Japan experts craft 'super clone' of destroyed Afghan mural




Japan experts craft 'super clone' of destroyed Afghan muralA replica of a Buddhist mural destroyed by the Taliban is intended to salvage the work's "spirit" for future generations 

(AFP/Charly TRIBALLEAU)

Shingo ITO
Tue, November 16, 2021

Japanese researchers have crafted a "super clone" of an Afghan mural destroyed by the Taliban, using a mix of traditional and digital techniques that they hope will salvage the work's "spirit" for future generations.

Not a single fragment remains of the seventh-century cave painting demolished in 2001 along with two massive Buddha statues and other artefacts in Afghanistan's Bamiyan valley, sparking global condemnation.

But a precise replica, the result of three years of state-of-the-art reproduction efforts, went on display at a museum in Tokyo in September and October, just weeks after the Taliban returned to power in Kabul.

The mural on the ceiling of a cave near the famous statues depicted a blue Bodhisattva -- or someone on the path to becoming a Buddha.

At six metres long and three metres high (20 by 10 feet), the intricate full-size copy has been dubbed a "super clone" by the reproduction team at Tokyo University of the Arts.

"We have succeeded in recreating a very precise representation in three dimensions," from its texture to the type of paint, said the team's co-leader Takashi Inoue.

Japan is a major donor to Afghanistan and has long been involved in heritage protection efforts at Bamiyan, a crossroads of ancient civilisations considered to be one of the birthplaces of Japanese Buddhism.

The team digitally processed more than 100 photographs taken by Japanese archaeologists of the mural before it was desecrated, to create a computerised model of its surface.

They then fed this data into a machine, which carved the exact shape into a styrofoam block.

To complete the replica, artists applied a traditional paint in a lapis lazuli shade similar to the one used for the original mural.

Through this process, "we can reproduce designs that are very close to the real ones again and again, to hand down their spirit to future generations," said Inoue, a professor specialised in Eurasian cultural heritage.

"Let's stop vandalism. Let's preserve priceless culture -- the heritage of mankind -- together."

Other items related to Bamiyan and Afghan Buddhism were also on display at the university

 (AFP/Charly TRIBALLEAU)

- 'Everything can be digitalised' -

Days ahead of the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in August, the Taliban overran Kabul, sparking fears of a return to their brutal reign of 1996 to 2001.

The new regime insists it wants to protect archaeological heritage from destruction.

For historian Kosaku Maeda, a co-leader of the Tokyo reproduction team, the "massively shocking" images of the giant Buddhas disappearing into clouds of dust are still a vivid memory.

"I was worried that such an act would be inflicted on the remains once again," said the 88-year-old, who has visited the valley repeatedly for more than half a century.

But their work shows that vandalism is "meaningless" in the face of modern technology, as "everything can be digitalised", he said.

On a recent visit to Bamiyan by AFP journalists, Taliban gunmen stood guarding the rock cavities that once housed the two Buddha statues.

Construction work on a $20-million UNESCO-backed cultural centre and museum was still under way in Bamiyan when the AFP team visited the area in October -- although its planned inauguration this year was delayed by the Taliban takeover.

Maeda said his dream is to build a separate "peace museum" in the valley and, if possible, display the replica cave painting there.

"We can't put it back in its original place, but I want to bring it to Bamiyan as a historical legacy that local people can inherit," said Maeda, also a member of UNESCO's committee for the safeguarding of Afghan cultural heritage.

"A nation stays alive when its culture stays alive," he added, reciting the message written on a banner hung at the entrance of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul.

si/kaf/ser

Bolsonaro govt accused of censoring Brazil school exam


Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro came under fire amid accusations his government censored questions on Brazil's high school exit exam (AFP/EVARISTO SA


Tue, November 16, 2021

President Jair Bolsonaro brushed off controversy over allegations his government censored questions on Brazil's high school exit exam, saying he was proud the test was now starting to "resemble this administration."

The comments came during the president's trip to Dubai Monday.

The far-right president has long criticized what he sees as left-wing bias in the National Secondary Education Examination, or ENEM, the standardized test Brazilian students take at the end of high school that plays a key part in gaining admission to university.

The row erupted last week when 37 education ministry officials resigned weeks from the test, scheduled for November 21 and 28.

Some alleged Sunday in a TV interview, speaking on condition of anonymity, that their superiors had forced them to change exam questions, subjecting them to "intolerable pressure" and harassment.

One said their boss had demanded more than 20 questions be removed from the 180-question exam, which features mostly multiple-choice questions in math, science, history, language and other subjects.

"They were mainly questions that dealt with the country's recent history," the ex-official told Globo television, saying two new versions of the test then had to be drafted.

But Education Minister Milton Ribeiro pushed back against the accusations, telling CNN Brazil that the test's questions are set in a "technical rather than ideological" style that is "neither leftist nor right-wing."

"There is no way to interfere," Ribeiro said. "The idea that there would be interference (on the test) is a narrative from those who would like to politicize education. Education does not have a party."

Bolsonaro has often attacked perceived political and cultural bias in the ENEM, accusations which education experts reject.

Shortly after winning the 2018 presidential election, he lashed out at a question about LGBT history, saying, "Don't worry, next year there won't be any more questions like that."

Last January, he criticized a question about the large salary difference between the biggest stars of Brazilian men's and women's football, Neymar and Marta.

"There are still some ridiculous questions, comparing a woman and a man playing football. There's no comparison. Women's football still isn't a reality in Brazil," he said.

The all-time leading goal scorer in World Cup tournaments -- men's or women's -- Marta has been named the world's best player six times.

Downplaying the latest controversy, Bolsonaro said during a trip to Dubai that he considered changing the exam an accomplishment.

"The questions on the ENEM are starting to resemble this administration," he said.

The comment caused outcry in Brazil, leading opposition lawmakers to announce they would order Ribeiro to appear before Congress to answer to allegations of government censorship of the exam.

lg/jhb/mlm/caw/

BABA IS BEST
It's official: Science says grannies are good for you


A grandmother carries her laughing granddaugher outside the tourist hotspot of Yangshou in southern China (AFP/PETER PARKS)

Issam AHMED
Tue, November 16, 2021, 

Scientists say they have proven what many people fortunate enough to grow up with theirs have known all along: Grandmothers have strong nurturing instincts and are hard-wired to care deeply about their grandchildren.

A new study published in the Royal Society B on Tuesday is the first to provide a neural snapshot of the cherished intergenerational bond.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers at Emory University in the southern US state of Georgia scanned the brains of 50 grandmothers who were shown pictures of their grandchildren, who were between three and 12 years old.

As a control, they were also shown pictures of an unknown child, an adult parent of the same sex as their grandchild, and an unknown adult.

"They recruited areas of the brain that are involved with emotional empathy, and also areas of the brain that are involved in movement and motor simulation and preparation," James Rilling, an anthropologist and neuroscientist who led the study told AFP.

"When they're viewing these pictures of their grandchild, they're really feeling what the grandchild is feeling. So when the child is expressing joy, they're feeling that joy. When the children are expressing distress, they're feeling that distress."

The same motor related regions of the brain also light up in the brains of mothers, and are thought to be related to the instinct to pick up a child or approach and interact with them.

By contrast, when the grandmothers viewed images of their adult children, there was a stronger activation of brain regions linked to cognitive empathy -- trying to understand what a person is thinking or feeling and why, without as much emotional engagement.

This, said Rilling, might be linked to children's cute appearance -- scientifically known as "baby schema," which the young of many species share in order to evoke a caregiving response.

- First of its kind study -

Unlike other primates, humans are "cooperative breeders," which means mothers get help in rearing offspring.

Rilling, who had previously conducted similar research on fathers, had wanted to turn his attention toward grandmothers in order to explore a theory in anthropology known as the "grandmother hypothesis."

This holds that the evolutionary reason that human females tend to live long lives -- well beyond their own reproductive years -- is to provide benefits to their grown offspring and grandchildren.

Evidence supporting the hypothesis has been found in societies including Hadza hunter-gatherers of northern Tanzania, where grandmothers provide nourishing tubers to their grandchildren.

The effect also been seen in other species such as elephants, and has been observed in orcas, which like humans -- but unlike the vast majority of mammals -- also experience menopause.

"This is really the first look at the grand maternal brain," said Rilling, explaining that brain scan studies on the elderly normally focus on studying conditions like Alzheimer's disease.

The grandmothers, who were drawn from the Atlanta, Georgia area and came from a cross-section of economic and racial backgrounds, were also asked to fill out questionnaires.

Grandmothers who reported a greater desire to be involved with caring had greater activity in brain regions of interest.

Finally, when comparing the new study with the results from his earlier work on fathers, Rilling found that overall, grandmothers more strongly activated regions involved with emotional empathy and motivation.

But he stressed that this finding was only an average and doesn't necessarily apply to any given individual.

Rilling also interviewed each of his subjects to get a sense about the challenges and rewards of being a grandparent.

"Consistently, the challenge that came up the most was the differences of opinion they would have with the parents in terms of how the grandchildren should be raised -- their values, and the constant struggle to step back from that," he said.

On the other hand, "We joked about it, but a lot of them talked about how you can give the grandchildren back, it's not a full time job," he said.

Many grandmothers felt they could be more present now that they were free of the time and financial pressure they experienced when raising their own children.

"So a lot of them reported actually enjoying being a grandmother more than they enjoyed being a mother," he said.

ia/caw/dw

WOMEN WRITE!

Wikipedia editor 'warriors' fight lies, bigotry and even Nazis
AFP 

False Covid death reports, a vast gender gap, Nazi "fan fiction": These are some of the perils an international crowd of volunteers battle across Wikipedia’s tens of millions of online entries. 

© Lionel BONAVENTURE Wikipedia's volunteer editors help police its tens of millions of articles

The world's largest internet encyclopedia is often the first result to pop up when users ask the internet a question -- and thus a massively influential source of free information but which also reflects humanity's faults

.

© JOSH EDELSON Ksenia Coffman helps edit Wikipedia articles, and has battled to clarify war history on the platform

With entries that can in theory be written by anyone with an internet connection -- in some 300 languages -- it comes down to editing by mostly anonymous volunteers to police the site.

"I always carry my laptop along wherever I go, to edit Wikipedia," said Alaa Najjar, who is based in the Middle East, but asked that specific details about his identity be omitted to protect his privacy.

© Handout This undated handout photo shows Wikipedia volunteer editor Rebecca O'Neil, who has worked to close the gender gap among posts on the platform

"It is an addiction, as my friends say. I prefer to say it's my passion," he told AFP by email

Najjar said he contributes to almost 500 entries a week, and as a medical doctor he has been busy fighting a flood of false information unleashed during the pandemic.

Among the strains of misinformation that surfaced on Wikipedia, he has spotted false reports Covid-19 had killed notable people and inaccurate boosting of some nations' death and case numbers.

"I reviewed hundreds of articles during the Covid-19 pandemic, and rejected many misleading or erroneous amendments," said Najjar, who got the platform's top honor in 2021 for his work.

The 20-year-old encyclopedia -- which even has an article devoted to its own controversies -- has received positive accolades in recent years for its fact-checking capacities.

Though it's a sprawling platform, the site does not seek to make money and so avoids the profit-over-safety criticism that has battered Facebook, for example.

Instead, Wikipedia has volunteers who are deeply invested in the site's stated mission of providing access to a written compendium of all branches of human knowledge.

Of course, it can be a thankless job to kick dubious reports off the platform.

"One particular editor called me a 'vandal' for removing unsourced information," said Ksenia Coffman, who has battled what she termed "fan fiction" about World War II on Wikipedia, including how Nazis and German generals were depicted.

A strand of writing that ignores historical context regarding war-time atrocities such the Holocaust, and instead romanticizes German forces, has influenced a subculture that has found its way to the platform.

"Why am I getting pushback when I am trying to correct this to remove these unsourced globs of text that just glorify these supposed Nazi war heroes?" asked Coffman, who lives in California but grew up in the Soviet Union and contributes around 200 edits per month.

She said the pushback from the subculture's believers as well as from editors who didn't like to be challenged was a "tactical mistake" by her detractors that in fact motivated her to stick around and take on the issue.

And other dark spots in human history have a way of popping up on Wikipedia, too.

Women have been less well-covered than men in published written works in general, which creates a barrier to women appearing in equal numbers to men in Wikipedia's articles.

The platform requires reliable, published sources from news outlets or academia to underpin an article, noted Dublin-based volunteer editor Rebecca O'Neill.

"Wikipedia is an uncomfortable mirror to show the world because it reflects back all of the systemic knowledge gaps that we have," she said, adding that she puts in about 40 minutes per day on the platform.

In 2015 it became clear that only 15 percent of English language biographies on the platform were about women, sparking an effort to try to balance out the disparity. Six years later, the figure has risen to over 19 percent, said O'Neill.

Last year she was writing Wikipedia articles at the clip of one per day, and in the ratio of 19 biographies on women for every one she did about a man.

"I as an individual can offer something. I'm just going to set aside the time and just do it and not turn it over too much in my head," she added. "It's something I can do."

jm/caw/dw

LGBTQ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

Suicides among gay men decline as countries become more tolerant


Risk of depression and suicidal thoughts was significantly lower after gay and bisexual men moved to a lower-stigma country, a new study found. Photo by StockSnap/Pixabay

A new study confirms that when a country is more accepting of people who are LGBTQ, fewer gay or bisexual men take their own lives.

In a new study, researchers compared life in a country where LGBTQ folks encounter strong stigma with that in a country where stigma against them is low. The upshot: The risk of depression and suicide dropped significantly when gay men moved to a more tolerant country.

"The study shows that structural stigma shaped gay and bisexual men's daily lives and mental health by increasing their risks for social isolation, concealment of their identity, and internalized homonegativity," said lead author John Pachankis. He is director of the LGBTQ Mental Health Initiative at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Conn.

The risk of depression and suicidal thoughts was significantly lower after gay and bisexual men moved to a lower-stigma country, especially after they lived there for five years or more, the study found.

For the study, the researchers used data from a 2017-2018 online survey completed by more than 123,000 people in 48 Asian and European countries. Most were gay or bisexual men. A smaller number were men who identified as heterosexual or another identity who had sex with men.

The team used 15 laws and policies relating to LGBTQ rights, and social attitudes to gauge structural stigma.

More than 11,000 study participants had moved from higher- to lower-stigma countries, the study authors noted in a news release from the American Psychological Association.

The survey asked about the extent to which they felt compelled to conceal their sexual orientation, internalized negative attitudes they held toward homosexuality and how isolated they felt socially.

A lack of legal recognition of relationships, such as same-sex marriage, was one of the most common forms of structural stigma in the higher-stigma countries, the study found.

Men who moved to lower-stigma countries were more likely to do so in order to live openly as LGBTQ and to seek asylum than men who moved from lower- to higher-stigma countries, the survey revealed.

Surprisingly, the researchers did not find an increased risk for suicidal thoughts and depression in gay and bisexual men who moved from lower- to higher-stigma countries. That finding suggested that growing up in a more tolerant society may have had some lasting mental health benefits, the team said.

Past research in the United States is similar, finding that LGBTQ people who live in states where hate crime and employment non-discrimination laws lack protections based on sexual orientation have significantly poorer mental health.

Pachankis suggested that mental health professionals working in high-stigma environments can help by advocating for reforms while also addressing the social isolation and mental health of LGBTQ clients.

The findings were published online Nov. 15 in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

More information

PFLAG has a list of crisis intervention hotlines for people who are LGBTQ and in crisis.

SOURCE: American Psychological Association, news release, Nov. 15, 2021

Copyright 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

LGBTQ RITES ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
Pastor of Brazil's first trans church preaches inclusion




Chanel, the pastor of Brazil's first trans church, is seen on October 25, 2021

 (AFP/Miguel SCHINCARIOL)

Florence GOISNARD, Anna PELEGRI
Tue, November 16, 2021, 

When her mother asked an Evangelical pastor to "cure" her transgenderism at age 13, Jacque Chanel never imagined she would one day be an Evangelical pastor herself.

But four decades later, she leads the first trans church in Brazil, a small, colorful sanctuary in Sao Paulo that welcomes worshippers beneath a blue-and-pink banner that reads, "I am trans, and I want dignity and respect."

Many who attend her services are homeless, in a country that is often hostile and violent to members of the LGBT community. Brazil is one of the deadliest countries in the world for trans people, with 175 murdered last year.

"We live in a society that mistreats us, that discriminates against us. What I do here is give hope and empowerment to trans people," says Chanel, 56, who launched the church recently in an aging building in the center of Brazil's economic capital.

Chanel -- she chose her first name in homage to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and her surname for the French luxury brand -- leads services that are themselves a break with tradition.

Worshippers sit in circles, not rows, and hold hands as she prays. She opens her palms as she addresses them, looking out through her rectangular glasses with the firm gaze of someone who has learned her lessons the hard way.

"I suffered a lot to get here," she says.

- Exorcising demons -

Chanel was born "Ricardo," in the city of Belem, in the northern state of Para, where her mother saw her transgenderism as an illness and placed her in the care of an Evangelical pastor.

She remembers him as a father-like figure.

"He didn't accept me being transgender, but at least he respected me," she says.

But her life was upturned again when she learned he had been murdered. Without him, she was no longer welcome in his church.

Brazil's burgeoning Evangelical Christian movement -- around 30 percent of the country's 213 million people -- is largely conservative, and can be hostile to those perceived as violating traditional family values.

That did not stop Chanel from spending years in search of a church that would embrace her.

"They wouldn't have me. They would place a hand on my head and try to exorcise the evil spirits," she says.

When she moved to Sao Paulo, she started attending church with a group of other LGBT community members.

"We would always stay in the back, until one day during services the pastor called us to the front. It was to kick us out," she says.

Determined not to give up her faith, she kept trying different churches, until she found a group of "inclusive Evangelicals," a movement that emerged in the 2000s to welcome LGBT Christians.

"It changed my life. But then it started to seem unjust. There were 300 gays and lesbians, and only two transgender people," she says.

"Is that really inclusive?"

She convinced the movement to let her start her own worship group, which gathered some 200 young trans people, and to ordain her as a pastor.

- Changing minds -

Chanel opened her church six months ago, at first online, then with in-person services.

She welcomes worshippers with a meal, and also hands out food donations once a week to the poor in central Sao Paulo, whose numbers have grown with the economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

"When I go into a Catholic church, loads of people look at me, especially when I take communion," says one worshipper, 42-year-old Vanessa Souza.

"Here is different. Nobody looks at me, nobody scrutinizes my clothes or calls me 'transvestite.' I feel at home."

Chanel says her services have been attacked as "satanic" by conservative Evangelicals online. But her doors are open to all.

"Trans or not, I invite everyone to our weekly services. We are open to everyone," she says.

She is awaiting her turn for gender confirmation surgery. Sao Paulo's Hospital das Clinicas has a waiting list of more than 1,000 people for the procedure, and performs just one per month.

Chanel is in no hurry for another change, though: she has kept the name Ricardo on her official ID.

"It gives me a chance to teach people every time someone asks the question," she says.

app-fg/jhb/dw

ENEMY OF THE STATE

Filipino journalist reflects on Nobel Prize win at Harvard


1 of 8

Investigative journalist Maria Ressa, of the Philippines, speaks with a reporter from The Associated Press, during an interview at the Kennedy School of Government on the campus of Harvard University, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, in Cambridge, Mass. Ressa, co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, spoke on issues including press freedom during the interview. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — One month since she was named the first Filipino to win the Nobel Peace Prize, journalist Maria Ressa says much still remains uncertain about her life.

Will her battle against a libel suit in the Philippines lead to jail time? Will she be able to travel to Norway to accept her prestigious award next month? When is the next time she’ll be able to see her family?

“You know the painting The Scream?” Ressa said Tuesday evening, holding her hands to her face and mock-bellowing into the existential void like the famed Edvard Munch work. “I wake up every day like that.”

“I don’t know where it will lead,” she continued during an interview at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, shortly before delivering the university’s annual Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Press. “But I know that if we keep doing our task, staying on mission, holding the line, that there’s a better chance that our democracy not only survives, but that I also stay out of jail. Because I’ve done nothing wrong except be a journalist, and that is the price we have to pay. I wish it wasn’t me, but it is.”

The 58-year-old co-founder of Rappler, a Manila-based news website, said it wasn’t lost on her that her Harvard speech came just hours after American journalist Danny Fenster’s emotional reunion with family in New York following his negotiated release from military-ruled Myanmar, where he’d spent six months in jail for his work.

“It shows how it crumbles fast. The ground we’re on is quicksand,” she said. “Power can do what it wants.”

Ressa worries about what next year’s elections in the Philippines, U.S. and elsewhere will bring.

She assailed American social media companies for failing to act as gatekeepers as misinformation continues to proliferate virtually unchecked across their platforms, allowing repressive regimes like those in Myanmar and elsewhere to thrive and threaten democratic institutions.

“If you don’t have facts, you can’t have truth. You can’t have trust. You don’t have a shared reality,” she said. “So how do we solve these existential problems — the rise of fascism, coronavirus, climate change — if we don’t agree on the facts? This is fundamental.”

Ressa, who along with co-winner and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov became the first working journalists in more than 80 years to win the Nobel Peace Prize, is wrapping up a monthlong stint as a visiting fellow at Harvard.

She says she’s looking forward to visiting her parents in Florida for Thanksgiving next week before heading back to the Philippines. It marks the first time since she’s been out of the country since being convicted last summer of libel and sentenced to jail in a decision seen as a major blow to press freedom globally.

Ressa has remained free on bail while that case is on appeal, but faces up to six years in prison, not to mention a series of other active legal cases against her.

Before this month’s trip, she had a number of other travel requests denied by Philippine courts, including one she says was to visit her ailing mother. Ressa will also have to get court approval to attend the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 10.

“It’s like death by a thousand cuts,” said Ressa, who was born in Manila but raised mostly in the U.S, before moving back to the Philippines and launching a journalism career. “You don’t know how free you are until you begin to lose your freedom, or you have to ask people for your freedoms.”

At Harvard, Ressa has been meeting with faculty and students, giving talks and doing research on a forthcoming book.

She co-founded Rappler in 2012, and the website quickly gained notoriety for its reporting on President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody, yearslong crackdown on illegal drugs. The news organization has also documented how social media is being used to spread fake news, harass opponents and manipulate public discourse.

During Tuesday’s lecture, which Ressa gave remotely from her hotel room due to a potential COVID-19 exposure related to the campus event, she also reflected on the toll on her personal life.

In the Philippines, she’d taken to wearing a bulletproof vest at times in public, and pleaded with Facebook to delete violent posts against her as death threats mounted.

For female journalists in particular, Ressa said, attacks on social media quickly become menacing. Among roughly half a million online attacks she’s received, some 60% were against her credibility while 40% were more personal and “meant to tear down my spirit,” she said.

“There are moments when you go, ‘Why?’ Why does it demand this much?” Ressa said. “But the cost of not doing the right thing is far greater than the consequences for one person.”

UPDATE

NASA may not land people on moon again until 2027, new audit says

NASA's Orion spacecraft, scheduled for the Artemis III mission that would carry astronauts to the surface of the moon, is prepared for launch Nov. 5 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Despite U.S. goals to land people on the moon again by 2024, delays of several years are likely, according to a NASA watchdog audit released Monday.

Former Vice President Mike Pence set that 2024 goal in a 2019 speech, giving NASA just five years to accomplish the feat.

While NASA reinforced the practicality of that goal for a long time, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Tuesday that the agency now plans to aim for 2025 because of funding shortfalls.

But the new audit from NASA's Office of Inspector General dashed the 2025 goal as unrealistic.

"Given the time needed to develop and fully test the [Human Landing System] and new spacesuits, we project NASA will exceed its current timetable for landing humans on the Moon in late 2024 by several years," the Office of Inspector General said.

The audit pins blames space agency management for the delays, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, which interrupted work on NASA's moon rocket, and on "significantly less" congressional funding than NASA sought.

The agency requested $3.4 billion this year for the lunar Human Landing System program, but the Congress appropriated just $850 million. NASA awarded a contract to its lowest bidder, Elon Musk's SpaceX, to develop such a lander for $2.9 billion over the next few years.

The audit recommends that NASA develop a "realistic, risk-informed schedule" that includes potential delays to better align expectations with the development schedule for rockets, capsules, spacesuits and other systems.

The inspector general, Paul K. Martin, also recommended with his staff that NASA develop an Artemis-wide mission cost estimate and update it on an annual basis, and maintain an accounting of per-mission costs.

In its official response, the space agency said it didn't agree with those two recommendations.

NASA said it already follows its policies regarding cost estimates and argued that Artemis is a campaign, "and not an agency-defined program with a specific set of content or a period of time."

Regarding mission costs, NASA argued in its response to the inspector report that it "does not account, track or report costs on a per-mission basis ... because doing so would reduce contractual transparency to key stakeholders."

The agency didn't explain in its response who those stakeholders are.

"Breaking out costs to align by mission may lead to inefficiencies ... and may dis-incentivize contractors to continue innovating," NASA said in its response.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin filed formal protests and a lawsuit against NASA's award to SpaceX for the landing system, but a judge dismissed that suit Nov. 4.

Meanwhile, on Sept. 14, NASA awarded a new round of $146 million to five U.S. companies, including Blue Origin and SpaceX, to continue development of lunar landers for astronauts.

Woman may have naturally rid herself of HIV, raising hope for cure

By Amy Norton, HealthDay News


A patient gets tested with the an HIV antibody test. File Photo by Michael Kleinfeld/UPI | License Photo

Researchers have identified a second HIV-positive person whose body might have naturally cleared the infection -- sparking hope that studying such exceedingly rare events will help lead to a cure. 

The researchers cautioned that they cannot prove the woman has fully eradicated the virus from her body, in what's known as a "sterilizing" cure. But in exhaustive tests of over 1.5 billion cells from her body, the scientists could not find any HIV genetic material that is capable of spurring infection.

The woman, whom the researchers call the Esperanza patient (after her birthplace of Esperanza, Argentina), is the second known person to have potentially cleared HIV infection naturally.

The first case, a woman dubbed the San Francisco patient, was reported last year by some of the same researchers.

Neither woman can be declared as having a sterilizing cure. All that can be said is it's possible, according to researcher Dr. Xu Yu, of the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard, in Boston.

If the two patients have achieved a natural cure, the big question is: How? And can that 'how' be turned into a cure for others?

"How do we translate this to the general population of HIV-positive patients?" Yu said.

The Esperanza case, reported in the Nov. 16 issue of Annals of Internal of Medicine, and the San Francisco case were discovered through ongoing research of so-called "elite controllers."

They are a very select group of HIV-positive people who are able to control the virus without the help of standard antiretroviral therapy (ART). Those medications can suppress HIV to undetectable levels in the blood, but cannot eradicate the virus.

RELATED Study: Bimonthly, injected PrEP better than daily pill at preventing HIV

That's because of the nature of HIV. Its genetic material integrates itself into the DNA of an infected person's cells, where it silently camps out -- forming what's called a latent reservoir. ART treatment cannot wipe out those reservoirs, and if the drugs are stopped, latently infected cells can start churning out copies of HIV again.

Likewise, elite controllers still have detectable latent reservoirs. While they are able to keep the virus in check for many years, they do not eliminate it.

That's where the Esperanza and San Francisco patients stand out. The researchers have found no evidence of latent HIV reservoirs in either patient.

RELATED Two HIV PrEP meds work equally well, one is much cheaper

"They are very, very special people who have exceptional control of the virus," said Dr. Natalia Laufer, one of Yu's colleagues on the study.

Now that the researchers have found two such patients, they can hunt for characteristics that they share, said Laufer, of the Institute for Biomedical Research in Retroviruses and AIDS in Buenos Aires.

Hopefully, that will shed light on the mechanisms that allow the patients such exceptional HIV control.

It's estimated that fewer than 0.5% of people with HIV are elite controllers, according to Laufer. And scientists do not yet know how they do it.

Yu and her colleagues have gained some insights, though, using recently developed gene-sequencing technology to analyze elite controllers' blood cells. They've found that in those patients, HIV is often integrated into parts of the cell genome that are essentially "gene deserts."

In other words, the viral genetic material is sequestered far away from the genes a blood cell uses to make proteins. That suggests those infected cells are less able to churn out copies of HIV.

The mystery remains, however, as to how elite controllers banish HIV to gene deserts.

"Exceptional" controllers are clearly even rarer than elite controllers. How rare is unknown.

"We now have two cases where people seem, for all intents and purposes, to have cleared the virus," said Rowena Johnston, vice president and director of research for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. "How many of these people are out there? It's impossible to believe there are only two, and these researchers found both."

Johnston, who was not involved in the research, pointed to "the two fundamental questions" these cases present: What are the mechanisms allowing such exceptional HIV control? Can they be translated into a cure?

Ultimately, Johnston noted, experts believe it will take "multiple approaches" to cure HIV.

At this point, only two HIV-positive people have ever been declared "cured" -- both after receiving stem cell transplants to treat cancer. The stem cells harbored a rare gene mutation that is protective against HIV.

Yu said the two patients with possible natural cures offer "hope" that a broadly applicable cure can be accomplished.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more on research for an HIV cure. SOURCES: Xu Yu, MD, associate professor, medicine, Harvard Medical School, and group leader, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, Boston Natalia Laufer, MD, PhD, researcher, Institute for Biomedical Research in Retroviruses and AIDS, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina Rowena Johnston, PhD, vice president and director, research, amfAR, New York City Annals of Internal Medicine, Nov. 16, 2021, online

Copyright 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Pfizer to allow generic COVID-19 pill production for low-income countries

Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, said he believes the antiviral pills can help end the COVID-19 pandemic. File Photo by Alex Edelman/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Pfizer and the Medicines Patent Pool signed an agreement Tuesday that allows an antiviral pill to treat COVID-19 to be more widely distributed in low-income countries.

Studies have shown the pill, Paxlovid, given with an older drug called ritonavir, to be 89% effective in reducing COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations in high-risk patients.

The agreement will enable the United Nations-backed MPP to distribute the pill (pending authorization) by granting licenses for generic production.

The deal aims to make the pill available in the some of the poorest countries, which make up about 53% of the world's population.

"Pfizer remains committed to bringing forth scientific breakthroughs to help end this pandemic for all people. We believe oral antiviral treatments can play a vital role in reducing the severity of COVID-19 infections, decreasing the strain on our healthcare systems and saving lives," Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said in a press release.

The agreement includes low- and middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as countries that have transitioned to upper middle income within the past five years.

Pfizer said it will not claim royalties on the licenses for the pill.

"Pfizer will not receive royalties on sales in low-income countries and will further waive royalties on sales in all countries covered by the agreement while COVID-19 remains classified as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization," the company said.

Charles Gore, executive director of MPP, said the group also has a license to produce the generic ritonavir, an HIV drug.

"We will be working with generic companies to ensure there is enough supply for both COVID-19 and HIV," Gore said in the press release announcing the deal.

Pfizer has requested emergency use authorization for Paxlovid, which it developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, from the Food and Drug Administration. If authorized, it would be the first COVID-19 treatment tablet on the market.

Merck has also developed a coronavirus treatment drug, molnupiravir, which is also under federal review.

Pfizer asks US officials to OK promising COVID-19 pill


This image provided by Pfizer shows its COVID-19 pills. Drugmaker Pfizer said Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021, it is submitting its experimental pill for U.S. authorization, setting the stage for a likely launch in coming weeks. (Pfizer via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Tuesday to authorize its experimental pill for COVID-19, setting the stage for a likely launch this winter of a promising treatment that can be taken at home.

The company’s filing comes as new infections are rising once again in the United States, driven mainly by hot spots in states where colder weather is driving more Americans indoors.

Pfizer’s pill has been shown to significantly cut the rate of hospitalizations and deaths among people with coronavirus infections. The Food and Drug Administration is already reviewing a competing pill from Merck and several smaller drugmakers are also expected to seek authorization for their own antiviral pills in the coming months.

“We are moving as quickly as possible in our effort to get this potential treatment into the hands of patients, and we look forward to working with the U.S. FDA on its review of our application,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, in a statement.

Specifically, Pfizer wants the drug available for adults who have mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infections and are at risk of becoming seriously ill. That’s similar to how other drugs are currently used to treat the disease. But all FDA-authorized COVID-19 treatments require an IV or injection given by a health professional at a hospital or clinic.

The FDA is holding a public meeting on the Merck pill later this month to get the opinion of outside experts before making its decision. The agency isn’t required to convene such meetings and it’s not yet known whether Pfizer’s drug will undergo a similar public review.

Some experts predict COVID-19 treatments eventually will be combined to better protect against the worst effects of the virus.

Pfizer reported earlier this month that its pill cut hospitalizations and deaths by 89% among high-risk adults who had early symptoms of COVID-19. The company studied its pill in people who were unvaccinated and faced the worst risks from the virus due to age or health problems, such as obesity. If authorized, the FDA will have to weigh making the pill available for vaccinated people dealing with breakthrough infections, since they weren’t part of the initial tests.

For best results, patients need to start taking the pills within three days of symptoms, underscoring the need for speedy testing and diagnosis. That could be a challenge if another COVID-19 surge leads to testing delays and shortages seen last winter.

Pfizer’s drug is part of a decades-old family of antiviral drugs known as protease inhibitors, which revolutionized the treatment of HIV and hepatitis C. The drugs block a key enzyme which viruses need to multiply in the human body. That’s different than the Merck pill, which causes tiny mutations in the coronavirus until the point that it can’t reproduce itself.

On Tuesday, Pfizer signed a deal a with U.N.-backed group to allow generic drugmakers to produce low-cost versions of the pill for certain countries. Merck has a similar deal for its pill, which was authorized in Britain earlier this month.

The U.S. has approved one other antiviral drug for COVID-19, remdesivir, and authorized three antibody therapies that help the immune system fight the virus. But they usually have to be given via time-consuming infusions by health professionals, and limited supplies were strained by the last surge of the delta variant.

The U.S. government has already committed to purchasing Merck’s pill. Federal authorities were in negotiations with Pfizer to buy millions of doses of its pill, according to an official familiar with the matter.

___

AP reporter Zeke Miller in Washington contributed.

___

Follow Matthew Perrone on Twitter: @AP_FDAwriter