ALASKA

Interior Dept. suspends oil and gas leases in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Shawna Chen AXIOS JUNE 1,2021

Photo: Sylvain Cordier/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

The Interior Department suspended nearly a dozen oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Tuesday, the agency announced.

Why it matters: The move, which will require a new environmental analysis, will undo former President Trump's most significant environmental actions in his final days in office.

Worth noting: The new analysis could be time consuming and its results may spark a court battle.

Our thought bubble, via Axios' Andrew Freedman: Environmentalists have spent decades trying to protect this area of largely untouched wilderness that's home to thousands of caribou and a key population of polar bears. It's therefore not surprising the Biden administration would move to reverse this action, but it could spark a lengthy court battle.

What they're saying: “Today marks an important step forward fulfilling President Biden’s promise to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy said Tuesday.

• "President Biden believes America’s national treasures are cultural and economic cornerstones of our country and he is grateful for the prompt action by the Department of the Interior to suspend all leasing pending a review of decisions made in the last administration’s final days that could have [changed] the character of this special place forever.”

Flashback: Two weeks before President Biden took office, the Trump administration auctioned off the right to drill in the refuge's coastal plain, an expanse in Alaska that has been subject to political dispute for decades.

• Native Americans and environmentalists had opposed the sale.
• No major oil companies participated in the auction. All but one went to an agency of the state of Alaska.

Go deeper: How Biden could thwart Trump's Arctic push

"This was not a riot": Biden commemorates anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre

"[T]his was not a riot. This was a massacre — among the worst in our history, but not the only one. And for too long, forgotten by our history.

Shawna Chen  AXIOS JUNE 1,2021

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Tulsa Race Massacre survivors Viola Fletcher and Hughes Van Ellis watch as President Biden speaks during a commemoration of the massacre's 100th anniversary. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

The acts of hate in Tulsa 100 years ago bear a "through line that exists today," President Biden said Tuesday, as he commemorated the anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

Why it matters: The massacre, which killed an estimated 300 people and burned multiple blocks of the Black neighborhood Greenwood, is considered one of the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history. Survivors and their descendants have pressed for reparations for decades.

• "I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street. I still smell smoke and see fire," Viola Fletcher, one of the last living survivors, testified before a House committee in May. "I have lived through the massacre every day. Our country may forget this history, but I cannot."

What he's saying: "For much too long, the history of what took place here was told in silence, cloaked in darkness," Biden said. "Just because history is silent, it doesn't mean that it did not take place, and while darkness can hide much, it erases nothing."

• That night, "'Mother' Fletcher says they fell asleep rich in terms of wealth, not real wealth but a different wealth, a wealth in community and heritage," Biden said. "One night changed everything."
• "[T]his was not a riot. This was a massacre — among the worst in our history, but not the only one. And for too long, forgotten by our history. As soon as it happened, there was a clear effort to erase it from our memory, our collective memory," Biden noted. "Tulsa didn't even teach the massacre" for years.
• Oklahoma governor to name stretch of state highway for Trump
• "We can't choose to just learn what we want to know and not what we should know."

In his speech, Biden unveiled a set of policies aimed at closing the wealth gap between white and Black people.

Worth noting: Some of Biden's proposals have drawn backlash from the NAACP, whose leader criticized the plan's failure to cancel student debt, the Washington Post reports.

The big picture: Biden met with survivors earlier on Tuesday after touring the Greenwood Cultural Center.

 

World anxiously waits to see where Biden will send America's vaccines

Dave Lawler

AXIOS JUNE 1, 2021

Illustration: Annelise Capossela

The U.S. is about to pivot from hoarding vaccines to sharing them globally, and countries around the world are trying to secure their places in line.

Why it matters: President Biden has promised to donate 80 million doses by the end of June. With domestic demand waning, he’ll soon be able to offer far more. But the White House hasn't said how it will distribute the initial 80 million, or when it will feel comfortable truly opening its supply to the world.

The state of play: The U.S. is currently second only to China in terms of vaccine production, but had until recently been the only major producer to keep virtually its entire supply at home.

• While more than half of all Americans have had at least one dose and dozens of rich countries aren't far behind, less than 1% of people across the world's low-income countries have been vaccinated.
• With the U.S. set to belatedly become a global vaccine powerhouse, Biden has some high-stake decisions to make.

Zoom in: Facing a fast-unraveling domestic crisis fueled in part by the pandemic, Colombian Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez traveled to Washington last week with an urgent request: access to some of the 80 million doses.

• She’s not alone. Such requests have come in from all over the world, but countries in the Americas have been particularly frustrated with Biden's unwillingness to share up to now.
• Most have purchased doses from Russia or China and some, like Mexico, have turned to both.
• Ramírez told Axios that many of the vaccines Colombia has ordered aren’t expected until December, and the already hard-hit country is now seeing its worst spike yet.

The first decision Biden has to make is whether to send doses to individual countries, share in bulk through the WHO-backed COVAX initiative, or — as White House officials have indicated is most likely — pursue some combination of the two.

• A European diplomat who spoke with Axios argued that the U.S. should reject “vaccine diplomacy” as practiced by Russia and China and bolster multilateralism by sharing with COVAX, which aims to provide every participating country with enough doses to cover 20% of its population this year.
• Some countries are almost entirely reliant on COVAX, but export curbs from India have left the initiative months behind and with hardly any supply in the near term.

Yes, but: Experts including Zeke Emanuel, who served on Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board during the transition, argue that vaccines should be shipped where they’re urgently needed and can be readily distributed, not through COVAX’s population-based system.

• And while Biden has said the U.S. donations will be driven by science and not geopolitics, there are clear soft power benefits to controlling distribution more directly.

What's next: In addition to the donations, producers like Pfizer and Moderna will be able to export U.S.-made doses once they've fulfilled their U.S. contracts. But many of those would be expected to go to rich countries with existing contracts.

• Biden could exercise additional purchase options — including 300 million doses each from Pfizer and Moderna — to allow the government to choose the vaccines' destinations while also hedging against the need for boosters.

The big picture: 80 million doses is only a sliver of America’s supply, and a fraction of the global need.

• “The real question is what threshold we’re going to use to start aggressively donating doses,” says Krishna Udayakumar, director of Duke University's Global Health Innovation Center.
• Rather than stockpiling on shelves or in freezers, Udayakumar argues, the U.S. should donate rapidly now, with the knowledge that more supply will be available as new domestic needs arise.
• The White House has sounded far more cautious, saying it wants to be "oversupplied and over-prepared" at home.

What to watch: Rich countries will control a huge chunk of global production even after their initial needs are met, and the U.S. has been the first to make such an ambitious pledge to share doses in the near term.

• Watch for more pledges and more coordination between developed countries, including at the G7 summit in mid-June.

 

Boy Who Sold His Pokémon Collection To Save Dog Sent Rare Cards In Appreciation

BY : EMILY BROWN ON : 31 MAY 2021 16:28

Local 12 News

A young boy who sold his Pokémon collection to save his dog’s life has been rewarded with a package of rare trading cards. 

Bryson Kliemann, of Lebanon, Virginia, made headlines earlier this month for the selfless act of selling his Pokémon card collection to save his puppy, Bruce, who had caught a highly contagious canine virus known as Parvo.

Bryson’s mother, Kimberly Woodruff, rushed the dog to Southwest Virginia Veterinary Services, but treatment was set to cost nearly $700.

Kimberly Woodruff/Facebook

Recalling the situation to Local 12 News, the eight-year-old boy said: ‘It made me kind of sad because usually my brother and sister play together and I don’t have anybody to play with. So, I usually play with (Bruce).’

Bryson’s decision to sell his Pokémon cards took Kimberly by surprise, so she shared a picture of his roadside setup online to help get the word out. The mother also made a GoFundMe page with a goal of $800, but as word about Bryson’s generosity began to spread, the donations soon exceeded $5,000.

The young boy commented: ‘I was so happy because I really wanted to get him back.’

GoFundMe

Following a week of treatment, Bruce was reunited with his adoring owners, with Kimberly explaining that the dog has more vaccine appointments lined up, but he’s ‘doing great, like amazing.’

The good news didn’t stop there, however, as when Pokémon employees based in Bellevue, Washington, caught wind of Bryson’s actions they decided to show the young boy just how much of an impact he’d had in selling his collection.

Staff decided to send the eight-year-old a package of rare Pokémon cards that are hard to find in stores, along with a letter reading: ‘Hey Bryson, we were so inspired by your story about selling your cards for your dog’s recovery, these are some cards to help you replace the ones you had to sell.’

Bryson was overjoyed with the news, according to WSLS, and said he was ‘proud’ of himself for the part he’d played in Bruce’s recovery.

He added: ‘Now my brother and sister are playing with him too, and now I’m really playing with him pretty often.’

With the GoFundMe having exceeded its goal and Bruce now back with his family, Kimberly has said the additional money will help pay for medical expenses for other sick pets in Southwest Virginia.

Hopefully Bryson will be able to build his Pokémon collection up again, but although it might take some time at least he always has Bruce by his side.

China reports first human case of H10N3 strain of bird flu

China downplays case as 'sporadic transmission' from poultry to human

By PTI June 01, 2021

Representational image | PTI

China has reported the first case of human infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu from the country's eastern Jiangsu province, China's National Health Commission said on Tuesday.

The patient, a 41-year-old man from Zhenjiang city, is currently in a stable condition and meets discharge standards, the state-run CGTN TV reported.

Health authorities played down the outbreak, saying the case was a sporadic virus transmission from poultry to humans, and the risk of causing a pandemic was extremely low.

The patient was diagnosed as having the H10N3 avian influenza virus on May 28, National Health Commission said in a statement without elaborating on how the man had got infected with the virus.

No other cases of human infection with H10N3 have previously been reported globally, it said.

H10N3 is a low pathogenic or relatively less severe strain of the virus in poultry and the risk of it spreading on a large scale is very low.

There are many different strains of avian influenza in China and some sporadically infect people, generally those working with poultry.

H5N8 is a subtype of the Influenza A virus (also known as the bird flu virus). While H5N8 only presents a low risk to humans, it is highly lethal to wild birds and poultry.

In April, a highly pathogenic H5N6 avian flu was found in wild birds in northeast China's Shenyang city.

Avian influenza overview February – May 2021

Surveillance report

31 May 2021

Publication series: Avian influenza overview

Citation Lin

Linked InMailThe 2020-2021 epidemic with a total of 3,555 reported HPAI detections and around 22,400,000 affected poultry birds in 28 European Countries appears to be one of the largest and most devastating HPAI epidemics ever occurred in Europe.

Executive summary

Between 24 February and 14 May 2021, 1,672 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus detections were reported in 24 EU/EEA countries and the UK in poultry (n=580), and in wild (n=1,051) and captive birds (n=41). The majority of the detections in poultry were reported by Poland that accounted for 297 outbreaks occurring in a densely populated poultry area over a short period of time, followed by Germany with 168 outbreaks. Most of the outbreaks in poultry appeared to be related to between-farm spread, and to national and intra-community trade of live HPAI infected poultry. Germany accounted for 603 detections in wild birds, followed by Denmark and Poland with 167 and 56 detections, respectively. A second peak of HPAI-associated wild bird mortality was observed from February to April 2021 in north-west Europe. The observed longer persistence of HPAI in wild birds compared to previous years may result in a continuation of the risk for juveniles of wild birds and mammals, as well as for virus entry into poultry farms. Therefore, enhanced awareness among farmers to continue applying stringent biosecurity measures and to monitor and report increases in daily mortality and drops in production parameters, are recommended. Sixteen different genotypes were identified to date in Europe and Russia, suggesting a high propensity of these viruses to reassort. The viruses characterized to date retain a preference for avian-type receptors; however, transmission events to mammals and the identification of sporadic mutations of mammal adaptation, indicate ongoing evolution processes and possible increased ability of viruses within this clade to further adapt and transmit to mammals including humans. Since the last report, two human infections due to A(H5N6) HPAI were reported from China and Laos and 10 human cases due to A(H9N2) low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) virus identified in China and Cambodia. The risk of infection for the general population in the EU/EEA is assessed as very low and for occupationally exposed people low. People exposed during avian influenza outbreaks should adhere to protection measures, strictly wear personal protective equipment and get tested immediately when developing respiratory symptoms or conjunctivitis within 10 days after exposure.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Mount Nyiragongo’s volcano: why it’s unique and treacherous

May 31, 2021 

Still standing: a structure surrounded by lava following a volcanic eruption on 23 May 2021 in Goma, a city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Moses Sawasawa via GettyImages

Seismologists in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were still reporting earthquakes around the Mount Nyiragongo volcano a week after it erupted. The original eruption killed at least 32 people and tens of thousands had to flee the area. The Conversation Africa’s Moina Spooner asked earth scientist Paolo Papale to explain the particular conditions in the Virunga volcanic chain, and what makes it particularly dangerous.

What makes this volcano particularly dangerous?

Mount Nyiragongo is part of the Virunga volcanic chain, and owes its existence to the activity of the African Great Rift. The rift is constantly extending and opening. In a few tens of million years it will have led to the creation of a new ocean separating the bulk of the African continent from its present eastern portion.

We can see what the future would look like by observing present-day Madagascar, which was once attached to continental Africa.

The peculiar location of Mount Nyiragongo on a highly active segment of the African rift favours quick ascent of magma (molten material) from about 100 km beneath the Earth’s surface, and extreme fluidity of lava. That is one major reason of concern, as the lava flowing on the upper volcano flanks can be extremely fast and impossible to escape.

The eruption of 2002 was caused by a sudden episode of rift opening. Estimates were that 100 people had died and up to hundreds of thousands were forced to flee from the town of Goma and from the villages on the upper volcano flanks.

About 16km of fractures formed from the summit towards Goma and lava poured out from several locations along it, including from the outskirts of Goma. The Nyiragongo lava flowing from vents at lower altitude tends to be more viscous and slower. It gives people time to escape, but its stickiness is also more destructive to buildings in its path.

This time the fractures and vents weren’t at such a low altitude. The lava hasn’t reached the city yet.

Other dangers associated with rifting, and volcano activity in the region, are:
the earthquakes accompanying rifting episodes, which can themselves cause significant damage.




explosions when the hot lava reaches Lake Kivu waters causing its sudden boiling;

the release of carbon-rich gases, particularly methane, during rifting and eruption, leading to explosions;

the potential for carbon-rich gas accumulation at the bottom of lake Kivu, which may cause surface water to sink, releasing lethal gases threatening Goma.
How well did the government cope? Was it better than 2002?

Before and during the 2002 eruption the Goma Volcano Observatory did an excellent job with few resources, in terms of instruments and funds. In spite of having only three very old seismometers recording on paper, they were able to raise the alarm that the volcano was about to re-awaken days before the eruption occurred on January 17.

Unfortunately, the political situation at the time wasn’t favourable. Rwandan military forces were occupying the area and a local government was in place that had a complex relationship with the national government in Kinshasa. The alarms by the volcanologists remained unheard. The result was that hundreds of thousands of people fled across the Congo-Rwanda border and nearly as many found themselves homeless after the volcano erupted.

The crisis was then managed by the United Nations. Days after the eruption it sent the first group of international scientists to the site. It then maintained a year-long programme of international cooperation involving Congolese volcanologists.

The eruption in 2002 triggered substantial international support and many scientific papers. Some warned about the danger of rebuilding the city along the 2002 eastern lava flow originating close to the Munigi village. They suggested measures to protect the city against future lava flows.

As far as I am aware, this advice wasn’t followed. The city was rebuilt above the 2002 lava flows and expanded to four times.

During the last few years the management of the Goma Observatory has been largely organised from Belgium by the Royal Museum for Central Africa, the European Center for Geodynamics and Seismology and the National Museum of Natural History of Luxembourg. Earlier this year the World Bank suspended funding to the observatory, which was then forced to stop several monitoring activities. In spite of that, the observatory communicated to the authorities about 10 days in advance that the level of seismicity was raising and a new eruption might be possible.

Once again, as far as I know, that warning remained unheard.
What must be done to protect communities?

The social and political conditions in Eastern Congo are extremely difficult.

Read more: Violence is endemic in eastern Congo: what drives it

Still, the communities in and around Goma must be protected from the volcano; the humanitarian disruption from hundreds of thousands of homeless people must be prevented; and the political instabilities following massive and uncontrolled country border crossing must be avoided.

The rifting process and the eruption of magma can’t be controlled. Under such conditions, one should either relocate the town, which would be extremely difficult for a town the size of Goma (which also has a strategic location and political relevance), or at least reduce the risk to controlled levels.

Following the 2002 eruption we at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Pisa, Italy, started a programme of hazard evaluation and risk mitigation from lava flow invasion in Goma. We used numerical simulations of lava flow invasion to identify and characterise the most efficient and effective artificial barriers that would maximise shielding and protection in town.

It is clear, however, that the local and national governments need to be more aware of the risks from tectonic rifting and from the volcano. And the Goma Volcano Observatory should receive the resources and independence to fully operate as the sole authoritative reference for the local authorities and international partners.

Author

Paolo Papale

Director of Research , Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Disclosure statement

Paolo Papale receives funding from the European Commission. He also managed funds from the Italian Civil Protection Department during his time as the Head of the National Program on Volcanic Hazards. He was part of a group of scientists sent to the DRC by the UN after the eruption in 2002 to support the Goma Volcano Observatory.

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 CANADAARM

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ROBOTIC ARM STRUCK BY SPACE DEBRIS

THERESA CROSS

MAY 31ST, 2021

During a routine inspection, it was discovered that the space station’s robotic arm, called Canadarm2, was struck by a piece of space debris. Credit: NASA/CSA

During a routine inspection of the International Space Station on May 12, damage was discovered on the Canadarm2, a nearly 60-foot-long robotic arm on the station.

A 2013 computer generated image representation of orbital space debris. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

According to a post from the Canadian Space Agency on May 28, the arm is believed to have taken a hit from a small piece of space debris, one too small to track. The debris impacted and left its mark, a hole in part of the arm and the white thermal blanket that wraps around it.

Tracking of orbital debris only occurs for objects that are softball size and larger. Smaller objects such as rock, or dust particles and flecks of paint from satellites, are not tracked due to the significant difficulty in locating and maintaining constant awareness of the objects location.

NASA takes the threat of space collisions very seriously as the safety of the astronauts on board the orbiting science laboratory is among the agency’s top priorities.

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, CSA, worked together to analyze and assess the damage to the areas of concern, taking detailed images of the impact to the arm and working with engineers to determine the severity.

Experts for both agencies have determined that the damage is limited and the arm’s performance is unaffected. The agencies plan to continue all planned near-term robotic operations onboard the station.

WHO mission scientists cast doubt on ‘political’ revival of Covid lab leak theory


Commuters in Beijing today. The United States has revived accusations that the coronavirus leaked from a Chinese laboratory

SCIENTISTS who took part in February’s World Health Organisation (WHO) mission to Wuhan hit back at the US’s renewal of “lab leak” conspiracy theories over the long weekend.

They spoke out after British spies backed the US claims in comments given to the Sunday Times.

Widely ridiculed when raised by the Donald Trump administration – with a leaked briefing from German intelligence noting it was a “calculated attempt to distract” from the US’s own failure to contain the coronavirus pandemic – the suggestion that Covid-19 leaked from a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology has now been resurrected by US President Joe Biden.

An international team of experts who visited China earlier this year concluded that it was “extremely unlikely” the virus could have escaped from a laboratory, with team chair Peter Ben Embarek pointing out that “there had been no publication or research of this virus or one close to this virus, anywhere in the world.” It found that transmission from bats to humans was the most likely origin.

But Mr Biden dramatically revived the lab leak theory last week, ordering US intelligence to investigate it and report back to him, and for Washington to work with “like-minded partners” to establish its accuracy. The Sunday Times has now reported that British intelligence also views a lab origin as “feasible.”

Dominic Dwyer, an Australian member of the original WHO team, told ABC News at the weekend that “there was no evidence to back up the lab escape theory.”

Responding to US claims that China did not fully co-operate with the WHO probe, he added that the questions asked and evidence seen by the team “are really what I would expect if I was doing the same investigation in Australia or New Zealand.”

British team member Peter Daszak, who is based in New York, said that the new accusations were “political, not scientific” and told the Daily Telegraph that China had “fallen victim to conspiracy theories.”

Mr Daszak complained last August that the United States was trying to politicise the search for the virus’s origin, cutting funding for his EcoHealth Alliance which has conducted research in China for 15 years, collecting faeces and other samples from bats and blood samples from people at risk of infection from bat-origin viruses.

The US then tried to tie renewed funding to “absurd” requirements such as EcoHealth getting US federal officials access to inspect Chinese scientific research facilities.

Morning Star | The People’s Daily (morningstaronline.co.uk)

A World Food Prize Winner Wants You To Reconsider Anchovies – Here’s How Nutritious They Are

By Andy Corbley -May 31, 2021

Olya Kobruseva

Anchovies and sardines are, as it turns out straight superfoods—especially for kids.

Dr. Shakuntala Thilsted was recently awarded the 2021 World Food Prize—described as the Nobel Prize for food and agriculture—for her work integrating small fish into developing nations diets: primarily she focused on this because of the incredible nutrient density of small fish, and the imperative role it plays in brain development in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, as well as in pregnant and nursing mothers.

Anchovies, sardines, and in fact many small fish species are rich in the unsaturated fats omega 3 and 6 also known as EPA and DHA, which are critical for brain health. Since sardines only eat plankton, they also contain only very low levels of mercury.

There’s also evidence they help prevent aging, and can reduce inflammation in a variety of organs. They also contain vitamin B12, a nutrient found most often in meat and particularly seafood, but that’s almost absent in all other food groups.

B12 deficiency is common in children in the developing world, a challenge that Thilsted sought to tackle with increasing access to smaller fish, which involved a little bit of stigma-breaking, since most consumers would prefer to eat larger fish like tuna, salmon, or carp species.

Her work started in Bangladesh, and spans Sierra Leone, Malawi, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Zambia, and Nepal. One of the principal ways she’s increasing access to small fish is by utilizing a cultural feature of Bangladesh—the backyard “homestead pond.”

In an interview with NPR, Thilsted explains that since Bangladesh is such a low-lying country, many people choose to build their houses on raised earth. The hole the homeowners dig to acquire the dirt to lift up their property becomes a pond, which they normally stock with larger fish species.

There are four million of these homestead ponds in Bangladesh alone according to Thilsted, but she’s also found them in India, Zambia, and Malawi. Small fish are faster growing, and produce more food weight than larger fish traditionally raised in ponds, since their bones, which contain plenty of nutritional value, are thin enough to chew right through.

Thilsted developed programs to expand awareness of dietary uses of small fish in the kitchen, helping families find more ways to get vital nutrients to their kids. One method is by drying the fish and pulverizing it into a sort of supplement that can then be added to rice or porridge to supercharge the nutrient values therein.

“Dr. Thilsted’s work on nutrition, fish, and aquatic foods challenges us to think very critically about the scope of agricultural research and the urgent call to action to transform global food systems towards healthy and sustainable diets for all,” said WorldFish Director Gareth Johnstone. Thilsted has worked for WorldFish for 10 years.

Taking inspiration from his new home country of Italy, this reporter dissolves one or two dried anchovies in olive oil, adds herbs and spices, and stores it for use as a deep flavoring agent.