. In Europa's ocean, that energy could come from hydrothermal vents on the sea floor.

"Understanding where these water plumes are coming from is very important for knowing whether future Europa explorers could have a chance to actually detect life from space without probing Europa's ocean," said lead author Gregor Steinbrügge, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences.

Using images collected by NASA's Galileo spacecraft, the researchers developed a model to propose how a combination of freezing and pressurization could lead to a cryovolcanic eruption, or a burst of frigid water. The results, published Nov. 10 in Geophysical Research Letters, may shed light on eruptions on other icy bodies in the solar system.

The researchers focused their analyses on Manannán, an 18-mile-wide (29-kilometer-wide) crater on Europa that resulted from an impact with another celestial object tens of millions of years ago. Reasoning that such a collision would have generated tremendous heat, they modeled how the melted ice and subsequent freezing of the water pocket within the icy shell could have pressurized it and caused the water to erupt.

"The comet or asteroid hitting the ice shell was basically a big experiment which we're using to construct hypotheses to test," said co-author Don Blankenship, senior research scientist at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) and principal investigator of the radar instrument, REASON (Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface), that will fly aboard NASA's upcoming Europa Clipper spacecraft. "Our model makes specific predictions we can test using data from the radar and other instruments on Europa Clipper."


The model indicates that as Europa's water partially froze into ice following the impact, leftover pockets of water could have been created in the moon's surface. These salty water pockets can move sideways through Europa's ice shell by melting adjacent regions of ice and consequently become even saltier in the process.

A Salty Driving Force

The model proposes that when a migrating brine pocket reached the center of Manannán Crater, it became stuck and began freezing, generating pressure that eventually resulted in a plume, estimated to have been over a mile high (1.6 kilometers). The eruption of this plume left a distinguishing mark: a spider-shaped feature on Europa's surface that was observed by Galileo imaging and incorporated into the researchers' model.

"Even though plumes generated by brine pocket migration would not provide direct insight into Europa's ocean, our findings suggest that Europa's ice shell itself is very dynamic," said co-lead author Joana Voigt, a graduate research assistant at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.

The relatively small size of the plume that would form at Manannán indicates that impact craters probably can't explain the source of other, larger plumes on Europa that have been hypothesized based on data from Galileo and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, researchers said. But the process modeled for the Manannán eruption could happen on other icy bodies—even without an impact event.

"The work is exciting, because it supports the growing body of research showing there could be multiple kinds of plumes on Europa," said Robert Pappalardo of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and project scientist of the Europa Clipper mission. "Understanding plumes and their possible sources strongly contributes to Europa Clipper's goal to investigate Europa's habitability."

Missions such as Europa Clipper help contribute to the field of astrobiology, the interdisciplinary research on the variables and conditions of distant worlds that could harbor life as we know it. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Europa and investigate whether the icy moon, with its subsurface ocean, has the capability to support life. Understanding Europa's habitability will help scientists better understand how life developed on Earth and the potential for finding life beyond our planet.


Explore further Researchers model source of eruption on Jupiter's moon Europa
More information: G. Steinbrügge et al. Brine Migration and Impact‐Induced Cryovolcanism on Europa, Geophysical Research Letters (2020). DOI: 10.1029/2020GL090797

Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters

Provided by Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Hard-hit Central America in crosshairs of another hurricane

Residents evacuate a flooded area in Baracoa, Honduras on November 8, 2020


NOVEMBER 14, 2020

Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua announced evacuations Friday as a second major hurricane in days closed in on Central America with the region still reeling from deadly storm Eta last week.

Eta killed more than 200 people across Central America, with heavy rain bursting river banks and triggering landslides as far north as Chiapas, Mexico.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami has now confirmed that another major hurricane is approaching Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala, whose populations total more than 30 million.

The NHC forecasts Tropical Storm Iota to become a Category 2 or 3 hurricane as it moves into the same shell-shocked countries, hitting Nicaragua and Honduras by late Sunday or early Monday—less than two weeks after Eta hit.

Authorities in Honduras on Friday ordered the evacuation by police and the army of people in the area of San Pedro Sula—the country's second city and industrial capital, located 180 kilometers (110 miles) north of Tegucigalpa.

"Our red alert (in Honduras) orders mandatory evacuations," Julissa Mercado of Honduras' Emergency Response Agency told AFP.

The San Pedro Sula valley was hit hard by Eta and about 40,000 people are still in shelters across the country.

In Nicaragua relief agencies began to evacuate some indigenous communities from the Coco River, on the border with Honduras, which could be affected by heavy rains and floods due to the storm.

"We are asking you to calmly prepare" for the hurricane that "threatens to cause floods and disasters," Rose Cunnigham, the mayor of Waspam, on the border with Honduras, urged the community over a local radio station.

Waspam authorities on Friday sent boats to evacuate the community in Cabo Gracias a Dios, the cape where the Coco River flows into the Caribbean along the "Mosquito Coast", and buses to transport people from the village of Bihmuna.

The town of Morales in Guatemala's Izabal Department is seen flooded following the passage of storm Eta on November 7, 2020

Guatemala's disaster management agency CONRED meanwhile called on residents in the country's most threatened areas in the north and northeast to voluntarily evacuate to shelters. It also recommended avoiding waterways and other risky areas.


"Our ground is already oversaturated," said Guatemala's President Alejandro Giammattei.

"So it's to be expected that we will have more farming and infrastructure damage," he warned after meeting his Honduran counterpart, Juan Orlando Hernandez, in Guatemala City.

Eta hit the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm and was one of the strongest November storms ever recorded.

Warmer seas caused by climate change are making hurricanes stronger for longer after landfall, increasing the destruction they can wreak, scientists say.

Guatemala's Giammattei on Friday accused industrialized nations of being responsible for the catastrophes caused by climate change that are ravaging the area.

"Central America is one of the regions where climate change is felt the most," he told reporters.

The region is hit by "catastrophic floods, extreme droughts and the greatest poverty" but nonetheless receives "the least help on behalf of these industrialized nations", he said.

This year's hurricane season has seen a record 30 named tropical storms wreak havoc across the southeastern United States, the Caribbean and Central America.

The NHC was even forced to switch to the Greek alphabet after 2020's storms exhausted its list of Latin names.


Explore further Storm Eta leaves 150 dead or missing in Guatemala

© 2020 AFP

Hurricane Iota to deal another catastrophic blow to Central America

By Courtney Spamer, Accuweather.com & UPI Staff


Hurricane Iota strengthened into a Category 4 storm early Monday. Photo courtesy of NOAA

Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Areas of Central America still reeling from a humanitarian crisis caused by the deadly Hurricane Eta are now under threat from an equally powerful tropical system -- Hurricane Iota.

At 1 a.m. EST on Monday, the national Hurricane Center said Iota had strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Iota is the sixth major hurricane, meaning it is a Category 3 or higher, to churn in the Atlantic this season.

Just 40 minutes later, Iota was found to have rapidly strengthened into a dangerous Category 4 hurricane.

As of 1:40 a.m. EST Monday, Iota was packing a serious punch with sustained winds of 140 mph. Iota continued to move westward at 10 mph with its center located about 190 miles east-southeast of Cabo Gracias on the Nicaragua-Honduras border. Hurricane watches and warnings are in effect for much of the coast.

Besides Iota, the most recent major hurricane in the Atlantic was Hurricane Eta. Hurricane Eta made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Nov. 3, in Nicaragua, which was among the top five strongest storms to ever hit the nation. Eta also carved a path of destruction through Honduras and Guatemala, unleashing feet of rain, tremendous flooding and killing more than 100.

Central America is still facing a humanitarian crisis following Eta's deadly blow. Millions are enduring dangerous conditions in the storm's wake -- with concerns over waterborne diseases and COVID-19 complicating recovery. And the situation could become even more dire as Iota creeps toward the coast.

"With Eta having gone through less than 2 weeks ago, Hurricane Iota will place another devastating blow to the region. No amount of words can describe the problems this system will add to the crisis already occurring in the area," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Matt Rinde said.

Iota is forecast to pick up some forward speed and continue to move westward toward the border of Honduras and Nicaragua. Along the way, heavy rainfall will inundate northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela, as well as southern Jamaica.

In addition to widespread rainfall, Iota will be moving through an area of low wind shear and warm water -- around 84 degrees Fahrenheit -- in the western Caribbean Sea, encouraging the hurricane to strengthen into an even more powerful hurricane.

"Exactly how long Iota is able to to hang out in that favorable environment will ultimately determine how long it could be a major [Category 3 or higher] hurricane," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller.

RELATED Subtropical Storm Theta makes 2020 a record year for named storms

The exact track it takes, the strength and forward speed as it plows onshore in Central America will determine how grim the situation will become.

"It is possible that Iota could track north of Honduras, allowing the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Eta to be spared. But it is even more likely that Honduras and Nicaragua take a direct hit from Iota," warned Miller.

Should Iota make landfall in Nicaragua as a hurricane, it would be only the second time in history the country would be hit by two hurricanes in one season. The last time it occurred was in 1971, when Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Edith hit Nicaragua.

In Central America, building seas will be the first impact, coming on Sunday. Next would be the outer bands of Iota, that will bring heavy rain to Nicaragua and eastern Honduras as early as Monday morning, then gusty winds.

The exact strength of Iota at landfall will dictate the wind gusts experienced by the storm. If Iota makes landfall as a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds of 130 mph or greater, the effects could be devastating.

In addition to the strongest, most distructive winds being found at the coast near landfall, so too will be the most impactful storm surge from Iota.

Storm surge of 1-3 feet will stretch from near Claura in Honduras to Haulover, Nicaragua, with the most severe surge, 10-15 feet (3-5 meters) between Puerto Cabezas and Nina Yari. This same area experienced coastal inundation from Eta earlier this month.

Even still, the most widespread and greatest threat to lives and property from the new cyclone is expected to be dealt by serious flooding caused by feet of rainfall. Major river flooding and flash flooding could occur with a vast area of 12-18 inches across the mountainous terrain of Honduras, the most likely location for the AccuWeather Local StormMax of 30 inches.

Even more widespread amounts of 2-4 inches are forecast from Guatemala to central Nicaragua, worsening ongoing flooding and clean-up efforts.

With all of the mountainous terrain and the very saturated ground following Hurricane Eta, mudslides are a definite concern with the new tropical threat.

Given the threat posed by devastating storm surge, catastrophic flooding inland and devastating winds, Iota will be a 5 on the AccuWeather RealImpact Scale for Hurricanes over Central America. This is based on the life-threatening heavy rainfall that will lead to catastrophic flooding, damaging winds, storm surge and a number of other economic factors.

Tropical Storm Iota developed Friday afternoon in the central Caribbean just hours after the system had become Tropical Depression 31. Iota strengthened into a hurricane early Sunday morning and officially became the 13th hurricane of the season. 2020 is now just two shy of the record number of hurricanes to churn in the Atlantic in one season held by 2005.

In fact, this is the first time the NHC has ever gotten this far into the Greek alphabet during a tropical season.

Iota strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane early Monday morning and officially became the sixth major hurricane of the season. Five other major hurricanes churned in the Atlantic this season: Laura, Teddy, Delta, Epsilon and Eta.

This year set the record for the most tropical storms to be named in one Atlantic hurricane season as Theta became the 29th tropical storm of the season earlier this week.

Theta continued to swirl in the Atlantic Basin on Saturday morning, after spinning between the Azores and Canary Islands into Sunday morni

Belgium announces measures for bird flu outbreak

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

NOVEMBER 14, 2020

Belgium has detected an outbreak of bird flu, leading authorities to order all poultry farmers and individual bird owners to keep the animals confined, the country's food safety agency AFSCA said Saturday.

Avian influenza has recently spread to western Europe after outbreaks in Russia and Kazakhstan this summer.

"Three wild birds that stayed in a bird sanctuary in Ostend tested positive for the H5N8 virus," AFSCA said in a statement on Saturday, adding that the outbreak was confirmed the day before by the Sciensano public health institute.

AFSCA said the new measures would be effective from Sunday and would apply to private poultry houses as well as individuals who keep birds in their homes, in a country where there is a strong tradition of pigeon racing.

"All gatherings of poultry and birds are strictly prohibited," the statement said, adding that preventive measures were imposed on professional pigeon farms on November 1.

France this month ordered measures for poultry farms such as protective netting to prevent contact with wild birds that spread the disease, after the country's ministry of agriculture warned that bird flu infections were on the rise in western Europe.

In addition to cases declared in the Netherlands, the ministry pointed to "13 cases in wild birds in Germany" and an outbreak on November 3 in the northwest of England.


Explore further Bird flu fears: Dutch farms ordered to keep poultry indoors

© 2020 AFP