MOVE OVER SPRUCE GOOSE
Gigantic Stratolaunch aircraft makes 2nd test flight

AP April 29, 2021

The Stratolaunch aircraft, a six-engine jet with the world's longest wingspan lands at Mojave Air and Space Port during craft's second flight, Thursday, April 29, 2021in Mojave, Calif. The gigantic aircraft has flew (FLOWN) for the second time in two years. (AP Photo/Matt Hartman)

MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — The gigantic Stratolaunch aircraft flew Thursday for its second time, taking to the skies over the Southern California desert

The six-engine jet with the world’s longest wingspan took off from Mojave Air and Space Port two years after its maiden flight, following a change in ownership and purpose.

“We are airborne,” the Stratolaunch company tweeted at about 7:30 a.m.

The behemoth safely touched down on its 28 wheels about three hours later and Stratolaunch called the flight test a success.

Named Roc, the twin-fuselage aircraft has a wingspan of 385 feet (117 meters). It was developed by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, who died just months before it flew for the first time in April 2019.

Allen intended to use it as a carrier aircraft for space launches, carrying satellite-laden rockets beneath the center of the wing and releasing them at high altitude.

The new owners initially plan to use it as a carrier aircraft for launches of reusable hypersonic flight research vehicles.

Hypersonic describes flights at speeds of at least Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

Thousands in Brazil rally for Bolsonaro, ignoring virus

AFP Issued on: 01/05/2021 - 

A demonstrator holds a Brazilian flag during a protest in Brasilia in support of President Jair Bolsonaro, on May 1, 2021 Sergio Lima AF

Brasília (AFP)

Several thousand Brazilians marched Saturday in support of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, ignoring a surging pandemic even as government opponents took their own protests online.

There were rallies in Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with many demonstrators wearing the yellow and green of the country's flag.

Brazil, with more than 403,000 Covid-19 deaths, is second only to the United States in that grim category, and Bolsonaro faces widespread criticism for not taking the pandemic more seriously.

Two weeks ago, the president said he was waiting for "a sign from the people" before "taking measures" to revoke restrictions imposed by mayors or governors to contain the spread of the virus.

More recently, he told a television interviewer that the army "could take to the street one day, to ensure respect for the Constitution (and for) freedom to come and go."

In Rio on Saturday, several hundred protesters seemed to respond to his call. Rallying along celebrated Copacabana beach, they waved banners demanding a "military intervention" to bolster Bolsonaro's powers.

A slogan widely seen at the various rallies was "Autoriso Bolsonaro" ("I authorize Bolsonaro") to send in the army.

In Brasilia, several thousand people assembled on the Esplanade of Ministries as Bolsonaro briefly passed overhead in a helicopter.

One of his sons, the deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, waded into the crowd, his mask worn down around his chin, taking selfies with supporters, their faces also uncovered.

"It's a critical moment and Bolsonaro needs the people's support," Edvaldo de Paulo, a sixtyish demonstrator, told AFP in Brasilia.

"We have to clean house in Brasilia to let the president govern," said Elenir Ritonni, a 63-year-old retiree who joined several hundred demonstrators in Sao Paulo.

Few anti-Bolsonaro protests were planned for Saturday, but key opposition leaders, on the right and the left, were taking part in a trade union-sponsored event on social media critical of Bolsonaro.

Among them were former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), who is expected to challenge Bolsonaro in next year's elections, and his center-right predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2002).

On Tuesday, a Senate commission of inquiry was established to examine the government's handling of the health crisis, with many experts saying it has been incompetent and irresponsible.

SpaceX returns 4 astronauts to Earth; rare night splashdown

By MARCIA DUNN

AP NEWS 59 minutes ago


1 of 9

In this image made from NASA TV video, the SpaceX Dragon capsule floats after landing in the Gulf of Mexico near the Florida Panhandle early Sunday, May 2, 2021. SpaceX returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on Sunday, making the first U.S. crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot. (NASA TV via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on Sunday, making the first U.S. crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.

The Dragon capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, just before 3 a.m., ending the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk’s company.

It was an express trip home, lasting just 6 1/2 hours.

The astronauts, three American and one Japanese, flew back in the same capsule — named Resilience — in which they launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in November.

“We welcome you back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX,” SpaceX’s Mission Control radioed moments after splashdown. “For those of you enrolled in our frequent flyer program, you’ve earned 68 million miles on this voyage.”

“We’ll take those miles,” said spacecraft commander Mike Hopkins. “Are they transferrable?” SpaceX replied that the astronauts would have to check with the company’s marketing department.

Within a half-hour of splashdown, the charred capsule — resembling a giant toasted marshmallow — had been hoisted onto the recovery ship.

In this image made from NASA TV video, the SpaceX Dragon capsule is retrieved from the Gulf of Mexico near the Florida Panhandle. (NASA TV via AP)

Hopkins was the first one out, doing a little dance as he emerged under the intense spotlights.

“It’s amazing what can be accomplished when people come together,” he told SpaceX flight controllers at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California. “Quite frankly, you all are changing the world. Congratulations. It’s great to be back.”

Commander Mike Hopkins egresses the SpaceX Dragon capsule. (NASA TV via AP)

The 167-day mission was the longest for a crew capsule launching from the U.S. The previous record of 84 days was set by NASA’s final Skylab station astronauts in 1974.

Saturday night’s undocking left seven people at the space station, four of whom arrived a week ago via SpaceX.

“Earthbound!” NASA astronaut Victor Glover, the capsule’s pilot, tweeted after departing the station. “One step closer to family and home!”

Hopkins and Glover — along with NASA’s Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi — should have returned to Earth last Wednesday, but high offshore winds forced SpaceX to pass up a pair of daytime landing attempts. Managers switched to a rare splashdown in darkness, to take advantage of calm weather.

SpaceX had practiced for a nighttime return, just in case, and even recovered its most recent station cargo capsule from the Gulf of Mexico in darkness. Infrared cameras tracked the capsule as it re-entered the atmosphere; it resembled a bright star streaking through the night sky

From left to right, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi. (NASA via AP)

All four main parachutes could be seen deploying just before splashdown, which was also visible in the infrared.

Apollo 8 — NASA’s first flight to the moon with astronauts — ended with a predawn splashdown in the Pacific near Hawaii on Dec. 27, 1968. Eight years later, a Soviet capsule with two cosmonauts ended up in a dark, partially frozen lake in Kazakhstan, blown off course in a blizzard.

That was it for nighttime crew splashdowns — until Sunday.

Despite the early hour, the Coast Guard was out in full force to enforce an 11-mile (18-kilometer) keep-out zone around the bobbing Dragon capsule. For SpaceX’s first crew return in August, pleasure boaters swarmed the capsule, a safety risk.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule parachutes into the Gulf of Mexico near the Florida Panhandle. (NASA TV via AP)

Once finished with their medical checks on the ship, the astronauts planned to hop on a helicopter for the short flight to shore, then catch a plane straight to Houston for a reunion with their families.

Their capsule, Resilience, will head back to Cape Canaveral for refurbishment for SpaceX’s first private crew mission in September. The space station docking mechanism will be removed, and a brand new domed window put in its place.

A tech billionaire has purchased the entire three-day flight, which will orbit 75 miles (120 kilometers) above the space station. He’ll fly with a pair of contest winners and a physician assistant from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, his designated charity for the mission.

Transportation Integration Office, and NASA astronaut representative Joe Acaba watch a dolphin swim next to a ship Saturday, May 1, 2021, as NASA and SpaceX teams prepared for the splashdown of the SpaceX capsule in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Fla., Saturday, May 1, 2021. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

SpaceX’s next astronaut launch for NASA will follow in October.

NASA turned to private companies to service the space station, after the shuttle fleet retired in 2011. SpaceX began supply runs in 2012 and, last May, launched its first crew, ending NASA’s reliance on Russia for astronaut transport.

Boeing isn’t expected to launch astronauts until early next year.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content

SpaceX capsule departs station with 4 astronauts, heads home

By MARCIA DUNN

today


This image from video provided by NASA shows the SpaceX capsule as it departs the International Space Station, Saturday, May 1, 2021. A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts departed the International Space Station late Saturday, aiming for a rare nighttime splashdown to end the company’s second crew flight. (NASA via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts departed the International Space Station late Saturday, aiming for a rare nighttime splashdown to end the company’s second crew flight.

It would be the first U.S. splashdown in darkness since Apollo 8′s crew returned from the moon in 1968.

NASA’s Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi, headed home in the same Dragon capsule that delivered them to the space station last November. The ride back was expected to take just 6 1/2 hours.

“Thanks for your hospitality,” Hopkins radioed as the capsule undocked 260 miles (420 kilometers) above Mali.

SpaceX targeted a splashdown around 3 a.m. Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida. Despite the early hour, the Coast Guard deployed extra patrols — and spotlights — to keep any night-owl sightseers away. The capsule of the first SpaceX crew was surrounded by pleasure boaters last summer, posing a safety risk.

Hopkins, the spacecraft commander, rocketed into orbit with his crew on Nov. 15 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Their replacements arrived a week ago aboard their own Dragon capsule — the same one that launched SpaceX’s first crew last spring.

The four should have been back by now, but high offshore wind kept them at the space station a few extra days. SpaceX and NASA determined the best weather would be before dawn.

The delays allowed Glover to celebrate his 45th birthday in space Friday.

“Gratitude, wonder, connection. I’m full of and motivated by these feelings on my birthday, as my first mission to space comes to an end,” Glover tweeted.

Saturday night’s undocking left seven astronauts at the space station: three Americans, two Russians, one Japanese and one French.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Japan, China face off over satirical painting criticizing Fukushima water release

Chinese, Japanese officials are exchanging accusations after Tokyo said it eventually will release treated radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

April 30 (UPI) -- A senior Japanese official said a Chinese diplomat's satirical tweet about Tokyo's decision to release radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is offensive and spreads disinformation.

Japan's Minister of Reconstruction Katsuei Hirasawa said Friday at a press conference that China is "greatly distorting the facts" by constantly claiming the treated wastewater is harmful to people, NHK reported.

"It also looks like they are very much disparaging a famous painting," Hirasawa said.

On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian uploaded an image that parodied a 19th-century artwork, Great Wave Off Kanagawa, by Japanese master Katsushika Hokusai, Kyodo News reported Thursday.

RELATED SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts to return to Earth from ISS


The parody was the work of a Chinese illustrator, and included figures wearing orange protective gear and throwing a bucket of green liquid into the sea. A nuclear power plant replaces Mount Fuji. Containers labeled with the nuclear hazard symbol are seen in other boats in the background.

In his tweet, the Chinese diplomat said, "If Katsushika Hokusai, the original author is still alive today, he would also be very concerned about #JapanNuclearWater."

At a briefing Wednesday, Zhao said the image "reflects legitimate public opinion and justice."

RELATED USS Port Royal returns to Pearl Harbor after deployment

"It is the Japanese government that needs to revoke the wrong decision and apologize," he said.

The Japanese government is protesting the tweet from Zhao and asked it to be removed from his timeline. On Friday, Zhao had pinned the tweet to the top of his page.

Zhao is known for his controversial remarks. Last year, the Chinese diplomat claimed the novel coronavirus was introduced to Wuhan by the U.S. Army, without providing evidence.

RELATED China challenges claims of declining population as census release postponed

Zhao said in early April Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso should "drink" the Fukushima wastewater after Aso said the water is safe for consumption.
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Why beef is off the menu for some climate-conscious foodies

Inayat Singh, Alice Hopton 

CBC MAY 2,2021

© Evan Mitsui Ikeila Wright readies takeout packages in her Toronto restaurant, One Love Vegetarian. She grew up eating beef, and says food is a personal choice, but hopes people will also make it 'a conscious choice.'

Growing up on a farm in southern Ontario, Toronto chef Ikeila Wright says she ate enough beef as a child to last her a lifetime.

Then, her parents grew crops and raised livestock. Now, she's the chef and owner at One Love Vegetarian, a Jamaican vegetarian restaurant in Toronto.

"What I eat, what I put on my plate, is personal. And I think for everyone it should be personal, but it also should be conscious," Wright said.

"We have to think about sustainability. We have to think about future generations, because history will find us accountable for the choices that we make now."

Wright chose to become vegetarian for health and environmental reasons. Her popular restaurant serves up hearty Jamaican dishes such as callaloo, a barbecue tofu stir fry, potato and chickpea rotis and their signature corn soup.

She's part of a growing number of people who are worried about the carbon footprint of meat — and beef in particular, which the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates is responsible for 41 per cent of all livestock emissions, far more than other meats.

Last week, the major U.S. food magazine and website, Epicurious, took a public stand on the issue by announcing they were no longer publishing beef recipes, because of how carbon-intensive the protein is

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© Lukas Gojda / Shutterstock Beef steaks on the grill. In 2019, beef was the type of red meat with the largest amount available for consumption per capita (18.2 kg/person), according to Statistics Canada.

Singling out beef

While meat products in general result in greater greenhouse gas emissions than plant-based sources of protein, Epicurious singled out beef arguing that one ingredient makes a difference.

In a post titled "The Planet on the Plate: Why Epicurious Left Beef Behind," the magazine's editors cited statistics from the World Resources Institute that beef requires 20 times more land and makes 20 times more greenhouse gases than common plant proteins, such as beans. It is also three times more carbon intensive than poultry and pork.

"It might not feel like much, but cutting out just a single ingredient — beef — can have an outsize impact on making a person's cooking more environmentally friendly," the editors wrote.

David Tamarkin, one of the co-authors of the post, is the former digital editor of Epicurious. In an interview with CBC Radio's As It Happens, he said that the magazine made the decision to stop posting new recipes with beef a year before the public announcement, in an effort to be "the most sustainable home cooking publication in the world."

"If you think about the point of a food publication like Epicurious, the whole point, its entire purpose, is to influence the way that people eat," Tamarkin said.

"There are millions and millions of people who go to Epicurious every month. If we were successful in replacing one beef meal with one vegetarian meal a month, that is a huge win. Because if everybody did that, that would make an enormous impact on the sustainability of our diets."

© Toby Melville/Reuters Beef production is being singled out as more carbon intensive than other meats or plant-based protein sources.

Greenhouse gas emissions from beef

The question for Canadians is how much beef do people need to cut down on to make an impact on greenhouse gas emissions?

Researcher Jim Dyer set out to answer this question in a report last year for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The Cambridge, Ont.-based consultant has worked for the federal government in the past and studies the environmental impact of raising livestock.

The study, aimed at the livestock industry, modelled scenarios where Canadians tweaked their meat consumption without reducing their overall protein intake or cutting out any meat completely.

The modelling found that if red meat consumption dropped 25 per cent — in line with medical recommendations — and was one-quarter beef, three-quarters pork, Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock sector dropped 10.7 per cent. (The study assumed that any drop in red-meat consumption was replaced with chicken.)

"Given the very high GHG emission intensity of beef, it should not be surprising that this analysis found that diversifying Canadian protein intake away from beef to be such an attractive option for lowering the GHG emission budget of the Canadian agriculture sector," the report said.

Other analyses, including the planetary health diet published in the Lancet in 2019, recommend cutting meat consumption significantly, down to just one serving of beef per week.

Dyer's paper did not model the impact of cutting out meat entirely from the Canadian diet and replacing it with plant-based proteins like pulses. But he says that shifting to vegan diets would have even greater impacts on carbon emissions.

"The first message was really quite simple, and that is: eat less beef. You still need your protein so find your protein from other ways," he said.

Grass vs. grain

Typically, grass-fed beef — where cattle graze in a pasture — has been analyzed as higher in emissions than feedlot beef, in part because of land use. But many studies, including Dyer's, don't account for the other environmental benefits of grass-fed beef, such as the carbon sequestration in the grass and soil.

That can mean the higher emissions from grassfed beef are offset by the carbon sequestered in the pasture, according to a 2018 study, although uncertainty remains about how much carbon is sequestered.

Dyer's recommendation is that people should eat less beef — and when they do, they should choose grass-fed beef.

That's important for Cedric MacLeod, a grass-fed beef producer in New Brunswick. MacLeod and his family operate Local Valley Farm, a farm where cattle roam free and feed on 40 hectares of strategically planted grass. The farm uses as little fertilizer as possible by planting specific types of grasses and using manure effectively, and runs on solar energy. MacLeod, a soil scientist by training, says principles of sustainability are top of mind.

© Supplied by Christopher Parent Cedric MacLeod raises grass-fed cattle at his farm in New Brunswick, where he follows sustainable practices to cut fertilizers and use renewable energy.

"We do everything we can certainly to minimize our emissions," MacLeod said.

"For me, managing a grass farm where I employ cattle to help me to manage said grass, so that it helps the soil which I own, which ultimately I'm hoping to pass on to the next generation, in much, much better shape than what I found it."

MacLeod says that people should be concerned about where and how their food is raised, and be willing to pay for it.

"The chicken growers play a role. The potato growers play a role. The corn and soybean guys play a role. The cattle sector plays an important role because we're managing the grassland," MacLeod said.

"And when you stitch all those landscape functions together and agriculture as a whole, we're all contributing to the sector's contribution to the fight against climate change."

WORD OF THE DAY

Tokyo 2020: 'Genocidaires do not deserve to be in the Olympics,' Myanmar swimmer Win Htet Oo

By John Sinnott, CNN 

MAY DAY 2021

A leading Myanmar swimmer has called for the country's Olympic committee to be expelled from the Olympic Movement, saying "genocidaires do not deserve to be in the Olympics."

© ASANKA BRENDON RATNAYAKE/AFP/AFP via Getty Images Win Htet Oo says he is sacrificing his dream of competing in the Tokyo Olympics to protest at the junta ruling his homeland.

In a Facebook post, swimmer Win Htet Oo said by rejecting the Myanmar Olympic Committee he had foregone any chance of competing at the Tokyo Olympic Games later this year.

Currently training in Melbourne, Win Htet Oo's Facebook profile says he's "a Myanmar swimmer dreaming about Tokyo 2020."

The swimmer has been a vocal critic of the Myanmar in recent weeks.

"I do not wish to participate in the Tokyo Games under the stewardship of a NOC [National Olympic Committee] that is tied to a regime that continues to inflict suffering on my people," said Win Htet Oo in another Facebook post on April 10.

The IOC did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment, but the organization told AFP that "'to the best of our knowledge,'" Win Htet Oo had not been selected by the Myanmar team.

World Swimming Magazine describes Win Htet Oo as one of Myanmar's "top swimmers," who swam for his country at the 2013 and 2019 Southeast Asian Games

Win Htet Oo is ranked as 166th in the men's 50-meter freestyle rankings on the website of swimming's governing body (Fédération Internationale De Natation). But he is no longer listed as being part of the Myanmar national team.

The Myanmar Olympic Committee did not respond to CNN's request for comment.

READ: Protests and demonstrations banned at 2020 Tokyo Olympics

In February, Myanmar armed forces commander in chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing seized power, overthrowing the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party and installing a military junta.

The following months have seen ongoing protests against his rule and the rise of a Civil Disobedience movement in which thousands of blue- and white-collar workers including doctors, teachers, civil servants and factory workers have gone on strike with the aim of disrupting the economy and unseating the general.

Security forces have brutally suppressed the protests with deadly and systematic crackdowns in which police and soldiers have shot people dead in the streets and arbitrarily detained perceived opponents.

More than 750 people have been killed by security forces since the coup, and more than 4,500 arrested, according to advocacy group Assistance Association of Political Prisoners.

On March 28, UN officials condemned "systematic" attacks on peaceful protesters and called on the international community to "protect the people of Myanmar from atrocity crimes."

"The shameful, cowardly, brutal actions of the military and police -- who have been filmed shooting at protesters as they flee, and who have not even spared young children -- must be halted immediately," said Alice Wairimu Nderitu, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Michelle Bachelet, the High Commissioner for Human Rights in a joint statement.

READ: Which nation is expected to top Olympic medal table?

A UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar in 2018 called for Min Aung Hlaing to be investigated and prosecuted for genocide over his military's brutal crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine State in 2017.

In his latest Facebook post, Win Htet Oo said he'd been inspired "by the continued defiance to military rule in Myanmar by an intersectional movement that will never submit. Their bravery is undying."

"The National Unity Government is the only legitimate representative of the people of Myanmar and all international organisations and governments should recognise the NUG as Myanmar's government," added Win Htet Oo, who swam for New York University between 2012 and 2015

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© Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AFP/Getty Images Myanmar swimmer Win Htet Oo attends a training session at the Melbourne Aquatic Centre in Australia.

© ASANKA BRENDON RATNAYAKE/AFP/AFP via Getty Images Win Htet swam collegiately at New York University. This photo was taken on April 29, 2021 at the Melbourne Aquatic Centre.

MODI MASS MURDERER
Opinion: India's Covid crisis has revealed the real Narendra Modi

Opinion by Meenakshi Narula Ahamed 
CNN 1/5/2021

By 2014, when Narendra Modi became prime minister of the world's largest democracy, India had long shed her image being one of the poorest nations teeming with starving and sick people in constant need of foreign aid. Under a team of pro-western reformers, India underwent an economic transformation in the 90's and by the early 2000's was being hailed as an economic powerhouse and an attractive partner for the western alliance.

 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures as he speaks in a rally during the ongoing Phase 4 of West Bengal's assembly election, at Kawakhali on the outskirts of Siliguri on April 10, 2021. 

(Photo by Diptendu DUTTA / AFP) (Photo by DIPTENDU DUTTA/AFP via Getty Images)

Today, the image of "India shining" — a publicity slogan the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried so hard to promote in 2004 when it was first elected — is in tatters as news outlets around the world and social media carry images of Indians dying of Covid-19 in the streets as hospitals have run out of beds and oxygen and have had to turn people away. And then there are the gruesome images of mass cremations in parking lots and on sidewalks.

India's second wave of the pandemic has once again revived images of a country of disease and death. With its health care system collapsing under the strain, the government announced this week that is welcoming foreign assistance, after 15 years of rejecting foreign aid. Countries like Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom and others are sending supplies to India despite the country being a vaccine manufacturing hub. 

Many blame the Modi government.

In March 2020 when the news of a possible global pandemic made headlines, Modi acted swiftly and ordered a national lockdown and mandated masks and social distancing. As a consequence, the covid rates in India remained manageable until early in 2021. 

What went wrong?

While the prime minister can be congratulated for acting decisively during those first few weeks, his implementation was flawed and contingency planning for a future resurgence negligible. Several governments have made mistakes during the pandemic, but in India the mistakes proved to be disastrous due to the sheer scale of the population.

When Covid first hit, India faced a vacuum of leaders that previous governments had been able to rely on to provide the sort of contingency planning necessary to weather a crisis. Throughout his tenure as prime minister, Modi has consistently accused former public officials and previous administrations of being out of touch and corrupt. He has undermined the institutions of democracy by compromising the independence of the judiciary and has suppressed protests over the controversial 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act which fast-tracks citizenship to immigrants from neighboring countries — but not if they're Muslim.

The handful of US trained Indian American professors who returned to India to serve under Modi's government, like Viral Acharya and Raghuram Rajan, have left the administration.

Despite being one of the major vaccine manufacturers in the world, the government has failed to provide adequate funding to ramp up the needed supply of Covid-19 vaccines. Instead, 60 million vaccines manufactured in India were exported to other countries as part of a "vaccine diplomacy" initiative. Although the exports were stopped in March, it was insufficient to make up for the shortages. These measures have had consequences.

As of Saturday, only 1.9% of India's nearly 1.4 billion population had been fully vaccinated. By comparison 30.3% of the US population is fully vaccinated.

But lulled into complacency by the declining rates of infection last year, Modi acted as if the battle had been won and made a series of critical mistakes. Instead of focusing on getting the country vaccinated and making sure the health care system had adequate supplies, the prime minister turned his attention to winning state elections. Amid an election year, massive political rallies were allowed to take place without ensuring Covid protocols.

Modi's minister of home affairs, Amit Shah, who he relied on as his political strategist was on the campaign trail rather than fulfilling his duties handling the pandemic, as several news outlets in India reported. They pandered to their Hindu base and allowed the Kumbh Mela to take place, a Hindu festival where millions gathered to pray over two months defying social distancing as Covid cases spiked. Thousands contracted the virus as a result and the events were deemed super spreaders.

The prime minister's reputation as an efficient administrator when he was chief minister of the state of Gujarat convinced people he would bring the same skills to Delhi, but the pandemic has revealed his shortcomings in managing a vast and complex nation with its multicultural population. He also failed to protect the Muslim minority when his party blamed Muslims for spreading Covid in India last year.

Back then, the public was given just a few hours' notice before the first lockdown, creating weeks of domestic havoc and enormous hardship to the thousands of poor migrant workers in big cities. Many of them were unable to return home when public transportation shut down and no public assistance had been provided for them.

Modi promotes himself as a man of the people, but his policies, from demonetization in 2016 and the 2020 lockdown, have adversely affected the most vulnerable population, displaying a remarkable lack of empathy for the very people he claims to represent.

The prime minister indulges in dramatic but empty gestures such as ordering the population to light candles and bang on pots and pans at a selected hour across the country to boost morale to convey that he is in charge.

He dresses in elaborate headgear and coats with his name embroidered on them and surrounds himself by religiously motivated people like him, disregarding science and experts. His health minister appalled the scientific community by suggesting cow urine as a potential cure for Covid.

Modi's defiant march to reconstruct India into a Hindu nation, uprooting it from its secular constitution as conceived by the founders of modern India, has been a priority for him and his key advisers.

The extent of the damage to the basic institutions of government under Modi is becoming increasingly visible. With his authoritarian tendencies, he has become intolerant of dissent within the government. Ideas that run contrary to the party line are suppressed. Vigorous debate on policy issues is no longer permitted. The attempt to cripple India's democratic institutions is evident everywhere. The BJP has intimidated the domestic press and has tried to have Twitter and Facebook remove posts critical of the prime minister. Modi even slammed Australian newspapers for criticizing his handling of the Covid crisis.

In response to this growing humanitarian crisis, President Joe Biden pledged to the prime minister that the US would provide "a range of emergency assistance, including oxygen-related supplies, vaccine materials and therapeutics" to India. The first US shipment arrived in India Friday morning. Europe is also rushing to help with personal protective equipment, oxygen and ventilators.

Pleasing the US is one of Modi's core foreign policy values. He was a constructive partner to President Barack Obama on climate change and catered to President Donald Trump's ego by organizing a welcome ceremony that drew a massive crowd during his visit to the country in February 2020.

As defense cooperation between two countries continues to grow and their convergence of interests over an aggressive China find common ground, the partnership has enormous potential. The Biden administration is hoping that India will play a significant role in containing China in the Indo-Pacific as a member of the Quad group, comprising Australia, Japan, India and the US.

One of the key reasons why Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush courted India and changed the relationship into the partnership it is today was their admiration for India's commitment to democracy.

During the many ups and downs in relations through the past 70 years between the two countries, it was the tie that bound them together. But as Modi becomes increasingly Trumpian, dividing the country, pursuing religious majoritarianism, suppressing dissent, and poorly handling the pandemic it could result in instability and make India not only a less reliable ally but a less desirable geopolitical partner.

NO GREENWASHING

Berkshire shareholders reject climate change, diversity proposals that Buffett opposed

© Reuters/JONATHAN BACHMAN FILE PHOTO: The Chevron Pascagoula Refinery is pictured as Tropical Storm Gordon approaches Pascagoula

(Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc shareholders on Saturday easily rejected proposals requiring the company run since 1965 by Warren Buffett to disclose more about its efforts to address climate change and promote diversity and inclusion in its workforce.


The rejections were not a surprise, given that Buffett controls nearly one-third of Berkshire's voting power and opposed both proposals.

But the climate change proposal won support from just over 25% of votes cast and the diversity proposal from 24%, suggesting greater discontent than Berkshire shareholders historically demonstrate.

The votes came as a growing number of major investors, including BlackRock Inc and the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) pension plan, call for companies to promote adherence to good environmental, social and governance principles.

CalPERS, along with Federated Hermes and Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, had proposed requiring Berkshire to publish annual reports about its climate change efforts.

The nonprofit shareholder advocate As You Sow separately proposed annual reports on diversity, saying companies such as Berkshire benefit from a diverse workforce.

Buffett doesn't dispute that both issues are important, but opposed the proposals because of Berkshire's decentralized model, where its dozens of businesses run largely without his interference so long as they perform and are managed well.

"We do some other asinine things because we're required to do it, so we'll do whatever's required," Buffett said. "But to have the people at Business Wire, Dairy Queen ... make some common report, ... we don't do that stuff at Berkshire."The company has also said it is seeing "great results" from many subsidiaries addressing climate change on their own.

Berkshire shareholders also re-elected all 14 directors, despite calls from Institutional Shareholder Services and Neuberger Berman to withhold votes from members of Berkshire's governance, compensation and nominating committee. The vote totals were not immediately disclosed.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Indian Point nuclear plant near NYC shuts down last reactor


The cooling towers of Indian Point nuclear power plant sit along the Hudson River on Friday. Entergy Corporation's Indian Point will shut down today after nearly 60 years of nuclear power generation at the site in New York state. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

April 30 (UPI) -- The Indian Point Energy Center, the closest nuclear power plant to New York City, closed down its last reactor Friday.

Owned by Entergy Nuclear Northeast, it was the state's largest source of carbon-free energy, according to Gizmodo. Though its shuttering will lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the near term, critics of the plant said it was dangerous for the area

In 2015, a failure in an electrical transformer in Unit 3 led to a fire and an oil spill in the Hudson River. The next year, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called for the plant to be closed after it leaked water contaminated with radioactive tritium into the surrounding soil.

"I am very concerned that the Indian Power nuclear power reactor is more than ever before a catastrophe waiting to happen," Sanders said at the time. "In my view, we cannot sit idly by and hope that the unthinkable will never happen. We must take action to shut this plant down in a safe and responsible way.

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"It makes no sense to me to continue to operate a decaying nuclear reactor within 25 miles of New York City where nearly 10 million people live."

The Indian Point nuclear plant generated electricity for Westchester County and New York City since it first opened in 1962.

Residents of Buchanan, N.Y., where the plant is located, and longtime workers of the plant gathered Friday to mark its closure, the Rockland/Westchester Journal News reported.

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WCBS-TV in New York City reported that, pending approval from the state, the nuclear plant will be transferred to Holtec International in New Jersey for decommissioning.

Humans significantly altered biodiversity on islands, study shows

By Zarrin Ahmed
APRIL 30, 2021 


A research team on Tenerife takes sediment cores containing pollen, which revealed the effects of more recent human colonization of the island. Photo by José María Fernández Palacios/University of Bayreuth

April 30 (UPI) -- An international team of researchers found that humans have significantly altered biodiversity on colonized islands in the past 1,500 years, according to a study published Friday in the journal Science.

By analyzing 27 fossil pollen sequences encompassing 5,000 years from islands across the world, scientists quantified the rates of change in vegetation composition before and after human arrival.

According to the analysis, there were faster rates of turnover on islands colonized in the past 1,500 years than for those colonized earlier.

Professor Dr. Manuel Steinbauer of the University of Bayreuth and Dr. Sandra Naogue of the University of Southampton extracted, dated and identified pollen from wind-pollinated plants deposited in the sediment of lakes and bogs.

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The islands chosen for the study were never connected to the mainland, researchers said.

"For each of the 27 islands, our study shows how vegetation composition has changed over the last 5,000 years. Humans' colonization of the previously undisturbed islands falls within this period. We can therefore trace how natural systems change as a result of human arrival," said study co-author Steinbauer.

"This transformation from a natural to a human-dominated system can only be observed on islands. On continents, humans have been extensively changing ecological systems for a very long time. What a natural ecosystem would look like here, we can often no longer tell," Steinbauer said.

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On 24 of the 27 islands studied, the arrival of humans marked a significant change in vegetation, especially on islands colonized in the past 1,500 years.

For those colonized earlier, the turnover was less pronounced.

The researchers attribute this difference with an increase in agricultural technology and its associated effects on biodiversity.

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"The results of the study highlight the extensive changes we humans are causing in ecological systems. The change in pollen composition in our study mainly reflects human land use over millennia," Steinbauer said.

"With the beginning of the industrial age, human-induced transformation of ecological systems has accelerated even further. Adding to this, ecological systems are now additionally affected by human-induced climate change," he said.

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