A half-mile plastic-trapping device in the Pacific caught 64,000 pounds of trash - including a fridge, mannequin, and toilet seats

Aria Bendix

Fri, October 22, 2021, 

Workers with The Ocean Cleanup empty plastic onto the deck of one of the organization's vessels. The Ocean Cleanup

• The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit organization, launched a device into the Pacific Ocean to remove plastic.

• The device brought back 64,000 pounds of trash in two-and-a-half months.

• The organization found a mannequin, refrigerator, and toilet seats among the debris.

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, around 1,200 miles from shore, sits a giant vortex of trash known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The site is home to more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic - the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world.

Over the summer, a nonprofit organization called The Ocean Cleanup ventured into the patch to test out a new device it had built. In essence, it's an artificial floating coastline that catches plastic in its fold like a giant arm, then channels it into an attached funnel-shaped net. Two vessels tow the entire contraption through the water at about 1.5 knots (slower than normal walking speed) - enough for the ocean current to push floating garbage into the net. Once that net fills with plastic (every few weeks or so), a crew hauls it up out of the water and empties the garbage onto one of the vessels.

The device, which the group calls "Jenny," recently collected nearly 64,000 pounds of plastic over the span of two-and-a-half months. Then a crew hauled it to shore for recycling.

The team found some strange items among the debris, including a mannequin, refrigerator, and toilet seats.

"Toilet seats are very, very common at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch," the organization's founder, Boyan Slat, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

He called the patch a modern-day archaeological site.

"Most of the stuff we collect is fishing gear - that has the highest probability of actually making out to the garbage patch to last there," Slat said. "So you see a lot of buoys and crates and nets, but we also see some stuff that clearly comes from land. We see things like toothbrushes. You see handles of umbrellas. We see toys."

A plastic bottle collected by The Ocean Cleanup's "Jenny" device. The Ocean Cleanup

The garbage patch is accumulating plastic over time as more enters the ocean from storm drains, canals, or rivers. Wind can also carry trash from landfills or garbage bins toward the ocean.

The Ocean Cleanup has built a fleet of catamarans to remove plastic from rivers before it reaches the ocean, but Jenny is its flagship invention. It's the first device that has proven capable of cleaning the garbage patch - an ambition many scientists previously deemed impossible.

Starting Thursday, The Ocean Cleanup announced, it plans to start removing plastic from the garbage patch routinely, rather than as part of a technology test, as it had done thus far. Slat estimated that 95% of the plastic items Jenny catches can be recycled. The organization hopes to partner with consumer brands to turn the trash into recycled products, then funnel proceeds back into the cleanup efforts.

The Ocean Cleanup came close to failure

A haul of plastic collected by "Jenny." The Ocean Cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup has set itself an ambitious goal to remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040. But until recently, it struggled to develop a device that could actually make headway on that.

The organization launched its first attempt at a plastic-catching device in 2018, after five years of research, but the prototype broke in the water. A newer model, released in 2019, did a better job of collecting plastic, but The Ocean Cleanup estimated that it would need hundreds of those devices to clean the world's oceans.

So scientists and engineers began to question whether the group could deliver on the tens of millions of dollars it had acquired in funding.

"From the very beginning we had a lot of doubters and, honestly, I think they were kind of right about that because we really didn't know what we were doing those first years," Slat said on Wednesday. "Honestly, I, too, doubted many times whether we would ever make it, ever get to this point. We had so many close calls. We almost ran out of money a few times. We had these tests that kept failing."

The Ocean Cleanup's new plastic-catching system, "Jenny." The Ocean Cleanup

Jenny, however, showed promise almost as soon as the device entered the water. During its first two-hour test, it collected 220 pounds of plastic. Slat said he started to feel optimistic after the third test, when his team texted him a picture of a mountain of plastic Jenny had captured.

"I still get goosebumps just thinking back about that moment," he said. "I don't think I've ever been happier."

At peak performance, Slat added, Jenny could probably collect around 4,400 pounds of plastic per day. But there are 220 million pounds of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. So The Ocean Cleanup estimates that it would need about 10 Jennys to clean up 50% of the patch in five years.

Slat acknowledged that his team has only made a tiny dent so far - but it's progress, he said.

"It's really hard to imagine that all that stuff just used to float out there in the middle of the ocean, 2,000 kilometers offshore," Slat said. "It still would have floated out there 10 years from now, 50 years from now, probably even 100 years from now. This stuff is so persistent."

'MAYBE' TECH

Fort Worth to Dallas in 20 minutes? Here’s the plan for rapid transit in North Texas


Fort Worth to Dallas in 20 minutes? Here’s the plan for rapid transit in North Texas

Jess Hardin
Thu, October 21, 2021, 4:15 AM·3 min read


In two decades, folks traveling between Fort Worth and Dallas likely won’t have to think about traffic congestion, construction or varying toll prices.

Getting to Dallas might take about 20 minutes, according to a study on high-speed transit.

The North Central Texas Council of Governments, with the help of engineering firm HNTB, spent a year answering the question: What would high-speed transit in the Metroplex look like?


The team came up with a proposal to run high-speed transit along the Interstate 30 corridor and narrowed possible technologies to high-speed rail or the hyperloop, a system of tubes through which a vehicle can travel almost without friction.

The team has been sharing the results of the first phase of its $15 million study at public meetings throughout North Texas.

“We can’t just build our way out of congestion,” said Brandon Wheeler, principal transportation manager at the Council of Governments. “We can’t just add lanes to freeways.”

Linking Fort Worth and Dallas

In the past year, authors of the study evaluated 43 routes connecting Fort Worth, Arlington and Dallas. They determined the I-30 corridor was the most direct and least disruptive.

The study also evaluated five train technologies and identified high-speed rail and hyperloop, which have similar infrastructure characteristics.

High-speed trains, already in use throughout Europe and Asia, and can travel up to 250 mph. The hyperloop is expected to reach 650 mph.

“It sounds strange, but we’re talking about technology that 20 years from now will be an afterthought,” said Dan Lamers, senior program manager at the Council of Governments.
‘Gateway to Texas’

The study also offers proposals for transit stations, which will act as “mini downtown areas,” featuring hotels, apartments, restaurants, offices and retail, Lamers said.

“The development that will be able to occur around the stations is immense,” Lamers said. “These are stations that are the size of airport terminals ... They’re able to be built in a downtown urban environment.”

These stations will be critical because the high-speed Metroplex connector could link to other high-speed transit projects, like the Dallas-Houston high-speed rail line being developed by Texas Central. If TxDOT’s Texas-Oklahoma Passenger Rail Study comes to fruition, it would connect here, too.

Ideally, this network of high-speed transit will connect the 80% of Texans living in or near the state’s five largest cities.

“You’ll be able to, without a second thought, go from Fort Worth to Houston to see an Astros game and not have to worry about finding a place to stay overnight,” Lamers said.

Ultimately, with the inclusion of DFW Airport, the Metroplex could be “the gateway to Texas from the world,” Lamers said. And vice versa.
Transit study, part two

The project is about 15 to 20 years from completion, said Lamers.

The authors have hosted more than 130 public meetings.

“It’s been our philosophy to involve folks early and often,” Wheeler said. “We don’t want to get somewhere along the way, where someone says, ‘Hey, how didn’t I know about this?’”

Public engagement will continue in the study’s next phase. You can sign up to receive meeting notifications and project updates at nctcog.org.

The second phase of the study will navigate some of the more challenging regulatory requirements for the project, like the National Environmental Protection Act.

This process “will consider the impacts to any group you can think of,” said HNTB Deputy Project Manager Chris Masters.

During the second phase, expected to last about two years, the team will develop financial and project management plans.

So, will this project actually come to fruition?

“I think it can,” said Masters. “It just requires some money.”

New twist in the tale of those escaped zebras: animal cruelty charges


LAUREN LANTRY
Thu, October 21, 2021

There's a new twist in the tale of those zebras -- still on the loose in Maryland since escaping two months ago.

Earlier this week, authorities filed criminal charges of animal cruelty against Jerry Lee Holly, after three of the zebras got away from his 300-acre farm back in Prince George's County outside Washington.

The charges included depriving the zebras of "necessary sustenance," inflicting "unnecessary suffering or pain" and a failure “to provide [a] Zebra with nutritious food in sufficient quantity, and proper shelter while said animal was in his charge and custody,” according to legal documents obtained by ABC News.

PHOTO: Zebras that escaped from a private farm in Prince George's County, Md., roam free in an image made from video shot in September 2021. (WJLA)


The charges come after one of the escaped zebras was found dead in a field after getting caught in an illegal snare trap, within feet of the enclosure where Holly’s 36 other zebras are held, according to the documents.

MORE: Group of zebras evading capture in Maryland

"The animal should have been seen or heard while it was dying from being caught in the snare if the caretaker had attended to the zebras in the fenced enclosure," the court filing said.

Earlier this week, another zebra was found dead, this time within Holly’s zebra enclosure, authorities said. It had been dead long enough to develop rigor-mortis before authorities were called, the documents said.

PHOTO: Zebras that escaped from a private farm in Prince George's County, Md., roam free in an image made from video shot in September 2021. (WJLA)

These instances are "sufficient circumstantial evidence of neglect to warrant a criminal charge," the filing said.

It noted that the zebras pose a threat to the community and themselves.

“The zebras at-large are a public nuisance. The animals are dangerous, and serve a risk to persons approaching them, and a risk to drivers on the public roadways. Zebras running at large are by County code declared a nuisance and dangerous to the public health, safety and welfare," the filing said.

ABC News reached out to Holly for comment but got no immediate response.

The saga of the escaped zebras has been bewildering. Originally, five zebras were reported to have escaped, but then the number was corrected to three.

Now, after the tragic snare trap incident, the number of escaped zebras is down to two. The latest effort to capture the two remaining zebras adds yet another twist to the story.

Two zebras have been placed in a corral, which is supposed to attract the two fugitive zebras with food and companionship.

D.C. assistant police chief says she was told to 'have an abortion or be fired'


Ben Kesslen
Thu, October 21, 2021, 

The assistant police chief in Washington, D.C., one of 10 Black women who filed a class-action lawsuit last month against the city alleging widespread discrimination, said this week that as a cadet she was told she had to get an abortion to keep her job.

“My choice to have a baby was personal, and it should’ve been mine alone and not for an employer ultimatum,” Chanel Dickerson said Tuesday at a community meeting. “I was told I had to have an abortion or be fired from the MPD cadet program.” She said she was 18 at the time.

Image: Chanel Dickerson (Courtesy Temple Law)

It was unclear what happened afterward, but Dickerson has been with the department since 1988, according to the department's website.

Dickerson and the other former and current employees of the Metropolitan Police Department said in the lawsuit filed in September that they were discriminated against because of their race and gender, and that the division in charge of addressing harassment is run by a man who has expressed hostility toward female officers and tried to discredit women who have come forward.

“I understand the dire consequences to me participating in this lawsuit,” Dickerson said at the time, adding she has been subjected to repeated sexual harassment in her tenure as an officer.

Another lawsuit was filed this week by three Black women, all former cadets, alleging abuse and retaliation.

The women in the initial lawsuit allege that they had each complained to superiors and the equal opportunity department multiple times about unfair treatment on the basis of their race and gender but were ignored.

When they reported the discrimination claims, they faced retaliation and in some cases were forced out, they said in the lawsuit.

The Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to a request for comment Thursday about Dickerson's claim.

It said previously in a statement that it could not comment on pending litigation but "is committed to treating all members fairly and equitably throughout our organization."

Human Sacrifice Is the Gruesome End to This Cult’s Creepy History


Clinton Pickering
Wed, October 20, 2021, 

via Facebook

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA—The 144 men, women and children summoned to church, robed in white, found themselves witnessing a macabre ritual of sacrificial death and facing the long arms of police and military personnel.

The hellish nightmare played out in the Jamaican city of Montego Bay on the night of Sunday, Oct. 17, in contravention of a government decree that, with a few exceptions, there should be no movement islandwide in keeping with ongoing efforts to contain the spread of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. If anyone saw this coming, they had kept it secret. Even some police officers were among the church’s congregation, the city’s Police Commissioner, Antony Anderson, said in a press briefing about the incident.

The church of the self-styled “Prophet to the Nations,” proclaimed as His Excellency Dr. Kevin O. Smith, has been operating for many years under his Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries. A copy of his biography obtained by The Daily Beast identifies Smith as “former crown Ambassador of the Throne of Nubia Sheba, globe traveller to over 100 countries worldwide and Yeshu’a Hamashiach end time Prophet to the Nations.”

In Facebook posts on Sunday, Smith had warned his followers of an incoming “flood” and instructed them not to take their cell phones to church that evening, but one member’s disobedience might have prevented a massacre. The police disclosed that it was an errant female follower who was overwhelmed by the sight of another young lady being killed in front of the congregation that caused her to leave and call the police.The Pathways Christian Cathedral, approximately a mile from downtown Montego Bay, became the scene of a deadly confrontation when police and army personnel responded to the call.

Stephanie Lindsay, head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force communications arm, told The Daily Beast that “from the police standpoint, we’re currently investigating a case of double murder and three counts of wounding.” A third death that occurred during the face-off with police is under investigation. Lindsay added that “the leader of the congregation along with others are in police custody as the police try to decipher exactly what transpired.”

While Lindsay couldn’t yet provide details about the circumstances of the fatalities, one female congregant who spoke with the Jamaican Observer on the condition of anonymity said that she was waiting to enter the church when she witnessed another woman’s throat being “slashed” inside. “When I saw blood and the young lady fell, I said ‘This is it for me,’” she told the outlet, adding that she escaped with a teenager after seeing two other members leap over the property’s fence in the midst of the chaos. Another anonymous escapee, who was reportedly inside the church when the “ritual” commenced, told Jamaica’s Gleaner she witnessed a “senior” church figure stabbing members after being told they’d be embarking on a “heavenly journey.”

The Horrors of Growing Up in a Pedophilic Sex Cult

Merline Lewin, a Montego Bay resident who lives a stone’s throw from the church, was in shock over the ordeal. “It is traumatizing. It traumatized me so much I’ve not been sleeping or eating well. I’ve not left home to do no business because of what is taking place,” she told The Daily Beast.

Two days had passed, but she remembered what happened that Sunday night vividly. “It is so shocking to know that this man came up here almost three and a half years ago, and the first time I spoke with this man, he told me he is going to put this community on the map. I didn’t know what he meant by that.” She said she continued to communicate with him on social media, including Facebook and WhatsApp, until about a year ago when the cows, goats, pigs and fowls Smith had allowed to roam freely in his churchyard sparked tension between them.

Lewin said she found it very unusual for Smith to keep all of these animals at the church he built in a residential community within the city. “I asked him why didn’t he carry them to a country area? He said it was safer here for him.”

According to Lewin, Smith also was seeking to purchase land next door, situated between his church and a Yahweh church, which itself was embroiled in a major tussle with police two years ago over children taken from their homes to stay at the church.

In his biography, Smith is also described as “an ordained minister of the Gospel at 17 years old and at 18 years old, he was ordained the National Evangelist for Canada by his Bishops. His dedication to the work of God coupled with his humble disposition was the catalyst that set in motion his meteoric rise as God’s mouthpiece and prophet to the nations.” He claimed a church membership of 800.

Smith had allegedly built rooms in the back of the church and “had children over there, young people with babies come over there and live,” Lewin said.

The dramatic event last Sunday night was somewhat reminiscent of the Jim Jones saga in the U.S., with police having to commandeer their way into the church amidst opposition and an exchange of gunfire that sent church members, clad only in white gowns, and children scampering for cover, says Lewin.

While the police try to unravel what might have been taking place at the church behind a chin-high wall, Milton Ricketts, who, though not a member of the church, says he knew Smith well after having lived in the same community as him, told The Daily Beast the unfolding drama wasn’t surprising to him.

“This man, not only has he done this despicable thing, but it has been going on for years,” Ricketts said. “And the people have been brainwashed, including the children, and they have been taught things which are unscriptural and they have suffered damage in their soul.”

Ricketts told The Daily Beast he had been hearing strange tales about Smith’s attitude of “self-importance.” “I observed it myself, he likes to have people bowing down before [him], to be subservient,” said Smith. Even to serve him water, “they would have to take the knee and he had to be addressed by his preferred title, Crown Bishop at all times.”

Why Do We Believe in Cults? Hint: It’s Not Brainwashing

Ricketts and Lewin said that congregants were told how much money they needed to offer to Smith, who allegedly raked in thousands from his followers.

Referring to the tight hold Smith had over his congregation, Ricketts told The Daily Beast: “I do know he has caused splits in families, serious split to the extent where I know of a family where the kids were estranged from the parents. The parents were excommunicated from the church and the kids never spoke to the parents again.”

Ricketts, a devout Christian, said he is deeply concerned for the psychological well-being of the children attending what he preferred to call Smith’s organization, rather than a church. “These people come and Satan sets them up in what he calls a church, which is a smokescreen; it was from day one a cult,” he said.

Ricketts claims the children’s minds have been warped and that “their emotions are not what they ought to be.” “Some seeds have been sown deep, deep in the recesses of these children’s minds,” he said. “And they might not germinate right now, but they are going to produce the truth one day.”

All the adults taken into custody have been charged for breaching the country’s Disaster Risk Management Act, under which government’s sets out COVID-related security measures. The female members have been released on bail, and the 14 children involved have been taken into custody and are now wards of the state.

Schrödinger’s Bat? How the ‘multiverse’ is transforming superhero films

Rizwan Virk
Wed, October 20, 2021

Alternate universes: Tobey Maguire in Spiderman - Alamy

Sometimes yesterday’s science fiction inspires today’s science, and sometimes it’s the other way around. Take, for instance, William Shatner’s (aka Captain Kirk’s) recent trip to space, or (to go further back) how the industrial revolution inspired HG Wells to write the first work of fiction to feature a time machine: The Time Machine.

In the last century, our growing scientific understanding of the vastness of the universe spawned the first superheroes, whose god-like powers were narratively accounted for by the fact that they came from other planets (think Superman and Krypton).

You might say that the idea of technological civilisations on other planets had passed the 10-year test, wherein enough of the population is comfortable with an idea that mainstream pop culture can get away with using it. At the same time, today’s multiple serious scientific efforts to search for techno-signatures on exoplanets might owe something to the proliferation of alien superhero films.

But for today’s comic-book and -film fans, the idea of superheroes coming from other planets is considered quaint and – well – boring. The form has moved on to newer, flashier concepts. I know this because my nephews explained to me a few years ago, in great detail, how different versions of superheroes now come from different timelines in something called the “multiverse”. They were talking about the DC superheroes in the Arrowverse (The Flash, Supergirl), but it was the first evidence that the multiverse, a real concept from quantum physics, had passed the 10-year test, at least on the small screen.

Marvel brought the idea to a whole new level this year, after its Avengers: Endgame storyline concluded. Popular Marvel TV shows, such as Loki, have transformed the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) into the Marvel multiverse right before fans’ eyes. In that show, Thor’s mischievous younger brother is arrested by a bureaucratic elephant called the Time Variance authority for pursuing too many alternate realities (creating a kind of giant cosmic tree-like structure). Similarly, Marvel’s animated series, What If…? imagines what might have happened to our favorite superheroes in alternate realities.

Ezra Miller as The Flash

The Marvel multiverse is soon to hit big screens near you. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will arrive in 2022, and the multiverse has already been hinted at in this year’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, not to mention 2018’s animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Meanwhile, rumour has it that alternate versions of our favorite web-slinger will show up in Spider-Man: No Way Home (Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire, in addition to the current Spiderman, Tom Holland), which is due out in Britain in December.

Indeed, the multiverse has become so popular among the creators of superhero movies that a recent trailer for a cinematic version of DC’s The Flash, to be released next year, suggest that alternate Batmans, such as Michael Keaton’s and Ben Affleck’s, will appear to help Ezra Miller’s speedster save the world yet again.

While this is clearly a strategic choice from DC and Marvel – the multiverse provides each with an infinite number of stories to tell – it is also a prime example of how scientific concepts drift into pop culture, enabling us to think more broadly about the universe and our place in it.

Is it possible that we actually live in a multiverse, of the kind depicted in these superhero films? It turns out that many scientists take the possibility quite seriously, from Columbia’s Brian Greene to MIT’s Max Tegmark and NYU’s Michio Kaku. The scientific theory inspiring these stories is the quantum multiverse, which states that each time a decision is made, we spawn off alternate universes. Echoing the tree-like structure of Loki, you can also think of these as separate timelines in which there are alternate versions of each of us, the earth and the universe.

The idea grew out of the weirdness of quantum mechanics and the famous double-slit experiment (I won’t get into too much scientific detail, but you can read about it here and here). A good way to illustrate this weirdness and how it might give birth to multiverses like those of the superheroes was given by one of the founders of quantum mechanics, Erwin Schrödinger, who proposed a thought experiment known as Schrödinger’s cat.

Schrödinger’s unfortunate theoretical cat is placed in a box with some radioactive material and some poison, which are arranged in such a way that after an hour, there is a 50 per cent chance that the cat is dead. Common sense tells us that the cat is either alive or dead – it can’t be both! Quantum mechanics, in a twist, says the cat is in superposition, which means it is both alive and dead at the same time, at least until one or the other possibility is observed.

How can a cat (or any of us, including superheroes) be in superposition, or exist in multiple states? This has been one of the biggest debates in physics for the last century. The idea was presaged by Schrödinger, who spoke about “multiple simultaneous histories” back in the 1940s, and was proposed more formally by Hugh Everett III in his doctoral dissertation at Princeton in 1960. Everett’s work, which made some of the giants of 20th-century physics such as Einstein (who had an office down the road) uncomfortable, sat in obscurity until an increasing number of scientists, fed up with the weirdness, came to argue that the only way this would be possible is if we were to exist in a multiverse.

Loki: Tom Hiddleston - Alamy

And what would this multiverse look like? It would be a very large tree that branches out into new possibilities. In short, it would look a lot like the Loki Multiverse, though with a lot more branches.

The idea of the multiverse could also solve one of the biggest problems in cosmology, which is called “fine-tuning”. The physical universe we lived in seems fine-tuned for our kind of life. If many cosmological parameters were off even by less than 1 per cent, the atoms that make up our world, not to mention planets and stars as we know them, would break apart. How did this happen? No one knows, but the multiverse offers a possible explanation: all possible worlds are tried out, and only those that meet certain requirements develop life – and, of course, we are in that branch.

What happens to those other branches and whether there is any way for us to perceive them remains unknown. Which means, though there might be alternate versions of Spider-Man and The Flash out there, it may be impossible for us, at least without superpowers, to ever reach those alternate versions. But the current crop of superhero multiverses might inspire the next generation of scientists to look for ways not just to detect but to connect with other parallel universes, in the same way that yesterday’s science fiction inspired the current wave of space travel.

Who knows, we might even find a branch of the multiverse where they’ve already figured it out. Perhaps they are watching us right now, wondering how long it’ll take us to realise that we are actually in a multiverse.

Rizwan Virk is founder of Play Labs @ MIT. His new book, The Simulated Multiverse, is out now

"The dogs are fine": Mystery banner and footprints hint at volcano rescue




"The dogs are fine": Mystery banner and footprints hint at volcano rescue

FILE PHOTO: Dogs stranded on ash-covered earth surrounded by volcanic lava in Todoque area

Anthony Paone
Thu, October 21, 2021

LA PALMA (Reuters) - The Spanish drone company trying to rescue three dogs trapped near an erupting volcano on the island of La Palma has found no sign of the animals, but discovered human footprints in the ash-covered no-go area, and a message: "The dogs are fine".

Images of the emaciated dogs captured from a drone this month have provoked an outpouring of support from animal lovers across Spain, triggering the rescue mission, donations and other initiatives.

A picture of a banner circulating on social media, saying in Spanish "Be strong La Palma. The dogs are fine. A-Team", hinted that the dogs may have been moved. The drone team confirmed they could see part of the message from the skies.

"The banner is really there, only overturned by the wind, and we saw human footprints, so we understood that the dogs had been gone for some days," Jaime Pereira, CEO of drone operator Aerocamaras, told reporters on Thursday.

He said infrared temperature measurements of the lava surface surrounding the yard where the dogs had been stranded for weeks showed it had cooled off in some places to 40C-70C (104F-158F), making it possible for someone to walk to their rescue.

"We knew something weird was going on as we checked all the areas where they could have been hiding and discovered nothing. Now we only want to see the dogs, to verify that they are well and are the same ones we've been looking for," Pereira added.

They had been fed by smaller drones dropping packages of food, but until now no one had been able to retrieve them.

Aerocamaras had been planning to send a 50 kg cargo drone equipped with a remote-controlled net to try to trap the dogs, one by one, and fly them out over the lava.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano started spewing red-hot lava and ash on Sept. 19, with the eruption showing few signs of abating so far after destroying some 2,000 buildings and forcing thousands to leave their homes.

(Writing by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Alison Williams)

'While I'm Alive, I'll Keep Speaking.' Journalist Rana Ayyub's Fight to Expose the Truth in India

Billy Perrigo
Fri, October 22, 2021

Rana Ayyub in Perugia, Italy, in 2019 Credit - Tania—Contrasto/Redux

For the last several months, every time Rana Ayyub’s phone or doorbell rings, she has felt a pang of fear. Could this be the day the Indian government finally throws her in prison—or worse?

In early October, Ayyub was rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night with a suspected heart attack. She remembers screaming to doctors in her hospital bed: “I’m dying.” The scare turned out to be a palpitation, and she was prescribed blood pressure medication. “It happened because I was fearful of my life,” Ayyub, 37, says in a phone interview with TIME two weeks later. “I was just tired of this existence.”

Read More: The Indian Government Is Silencing Critics Even As Its COVID-19 Crisis Surges

Ayyub is one of India’s most famous journalists, and a thorn in the side of the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She rose to prominence after she self-published Gujarat Files, a 2016 book about the 2002 violence in the state of Gujarat that left at least 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus dead. Ayyub’s work accused Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, and his allies of being complicit in the anti-Muslim violence and included undercover audio recordings of politicians in India’s now-ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. (Modi has never been formally charged and has said his government used its “full strength” to “do the right thing.”) Since then, Ayyub has struggled to find editors at mainstream Indian publications willing to publish her work. This summer, she joined the American newsletter platform Substack. She also writes a regular column for the Washington Post, and has occasionally written for TIME, including a TIME cover story in April highlighting the Modi government’s mismanagement of the country’s devastating second wave of COVID-19. And for the past several months, she has endured an escalating campaign of intimidation from Indian authorities and supporters of the ruling party.

Various journalists' organizations staged a silent sit-in protest against media gagging outside the Press Club of India in New Delhi on Feb 18.Pradeep Gaur—SOPA Images/Shutterstock

“Of all the cases of journalists we work on around the world, at the moment Rana is one of my top concerns,” says Rebecca Vincent, the director of international campaigns at rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF). “The hate she’s facing has been escalating for years but it’s so intense at the moment. We have a history of journalists being killed with impunity in India, and frankly it’s very possible that could be repeated. When I receive urgent calls from Rana, my immediate instinct is concern for her life.” The Indian government should know, Vincent says, that the world’s eyes are watching out for Ayyub’s safety. “If something happens to her, it will be very obvious where it came from and why,” she says.

Although India is often called the world’s largest democracy, U.S.-based nonprofit Freedom House downgraded India from “free” to “partly free” in March, citing a decline in civil liberties since Modi came to power in 2014, including the intimidation of journalists and activists. Independent journalists, especially women, face particularly intense harassment, abuse and rape threats. In 2017, prominent journalist Gauri Lankesh, known for her outspoken criticism of the Hindu nationalist government, was shot dead in Bangalore. RSF notes that India “is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists trying to do their job properly” and the group’s annual World Press Freedom Index ranks India at 142 out of 180 countries. Modi’s government set up a committee in 2020 to improve India’s ranking; the committee said in March that the RSF methodology lacked transparency and identified a “Western bias” in the index. (India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting did not reply to a request for comment.)

Ayyub is used to living on the edge. In 2018, for example, BJP supporters shared on social media a pornographic video doctored to include Ayyub’s face in an attempt to discredit her. For more than four years, she has received a barrage of anonymous death and rape threats on her social media. But for the last several months, she has been the victim of a campaign of intimidation by Indian authorities that has taken even her by surprise. In June, the Uttar Pradesh police opened an investigation into Ayyub and other Muslim journalists after they tweeted a video showing a violent attack against a Muslim man. Police and government officials said the man’s claim was faked and police accused Ayyub and several others of attempting to “create animosity between Hindus and Muslims,” saying they did “not make an attempt to establish truth in the case.” In a statement at the time, the Uttar Pradesh government said it placed “absolute sanctity to rule of law, civil liberties and freedom of expression” and the investigation was not lodged “due to any witch-hunt.”

In June, the central government’s Income Tax Department sent Ayyub a summons, investigating her income in relation to her fundraising for COVID-19. (During the height of India’s pandemic earlier this spring, she traveled the country distributing humanitarian aid that she had raised funds for via her online following.) Shortly after, the Enforcement Directorate began investigating Ayyub’s foreign sources of income. Ayyub describes the accusations as baseless. She says she has been followed in the street by mysterious cars, and that she has been forced to disclose to authorities confidential information and emails, including with her editors. On Sept. 27, she filed an appeal against the Income Tax Department, where her case is pending. (The department did not respond to TIME’s request for comment.)

Christophe Deloire (R), Secretary General of Reporter Without Borders, attends a video conference call with Edward Snowden (L on the screen) and Rana Ayyub (R on the screen) during the launch of the 2020 Press Freedom Index in Paris in April 2020.Christophe Petit Tesson—EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

After an experience being tailed by an unknown car for 90 minutes in Mumbai, Ayyub wrote a letter for one of her family members to publish in the event of her death. “It just says that in case anything happens to me, I don’t want you to let my death go in vain,” she says. “I want the future generation of journalists, writers, activists to know that even if my life is short-lived, it’s a fight worth fighting. While I’m alive, I’ll keep speaking.”

Press freedom is under growing threat around the world. In October, the Nobel Committee awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia, editors-in-chief of independent publications who have each faced state-sanctioned intimidation for daring to stand up to authoritarian regimes. Ayyub has spoken to Ressa and gathers strength from knowing that others like her are going through similar trials. She welcomes the recognition for Ressa and Muratov, and sees parallels between their countries and India. (The Philippines is ranked at 138 on the World Press Freedom Index, while Russia is at 150.) “It has given so many of us the courage to fight,” she says of the Nobel Peace Prize going to embattled journalists. “It felt like it was for each one of us.”

But Ayyub is no editor-in-chief. She is a single journalist working mostly alone, without institutional support, and largely for international publications. This makes her particularly vulnerable, but also more determined. “If anything, what they are doing to me has made me realize that my words count, and they are having an impact,” she says.

After Ayyub’s heart scare in early October, her 75-year-old father suggested the family leave the country. His daughter refused. “I love this country more than I can ever explain,” she told TIME. “If I hated it, I would have left a long time ago. Our forefathers, our freedom fighters, fought the British to give us this independent India, this grand idea of a democracy. And I’m fighting for this very idea.”

Parents were fine with sweeping school vaccination mandates five decades ago – but COVID-19 may be a different story


James Colgrove, Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health; Dean of the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program, Columbia School of General Studies, Columbia University

Fri, October 22, 2021

Children and parents lined up for polio vaccines outside a Syracuse, New York school in 1961. AP Photo

The ongoing battles over COVID-19 vaccination in the U.S. are likely to get more heated when the Food and Drug Administration authorizes emergency use of a vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, expected later this fall.

California has announced it will require the vaccine for elementary school attendance once it receives full FDA approval after emergency use authorization, and other states may follow suit. COVID-19 vaccination mandates in workplaces and colleges have sparked controversy, and the possibility that a mandate might extend to younger children is even more contentious.

Kids are already required to get a host of other vaccines to attend school. School vaccination mandates have been around since the 19th century, and they became a fixture in all 50 states in the 1970s. Vaccine requirements are among the most effective means of controlling infectious diseases, but they’re currently under attack by small but vocal minorities of parents who consider them unacceptable intrusions on parental rights.

As a public health historian who studies the evolution of vaccination policies, I see stark differences between the current debates over COVID-19 vaccination and the public response to previous mandates.
Compulsory vaccination in the past

The first legal requirements for vaccination date to the early 1800s, when gruesome and deadly diseases routinely terrorized communities. A loose patchwork of local and state laws were enacted to stop epidemics of smallpox, the era’s only vaccine-preventable disease.

Vaccine mandates initially applied to the general population. But in the 1850s, as universal public education became more common, people recognized that schoolhouses were likely sites for the spread of disease. Some states and localities began enacting laws tying school attendance to vaccination. The smallpox vaccine was crude by today’s standards, and concerns about its safety led to numerous lawsuits over mandates.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld compulsory vaccination in two decisions. The first, in 1905, affirmed that mandates are constitutional. The second, in 1922, specifically upheld school-based requirements. In spite of these rulings, many states lacked a smallpox vaccination law, and some states that did have one failed to enforce it consistently. Few states updated their laws as new vaccines became available.

School vaccination laws underwent a major overhaul beginning in the 1960s, when health officials grew frustrated that outbreaks of measles were continuing to occur in schools even though a safe and effective vaccine had recently been licensed.

Many parents mistakenly believed that measles was an annoying but mild disease from which most kids quickly recovered. In fact, it often caused serious complications, including potentially fatal pneumonia and swelling of the brain.

With encouragement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all states updated old laws or enacted new ones, which generally covered all seven childhood vaccines that had been developed by that time: diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps and rubella. In 1968, just half the states had school vaccination requirements; by 1981, all states did.

Smiling boy rolls up his sleeve to get a shot from a nurse

Expanding requirements, mid-20th century

What is most surprising about this major expansion of vaccination mandates is how little controversy it provoked.

The laws did draw scattered court challenges, usually over the question of exemptions – which children, if any, should be allowed to opt out. These lawsuits were often brought by chiropractors and other adherents of alternative medicine. In most instances, courts turned away these challenges.

There was scant public protest. In contrast to today’s vocal and well-networked anti-vaccination activists, organized resistance to vaccination remained on the fringes in the 1970s, the period when these school vaccine mandates were largely passed. Unlike today, when fraudulent theories of vaccine-related harm – such as the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism – circulate endlessly on social media, public discussion of the alleged or actual risks of vaccines was largely absent.

Through most of the 20th century, parents were less likely to question pediatricians’ recommendations than they are today. In contrast to the empowered “patient/consumer” of today, an attitude of “doctor knows best” prevailed. All these factors contributed to overwhelmingly positive views of vaccination, with more than 90% of parents in a 1978 poll reporting that they would vaccinate their children even if there were no law requiring them to do so.

Widespread public support for vaccination enabled the laws to be passed easily – but it took more than placing a law on the books to control disease. Vaccination rates continued to lag in the 1970s, not because of opposition, but because of complacency.

Thanks to the success of earlier vaccination programs, most parents of young children lacked firsthand experience with the suffering and death that diseases like polio or whooping cough had caused in previous eras. But public health officials recognized that those diseases were far from eradicated and would continue to threaten children unless higher rates of vaccination were reached. Vaccines were already becoming a victim of their success. The better they worked, the more people thought they were no longer needed.

In response to this lack of urgency, the CDC launched a nationwide push in 1977 to help states enforce the laws they had recently enacted. Around the country, health officials partnered with school districts to audit student records and provide on-site vaccination programs. When push came to shove, they would exclude unvaccinated children from school until they completed the necessary shots.

The lesson learned was that making a law successful requires ongoing effort and commitment – and continually reminding parents about the value of vaccines in keeping schools and entire communities healthy.
Add COVID-19 to vaccine list for school?

Five decades after school mandates became universal in the U.S., support for them remains strong overall. But misinformation spread over the internet and social media has weakened the public consensus about the value of vaccination that allowed these laws to be enacted.

adults and kids with signs protesting COVID-19 vaccines

COVID-19 vaccination has become politicized in a way that is unprecedented, with sharp partisan divides over whether COVID-19 is really a threat, and whether the guidance of scientific experts can be trusted. The attention focused on COVID-19 vaccines has given new opportunities for anti-vaccination conspiracy theories to reach wide audiences.

[Over 115,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today.]

Fierce opposition to COVID-19 vaccination, powered by anti-government sentiment and misguided notions of freedom, could undermine support for time-tested school requirements that have protected communities for decades. Although vaccinating school-aged children will be critical to controlling COVID-19, lawmakers will need to proceed with caution.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: James Colgrove, Columbia University.

Read more:

Half of unvaccinated workers say they’d rather quit than get a shot – but real-world data suggest few are following through

Shutting down school vaccine clinics doesn’t protect minors – it hurts people who are already disadvantaged

James Colgrove has received funding from the National Library of Medicine, the Greenwall Foundation, the Milbank Memorial Fund, and the William T. Grant Foundation.

Neera Tanden tapped for high-powered White House staff secretary role

by Naomi Lim, White House Reporter |
| October 22, 2021 09:54 AM
 Washington Examiner

Neera Tanden will take over as White House staff secretary seven months after her name was withdrawn as President Joe Biden's nominee to direct the Office of Management and Budget.

Tanden will start on Monday after current staff secretary Jessica Hertz vacates the role Friday, administration sources confirmed to the Washington Examiner. Tanden will report to chief of staff Ron Klain.

"The staff secretary role is the central nervous system of the White House and moves the decision-making process and manages a wide variety of issues for the president," an official said. "Neera has over two decades of experience in policy and management, which are critical elements of the role. Her experience across domestic, economic, and national security policy will be a key asset in this new role."

Tanden was tapped as a White House senior adviser after it became clear in March that not enough Senate Democrats or Republicans would confirm her as budget chief. From centrist West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin to socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, many had expressed concerns about her partisan rhetoric, leadership style, and corporate donor ties as the president and CEO of Center of American Progress.

"She’s working on passage of Build Back Better, particularly pushing outside support, and have done that since August. She is overseeing a government reform initiative alongside OMB, which stems in part from her work overseeing the United States Digital Service on behalf of the chief of staff’s office. And she worked on our response to the Supreme Court review of the ACA," the source added, referring to the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.