Myanmar resistance movement calls for nationwide uprising
By GRANT PECK

today


This image made from video by National Unity Government (NUG) via Facebook, shows Duwa Lashi La, the acting president of the National Unity Government (NUG), posted on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021 in Myanmar. Myanmar’s NUG, an underground body coordinating resistance to the military regime, on Tuesday called for a nationwide uprising. The shadow government's acting president Duwa Lashi La called for revolt “in every village, town and city in the entire country at the same time” against the military-installed government and declared a so-called ”state of emergency."

 (National Unity Government via Facebook via AP)


BANGKOK (AP) — The main underground group coordinating resistance to Myanmar’s military government called for a nationwide uprising on Tuesday.

The National Unity Government views itself as a shadow government composed of elected legislators who were barred from taking their seats when the military seized power in February.

The group’s acting president Duwa Lashi La called for revolt “in every village, town and city in the entire country at the same time” and declared what he called a ”state of emergency.” A video of his speech was posted on Facebook.

The country has been wracked by unrest since the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, with a low-level insurrection in many urban areas. There has been more serious combat in rural areas, especially in border regions where ethnic minority militias have been engaging in serious clashes with the government’s troops.

The shadow government’s prime minister, Mahn Winn Khaing Thann, said in a separate statement posted online that the move was taken due to “changing circumstances” that required the complete abolition of the ruling military government. He did not elaborate.

There were no immediate signs of heightened resistance activity, although some student groups and ethnic armed organizations expressed solidarity.

The National Unity Government is popular inside Myanmar, but its actual power and influence is hard to measure. It has frequently issued sweeping proclamations and policy statements declaring the military government and its actions invalid and illegal, but they’ve had little real-world effect. It controls no territory, does not directly control any armed force and has won no diplomatic recognition from foreign countries. Members of its shadow Cabinet are in hiding inside Myanmar and in exile.

Duwa Lashi La called on the ethnic militias, some of whom have declared themselves in alliance with the resistance, to “immediately attack” government forces and “fully control your lands.” The ethnic armed forces, which have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government, operate independently of the National Unity Government.

Duwa Lashi La called for a “people’s revolution” and asked for all soldiers and police to join the “people’s defense forces.” He also warned civil servants against going to their offices.

He advised people to heed their personal safety and not travel unnecessarily, as well as to stock up on food and medicine, guidance it has offered on at least one past occasion when it warned of trouble ahead. He said people should help the defense forces where they can, including with information about government military forces.

The resistance movement against the military takeover had established “people’s defense forces” in many areas, but they mostly operate locally and when active, carry out small-scale hit-and-run guerrilla operations

'My saviour': Hanoi's tiny balconies a refuge in lockdown

Issued on: 07/09/2021 -

With outdoor exercise banned, it's not uncommon to see people in Hanoi linger for hours in their limited outside space 

Nhac NGUYEN AFP

Hanoi (AFP)

Overlooking deserted streets, Hanoi's tiny balconies have become places of refuge as the city's locked-down residents squeeze desks, yoga mats and comfy seats for coffee drinking into their share of fresh air.

Eight million people living in the Vietnamese capital have been under a strict stay-at-home order since late July, allowed out only for trips to get food or hospital visits.

Although the lockdown is beginning to ease in some parts of the city, most residents must stay home for at least another two weeks as the nationwide death toll from Covid-19 continues to climb.

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Overlooking deserted streets, Hanoi's tiny balconies have become places of refuge for the city's locked-down residents 

Nhac NGUYEN AFP

"My only connection to the outside world has been through my tiny balcony," said Nguyen Xuan Anh, an office worker who lives in a high-rise residential block.

Anh has squeezed a desk onto her three-square-metre (32-square-foot) balcony, once home to ornamental trees.

Several of Vietnam's cities and provinces have been under lockdown for months

 Nhac NGUYEN AFP

It's small, but large enough for her to work there on a laptop and drink her morning coffee while surveying the silence of a street once jam-packed with motorbikes and cars.

"Before, I had no time to even stand for five minutes on my balcony. Now, it's become my saviour," Anh told AFP.

With outdoor exercise banned, it's not uncommon to see people linger for hours in their limited outside space.

With outdoor exercise banned, it's not uncommon to see people linger for hours in their limited outside space in Hanoi 

Nhac NGUYEN AFP

"I hide on my balcony, my corner, almost the whole day," said Tran Trung Quan, an IT engineer.

"It's not nice to stay indoors all day, with the kids causing so much trouble that you cannot concentrate on your work".

Vietnam, widely praised last year for its handling of the pandemic, has been badly hit by Covid-19 since a fourth wave began in April.

The country has reported more than 500,000 infections and over 13,000 deaths.

Vietnam, widely praised last year for its handling of the pandemic, has been badly hit by Covid-19 since a fourth wave began in April

 Nhac NGUYEN AFP

Several cities and provinces, including the southern business hub Ho Chi Minh City, have been under lockdown for months.

"My only wish now is the lockdown order be removed, so that I can go back to work," Trung said.

"It's just too much for me to handle from this tiny balcony."

© 2021 AFP

Afghan art activist defiant as Taliban erase Kabul murals

Issued on: 07/09/2021 - 

Within weeks of capturing Kabul, the Taliban have started 

replacing many of the city's murals with propaganda slogans 

Aamir QURESHI AFP

Seoul (AFP)

Afghan activist Omaid Sharifi's art collective spent seven years transforming stretches of Kabul's labyrinthine concrete blast walls with colourful murals -- then the Taliban marched in.

Within weeks of the Islamists taking the capital, many of the street art pieces have been painted over, replaced by drab propaganda slogans as the Taliban reimpose their austere vision on Afghanistan.

The images of workers rolling white paint over the art were deeply foreboding for Sharifi, whose ArtLords collective has created more than 2,200 murals across the country since 2014.


"The image that comes to my mind is (the Taliban) putting a 'kaffan' over the city," he told AFP in a phone interview from the UAE on Monday, referring to the white shroud used to cover bodies for Islamic burials.

Omaid Sharifi co-founded ArtLords in 2014, and the collective went on to make more than 2,200 murals across Afghanistan 

Shah MARAI AFP/File

But even as the Taliban erase the work of the ArtLords and despite being forced to flee for his safety, Sharifi said he would continue his campaign.

"We will never stay silent," said the 34-year-old, speaking from a facility housing Afghan refugees.

"We will make sure the world hears us. We will make sure that the Taliban are shamed every single day."

Among the erased murals was one showing US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar shaking hands after signing the 2020 deal to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan.

- 'Everybody was running' -

Sharifi co-founded ArtLords in 2014, using art to campaign for peace, social justice and accountability.

The prolific group often shamed the powerful in Afghanistan with street art, including warlords and allegedly corrupt government officials.

The ArtLords mural showing a handshake between a US envoy and a Taliban leader is among the pieces painted over in recent days 

WAKIL KOHSAR AFP/File

Their murals honoured Afghan heroes, called for dialogue instead of violence, and demanded rights for women.

ArtLords members braved death threats and were branded infidels by Islamist extremists.

They remained unrepentant, and kept at it until the end.

On the morning of August 15, with the Taliban at the gates of Kabul, Sharifi and five of his colleagues went to work on a mural outside a government building.

Within hours, they saw panicked people rushing out of government offices and decided to return to the ArtLords gallery.

An Afghan worker cleans a road next to a mural in Kabul 

HOSHANG HASHIMI AFP

"All roads were blocked," Sharifi said.

"The army, the police were coming from all sides, abandoning their cars and everybody was running."

When the group finally made it to the gallery, they learned that Kabul had fallen.

- 'It never goes away' -

Sharifi was 10 years old in 1996 when the Islamists first came to power, and he witnessed their harsh rule until US-led forces toppled them five years later.

This time around, he said, "I expect that not a lot has changed."

Omaid Sharifi's collective covered many of Kabul's blast walls with colourful murals Wakil KOHSAR AFP/File

Like Sharifi, many Afghans are sceptical of Taliban claims of a softer government.

Few have forgotten the public executions, and the blanket ban on entertainment -- including on TVs and video cassette players.

Sharifi told AFP he "vividly remembers" the public punishments at a football stadium in Kabul, including beheadings and amputations for various crimes.

"When I was riding my bicycle to go to the central market... (I) would see a lot of broken TVs, broken cassette recorders and all these tapes," he added.

"That is always in my mind. It never goes away."

There was no local media to speak of during the Taliban's first stint in power, and images of humans and animals were banned.

- 'This is not the end' -

Tens of thousands of Afghans rushed to Kabul airport as the capital fell, fearful of life under the Taliban, among them scores of artists and activists such as Sharifi.

"It's a very difficult choice (to leave), and I just hope nobody ever experiences what we went through," he said.

Many of Kabul's blast walls are now covered with Taliban propaganda slogans 

Aamir QURESHI AFP

"Afghanistan is my home, it's my identity... I cannot take out all my roots and plant myself in another part of the world."

Sharifi's primary concern was not violence, as he had lived with death threats for years.

"The scary part was that I will not have a voice," he said.

"What really forced me was that I want my voice... I want my freedom of expression."

The chaotic airlift from Kabul airport ended with the last US troops leaving by August 31, and Western governments admitted most Afghans identified as vulnerable to Taliban reprisals were left behind.

"All of them are in hiding, all of them are fearful... They're just trying to find a way to get out of Afghanistan."

And he vowed to continue campaigning and creating art.

"I left (everything) behind," Sharifi said.

"The only thing that keeps me going is that I think this is not the end."

© 2021 AFP

PATRIARCHY IS RAPE
Syrian refugees tortured, raped and missing after returning home, Amnesty says


Issued on: 07/09/2021 - 

Syrians, displaced from Ras al-Ain, a border town controlled by Turkey and its Syrian proxies, in the camp of Washukanni in the northeastern Syrian al-Hasakeh governorate, on June 28, 2021. 

© Delil Souleiman, AFP/ File picture

A number of Syrian refugees who returned home have been subjected to detention, disappearance and torture at the hands of Syrian security forces, proving that it still isn’t safe to return to any part of the country, Amnesty International said Tuesday.

In a report entitled “You’re going to your death,” the rights group documented what it said were violations committed by Syrian intelligence officers against 66 returnees, including 13 children between mid-2017 and spring 2021. Among those were five cases in which detainees had died in custody after returning to the country torn by civil war, while the fate of 17 forcibly disappeared people remains unknown.

The report strongly counters claims by a number of states that parts of Syria were now safe to return to. It criticizes Denmark, Sweden and Turkey specifically for restricting protection and putting pressure on refugees from Syria to go home. It also criticizes Lebanon and Jordan, who have some of the highest number of Syrian refugees per capita.

In Lebanon and Turkey, where many refugees face dire living conditions and discrimination, governments have put increasing pressure on Syrians to return. Turkey has reportedly forcibly deported many Syrians in the last two years - expulsions that reflect rising anti-refugee sentiment in a country that once flung open its borders to millions of Syrians fleeing civil war.

Denmark and Sweden earlier this year started revoking the residency permits of some Syrian refugees, arguing that the Syrian capital, Damascus, and neighboring regions were now safe.

Few experts agree with that assessment. While the security situation has stabilized in government-controlled areas and many parts of central Syria previously held by opposition rebels, forced conscription, indiscriminate detentions and forced disappearances continue to be reported. Moreover, entire neighborhoods are destroyed, and many people have no houses to return to. Basic services such as water and electricity are poor to nonexistent.

“Any government claiming Syria is now safe is willfully ignoring the horrific reality on the ground, leaving refugees once again fearing for their lives,” said Marie Forestier, researcher on refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International. She said that while military hostilities may have subsided in most parts of Syria, the Syrian government’s “propensity for egregious human rights violations has not.”

The Syrian government and its chief international backer, Russia, have publicly called on refugees to return home and accused Western countries of discouraging it with claims that Syria is still unsafe.

In its report, Amnesty International urged European governments to immediately halt any practice directly or indirectly forcing people to return home. It also called on neighboring countries Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan, who host the bulk of the Syrian refugee population, to protect them from deportation or any other forcible return, in line with their international obligations.

It said Syrian authorities in some cases have targeted returnees to Syria simply for having fled, accusing them of treason or supporting “terrorism.”

The Syrian government routinely dismisses accusations of human rights abuses as lies.

The report documents serious violations committed by the Syrian government against refugees who returned to Syria from Lebanon, Rukban (an informal settlement between the Jordanian and Syrian borders), France, Germany, Turkey, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates between mid-2017 and spring 2021. They were based on interviews with 41 Syrians, including returnees and their relatives and friends, as well as lawyers, humanitarian workers and Syria experts.

In some cases, the human rights violations included rape or other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary or unlawful detention, and torture or other ill-treatment, the report said.

Syria’s 10-year war has killed about half a million people and forced about 5.6 million to flee abroad as refugees, mostly to neighboring countries.

(AP)

Egypt tries prominent activist for critical elections tweet


Issued on: 07/09/2021 - 

Egyptian human rights activist Hossam Bahgat looks on at a courtroom in the capital Cairo during a judicial session in April 2016 

Mohamed el-Shahed AFP/File

Cairo (AFP)

Egypt is set to start Tuesday trial proceedings against Hossam Bahgat, one of the country's most prominent human rights advocates, for a tweet criticising alleged electoral fraud.

Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), is already banned from travelling and his assets have been frozen due to another case in which he remains indicted.

Authorities have in recent years particularly targeted the group he founded.

Three EIPR staff members were jailed last year, sparking an international campaign supported by celebrities including Scarlett Johansson that resulted in their release.

Another EIPR researcher, Patrick Zaki, remains in detention since February 2020 facing charges of "spreading false news" after he returned to Egypt for a visit from Italy, where he was studying at Bologna University.

In July, the US State Department condemned Cairo for specifically indicting Bahgat saying dissidents "should not be targeted for expressing their views peacefully".

Bahgat is accused of "insulting" Egypt's electoral commission, after he alleged that incidents of electoral fraud and vote rigging took place during last year's parliamentary elections.

Parliament is mostly comprised of loyalists of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and is viewed by critics as a "rubber-stamp" body.

Bahgat is also being prosecuted for "spreading false news", which can carry hefty fines and jail time.

"We will present evidence to the court of reports and information published by people involved in the elections," to support his allegations, Hoda Nasralla, one of Baghat's lawyers, told AFP.

Tuesday's hearing is the first and a verdict is not expected to come immediately.

Sisi, a former army chief, took power in 2014 and has launched a sweeping crackdown on dissent, with rights groups estimating that Egypt holds about 60,000 political prisoners.

Former US president Donald Trump forged a particularly strong relationship with Sisi.

His successor, President Joe Biden, vowed on the campaign trail that there would be no more "blank checks" for Egypt's president.

But Secretary of State Antony Blinken in May visited and praised Sisi for helping bring a truce that halted bloodshed between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas.

© 2021 AFP

Extinct Tasmanian tiger brought to life in colour footage

Issued on: 07/09/2021 - 

The Tasmanian tiger roamed in Australia and on the island of New Guinea before dying out about 85 years ago

 Handout The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia/AFP

Sydney (AFP)

Century-old footage of the last known Tasmanian tiger in captivity has been brought to life by colourisation, offering a tantalising glimpse of the now-extinct creature.

The wolf-like thylacine, known as the Tasmanian tiger because of its striped coat, roamed in Australia and on the island of New Guinea before dying out about 85 years ago.

Fewer than a dozen snippets of footage -- totalling about three minutes of silent, black-and-white film -- are known to have survived of the elusive beast.

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia said the longest of these rare clips, an 80-second film of the last known Tasmanian tiger, called Benjamin, has now been colourised.

The government agency handed the footage to Paris-based Samuel Francois-Steininger, of Composite Films, who completed the painstaking colourisation process over 200 hours.

The footage was "stunning" for its age but "very challenging to colourise because, apart from the animal, there were few elements in the frame", Francois-Steininger said in a post on the archive's website.

Century-old footage of the last known Tasmanian tiger in captivity has been brought to life by colourisation 

Handout The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia/AFP

"And because of the resolution and quality of the picture, there were a lot of details -– the fur was dense and a lot of hair had to be detailed and animated," he added.

The clip shows the carnivorous marsupial pacing around a small enclosure, lying down, sniffing and scratching -- its sandy brown coat punctuated by thick dark stripes.

It was released Tuesday to mark National Threatened Species Day in Australia, which is held each year on September 7 to commemorate Benjamin's death on the same date in 1936.

The footage was shot by David Fleay in December 1933 at the city of Hobart's now-defunct Beaumaris Zoo, where the naturalist was reportedly bitten on the buttocks while filming.

© 2021 AFP

Hong Kong's Tiananmen vigil organiser defies police probe


Issued on: 07/09/2021 -

The Hong Kong Alliance organised three decades of annual vigils commemorating the victims of Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown 

Mike FIALA AF


Hong Kong (AFP)

The pro-democracy group behind Hong Kong's annual Tiananmen Square vigils set up a showdown with authorities on Tuesday as they defied a police deadline to cooperate with a "national security" investigation into their activities.

The Hong Kong Alliance organised three decades of vigils commemorating the victims of Beijing's Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

It is now being investigated under a powerful national security law that China imposed on Hong Kong to stamp out dissent after huge and often violent democracy protests broke out two years ago.


Last month police ordered the group to hand over financial and operational details, accusing it of working as a "foreign agent".

The request included the personal details of all members since its founding in 1989, all meeting minutes, financial records and any exchanges with other NGOs advocating democracy and human rights in China.

On Tuesday, the deadline for the request, members of the alliance handed a letter explaining their refusal to cooperate.

"We are going to respond, to say that we feel you have no legal grounds for your demands, so we are just going to ignore you," Chow Hang-tung, a barrister and alliance member, told AFP on her way to the police station.

Tsui Hon-kwong, one of the alliance's directors, also filed a judicial review in the courts arguing that the police request for information was illegal.

"The Commissioner... provides no explanation on why he reasonably believes that the Alliance is a foreign agent, thus hampering the Alliance from making any concrete rebuttal or clarification," Tsui argued in his application.

"This offends the rules of natural justice."

Hong Kong authorities had previously warned that alliance leaders faced jail or fines if they refused to cooperate with their probe.

"To avoid bearing the legal risk, the organisation concerned should immediately turn back before it is too late," the Security Bureau said on Monday.

China is currently remoulding Hong Kong in its own authoritarian image.

Dozens of democracy figures have been arrested and an official campaign has been launched to purge the city of anyone deemed "unpatriotic".

The alliance, officially titled the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, was once one of the most visible symbols of the city's political plurality.

Each June 4 it organised large candlelight vigils in Hong Kong's Victoria Park that were routinely attended by tens of thousands of residents, the crowds swelling in recent years as anger over how Beijing was running the city intensified.

Slogans at the vigils often called for democracy in China and an end to one-party rule.

Tolerance for such political defiance has since ended.

The last two Tiananmen vigils were banned by the police and earlier this year city officials shuttered a museum operated by the alliance.

Authorities in China and Hong Kong have also said that future vigils would likely break the new security law.

© 2021 AFP

Females sing more than thought: about the structure of the brain of birds – the science

By Faye Welch 1 day ago

The more birds that sing, the more their brains change.

Birds sing more in the spring than in the rest of the year. Before the breeding season, they must attract a mate and defend the area. Neurobiologist Anemi van der Linden (UAntwerp) and her colleagues demonstrate that the structure of songbirds’ brains changes over the course of a year. in the magazine eLife They reported that the more animals sing, the more their brains changed.

Moreover, this occurs not only in the areas of the brain associated with singing, but also in the areas responsible for sight and hearing. Changes occur very quickly until spring.

It was intriguing to discover that female birds sing more than many biologists assume. Their brains change, too, but differently than the brains of males. In male starlings, the hemisphere responsible for the song is denser than in the other, but in females there are stronger connections between the two hemispheres. A similar difference also occurs in humans.

Biologist Erich Matessen (UAntwerp) records with a number of colleagues Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences The nature of birds is determined in part by place and time. Some great boobs are bold, others are wary. The distinction is hereditary, but the balance between both types in the population changes due to local conditions. In years or places where there is less food, daredevils have an advantage, because they will find new food sources more easily. If there is enough food, it is enough to be routine – this is more suitable for energy.

The nature of the birds is determined in part by local conditions.

Birds sing more in the spring than in the rest of the year. Before the breeding season, they must attract a mate and defend the area. Neurobiologist Anemi van der Linden (UAntwerp) and her colleagues demonstrate that the structure of songbirds’ brains changes over the course of a year. In the trade journal eLife, they report that the more the animals sang, the more their brains changed. Moreover, this occurs not only in the areas of the brain associated with singing, but also in the areas responsible for sight and hearing. Changes occur very quickly until spring. It was intriguing to discover that female birds sing more than many biologists assume. Their brains change, too, but differently than the brains of males. In male starlings, the hemisphere responsible for the song is denser than in the other, but in females there are stronger connections between the two hemispheres. A similar difference also occurs in humans. Biologist Eric Matissen (UAntwerp) and several colleagues write in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that bird personality is determined in part by space and time. Some big boobs are bold, others are wary. The distinction is hereditary, but the balance between both types in the population changes due to local conditions. In years or places where there is less food, daredevils have an advantage, because they will find new food sources more easily. If there is enough food, it is enough to be routine – this is more suitable for energy.

09-06-2021

Baby birds can learn sounds before birth

ByAndrei Ionescu

Earth.com staff writer

A new study led by the BirdLab research group at Flinders University discovered evidence of prenatal auditory learning in embryos of five bird species. Using non-invasive techniques, researchers found fluctuations in heartbeat responses to their parents’ calls in the embryos of three vocal learning species (the superb fairy-wren, the red-winged fairy-wren, and Darwin’s small ground finch), as well as two vocal non-learning species (the little penguin and the Japanese quail). 

“By studying the capacity for sound learning in embryos, we are paving the way to new inroads into evolutionary and developmental timescales,” said study first author Dr. Diane Colombelli-Négrel. “Long before actual vocalization, we found that these tiny songbirds were also discriminating towards non-specific sounds and capable of ‘non-associative’ (not from parents) sounds, building on the complexity of vocal learning in songbirds.”  

According to study co-author Professor Sonia Kleindorfer, vocal production learning is believed to occur in just seven lineages of birds and mammals: songbirds, hummingbirds, parrots, cetaceans, pinnipeds, bats, and, among primates, only humans. 

“As a result of the rarity of vocal production learning, animals have been grouped into so-called ‘vocal learners’ (those that learn to imitate a vocalisation from a vocal tutor) and ‘vocal non-learners’ (animals that produce vocalisations without imitating a vocal tutor),” explained Professor Kleindorfer.

Surprisingly though, this new study found that embryos could grow accustomed to another bird’s call in both vocal learning and non-learning species, and may thus point to a phenomenon more widespread than initially thought.

“This research will hopefully inspire more study into the remarkable capacity of animals to learn sound,” said Professor Kleindorfer. “By moving the time window for sound learning to the prenatal stage, this research direction opens pathways to measure neurobiological downstream effects of early auditory experience on behaviour and information processing.”

The research is published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

—

By Andrei Ionescu, Earth.com Staff Writer

 

Study shows how aspen forests maintain the diversity needed to adapt to changing environments

by Eric Hamilton, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Lead researcher Olivia Cope holds on to two aspen trees in the experimental plots. 

The two trees are the same age, but the larger tree is genetically predisposed to 

focus on growth, outcompeting its smaller neighbor. Over time, the faster-growing 

trees survived better, changing the genetic structure of the forest. 

Credit: Rick Lindroth / UW–Madison

Watching paint dry has nothing on watching a forest grow.

That achingly long wait has always made it challenging to study how forests adapt to environmental fluctuations—making it that much harder to predict how they'll fare in a changing climate or under new pest pressures.

But a new decade-long study by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers reveals how aspen stands change their genetic structure over the years as trees balance defending themselves from pests with growth to compete for sunlight. Aspen is the most broadly distributed tree species in North America, and a bellwether species for how forests will adapt to an onslaught of human-influenced environmental changes.

When faced with stiff competition, trees genetically predisposed to prioritize growth win out. But the survivors are less equipped to handle damaging insects.

The experiment demonstrates how evolutionary forces can quickly shape entire forest stands. It also suggests that exposure to a litany of environmental changes can maintain diverse forests capable of responding to different stresses.

The findings are valuable for conservation biologists who want to preserve diverse forest ecosystems in the face of global warming, invasive species and other environmental changes.

"What this work has done is show how key traits—like growth and defense—can be coupled together and how genetic diversity will allow populations to adapt to new stresses," says Rick Lindroth, a professor of entomology at UW–Madison, who supervised the new study.

Lindroth, lead author and former doctoral student Olivia Cope, and their colleagues at UW–Madison published their findings Sept. 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Aspen often colonize disturbed environments, including the barren landscapes that appear after wildfires such as those in western North America in recent years. Thousands of trees will germinate in a small area, and the race begins to grow tall enough to escape the shade of their neighbors. This intense competition quickly selects for winners and losers.

The scientists simulated this environment by planting young seedlings in dense stands at the Arlington Agricultural Research Station near the UW–Madison campus. Then, they removed three-quarters of the seedlings in half the plots, reducing the amount of competition for sunlight each tree experienced. This produced two types of tree stands: a high-competition environment and a low-competition one.

Some trees were genetically predisposed to prioritize growth, while others put their resources into producing protective chemicals that can deter attacks by insects and mammals. When the trees were five years old, Cope started tracking how fast the trees grew and which survived for the next five years.

The scientists saw that the more trees focused on defense, the shorter they were. The shorter plants were more likely to die as they were shaded out by their taller neighbors. By the end of the study, the tallest trees towered more than 40 feet; the shortest surviving trees were just seven feet tall.

"Because plants grow exponentially, a little bit of difference in height early on allows them to capture more light and that difference in height can magnify over time," says Lindroth.

Because the highly defended trees died more often, the genetic structure of the forest stands changed over time. Trees with fast-growing genetics came to dominate, especially in the densely planted and highly competitive plots. Over time, this divergence meant the low-competition stands and the high-competition stands developed different genetic structures.

During the study period, there wasn't a lot of insect damage on the trees. But during 2021, the invasive moth Lymantria dispar ate through almost all the leaves of a nearby experimental aspen stand. The researchers expect that periodic waves of pests like this would reward those aspen forests that balance growth with sufficient defense.

This balancing act should help create a diverse forest capable of meeting changing threats.

"You have this shifting dynamic because of a changing environment that ultimately selects for the maintenance of diversity within a population," says Lindroth. "If that diversity has a genetic basis, the reason it can be maintained is that under some conditions one trait may be beneficial whereas under other conditions it may not be."

Such decade-long experiments are relatively rare. Yet they are increasingly important in an era of progressive and widespread environmental changes, says Lindroth. This is especially true as record wildfires have swept through vast areas of the west, altering the composition of forests.

The study came about after a previous study in which the lab was examining the effect deer browsing had on aspens didn't work out as planned. That serendipitous repurposing of trees—along with new funding—helped provide the timespan necessary to uncover evolutionary forces at work in the long-lived aspens.

"It takes a long time to understand the ecological responses of trees, let alone evolutionary responses within tree populations," says Lindroth. "We had the good fortune of having that time."Drought affects aspen survival decades later, new study finds

More information: Growth–defense trade-offs shape population genetic composition in an iconic forest tree species, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2103162118

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

Provided by University of Wisconsin-Madison 

The next 'Forever War' will be for control of space: Peter Apps

Author of the article:
Reuters
Peter Apps
Publishing date:Sep 07, 2021 • 

LONDON — Last month, astronauts from Japan, Russia, the United States and Europe held a pizza party in orbit aboard the International Space Station, celebrating the birthday of one of their number.

But the era of multinational cooperation in orbit is fast drawing to a close – replaced by a new spirit of international rivalry and “great power” competition.

Summer 2021 has seen a significant worsening in relations between U.S. space agency NASA and Russian counterpart Roscosmos, increasingly conducted through the media. On Aug. 12, Russian state news agency TASS carried a report accusing a U.S. astronaut of deliberately sabotaging the International Space Station, a story swiftly denied by NASA.

China – functionally banned from cooperating with the International Space Station and NASA by a 2011 U.S. congressional edict, the Wolf Amendment – is pushing rapidly ahead with its own space station in low Earth orbit, with three Chinese astronauts on a multi-week orbital mission including space walks that will conclude in mid-September.

Russia and China have signed a memorandum to work together on a moon base, although the dates for any such mission remain unclear. NASA’s Artemis 1 – its largest rocket since the Apollo program – blasts off later this year to test the systems the United States hopes will send its astronauts back to the moon by 2023, another sign of a new Cold War-style space race.

Compared to that historic rivalry, however, the new competition in space is much more complex. It includes many more players, among them private companies, and ranges from electronic warfare and anti-satellite weapons in low earth orbit to what may be the early stages of a battle to colonize the solar system, particularly Mars.

In near Earth orbit, experts say multiple countries are taking a new interest in the potential military use of space, founding organizations such as the U.S. Space Force. In July last year, the United States and Britain accused Russia of testing an anti-satellite weapon after a Russian satellite approached close to a U.S. counterpart.

Washington and its Western allies have long argued against the military use of space, warning that incidents such as the 2007 destruction of a defunct Chinese satellite by a rocket fired from Earth risk creating potentially catastrophic levels of space debris. However, U.S. media recently reported the United States was now considering declassifying its own anti-satellite capabilities, a sign Washington may now believe an arms race cannot be avoided.

LONG-TERM THINKING

Both the United States and China have sent and operated probes to Mars this year, with China’s Zhurong rover operating there continuously for the last three months. The more sophisticated NASA Perseverance has been active since February, including deploying a small experimental helicopter. Both were presented as reconnaissance for long-term manned missions, although these may be decades in the future.

China in particular has much longer term goals. Last week, state-run media highlighted a report from the National Natural Science Foundation of China calling for Beijing to explore the manufacture of vast space platforms, assembled in orbit and a kilometer or more in length – 10 times the size of the International Space Station.

Such a feat would require overcoming massive technical challenges, Chinese scientists were reported as saying – but studying the feasibility of the project is set to be part of Beijing’s 2021-25 economic plan.

China’s current space station may find itself the only manned platform in orbit if the International Space Station cannot be extended until 2030 as the United States hopes. Russia last week said one of its modules on the station was showing cracks that would worsen over time, and has warned of a potential avalanche of equipment failures as soon as 2025.

While the United States has signed agreements with European and Asian allies to cooperate on its Artemis program, China is also reaching out to other nations, particularly developing countries, and may extend collaboration to Russia as part of its broader growing partnership with Moscow.

WORSENING DISTRUST

U.S. and Russian space authorities and media have been in a growing war of words in recent months.

In July, several U.S. media outlets, including the Daily Beast and tech site Ars Technica, ran stories questioning the competence of Russia’s space program, after rockets on a Russian module activated, apparently spontaneously, shortly after its arrival at the station.

The United States was left dependent on Russia to get astronauts to and from the International Space Station following the termination of its space shuttle program in 2011, but last year resumed its own manned spaceflight. Relations have since deteriorated further, even as Moscow has moved closer to other emerging space powers such as India and the United Arab Emirates, hosting training for astronauts of both.


These alliances are important – another reason the United States is striking its own deals with allies such as the United Kingdom, Japan and European powers to join in with Artemis. The international battle for control of space is only just beginning, and there is little appetite to be on the losing side.

*** Peter Apps is a writer on international affairs, globalization, conflict and other issues. He is the founder and executive director of the Project for Study of the 21st Century; PS21, a non-national, non-partisan, non-ideological think tank. Paralyzed by a war-zone car crash in 2006, he also blogs about his disability and other topics. He was previously a reporter for Reuters and continues to be paid by Thomson Reuters. Since 2016, he has been a member of the British Army Reserve and the UK Labour Party. (Editing by Catherine Evans)