Air Chernobyl? Tourists get chance to fly over nuclear disaster zone

By Sergiy Karazy and Margaryta Chornokondratenko

REUTERS 

4/23/2021

Reuters/GLEB GARANICH A view shows the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant during a tour to the Chernobyl zone

KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian nuclear agency worker Viktor Kozlov received an unusual birthday gift from his wife Maryna: tickets for a 90 minute flight over Chernobyl, site of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

© Reuters/GLEB GARANICH People take a tour to the Chernobyl zone

The trip gives passengers a bird's eye view of the abandoned buildings in the ghost town of Pripyat that once housed nuclear workers, and the massive domed structure now covering the reactor that exploded on April 26, 1986.

On the flight, run by Ukraine International Airlines, passengers craned their necks, pointed and took pictures on their phones of the site that has become one of the country's major tourist destinations.

The disaster, which struck during a botched safety test at the plant 110 km (70 miles) north of the capital Kyiv, forced tens of thousands of people to abandon the area permanently, leaving wildlife behind to thrive in the contaminated zone.

© Reuters/GLEB GARANICH People take a tour to the Chernobyl zone

"I read a lot about the Chernobyl accident and I know every second of the disaster timeline," Kozlov, whose interest in the industry was prompted by having grown up in another town with a nuclear plant, said during the flight.

© Reuters/GLEB GARANICH People take a tour to the Chernobyl zone

Gallery: Ukraine eyes UNESCO status for abandoned Chernobyl wasteland (Reuters)
Air Chernobyl? Tourists get chance to fly over nuclear disaster zone (msn.com)













Children's beds are seen in a kindergarten near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine, April 12. REUTERS/Gleb Gar
24 SLIDES © Reuters

Children's beds are seen in a kindergarten near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine, April 12. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

"I was surprised by the nature around the plant. It looks so pure, nature won over a human here," he added.

Thirty-one plant workers and firemen died in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, mostly from acute radiation sickness. Thousands more later succumbed to radiation-related illnesses such as cancer, although the total death toll and long-term health effects remain a subject of intense debate.

As Ukraine marks the 35th anniversary of the accident, the former Soviet republic will apply for Chernobyl to receive UNESCO World Heritage status to attract more visitors and funding to develop the area.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the site became more popular with tourists thanks to the HBO series "Chernobyl" in 2019.

For Pilot Yevhen Nechyporenko, the flights over Chernobyl reminded him of his childhood when he spent summer holidays near the area.

"It attracts people like a magnet. Also by looking at these places from above, you imagine yourself there," he said in the cockpit.

© Reuters/GLEB GARANICH A view shows the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant during a tour to the Chernobyl zone

"It is very interesting to look closely into every detail of the area, into what is happening there, what changes took place around the plant and in the town, how the nature is developing and taking over."

(Editing by Matthias Williams and Alison Williams)

Ransomware's perfect target: Why one industry needs to improve cybersecurity, before it's too late

Danny Palmer 

ZDNET

4/23/2021

© Image: iStock

A number of shipping vessels have been found to be operating with almost no cyber security infrastructure at all.

© Provided by ZDNet
Why is ransomware such a big threat and how do you defend your network against it?
Watch Now

Ransomware attacks against the shipping and logistics industry have tripled in the past year, as cyber criminals target the global supply chain in an effort to make money from ransom payments.

Analysis by cybersecurity company BlueVoyant found that ransomware attacks are increasingly targeting shipping and logistics firms at a time when the global COVID-19 pandemic means that their services are required more than ever before.

Ransomware attacks have become a major cybersecurity problem for every industry, but a successful attack against a logistics company could potentially mean chaos – and an extremely lucrative payday for attackers.

The nature of the industry and the potential impact of how disruption can affect all of the supply chain might mean that an affected organisation pays the ransom demand, perceiving it to be the quickest, most effective way of restoring the network – despite law enforcement and cybersecurity experts warning victims that they shouldn't encourage cyber criminals by paying ransoms.

"Shipping and logistics companies are large businesses that are highly sensitive to disruption, making them perfect targets for ransomware gangs," Thomas Lind, co-head of strategic intelligence at BlueVoyant, told ZDNet.

2017's NotPetya cyberattack demonstrated the amount of disruption that can occur in these scenarios, when shipping firm Maersk had vast swathes of its network of tens of thousands of devices across 130 counties encrypted and knocked offline in an incident that cost hundreds of millions in losses.

But despite this high profile cyber event demonstrating the need for good cybersecurity strategy, according to BlueVoyant's report, shipping and logistics companies need to "dramatically" improve IT hygiene and email security to make networks more resilient against ransomware and other cyberattacks.

That includes fixing vulnerabilities in remote desktops or ports, something that 90% of the organisations studied in the research were found to have. Vulnerabilities in RDP systems like unpatched software or using default or common login credentials can provider cyber attackers with relatively simple access to networks.

"When unsecured, ransomware attackers are able to gain access to a system and then move laterally in order to most effectively compromise and lockdown a target network," said Lind.

"Companies are not adequately securing themselves – and we haven't seen any industry with worse protections in place than supply chain and logistics."

In some cases, it isn't ransomware groups that are breaching logistics and shipping companies, but merely opportunistic cyber criminals who know they'll be able to sell the credentials on for others to use to commit attacks.

SEE: Hackers are actively targeting flaws in these VPN devices. Here's what you need to do

Shipping and logistic companies have vast networks – but there are cybersecurity procedures that can improve their defences against cyberattacks. These include securing port and network configuration so that default or easy-to-guess credentials aren't used and to, where possible, secure the accounts with two-factor authentication.

"Ransomware gangs don't hide what they're doing: they hit remote desktop protocol (RDP) and other remote desktop ports. Especially in a time when many companies set up remote desktops for remote workers, this is a critical issue," said Lind.

Organisations should also update and patch software in a timely manner so cyber criminals can't take advantage of known vulnerabilities to gain access to networks.

cbc.ca

SASKATCHEWAN
Muskoday First Nation is going off the grid by going solar

Duration: 02:18

Community leaders say it reinforces their commitment of protecting the environment and Mother Earth

Nitric Oxide joins the fight against COVID-19
FAST & FURIOUS LAUGHING GASSES PANDEMIC

A Canadian-based company using Nitric Oxide (NO) to treat topical and respiratory infections has found success using their product to combat COVID-19. In an interview with Chris Miller, Chief Scientific Officer and Cofounder at SaNOtize, we learn about the company that is attacking the virus before it can attack you.

Chris Miller published his first review article on Nitric Oxide in 1992, he says, “I was trying to figure out what to research in my Ph.D. and I had read an abstract about the molecule nitric oxide, so while I knew very little about it at the time, I had an epiphany and Nitric Oxide answered the questions about what I would be doing for the rest of my life.” Miller had been working as a respiratory therapist prior to his Ph.D. and says “I was working with gasses and helping people on life support, so I wanted to learn more about a gas that had been previously considered poisonous.” Miller explains that there was no way to easily measure NO in those days and it was contained in high pressure cylinders, so his team focused on making devices to measure and deliver NO. “In those days, the recently retired Bruce Murray was my right hand man, he stuck by me for decades on this journey.” Murray and Miller worked with another large company to use NO as an approved drug to save infants with Blue Baby Syndrome from 1998 on, significantly decreasing the amount of related deaths.

Miller shares that “during that time I became fascinated with finding that the NO produced in our bodies works as our first line of defence in our innate immune system and basically did another Ph.D. trying to see how we could use this outside the body to help reduce microbes and infection.” The high pressure cylinders were cumbersome so the team started to explore how they could create and deliver nitric oxide in a liquid and with the help of major grants and his new business partner, Dr. Gilly Regev. Regev and Miller began working together in 2009 and created a liquid that kills microbes very fast. The liquid treatment was developed as far as phase 2 human trials, proving safe and effective for potential use for chronic sinusitis and diabetic foot ulcers. Originally, the team wanted to use their findings to help combat the common flu and cold but knew those would be expensive undertakings, so, prior to the pandemic, they were focusing on uses much cheaper to develop. Miller himself would use the nasal spray before and after plane rides and found the method effective to keep him free of common respiratory illnesses for the past decade.

The pandemic changed the focus for team SaNOtize, as they decided to jump in right away to see if they could help in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, or COVID-19 infection. In March 2020 they began independent lab testing at Utah State University and showed that their NO releasing solution could eradicate the SARS-CoV-2 virus in under two minutes. The SaNOtize nasal spray works similarly to a hand sanitizer for the nose. Miller explains “if you think you’ve been exposed to the virus, you can spray the mist into your nose, which is the major entry point for COVID. The NO in the liquid acts as a physical and chemical barrier using multiple mechanisms to combat the virus.” Miller shares, “If you think of the COVID spike proteins like a key, and your cells like a lock, one mechanism of action is that the NO twists the spikes into a knot so the key cannot enter the lock, and another mechanism is that it acts like pouring glue into the lock itself so the key cannot insert.” He adds, “also if NO gets into the lock/cells, it prevents replication of the virus.”

Miller and Regev’s company has finished a phase 2 clinical trial in the United Kingdom (UK), where “we had a breakthrough that proved a rapid and impressive reduction in SARS-CoV-2 in infected people -- the study conducted by the Ashford & St. Peter’s Hospital in London to people who self-administered the nasal spray, basically eradicated high levels of the virus in 24-72 hours. The most impressive point was it worked equally well against the mutant UK variant of the virus.” These findings have been submitted for publication in a medical journal, and the company has filed these with Health Canada to support their drug submission. Even though the NO is very low, administered topically and approved as an over the counter device in other countries, in Canada NO is already approved as a prescription drug and SaNOtize is obligated to go through the lengthy process of prescription drug for use as a nasal spray to prevent and treat COVID-19 infection in people. Miller states “we have met with Health Canada and are working on the process for submission for emergency use during the pandemic. They have been very helpful and we are working together to get rapid approval- it can never go fast enough but we are still going as fast as we can while keeping the public safe so we don’t cut corners and can prove the safety for users.” The group is designing and starting, under Canada Health’s direction, two phase 3 trials, one for prevention, and one for treatment. Interested parties can keep an eye on their website for future advertisements looking for participants. Miller says “we hope the public helps us with the prevention trial, there will be eligibility criteria, but also we need informed consent. Sadly, someone needs to be grouped in the 50% that receive a placebo of only salt water and are at risk of contracting COVID, but from a risk-benefit perceptive, this study is the only way to get SaNOtize approved as a drug.”

Currently only two countries approve the use of SaNOtize nasal spray to combat COVID-19 infection, but the goal is to make the product affordable and accessible to all, especially in places where vaccines are not readily available. It is in mass production in Israel, as “we couldn’t get access to manufacturing sites in Canada or many parts of the world because vaccine production is, understandably, tying up factories’’. Mass production was instead started in Israel and the current singular production line is producing 20 bottles a minute around the clock. Three more production lines have been ordered and will soon begin, quadrupling the rate at which the product is made for countries like Israel and Bahrain where it has been approved for use. Many countries are currently reviewing the studies and considering approving the use of the SaNOtize nasal spray and the company hopes to eventually bring production back to Canada.

The nasal spray could be especially effective in other countries who don’t have the vaccine. Miller hopes SaNOtize “could bridge the gap while these countries wait for the vaccine” and aid in the prevention of COVID -19 infection. He adds “what I love most about our nasal spray is that this was never just designed just for treating/preventing COVID-19 infection, the effectiveness does not seem to differ by variant, and works on all viruses including the flu and common cold viruses”. This new tool in the tool belt that could reduce the necessity of masking, as the small and simple bottle can be carried in a purse or pocket and sprayed once or twice a day when a person has been possibly exposed.”

Those interested in supporting the work of SaNOtize can continue to encourage regulatory and government agencies to “help small companies like ourselves to be able to move innovative ideas like this forward.” Not a large Pharma company, SaNOtize is not as equally equipped to fund large prevention trials costing tens of millions of dollars to conduct. Many government, non-profit agencies and countries are getting on board with sponsoring and helping to fund the trials, but Canada has not offered financing assistance at this time.

In the meantime, the group is “working with the World Health Organization and other foundations who see the potential of the nitric oxide nasal spray, and want to move forward”. Groups in India, Mexico, and Brazil are working with SaNOtize to get emergency approvals so that their unique corner of the globe can have equal access to the new weapon combatting COVID-19.

Elizabeth Thompson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Temple City Star

Nevada sees lithium ‘white gold rush’ as demand set to skyrocket

In the Nevada desert, there’s a quiet frenzy building over a rare resource that will be crucial to meeting the country’s goals to slow down climate change.

VIDEO The 'white gold rush': Inside a lithium mine, where stores of recyclable energy lie

Lithium, the crucial component in batteries for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage, has mostly been produced in countries like Australia, Chile and China.

There’s only one commercial lithium mine operating in the U.S., a facility in Silver Peak, Nevada, that has been using ponds to evaporate groundwater and harvest lithium since the 1960s. At least two more mines are waiting for final approval to begin construction, one of which would produce enough lithium for 400,000 electric vehicles a year for the next 50 years, according to the company.

 ABC NewsMORE: Why 2021 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for electric vehicles

But demand is set to explode as much as 1000% by 2030, according to the Energy Information Administration, and possibly even more if more countries continue to adopt policies to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy. And with President Joe Biden's push to manufacture more electric vehicle components in the United States, the focus has turned to how and where the country can collect rare minerals like lithium responsibly

.

ABC News ABC News Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee and Albemarle Global Business Director Eric Norris tour the company's lithium mine in Silver Peak, Nevada, on April 13, 2021.

At the facility in Silver Peak run by Albemarle Corporation, neon blue pools of water from an underground aquifer evaporate for 12 to 18 months until the company can remove the lithium in a powderlike form, which is then processed into the form used to make batteries.

“It's the lightest metal known to man; it's very energy dense," Eric Norris, lithium president for Albemarle, said.

"That reactivity in nature makes it hard to come by, so you can find it is in the surrounding mountains here and the clays, but not in very what we consider economic concentrations," he said. "So, what's happening here in this closed basin over tens of thousands of years is Mother Nature, and we do get some rain here, not a lot, gradually bringing it into this valley."

ABC News ABC News Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee and Albemarle Global Business Director Eric Norris tour the company's lithium mine in Silver Peak, Nevada, on April 13, 2021.

Extracting lithium, like any kind of mining, can still create greenhouse gas emissions and toxic waste that could threaten the environment, though one argument for increasing the amount of mining in the United States is increased oversight of those impacts compared to other countries. The amount of the mineral is also finite, and the country will need more ways to recycle lithium-ion batteries if they continue to be used in the future.

MORE: Biden administration faces increasing calls to stop companies from 'greenwashing'

Norris said Albemarle is working to produce lithium as efficiently as possible, so they can fulfill the promise that electric vehicles produced with it are better for the environment.

"This is very important to the automotive industry. Our customer base, they're very focused on this, because the promise they're giving to you as a consumer is, this is going to be good for the earth, right? So, they've got to make sure their supply chain is doing it responsibly,” he told ABC News.

Some environmental advocates are also worried about the impact more production would have on another desert resident that relies on lithium: a rare wildflower that grows on lithium-rich soil called Tiehm’s buckwheat.

© ABC News The area of southwestern Nevada known as Rhyolite Ridge is the site of a proposed mine to harvest minerals like lithium, but is also the home of a rare wildflower called the Tiehm''s Buckwheat.

Patrick Donnelly, Nevada state director for the Center for Biological Diversity, has been working to block one of the proposed mines that he says threatens the wildflower. He said there’s a “white gold rush” for lithium in Nevada and that while he knows lithium is important to tackling the climate crisis, he also thinks it’s important to protect biodiversity in the region.

“This special little wildflower is the reason that we're standing here today,” he told ABC News' chief meteorologist, Ginger Zee.

“For our part, and as we said, if they could build this mine without destroying this little wildflower, you know, we would probably walk away from this mine and go find a gold mine to fight instead," he said.MORE: Giant screens, spartan interiors: Electric vehicles go high tech

Donnelly and the Center for Biological Diversity have filed to declare Tiehm’s buckwheat an endangered species, which would trigger more protections from activity in the area.

© Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity via AP, FILE This June 1, 2019, file photo provided by the Center for Biological Diversity shows Tiehm's buckwheat blooming at Rhyolite Ridge in the Silver Peak Range of Western Nevada.

West of Silver Peak, the Rhyolite Ridge Project would extract lithium and boron from the ridge by drilling and blasting ore, crushing it and then drawing the minerals out with diluted sulfuric acid, according to the company’s website.

Ioneer, the company planning the Rhyolite Ridge mine, disputes claims its operation would drive the buckwheat to extinction and says it believes it can relocate and protect the plants.MORE: Mine OK'd in Trump's last days may boost Biden energy plan

“We are going to put enormous effort to support this plant and to expand this plan and create a conservation zone that we will never let anybody ever touch,” Ioneer CEO James Calaway told ABC News.

Calaway said that even with the company’s plans, he can’t 100% guarantee the Tiehm’s buckwheat would survive forever, but that it would be a shame if that was the only reason to deny the project.

“To have any chance to meet the targets for electrification in the United States and not be wholly dependent on the Chinese, we really do need to build this project, and we need to build it now, because the time is very important. We are reaching a point where we're going to have excess demand around the world versus supply,” he told ABC News.

© ABC News The Tiehm's Buckwheat is a rare wildflower that has adapted to grow on lithium-rich soil, but advocates say faces threats from mining activity.

The debate over Nevada’s white gold rush could pose a test for the Biden administration and whether the government can balance the demand for domestically produced minerals to be used in clean energy technology with the strain increased mining could put on the desert ecosystem around it.

Donnelly said the world is facing an extinction crisis as well as the climate crisis and that even as more minerals such as lithium are needed, there needs to be more conversation about how to do so without harming the environment.MORE: Rare wildflower could jeopardize lithium mine

“Our advocacy to protect this little wildflower here does not mean that we're trying to avoid those hard questions or we're fighting working on lithium as part of our future,” he said.

“And so, you know, we need to have a reckoning about how to do it without destroying biodiversity.”

ABC News’ Lissette Rodriguez and Andrea Amiel contributed to this report.

For more on this story, check out the It's Not Too Late: Earth Day Special, available on Hulu and wherever you stream ABC News Live at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 22.

Lithium treats intellectual defects in mouse model of Bardet-Biedl Syndrome

Learning and memory problems were linked to defective cilia

PLOS

Research News

 

IMAGE: IMAGE OF CILIA IN A MOUSE BRAIN USING SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY, IMAGED AND PROCESSED BY CALVIN S. CARTER. view more 

CREDIT: CALVIN S. CARTER

Mice with symptoms that mimic Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS) have difficulty with learning and generating new neurons in the hippocampus. However, according to a new study by Thomas Pak, Calvin Carter, and Val Sheffield of the University of Iowa, published April 22nd in the journal PLOS Genetics, these mental defects can be successfully treated with lithium.

BBS is a rare genetic disorder that causes intellectual disability, vision loss and obesity, and sometimes kidney problems and extra fingers and toes. It is one of several ciliopathies, which are diseases that stem from defective cilia--tiny, finger-like projections on the surface of cells that play important roles in moving fluids, sensing the environment and signaling between cells. Pak, Carter, Sheffield and colleagues wanted to learn more about how ciliopathies cause intellectual disability, so they studied a type of mouse with the same symptoms as people with BBS.

In the new study, the researchers showed that normal mice could quickly be trained to associate a specific environment to a fearful event, but the BBS mice had a harder time with fear memory. Further investigation showed that these learning problems come from an inability to make new neurons in the hippocampus. Treating the mice with lithium, however, increased cell production and improved their learning and memory.

Intellectual disability is the most common type of neurodevelopmental disorder, but few drugs are available to treat it. The new study suggests that lithium may be an effective treatment for the learning and memory defects caused by BBS, and the researchers suggest that further studies should be performed to test the use of this FDA-approved drug. The new findings also demonstrate a novel role for cilia in learning and memory in the brain, potentially improving our understanding of the mechanisms that cause intellectual disability.

Pak adds, "A mouse model of a cilia disease, Bardet-Biedl Syndrome, has impaired fear memory and hippocampal neurogenesis. In this mouse model, lithium treatment improves fear memory and hippocampal neurogenesis."

###

Peer-reviewed Experimental study Animals

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Genetics:

http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1009484

Citation: Pak TK, Carter CS, Zhang Q, Huang SC, Searby C, Hsu Y, et al. (2021) A mouse model of Bardet-Biedl Syndrome has impaired fear memory, which is rescued by lithium treatment. PLoS Genet 17(4): e1009484. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009484

Funding: This work was supported by National Institute of Health grants (https://www.nih.gov/) RO1 EY011298 and R01 EY017168 (to VCS), and the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust (https://www.carvertrust.org) to VCS. The work was also supported and greatly facilitated by the core facilities funded by National Institute of Health grants (https://www.nih.gov/) P30 EY025580 (PI: VCS). AAP was supported by the Brockman Foundation (https://brockmanfoundation.org/), the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center resources and facilities(https://www.cleveland.va.gov/locations/directions.asp), project 19PABH134580006, and American Heart Association-Allen Initiative in Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment (https://alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/frontiers-group/partnerships/aha-allen-initiative), NIH-NIA RO1AG066707. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that n

HI TECH CHEATING

New research finds advanced shoe technology reduces top race times for elite athletes 

IF PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS ARE BANNED WHY NOT BAN HI TECH PERFORMANCE ENHANCERS

FRONTIERS

Research News

 

For elite runners competing in long-distance races, every second counts. So when Nike introduced "advanced shoe technology" in 2017, questions arose about whether the new design would significantly affect performances in professional sports. A new paper published in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living found that the new footwear indeed reduced running times for both elite male and female competitors.

The study analyzed seasonal best times for elite male and female runners in three race categories - 10 kilometers, half marathon and marathon races - between 2012 and 2019. The researchers found a statistically significant decrease in race times after 2017, which coincided with the premiere of the Nike Vaporfly 4%.

Female elite athletes appeared to gain the most benefit from the design improvement, which features a thicker, lighter foam and rigid plate along the midsole. Their seasonal best times between 2016 and 2019 decreased anywhere from 1.7 to 2.3 percent, versus 0.6 to 1.5 percent for the men. For example, the new shoe technology improved female marathon time by about 2 minutes and 10 seconds, a 1.7 percent boost in performance.

"As far as chronometric performance is concerned, it is in our opinion a major advancement," said Dr. Stéphane Bermon, lead author of the paper and director of the World Athletics Health and Science Department.

The mechanics behind the improvements in performance remain somewhat of a mystery. One advantage of the new shoe technology is that it uses the latest generation of lightweight foam in the midsole, which provides the runner with a higher energy return. The embedded stiff plate in the midsole also contributes to maximizing energy return in each step. In effect, the shoe works to propel the runner forward with a little less effort.

The statistical gap between genders was unexpected, according to Bermon. One advantage could come down to weight between the sexes.

"Women are lighter and could possibly benefit more from the enhanced rebound effect achieved by the foam/stiff plate combination," he said. "Their slightly different running pattern, compared to men, could represent a more favorable condition for this footwear technology to play its ergogenic role."

A previous 2018 statistical analysis had already suggested a 3 to 4 percent decrease in half marathon and marathon race times based on hundreds of thousands of self-reported results. However, the present study was the first to look at the top seasonal best times for elite athletes.

While the research included a majority of results from East African runners, like Ethiopian and Kenyan, who have come to dominate the sport, the paper noted that non-East-African elite runners experienced similar improvements in performance.

"These results confirm that advanced footwear technology has benefits to the elite male and female distance runners," Bermon said. "Whether this technology will be banned or simply controlled, as it is currently, is still to be decided by World Athletics."

No immediate follow-up studies are planned, though Bermon said additional research is needed to understand whether mass adoption of the new footwear by both recreational and elite runners causes more or fewer injuries, especially in light of all the different types of running styles.

THEY STILL GET BEAT BY 

BAREFOOT RUNNERS FROM ETHIOPIA

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M BUISNESS AS USUAL

Exclusive: Texas energy fund shuts, founder says millions squandered

By Shariq Khan 
4/23/2021

© Reuters/ANGUS MORDANT FILE PHOTO: The sun sets behind a crude oil pump jack on a drill pad in the Permian Basin in Loving County

(Reuters) - The founder of a Texas oil and gas investment firm that raised about $31 million shut the business this month and acknowledged in a Reuters interview that he had squandered investors' cash on "bad" and "non-arm's-length" deals.

Christopher Bentley, who founded Bellatorum Resources LLC in 2016 and raised funds from about 150 wealthy individuals, closed its doors on April 9 and contacted U.S. prosecutors. His firm bought mineral rights in Texas shale fields, betting on appreciation as oil and gas drilling rose.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice are reviewing the company's records, Bentley said in the interview on Tuesday. Bentley has not been charged.

The FBI said it does not confirm or deny the existence of any investigations and referred questions on Bentley to the U.S. Attorney's office. A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Jennifer Lowery of the Southern District of Texas did not reply to several requests for comment.

Alongside this year's spectacular investment busts, Bellatorum's is small. This year's failure of highly leveraged equity investor Archegos Capital saddled investors with billions of dollars in losses. But Bellatorum stands out for its founder's mea culpa email to investors and decision to turn himself into authorities.

'I WAS OVERLY CONFIDENT'

At times contrite about his failings, the 40-year-old former energy worker and U.S. Marine admitted to acquiring "bad" and "non-arm's-length" deals, overspending on corporate overheads, and failing to hire professionals to advise him. He said he lost some of his own money in the venture.

"I was overly confident that if I can hit even one home run that’ll make everything right," Bentley said of his hiding the fund's financial troubles from investors and employees. "I kept digging the hole. I turned myself in because I couldn't live the lie any longer."

The buying and selling of mineral rights, an about $2.1 billion-a-year business in the United States, took off in the shale patch around 2016 as drilling activity jumped, said Enverus M&A analyst Andrew Dittmar. But the business slumped last year as deals dried up with oil demand.

Bentley had borrowed money using fund assets in a last-ditch effort to generate enough cash to pay investor distributions. Instead, he used some of the cash to finance Bellatorum's daily operations and cover distributions to early fund investors, he told Reuters.

"I have made serious mistakes in an effort to keep the operation going," he told investors in the email dated April 9 and seen by Reuters. The company's two largest funds have almost no assets left, he said, after he borrowed $6.6 million against the assets and the lender foreclosed earlier this year.

'TIME WILL TELL'

Jeff Voelkel, an investor in Bellatorum's third and smallest fund who has reviewed its records, said less than half the $2.6 million that 40 investors put into the fund was used to buy assets, with the rest apparently consumed by expenses.

Voelkel described Bentley as "open and forthcoming with information" since the April 9 email, but added: "Only time will tell if he siphoned anything off for himself."

Bentley stressed to Reuters he had not diverted funds, saying he had sold his own assets and put money into the company. But he admitted working nights and weekends to keep the losses hidden from his employees and investors. Bellatorum staff, 21 employees at its peak, were unaware of his actions, he said.

"I didn’t let them have access to information. That's why they didn’t end up working for me for long," he said.

(Additional reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver; Writing by Gary McWilliams in Houston; Editing by Howard Goller)

Biden plans 'real money' for jobs training, unions, economic adviser says
By Jarrett Renshaw 

(Reuters) - President Joe Biden wants to put "real money" toward helping laid-off workers get new jobs in growth industries like green energy and healthcare as part of his $2.3 trillion jobs and infrastructure package, a top economic adviser said.

Biden is attempting a delicate balancing act as he calls for a reshaping of the nation's energy industry by reducing reliance on fossil fuels and coal-powered electric plants to meet aggressive climate emission goals.

Those industries offer high-paying, union jobs that Biden promised to replace while courting the blue-collar vote on the campaign trail.

"What we're trying to do here is put some real money where our mouths are," Jared Bernstein, who serves on the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told Reuters. "You don't just train somebody for a job that might or might not exist. Instead, you look around the corner and see where labor demand is going to be next year."

A $40 billion job-training plan in the infrastructure proposal would help workers who lost jobs through no fault of their own land a new job in a growth industry, and direct income to help them pay the bills while training and utilize case managers to navigate the system, he said.

The training funding is part of a package of measures included in Biden's plan that seeks to boost unions. The Democratic president has promised to build union jobs in the United States, which he sees as key to building back a stronger middle class.

In 2020, some 35 percent of public-sector employees could collectively bargain for wages and benefits, while just 6.3 percent of the private sector was unionized. But roughly half of U.S. states block public employees from collective bargaining.

That "is by far the biggest barrier," said a senior White House official.

The White House wants to guarantee public workers across the country the right to collective bargaining, expand apprentice programs and ensure that all federally funded construction projects use union labor.



Biden is seeking a further $38 billion in funding to expand union apprentice programs, a gateway to a union job, which the White House says will create 1 million to 2 million registered apprenticeship slots, to fill the demand created by the spending on new construction projects.

Biden and Democrats delivered on a high-priority item for unions when they included an $83 billion pension bailout in the COVID relief bill passed in March. Labor leaders, facing declining enrollment that is crushing their self-funded retirement systems, say the money will shore up to 200 plans.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Peter Cooney)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

The ex-convict's tale: Germany's role in Wirecard scandal under microscope
By John O'Donnell and Tom Sims 6 hrs ago

© Reuters/Hannibal Hanschke 

FILE PHOTO: Investigative committee on Wirecard accounting scandal in Berlin

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - In February 2019, after a steep drop in Wirecard's share price, German authorities launched criminal probes into short-sellers and journalists who had accused the company of fraud, and banned investors from betting against the company.

Documents seen by Reuters show for the first time that the only independent information - beyond Wirecard's representations - received by Munich prosecutors who launched the criminal probes was a third-hand account of events from a convicted money launderer, Daniel James Harris.

The rationale that led to the decisions of prosecutors and regulators to launch the criminal probes and short-selling ban, and whether they were overzealous in supporting Wirecard, are central issues being investigated by a parliamentary inquiry into the company's collapse in Germany's biggest post-war fraud scandal.

The criminal probes and short-selling ban were launched by authorities after Wirecard complained it was being targeted by unidentified speculators who it said were in cahoots with two Financial Times journalists and had advance knowledge of a negative report that it said baselessly alleged accounting manipulations.

Some Wirecard executives were in fact engaged in a sophisticated global fraud at that time, the German government, prosecutors and regulators said last year after the payment company filed for insolvency, owing creditors almost $4 billion.

The trove seen by Reuters includes thousands of pages of emails, chat messages and memos provided by German authorities to the parliamentary inquiry, which reaches a climax this week with testimony from Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday.

The witness testimony from Harris was provided by Wirecard, with a lawyer for the company delivering the two-page written statement in person to a prosecutor on Feb. 14, 2019, according to the documents.

In the statement, Harris identified himself as an equities trader in Essex, southern England, and said he met his broker, whom he didn't identify, on Jan. 30, 2019, the day Wirecard's share price plunged up to 22%.

The broker said he had been told that investors were trading in anticipation of a negative FT report about the company, which was published in the afternoon of that day, according to the statement seen by Reuters.

"He told me he had spoken with a friend of his," Harris said. "My broker said that this friend had told him that an article was about to be published about Wirecard."

In his statement, Harris said he didn't act on the information. However Wirecard argued that market talk of a negative article ahead of publication was proof that investors were trading on inside information, and perhaps in collusion with journalists. At the time, the FT denied this, characterising Wirecard's claims as a "smokescreen".

Reuters was unable to contact Harris or his lawyers for comment.

Harris was sentenced to a two-year jail term in February 2017 for money laundering for drug dealers who ran a moped delivery service in London and Essex, according to Britain's National Crime Agency.

A spokeswoman for the Munich state prosecutors said Harris' statement corroborated Wirecard's claims that it was unfairly targeted by speculators.

"The statement under oath was used by legal representatives of Wirecard to substantiate the legal complaint," she added.

In February this year, the state prosecutor told the parliamentary inquiry that he did not speak to Harris, without elaborating.

Munich prosecutors dropped the inquiry into the journalists last year, concluding there was no evidence of any collusion with investors, while no action has yet been taken against the several short-sellers investigated.

'VERY CONCRETE INFORMATION'

The documents seen by Reuters include correspondence by executives and officials from Wirecard, prosecutors and financial regulator BaFin provided to lawmakers.

The prosecutors' office emailed Harris' statement to BaFin on Feb. 15, 2019, a Friday, the documents show, and the following Monday BaFin announced the first short-selling ban on a single stock in German history.

BaFin's ban was a watershed in the saga, according to lawmakers who have said it implicitly vouched for the company's credibility, while halting investors that doubted it.

A BaFin spokeswoman said the Harris witness statement played "no role" in the short-sale ban, but that it did fit into its examination of market manipulation.

Yet Sebastian Kimmer, a member of BaFin's staff who corresponded with Munich prosecutors, testified before lawmakers in February this year that the Harris statement provided "very concrete information" that supported Wirecard's complaint.

Kimmer said the information from prosecutors was deemed serious and credible by the regulator. He added that Harris' statement, along with the allegations from Wirecard relayed by prosecutors, were escalated to his superiors.

No details about Harris' statement have been publicly disclosed.

Munich prosecutors have previously defended their role, saying they acted impartially in alerting BaFin to Wirecard's fears that it was going to be targeted by short-sellers.

Felix Hufeld, then president of BaFin but who has since resigned in the wake of the scandal, had defended the short-selling ban as a means to maintain confidence in Germany's stock market.

But three lawmakers on the parliamentary inquiry said that the prosecutors' and BaFin's actions in February 2019 showed their readiness to side with Wirecard against critics, even in the face of what they characterised as flimsy evidence.

Florian Toncar, one of the lawmakers, said the Munich prosecutors had shown a tendency to take a "one-sided view on the Wirecard case".

"They held the unsigned draft of a vague testimony ... as a plausible story," he added.

(Reporting by John O'Donnell and Tom Sims; Editing by Pravin Char)