DEADPOOL PAYS WELSH FOOTBALL PLAYERS TOP DOLLAR
Hollywood owners offer Wrexham players £250,000 bonus for promotion

Issued on: 26/02/2021 

Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds will contribute to a £250,000 bonus pot should Wrexham achieve promotion 

Cindy Ord GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

London (AFP)

Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney will pay Wrexham players a £250,000 bonus ($353,000) should the club win promotion into the Football League this season.

Deadpool star Reynolds and McElhenney, who is best known for his role in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", completed their takeover of the Welsh club earlier this month.

Wrexham are currently seventh in the fifth-tier National League and occupy the final play-off position.

Players will receive £200 for each win and £50 for a draw, as long as Wrexham remain in a play-off position, while a £250,000 bonus pot will reward promotion.

Wrexham's new ownership believe the incentive scheme is the most generous ever offered since the Red Dragons' relegation from the English Football League in 2008.

Executive director Humphrey Ker told the club's official website: "Rob and Ryan wanted to recognise the players' confidence that they can reach this season's play-offs and provide an added financial incentive to achieve this."

Wrexham captain Shaun Pearson said: "The takeover has brought exciting times for the whole club, the town and the community and we want to bring more excitement through our achievements on the pitch too."

Reynolds and McElhenney have made a £2 million investment in the club since taking 100 per cent control from the Wrexham Supporters Trust on February 9.

The pair said on completion of the deal that "first-team player identification will be a priority", as well as promising money to enhance the women's football programme, community initiatives and the Racecourse Ground.

Russian diplomats arrive from 

virus-hit North Korea on rail trolley

GOVT SAYS THERE IS NO CORONAVIRUS IN THE PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC 

Issued on: 26/02/2021 - 

The group waved and cheered as they made the final approach towards their homeland 

Handout RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY/AFP

Seoul (AFP)

Eight Russian diplomats and family members -- the youngest of them a three-year-old girl -- have arrived home from North Korea on a hand-pushed rail trolley due to Pyongyang's coronavirus restrictions.

Video posted on Russia's foreign ministry's verified Telegram account showed the trolley, laden with suitcases and women, being pushed across a border railway bridge by Third Secretary Vladislav Sorokin, the only man in the group.

They waved and cheered as they approached their homeland, the culmination of an expedition that began with a 32-hour train trip from Pyongyang, followed by a two-hour bus ride to the border.

"It took a long and difficult journey to get home," the ministry said in the post late Thursday, speaking of the final stretch.

"To do this, you need to make a trolley in advance, put it on the rails, place things on it, seat the children -- and go," it said.

"Finally, the most important part of the route -- walking on foot to the Russian side."

Sorokin was "the main 'engine' of the non-self-propelled railcar", it said, and had to push it for more than a kilometre.

Once on Russian territory, they were met by foreign ministry colleagues and were taken by bus to Vladivostok airport.

"Don't leave your own behind", the ministry added as a hashtag.

North Korea imposed a strict border shutdown in January last year to try to protect itself from the coronavirus that first emerged in neighbouring China and has gone on to sweep the world.

The shutdown has cancelled all flights in or out of the nuclear-armed, sanctions-hit country, and cross-border trains.

- 'Rigorous and demanding work' -

With staff and supplies unable to enter, the restrictions have severely hampered the activities of diplomats and aid workers, and several Western embassies have pulled out their entire staff.

But Russia has close relations with the North and maintains a significant diplomatic presence.

On Friday, the Kremlin said the journey out of North Korea demonstrated that diplomatic service is no walk in the park.

"It seems very pleasant and elegant but in reality this is very complex, rigorous and demanding work," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, himself a trained diplomat, told reporters.

"Things like this can happen too," he added.

Stalin's Soviet Union played a key role in the North's foundation after it and the US decided to split the peninsula into two zones either side of the 38th parallel following the World War II surrender of Korea's colonial overlord Japan.

Moscow still has a grand embassy in a prime spot in central Pyongyang, close to the North Korean leadership compound.

In South Korea, people online reacted gleefully to reports of how the diplomats departed.

"I am glad I was not born in North Korea," one posted on South Korea's biggest internet portal Naver.

Another joked: "Please return your cart to where you found it."

© 2021 AFP

ORIGINAL 1% PARASITE
Spain's tainted former king settles tax debts

Issued on: 26/02/2021 - 

Juan Carlos has since lived in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates since last year 

OSCAR DEL POZO AFP/File


Madrid (AFP)

Spain's former king Juan Carlos, who moved to the UAE last year under a cloud of scandal, has settled a debt of nearly 4.4 million euros ($5.3 million) with the Spanish tax authorities to try to avoid an embarrassing lawsuit.

The debts -- the second batch Juan Carlos has settled in less than three months -- have renewed questions over the 83-year-old's financial affairs and further dented the reputation of the Spanish monarchy.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he shared Spaniards' "rejection" of what he called Juan Carlos' "uncivic behaviour".

"An institution is not being judged," Sanchez said, amid anger over the delayed payment.

"What is being questioned is the behaviour of a person."

The back-taxes were due on the value of private jet flights -- worth eight million euros, according to press reports -- that were paid by a foundation based in Liechtenstein belonging to a distant cousin of Juan Carlos.

The value of the flights are considered taxable income on the part of the ex-king. The payment comes after he made a voluntary declaration of this income, his lawyer said in a letter Friday, confirming press reports.

In December Juan Carlos, who has since August lived in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates, settled another tax debt of nearly 680,000 euros.

That settlement is linked to a probe made public last month by Spain's attorney general.

It is investigating whether he used credit cards linked to accounts not registered in his name -- which could constitute a possible money-laundering offence.

The credit card payments took place after Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014, which could mean that he is not shielded by the immunity from prosecution he enjoyed as head of state.

He is also the target of two other investigations over his financial dealings, including those linked to a high-speed train contract in Saudi Arabia.

- Coalition tensions -

Prosecutors are examining the contract won by a consortium of Spanish companies in 2011, seeking to establish whether the then-monarch was paid a commission.

According to Swiss daily La Tribune, the late Saudi king Abdullah deposited $100 million into a Swiss private bank in 2008 to which Juan Carlos I had access, prompting suspicions it was a kickback for the contract which was awarded three years later.

Juan Carlos has not been charged with any crime, and his lawyers have said he would return to Spain if required for legal reasons.

But Cristina Monge, a political scientist at the University of Zaragoza, said this second batch of debts "further soils the image" of the former king, who on Tuesday missed a Madrid ceremony to mark 40 years since a failed military coup.

Juan Carlos' intervention helped defeat the 1981 coup attempt and he won widespread admiration for his role in steering Spain to democracy following the death of longtime dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

But a steady drip of revelations about his love life and lavish lifestyle have severely tainted the monarchy in recent years.

The latest tax settlement "could complicate the relationship" between the ruling Socialist party and its junior coalition partner, the hard left Podemos which is strongly opposed to the monarchy, Monge said.

- 'Shameful' -

The Socialists in contrast are "worried" about the former king's financial affairs and their impact on public opinion, and remain cautious in their censure of Juan Carlos, she added.

"This is not good news," Socialist Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said Friday, when asked about the latest debts the king had needed to pay.

Podemos MP Gerardo Pisarello said it was "shameful" that the former king was "voluntarily paying the tax office millions which he should have declared years ago".

Podemos has governed in a minority coalition with the Socialists since January 2020. It is the first time that an anti-monarchy party has been in power since Spain returned to democracy in the 1970s.

Since ascending to the throne in 2014, Juan Carlos' son King Felipe VI has taken steps to improve the monarchy's image, such as imposing a "code of conduct" on royals.

Last year he stripped his father of his annual allowance of nearly 200,000 euros after new details of allegedly shady financial dealings emerged.

Boeing studied 777 engine upgrade before Denver incident: report

Issued on: 25/02/2021 -

Boeing had been studying upgrades to 777 engine covers ahead of the weekend incident that deposited debris on a Denver suburb 

Michael Ciaglo GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File



New York (AFP)

Boeing had been working to strengthen engine covers on the 777 for about two years before last weekend's scare on a United Airlines flight, according to a report Thursday.

Boeing was working with the Federal Aviation Administration to strengthen protective engine covers following similar problems on earlier flights preceding Saturday's emergency landing, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The report comes amid a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of Saturday’s United flight, which returned to Denver soon after disembarking after the engine caught fire and began breaking apart.

No one was hurt in the incident, but the episode raised questions about maintenance on the jets.

On Tuesday night, the FAA ordered inspections of all Pratt & Whitney engines similar to the one that broke apart.

Investigators have attributed the Denver incident to a fan blade that broke off soon after takeoff due to metal fatigue and apparently breached the engine cover, known as a cowling.

Both Boeing and the FAA avoided discussing specifics on the efforts to modify the 777. Such changes typically require signficant evaluation and testing.

Boeing is "in constant communication with our customers and the FAA, and engaged in ongoing efforts to introduce safety and performance improvements across the fleet," a Boeing spokesman said.

"We will continue to follow the guidance of the FAA on this issue and all matters related to safety and compliance, and we continue to provide updates to our customers."

The FAA said it focused on fan blade inspections in its most recent order on the Pratt & Whitney engines and on an earlier directive after a 2018 incident on a 777.

"Redesigning airframe and engine components is a complex process. One of the top priorities to date has been reducing the risk of a fan-blade failure that could lead to cowling damage," an FAA spokesman said.

"The FAA engages with manufacturers to continuously enhance safety. Any proposed design change to a critical piece of structure must be carefully evaluated and tested to ensure it provides an equivalent or improved level of safety and does not introduce unintended risks."

© 2021 AFP

Fire poses long-term risk to forest carbon sink: study


Issued on: 25/02/2021 

As Earth continues to heat due to ever higher concentrations of greenhouse gases in its atmosphere, both the number of fires and how fiercely and long they burn for increases 

MATEUS MORBECK AFP/File


Paris (AFP)

Stronger and more frequent wild fires are reducing forests' ability to store carbon in a trend that will likely not be offset by planting new trees, a study said Thursday.

As Earth continues to heat due to ever higher concentrations of greenhouse gases in its atmosphere, both the number of fires, as well as how fiercely and long they burn, increases.

Slower growing tree species are better at surviving such intense blazes, but they capture less atmospheric carbon and reduce nutrient availability, according to research led by the University of Cambridge.


Analysing decades of data on the impact of fires on ecosystems across the world, the team of experts found that repeated fires were driving long-term changes in forest composition, while reducing their population size.

They found that after 50 years, regions with the most extreme annual fires had 72 percent less biomass than regions that had not burned.

Writing in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, the researchers said there were 63 percent fewer trees in hard-hit regions compared to areas untouched by fires.

Because not all areas are suitable for mass reforestation, and because the long-term impact of fires take decades to gauge, the team said simply replanting the trees would likely fail to offset the reduction in forests' capacity to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

"Planting trees in areas where trees grow rapidly is widely promoted as a way to mitigate climate change," said Adam Pellegrini in the University of Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences.

"But to be sustainable, plans must consider the possibility of changes in fire frequency and intensity over the longer term."

- Sink almost full -

Wildfires themselves are a major source of planet-warming carbon pollution, with annual blazes releasing CO2 equivalent to around a fifth of fossil fuel emissions.

But they also reduce nature's capacity to absorb the carbon pumped into the atmosphere.

Previous research has shown that frequent fires reduce the levels of soil nutrients such as nitrogen.

Thursday's study showed that this favours slower growing tree species that have adapted to surviving with fewer nutrients.

These species limit the forest's ability to recover as they hold on to nutrients rather than replenishing the soil as they grow.

Throughout human history, forests have maintained the ability to suck carbon from the atmosphere, proving a key line of defence against climate change.

But with relentless emissions growth, they are losing their capacity to do so.

One study from last year suggested that major forests such as the Amazon may soon tip over from being a carbon sink -- i.e. they absorb more carbon than they release -- to a source, perhaps within 15 years.

"As fire frequency and intensity increases because of climate change, the structure and functioning of forest ecosystems are going to change in so many ways because of changes in tree composition," said Pellegrini.

© 2021 AFP

UN Security Council to discuss the ‘gravest threat’ to global peace and stability

Holly Ellyatt@HOLLYELLYATT
PUBLISHED TUE, FEB 23 2021

KEY POINTS

Climate change represents a “grave threat” to global peace and security, the U.K. will say when it chairs a special session of the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to warn the UN Security Council that unless the global community takes “urgent action to tackle climate change, the world risks worsening conflict, displacement and insecurity,” the government said in a statement.


A resident holding a child walks past debris from damaged homes after Hurricane Iota made landfall on Providencia Island, Colombia, on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Climate change represents the “gravest threats” to global peace and security, the UN Security Council will hear on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to warn the UN Security Council that unless the global community takes “urgent action to tackle climate change, the world risks worsening conflict, displacement and insecurity,” the government said in a statement.

The U.K. currently has a one-month presidency of the Council, which is charged with ensuring international peace and security. Its permanent members are China, France, Russia, the U.K. and U.S. Johnson will address the group at 1.30 p.m. London time.

Ahead of the session, Johnson said the Council “is tasked with confronting the gravest threats to global peace and security, and that’s exactly what climate change represents … From the communities uprooted by extreme weather and hunger, to warlords capitalising on the scramble for resources – a warming planet is driving insecurity.”

He added that “unlike many issues the Council deals with, this is one we know exactly how to address” and that by helping vulnerable countries adapt to climate change, and cutting global emissions to net zero, “we will protect not only the bountiful biodiversity of our planet, but its prosperity and security.”

Well known naturalist and TV personality David Attenborough will also address the Council on Tuesday. He said in a statement released late Monday that “if we bring emissions down with sufficient vigour we may yet avoid the tipping points that will make runaway climate change unstoppable.”

He said the upcoming UN climate change meeting, known as COP26, that will take place in Glasgow in November, could be the “last opportunity to make the necessary step-change.”

“If we objectively view climate change and the loss of nature as world-wide security threats – as indeed, they are – then we may yet act proportionately and in time,” he said.


UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Sudanese climate activist Nisreen Elsaim will also brief the Security Council live on Tuesday.

Briefing ahead of the session, the U.K. noted that “the impacts of climate change are already being felt around the world, with the effects of rising temperatures and extreme weather forcing population movements and creating competition over increasingly scarce natural resources. Of the 20 countries ranked most vulnerable to rising global temperatures, 12 are already in conflict.”

For its part, the U.K. has committed in law to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 68% by 2030 – the steepest reduction of any major economy.

Alongside the UN Security Council’s permanent members there are 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms. These members are currently Estonia, India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Niger, Norway, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia, and Vietnam.

Global efforts to tackle climate change are high on the agenda for the international community, although environmental experts fear that too little too late is being done to combat the issue.

The U.S. is the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China. Under President Joe Biden’s administration, the country has now officially rejoined the Paris climate agreement, a landmark pact among nations to reduce carbon emissions, having left under former President Donald Trump.

1% ENTITLED TO THEIR ENTITLEMENTS

Head of Canada Pension Plan board received COVID-19 vaccine in Dubai: reports

The head of Canada's largest pension fund investment board travelled to the United Arab Emirates and received the coronavirus vaccine ahead of millions of Canadians, according to multiple reports.

© Provided by Global News Canada Pension Plan Investment Board President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Machin waits to appear at the Standing Committee on Finance on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa on Tuesday, November 1, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

The Wall Street Journal first reported Thursday that Mark Machin, who serves as CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), flew to Dubai and was given a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Read more: Why jumping the coronavirus vaccine queue is a problem

The Canadian Press and the Globe and Mail later reported that Machin sent an internal memo to CPPIB staff in the wake of the initial report, confirming he took a "very personal" trip to the Middle East city.

Machin, 54, who has been in his current role since 2016, reportedly said in the memo that he is still in Dubai with his partner, and lamented that the Wall Street Journal's reporting had sparked "expected criticism" over the trip.

He said he followed all travel protocols related to his role as head of the pension fund while on the trip, according to the reports.





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Global News has not seen the internal memo nor confirmed Machin took the trip. Attempts to reach Machin were unsuccessful Thursday.

A request for comment sent to the CPPIB was not immediately returned.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the finance ministry called the reports of Machin's trip "very troubling."

"The federal government has been clear with Canadians that now is not the time to travel abroad. We were not made aware of this travel," the spokesperson said.

The Canadian government is actively discouraging Canadians from travelling abroad and recently implemented strict quarantine measures for those returning home.

Read more: Court date set for B.C. couple accused of jumping vaccine queue in Yukon

The CPPIB is an independent fund manager for the $475.7 billion Canada Pension Plan, which covers employees in most parts of Canada except for Quebec, which has its own provincial plan.

Canada has not yet opened up vaccinations for people in Machin's age group. Some provinces have begun allowing people aged 80 and over to sign up for their shots this week, after health-care workers and long-term care home residents were prioritized. Other jurisdictions like Ontario are still waiting for adequate supply before starting vaccinations for the general public.

The country has faced numerous delays in deliveries of vaccine doses this month from both Pfizer and Moderna, the two manufacturers whose vaccines have been approved by Health Canada. Roughly 640,000 doses of both vaccines were delivered to provinces this week, the largest delivery to date.

The issue of vaccine "queue jumping" has already led to charges and public backlash in Canada.

Video: Saskatchewan premier asks residents not to ‘jump the queue’ for COVID-19 vaccines

In January, the then-CEO of Great Canadian Gaming Corp. and his wife allegedly flew from British Columbia to a remote Yukon community and received the Moderna vaccine while posing as essential workers.

The couple, Rod and Ekaterina Baker, are due in a Whitehorse courtroom on May 4 to face charges under Yukon’s Civil Emergency Measures Act. Rod Baker later resigned from his CEO position after the allegations became public.

The couple's alleged actions, which have not been proven in court, was criticized by members of the Yukon and B.C. governments and the White River First Nation, whose members were due to receive the vaccine at the same clinic the Bakers visited.

— With files from the Canadian Press and Reuters

Climate Point: We made it back to Mars, but your earthly home might be in flood zone

Mark Olalde, USA TODAY 
2/25/2021

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and environment news from around the Golden State and the country (and the galaxy). In Palm Springs, Calif., I’m Mark Olalde.

© NASA/JPL-Caltech This is the first high-resolution, color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover after its landing on Feb. 18, 2021.

America is back on Mars! If you're anything like me, that means you spent the past week obsessively consuming news about NASA's Perseverance rover that landed on the red planet. If not, then I've got you covered. First, check out this AP video of the moment that touchdown was confirmed because cheering scientists either mean you're watching the end of a '90s movie or we just did something wild. Then, check out this USA Today piece on how the mission team has taken steps toward diversity. Next, Florida Today has more information on some quirks of the Mars mission. And, finally, head over to Perseverance's Twitter feed for a plethora of cool stuff, ranging from sounds recorded on Mars to insights from NASA.

Back on Earth, here's some other important reporting....

Politics as usual. Currently, all eyes in Washington, D.C., are on U.S. Department of the Interior confirmation hearings, where Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., could become the first Native American to hold a cabinet position. But, conservatives aren't making life easy for her, as they argue she would be bad for fossil fuels — Haaland previously came out in favor of the progressive Green New Deal. HuffPost has an interesting look at the irony of politicians who voted against action on climate change lecturing her to "respect the science." Still, as CNN reports, fossil fuel-friendly Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced he will support her, likely meaning she'll be confirmed. Meanwhile, the Detroit Free Press reports that former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who has pushed for both electric vehicles as well as renewables, has been confirmed by the Senate to helm the Department of Energy.

High water mark. Next up, here's one that you might not have heard about but could make your wallet a lot slimmer or a lot fatter, depending on where you live. USA Today reports on new data that speaks to an overhaul of the federal flood insurance program. The data from research group First Street Foundation estimates that average insurance rates need to quadruple in places to keep the program solvent. "For some 265,000 properties, annual premiums would need to climb $10,000 or more to match the actual risk," the team writes. This story is complete with helpful maps and tools, so if you live anywhere near water, take a look at how you might be impacted.

Lights out. After a cold snap brought much of Texas' grid to its knees, it's supposed to be 72 degrees in Dallas tomorrow. Welcome to the modern, wildly variable climate. The thaw is also bringing time to reflect on what exactly went wrong after rolling blackouts caused by a variety of factors — not least of which was natural gas infrastructure that wasn't weatherized — left people without power for days. ProPublica and The Texas Tribune are out with a deep dive on the event, chronicling how "lawmakers and regulators, including the (Texas Public Utility Commission) and the industry-friendly Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, have repeatedly ignored, dismissed or watered down efforts to address weaknesses in the state’s sprawling electric grid." Meanwhile, the Austin American-Statesman, which previously reported that members of the board overseeing the majority of Texas' grid did not live in the state, writes that five members are resigning.

© Joshua Roberts/Getty Images Rep. Deb. Haaland on Dec. 19, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware.

POLITICAL CLIMATE

California courtroom. I grew up watching legal dramas with my mom, so, now that I cover the Golden State, I've realized a courtroom TV show about California environmental litigation is long overdue. For The Desert Sun, I've got the details about two important cases currently underway in the state. First, a judge refused to strip temporary protections from Joshua trees in a case that has implications on whether climate change is a justifiable reason to protect species. Then, an environmental group is targeting state oil regulators, filing a suit to compel them to more closely follow environmental laws when handing out drilling permits.

Video: Regulatory Agency Permanently Bans Fracking, Natural Gas Drilling Near Delaware River (CBS Philadelphia)

Don't cross the Delaware. Speaking of hydrocarbons, there's some big news out East, where the Pocono Record reports that fracking has been banned on 13,539 square miles of land surrounding the Delaware River. This comes from a vote by representatives of the governors of Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York.

Legislating lumens. Back in the West, Sam Metz of AP reports that Nevada's Senate unanimously upvoted a bill to recognize "dark sky places." The legislation will "create a state program aligned with the International Dark Sky Association" to protect areas around the state that have some of the best stargazing in the world.

Battery battles. And finally on the U.S. politics front this week, High Country News published a feature that looks at the debate over America's nascent lithium mining industry. On one hand, lithium plays a key role in the batteries that will store the energy fueling the clean energy transition. On the other hand, tribes, environmentalists and ranchers argue that rushed mining proposals are threatening land in states like Nevada. Take a look at how this conflict is playing out near the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Reservation.
GOING GLOBAL

Disaster on the horizon. This week, I want to briefly take you around the world, where some important environmental stories are quickly unfolding. Let's start in Yemen, where the ongoing war could have a surprising victim — the country's coastal and marine ecosystems. For Newlines Magazine, Lylla Younes reports that an oil tanker has been sitting moored 4 miles offshore for five years after it was abandoned. The ship holds more than 1 million barrels of crude, and neglect and saltwater are eating away at it. If the tanker isn't pulled to shore and emptied soon, then it could cause a spill four times as massive as the infamous Exxon Valdez.

Extreme extraction. Humans aren't so great at the three R's — reduce, reuse, recycle — leading us to ever more extreme ways of digging up new resources. The latest international battle is centered on seabed mining, which is the fledgling practice of stripping the bottom of the ocean for minerals and dumping the refuse back into the water. If practiced on a large scale, it's expected to be hugely destructive. Under increasing pressure, though, a territory in Australia has outright banned the mining technique, The Guardian reports.

Breaking the ice. In a dizzying sign of the times, Bloomberg writes that a tanker made the first-ever February trip through Arctic sea ice after another hot year. Russia's deputy prime minister's response was that he's "confident that the Northern Sea Route is competitive." Without a shred of irony, the expedition was a return trip after dropping off a load of liquified natural gas in China.© David Goldman, AP Broken sea ice emerges from under the hull of the Finnish icebreaker MSV Nordica as it sails through the Victoria Strait while traversing the Arctic's Northwest Passage on July 21, 2017.
AND ANOTHER THING

Much ado about nothing. And to kick this week's edition, let's keep things international, where Politico digs into the latest intergovernmental attempt to address a changing climate. "When it comes to climate change, bombs don’t work, so the United Nations Security Council prefers words to action," reporter Karl Mathiesen writes. But Russia, which as a permanent member of the council has veto power, warned against any move to recognize warming as a threat to global security.

Scientists agree that to maintain a livable planet, we need to reduce the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration back to 350 ppm. We’re above that and rising dangerously. Here are the latest numbers:© George Petras Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continue rising.

That’s all for now. Don’t forget to follow along on Twitter at @MarkOlalde. You can also reach me at molalde@gannett.com. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here. And, if you’d like to receive a daily round-up of California news (also for free!), you can sign up for USA Today’s In California newsletter here. Mask up; we’re doing it! Cheers.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Climate Point: We made it back to Mars, but your earthly home might be in flood zone

MICHELLE OBAMA

Perceived discrimination makes black females more likely than males to exercise, eat healthy

Study suggests optimism plays a role

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Research News

Black men and women, as well as adolescent boys and girls, may react differently to perceived racial discrimination, with Black women and girls engaging in more exercise and better eating habits than Black men and boys when faced with discrimination, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"In this study, Black women and girls didn't just survive in the face of racism, they actually responded in a positive manner, in terms of their health behavior," said lead researcher Frederick Gibbons, PhD, with the University of Connecticut. "This gives us some hope that despite the spike in racism across the country, some people are finding healthy ways to cope."

For a paper published in the journal Health Psychology, researchers evaluated data collected over 14 years from an ongoing study on the impacts of racism on the physical and mental well-being of Black people. The analysis looked at 889 families living in Iowa and Georgia who have been participants in the Family and Community Health Study. The families consisted of an adolescent, the adolescent's primary caregiver and in 289 cases, an older sibling. The first analysis examined the correlation between perceived racial discrimination and participants' body mass index. Researchers then looked at how participants responded to survey questions on optimism and on eating and exercise habits.

The relationship between perceived racial discrimination and healthy habits in Black males was insignificant, the study found. Black women and adolescent girls, on the other hand, showed improvements in healthy eating and exercise as their perceptions of racism increased. And there was an even more significant increase in healthy behaviors for Black women who indicated they had an optimistic view of their lives and the future, according to the researchers. There was no correlation between racial discrimination and BMI in either Black males or Black females.

"The findings were surprising and suggest that adaptive coping strategies may lead to resiliency," Gibbons said. "This contrasts with the avoidant coping strategies that we might see out of someone who is less optimistic."

The findings should be placed in the context of the larger body of research on this issue, which has shown a correlation between perceived racial discrimination and unhealthy behaviors, including those leading to higher BMI, according to Gibbons.

"The question is why are these results different from the ones we've found in previous studies?" he said. "There are several possible explanations, including the fact that participants in previous studies may have conflated weight-based discrimination with perceived racial discrimination. It could also be that studies not finding a connection between perceived racial discrimination and poor health outcomes are less likely to be published."

If the findings are confirmed in subsequent research, they could be used in resiliency programs targeting people of color and underserved populations, according to the researchers.

"There are programs already in place that work to instill a sense of resiliency and optimism in disenfranchised youth," Gibbons said. "The findings from this study would suggest that these programs are on the right track, and that perhaps we should be developing more programs that focus on these types of coping skills."

###

Article: "Perceived Racial Discrimination and Healthy Behavior Among African Americans," by Frederick X. Gibbons, PhD, Meg Gerrard, PhD, and Mary E. Fleischli, PhD, University of Connecticut; Ronald L. Simons, PhD, University of Georgia; and John H. Kingsbury, PhD, Minnesota Department of Health. Health Psychology, published online Feb. 25, 2021.

Contact: Frederick Gibbons, PhD, can be reached at rick.gibbons@uconn.edu.

Full text of the article is available online at https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/hea-hea0001056.pdf.

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes nearly 122,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.

Plant-based diets improve cardiac function, cognitive health

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Research News

(Boston)--What if you could improve your heart health and brain function by changing your diet? Boston University School of Medicine researchers have found that by eating more plant-based food such as berries and green leafy vegetables while limiting consumption of foods high in saturated fat and animal products, you can slow down heart failure (HF) and ultimately lower your risk of cognitive decline and dementia.

Heart failure (HF) affects over 6.5 million adults in the U.S. In addition to its detrimental effects on several organ systems, presence of HF is associated with higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Similarly, changes in cardiac structure and function (cardiac remodeling) that precede the appearance of HF are associated with poor cognitive function and cerebral health.

The adoption of diets, such as the Mediterranean diet (MIND) and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), which are characterized by high intakes of plant-based foods are among lifestyle recommendations for the prevention of HF. However, whether a dietary pattern that emphasizes foods thought to promote the maintenance of neurocognitive health also mitigates changes in cardiac structure and function (cardiac remodeling) has been unclear until now.

The researchers found the MIND diet, which emphasizes consumption of berries and green leafy vegetables while limiting intakes of foods high in saturated fat and animal products, positively benefited the hearts' left ventricular function which is responsible for pumping oxygenated blood throughout the body.

The researchers evaluated the dietary and echocardiographic data of 2,512 participants of the Framingham Heart Study (Offspring Cohort), compared their MIND diet score to measures of cardiac structure and function and observed that a dietary pattern that emphasizes foods thought to promote the maintenance of neurocognitive health also mitigates cardiac remodeling.

According to the researchers previous studies have highlighted the importance of diet as a modifiable risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia. "Our findings highlight the importance of adherence to the MIND diet for a better cardiovascular health and further reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in the community," explained corresponding author Vanessa Xanthakis, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and biostatistics at BUSM and an Investigator for the Framingham Heart Study.

Although Xanthakis acknowledges that following a healthy diet may not always be easy or fit with today's busy schedules, people should make a concerted effort to adhere to healthy eating to help lower risk of disease and achieve better quality of life.

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These findings appear online in the British Journal of Nutrition.

Funding for this study was provided by the NHLBI Multidisciplinary Training Program in Cardiovascular Epidemiology (5T32HL125232) and the PRIMER Promoting Research In Medical Residency program (1R38HL143584), the American Heart Association (20CDA35310237), the NIH National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Framingham Heart Study (Contract Nos. NO1-HC-25195, HHSN268201500001I, and 75N92019D00031; and P20 HL113444 and P30 DK020579. Dr. Vasan is supported in part by the Evans Medical Foundation and the Jay and Louis Coffman Endowment from the Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine.