POISIONED WORK ENVIRONMENT

Top AI ethics researcher says Google fired her; company denies it

© Reuters/MIKE BLAKE Google extends work-from-home order to summer 2021

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - A top Google scientist on ethical artificial intelligence says she was fired after criticizing the company's diversity efforts, a claim the Alphabet Inc unit disputed on Thursday, in the latest brush-up between the internet giant and worker activists.
Timnit Gebru, who is Black, said on Twitter she was fired on Wednesday after sending an email to colleagues expressing frustration over gender diversity within Google's AI unit and questioning whether company leaders reviewed her work more stringently than that of people from different backgrounds. Gebru co-founded the nonprofit Black in AI that aims to increase representation of people of color in artificial intelligence and co-authored a landmark paper on bias in facial analysis technology.

Jeff Dean, head of Google's AI unit, told staff in an email reviewed by Reuters that Gebru had threatened to resign unless she was told which colleagues deemed a draft paper she wrote was unpublishable, a demand Dean rejected.

"We accept and respect her decision to resign from Google," Dean wrote in the email, adding, "we all genuinely share Timnit's passion to make AI more equitable and inclusive."

Gebru said in a series of Twitter posts that Google cut her off from its systems without warning or conversation with her about her concerns.

Gebru's abrupt departure adds to years of angst, including several resignations and firings, in the AI department and other organizations at Google over diversity and whether the company's efforts to minimize the potential harms of its services are sufficient.

More than 150 employees expressed support for Gebru, demanding Google strengthen its commitment to academic freedom and explain why it chose to "censor" her paper, according to a petition posted online. Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund, wrote on Twitter that Gebru's firing was "absolutely infuriating" and "a disaster."

Just Wednesday, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint accusing Google of unlawfully monitoring and questioning several workers who were then fired for protesting against company policies and trying to organize a union.

Gebru's paper contended that technology companies could do more to ensure AI systems aimed at mimicking human writing and speech do not exacerbate historical gender biases and use of offensive language, according to a draft copy seen by Reuters.

In his email to staff, Dean said the paper had not been given to the company for review in a timely fashion and was submitted to a conference without Google's permission.

He also took issue with some of its conclusions, which he said relied on outdated concerns, including about the environmental impact of large numbers of computers crunching data.

Responding to the company's rejection of her work, Gebru wrote on Twitter last week: "Nothing like a bunch of privileged White men trying to squash research by marginalized communities for marginalized communities by ordering them to STOP with ZERO conversation. The amount of disrespect is incredible."

Google declined to comment on her departure beyond Dean's email, which was first reported by tech news site Platformer.

Gebru previously worked at Microsoft Research, and she co-authored a widely cited 2018 paper that found higher error rates in facial analysis technology for women with darker skin tones.

Her new paper, co-authored with non-Google staff, is still expected to be presented at a computer science conference in March, according a person familiar with the matter.

(Reporting by Paresh Dave and Jeffrey Dastin; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

Evraz steel mill in Regina hit with 500 layoffs; union cites decrease in demand

The president of union Local 5890 says it's tough because people will be out of work just over a week before Christmas

REGINA — A union representing workers at a steel plant in Regina says nearly 500 of its members are being laid off.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The United Steelworkers says the workers will be off the job starting Dec. 17 and their layoff notices are indefinite.

The president of union Local 5890 says it's tough because people will be out of work just over a week before Christmas and in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mike Day says the union knew layoffs were coming, but didn't expect them to hit all at once.

Video: Coronavirus: Ontario to announce COVID-19 vaccine task force members on. Dec. 4 (Global News)

The union says Canada's steel industry is struggling because projects are being built with cheaper steel obtained offshore rather than product manufactured locally.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe calls the layoffs devastating and says officials are reaching out to offer whatever help they can.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 3, 2020.

FEARMONGERING 

Could Alberta actually fall into have-not status? 

New report shows it is a possibility

FROM CATO INSTITUTE NORTH

© Dave Carels, Global News

 The provincial flag atop the Alberta legislature on Friday, February 26, 2016.

A new report from Canadian think-tank the Fraser Institute shows the oil price shock has driven Alberta's fiscal capacity to nearly the national average, and suggests if the economy doesn't turn around, the province could slip into have-not status.

"It's actually conceivable within three to five years that Alberta could be an equalization recipient province," said Ben Eisen, a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute, and one of the report's co-authors.

"This is not a good news story at all. The major driver of this has been falling fiscal capacity in the particularly oil-rich provinces in the country."

Fiscal capacity is a measurement of a province's ability to generate tax wealth, using the average tax rates across the country. Alberta has led the nation in capacity since the measurement was first devised in 1967, but the recession in 2016 saw the gap begin to shrink, and the oil shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the decline.

"The gap between the lowest income province and Alberta in 2007, per person, was about $11,000 worth of fiscal capacity. That's gone all the way down to about $4,000," Eisen said.

Whether that gap continues to shrink will depend on whether world oil markets rebound, and how Alberta comes out of the COVID-19-caused recession.

"It really might change how we view the pros and cons of that program," said Trevor Tombe, associate professor of economics at the University of Calgary. He believes the narrowing of the fiscal gap in the country could lead to some interesting conversations.

"It will spark questions like, 'How should we design a program when the gap between the have and have-not provinces is smaller than at any time in history?'"

READ MORE: Alberta premier promises referendum on equalization reform

BULLSHIT, ALBERTA WAS PULLED OUT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION BY TRANSFER PAYMENTS
Albertans have long had suspicions about equalization, and the UCP government has used it as a wedge issue with Ottawa. Premier Jason Kenney has promised to hold a referendum on the program. While it wouldn't have any impact on the formula, he has said it would put Alberta's concerns on the national agenda.

Despite the dramatic shift, Finance Minister Travis Toews believes it's a conversation that still needs to be had because the government still has fundamental concerns about how the program is structured. He's also not convinced Alberta will be seeing any payments any time soon.

"I'm confident that this province will continue to be the wealth creation engine in the future for the nation," he said.

If it moves forward, a provincial referendum would be held in conjunction with municipal elections in the fall of 2021.

Children and youth with special needs 'left out' of pandemic response: B.C. watchdog

VANCOUVER — Victoria O'Connor says she's reached a breaking point while constantly managing and advocating for the supports she needs for her twin sons, who are non-verbal and have been diagnosed with autism.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"We are very much a family in crisis," the North Vancouver, B.C., mother said in an interview.

One of her eight-year-old sons has been experiencing pain that doctors have yet to diagnose, which can cause him to cry and scream for hours at a time, frightening his brother, she said.

"I just sort of feel like it doesn't matter how bad your situation is. You're still going to have to jump through a million hoops," she said of navigating B.C.'s support program for children with special needs.

O'Connor's is among 545 other families who lent their voices to a survey and report out Thursday from British Columbia's representative for children and youth, which shows the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated long-standing problems with the province's system, leaving families feeling abandoned.

Jennifer Charlesworth said it was impossible to examine the impacts of the pandemic outside the context of what she called an outdated and inequitable system for children and youth who have disabilities, chronic health issues or neurological conditions.

"For far too many of the tens of thousands of B.C. families of children and youth with special needs, there is no down time," the representative said during a news conference.

"The common dreams of any of us — a good education, bright future for our children, a safe and comfortable home for everyone in the family, even a rare night off — can be tragically elusive."

The long wait times for diagnoses mean kids in B.C. may pass through their early years without access to supports unless their families can pay for private services, said Charlesworth, and the funding caps for purchases of key pieces of equipment that help keep children comfortable haven't changed in 30 years.

For families who are receiving funding after a diagnosis, the pandemic brought a sudden end to vital therapies and support services at home, in the community and at school, she said.



Video: Parents plan provide wide 'sick out' campaign (Global News)



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"We all need a break from our hectic lives sometimes, but respite for families of children and youth with special needs vanished overnight at the start of the pandemic and for many families remains that way."

The report calls for immediate action in eight areas, including the creation of a family-engaged communication strategy in the Ministry of Children and Family Development and the extension of all pandemic-related benefits until next fall for families of children with special needs.

Asked "What do you need right now during the pandemic?" 60 per cent of survey respondents said they needed to know whether their family was eligible for any pandemic-related supports in the absence of clear communication and regular contact with social workers.

The province offered families a monthly emergency benefit of $225, though just 28 per cent of families surveyed reported receiving it and Charlesworth noted it expired at the end of September.

The first round of emergency funding reached more than 1,300 families between April and June, the children's ministry confirmed in an email, and another 3,000 families received the money between July and September.

Children diagnosed with autism under the age of six may receive up to $22,000 each year and youth aged six to 18 are eligible for $6,000.

B.C. offered their families an extra three months to use unspent money if the timing of their birthdays meant they were set to transition from one level of funding to another during the pandemic, as well as some flexibility in how the funds could be used.

But O'Connor said accessing the funds that cover certain therapies, equipment and respite care is often too complicated and frustrating, and she knows families who weren't using all their money as a result — even before the pandemic disrupted access to support services.

"I'm the kind of person, like, I'm going to get that funding used for my kids if it kills me," she said. "Generally it does burn me right up."

Mitzi Dean, the minister of children and family development, responded to the report, saying she knows families are struggling and has asked staff to expedite a new provincial framework for supporting children and youth with special needs that was in progress before the pandemic.

"I want to hear directly from those who are affected," Dean said in a statement. "That's why I have asked ministry staff to set up an advisory council to help ensure those voices are heard."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 3, 2020.

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press

Twist of fate: Prairie provinces become COVID-19 hot spot in pandemic's second wave

EDMONTON — The three Prairie provinces have become the epicentre of COVID-19's second wave in Canada — surpassing Ontario and Quebec, the two most populous provinces that were initially the hardest hit

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY

OF THE PRAIRIE PANDEMIC 

ALL THREE PROVINCES 

ARE RULED BY 

REPUBLICAN LITE 

CONSERVATIVE PARTIES 

.

WOT, ME WORRY?

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Some infectious disease experts say the exponential growth in cases on the Prairies can be linked to pandemic fatigue and a reluctance by politicians to impose stricter health measures in the fall.

"Ten infections in Manitoba means something completely different than 10 infections in Toronto or New York City," said Dr. Kelly MacDonald, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Manitoba.

"Our rates didn't look like a problem for quite a long time when they probably were," said MacDonald, who added that there has been "a complete lack of appreciation for the case per unit of population."

Since the fall, the spread of COVID-19 has increased everywhere, but daily case numbers on the Prairies have been matching areas with about double the population.

The three provinces have about 6.7 million residents combined and reported a total of 2,480 new cases on Thursday. Alberta alone reported 1,854 new infections.

Ontario, with a population of about 14.5 million, reported 1,824 cases. Quebec, which has almost two million more people than all three Prairie provinces, had 1,470 new infections.

When the first wave of the pandemic hit Canada in the spring, Ontario and Quebec were particularly affected. Now, the infection rate per capita is highest in Alberta, followed by Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

On Wednesday, Ontario's health minister singled out Alberta.

"You want to speak about who is in crisis. Have you taken a look at Alberta, where they're doubling up patients in intensive care units? We're not doing that in Ontario," said Christine Elliot.

A spokesman for federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu said she spoke Wednesday night with Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro about the surge in cases and offered federal resources.



Video: Coronavirus: Nunavut reports four new cases of COVID-19 (Global News)



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It's a major turnaround since April when Premier Jason Kenney, standing in front of a wall of personal protective equipment, touted the success of his province's COVID-19 response and announced Alberta was sending supplies to Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.

Last week, Kenney announced tighter restrictions after mounting pressure from public health experts. The measures ban indoor social gatherings and some students are back at home learning online. Bars, restaurants and places of worship remain open.

Dr. James Talbot, a professor of public health at the University of Alberta, said there is a reluctance by the United Conservative government to impose another lockdown, even though contact tracing has become impossible with the jump in infections.

"There are a number of things that interfere with our ability to bring this under control," said Talbot, who is also a former chief medical health officer in the province.

COVID-19 fatigue has descended along with colder weather preventing people from meeting outside as much, he said.

"Another part of it is we have inconsistent regulations," said Talbot, pointing to bars and restaurants being open, while people cannot have guests over.

"When people think something is unfair or illogical, then they just make decisions not to follow the rules that are out there," he said. "Until you regain their confidence, the situation is going to continue to get worse."

In Saskatchewan, team sports are suspended and home gatherings are limited to five people.

Manitoba was the first Prairie province to impose stricter health measures two weeks ago when it had the highest per capita infection rate in the country. Businesses can't sell non-essential items and gatherings in homes are banned.

MacDonald said those restrictions were brought in when case rates were expanding exponentially, so "you can slightly level them off, but you are not going to drop the rate of infection very rapidly."

Talbot suggested it's not too late to turn the numbers around and save as many lives as possible. But he added restrictions need to stay in place until Canada distributes a COVID-19 vaccine in the new year.

"This isn't personal. This isn't about criticizing anyone," he said.

"If we all do our part and if we are effective, the virus will let us know by infecting fewer people two weeks from now."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 3, 2020.

Daniela Germano, The Canadian Press

INTERNATIONAL ART CONSPIRACY

California monolith becomes the third to appear and disappear

BECAUSE THERE JUST NOT ENOUGH CONSPIRACIES

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A silver-colored metal monolith has been discovered in California, shortly after similar monoliths in Utah and Romania were discovered and subsequently removed.

The first metal monolith was discovered by a Utah Department of Public Safety Aero Bureau helicopter crew in a rural area in the southwestern part of the state in late November.

The mysterious landmark became a tourist attraction before being removed days later by a group of men who said they were seeking to stop the influx of visitors from ruining the natural landscape and leaving behind trash.

A very similar structure was spotted on a hill near the Petrodava Dacian Fortress in Romania a few days after the Utah monolith first appeared, and it was removed by an unknown party shortly after the initial sightings.

The California monolith was photographed Wednesday at the top of Pine Mountain in Atascadero. Deputy City Manager Terrie Banish confirmed the object was removed by unknown means Thursday morning. She said the city did not remove the monolith and does not intend to investigate the matter.

Witnesses to the California monolith's removal said the culprits were vandals from out of town who replaced the structure with a wooden cross.

The origins of all three objects remain unknown.

California monolith pops up after finds in Utah, Romania

LOS ANGELES — Days after the discovery and swift disappearance of two shining metal monoliths half a world apart, another towering structure has popped up, this time at the pinnacle of a trail in Southern California.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Its straight sides and height are similar to one discovered in the Utah desert and another found in Romania. Like those structures, the origin of the California edifice is also mysterious.

It's at the top of a hill in Atascadero, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, KEYT-TV reported Wednesday. The tall, silver structure drew hikers to the area after photos were posted on social media.

Another monolith spotted two weeks ago in Utah's otherworldly red-rock country became a beacon of fascination around the world as it evoked the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” and drew hundreds of people to the remote spot.

Two extreme sports athletes said they were part of a group that tore down the hollow metal structure because they were worried about the damage the droves of visitors were causing to the relatively untouched spot. Officials said the visitors flattened plants with their cars and left behind human waste.

A structure that appeared last week in Romania is also gone.

The Utah creation evoked famous land-art pieces that dot the West. Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty is an earthwork along the Great Salt Lake and Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels are huge concrete pieces in the desert.

Like those pieces, the monolith was fascinating in part because of its context in the landscape, said Whitney Tassie, a curator of modern and contemporary art at the Utah Museum of Fine Art.

“That’s a big, big part of land art in general is this idea of an experience, of a journey,” she said.

The intense social media reaction to the monolith against the backdrop of the punishing pandemic, along with the quick disappearance of the piece, has become a part of its story, she said. Police have said the dismantling may not be illegal since no one has claimed the structure as their property.

The still-anonymous creator of the Utah monument did not follow steps taken by land artists of the 1970s to secure permission to make their works. Visitation to those remote sites is now managed and overseen to avoid too much stress on the environment. Federal and state officials in Utah had also expressed concern about the area around the monolith being overrun.

“It’s good to think about our relationship with the earth, which is ultimately what these sorts of projects do,” Tassie said. “Man's impact on the environment front and centre."

___

Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

The Associated Press

How Cher is helping save the world's loneliest elephant

MAYBE SHE WILL COME TO EDMONTON FOR LONELY LUCY THE ELEPHANT

Islamabad — Pop music icon Cher was in Pakistan over the weekend to join a lonely elephant on his long-awaited journey to salvation. Kaavan, dubbed the world's loneliest elephant, finally escaped the meager confines of a zoo in Islamabad and was well on his way to a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia on Monday.

© CBS/Maria Usman cher-kaavan-elephant.jpg

The American singer and actress campaigned for years to get Kaavan out of the Marghazar Zoo. Along with U.S. businessman Eric Margolis and the group Four Paws International, she helped pay for his relocation through her charity, Free the Wild. Local Pakistani activists first put Kaavan's plight on Cher's radar with a Twitter campaign, aiming messages with the hashtag #SaveKaavan and #FreeKaavan at celebrities worldwide. 

"World's loneliest elephant" arrives to new home

© Provided by CBS News U.S. singer Cher poses in front of the crate containing Kaavan the Asian elephant upon his arrival in Cambodia from Pakistan, at Siem Reap International Airport, November 30, 2020. / Credit: TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty

At just about a year old, Kaavan was gifted to Pakistan by Sri Lanka in the mid-1980s. He spent decades at the Islamabad zoo in a small enclosure with few of the amenities required for the physical or mental health of an animal of such high intelligence. He performed for visitors, reportedly prodded by handlers to collect cash.

In 2012, Kaavan lost his only companion, a female elephant called Saheli, and his demeanor rapidly deteriorated. He became angry, despondent, and given his unhealthy diet, obese.

The conditions were so dire at the zoo that a Pakistani court ordered it to be shut down in May this year, and all the animals to be relocated. That sparked a global effort to evacuate the animals, and especially Kaavan.   

  

© Provided by CBS News Kaavan the elephant is seen in his enclosure at the Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan on November 28, 2020, where he spent more than 30 years before being transferred to an animal sanctuary in Cambodia. / Credit: CBS/Maria Usman

When news of Kaavan's grim circumstances reached Cher on Twitter, she reached out to Mark Cowne, a global talent agency boss with a passion for wildlife whom she had met years earlier. 

"She had met Mark, who had previously moved 300 elephants, and said, 'Listen, we gotta do something,' so he started coming over here and finding out what's happening, and they decided to form Free the Wild, hoping that we can get big animals, at least starting with big animals, out of zoos," Cher's assistant Jennifer Ruiz told CBS News in Islamabad.

The superstar had originally focused her efforts on trying to get an elephant out of the Los Angeles Zoo, Ruiz said, but they've had no success so far in California. "So this came up and, you know, she always tells me, 'you do your best with what falls in your lap.' If someone asks you, you try to do your best."

Teaming up with Free the Wild, a team of vets and experts from the U.K.-based international animal welfare group Four Paws has spent months on-site, working with Kaavan to prepare him for his big move. 

Four Paws' head of communications Hannah Baker told CBS News that Kaavan's journey is the biggest elephant transfer the charity has ever undertaken, and their first by plane. Elephants have been moved by plane from one state to another in the U.S., for instance, but never an animal as large, or a move as logistically complicated, as this. 

Pulling it all off during a global pandemic has posed some unique challenges, but fortunately Kaavan's pre-flight COVID-19 test came back negative, and arrangements for a 30-day quarantine in Cambodia were in place. 

Kaavan's new home is the vast Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia. While he'll be confined to just three acres for his quarantine period, even that will be a significant upgrade as his enclosure at the Islamabad zoo was just a half-acre, and largely devoid of natural materials.  

© Provided by CBS News A caretaker feeds Kaavan the elephant as he awaits his flight to a sanctuary in Cambodia, during a farewell ceremony at the Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan November 23, 2020. / Credit: SAIYNA BASHIR/REUTERS

Once he completes his quarantine, the plan is to introduce him to three female elephants, and he'll have 25,000 acres to roam.
Rehab with a new friend

Egyptian veterinarian Dr. Amir Khalil, Four Paws International Director of Project Development, is known for rescuing animals from areas stricken by war or disasters. He's become Kaavan's best friend, forming a close bond with him over the last few months as the elephant was brought back to health for his trip. 

"When I first met Kaavan he was severely overweight, had issues with his nails and was displaying what is known as stereotype behavior: Animals in captivity need to move, but if chained they resort to moving their head from side to side in order to release endorphins and all their pent up energy."

Khalil told CBS News that this sad behavior, which Kaavan would engage in for up to 15 hours a day, was mistaken by his previous handlers in Pakistan as dancing. 

"My initial plan was just to examine Kaavan and work on making him fit for travel, but for some reason he seemed to like my voice," said Khalil, who spent hours standing by a tree at the back of Kaavan's enclosure just trying to get the animal to accept him. He would sing Frank Sinatra songs as he stood there and, before long, he realized that Kaavan seemed to be a fan of his rendition of "I did it my way," and other classics. 

The elephant started to trust the vet, and Khalil would often find Kaavan waiting for him.

"All relationships, whether between humans or humans and animals, must be based on trust," he said.  

© Provided by CBS News

 Dr. Amir Khalil, head of project development at Four Paws International, stands outside a crate and feeds Kaavan the elephant before the animal is transported to a sanctuary in Cambodia, at the Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, November 29, 2020. 

/ Credit: SAIYNA BASHIR/REUTERS

Kaavan's diet plan was also crucial if he was going to squeeze into his travel cage. He had been gorging on about 440 pounds per day of sugar cane, but Khalil knocked that on the head quickly. On a more pachyderm-friendly diet of fresh fruit and veggies, Kaavan dropped from 5.5 tons down to a healthy 4.8. The chains that had often bound his legs for more than two decades were removed, forced performances were dropped and his daily routine was made more natural. The changes made him a much calmer and happier elephant before his journey.

For the last four weeks Kaavan underwent routine crate training to get him used to his custom-made travel cage – which he fit into comfortably given his lean new physique. 

Kaavan was celebrated at the Islamabad zoo over the last couple weeks. There was a party and well-wishers were able to come and see him for the last time, bidding farewell to the animal who had for three decades been the main attraction. A slew of government officials stopped by to say goodbye, including President Arif Alvi who paid a visit over the weekend.

© Provided by CBS News 

Singer Cher (third from right) meets Kaavan the elephant at a zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, along with veterinarian Dr. Amir Khalil, International Director of Project Development for the Four Paws International charity, on November 28, 2020. 

 / Credit: CBS/Maria Usman

On Saturday, Cher finally got to meet her elephant friend for the first time, taking the opportunity to serenade the music-lover and offer him a bite to eat.

On Monday, the Russian cargo plane hired for the trip touched down in Cambodia, and the next chapter of Kaavan's life began.

Khalil said he hoped the elephant's story would serve as "a symbol for humanity, and doing what is right for the animals."

Documentary to feature journey of 'world's loneliest elephant' greeted by Cher

Singer Cher (C) greeted the "world's loneliest elephant" Monday as he arrived at Siem Reap Airport in Siem Reap province, Cambodia to be transported to a sanctuary. Photo by Mak Remissa/EPA-EFE

Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A Smithsonian documentary will feature Kaavan, dubbed the "world's loneliest elephant," who Cher greeted Monday in Cambodia after her charity's rescue flight.

Kaavan was sent to Pakistan more than three decades ago as a gift from former Sri Lanka dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. In 2012, his mate for 22 years, Saheli, died, leaving him alone for eight years and leading to him becoming known as "world's loneliest elephant."

Grammy-winning singer Cher, 74, had campaigned for Kaavan's freedom from a zoo in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, where he was on occasion restrained in chains, and suffered malnourishment and negligence leading to cracked nails and behavioral issues.

In May, the Islamabad Hight Court ruled the elephant could be released from the zoo.

Cher greeted the 36-year-old elephant on the tarmac at an airport in Cambodia Monday after his flight from Pakistan in a custom-made crate with more than 440 pounds of food after her charity, Free the Wild, assisted the move. Animal rescue organization Four Paws said Kaavan would be released from the crate in daylight Tuesday to a sanctuary in Cambodia with space to roam and 600 fellow pachyderms.

The documentary to air on the Smithsonian Channel in 2021 is tentatively titled "Cher's Elephant Airlift."

The rescue was a first for the charity Free the Wild, which Cher co-founded to help stop captive animals suffering.

RELATED Appellate court hears landmark case of lonesome elephant at NYC zoo

"This is Free the Wild's first big rescue and I am so proud," Cher said. "We are thrilled to partner with the Smithsonian Channel who will be helping to bring our story to the world."

Last week Cher arrived in Pakistan to thank the government for Kaavan's release and join him for his flight.

"I found out about Kaavan from the people on my Twitter," Cher said in a statement regarding the upcoming documentary. "They would not stop saying, 'Cher, you have to do something, you have to fix this, you have to save him.' I thought, how can I fix this?"

Toxic tire additive blamed for massive coho salmon die-offs

Researcher Zhenyu Tian holds a sampling pole used to collect creek water from streams where migrating coho salmon sometimes turn up dead after heavy rains. 

Photo by Mark Stone/University of Washington

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Almost all Pacific salmon die shortly after spawning, with the nutrients from their decaying carcasses offering nourishment to the next generation.

In many urban waterways, however, hundreds of salmon die before spawning, never getting the chance to deposit their eggs on the riverbed.

"Mortality rates in pristine streams are less than 1 percent, while urban creeks can have over 90 percent mortality prior to spawning," Edward Kolodziej, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington, told UPI in an email.

Now, thanks to the work of Kolodziej his research partners, scientists know what's killing salmon who venture too close to urban centers -- 6PPD-quinone, the derivative of a chemical additive that keeps rubber tires from breaking down too quickly.

Kolodziej is one of several co-authors of a new paper, published Thursday in the journal Science, describing the toxin's role in coho salmon die-offs.

Scientists have been documenting what's known as urban runoff mortality syndrome for nearly 40 years.

Not long after efforts to revive coho salmon spawn runs began paying dividends, researchers began noticing coho salmon making their way upstream in creeks surrounding Seattle would start behaving strangely after heavy rains.

The fish, bound for spawning grounds, would list sideways and swim in circles. Eventually, the fish would roll over and die in large numbers.

"Documented reports that urban stormwater killed coho salmon have existed in Washington State since the 1980s," Kolodziej said. "In Seattle, documentation began with mortality observations in urban creeks in the 1990s, and for the last 20-plus years, Nat Scholz, Jay Davis and Jen McIntyre have worked to document and understand coho mortality arising from stormwater exposure."

As part of their work, researchers -- including Scholz, Davis and McIntyre, all co-authors of the new study -- began testing the stormwater runoff near streams where coho salmon were turning up dead. In the lab, researchers divided the stormwater based on different chemical properties.

For example, scientists divided the water into metal and non-metal solutions. This allowed researchers to eliminate large numbers of toxins when a mixture failed to trigger symptoms consistent with urban runoff mortality syndrome.

"This is called 'effects directed analysis," Kolodziej said.

Researchers were able to eliminate flame retardants, plasticizers and other groups from their list of suspects. Eventually, the scientists narrowed their search to just a few chemicals, including one unknown compound that appeared to dominate the mixture.

Researchers were able to identify the likely culprit's chemical composition -- they knew it had 18 carbons, 22 hydrogens, two nitrogens and two oxygens -- but they didn't have a name for it. The chemical fingerprint failed to match anything in the database of known chemicals.

Finally, Zhenyu Tian, a research scientist at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Waters, realized the compound may not be a chemical used in the direct construction of rubber tires, but one added post-production. He also guessed their culprit was likely to derivative of a tire additive, not the additive itself.

Tian's hunch was right. A common preservative used to protect tires from degradation via ground level ozone, a chemical called 6PPD, was a near match for their compound's composition -- with the same ratio of carbon and nitrogen molecules. When 6PPD hits the road and reacts with ozone, it forms 6PPD-quinone -- the unnamed compound scientists isolated in the lab.

Followup experiments showed that, even in tiny quantities, 6PPD-quinone is extremely deadly to juvenile coho salmon.

Since identifying the likely cause of urban runoff mortality syndrome, scientists have documented dangerously high concentrations of 6PPD-quinone in streams surrounding Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence that cars aren't just negatively impacting air quality, but also degrading water quality and harming freshwater ecosystems.

Scientists regularly monitor temperature and oxygen levels -- as well as infamous industrial toxins like mercury and lead -- in streams and rivers important to aquatic species, but the latest research is a reminder that a variety of little-understood chemicals are regularly washed into local waterways.

According to Kolodziej, followup studies to determine the prevalence of 6PPD-quinone in the environment -- and its implications for fish and other -- are underway.

North Korea hackers created spoof Hyundai sites, report says

North Korean hackers are believed to be behind hoax intranet sites bearing the name of Hyundai Motor Group, the largest South Korean car manufacturer.

 Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- North Korean hackers are believed to be behind hoax intranet sites bearing the name of Hyundai Motor Group, the largest South Korean car manufacturer, according to a local press report.

Donga Ilbo reported Thursday hackers created spoof websites that were near identical to the websites of Hyundai Steel, Hyundai Engineering and Construction and the car group.


Kia Motors and Hyundai Motor Co., which operate under the conglomerate, were not targeted. Cybersecurity experts say North Koreans likely created the sites to steal information from Hyundai employees, according to the report.

The spoof sites, which employees described as "very similar" to the company networks, vanished Thursday afternoon. Analysts say the sites were created earlier in the week with URLs similar to the those of the company. It is likely hackers created the site with the aim of phishing or email spoofing victims.

Any ID or password entered on the fake online site would have been transmitted to hackers, potentially given them access to the company intranet and enabling them to snatch corporate secrets.

Hyundai Motor Group said Thursday no damage occurred.

A South Korean computer security expert said evidence exists that the cybercriminals who built the spoof Hyundai sites used the same servers accessed by North Korean hackers believed to be responsible for targeting pharmaceutical companies.

North Korean hackers may have attacked at least six pharmaceutical companies in the United States, Britain and South Korea, all working on COVID-19 treatments, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Johnson & Johnson and Novavax Inc. in the United States and Genexine Inc., Shin Poong Pharmaceutical Co. and Celltrion Inc. in South Korea have been breached. Johnson & Johnson and Novavax Inc. are working on experimental vaccines.

Chun Soo-hong, senior regional director of FireEye Korea, a cybersecurity provider, told the Donga hackers have also attempted to steal information about South Korean semiconductors. Cybercriminals sometimes hack logistics handlers to uncover information about semiconductor deliveries, Chun said.

"To minimize damage, there is no other option than to continue training employees to delete suspicious emails and texts without opening them," Chun said.

Study: Extending COVID-19 programs would save millions of jobs in 2021

Residents protest new COVID-19 restrictions in California for restaurants that were ordered as a response to dramatic rises in coronavirus cases, on the Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, Calif., on Wednesday. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. economy would see growth of nearly 4% and save more than 5 million jobs next year If federal lawmakers would continue emergency COVID-19 programs, according to an analysis by a non-profit think tank Thursday.

The study by the Economic Policy Institute says retaining unemployment insurance programs set to expire this month and reviving enhanced federal unemployment payments -- an extra $600 per week -- would spur the projected growth in 2021.

"If these programs -- including the extra $600 -- are reinstated and extended through 2021, and if the virus is brought under control so that economic growth for 2021 returns to being simply a function of aggregate demand growth, the economy would be boosted by 3.5% and 5.1 million more jobs would be added," authors Elise Gould and Josh Bivens wrote in the report, released Wednesday.

Tens of millions of U.S. workers lost their jobs in the early months of the pandemic before a partial rebound in the early summer. As new outbreaks later began to rise nationwide, states and cities reimposed restrictions or added new orders to clamp down on the spread.

The United States is presently in its most severe period of the pandemic. More than 200,000 cases were added and a record 3,000 patients died nationwide on Wednesday -- and the EPI analysis acknowledges that the domestic economy is still "years away from a full recovery."

For the study, researchers examined the impact of three programs established by the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in March that are set to expire within weeks -- the Unemployment Assistance program, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program and the Unemployment Compensation payments program.

"If the effective safety net functions provided by these programs were maintained through 2021, millions of workers would be better able to avoid economic catastrophe while out of work due to the pandemic," the authors wrote.

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Some 12 million workers will be affected when the UA and EUC programs expire on Dec. 26, Gould and Bivens noted, and 4.4 million others in the programs have already seen their benefits expire.

The Labor Department said in its weekly report Thursday that another 700,000 U.S. workers filed new unemployment claims last week. The level is lower than it was in the early months of the pandemic, but remains three times higher than their pre-pandemic average.

The department will release its November jobs report on Friday.