Scientists unearth meteorite from the birth of the solar system

   

The meteor, known as Erg Chech 002, was discovered in May 2020by researchers working in the Algerian Sahara desert. Guillaume Souvant AFP/File.

Issued on: 16/03/21
Paris (AFP)

Scientists believe they have identified a meteorite formed in the first million years of our solar system, making it the oldest known meteor of volcanic origin.

The space rock, which began its journey some 4.5 billion years ago, has already proved an "exceptional" witness to the building blocks of the planets.

Known as Erg Chech 002, the meteorite was discovered in May 2020 by meteor hunters in the Algerian Sahara desert. It had rested undisturbed for "at least 100 years", according to Jean-Alix Barrat, a geochemist at France's Brest University.

In a recent study published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences journal, Barrat and his colleagues describe its discovery and several rare features.

There are 43 officially documented fragments, but "probably about a hundred" either still in the ground or unaccounted for, said the study. The largest ones are "as big as a fist," Barrat told AFP.

With its greenish exterior and brownish interior, Erg Chech 002 might not appear extraordinary at first glance. But it is, in fact, extremely rare.

Of the roughly 65,000 meteorites so far documented on Earth, only around 4,000 contain what is known as "differentiated matter". This means they came from celestial bodies large enough to have experienced tectonic activity.

Of those 4,000, 95 percent come from just two asteroids. But Erg Chech 002 is among the remaining five percent.

"It's the only one out of 65,000 meteorites that is like it is," said Barrat.

"Such rocks were quite common at the very beginning of the history of the solar system."

There are two possible explanations for Erg Chech 002's rarity.

The type of protoplanet from which it originated provided raw material "for the growth of terrestrial planets" such as Earth, said Barrat.

Others were pulverised in the great cosmic billiard game of the formation of the solar system.

The surface of the Moon, pockmarked with innumerable asteroid impacts, is a relatively recent witness to this second type of protoplanet.

"No asteroid shares the spectral features of EC 002, indicating that almost all of these bodies have disappeared, either because they went on to form the building blocks of larger bodies or planets or were simply destroyed," the study said.

- 'Thrown into space' -

The so-called "parent body" of Erg Chech 002 could have measured around 100 kilometres across.

It was formed in the first million years of the solar system, according to the study's co-authors, March Chaussidon, from the Paris Globe Institute of Physics and Johan Villeneuve, a researcher from France's National Centre for Scientific Research at the University of Lorraine.

Metallic meteorites "correspond to the nuclei of protoplanets," said Barrat.

But Erg Chech 002 is volcanic in origin, meaning that it was part of the crust of a protoplanet, rather than its core.

The experts believe that its unique composition was the result of a string of fortunate events.

On the protoplanet in question, lava must have accumulated on the surface, fuelled by the heat of its aluminium core.

The crust containing the meteorite solidified briefly but -- because it showed evidence of a sudden cooling -- instead of remaining on the parent body, some violent force cast it asunder.

"The rock was thrown into space," said Barrat.

Further investigation into its composition found that Erg Chech 002 was formed around 4.65 billion years ago.

It travelled through the aeons, "in a gravel shell, protected from solar radiation," said Barrat.

Then, around 26 million years ago, the rock was dislodged, continuing its journey until colliding with Earth.

 

France protests: Students take to the streets over health crisis

French university #students protested Tuesday in #Paris to demand to be allowed back to class, and to call attention to mental health issue and financial troubles among students cut off from friends, professors and job opportunities amid the #pandemic. FRANCE 24's Wassim Cornet tells us more.

Rumours of wrestler involvement in Senegal protests stoke anger


Supporters of main opposition candidate, Ousmane Sonko protested after his arrest 

Issued on: 17/03/2021 - 

Dakar (AFP)

Senegal's traditional wrestlers, who are revered by millions of adoring fans, have reacted in anger to rumours that they were behind the violence that recently shook the West African nation.

Usually seen as a haven of stability in a volatile region, Senegal was rocked by a week of deadly clashes between opposition supporters and police in early March.

At least five people were killed in the unrest, sparked by the arrest of the country's opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, a government critic popular with Senegalese youth.



Thousands of young protesters also looted shops, hurled stones at police and torched cars during demonstrations across the country.

In the confusion, rumours swirled that practitioners of Senegal's centuries-old wrestling tradition -- mostly heavy-set, muscled men -- were behind some of the mayhem.

Some on social media suggested that the government had hired wrestlers to quell demonstrations. And the government itself suggested that wrestlers were among the protesters.

Senegal's Justice Minister Malick Sall, for example, said in an interview this month that coronavirus restrictions explained the unrest and pointed to wrestlers as an example.

"The young people, many of them were in the wrestling stables," he said, explaining that young wrestlers had spent their days training and fighting.

"This allowed them not only to let off steam but to earn a living. And that is something they have been deprived of for almost a year," he added.

But the minister touched a nerve, appearing to cast doubt on fighters who are lionised throughout the country, where wrestling is a major spectator sport.

Senegal's wrestling world has rejected suggestions that fighters were drawn into the violent politics of recent weeks.

"Not a single licensed wrestler took part in the rallies," said Khadim Gadiaga, the head of a respected wrestling stable in the capital Dakar.

He also denied that any fighters had worked as state-sponsored thugs, saying that wrestlers had never marched "in the history of this country".

- 'Not a penny' -

Like many other sports, wrestling has suffered since the onset of the pandemic, according to some fighters.

Group training has been banned to curb infections, alongside traditional bouts -- where hulking fighters dressed in loincloths face off in packed stadiums, performing mystic rituals in the sand before going toe-to-toe.

The restrictions have put some 8,000 professional wrestlers out of a job.

Ibrahima Dione, the president of Senegal's national wrestling association, told AFP that "for a year now, the fighters have had nothing, not even a penny".

"Many of them have lost hope and are taking canoes to Spain," he said, referring to the Atlantic Ocean migration route from Senegal to Europe.

But to Dione, the ministers' words stung, since so many young wrestlers have seen their livelihoods disappear.

"It's dangerous for the youth who have lost hope," he said. "The state has an obligation to help us. All wrestlers are really angry".

- 'People need it' -

For his part, Aliou Sane, a spokesman for Senegal's protest group 'Y'en a marre' -- meaning 'we've had enough' -- said at a recent news conference that wrestlers had taken to the streets.

Demonstrators were "citizens who are thirsty for democracy, for the rule of law, for freedom," he said. "And among these citizens, yes, there are wrestlers".

But Gaston Mbengue, a celebrated fight promoter, thinks the debate about wrestlers' involvement in the unrest is misplaced.

"It's all politics," he said.

The solution, according to Mbengue, is to bring back wrestling. "The people have been locked up for a year. The people need it," he said.

'IS brides' open up in Syria camp documentary at SXSW
\

Enlarge Image

Shamima Begum photographed wearing Western attire in Al Roj Camp, in northeastern Syria

, on March 14, 2021.Sam Tarling for The Telegraph

Issued on: 17/03/2021 - 

Los Angeles (AFP)

"Okay, um... My name's Shamima. I'm from the UK. I'm 19."

Spoken with a nervous laugh, the introduction to a room full of women and restless babies could be the start of any young mothers' support group.

But the speaker is Shamima Begum, the teenage "ISIS bride" who left Britain for Syria in 2015 to join the Islamic State group, and whose desire to return sparked a right-wing press frenzy that saw her stripped of her citizenship.


The footage is captured in "The Return: Life After ISIS," a documentary premiering Wednesday at the online Texas-based South By Southwest festival.

Spanish director Alba Sotorra got rare, extensive access to Begum and other Western women over several months in Syria's Kurdish-run Roj camp, where they remain following the so-called caliphate's collapse in 2019.

"I would say to the people in the UK, give me a second chance because I was still young when I left," Begum tells the filmmakers.

"I just want them to put aside everything they've heard about me in the media," she adds.

Begum left her London home aged just 15 to travel to Syria with two school friends, and married an IS fighter.

She was "found" by British journalists, heavily pregnant at another Syrian camp, in February 2019 -- and her apparent lack of remorse in initial interviews drew outrage.

But Begum and fellow Westerners including US-born Hoda Muthana strike a very different and apologetic tone in Sotorra's film.

The documentary follows "workshop" sessions in which the women write letters to their younger selves expressing regret about their departures for Syria, and plant a tree to remember their loved ones.

"It was known that Syria was a warzone and I still travelled into it with my own children -- now how I did this I really don't know looking back," says one Western woman.

Begum recalls feeling like an "outsider" in London who wanted to "help the Syrians," but claims on arrival she quickly realized IS were "trapping people" to boost the so-called caliphate's numbers and "look good for the (propaganda) videos."

Shamima Begum pictured in 2019 in her Islamic clothing.

Anthony Loyd – The Times

- 'A mistake' -

Sotorra, the director, gained camp access thanks to Kurdish fighters she had followed in Syria for her previous film.

She set out to document the Kurdish women's sacrifices in running a camp filled with their former enemies' wives and children, but soon pivoted to the Western women.

"I will never be able to understand how a woman from the West can take this decision of leaving everything behind to join a group that is committing the atrocities that ISIS is committing," Sotorra told AFP.

"I do understand now how you can make a mistake."

On Sotorra's arrival in March 2019, the women -- fresh from a warzone -- were "somehow blocked... not thinking and not feeling."

"Shamima was a piece of ice when I met her," Sotorra told AFP.

"She lost the kid when I was there... it took a while to be able to cry," she recalled.

"I think it's just surviving, you need to protect yourself to survive."

Another factor is the enduring presence of "small but very powerful" groups of even "more radicalized women" who remain loyal to IS and exert pressure on their campmates.

"We had (other) women who joined in the beginning, and then they received pressure from other women so they stopped coming," said Sotorra.

In the film, Begum claims she "had no choice but to say certain things" to journalists "because I lived in fear of these women coming to my tent one day and killing me and killing my baby."

- 'Took them a while' -

The question of what can and should be done with these women -- and their children -- plagues Western governments, sowing divisions among allies.

Last month, Britain's Supreme Court rejected Begum's bid to return to challenge a decision stripping her citizenship on national security grounds.

How much the women knew about -- and abetted -- IS's rapes, tortures and beheadings may never be known.

In the documentary, Begum denies she "knew about" or "supported these crimes," dismissing claims she could have been in IS's feared morality police as a naive "15-year-old with no Islamic knowledge" who did not even "speak the language."

"I never even had a parking ticket back in my own country before... I never harmed anybody, I never killed anybody, I never did anything," says Canadian Kimberly Polman.

An incredulous Kurdish woman points out that "maybe your husband killed my cousin."

Sotorra believes the women could be useful back home in preventing the same mistake in future generations, and points to the cruelty of raising young children in this environment.

"It took them a while to realise that they have responsibility for (their) choice... they cannot just think 'Okay, I regret, I go back, as if nothing has happened,'" she said.

"No, it's not about this... you have to accept the consequences."

Yemen's SAUDI BACKED Al-Qaeda regenerates amid battle for the north

Years of setbacks have weakened the once mighty Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda, but the militants are seizing the opportunity to regenerate while the government and Huthi rebels are locked in a fight to the death in the north. Government security officials and tribal leaders told AFP that the fierce battle for Marib, which has raged for the past month, is creating a security vacuum

 

Smoke billows during clashes between forces loyal to Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Huthi rebel fighters in Yemen's northeastern Marib Photo by -/AFP.
Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/afp/2021/03/yemen-conflict-qaeda.html#ixzz6pQbA4eOE

Abu Dhabi (AFP)

Years of setbacks have weakened the once mighty Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda, but the militants are seizing the opportunity to regenerate while the government and Huthi rebels are locked in a fight to the death in the north.

Government security officials and tribal leaders told AFP that the fierce battle for Marib, which has raged for the past month, is creating a security vacuum that is being exploited by the jihadists.

Once seen as the most potent Al Qaeda franchise, they have suffered multiple defeats in the past three years, leaving them deprived of territory and fighters, and with mystery surrounding the fate of the leadership.

"The governorate of Marib has been AQAP's main stronghold for years," said one intelligence official.

While the main combatants in Yemen's six-year war sustain heavy losses in an effort to control Marib city, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula remains "at ease" elsewhere in the region where it retains strong influence in villages and small towns.

"As others get busy fighting, they are training fighters again, planning, rebuilding relations" with local tribes and chasing "financial support" from local communities, the official added.

Marib city, the capital of the oil-rich governorate, is the last northern stronghold for the internationally recognised government which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition.

The Huthis control the rest of the north after years of conflict which has plunged Yemen into the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

"The war in Marib could be ending the maximum pressure campaign that almost wiped (AQAP) out" in Yemen in the last few years, another Yemeni intelligence official said.

- Rapid rise... -

Born at a meeting of jihadists on a January evening in 2009, in southern Abyan's rugged mountains, AQAP was a marriage of convenience between the network's offshoots in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, as they faced the onslaught of US and regional military campaigns.

The group led by Nasser al-Wuhayshi and his deputy Said al-Shihri, former prisoners in Sanaa and Guantanamo respectively, found immediate success as Yemen grappled with growing instability -- a secessionist movement in the south, a rebellion in the north, and a crippling economic crisis.

In one year, the group recruited hundreds of fighters with the help of local tribes, attracted jihadists from Asia and Africa, claimed deadly attacks, and attempted to kill a senior Saudi official and bomb a US civilian plane.

It even issued one of the first English online jihadist magazines, called Inspire.

Even before that, the shadow of al-Qaeda hung over Yemen -- the group claimed responsibility for the 2000 attack against the destroyer USS Cole in the southern city of Aden that killed 17 US military personnel.

By the end of that decade "they had a strong basis for their movement and many safe havens," said Hossam Radman from the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies.

AQAP peaked in 2014, invading towns and taking control of the southern city of Mukalla in 2015, while its main competitor the Islamic State group was gaining ground in Iraq and Syria.

Outside Yemen, the group attacked the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo in 2015, killing 12, showing its ability to strike far from home.

"It is logical that the continuation of the battle in Marib and the inability of any of the two sides to win will be a major gain for the organisation as it rearranges its ranks," said Saeed Bakran, an expert on Yemeni extremists.

- ...and decline -

When Saudi Arabia launched a military intervention in Yemen in March 2015, aimed at halting the Huthis' astonishing gains, its eye was also fixed on AQAP.

The UAE, a key member of the Saudi-led coalition, took the lead in driving AQAP out of villages one after the other with the help of US forces, weapons, and intelligence.

US drones and special forces managed to locate and kill leaders including the long-feared Al-Wuhayshi in 2015.

Another challenge was the ambition of the Islamic State, as the rivals tussled for territory and support over the years.

"All these elements weakened AQAP. Today, it is facing financial problems, many members are accused of treason, and others joined IS," a tribal leader in Marib told AFP.

Despite that, it "continued to exploit the security vacuum created by the ongoing conflict" and to "conduct attacks and operate in areas of southern and central Yemen with relative impunity," according to a 2019 US report on terrorism.

AQAP fighters are estimated to number in the low thousands, according to the report.

Then came the battle for Marib, some 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa.

"The fighting is helping the group reorganise. They even pushed some of their fighters to join the ranks of the resistance battling the Huthis, to benefit from the financial support they receive," the tribal leader said, referring to salaries believed to be paid by the coalition.

Last month, the group called on Yemenis to raise arms against the Huthis in Marib, portraying itself once again as the "defender of Muslims" in the region

 'The fighting continues': A Tigray town reels from drawn-out war

Many buildings in Wukro were blasted apart by shelling as government forces arrived 

 

Many buildings in Wukro were blasted apart by shelling as government forces arrived Photo by EDUARDO SOTERAS/A

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/afp/2021/03/ethiopia-eritrea-tigray-conflict-unrest.html#ixzz6pQZgijmn

Issued on: 16/03/2021 

Wukro (Ethiopia) (AFP)

Kibrom Hailu wasn't too worried when his 15-year-old son stepped out to play volleyball one morning last month near their home in Wukro, in Ethiopia's conflict-hit Tigray region.

There had been protests in town that week -- young men burning tyres and denouncing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed -- but his son, Henok, wasn't involved and promised not to go far.

Only when he heard gunfire did Kibrom realise the danger, and by then it was too late: Henok's body lay dead in the dirt road right outside the gate of their compound.

Henok was one of 18 civilians shot and killed that day by Ethiopian soldiers, according to a tally provided by St Mary's College in Wukro, which has documented abuses by security forces against civilians in the town since fighting erupted last November.

For Kibrom, though, the timing was just as revealing as the toll: the killings came around two and a half months after Abiy announced military operations in Tigray had "ceased" and life would return to normal.

In fact the opposite is true, Kibrom and other Wukro residents told AFP journalists who reached the town earlier this month.

"The war is escalating. Now it is focused on the civilians," Kibrom said.

"How can we live like this?"

Every phase of the four-month-old conflict in Tigray has brought suffering to Wukro, a fast-growing transport hub once best-known for its religious and archaeological sites.

Ahead of federal forces' arrival in late November, heavy shelling levelled homes and businesses and sent plumes of dust and smoke rising above near-deserted streets.

Since then the town has been heavily patrolled by soldiers -- Eritreans at first, now mostly Ethiopians -- whose abuses fuel a steady flow of civilian casualties and stoke anger with Nobel Peace Prize-winner Abiy.

"We are constantly receiving patients who are injured by the war," said Dr Adonai Hans, medical director of Wukro General Hospital.

"If somebody says there is no war in Tigray, that would be a joke for me."

- 'Sons of the junta' -

Abiy sent troops into Tigray on November 4 after blaming the region's once-dominant ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), for attacks on army camps.

Several weeks later, as federal forces advanced on the regional capital Mekele, Wukro residents realised their town, 50 kilometres (31 miles) north, would be overrun.

Many fled to the surrounding mountains, looking on in horror as shells rained down on the town, some recording the carnage with their cellphones.

What they returned to was even worse: Angry Eritreans who spent days looting homes, banks and factories and shooting dead scores of young men suspected of sympathising with the TPLF "junta", according to religious and medical officials.

"Killing is their kind of daily work. They don't even sense they are killing people," a Catholic official in Wukro said of the Eritreans, requesting anonymity to avoid reprisals.

Nebiyu Kiflom, a building materials vendor, was home with his housemates -- including three of his brothers -- when Eritreans barged through the door one night in late November.

"They said, 'You are the sons of the junta,'" he recalled. "We were just sitting at home. We weren't doing anything."

The soldiers killed six people that night, and Nebiyu was stuck indoors for three days with the bodies before he summoned the courage to go for help.

By early December, scores of young men were dead in Wukro, including 81 now buried at the back of an Orthodox church.

"We have seen the bodies with our own eyes. We have buried them," said priest Gebrehana Hailemariam.

"They were killed in the town and brought to us."

None of the death tolls provided could be independently verified.

- Hospital shelled -

During the first wave of killings, Wukro residents had almost no access to medical care.

Damage from shelling and looting destroyed 75 percent of the hospital's facilities and equipment, forcing it to close for a month, said Dr Adonai, the medical director.

The timing could not have been worse for Elisabeth Gebrekidan, who delivered twins in early December and suffered what her family believes was postpartum haemorrhage.

Her brother, Elias, pleaded with a soldier for permission to hire an ambulance to take her to Mekele for treatment but was rebuffed.

"He said to me, 'Get out of my face, you are a son of the junta'," Elias recalled, tears streaming down his face at the memory.

Elisabeth died after four days at home, leaving Elias to raise the twins -- girls named Tsion and Roda -- with the help of his mother.

These days, the hospital is open and running, albeit at limited capacity.

Patients include rape survivors -- some of whom wait weeks or months before seeking medical care -- and freshly-wounded civilians who give an idea of just how close fighting continues to be.

One recent afternoon, a 45-year-old construction worker named Meles was being treated for a gunshot blast to his right thigh.

He said Eritrean soldiers had opened fire on civilians in his hometown of Agula, 12 kilometres south of Wukro, one morning in late February after pro-TPLF forces ambushed one of their positions in the town.

"Still the fighting continues," Meles said.

"The international community needs to act now before it's too late, before we vanish."

- 'This is our home' -

Ethiopia's military did not respond to requests for comment, though Abiy's government has previously rejected allegations that soldiers have killed civilians in Tigray.

Both Addis Ababa and Asmara deny Eritrean soldiers are in the region at all, despite contrary accounts from residents, aid workers, diplomats and members of Tigray's Abiy-appointed interim government.

These claims draw mocking laughter on Wukro's main commercial drag, where glass from shot-out windows litters sidewalks, and shopkeepers stand before empty shelves clutching photographs of what their businesses looked like before the war.

The pro-TPLF network Dimtsi Weyane recently aired a 13-minute video highlighting the scars of conflict in Wukro, with a narrator lamenting that the town, once an "earthly paradise", now "looks like Syria and Yemen."

Residents, for their part, said what they want most is for soldiers to leave so they can rebuild.

"They shouldn't stay here even for a single night," said Nebiyu, the building materials vendor.

"This is our home. It's where we live. Otherwise, we would leave."

INTERNATIONALISM
China pledges 300,000 vaccine doses for UN peacekeepers



Issued on: 15/03/2021 - 22:30Modified: 15/03/2021 - 22:28

China's mission to the UN said that the country's ambassador, Zhang Jun, had told Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of the donation "to UN peacekeepers, with priority given to the peacekeeping missions in Africa" Karim SAHIB AFP/File
United Nations (United States) (AFP)

China will give United Nations peacekeeping troops 300,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine, the Chinese diplomatic mission to the UN said Monday, bolstering the 200,000 doses already pledged by India to protect 100,000 soldiers and police officers deployed in peace missions.

The mission said that China's ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, had told Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of the donation "to UN peacekeepers, with priority given to the peacekeeping missions in Africa."

"This is a further step to make China's vaccines a global public good, and also a demonstration of China's firm and continuous support to the UN and multilateralism," it said in a statement.

The Chinese foreign minister told the Security Council last month that his country intended to provide vaccine doses for peacekeepers, but he did not specify how many.

The same day and at the same meeting, his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar had announced that his country was going to give 200,000 doses for the 100,000 peacekeepers deployed in the world, with two doses per recipient, an Indian diplomatic source said.

Neither country has specified yet the type of vaccine that will be given.

While peacekeeping operations deploy around 100,000 soldiers and police around the world, the latter are required to be rotated on a regular basis, or are replaced by units from other countries, which accounts for the number of doses on offer being higher than the number of soldiers and police in the field.

The Chinese mission added that China -- where the virus was first detected -- has "provided vaccine assistance to 69 countries and two international organizations, and exported vaccines to 28 countries."

Bolsonaro changes health minister again, as Brazil's Covid cases surge

Far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has appointed his fourth health minister of the pandemic, which has flared up in a deadly second wave in 2021 as a mutant strain of coronavirus sweeps the country 

EVARISTO SA AFP/File

Issued on: 16/03/2021 -

Brasília (AFP)

Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro announced Monday that he will appoint cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga as health minister, the fourth to hold the post during the pandemic, as the country's health system staggers amid surging Covid-19 cases.

"It was decided now in the afternoon to appoint physician Marcelo Queiroga to the Ministry of Health," Bolsonaro said in a brief meeting with his supporters at the Alvorada presidential palace.

The transition process "should take one or two weeks," he added.

The appointment will be finalized Tuesday. Bolsonaro made the announcement after meeting with Queiroga, and hours after current health minister Eduardo Pazuello told a press-conference that the president was seeking to replace him to "reorganize" the ministry.

"The conversation (with Queiroga) was excellent," Bolsonaro said. "He has everything in my opinion to do a good job, giving continuity in everything Pazuello did until today."

The appointment of Queiroga, the president of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology (SBC), comes as Bolsonaro's government faces harsh criticism for its chaotic handling of the coronavirus pandemic and denials of the severity of the crisis.

"From now on we are going to a more aggressive phase regarding the fight against the virus," far-right Bolsonaro said.

Before leaving office, Pazuello announced the government had purchased 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which should be delivered by September. He also said that some 38 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's single-shot vaccine should arrive in the second half of 2021.

The completion of the purchase is vital to speed up Brazil's vaccination campaign, as the country has seen a spike in new Covid-19 cases and deaths since February.

The recent wave has brought hospitals in more than half of the South American nation's 27 states to the brink of collapse and caused state governors to order more restrictions to slow the spread of the virus.

The country of 212 million people has lost nearly 280,000 people to the disease, second only to the United States.

Pazuello's two predecessors in the post had fallen foul of Bolsonaro by questioning the lack of "scientific" guidance the president was taking to tackle the pandemic.

But Pazuello, an army general with no previous medical experience, took a military approach to his job, saying last October, "It's that simple: one commands and the other obeys."

Epidemiologist Mauro Sanchez of the University of Brasilia said the new minister will have the delicate task of trying to plot a "change of course" in the health policy in Brazil, which has become the global epicenter of the pandemic.

"Without controlling the pandemic and with the emergence of new mutations, Brazil is perceived as a threat," Sanchez told AFP.

The fact that Queiroga is a doctor does not guarantee him success, he said, but in the current context, "it brings a certain reassurance to the population and gives him a certain legitimacy in office."

Brazil is in the grip of a second wave of the pandemic, with more than 1,800 deaths per day on average, up from to 703 at the beginning of the year. That growth has been fueled by a new strain of the coronavirus that is at least twice as contagious as the original.

Under fire, Brazil's Bolsonaro tones down on Covid

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has changed his tone slightly on Covid-19, which he once called a 'little flu' 

Issued on: 17/03/2021 -

Rio de Janeiro (AFP)

Gone are the days when Covid-19 was a "little flu" -- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has changed his pandemic-skeptic tune lately, sacking his widely criticized health minister, ordering millions of vaccines and even wearing a mask.

But while a surge in coronavirus deaths in hard-hit Brazil has put the far-right leader on the defensive, analysts doubt he will change his hardline stance on some key issues anytime soon -- including his vitriolic opposition to stay-at-home measures.

"I don't see him making a definitive change. His beliefs are still the same," said political scientist Geraldo Monteiro of Rio de Janeiro State University.

"This is a strategic retreat. He's being pressured by his allies, especially in Congress, because the pandemic is out of control," he told AFP.

The political pressure increased a few notches last week, when a Supreme Court justice annulled former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's corruption convictions.

The surprise ruling cleared the way for the popular-if-tarnished left-wing heavyweight to launch a potential run against Bolsonaro in presidential elections next year.

Lula, who led the country from 2003 to 2010, wasted no time condemning Bolsonaro's "imbecile" handling of the pandemic and getting vaccinated before the cameras.

That is something Bolsonaro has pointedly refused to do, once joking the vaccine might "turn you into an alligator".

The politician dubbed the "Tropical Trump" has also flouted expert advice on social distancing and face masks.

A recent poll found 61 percent of people disapprove of his response to the pandemic, which has claimed some 280,000 lives in Brazil -- second only to the United States.

The country saw yet another day of record deaths Tuesday, with 2,841 people dying in 24 hours -- an increase of more than 550 over the previous record last week. There were 83,926 new infections in the same period, the second-highest 24-hour case count since the pandemic began.

"At this point, the only hope for a change in direction is a fear of losing votes -- the one thing Bolsonaro reacts to," newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo said in an editorial.

- 'More aggressive phase' -

With hospitals across much of Brazil approaching breaking point, Bolsonaro gave in Monday to pressure to fire health minister Eduardo Pazuello, an army general with no medical experience.

He replaced him with Marcelo Queiroga, a respected cardiologist.

Bolsonaro is now on his fourth health minister of the pandemic, after falling out with the previous two when they insisted on science-based policy responses.

Pazuello, who stayed in the job 10 months, "only lasted as long as he did because he did everything the president wanted," said commentator Andreia Sadi of TV Globo.

"Now the president's been advised to change because the pandemic is getting worse. He understood he had to make a U-turn. People want vaccines."

Brazil has so far struggled to secure enough vaccine doses for its 212 million people.

But Pazuello announced a change in course on his way out: orders for 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and another 38 million of Johnson & Johnson's.

"We are going to a more aggressive phase in the fight against the virus," said Bolsonaro.

- Machine-gun syringe -

The "aggressivity" extends to the realm where Bolsonaro thrives best: social media.

His son Flavio, a senator, urged the president's fans online to share a picture of a syringe mounted on a machine gun, with the caption "the vaccine is our weapon."

The message appeared to cause some head-scratching among hardline supporters, more used to their leader touting actual guns and railing against Covid-19 vaccines.

"It's a positive change," said epidemiologist Julio Croda of the University of Mato Grosso do Sul.

"But we hope more changes are on the way, like backing mask use and restrictive measures. That's essential to avoid the total collapse of the health system."

He added that he was doubtful, however.

"Bolsonaro can't stand those things," he said.

The president's initial choice for health minister, Dr Ludhmila Hajjar, declined the job after meeting with Bolsonaro on Sunday, citing "divergent" views.

News site Poder 360 reported that the president told her she would "screw" his re-election chances if she insisted on a lockdown in the impoverished northeast, where Bolsonaro has been courting votes.

Opponents would like to see just that.

"It's no use changing ministers if the policies stay the same," said left-wing Governor Flavio Dino of the northeastern state of Maranhao.

"If the president keeps mucking things up, it's going to be hard for any minister to get the job done."

Afghan sewing factory offers lifeline to war widows



March 17, 2021 / The Frontier Post / 

KABUL (AFP): Dozens of women widowed by the Afghan war have been given a lifeline by the army, stitching military uniforms indistinguishable from the ones their husbands died in. Around 120 women are employed by the defence ministry to make uniforms for servicemen and prisoners at a factory in Kabul.

Many are widows, but all are related to someone who was serving in the military and either died or was invalided out. Roya Naimati, a 31-year-old with four children, was given an apartment in the capital and a job at the factory when her husband drowned in a river during a military operation. “Initially I lost hope and was wondering how to feed and bring up my little children,” she told AFP.

“I’m thankful to the defence ministry for this job.” With her five-year-old daughter next to her at the sewing machine, Naimati is now the breadwinner of her family, earning 12,000 Afghanis ($155) a month. In deeply conservative Afghanistan, families usually rely on men for financial support. Afghanistan has fought a two-decade insurgency by the Taliban since the Islamist militants were ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.

Despite supposed peace talks between the warring sides, violence has surged across the country with thousands of soldiers and civilians killed. The exact number of Afghan security personnel killed in the war is unknown, but in 2019, President Ashraf Ghani said more than 45,000 had “paid the ultimate sacrifice” since his election five years earlier.

“I feel sad when I’m sewing because this was the uniform my son was killed in,” said 37-year-old Mahbooba Sadid Parwani. “Though my son died, I am happy that other young people are fighting against the traitor Taliban.” Samira, who like many Afghans goes by one name, shares the same conflicting emotions provoked by the work that has allowed her to support her family. “The Taliban might wear this prisoner uniform that I’m sewing… I do not want to even touch it, but am helpless — I have three children.”

Wild weather: 4 essential reads about tornadoes and thunderstorms

The Conversation
Wed, March 17, 2021

Debris near Lebanon, Tennessee, after tornadoes struck

 on the night of March 3, 2020, killing more than 20 people

 across the state. 

AP Photo/Mark Humphrey

Springtime in the U.S. is frequently a season for thunderstorms, which can spawn tornadoes. These large storms are common in the South and Southeast in March and April, then shift toward the Plains states in May. Scientists have warned that 2021 could be an active tornado year, partly because of a La Niña climate pattern in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Past research has suggested that La Niña increases the frequency of tornadoes and hail by concentrating hot, humid air over Texas and other Southern states, which helps to promote storm formation.

These four articles from The Conversation’s archives explain how tornadoes form, why night tornadoes are more deadly, and how in rare cases thunderstorms can take a different but equally destructive form – a derecho. We also look at a neglected aspect of disaster response: disposing of massive quantities of waste.

1. How thunderstorms generate tornadoes

Most tornadoes are spawned by large, intense thunderstorms called supercell thunderstorms. The key ingredients are rising air that rotates, and wind shear – winds at different altitudes blowing at different speeds, and/or from different directions.

Forecasters can’t always predict when or where a tornado may form, but they are very good at identifying the conditions that have the potential to support strong tornadoes. As Penn State university meteorologists Paul Markowski and Yvette Richardson explain,

“The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center routinely predicts large outbreaks days in advance. ‘High-risk’ outlooks capture most major tornado events, and strong tornadoes rarely occur outside of tornado watches. We have less ability to forecast tornadoes in more marginal situations, such as within non-supercell storms.”

2. A special risk in the South: Night tornadoes

Tornado strikes are bad news at any time, but especially when they occur at night. Night tornadoes are more than twice as likely to be fatal as daytime twisters, for several reasons: They are harder for storm spotters to see, people may sleep through alerts, and victims are more likely to be in vulnerable structures such as mobile homes at night.

Night tornadoes are more common in the South because of regional atmospheric conditions there. University of Tennessee geographer Kelsey Ellis and Middle Tennessee State University geoscientist Alisa Hass write that communication challenges are a serious problem in their state, where nearly half of tornadoes strike at night.

“Experts in Tennessee recommend having multiple methods for receiving warnings at night,” they note. “This strategy allows for backup options when power goes out, cellphones go down or other unforeseen circumstances occur.”

3. Derechos: Storms without spin

In rare instances, weather systems can generate organized lines of thunderstorms called derechos, from the Spanish word for “straight ahead.” For a storm to qualify as a derecho, it has to produce winds of 57.5 mph (26 meters per second) or greater. And those intense winds must extend over a path at least 250 miles (400 kilometers) long, with no more than three hours separating individual severe wind reports.

Most areas of the Central and eastern U.S. may experience a derecho once or twice a year on average. They occur mainly from April through August, but they can also occur earlier in spring or later in fall. And they can inflict heavy damage. A derecho that swept across the Midwest in August 2020 generated over US$7.5 billion in damages – the nation’s most costly thunderstorm.

Derechos can be even harder to predict than tornadoes, and once they form, they can move very fast. As Colorado State University atmospheric scientist Russ Schumacher warns,



“Communities, first responders and utilities may have only a few hours to prepare for an oncoming derecho, so it is important to know how to receive severe thunderstorm warnings, such as TV, radio and smartphone alerts, and to take these warnings seriously. Tornadoes and tornado warnings often get the most attention, but lines of severe thunderstorms can also pack a major punch.”

Metal silo twisted and folded by winds.

4. Cleaning up after storms

Tornadoes and other natural disasters often leave huge quantities of debris behind – uprooted trees, splintered buildings, smashed cars and more. It can take communities months or even years to clean up, and the process typically is slow, expensive and dangerous.

Sybil Derrible of the University of Illinois–Chicago, Juyeong Choi of Florida State University and Nazli Yesiller of California Polytechnic State University study urban engineering, disaster management and planning, and waste management. They see a need for new technologies and strategies that officials can use to figure out what materials storm debris contains and find options for separating, reusing and recycling it.

“For example, drones and autonomous sensing technologies can be combined with artificial intelligence to estimate amounts and quality of debris, the types of materials it contains and how it can be repurposed rapidly. Technologies that allow for fast sorting and separation of mixed materials can also speed up debris management operations,” they write.

“Turning the problem around, creating new sustainable construction materials – especially in disaster-prone areas – will make it easier to repurpose debris after disasters.”

Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:

Can your community handle a natural disaster and coronavirus at the same time?


Why the Great Plains has such epic weather