The first US population to experience drone delivery gives it a seal of approval

VIRGINIA TECH

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE DRONE-DELIVERY SERVICE IN CHRISTIANSBURG, VA. -- THE FIRST IN THE COUNTRY TO DELIVER GOODS DIRECTLY TO RESIDENCES ON DEMAND -- GAVE RESEARCHERS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO STUDY HOW PEOPLE... view more 

CREDIT: VIRGINIA TECH

The week of Thanksgiving last year, a postcard arrived in mailboxes in Christiansburg. A link to a survey was on the back. On the front, there was a picture that was, by then, very familiar to the residents of a town that made history in 2019 as the first place in the U.S. to have a residential drone delivery service: a yellow-winged drone with a small cardboard box tucked underneath it.

The survey's 20 questions were designed to measure how Christiansburg's 22,000 residents felt about drone delivery -- the first time that this question had ever been posed to a community that had actually experienced the service. The survey was developed and conducted by researchers from the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP), a federally designated drone test site, and Lee Vinsel, an assistant professor of science, technology, and society in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

The primary finding: 87 percent of people who responded to the survey reported that they liked the idea of drone delivery. The resoundingly positive results, published in the spring issue of Issues in Science and Technology, plant a new stake in the ground for the future of a technology still at the beginning of its transition from research to retail.

Interest in drone delivery is rising. The service in Christiansburg, run by Wing, Alphabet's drone-delivery subsidiary, is the most advanced of the handful of trial services operating today. But drone technology -- and the laws that regulate it -- are maturing, and it's expected that services like these could become routine in the next few years.

Whether they're successful or not will depend in large part on how the public responds. Delivering packages to homes unfolds in the public eye to a greater extent than many other applications for drones: People may see the drone in the commercial area where it picks up its cargo, at the customer's house, and in the neighborhoods in between.

Accurate estimates of public opinion are critical for the regulatory agencies developing rules that will govern its use and state and local governments considering whether to encourage it, in addition to the companies pioneering these services and hoping to scale their businesses.

Until now, though, data has been limited, and usually not encouraging: The handful of surveys on this topic have pegged public support for drone delivery at around 50 percent in the U.S. and lower in Europe and the U.K..

But several factors suggest that those anemic results might not be definitive.

First, crucially, these surveys polled people who had almost certainly never received a delivery by drone, and were speculating about a service they were imagining rather than reporting on one they'd experienced. Second, many of the survey questions frame their questions in a way that implies risk, asking respondents to rate their level of concern about potential problems selected by the researchers in advance. Highlighting potential negative outcomes may prompt a more negative overall sentiment.

Christiansburg, then, represented a unique research opportunity.

"Gauging people's reactions to new technologies can be really difficult, including because it's so easy to bias respondents' views," Vinsel said. "We wanted to create a survey that was as neutral as possible to examine sentiments about drone delivery. And Christiansburg was a great opportunity for us because it was a unique population that had actually experienced these systems."

The survey asked respondents about standard demographic factors and their typical response to new technologies. It asked about how familiar they were with drone delivery, how they'd found out about it, and what their general attitude toward it was. Instead of asking about specific risks and benefits, the researchers asked open-ended questions about what the respondents saw as positive and negative aspects of the technology.

The survey was approved by the Virginia Tech Institutional Review Board; Wing helped fund the survey development and distribution through an existing research contract with MAAP, but the analysis was funded entirely by Virginia Tech. Adeline Guthrie, a graduate student in the statistics in the College of Science and collaborator with the Statistical Applications and Innovations Group, assisted with data analysis.

The results were resoundingly positive.

Not only did 87 percent of respondents report positive sentiment about drone delivery, 89 percent indicated either that they were likely to use the service or already had, and 49 percent reported liking the idea of drones used for package delivery more than drones used for other purposes.

All of these results are dramatically different from those of other surveys, in which positive sentiment never exceeded 51 percent and delivery was a relatively unpopular application when ranked against others.

The survey also asked respondents if their opinion had changed since the pandemic. When COVID-19 hit Virginia in March, the number of people signing up for Wing's service and ordering drone deliveries spiked. Wing partnered with additional local businesses and worked with a school librarian to deliver books.

The survey results suggested that these contributions had helped. The pandemic popped up frequently in the open-ended question about positive aspects of the technology. Fifty-eight percent of Christiansburg survey respondents said that their opinion of drone delivery had improved -- a much bigger boost than was measured in a 2020 survey from the Consumer Technology Association that polled a general population sample.

Here again, Christiansburg residents' experience with drone delivery may have contributed to the jump -- seeing a favorite coffee shop find a new way to reach customers without in-person shopping or a neighbor's child receiving a delivery of sidewalk chalk and crackers, may resonate more than an abstract appreciation for contact-free delivery.

MAAP worked with Wing to launch the drone delivery program under the federal UAS Integration Pilot Program, a drone-integration initiative that brought together state agencies, local governments, and companies to advance the rollout of drone applications that could have significant benefits for communities (the trial is continuing under the IPP successor program BEYOND). MAAP and Wing conducted months of community outreach before the service launched, talking to thousands of Christiansburg residents about what the service would look like.

"One of the goals of the IPP was to take a community-oriented approach to drone integration," said Tombo Jones, MAAP's director. "There's not a shortcut here. You need careful, methodical research to demonstrate that the system is safe and reliable. Then you can take that information out into the community, and talk to people to learn what they're looking for and what their concerns are. It's rewarding to see how positive the results of this survey are, because they show that, when it's done the right way, developing new applications for drones can have a genuinely positive impact on a community."

The team is hoping that future research will reveal more detail about how people's opinions evolve before and after they're exposed to drone delivery, the aspects of drone delivery that inspire the greatest enthusiasm or strongest skepticism, and what factors help determine how someone will feel about the technology.

"The key thing is that speculation about technologies is different than actual experiences with them," Vinsel said. "Lots of factors influence how we feel about the technologies in our lives, but something scholars have found repeatedly over for the last 60 years is that familiarity breeds acceptance. To be at an early point in the rollout of this technology and be able to study a population that has actually experienced it is pretty exciting."

Average-risk individuals may prefer stool-based test over colonoscopy for cancer screening

HAVING HAD BOTH I WILL TAKE THE TEST OVER THE SCREENING

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR CANCER RESEARCH

Research News

 

Bottom Line: When given a choice, most individuals with an average risk of colorectal cancer said they would prefer a stool-based screening test for colorectal cancer over colonoscopy, the method most often recommended by health care providers.

Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research

Author: Xuan Zhu, PhD, senior health services analyst at the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery

Background: Although colorectal cancer is the second most frequent cause of cancer-related death in the United States, about one-third of eligible American adults have never completed a colorectal cancer screening test, explained lead author Zhu. Zhu added that colorectal cancer screening is particularly underutilized by individuals experiencing socioeconomic disadvantages, racial and ethnic minorities, and certain age groups.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends several colorectal cancer screening methods for adults ages 50 to 75 with an average risk for this disease, and the USPSTF draft guideline update released in October 2020 recommends lowering the age of screening initiation to 45. The three most common tests are an annual fecal immunochemical test or fecal occult blood test (FIT/FOBT) that detects blood in the stool; the multitarget stool DNA (mt-sDNA) test (Cologuard), completed every three years, which detects altered DNA from cancer cells, precancerous polyps, or blood in the stool; and a colonoscopy every 10 years, which involves a gastroenterologist examining the colon with a camera and removing any precancerous polyps while a patient is under sedation.

"Previous research has shown that fewer patients complete colorectal cancer screening when only colonoscopy is recommended compared to when stool-based options are also recommended," said Zhu.

How the Study was Conducted: In this study, Zhu and colleagues evaluated patient preferences for colorectal cancer screening through a survey conducted in collaboration with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. The survey included short descriptions of FIT/FOBT, mt-sDNA, and colonoscopy, and asked a nationally representative sample of adults ages 40 to 75 to choose between two options presented at a time. A total of 1,595 respondents completed the survey. The researchers focused their analysis on a subgroup of 1,062 respondents aged 45 to 75 with an average risk of colorectal cancer.

Results: When presented with a choice, 66 percent of respondents said they preferred mt-sDNA over colonoscopy, and 61 percent said they preferred FIT/FOBT over colonoscopy. When asked to choose between the two stool-based options, 67 percent indicated a preference for mt-sDNA over FIT/FOBT.

The investigators also examined differences in patient preferences across sociodemographic characteristics, access to health care, awareness of colorectal cancer screening, and prior experience completing a test. While mt-sDNA was preferred over colonoscopy for all age groups examined, a larger proportion of older adults (ages 65 to 75 years) said they preferred colonoscopy compared to those in younger age groups (ages 45 to 54 years).

Similarly, the preference for mt-sDNA over colonoscopy was higher among non-Hispanic white individuals compared with non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic individuals. Half of Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black respondents preferred stool-based tests over colonoscopy, with a preference for mt-sDNA over FIT/FOBT. Zhu said the observed differences among age and racial/ethnic groups might have reflected variations in preferences or disparities in access to information about newer testing methods.

Respondents without insurance were 2.5 times more likely to prefer less expensive stool-based tests over colonoscopy. The overall awareness of stool-based tests was about 60 percent, compared to 90 percent for colonoscopy, indicating that there is an opportunity to improve patient education about stool-based options, Zhu noted. Study participants who were aware of stool-based tests were two times more likely to prefer mt-sDNA over FIT/FOBT, and those who had previously had a stool-based test were 2.8 times more likely to choose FIT/FOBT over colonoscopy. By contrast, those who had previously had a colonoscopy were less than half as likely to prefer a stool-based test over colonoscopy and those who had a provider recommend colonoscopy in the past 12 months were 40 percent less likely to prefer mt-sDNA over colonoscopy.

Author's Comments: "The best colorectal cancer screening test is the one that patients are most likely to complete," Zhu said.

The findings highlight the importance of patient education about available screening options and taking patients' needs, preferences, and values into account in shared decision-making discussions to increase colorectal cancer screening rates, Zhu added. "Providing patients with as-needed navigation support, from initiation of screening to completion of a colonoscopy after stool-based tests show abnormal results may increase screening completion and adherence."

Study Limitations: Limitations of this study include the observational design, meaning that causal relationships cannot be inferred, the reliance on self-reported data rather than objective measures, and limiting the scope of the study to the three colorectal cancer screening tests most commonly recommended by health care providers.

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Funding & Disclosures: The study was supported by funding provided by Exact Sciences Corporation and the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery. Zhu declares no conflicts of interest.

About the American Association for Cancer Research

Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the world's first and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research and its mission to prevent and cure cancer. AACR membership includes 48,000?laboratory, translational, and clinical researchers; population scientists; other health care professionals; and patient advocates residing in 127 countries. The AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise of the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer by annually convening more than 30 conferences and educational workshops--the largest of which is the AACR Annual Meeting, with more than 74,000 attendees for the 2020 virtual meetings and more than 22,500 attendees for past in-person meetings. In addition, the AACR publishes nine prestigious, peer-reviewed scientific journals and a magazine for cancer survivors, patients, and their caregivers. The AACR funds meritorious research directly as well as in cooperation with numerous cancer organizations. As the Scientific Partner of Stand Up To Cancer, the AACR provides expert peer review, grants administration, and scientific oversight of team science and individual investigator grants in cancer research that have the potential for near-term patient benefit. The AACR actively communicates with legislators and other policymakers about the value of cancer research and related biomedical science in saving lives from cancer. For more information about the AACR, visit?http://www.AACR.org.

The science of spin -- asteroseismologists confirm older stars rotate faster than expected

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Research News

 

IMAGE:  "SOUND WAVES TRAPPED INSIDE STARS CAUSE THEM TO OSCILLATE AT PARTICULAR FREQUENCIES. THESE VIBRATIONS ARE VISIBLE ON THE SURFACE, AND CAN BE MEASURED BY ASTRONOMERS USING SPACE TELESCOPES. WHEN A... view more 

CREDIT: MARK GARLICK / UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Stars spin faster than expected as they age according to a new study led by scientists at the University of Birmingham which uses asteroseismology to shed new light on this emerging theory.

All stars, like the Sun, are born spinning. As they grow older, their spin slows down due to magnetic winds in a process called 'magnetic braking'. Research published in 2016 by scientists at Carnegie Observatories delivered the first hints that stars at a similar stage of life as the Sun were spinning faster than magnetic braking theories predicted. The results from this study were based on a method in which scientists pinpoint dark spots on the surface of stars and track them as they move with the stars' spin. While the method has proven robust for measuring spin in younger stars, however, older stars have fewer star spots, which has made the effects of this "weakened" magnetic braking on these stars hard to confirm.

In a new study, published in Nature Astronomy, researchers at the University of Birmingham used a different approach to confirm that older stars do, in fact, appear to rotate faster than expected. The team used asteroseismology to calculate how the star is rotating. This relatively new field of study enables scientists to measure the oscillations caused by sound waves trapped inside the star. By measuring the different characteristics of these waves, they can reveal different characteristics of stars, such as their size or age.

In this study, the team measured the modes, or the frequencies, of the sound waves produced by the star's oscillation. As the star spins, these modes split into different frequencies. This can be imagined, the author's say, as the sound of two ambulances stood still on a roundabout compared to when they are driving in circles. By measuring these frequencies, it is possible to calculate the rate of spin in a way that is possible for both young and old stars.

Lead author on the paper, Dr Oliver Hall, said: "Although we've suspected for some time that older stars rotate faster than magnetic braking theories predict, these new asteroseismic data are the most convincing yet to demonstrate that this 'weakened magnetic braking' is actually the case. Models based on young stars suggest that the change in a star's spin is consistent throughout their lifetime, which is different to what we see in these new data."

One aspect the researchers believe could be key to the change in momentum loss, is changes to the star's magnetic field. Understanding how the magnetic field interacts with rotation will be an important area of future study, and is being worked on by authors on the paper.

The results could also shed light on our own star's activity over the next several billion years, explains co-author Dr Guy Davies: "These new findings demonstrate that we still have a lot to learn about the future of our own Sun as well as other stars. This work helps place in perspective whether or not we can expect reduced solar activity and harmful space weather in the future. To answer these questions we need better models of solar rotation, and this work takes an important step towards improving the models and supplying the data needed to test them."

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Other contributors to the study include the European Space Agency (ESA), Aarhus University, University of Hawai'i, Universit´e Paris-Saclay, and the University of Exeter.

Know your ally: Cooperative male dolphins can tell who's on their team

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

Research News

 

IMAGE: THREE MALE DOLPHINS AND ONE FEMALE view more 

CREDIT: DR SIMON ALLEN

When it comes to friendships and rivalries, male dolphins know who the good team players are. New findings, published in Nature Communications by University of Bristol researchers, reveal that male dolphins form a social concept of team membership based on cooperative investment in the team.

The Bristol researchers, with colleagues from the University of Zurich and University of Massachusetts, used 30 years of observational data from a dolphin population in Shark Bay, Western Australia, and sound playback experiments to assess how male dolphins responded to the calls of other males from their alliance network.

Dr Stephanie King, Senior Lecturer from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences who led the research, said: "Social animals can possess sophisticated ways of classifying relationships with members of the same species. In our own society, we use social knowledge to classify individuals into meaningful groups, like sports teams and political allies. Bottlenose dolphins form the most complex alliances outside humans, and we wanted to know how they classify these relationships."

Dr Simon Allen, Research Fellow at Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, who contributed to the study, added: "We flew drones above dolphin groups, recording their behaviour during the sound playbacks, tracking their movements underwater and revealing novel insights into how dolphins respond to the calls of other males in their network of allies."

Males responded strongly to all of the allies that had consistently helped them out in the past, even if they weren't currently close friends. On the other hand, they didn't respond strongly to males who hadn't consistently helped them out in the past, even if they were friends. What this shows is that these dolphins form social concepts of 'team membership', categorizing allies according to a shared cooperative history.

Dr King said: "Such concepts develop through experience and likely played a role in the cooperative behaviour of early humans. Our results show that cooperation-based concepts are not unique to humans, but also occur in other animal societies with extensive cooperation between non-kin."

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The study was funded by The Branco Weiss Fellowship - Society in Science and the National Geographic Society.

ALMA discovers rotating infant galaxy with help of natural cosmic telescope

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF NATURAL SCIENCES

Research News

 

IMAGE: IMAGE OF THE GALAXY CLUSTER RXCJ0600-2007 TAKEN BY THE NASA/ESA HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, COMBINED WITH GRAVITATIONAL LENSING IMAGES OF THE DISTANT GALAXY RXCJ0600-Z6, 12.4 BILLION LIGHT-YEARS AWAY, OBSERVED BY ALMA... view more 

CREDIT: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), FUJIMOTO ET AL., NASA/ESA HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers found a rotating baby galaxy 1/100th the size of the Milky Way at a time when the Universe was only seven percent of its present age. Thanks to assistance by the gravitational lens effect, the team was able to explore for the first time the nature of small and dark "normal galaxies" in the early Universe, representative of the main population of the first galaxies, which greatly advances our understanding of the initial phase of galaxy evolution.

"Many of the galaxies that existed in the early Universe were so small that their brightness is well below the limit of the current largest telescopes on Earth and in Space, making difficult to study their properties and internal structure," says Nicolas Laporte, a Kavli Senior Fellow at the University of Cambridge. "However, the light coming from the galaxy named RXCJ0600-z6, was highly magnified by gravitational lensing, making it an ideal target for studying the properties and structure of a typical baby galaxies."

Gravitational lensing is a natural phenomenon in which light emitted from a distant object is bent by the gravity of a massive body such as a galaxy or a galaxy cluster located in the foreground. The name "gravitational lensing" is derived from the fact that the gravity of the massive object acts like a lens. When we look through a gravitational lens, the light of distant objects is intensified and their shapes are stretched. In other words, it is a "natural telescope" floating in space.

The ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey (ALCS) team used ALMA to search for a large number of galaxies in the early Universe that are enlarged by gravitational lensing. Combining the power of ALMA, with the help of the natural telescopes, the researchers are able to uncover and study fainter galaxies.

Why is it crucial to explore the faintest galaxies in the early Universe? Theory and simulations predict that the majority of galaxies formed few hundred millions years after the Big-Bang are small, and thus faint. Although several galaxies in the early Universe have been previously observed, those studied were limited to the most massive objects, and therefore the less representative galaxies, in the early Universe, because of telescopes capabilities. The only way to understand the standard formation of the first galaxies, and obtain a complete picture of galaxy formation, is to focus on the fainter and more numerous galaxies.

The ALCS team performed a large-scale observation program that took 95 hours, which is a very long time for ALMA observations, to observe the central regions of 33 galaxy clusters that could cause gravitational lensing. One of these clusters, called RXCJ0600-2007, is located in the direction of the constellation of Lepus, and has a mass 1000 trillion times that of the Sun. The team discovered a single distant galaxy that is being affected by the gravitational lens created by this natural telescope. ALMA detected the light from carbon ions and stardust in the galaxy and, together with data taken with the Gemini telescope, determined that the galaxy is seen as it was about 900 million years after the Big Bang (12.9 billion years ago). Further analysis of these data suggested that a part of this source is seen 160 times brighter than it is intrinsically.

By precisely measuring the mass distribution of the cluster of galaxies, it is possible to "undo" the gravitational lensing effect and restore the original appearance of the magnified object. By combining data from Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope with a theoretical model, the team succeeded in reconstructing the actual shape of the distant galaxy RXCJ0600-z6. The total mass of this galaxy is about 2 to 3 billion times that of the Sun, which is about 1/100th of the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy.

What astonished the team is that RXCJ0600-z6 is rotating. Traditionally, gas in the young galaxies was thought to have random, chaotic motion. Only recently has ALMA discovered several rotating young galaxies that have challenged the traditional theoretical framework, but these were several orders of magnitude brighter (larger) than RXCJ0600-z6.

"Our study demonstrates, for the first time, that we can directly measure the internal motion of such faint (less massive) galaxies in the early Universe and compare it with the theoretical predictions", says Kotaro Kohno, a professor at the University of Tokyo and the leader of the ALCS team.

"The fact that RXCJ0600-z6 has a very high magnification factor also raises expectations for future research," explains Seiji Fujimoto, a DAWN fellow at the Niels Bohr Institute. "This galaxy has been selected, among hundreds, to be observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the next generation space telescope to be launched this autumn. Through joint observations using ALMA and JWST, we will unveil the properties of gas and stars in a baby galaxy and its internal motions. When the Thirty Meter Telescope and the Extremely Large Telescope are completed, they may be able to detect clusters of stars in the galaxy, and possibly even resolve individual stars. There is an example of gravitational lensing that has been used to observe a single star 9.5 billion light-years away, and this research has the potential to extend this to less than a billion years after the birth of the Universe."

These observation results were presented in Seiji Fujimoto et al. "ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey: Bright [CII] 158 μm Lines from a Multiply Imaged Sub-L* Galaxy at z = 6.0719" in the Astrophysical Journal on April 22, 2021, and Nicolas Laporte et al. "ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey: a strongly lensed multiply imaged dusty system at z > 6" in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on April 22, 2021.

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POST-FORDISM
Exclusive-Baidu's Jidu Auto to invest $7.7 billion in 'robot' smart cars

By Yingzhi Yang, Yilei Sun and Tony Munroe

REUTERS

4/23/2021

© Reuters/FLORENCE LO Jidu Auto CEO Xia Yiping attends an interview with Reuters in Beijing

BEIJING (Reuters) -Jidu Auto, an electric vehicle venture between China's tech giant Baidu and Chinese automaker Geely, aims to plough 50 billion yuan ($7.7 billion) into producing smart cars over the next five years, its chief executive told Reuters.

Xia Yiping said on Friday that the funding would come from Baidu and other investors and Jidu would aim to launch its first electric vehicle (EV) in three years, as is standard for the industry, but would make efforts to speed this up.

Its first EV would look like a "robot" and would target young customers, Xia said, adding that Jidu would analyse big market data before deciding on a final model.

"It will make you feel like it's a robot that can communicate with you with emotions," said Xia, who co-founded and served as chief technology officer at Chinese bike-sharing firm Mobike until it was acquired by Meituan in 2018.

Baidu's Hong Kong-listed shares jumped as much as 1.34% after Reuters reported Jidu's investment plan.

The launch of the new auto company in January comes as tech companies around the world are racing to develop smart cars after Tesla's success in commercializing EVs.

Jidu plans to release a new model every one or one-and-a-half years after its first launch, Xia said, without giving a sales target. It plans to hire 2,500 to 3,000 people over two to three years, including 400 to 500 software engineers.

Shanghai and Beijing based Jidu also plans to roll out its branding in the third quarter of 2021, Xia said.

Xia said Jidu, which will use Geely's open-source electric vehicle platform, hopes to make cars in Hangzhou Bay in China's eastern city of Ningbo, where Geely has several plants.

It plans to sell its car directly to customers to begin with, without using dealerships.

Chinese search engine company Baidu in January announced it would set up the company with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to leverage its intelligent driving expertise and Geely's car manufacturing capabilities. Baidu currently owns 55% of Jidu and Geely has a 45% stake.

Jidu is considering using chips designed by Baidu, which has over the years developed smart car technologies including autonomous driving, high-definition maps and cloud. Baidu first established its autonomous driving unit Apollo in 2017.

Smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp and telecom giant Huawei Technologies are among other Chinese tech giants harbouring auto ambitions.

($1 = 6.4939 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Yingzhi Yang, Yilei Sun and Tony Munroe in Beijing; Editing by Ana Nicolaci and Alexander Smith)

Indonesia submarine: Navy narrows search area for missing KRI Nanggala-402

By Masrur Jamaluddin for CNN 

4/23/2021

Indonesian search teams believe they have identified an area where a missing naval submarine with 53 people on board could be located, as authorities warn oxygen on the vessel will run out within hours.

© Eric Ireng/AP Indonesian Navy hospital ship KRI Dr. Soeharso sails during a search for submarine KRI Nanggala that went missing while participating in a training exercise on Wednesday.

The area of interest is about 40 kilometers (approximately 25 miles) north of Bali, where oil had been spotted on the surface of the water near the dive point, and where an object likely to have come from the submarine was detected, according to Maj. Gen. Achmad Riad, the head of the military's central information unit.

A naval vessel detected an object with "strong magnetic resonance" at a depth of 50 to 100 meters (164 to 328 feet), Riad told a news conference Friday, and the navy expects its warship, the Riguel, to reach the search area Friday.

The Riguel is equipped with a high-tech sonar, which uses sound waves to locate objects, and the navy is hopeful it will be able to find the KRI Nanggala-402, a German-made submarine which lost contact during a military exercise in the Bali Strait early on Wednesday morning.

Additional ships with high-tech capabilities also joined the search efforts Friday, creating a search team consisting of 21 Indonesian warships, a submarine and additional vessels from Indonesia's police and rescue department.

Two Australian warships have also joined the search efforts.

"HMA Ships Ballarat and Sirius, both presently at sea on separate regional deployments, are making best speed for the search area," Australia's Defense Department said in a press release Friday.

Rear Adm. Mark Hammond, of the Australian task force, added that his thoughts were with the submariners of KRI Nanggala, their families and the Indonesian people.

"As always, we stand ready to assist our fellow mariners in the Indonesian Navy," he said.

The United States is sending aircraft to assist in the search for the missing Indonesian submarine, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby tweeted Thursday.

"We are deeply saddened by the news of Indonesia's lost submarine, and our thoughts are with the Indonesian sailors and their families," he said.

Kirby also said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will speak with his Indonesian counterpart Friday morning to discuss what else the US can do assist.


Fading hopes

Adm. Yudo Margono, the chief of staff of the Indonesian Navy, said the submarine has sufficient oxygen for 72 hours, meaning it would last until Saturday.

Answering questions on the submarine's condition before participating in the war simulation, Margono said the KRI Nanggala-402 and all of its crew are well prepared. It last docked for maintenance in 2020 in Surabaya, a port city on the island of Java, he said.

Margono said there are two possibilities to explain the oil spill spotted on the surface: the submarine tank could be leaking because it dove too deep, or the submarine released fluid on board in an attempt to rise to the surface.

Indonesian Navy spokesman First Adm. Julius Widjojono said the submarine has the capability to dive up to 500 meters (approximately 1,640 feet) below sea level, but authorities estimate it went 100 meters to 200 meters deeper than that.

'I know who I am:' Labrador MP defends Inuk identity after Nunavut MP's questions

SHE IS METIS BUT DOES NOT WANT TO ADMIT IT

CBC/Radio-Canada 

4/23/2021
16

© CBC Liberal MP Yvonne Jones, left, is defending her Inuk identity after and NDP MP Mumilaaq Quaqqaq, right, called it into question on social media.

Labrador member of parliament Yvonne Jones is defending her ancestry after Nunavut MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq reiterated her position that Jones is "not an Inuk, " and southern Labrador is "not an Inuit region."

"I don't think I have to prove my identity to her or anyone else in social media or in the public airways," Jones told CBC TV's Here and Now Thursday.

"I know who I am. I know who my grandmother and my great-grandmother was. I know what descent they were. I can trace my Inuit history in Labrador back to the early 1800s."

Qaqqaq recorded a live video on Twitter Thursday explaining her family tree, naming its members, and asking Jones to do the same.

"Where's your bloodline? As Inuit ... we don't hide that," Qaqqaq said in the now-deleted video, which, she said, Twitter removed from its site.
Questioning culture

On April 16, Qaqqaq tweeted "Jones is not an Inuk" in response to a 2019 tweet from political blog Indigenous Politics that described Jones as such.© John Last/CBC A screenshot of Qaqqaq's reply to a 2019 election night tweet identifying Jones as Inuk.

Following that, at the House of Commons on Monday, Jones demanded an apology from Qaqqaq, asking her to "stop committing racial erosion against her own culture."


On Thursday, Qaqqaq refused to do so.

"I'm not going to apologize," Qaqqaq said in the Twitter video. "I know, until I am proven otherwise, Yvonne Jones is not Inuk."

"Until you can tell me who your family is, and where you come from — and how you're Inuk, and validate your Inukness — you have no space to say you're Inuk. Stop saying you're Inuk."

Qaqqaq issued a statement Thursday evening, saying sorry for challenging Jones' identity with "aggressive and disrespectful" comments, while also calling the origins of the NunatuKavut Community Council (NCC) — the group Yvonne Jones is part of — into question.

Formerly identified as Métis

According to its website, the NCC is "the representative governing body for approximately 6,000 Inuit of south and central Labrador."

The non-status group was formed in 1981 as the Labrador Métis Nation, and changed its name to NunatuKavut in 2010, saying the latter better reflected its members' heritage.

Inuit and Métis are two distinct Indigenous groups.

In 2019, the NCC signed a memorandum of understanding with the federal government around Indigenous rights for the group. That has led to a legal challenge from the two recognized Indigenous groups in Labrador.

"Both the Innu Nation and Nunatsiavut, the recognized Inuit region in northern Labrador, have long contested the claims that there is a southern Inuit region in Labrador," Qaqqaq said in her statement.

"The NunatuKavut Community Council is not recognized as a part of Inuit Nunangat by any of the four Inuit regions or by the official organizations that represent Inuit Nunangat as a whole," she said, adding she agreed with that consensus.

The four Inuit regions in Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland in Canada, are the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the North West Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik in northern Quebec and Nunatsiavut in northern Labrador.

No DNA test: Jones

When asked Thursday whether she would respond to Qaqqaq's request and publicly share her family tree, Jones said "absolutely not," adding "I'm not prepared to have a DNA test for her either."

Jones said she would have been happy to discuss her ancestry with the NDP MP, but that Qaqqaq didn't approach her before going on — what Jones called — the "attack," using "racial slurs" and "lateral violence."

"I've had … many conversations with people about my family history and my grandmother's time suffering through tuberculosis ... the years that my mom spent at residential school, what it was like to grow up in an isolated coastal community, what's it like to practice a traditional way of life," Jones said.

"I have always shared my culture, my history, my ancestry with anyone who's wanted to have that conversation with me."

Jones said she identifies with both white and Inuit aspects of her ancestry.

"I'm a very proud descendant of white people — of settlers in Labrador — and of Inuit, and I've maintained my culture from both perspectives," Jones said.

Qaqqaq's questioning comes "out of naiveté," Jones said, and not understanding what's acceptable to question when it comes to a person's culture. Jones also said Qaqqaq did not understand how Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut "interact."

BREAKING NEWS
Supreme Court rules Sinixt are not 'extinct'

In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada says the Sinixt Nation, whose reservation is in Washington State, have constitutionally protected Indigenous rights to hunt in their ancestral territory north of the border.

Olivia Stefanovich

CBC  4/23/2021

Richard Desautel, middle, a Sinixt man from Washington state, stands outside the Nelson, B.C., courthouse with members of the Colville Confederated Tribes after his acquittal at the trial level on March 27, 2017.

Canada's highest court has upheld the acquittal of Richard Desautel, the Sinixt member who tried to reverse the federal government's 65-year-old claim that an Indigenous nation from British Columbia's Interior no longer exists.

In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada says the Sinixt Nation, whose reservation is in Washington State, have constitutionally protected Indigenous rights to hunt in their ancestral territory north of the border.

This is a breaking story, a previous version is below.

Canada's highest court will issue a ruling today that could reverse the federal government's 65-year-old claim that an Indigenous nation from British Columbia's Interior no longer exists.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruling will determine whether the Sinixt, whose reservation is in Washington state, have an Indigenous right to hunt in their ancestral territory north of the border.

The case began in 2010 when Sinixt leaders sent one of their members, Richard Desautel, to shoot and kill an elk in their traditional territory of the Arrow Lakes region in southeastern British Columbia to reclaim their identity in Canada.

Desautel phoned the B.C. Conservation Officer Service after his successful hunt to report himself and was charged.

Desautel argued his right to hunt for ceremonial purposes in the traditional territory of the Sinixt is protected by Section 35(1) of the Constitution, which recognizes and affirms the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

But the Crown maintained Desautel didn't have rights protected by the Constitution because he wasn't part of any recognized Indigenous group in Canada.

Desautel won at every level of the B.C. court system — laying the groundwork for the Sinixt to be formally recognized again as an Indigenous people by the Supreme Court.

The Sinixt are part of the Salish people who primarily occupied territory in the B.C. interior and northwestern United States.

"A favourable ruling ... will be quite a historic moment for the Sinixts," said Mark Underhill, counsel for Desautel and a partner at Arvay Finlay LLP in Vancouver.

© Getty Images Desautel was charged with breaking British Columbia's Wildlife Act after he shot and killed a cow elk near Castlegar in 2010.

Hunting is how the Sinixt people practise their culture and their very identity is bound up with their territory, which stretches from West Kootenay to Nelson and all the way up to Revelstoke, B.C, said Underhill.

Not being able to use their traditional lands has taken a tremendous toll on multiple generations of Sinixt people, he said.

"You always have that tie back to the land, no matter where you are," Underhill said.

"To have it illegal to be able to practise your culture, it just really impacted those people."
An important case on both sides of the border

A favourable ruling could have broad implications for other Indigenous groups with ties to Canada. Underhill said those groups would have to show they maintained a continuous presence in Canada for thousands of years.

"That will open the door for them hopefully to have their rights recognized in Canada," he said.

The trial judge held that the Sinixt engaged in hunting, fishing and gathering in their traditional territory in the Arrow Lakes area before and after first contact in 1811.

The trial judge said Desautel was exercising his traditional right to hunt for ceremonial purposes guaranteed under the Constitution, and the application of the Wildlife Act unjustifiably infringed on that right.

Desautel was acquitted.

The Supreme Court of British Columbia also dismissed a summary conviction appeal, as did the B.C. Court of Appeal. The B.C. government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada on the grounds that it's a case of national significance.

The Sinixt say they lived in the north-south valley stretching from present-day Kettle Falls, Wash., to Revelstoke, B.C. well into the 1700s. Eighty per cent of their pre-contact traditional territory is in Canada.

Smallpox and the arrival of missionaries, miners and settlers pushed the Sinixt out of the West Kootenay region of B.C. and off their territory. Some moved south to the U.S., taking up residence on the Colville Confederated Tribes Reservation in the late 1800s.

In 1902, the federal government set aside a reserve for the Arrow Lakes Band, which included a few Sinixt members who remained in their traditional territory in Canada.

In 1956, the last living member of the Arrows Lakes Band died and the federal government declared the Sinixt "extinct" and without the rights of a First Nation in Canada.

REPORTING FROM THE OIL PATCH

New emission-cutting goals called 'aggressive,' 'ambitious' and.....

CALGARY — New greenhouse gas emission cutting targets are being described as "extremely aggressive," "ambitious" and illogical" by members of the Canadian oilpatch after they were rolled out at a virtual climate summit of world leaders on" Thursday.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to slash Canada's GHGs by 40 to 45 per cent by 2030 and President Joe Biden vowed to cut emissions in the United States by 50 to 52 per cent in the same time frame.

"These are obviously extremely aggressive targets being laid out by leaders in Canada and the U.S. and I think there's absence of process or plan behind the targets. But you need to start with the targets, I understand that," said Kevin Neveu, CEO of Calgary-based Precision Drilling Corp., which operates in both Canada and south of the border.

"I think the objectives they are trying to achieve, we agree with and support," he added.

There are solutions available today such as using grid electricity, renewable energy or natural gas that would allow the drilling industry to meet the emission targets for its operations, said Neveu, adding he urges the governments to continue to support research that will allow the broader oilpatch to also cut emissions.

Grant Fagerheim, CEO of Whitecap Resources Inc., said he also supports efforts to reduce emissions but disagrees with the way the new Canadian targets are being rolled out.

"Having aspirational targets with no practical or scientific methodologies is illogical," he said.

"It seems like the federal government is working against the industry and not working with it. That's the frustration. There's no consultation. … We should be using science, not just political wherewithal to reduce (emissions)."

The Canadian industry is being compelled to cut methane emissions by 45 per cent by 2025 and is facing a rising tide of carbon taxes, he pointed out.

"We've reduced our direct emissions (at Whitecap) by over 30 per cent since 2017 but you don't get recognized for it," said Fagerheim.

Video: Canada pledges at least 40% reduction in emissions by 2030 (cbc.ca)

BIG OIL WHINES
"Where is the reward program, where is the incentivizing program? Versus the penalizing program?"

In an emailed statement, the CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers defended his members' record in reducing emissions without directly commenting on the scale of the new emissions targets.

“Canada’s natural gas and oil industry has made emissions reduction a priority; not only setting goals, but showing how it can be done," said Tim McMillan.

"For example, in the oilsands industry, average GHGs per barrel have dropped 21 per cent since 2009 and, with current technologies under development, are projected to drop by an additional 20 to 27 per cent by 2030, demonstrating production growth can be compatible with emissions reductions."

AS GREEN OPPONENTS POINT OUT PER BARREL IS NOT TOTAL EMISSIONS COSTS FROM ACTUAL PRODUCTION OVERALL

The new targets are "ambitious" and achieving them will require all Canadians to co-operate and change the way they work, said Sneh Seetal, a spokeswoman for oilsands producer Suncor Energy Inc.

She added that the company is pleased with initiatives unveiled in the federal budget earlier this week to support and promote the use of carbon capture utilization and storage to offset GHG emissions.

"We’re encouraged by the political commitments coming out of today’s Leader’s Summit on Climate" said Jesse Semko, spokesman for pipeline company Enbridge Inc.

"Enbridge is committed to doing its part to reduce emissions and achieving our goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050."

The company is upgrading equipment and using solar self-power projects to meet its operational electricity requirements, while investing in renewables like offshore wind and emerging technologies such as hydrogen, renewable natural gas and carbon capture, utilization and storage, he said.

Spokesman Reg Curren declined to comment on the new targets on behalf of Cenovus Energy Inc. but said the oilsands producer remains committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and will complete an analysis to set new near-term targets this year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:PD, TSX:SU, TSX:ENB, TSX:WCP, TSX:CVE)

Dan Healing, The Canadian Press