China names 'Wolf Warrior' diplomat as new ambassador in Washington



Issued on: 29/07/2021 -

Relations between China and the United States have

 deteriorated rapidly in recent years 

Jewel SAMAD AFP/File

Washington (AFP)

One of China's most prominent "Wolf Warrior" diplomats was on Wednesday announced as his nation's new ambassador to the United States.

The hawkish Qin Gang, a close confidante of President Xi Jinping, has arrived in Washington at a time of high tensions between China and the United States, and is expected to deliver a combative message.

He gained prominence during his two stints as foreign ministry spokesman, issuing barbed responses to foreign reporters and pioneering an aggressive style of defending China in the press and on social media dubbed "Wolf Warrior" diplomacy.

"As two big countries different in history, culture, social system and development stage, China and the United States are entering a new round of mutual exploration, understanding and adaptation, trying to find a way to get along with each other," Qin told reporters on his arrival in the American capital.

The new envoy vowed to bring US-China ties "back on track," according to a transcript released by the Chinese embassy.

The relationship has rapidly deteriorated in recent years, with the two powers clashing on a wide range of issues including trade, human rights, cybersecurity and the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

And while President Joe Biden has lowered the tone since taking office, he has largely maintained his predecessor Donald Trump's hawkish stance on China, describing it as the pre-eminent challenge to the United States.

Qin, who accompanied Xi on numerous overseas trips as the foreign ministry's protocol chief, is among the diplomats who have vigorously defended China in the face of increasing criticism on the world stage.

The 55-year-old is considered more hawkish than his predecessor in Washington, Cui Tiankai. He is a fluent English speaker, having spent several years at the Chinese embassy in London.

Beijing-based independent analyst Hua Po described Qin as "one of the backbone members" of the Wolf Warrior movement.

Qin in February defended that style of diplomacy as a necessary response to "groundless slander" and "crazy attacks against China".

Chinese foreign ministry spokespeople and officials abroad have adopted a strident and indignant tone to loudly defend the Communist-led country and even promote conspiracy theories or openly insult foreign counterparts.

But President Xi recently urged top political leaders to help cultivate a "reliable, admirable and respectable" international image to improve China's soft power.

© 2021 AFP

Nigerian cleric detained since 2015 acquitted and freed, lawyer says


Issued on: 28/07/2021 -

Hundreds of supporters of Shiite Muslim leader Ibrahim Zakzaky demonstrate in Abuja, on July 10, 2019, to demand his release. © Kola Sulaimon, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES


Shiite Muslim leader Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife detained for murder since 2015 in Nigeria have on Wednesday been discharged, lawyers said.

The prominent cleric has been at loggerheads with the secular authorities for years because of his calls for an Iranian-style Islamic revolution in Nigeria, where Shiites make up a small minority.

Zakzaky, his wife Zeenah Ibrahim and 200 of their followers were arrested in a violent crackdown in the northern city of Zaria.

A court in 2016 ordered the couple be released -- but the authorities ignored the demand and filed charges against the cleric including the murder of a soldier.

"None of the 15 prosecution witnesses proved they committed the offence," lawyer Sadau Garba told AFP after Wednesday's hearing, adding that the couple had been acquitted and "regained their freedom today."

Lead prosecutor Dari Bayero confirmed that the pair had been freed but said the state was planning to appeal.

"The court ruled that none of the witnesses we presented in court gave convincing proof that the duo were guilty," Bayero said.

"This doesn't mean they can't be re-arraigned... we are certainly going to file charges against the duo at appeal."

Amnesty International urged the Nigerian authorities to "immediately comply" with the court order.

"If the government once again deliberately disregards the orders of its own courts, it will demonstrate a flagrant -- and dangerous -- contempt for the rule of law," the rights group said in a statement.

Troops launched a ferocious clampdown on Zakzaky's group, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), in December 2015, when members blocked the convoy of the army chief of staff during a religious procession.

Rights groups said at the time that some 350 IMN members were killed during two days of clashes and later buried in mass graves.

The army initially denied the events and said a soldier was killed by armed Shiites.

Zakzaky's continued detention has led to street protests in the nation's capital Abuja, sparking violent clashes with security forces that have claimed dozens of lives.

The Nigerian government officially outlawed the group in 2019.

Vindication

That same year, 100 of the detained members were released in two batches after a court acquitted them.

And in February last year another court released 87 other IMN members for lack of evidence.

After the announcement of Zakzaky's release, his lawyer said the cleric and his wife "now need to go home, have some rest and attend to their urgent medical needs."


But he added they will "seek damages against the Kaduna state government for all the deprivations and the travails our client suffered."

A spokesman for the IMN, Ibrahim Musa, said the court's decision was "a victory for truth and justice against tyranny and impunity".

"The false charges filed against them have finally been punctured for good after almost five years of excruciating illegal detention," Musa said.

"This judgement has not only vindicated them and all members of the Islamic movement in Nigeria, but it is certainly a victory for perseverance in the face of extreme persecution by the Nigerian government."

(AFP)

#BIOARCHITECTURE

From grey to green: world cities uprooting the urban jungle



Issued on: 29/07/2021

As alarm about global warming has grown and urban development goals have shifted, replanting initiatives have sprouted in cities around the world 

ROSLAN RAHMAN AFP


Paris (AFP)

From lettuces farmed on New York's skyline to thick corridors of trees occupying once desolate Colombian roadsides, green initiatives are running wild in cities around the world.

At a time when coronavirus lockdowns have amplified the need for nature in urban areas, AFP has gathered images and footage of projects optimising precious city space.

Replanting initiatives have sprouted up since the start of the 21st century as urban development goals have shifted and alarm about global warming has grown.

And they've had an impact.

In nine cities in the world, thanks to planting schemes on walls and roofs, the temperature during the warmest month in so-called street canyons -- flanked by high-rise buildings on either side -- can be reduced by 3.6 to 11.3 degrees Celsius at the hottest time of day, according to a report by the French Agency for Ecological Transition.

Green spaces have also been shown to improve health and wellbeing, including by reducing stress, anxiety and depression, improving attention and focus, better physical health and managing post-traumatic stress disorder, said Stephanie Merchant of Bath University's department for health.#photo1

"However, it's about where they are created in relation to the needs of the local communities," she added.

So, are all urban replanting projects worthwhile?

For a scheme to be seen as "virtuous", it must fulfil as many functions as possible, economist and urban planner Jean Haentjens, who co-authored the book "Eco-urbanisme" ("Eco-Urbanism"), told AFP.

In addition to lowering the temperature, he said it should also preserve biodiversity, improve wellbeing, raise awareness, be appealing to residents and suitable for its social context.

- Singapore's otherworldly garden -

The imposing "forest" of giant manmade trees constructed from reinforced concrete and steel, luxuriantly covered in real flora and fauna, is a Singapore landmark.

Towering 25 to 50 metres (82 to 164 feet) over the city-state's new business district, the 18 solar-powered supertrees light up the night sky, their canopies looking like flying saucers.

Vast glass greenhouses also showcase exotic plants from five continents, as well as plant life from tropical highlands up to 2,000 metres above sea level, complete with an artificial mountain and indoor waterfall.

The Gardens by the Bay project, awarded the World Building of the Year in 2012, says the idea was to create "a city in a garden".

But pointing to the construction and maintenance costs, Philippe Simay, a philosopher on cities and architecture, called it a "disneyisation" of nature. "Why make trees from concrete when you can have real ones?" he asked.#photo2

It's a great public relations effort, says Claire Doussard, a teacher in planning and development and a research fellow at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, highlighting its "technical know-how" and awareness-raising among the public about the threat of climate change.

- Farming on a New York rooftop -

With buildings all around, the Statue of Liberty in the distance and heavy traffic below, the Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm grows more than 45 tonnes of organic produce a year.

It was launched about a decade ago by friends living in New York who wanted "a small sustainable farm that operated as a business", co-founder Gwen Schantz said.

In a built-up city, Simay noted, it had been found that such initiatives were "fighting effectively against heat islands" where heat-conducting concrete and asphalt make cities warmer than their surroundings.

Now covering three rooftops, totalling more than 22,000 square metres (more than 236,000 square feet), the farm cultivates a wide variety of vegetables.#photo3

But it has to limit the soil depth to about 30 centimetres (12 inches) and "irrigate the soil a little more frequently, because it dries out very quickly", Schantz said.

Doussard said that the logistics of rooftop farming, where water and soil must be hauled up and produce brought down, means: "These farms must be profitable because there are a lot of constraints."

- From living in Milan's vertical forest... -

By adorning two high-rise apartment buildings from top to bottom in more than 20,000 trees and plants, Italian architect Stefano Boeri said he'd wanted to make trees "an essential component of architecture" and create something that could "contribute to reducing pollution".

The Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) in the heart of Milan sees cherry, apple and olive trees spilling over balconies alongside beeches and larches, selected and positioned according to their resistance to wind and preference for sunlight or humidity.

The award-winning project opened in 2014 and, said Simay, is "an indisputable technical feat with an ecosystem function, a large diversity of trees, plants, insects".#photo4

But, he added, concrete and steel were required to support it all, while setting it up was costly and energy-consuming.

And the price that the luxury apartments go for is also often a talking point.

- ... to vertical farming in Copenhagen -

Bathed in purple light, produce like lettuce, herbs and kale sprout in layered racks from floor to ceiling inside a massive warehouse in a Copenhagen industrial zone.

Little robots deliver trays of seeds from aisle to aisle at the vertical farm, opened by Danish start-up Nordic Harvest in December.#photo5

Produce will be harvested 15 times a year despite never seeing soil or daylight -- 20,000 specialised LED lightbulbs keep it illuminated around the clock.

The need for constant lighting is one of the downsides for Simay, who also highlighted its overall costs.

But Nordic Harvest founder and chief executive Anders Riemann stresses the benefits of produce being grown close to consumers, freeing up agricultural land that can be turned back into forest.

For Haentjens, it represents "an interesting route", depending on the context. "But we can't make it the model of tomorrow," he said.

- Riyadh's mass tree planting -

Today any greenery in Riyadh is almost lost in between the multi-lane highways and gigantic interchanges, but within nine years the city plans to have added 7.5 million trees.

The reforestation is part of an $11-billion green initiative that also includes creating 3,000 parks in the Saudi capital.

It will require one million cubic metres (35 million cubic feet) of water daily, which will be recycled water from an irrigation network, the Riyadh Green website says.

But it will contribute towards reducing normal temperatures by one or two degrees Celsius and improve the quality of life with less air pollution and dust, according to project head Abdelaziz al Moqbel.#photo6

"Reintroducing trees in the desert is very virtuous, you gain in terms of cooling," architect and urban planner Cedissia About said.

But, she added, the big question would be whether phytosanitary products, which scare off birds and insects, are used when the aim is to boost biodiversity.

- Medellin's 'green corridors' -

Colombia's second-biggest city has won plaudits and awards for its "green corridors", an interconnected network that has transformed urban thoroughfares once lacking in nature and strewn with rubbish where drug addicts gathered.

Now the 30 tree- and flower-filled corridors connect up with Medellin's existing green spaces such as parks and gardens.

"There's been a real reflection citywide on the species chosen, the habitability, the constraints," Doussard said.#photo7

The overall effect has reduced the temperature by two degrees Celsius and helped purify the air, according to a city authority video.

Bees and birds have returned, residents are engaged and gardening jobs have been created, it added.

"It's one of the better examples (of urban replanting), driven by a policy which increases biodiversity, with a social dimension," Simay said.

- Chengdu's apartment blocks turned jungle -

It promised inhabitants of a Chinese megacity life in a vertical forest, with luxuriant plants and greenery on their balcony.

"The air is good when you wake up in the morning, and the green trees are good for us elderly people," said Lin Dengying, who lives in one of the eight towers making up Qiyi City Forest Garden in Chengdu which opened in 2018.

Some parts look like a treehouse perched within a tropical forest, while other places look overrun by their own vegetation, like a jungle is invading and bursting off the terraces.#photo8

In September, the state-run Global Times newspaper reported that only about 10 families had moved into the more than 800 apartments due to what some residents said was an infestation of mosquitoes.

It shows, said Doussard, the need not only to consider a project's environmental impact, but also its "liveability".

© 2021 AFP

REPARATIONS
France's 1960s nuclear tests in Algeria still poison ties

Issued on: 29/07/2021 

Between 1960 and 1966, France conducted 17 atmospheric or underground nuclear tests deep in the Sahara desert of Algeria - AFP/File


Algiers (AFP)

More than 60 years since France started its nuclear tests in Algeria, their legacy continues to poison relations between the North African nation and its former colonial ruler.

The issue has come to the fore again after President Emmanuel Macron said in French Polynesia on Tuesday that Paris owed "a debt" to the South Pacific territory over atomic tests there between 1966 and 1996.

The damage the mega-blasts did to people and nature in the former colonies remains a source of deep resentment, seen as proof of discriminatory colonial attitudes and disregard for local lives.


"Diseases related to radioactivity are passed on as an inheritance, generation after generation," said Abderahmane Toumi, head of the Algerian victims' support group El Gheith El Kadem.

"As long as the region is polluted, the danger will persist," he said, citing severe health impacts from birth defects and cancers to miscarriages and sterility.

France carried out its first successful atomic bomb test deep in the Algerian Sahara in 1960, making it the world's fourth nuclear power after the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain.

Today, as Algeria and France struggle to deal with their painful shared history, the identification and decontamination of radioactive sites remains one of the main disputes.#photo1

In his landmark report on French colonial rule and the 1954-62 Algerian War, historian Benjamin Stora recommended continued joint work that looks into "the locations of nuclear tests in Algeria and their consequences".

France in the 1960s had a policy of burying all radioactive waste from the Algerian bomb tests in the desert sands, and for decades declined to reveal their locations.

- 'Radioactive fallout' -

Algeria's former veterans affairs minister Tayeb Zitouni recently accused France of refusing to release topographical maps that would identify "burial sites of polluting, radioactive or chemical waste not discovered to date".#photo2

"The French side has not technically conducted any initiative to clean up the sites, and France has not undertaken any humanitarian act to compensate the victims," said Zitouni.

According to the Ministry of the Armed Forces in Paris, Algeria and France now "deal with the whole subject at the highest level of state".

"France has provided the Algerian authorities with the maps it has," said the ministry.

Between 1960 and 1966, France conducted 17 atmospheric or underground nuclear tests near the town of Reggane, 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) from the capital Algiers, and in mountain tunnels at a site then called In Ekker.

Eleven of them were conducted after the 1962 Evian Accords, which granted Algeria independence but included an article allowing France to use the sites until 1967.

A radioactive cloud from a 1962 test sickened at least 30,000 Algerians, the country's official APS news agency estimated in 2012.

French documents declassified in 2013 revealed significant radioactive fallout from West Africa to southern Europe.

Algeria last month set up a national agency for the rehabilitation of former French nuclear test sites.

In April, Algeria's army chief of staff, General Said Chengriha, asked his then French counterpart, General Francois Lecointre, for his support, including access to all the maps.

- 'We respect our dead' -

Receiving the maps is "a right that the Algerian state strongly demands, without forgetting the question of compensation for the Algerian victims of the tests," stressed a senior army officer, General Bouzid Boufrioua, writing in the defence ministry magazine El Djeich.

"France must assume its historical responsibilities," he argued.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, however, ruled out any demands for compensation, telling Le Point weekly that "we respect our dead so much that financial compensation would be a belittlement. We are not a begging people."

France passed a law in 2010 which provided for a compensation procedure for "people suffering from illnesses resulting from exposure to radiation from nuclear tests carried out in the Algerian Sahara and in Polynesia between 1960 and 1998".

But out of 50 Algerians who have since launched claims, only one, a soldier from Algiers who was stationed at one of the sites, "has been able to obtain compensation", says the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

No resident of the remote desert region has been compensated, it said.

In a study released a year ago, "Radioactivity Under the Sand", ICAN France urged Paris to hand Algeria a complete list of the burial sites and to facilitate their clean-up.

The 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons obliges states to provide adequate assistance to individuals affected by the use or testing of nuclear weapons.


It was signed by 122 UN member states -- but by none of the nuclear powers. France argued the treaty was "incompatible with a realistic and progressive approach to nuclear disarmament".

ICAN France in its study argued that "people have been waiting for more than 50 years. There is a need to go faster.

"We are still facing an important health and environmental problem that must be addressed as soon as possible."

© 2021 AFP

UNESCO awards Gabon's Ivindo park World Heritage status


Issued on: 28/07/2021

The 300,000-hectare (740,000-acre) Ivindo park is is home to many engangered animals such as gorillas 

Handout THE ASPINALL FOUNDATION/AFP
2 min
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Libreville (AFP)

Gabon's Ivindo National Park was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Wednesday in recognition of the nation's success in defending biodiversity and challenging climate change.

The park is the second nature reserve -- after Lope Park in 2007 -- to be listed in this small central African country, which is 90 percent covered by forest and known for efforts to preserve its natural heritage.

"A great day," tweeted President Ali Bongo Ondimba, adding that the inclusion "rewards Gabon's efforts to protect its forests, which play a key role in the fight against global warming".

At the end of June, Gabon became the first African country to be paid by international funds to continue its efforts against deforestation on its territory.

The 300,000-hectare (740,000-acre) park is home to some emblematic mammals, now threatened, such as the forest elephant, gorilla, chimpanzee, leopard and three species of pangolin.

Some parts of the site are barely explored, according to UNESCO.

For several years, the Gabonese authorities have developed a relatively advanced policy to protect the Central African rainforest, called "the second lung of the earth" after the Amazon.

It has 13 national parks, covering 11 percent of its territory, and 20 marine protected areas. Gabon is home to nearly 60 percent of Africa's remaining forest elephants, recently listed as critically endangered.

© 2021 AFP

Could display drones snuff out the firework?


FROME, England (Reuters) - Concerns about pollution and the environment could see drone displays - such as the one featured in the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony - replace fireworks as the light show of choice in the night sky.

© Reuters/KIM KYUNG-HOON FILE PHOTO:

 Tokyo 2020 Olympics - The Tokyo 2020 Olympics Opening Ceremony

Governments in China and India have already tried to limit the number of fireworks set off during celebrations for the Lunar New Year and Diwali to minimise dangerous air pollution.

And even Sydney in Australia, famous for its New Year firework display, is considering replacing the pyrotechnics with drones to reduce the risk of bushfires, according to reports in Australian media last year.

One company hoping to capitalise on such a shift is British-based Celestial, which puts on displays flying up to 300 drones in formation and says the technology is developing fast.

In a practice session seen by Reuters at an airfield in Somerset, England, a drone swarm morphed into shapes such as a walking toy robot, a dancer and a butterfly flapping its wings.

"Our goal ... is to supersede fireworks - We love fireworks but they blow things up, they're single-use, they make things catch on fire and they scare animals," Celestial co-founder John Hopkins told Reuters.

"What we're trying to do is create something, creatively, more interesting, green because we use renewable energy sources and we don't scare the animals."

(Reporting by Stuart McDill; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Yes, Underwater UFOs Are a Thing, And There's a Bizarre History to Them

Kyle Mizokami 

POPMECH

In October 2019, U.S. Navy Commander David Fravor, who was the subject of a New York Times article about his 2004 UFO sighting, discussed a spooky new sighting a fellow pilot revealed to him after they were both out of the Navy.

© Pexels/Pixabay 

Learn about the entire history of "unidentified submerged objects." Because it's not just UFOs out there.

According to Fravor, the eyewitness was a former pilot of the MH-53E Sea Dragon, the Navy version of the Marine Corps’ CH-53E Sea Stallion, based at Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, on the island of Puerto Rico. Twice while recovering spent practice munitions out of the water, the pilot spotted a weird underwater object.

In the first incident, the pilot saw a "dark mass" underwater as he and his team retrieved a flying practice drone. The pilot described the object as a “big” mass, “kinda circular,” and he was certain it wasn't a submarine. In the pilot’s second sighting, a practice torpedo that the pilot was sent to recover was “sucked down” into the depths of the ocean in the presence of a similar underwater object. The torpedo was never seen again.

Elsewhere in the interview, Fravor reveals that a 79-year-old woman contacted him after his sighting went public. The woman explained that her father, a naval officer, was at one time based at the naval station in San Francisco in the 1950s. When she was a child, her father showed her a telegram that stated unidentified objects had been sighted going in and out of the water at a now forgotten set of latitude and longitude coordinates. The woman’s father told her, “We get these all the time, and it’s always in the same area.”

© Dan Kitwood - Getty Images A BQM-174 high performance target drone similar to that recovered according to retired U.S. Navy Commander David Fravor.

These sightings are similar to Fravor’s own sighting. According to the retired Navy pilot, the only reason he had seen the now-infamous "Tic Tac" UFO was because it was hovering above a mysterious larger object that was sighted underwater. Fravor describes the object as cross shaped and approximately the size of a Boeing 737 jetliner. He has further described the water above it as though it were "boiling" or "frothing," and said the object disappeared after it caught his attention.

© Icon Sports Wire - Getty Images United Airlines 737-924 airliner.

In 1970, biologist Ivan Sanderson published the book Invisible Residents. Sanderson, a noted student of unusual phenomena, devoted the book to sightings of what were later called Unidentified Submerged Objects, or USOs. USOs are defined as unknown craft that are sighted in the water, sighted rising up out of the water, or diving into the water. Sanderson catalogued scores of reports of USOs:

On the 19th of April, 1957, crew members aboard the Kitsukawa Maru, a Japanese fishing boat, spotted two metallic silvery objects descending from the sky into the sea (original emphasis). The objects, estimated to be ten meters long, were without wings of any kind. As the hit the water, they created a violent turbulence. The exact location was reported as 31° 15’ N and 143° 30’ E.

Sanderson also reports an incident that reportedly took place off the coast of Puerto Rico in 1963 during an anti-submarine warfare exercise.
The maneuvers were conducted off Puerto Rico in the Atlantic some 500 miles southeast of the continental United States. All reports seem to agree that there were five “small” naval vessels concerned, but in more than one account the aircraft carrier Wasp is stated to have been the command ship…

A sonar operator on one of the small vessels, otherwise listed as a destroyer, reported to his bridge that one of the submarines had broken formation and gone off in what appeared to be pursuit of some unknown object. This operator did not, of course, know if this was a “plant”, since the maneuvers they were engaged in were exercises designed to train personnel in detection of enemy craft...However, this operator’s report was not all within the limits of any such simulation,. Trouble was that said subaqueous object was traveling at “over 150 knots”

!

U.S. Navy via Navsource USS Wasp in 1964.

According to Sanderson, “no less than [13] craft,” including anti-submarine warfare patrol aircraft, tracked the high-speed, unknown object. Furthermore:

It is said that technicians kept track of this object for four days, and that it maneuvered round about, and to depths of 27,000 feet.

USS Wasp was indeed an anti-submarine warfare carrier in 1963 and served in the Atlantic Fleet until decommissioning in 1972. Unfortunately, Sanderson doesn't provide any sourcing for the incident nor is there any other information about it posted on the internet.

The National UFO Recording Center maintains a database of sightings reported to the NUFORC, both by email and hotline. There are many reports of UFO-type objects seen coming out of or going into the ocean.

Off the coast of Half Moon Bay, California, an eyewitness reported that in 2007 she observed three UFOs while aboard the cruise ship Dawn Princess (renamed in 2017 Pacific Explorer.)

“After about 5 minutes, three softly glowing objects came into view – three uniform, nearly spherical objects, evenly spaced in a line parallel to the ship’s hull and hovering just above the water surface… They appeared to stay in one place while the ship moved past them. They were hovering, but didn’t disturb the water below them. Just as they went out of my sight, the left one (toward the bow) splashed down into the water and disappeared."

© James D. Morgan - Getty Images The cruise ship Dawn Princess, Western Australia, 2013.

One report logged in April 2019 states that an object resembling a “small white boat” flew up out of the water near Imperial Beach, California, “at about [500] feet.” The object promptly “flew south at a very high rate of speed.”

Whatever USOs are—figments of the imagination, mechanical malfunctions, secret government craft, or even the work of extraterrestrials—there's a long history of sightings. Fravor’s anonymous helicopter pilot is just the latest in a long line of mysteries.

International team of scientists searching for evidence of alien technology

© Provided by National Post NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 12:

Theoretical Physicist Avi Loeb speaks during the New Space Exploration Initiative

A Harvard astronomer named Avi Loeb announced the Galileo Project on Monday, in which he and an international team of scientists will search for evidence of technology built by extraterrestrial civilizations.

The Galileo Project has received $1.75 million in funding through private donations, according to Phys.org , but is hoping to increase its funding tenfold, Loeb said. The project will involve the creation and coordination of a global network of medium-sized telescopes, cameras and computers. The equipment will be used to examine unidentified flying objects. The project will also involve researchers from Harvard, Princeton, Cambridge, Caltech and the University of Stockholm.

“We can no longer ignore the possibility that technological civilizations predated us,” Loeb said to reporters at a news conference. “The impact of any discovery of extraterrestrial technology on science, our technology, and on our entire world view, would be enormous,” said Loeb in a statement.

What we know so far about the unclassified Pentagon UFO report

Watershed U.S. UFO report does not rule out extraterrestrial origin

The Galileo Project was announced about a month following the Pentagon report about unidentified aerial phenomena, which indicated the source of the phenomena was unclear.

“What we see in our sky is not something that politicians or military personnel should interpret, because they were not trained as scientists, it’s for the science community to figure out,” Loeb said.

Loeb is a Harvard professor who has published almost 700 research articles and four books. Loeb has collaborated with Stephen Hawking and was the subject of controversy in 2017 for suggesting that an object could have been an alien probe sailing on solar winds, reported Phys.org .

The Galileo Project will also investigate objects that visit our solar system coming from interstellar space, also searching for alien satellites that could potentially be probing Earth.

The project is named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei.

Sacred Journey exhibits rich history of Indigenous canoe culture

Nations and families from far-flung parts of coastal B.C. gathered to launch the Sacred Journey exhibit and celebrate the enduring importance of Indigenous canoe culture that stretches across the Pacific Northwest coast.

The traditional ocean-going canoe, or “Glwa” in the Heiltsuk language, is a way of life, essential to First Nations sustenance, social life, community culture and ceremony, said the exhibit’s executive producer Frank Brown at the Campbell River Museum — the first stop in the show’s five-year tour.

“The story of the ocean-going canoe on the coast is all of our story,” said Brown, of the Heiltsuk Nation, who carries the hereditary hemas (chief) name of Dhadhiyasila (λ.λ.yasila), meaning “preparing for the largest potlatch.”

“The canoe made our society what it is,” he said to the crowd, which included members of the Nuu-chah-nulth and Heiltsuk nations, among others, as well as the hosting nation, the Wei Wai Kum.

“It mobilized us, so we could harvest the abundance of the sea and the land to evolve to be great cultures,” Brown said.

“Our common heritage of the ocean-going canoe, big houses and ceremonies, like the potlatch, is what unifies us as coastal Native people.”

Canoe culture was nearly extinguished by colonialism, but it has made a comeback over the last three decades, particularly through the Tribal Canoe Journeys, which have sped a resurgence of Aboriginal culture and youth empowerment.

The annual event, involving Indigenous nations across the Pacific Northwest coast from Alaska to Oregon, sees paddlers travel hundreds of kilometres to visit sister nations to foster solidarity and cultural exchange.

The Sacred Journey exhibit was developed to share the knowledge and experience of the ocean-going canoe through art, immersive audio, video displays, and interactive experiences from an Indigenous point of view, Brown said.

Its stunning art pieces include a monumental canvas canoe with four prominent Heiltsuk crests in striking colours painted by Heiltsuk artist KC Hall. The works of two other Heiltsuk artists, Chazz Mack and Ian Reid, are also showcased.

Mack designed beautiful and ornate overarching house posts and paddles to accompany the canoe, while Reid carved an eagle-human transformative mask. Renowned artist Roy Henry Vickers created a moon and salmon logo for the exhibit, while Quadra Island metal sculptor Kevin Mackenzie designed a copper bow for the canoe and other detail elements of the display. The interactive audio and video elements of the show were produced by Greencoast Media.

Hopefully, the Sacred Journey exhibit will provide viewers and other Indigenous people who haven’t experienced the transformative power of an ocean-going canoe, said Brown, who as a young man raised funds to carve a traditional canoe, and mobilized others to make a symbolic journey to Expo 86 in Vancouver.

Many people at the opening ceremony spoke of the life-changing effects that being part of the coastal “canoe family” had on them and thousands of youth in their communities.

Kwakwaka’wakw master carver and Wei Wai Kum hereditary Chief Bill Henderson spoke of the joys of carving and travelling in a traditional canoe during a journey to Bella Bella.

“At every stop, there was a feast, and we’d sing songs,” said Henderson, adding a multitude of eagles flying overhead heralded the canoes' arrival in Alert Bay.

“It was all very touching and emotional,” he said.

Shawn Decaire said spontaneously joining a canoe journey in 2001 altered the course of his life — putting him on a better path and forging his identity as an Indigenous man and his relationship to the songs and culture of his nation.

By the end of his journey, Decaire, who loved singing country music, had learned 30 traditional songs.

“And when I came back, I was really influenced to bring culture back to our village with our people,” said Decaire, who lives at Cape Mudge, a We Wai Kai Nation village on Quadra Island.

The fact that the Sacred Journey exhibit, itself a legacy of canoe journeys, will travel the world is monumental and fitting, Decaire said.

The exhibit will be shown at 20 different venues, including Science World, the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the Canadian Canoe Museum, and a number of Indigenous communities south of the border. Brown is hopeful the show will make it to Hawaii, as Indigenous Hawaiians were a mighty canoe-going culture, he said.

Decaire refers to his canoe journey as a shared origin story that will now travel the world as the Sacred Journey exhibit.

“It's ... our rebirth back to what was stolen from us,” he said, adding his family was severed from their traditions through the bitter legacy of residential schools.

“In my generation, we had to fight to be cultural ... today's generation, they have a choice.

“And it's the greatest gift in the world.”

Sacred Journey will be on display at the Campbell River Museum until early November.


Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, National Observer

The IMF warned of an uneven global recovery. It just got worse.

bwinck@businessinsider.com (Ben Winck)

Medical workers administer COVID-19 vaccines in Mumbai, India, April 13, 2021. 

Rajanish Kakade/AP

Uneven vaccine rollouts are widening the gap between the recovery's winners and losers, the IMF said.

The IMF lifted its growth forecast for advanced economies and lowered its outlook for developing nations.

The organization warned of a K-shaped rebound just months into the pandemic as COVID slammed major economies.

The gap is widening between the winners and losers of the global COVID-19 recovery, thanks to uneven vaccine access, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday.

The IMF released its outlook for global growth in a new report, maintaining the world economy will grow by 6% this year. The devil, however, is in the details. Growth for advanced economies was revised 0.5 points higher. Conversely, the IMF lowered its estimate for growth in emerging markets and developing economies by 0.5 points.

The two groups will diverge even further through next year, according to the report. While the IMF lifted its 2022 growth estimate to 4.9% from 4.4%, the bulk of the upgrade comes from stronger performances by advanced economies.

It's all about the vaccines

The unevenness comes down to countries' vaccination efforts, Gita Gopinath, economic counselor at the IMF, said in a blog post.

Nearly 40% of the population in advanced economies has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That compares to just 11% in emerging markets, and an even smaller share in developing nations. As the Delta variant spreads around the world, speeding up vaccine rollouts in lagging countries is key to closing the growth gap, Gopinath said.

The disparity echoes warnings given by the IMF just months into the pandemic's onset. The organization said in April 2020 that the pandemic would power the largest downturn since the Great Depression, and that "no country is safe" until a vaccine was developed. Projections included in the early 2020 report saw advanced economies contracting 6.1% in 2020, reflecting outsized fallout in the US and EU.

However, emerging markets and developing nations only contract 1% as China swiftly rebounded and other countries faced relatively small outbreaks. The group also saw faster growth through 2021 compared to their larger peers, according to the IMF.

Fifteen months later and the script has almost completely flipped. Advanced economies' swift vaccine distribution has led to the easing of restrictions and a rebound in consumer spending. Vaccines' effectiveness against the Delta variant has also helped nations avoid new rounds of crippling lockdowns.

Emerging markets and developing countries are faring far worse. Case counts have surged in recent weeks as the Delta variant proliferates. Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Asia all risk stagnant recoveries should cases rise further, the IMF said.

Gopinath reiterated the need for additional funding to help struggling countries catch up with advanced economies. The IMF aims to spend $50 billion on vaccinating at least 40% of every country's population by the end of 2021 and 60% by mid-2022. Sharing surplus doses and removing trade restrictions to speed up shipments can also help close the vaccination gap, she said.

"Concerted, well-directed policy actions at the multilateral and national levels can make the difference between a future where all economies experience durable recoveries or one where divergences intensify, the poor get poorer, and social unrest and geopolitical tensions grow," Gopinath added.