EXPLAINER: Why Tonga eruption was so big and what’s next

By NICK PERRY

FILE - This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows an overview of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcano in Tonga on Jan. 6, 2022, before a huge undersea volcanic eruption. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP,

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — People around the world looked on in awe at the spectacular satellite images of an undersea volcano erupting in a giant mushroom cloud in the Pacific. Many wondered why the blast was so big, how the resulting tsunami traveled so far, and what will happen next. New Zealand scientists Shane Cronin, a volcanology professor at the University of Auckland, and Emily Lane, a tsunami expert at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, help explain.

EXPLOSIVE BUT BRIEF

The eruption on Saturday was incredibly explosive but also relatively brief. The plume rose into the air more than 30 kilometers (19 miles) but the eruption lasted only about 10 minutes, unlike some big eruptions that can continue for hours. Cronin said the power of the eruption of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano ranks among the world’s biggest over the past 30 years, and the height of the plume of ash, steam and gas was comparable with the huge 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, which killed several hundred people

WHY SO BIG?

The magma inside the volcano was under enormous pressure and had gasses trapped within it. A fracture in the rock likely induced a sudden drop in pressure, allowing the gas to expand and blast the magma apart. Cronin said the crater was sitting about 200 meters (650 feet) below the sea surface, a kind of Goldilocks depth for a big explosion in which seawater pours into the volcano and turns instantly into steam, adding to the rapid expansion and energy of the explosion. Any deeper and the extra pressure of the water would have helped contain the eruption.

FARFLUNG TSUNAMI

Many scientists were surprised that a single eruption could produce a Pacific-wide tsunami of about 1 meter (3 feet) that smashed boats in New Zealand and caused an oil spill and two drownings in Peru. Lane said that oceanwide tsunamis are usually triggered by earthquakes that extend across huge areas rather than from a single volcano, essentially a tiny dot in the ocean. She said other factors may have been at play, such as an underwater flank of the volcano collapsing and displacing water. She said one interesting theory is that the shock wave, or sonic boom, from the volcano that traveled twice around the world may have pumped more power into the tsunami waves.

TONGA MAINLY SPARED

Another mystery is why the tsunami wasn’t bigger and more destructive in Tonga, which sits almost on top of the volcano.

“That’s the million dollar question,” Cronin said. “Looking at the images so far, the level of devastation is less than I was fearing.”

Authorities by Wednesday had confirmed three deaths in Tonga, with concerns remaining about people on some of the hard-hit smaller islands. Dozens of homes were destroyed.

Lane said that Tongans at least got some warning, both from the increased activity at the volcano the day before the eruption and from the incredibly loud bang when it erupted but before the tsunami hit, allowing many to scramble to higher ground. She said reefs, lagoons and other natural features may also have protected parts of Tonga, while amplifying the waves in certain areas.

FALLING ASH

The ash that has coated Tonga is acidic but not poisonous, Cronin said. Indeed, he has been advising Pacific responders that people may still be able to drink from their rainwater supplies even if some ash has fallen in, which will make the water more acidic and salty. He said it was a question of applying the taste test and if water became scarce, it would be better drinking ash-tainted water than stagnant water that might be contaminated with bacteria. New Zealand and other nations are trying to get water and other supplies to Tonga as quickly as possible. Cronin said all of Tonga’s soil comes from volcanic ash and the latest dump of ash would quickly wash into the ground and make the nation more fertile.

NO GLOBAL COOLING

Huge volcanic eruptions can sometimes cause temporary global cooling as sulfur dioxide is pumped into the stratosphere. But in the case of the Tonga eruption, initial satellite measurements indicated the amount of sulfur dioxide released would only have a tiny effect of perhaps 0.01 degree Celsius (0.02 Fahrenheit) global average cooling, said Alan Robock, a professor at Rutgers University.

WHAT’S NEXT

Cronin envisions two main scenarios for the volcano. The first is that it has exhausted itself for now and will go quiet for the next 10 to 20 years as magma slowly returns. A second scenario is that new magma rises up quickly to replace that which exploded, in which case there might be ongoing eruptions. But he believes the cracks and rifts caused by Saturday’s big explosion will allow more gas to escape, and subsequent eruptions won’t be as big, at least for now. Both Cronin and Lane agree there needs to be much better monitoring of the volcano — and others in Tonga — to help better predict future events.

___

Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland, contributed to this report.

The science behind the Tonga volcanic eruption, tsunami

Jan 18, 2022 6:20 PM EST
PBS NEWS HOUR
By —John Yang
By —Ali Rogin


The first satellite images of the Pacific nation of Tonga after Saturday's volcanic eruption emerged Tuesday. The photos show the islands coated in ash. Despite the violent explosion, the Tongan government has reported just three deaths. The status of two smaller islands in its chain is still unknown. John Yang takes a closer look at the science behind the volcano, its explosion and aftermath.

 Full Transcript

Judy Woodruff:

Today, the first satellite images emerged of the Pacific nation of Tonga following Saturday's volcanic eruption.

The photos show the islands coated in ash. Despite the violent explosion, the Tongan government has so far reported just three deaths. The status of two smaller islands in its chain is still unknown.

John Yang takes a closer look at the science behind the volcano, its explosion and aftermath.


John Yang:

Judy, scientists say the explosion revealed some of the mysteries of underwater volcanoes. It produced a tsunami that was felt on the coasts of Japan and the United States, 5,000 miles away, and triggered an oil spill in Peru. It set off a lightning storm that lasted seven hours and had 400,000 strikes. It was heard as far away as Alaska.

But for all the ways it made itself felt around the world, its damage was relatively confined. Tonga bore the brunt of the volcano's fury, blanketed with ash that is now contaminating its water supply.

Michael Poland is a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington.

Mr. Poland, thanks so much for joining us. As we talk about, it was so dramatic, this event, that huge plume that was visible from space, the tsunami, the atmospheric shockwave which rippled around the globe, but you say that the data actually showed this was a relatively small eruption.

Explain that.


Michael Poland, U.S. Geological Survey:

Yes, it's a very confounding event, in that the amount of material that came out of the ground was not especially huge.

It was perhaps the kind of thing we might see every few years from a volcano somewhere on Earth. But it produced an outsized explosion, really a massive explosion. And that has to have something to do with the interaction with ocean water, and to produce that really massive tsunami.

So it's having really outsized impacts for the amount of material that came out of the ground.


John Yang:

And what was in that material? What did come out of the ground?


Michael Poland:

Well, there was a lot of ash that came out, of course, as with most volcanic eruptions, and SO2 gas, among other types of gas, water vapor, and so forth.

And that sulfur dioxide really allows us to pinpoint where the plume is and how big it is, because we know roughly the amount of sulfur gas that's dissolved in the magma. So it's a bit like opening a soda and having that carbon dioxide come out of the soda. When the gas comes out of the volcano, you get a lot of SO2 that comes out of that magma. That allows us to track the plume and know roughly how big an eruption is.


John Yang:

And you talk about the reaction with the ocean water. Does that also — or what's the explanation for it being heard so far away, heard as far away as Alaska?


Michael Poland:

Yes, that's really difficult to understand at this point.

It had to have something to do with that sort of interaction. Perhaps a large amount of gas-rich magma being suddenly exposed to cold ocean water generated just a really massive explosion, and it was heard obviously, very, very far away. That's something I think is going to be the subject of an awful lot of research in the days, years to come.


John Yang:

And the tsunami, I think a lot of people's familiarity with tsunamis really comes from the 2004 Banda Aceh tsunami, which was the result of an earthquake, of a seismic event.

Is this common, a tsunami also common with volcanic eruptions under underwater like this?


Michael Poland:

Volcanic eruptions that are right underwater or right near the water can generate tsunamis. It's not something we see a lot of. Certainly, we see the earthquake-induced tsunamis much more commonly.

There's a lot of study that went into earthquake-induced tsunami, especially after 2004. And we have come to understand those sorts of processes a lot better than we did before. But volcanic tsunamis being rare give us fewer opportunities to study them.

So we don't understand the volcanic tsunamis quite as well. So a bit like that airwave that traveled around the Earth, this tsunami is also going to be studied quite intently to understand more about what generated it. Was it some displacement of the seafloor? Was it perhaps the impact of an ash plume on the water?

There are many potential mechanisms for why the tsunami was so big. And understanding that is going to be key to being able to forecast these sorts of events in the future.


John Yang:

As I hear you talk, it sounds like there's a lot we don't understand about underwater volcanoes, and that this is suggesting ways or new research, as you say, to examine this one.

What sorts of things will you be looking at and your colleagues be looking at it in this event?


Michael Poland:

I think the key here is that magma-water interaction.

And so there's going to be all kinds of attention paid to how magma and water interact. What happens when you put these two different materials in contact with another really in a dynamic way. So we're going to be looking at modeling studies of those sorts of interactions, studying the ash particles to see whether that can provide some clues as to how the interaction took place, and then modeling this explosion, modeling the tsunami, to try to understand more about the nature of this interaction, because, obviously, there are submarine volcanoes in other places.

And they're tremendously hard to study, because they are obscured. It's relatively easy to study volcanoes on land compared to these underwater volcanoes. But, clearly, they present a hazard. So we need to understand more about that hazard.

This event, as tragic as it is for Tonga, might help us understand these kinds of interactions in more detail. And that will help us in the future.


John Yang:

It's fascinating stuff.

Research geophysicist Michael Poland, thank you very much.


Michael Poland:

My pleasure.

EXPLAINER: Microsoft’s Activision buy could shake up gaming
By MATT O'BRIEN and TALI ARBEL

A sign for Microsoft offices, Thursday, May 6, 2021 in New York. Microsoft stunned the gaming industry when it announced, Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022, it would buy game publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, a deal that would immediately make it a larger video-game company than Nintendo. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)


Microsoft stunned the gaming industry when it announced this week it would buy game publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, a deal that would immediately make it a larger video-game company than Nintendo.

Microsoft, maker of the Xbox gaming system, said acquiring the owner of Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Overwatch and Diablo would be good for gamers and advance its ambitions for the metaverse — a vision for creating immersive virtual worlds for both work and play.

But what does the deal really mean for the millions of people who play video games, either on consoles or their phones? And will it actually happen at a time of increased government scrutiny over giant mergers in the U.S. and elsewhere?

SO, IS IT GOOD FOR GAMERS?

“For the average person who is playing Candy Crush or anything else, there will probably be no changes at all,” said RBC analyst Rishi Jaluria.

But Jaluria and other industry watchers think it could be good news for game development more broadly, especially if Microsoft’s games-for-everybody mission and mountain of cash can rescue Activision from its reputation for abandoning favorite game franchises while focusing on a few choice properties.

“Microsoft wants to increase the variety of intellectual property,” said Forrester analyst Will McKeon-White. “Their target is anyone and everybody who plays video games and they want to bring that to a wider audience.”

He said the “most egregious” example of a popular franchise that Activision, founded in 1979, left by the wayside is StarCraft, last updated in 2015. Others include Guitar Hero, the Tony Hawk skateboarding games and MechWarrior, which McKeon-White said “basically wasn’t touched for two decades.”

On the other hand, the prospect of a console-maker like Microsoft controlling so much game content raised concerns about whether the company could restrict Activision games from competitors.

Microsoft expects to bring as many Activision games as it can to Xbox’s subscription service Game Pass, “with some presumably becoming Microsoft exclusives,” wrote Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. However, he noted antitrust regulators may not allow Microsoft to keep games off Sony’s competing game console, the PlayStation.

Pachter said that Activision presents a model for Microsoft for how to evolve its classic console franchises. It has adapted Call of Duty into successful mobile and free games, and he expects the company to help Microsoft do the same with its own games, such as Halo.

IS THIS REALLY ABOUT THE METAVERSE?

Microsoft says so. And there are some ways Activision could help the tech giant compete with rivals like Meta, which renamed itself from Facebook last year to signal its new focus on leading its billions of social media users into the metaverse.

Metaverse enthusiasts describe the concept as a new and more immersive version of the internet, but to work it will require a lot of people to actually want to spend more time in virtual worlds. Microsoft’s metaverse ambitions have focused on work tools such as its Teams video chat applications, but online multiplayer games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft have huge followings devoted to interacting with each other virtually for fun.

“That’s where Activision really helps,” said RBC’s Jaluria. “Millions of people play Call of Duty online. The community element helps drive adoption.”

Pushing more people into such virtual social networks will not be all fun and games, however, and could amplify existing problems with online harassment, trolling and identity theft, according to Elizabeth Renieris, founding director of the Technology Ethics Lab at the University of Notre Dame.

WILL IT ACTUALLY HAPPEN?

That’s a big unknown. Regulators and rivals could turn up the pressure to block the deal.

Other tech giants such as Meta, Google, Amazon and Apple have all attracted increasing attention from antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe. But the Activision deal is so big — potentially the priciest-ever tech acquisition — that Microsoft will also be putting itself into the regulatory spotlight.

“I think it should get a hard look and it probably will get a hard look” by antitrust enforcers, said Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute. Regulators could ask questions about Microsoft making games exclusive to their own systems and about whether the company would harness user data gained in the acquisition to its advantage in its other businesses.

The Biden administration has been moving to strengthen enforcement against illegal and anticompetitive mergers.

If the deal fails, Microsoft will owe Activision a “break-up fee” of up to $3 billion. That prospect should motivate Microsoft to make concessions to antitrust regulators to get it done, said John Freeman, vice president at CFRA Research.

DOESN’T ACTIVISION HAVE WORKPLACE PROBLEMS?

Activision has attracted unwanted attention from U.S. workforce discrimination regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission and its own shareholders over allegations of a toxic workplace. California’s civil rights agency also sued the Santa Monica-based company in July, citing a “frat boy” culture that had become a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella noted in an investor call Tuesday that “the culture of our organization is my No. 1 priority,” adding that ”it’s critical for Activision Blizzard to drive forward” on commitments made last year to improve its workplace culture. Activision hasn’t made clear if its longtime leader Bobby Kotick, the CEO since 1991, will stick with Microsoft after the deal is closed.

Activision’s legal problems dragged down its stock price and might have made it easier for Microsoft to make a successful takeover bid. But a union representing technology and gaming workers said concerns about working conditions should be considered by U.S. and state officials before any deal is approved.

“Activision Blizzard worker concerns must be addressed in any plan - acquisition or not – on the future direction of the company,” Christopher Shelton, president of the Communications Workers of America, said in a statement.

Why Microsoft is splashing $103 billion on video games

The Economist

Jan 19 2022

On January 18, Microsoft announced its largest takeover in the company's 46-year history.

Even for Microsoft, which boasts a market capitalisation of around US$2.3 trillion (NZ$3.3t), US$69 billion (NZ$103b) is a lot of money.

On January 18 the firm said it would pay that sum – all of it in cash – for Activision Blizzard, a video-game developer. It is both the biggest acquisition ever made in the video-game industry and the biggest ever made by Microsoft, more than twice the size of the firm’s purchase in 2016 of LinkedIn, a social network, for $26bn.

The move, which caught industry-watchers by surprise and propelled Activision Blizzard’s share price up by 25 per cent, represents a huge bet on the future of entertainment. But not, perhaps, a crazy one.

JAE C. HONG/AP
Microsoft’s acquisition of video-game developer Activision Blizzard is the largest ever made by the firm – twice the size of the firm’s purchase of LinkedIn in 2016. (File photo)

The gaming industry was growing apace before the pandemic. Covid-19 lockdowns bolstered its appeal – to hardened gamers with more time on their hands and bored neophytes alike. Worldwide revenues shot up by 23 per cent in 2020.

NewZoo, an analysis firm, puts them at nearly $180b. Microsoft is already a big player in the business, thanks to its Xbox games console. It has made a string of gaming acquisitions since 2014, when Satya Nadella, its chief executive, took the reins. The Activision Blizzard deal would cement its position. Once completed in 2023, it will make Microsoft the third-largest video-gaming firm by revenue, behind only Tencent, a Chinese giant, and Sony, Microsoft’s perennial rival in consoles.

Activision Blizzard’s share price had slid by around 40 per cent between a peak last February and the deal’s announcement, as the company was embroiled in a sexual-harassment scandal and some of its games underwhelmed. That may have made it look cheap in relative terms, given the benefits it brings to Microsoft. It boasts annual revenues of around $8b and net profit margins of 30 per cent.

Most important, Activision Blizzard offers plenty of content – and in video games, as in the rest of the media industry, content is king, says Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis, another research firm. Like the film business, where Star Wars films, even bad ones, are reliable money-spinners, video games rely increasingly on “franchises” – popular settings or brands that can be squeezed for regular new games.

Activision Blizzard boasts, among others, Call of Duty, a best-selling series of military-themed shoot-em-ups, Candy Crush, a popular pattern-matching mobile game, and Warcraft, a light-hearted fantasy setting.

In the short term, the deal gives Microsoft more of a foothold in the smartphone-gaming market, to which it has had little exposure. King, a mobile-focused subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, boasts around 245 million monthly players of its smartphone games, most of whom tap away at Candy Crush.

It is also a strike against Sony. If Microsoft controls the rights to Call of Duty, it can decide whether or not to allow the games to appear on Sony’s rival PlayStation machine. When Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, another games developer, for $7.5b in 2020, it said it would honour the terms of ZeniMax’s existing publishing agreements with Sony, but that Sony’s access to new games would be considered “on a case-by-case basis”.

Screenshot of video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. (File photo)

In the longer term, says Harding-Rolls, the deal should help Microsoft achieve its ambition to make gaming cheaper and more accessible (including, if hype is to be believed, in the virtual-reality “metaverse”).

Its “Game Pass” product already offers console and PC gamers access to a rotating library of video games, which usually cost $40-60 each, for $10 a month. Adding Activision Blizzard’s catalogue to the service could boost its appeal. It could also strengthen Microsoft’s two-year-old game-streaming service, which aims to use the firm’s Azure cloud-computing division to do for video games what Netflix did for video.

Microsoft hopes to stream games across the internet to a phone, television or PC, removing the need to own a powerful, dedicated console or PC. That could lower the cost of the hobby and draw in more players, especially in middle-income countries where smartphones are common but consoles are rare. And that, in turn, would make exclusive content even more valuable.

Other firms, both games-industry veterans and arriviste tech titans attracted by the sector’s growth, have streaming ambitions of their own. Sony runs its own service, called “PlayStation Now”. Amazon launched an early version of its own “Luna” service in 2020. “GeForce Now”, a streaming offering from Nvidia, a maker of gaming-focused microchips, launched the same year. But none is as well-placed as Microsoft, which has decades of experience in the games business and boasts the world’s second-largest cloud-computing operation after Amazon.

And the more content Microsoft owns, the more attractive it can make its service compared with its rivals.

Such thinking may provoke more deals by Microsoft’s competitors, eager to snap up franchises of their own while they can. The gaming industry was already seeing plenty of merger activity. Last year saw five deals worth $1b or more.

On January 10 Take-Two Interactive, a game developer and publisher, spent $13b to buy Zynga, a maker of mobile-phone games. Besides Amazon, both Apple and Netflix have dipped their toes into the video-game business in recent years; an acquisition by either one could help boost their presence. Consolidation is the name of the game.

© 2022 The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist published under licence. The original article can be found on www.economist.com

What Activision Blizzard’s acquisition by Microsoft means for its pending lawsuits, gamers

Jan 18, 2022 

By —
Geoff Bennett
By —
Karina Cuevas
PBS NEWS

Microsoft announced plans Tuesday to buy Activision Blizzard — a huge leader in game development — in a deal valued at $75 billion. But the acquisition comes with significant issues. There have been numerous allegations of sexual misconduct in the Activision workplace. Geoff Bennett looks at those concerns and others behind the deal.

Full Transcript


Judy Woodruff:

Microsoft announced plans today to buy Activision Blizzard, a huge leader in video game development, in a deal valued at $75 billion.

But the acquisition comes with significant issues. There have been numerous allegations of sexual misconduct in the Activision workplace.

Geoff Bennett looks at those concerns and what's behind the deal.


Geoff Bennett:

Judy, thanks to video games subscriptions and the Xbox, Microsoft is already a major player in the gaming market, an industry generating $175 billion a year in revenue.

But acquiring Activision will allow Microsoft to up its own game during a pandemic-fueled gaming boom. Activision is the company behind major hits like "Call of Duty, "World of Warcraft," and "Candy Crush." And the takeover would make Microsoft the world's third largest gaming company.

For more, we're joined by Kirsten Grind of The Wall Street Journal.

Thanks for being with us.

And, if you can, put this number in context for us, this $175 billion, the $75 billion acquisition. What does it mean for the gaming industry generally?


Kirsten Grind, The Wall Street Journal:

It's huge. It's just one of the biggest deals, period, one of the biggest all-cash deals.

And for the gaming industry, it really puts so much under one roof. So you had Xbox and now you have Activision's hits that will be Microsoft. So it gives Microsoft so much more might than it had before.


Geoff Bennett:

And Microsoft, which makes the Xbox consoles, owns studios that produce hits like "Minecraft," it's gotten more aggressive with gaming in the last several years. How does this acquisition play into their long-term tragedy?


Kirsten Grind:

Right.

Well, Activision has so many long term franchises. So, with the addition of Activision there, as you said, they become the largest gaming company by revenue worldwide. So, it absolutely, pending the deal's closure, makes them a very serious player in the space.


Geoff Bennett:

And this deal, as you know and as you have reported, this is coming as Activision faces multiple regulatory investigations into alleged sexual assault and mistreatment of female employees going back years.

And just yesterday, Activision fired several of its own executives following its own investigation, its own review of what transpired. Give us a sense of what is happening within that company. And has Microsoft indicated how it will handle it moving forward?


Kirsten Grind:

That's right.

Well, Activision is really, quite frankly, in trouble with its culture at this point. It's facing three regulatory investigations, the state of California, the EEOC, the Securities and Exchange Commission. We have reported about mishandling of some of the misconduct allegations. Its stock is down about 30 percent from the first of the lawsuits about its culture last summer.

So it was facing pressure from employees, from shareholders. So this is a really — it's kind of a good solution, really, for Activision at this point.


Geoff Bennett:

And based on your reporting, I mean, do you know what happens to Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotick? He's led the company for more than three decades, but there were allegations that he was aware of some of these complaints of misconduct, harassment, even assault, but yet that he neglected to share it with the board.


Kirsten Grind:

That's right.

We reported that in November.And that's actually kind of what led to Microsoft's approach when they were in the middle of all this turmoil after our story came out. And so Bobby actually is not expected to stay with the company after the deal closes. Again, these deals can take a very long time to close, and it's also pending a lot of regulatory approval.

But, yes, he's not expected to stay.


Geoff Bennett:

Can you give us a sense of the nature of what's been alleged?


Kirsten Grind:

Definitely.

So, some of the regulatory agencies have alleged sexual harassment, sexual assault, gender pay disparity, just a broad range of workplace misconduct across the board.

What we wrote about in our November story in The Wall Street Journal was about how Bobby Kotick himself knew about some of these workplace misconduct allegations and didn't tell the board about them.


Geoff Bennett:

Big picture, as we wrap up our conversation here, this acquisition is almost akin to Disney acquiring Marvel back in 2012.

Microsoft will now own a huge piece of the gaming industry, as we have been discussing. What does this mean for gamers generally?


Kirsten Grind:

You know, I think — going back to the culture questions, I think this could be a very good thing for gamers.

I think I heard a lot out there about how it was harder to get behind a company that was facing so many culture issues. And if a company like Microsoft can to help turn that around, I think that would be good for everyone, frankly.


Geoff Bennett:

Kirsten Grind, thanks so much for your reporting and your perspectives on this major deal between Microsoft and Activision.


Kirsten Grind:

Thanks so much for having me.

 

NTD spoke with Daniel Ives, senior equity analyst and managing director at Wedbush, about Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the video game studio behind blockbuster hits like Warcraft, Overwatch, and Call of Duty.

Game on: Microsoft’s Activision deal ignites M&A talk in rivals

Thyagaraju Adinarayan and Ryan Vlastelica, Bloomberg News

Global gaming stocks rallied after Microsoft Corp.’s landmark US$69 billion takeover bid for Activision Blizzard Inc., a move that could help enliven the sector after a cranky start to 2022.

U.S. rivals Electronic Arts Inc., Take-Two Interactive Software, France’s Ubisoft Entertainment SA and Poland’s CD Projekt SA all rose on Tuesday, with some talked-up as potential acquisition targets. The recent selloff in their shares and rising interest in gaming and the metaverse from large companies such as Meta Platforms Inc. has raised expectations for more deals in the industry. 

“If Microsoft can get them over the line without any antitrust issues, the rest are all in play,” said Neil Campling, an analyst at Mirabaud Securities who sees Electronic Arts as “the most obvious takeout target.” Ubisoft is seen as another potential target, but could be hurt by the family holding structure, according to Campling. 

Microsoft’s push for Activision follows Take-Two’s recent offer for mobile game maker Zynga Inc. Cowen analyst Doug Creutz writes that the two deals, coming in consecutive weeks, highlights how “these companies carry a lot more strategic value than was being acknowledged by the market.” He speculated that Sony “might have to consider chasing their own blockbuster acquisition, in order to enhance its own exclusive portfolio.” If so, Electronic Arts would be the most logical choice, according to Cowen.

Jordan Klein, a managing director at Mizuho Securities, wrote that there were only a few key names that remained as possible targets, and that Ubisoft, Take-Two, and Electronic Arts could all see valuations expand as potential buyers “could look to make a move.” He noted attractive valuations for Take-Two and especially Electronics Arts, which “has one of the best game title libraries.” He named Netflix Inc., Walt Disney Co., Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Meta Platforms as potential buyers. 

Activision shares jumped 26 per cent on Tuesday, while Electronic Arts rose 2.7 per cent and Take-Two rose 1 per cent. The rallies stood out on a day where tech was broadly lower amid ongoing concerns over bond yields. Microsoft fell 2.4 per cent.

Piper Sandler sees Unity Software Inc. as an indirect beneficiary of Microsoft’s move, writing that the deal represents “the beginning of a metaverse arms race.” Shares of Unity fell 4.5 per cent.

Rare, pristine coral reef found off Tahiti coast
By VICTORIA MILKO

In this photo provided by @alexis.rosenfeld, researchers for the French National Centre for Scientific Research study corals in the waters off the coast of Tahiti of the French Polynesia in December 2021. Deep in the South Pacific, scientists have explored a rare stretch of pristine corals shaped like roses off the coast of Tahiti. The reef is thought to be one of the largest found at such depths and seems untouched by climate change or human activities. 

(Alexis Rosenfeld/@alexis.rosenfeld via AP)

Deep in the South Pacific, scientists have explored a rare stretch of pristine corals shaped like roses off the coast of Tahiti. The reef is thought to be one of the largest found at such depths and seems untouched by climate change or human activities.

Laetitia Hédouin said she first saw the corals during a recreational dive with a local diving club months earlier.

“When I went there for the first time, I thought, ’Wow — we need to study that reef. There’s something special about that reef,” said Hédouin, a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Moorea, French Polynesia.

What struck Hédouin was that the corals looked healthy and weren’t affected by a bleaching event in 2019. Corals are tiny animals that grow and form reefs in oceans around the world.

Globally, coral reefs have been depleted from overfishing and pollution. Climate change is also harming delicate corals — including those in areas neighboring the newly discovered reef — with severe bleaching caused by warmer waters. Between 2009 and 2018, 14% of the world’s corals were killed, according to a 2020 report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Project.

The newfound reef, stretching 2 miles (3 kilometers), was studied late last year during a dive expedition supported by UNESCO. Unlike most of the world’s mapped corals, which are found in relatively shallow waters, this one was deeper — between 115 feet (35 meters) to 230 feet (70 meters).




This photo provided by @alexis.rosenfeld shows corals shaped like roses in the waters off the coast of Tahiti of the French Polynesia in December 2021. Deep in the South Pacific, scientists have explored a rare stretch of pristine corals shaped like roses off the coast of Tahiti. The reef is thought to be one of the largest found at such depths and seems untouched by climate change or human activities.

 (Alexis Rosenfeld/@alexis.rosenfeld via AP)

Exploring such depths posed a challenge: the deeper a diver goes underwater, the shorter amount of time can be safely spent at each depth. The team was equipped with special tanks and did 200 hours of diving to study the reef, including taking photographs, measurements and samples of the coral.

The reef is in a spot where many researchers haven’t spent a lot of time in, said former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer Mark Eakin.

“We’ll be seeing more of these discoveries as the technology is applied to these locations,” said Eakin. “We may find some bigger ones somewhere, but I think this is always going to be an unusual reef.”

The recent volcanic eruption in Tonga that triggered tsunami waves across the Pacific has not affected the reef off Tahiti, said Hédouin.

Hédouin hopes the research can help experts understand how the reef has been resilient to climate change and human pressures, and what role these deeper corals might play in the ocean ecosystem. More dives are planned in the coming months.

“We know very little about the ocean, and there’s still so much that needs to be recorded, needs to be measured,” said Julian Barbière, the head of UNESCO’s marine policy and regional coordination.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

ADDICTION IS A MEDICAL CONDITION NOT A CRIME
Study: Opioid addiction treatment in jail reduces re-arrest risk after release
By HealthDay News

If people in prison who have an opioid addiction receive treatment while serving time, they have a lower risk of being re-arrested after release, according to a new study. 

File Photo by sakhorn/Shutterstock

No magic bullet exists for ending the U.S. opioid crisis, but there's hopeful news for one high-risk population: Providing addiction medication in jails reduces the odds of addicts being re-arrested after their release, new research shows.

"Studies like this provide much-needed evidence and momentum for jails and prisons to better enable the treatment, education and support systems that individuals with an opioid use disorder need to help them recover and prevent reincarceration," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"Not offering treatment to people with opioid use disorder in jails and prisons can have devastating consequences, including a return to use and heightened risk of overdose and death after release," she noted in an institute news release.

People with opioid addiction are hooked on illicit drugs like heroin, powerful painkillers such as oxycodone -- also known as OxyContin -- or synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

The study included 469 adults jailed in two rural Massachusetts jails, one in Franklin County (197 prisoners) and the other in Hampshire County (272 prisoners).

Most were male, white and aged 34 to 35. All had opioid addiction, which is an epidemic in the United States, and left the jails between Jan. 1, 2015 and April 30, 2019.

During that time, the Franklin County jail began offering the opioid addiction medication buprenorphine to prisoners, while the Hampshire County facility did not.

An analysis of the jails' electronic booking systems showed that less than half of the participants from the Franklin County jail re-offended, compared with 63% of those from the Hampshire County jail.

New criminal charges were laid against 36% of participants from the Franklin County jail, compared to 47% of those from the Hampshire County jail.

While about four out of 10 of those in the Hampshire County group ended up back in jail, the rate was just over 20% in the Franklin County group.

Overall, the Franklin County group had a 32% reduction in probation violations, re-incarcerations or court charges when they offered the buprenorphine treatment compared with when they did not offer the medication, the findings showed.

A large part of that difference was due to a decrease in property crimes, according to the NIDA-funded study. The results were published Jan. 18 in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

"A lot of data already show that offering medications for opioid use disorder to people in jail can prevent overdoses, withdrawal and other adverse health outcomes after the individual is released," said study co-author Dr. Peter Friedmann, of Baystate Health, in Springfield, Mass.

"Though this study was done with a small sample, the results show convincingly that on top of these positive health effects, providing these medications in jail can break the repressive cycle of arrest, reconviction and reincarceration that occurs in the absence of adequate help and resources," he said. "That's huge."

More information

There's more on opioid addiction medications at the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

ONE OF THE TOUGHER GLASS CEILINGS

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti nominates Kristin Crowley to be dept.'s 1st female chief
By UPI Staff

Crowley, seen here during Mayor Eric Garcetti's announcement on Tuesday, was also the department's first female fire marshal and became the second woman to earn the rank of chief deputy. 

Photo courtesy Eric Garcetti/MayorOfLA/Twitter

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- After nearly 40 years on the job, Los Angeles' fire chief has announced his retirement -- and his successor is poised to make history as the first female chief of the department.

Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Ralph Terrazas said on Tuesday that he will retire in March. For his replacement, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti nominated Kristin Crowley, a 22-year veteran of the department.

If confirmed by the city council, Crowley would be the department's 19th and first female chief.

Crowley was also the department's first female fire marshal and became the second woman to earn the rank of chief deputy. She currently heads the department's youth development program.

A survey last November found that more than half of female firefighters reported bullying and harassment at the department, and just 13% believe that the department is interested in their well-being.

When asked about the harassment complaints, Crowley said that there would be accountability.

"The intention here and now is to ensure that all of our members, both women and men, come to work and feel safe and feel heard," Crowley said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "If that type of behavior is occurring, that will not be tolerated. Period."

Presently, just 3% of the department's firefighters are women.

Senate Democrats urge FTC to investigate COVID-19 test price gouging

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Calling it "predatory and profiteering," two U.S. Senators called on the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday, to investigate price gouging over COVID-19 tests.

In a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sen. Edward J. Markey implore the commission to look into the illicit activity, as case numbers and hospitalizations soar amid the rise of the Omicron variant.

"The demand for these test kits by Americans concerned about their health, trying to protect friends and family from infection, or in need of a negative test for work, travel, or child care, has led to supply shortages and empty shelves across the country," Blumenthal and Markey write the letter.

"These conditions are unfortunately ideal for predatory and profiteering behavior, including the sale of fraudulent test kits or charging exorbitant prices for those that are available."

It urges Khan and the FTC to "be vigilant and respond immediately to any such illicit activity."

The letter goes on to say that multiple state attorneys general and the media have reported that "consumers have recently experienced price gouging when attempting to purchase at-home test kits, including being charged double or triple the regular retail price of the product."

"Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to warn consumers about the risk of buying fraudulent diagnostic tools as they seek to protect their families from the coronavirus," the letter said.

Further, the letter reinforces that the commission "is authorized to investigate, take enforcement actions, and issue rules to address 'unfair or deceptive acts or practices' across much of the nation's commerce."

The two senators call on the FTC to investigate immediately, saying "no one should be allowed to reap a windfall and fraudulently exploit fear and human suffering."

"We can think of nothing more unfair, deceptive, and harmful than the exploitation of public health concerns for profit during a global emergency ... we strongly urge the FTC to act as necessary and use its full authority to investigate the situation and hold bad actors accountable without delay," they said in the letter.

On Friday, the federal government announced it was purchasing 1 billion at-home rapid tests to distribute free across the country.

The government website to register and access half of those tests launched Tuesday. Tests are limited to four per household.

Wine industry badly needs to attract millennials, new report finds

Rows and rows of Cabernet Franc grapes are ruined before harvest 

by the Glass Fire on Davis Estates vineyard in Calistoga, Calif., in September 2020.

 File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Millennials are turning away from wine, a new report on the state of the industry finds, leaving industry executives on the hunt for a new way to market the beverage to younger consumers.

The 2022 State of the Wine Industry Report, issued Wednesday by Silicon Valley Bank, finds that people over 65 are the demographic by far most likely to choose wine over other options. Younger drinkers are increasingly drawn to competing alcoholic beverages -- beer, spirits, and spiked seltzers.

Baby boomers drink more wine than millennials by nearly a 2-to-1 ratio.

"Unless the industry does more to attract consumers younger than 65, wine consumption might drop by 20 percent when boomers sunset," states the 66-page report, which includes data and survey results from dozens of sources.

The warning isn't new for an industry that's been sounding alarm bells about its aging consumer base for several years. But this report was more alarming because wine experts expected a strong rebound in 2021 as restaurants and bars reopened after pandemic closures.

Instead, wine lost market share to spirits.

"The reopening celebration that took place in 2021 didn't include the wine industry," the report states.

Worsening droughts and wildfires also impacted wine yields last year, the report found. Climate change put pressure on producers to find reliable water sources; meanwhile, surging property insurance costs coupled with supply and labor shortages drove "excessive markups," further deterring frugal young drinkers.

In one survey, 42% of producers indicated that they intend to raise their prices this year.

"The wine industry overcame numerous hurdles to achieve a hard-earned, solid year of sales. That said, looking at the long-term trends, this year reveals issues with both consumer demand and the ongoing climate crisis that may impact business conditions for the industry in the years to come," Rob McMillan, founder of Silicon Valley Bank's Wine Division and author of the report, said in a press release.

"The lesser interest in wine among younger consumers, coupled with the encroaching retirement and decreasing wine consumption of wine-loving baby boomers, poses a primary threat to the business."

But the report highlights some recommended strategies for appealing to younger customers. Unlike "status-seeking boomers" more likely to splurge on expensive wines, Millennials, "having lived through the Great Recession and a pandemic, aren't destined to be consumers who will show off their wealth."

To pivot to a younger generation, wine producers should highlight their social values when marketing their product, the report recommends -- staff diversity, health consciousness and sustainability are more important to millennial consumers.

"If we really want to reach the millennial, we need to move away from lifestyles of the rich and famous and add cause-based marketing to our outreach," the report states.

University of Michigan reaches $490M settlement with sexual abuse victims
By Simon Druker

The University of Michigan reached a $490 million settlement Wednesday with victims of the school's former team doctor and director of health services. 

File Photo by Steve Pepple/Shutterstock.com

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The University of Michigan reached a settlement Wednesday, with over 1,000 victims who claim they were sexually assaulted by its former head of health services, the late Dr. Robert Anderson, according to the Detroit News.

The $490 million settlement with Anderson's victims was agreed to late Tuesday night with a formal announcement expected later Wednesday, reports The Athletic. The school had not issued a statement by late Wednesday morning.

Anderson worked for the university from 1966 until 2003, where he was also the team physician for Michigan's athletics department. He died in 2008.

A total of $460 million will be paid out to the 1,050 victims, most of whom are men. The remaining $30 million will be set aside for future victims, reports ESPN. Payouts will differ based on the circumstances of each case.

The publication also detailed a 2021 report by a law firm hired by the school to conduct an internal investigation. It found employees were aware of Anderson's behavior, which in some cases, dated back to the 1960s.

"It has been a long and challenging journey, and I believe this settlement will provide justice and healing for the many brave men and women who refused to be silenced," attorney Parker Stinar told ESPN.

Stinar represents 200 victims in the case.

Multiple lawsuits had been in mediation as the university attempted to resolve them. They claim the school became aware of the abuse at one point, but failed to take meaningful action.

The victims, which include a number of former University of Michigan athletes, claim Anderson abused them during medical visits.

The first lawsuit was filed in 2020 by a former wrestler who accused Anderson of abusing him on multiple occasions in the 1980s.

The university first launched an investigation in 2018, reports the Detroit News.

The publication then published an interview with former student Robert Julian Stone, who said he was abused by Anderson during a 1971 medical exam.

Chances were missed to stop U. of Michigan doctor Anderson
By ED WHITE

Jon Vaughn, a former University of Michigan football player from 1988 to 1991 speaks during a news conference in Ann Arbor, Mich. on June 16, 2021. A financial payout for more than 1,000 people — mostly men — who say they were sexually assaulted by former University of Michigan sports doctor Robert Anderson is the latest multimillion settlement involving schools faced with sexual misconduct scandals. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya_File)


DETROIT (AP) — Complaints that a University of Michigan sports doctor was committing sexual assault went back decades, long before a $490 million settlement this week with victims, but no one stepped forward to ensure that Robert Anderson would be kicked off campus.

The many missed opportunities were described in detail last May when a law firm hired by the university released its findings about Anderson, who died in 2008 after working at U-M for nearly 40 years.

WilmerHale found at least 20 occasions when a student, athlete or other individual spoke with university staff about Anderson.

“There was an undercurrent of rumors, jokes, innuendo and expressions of concern about Dr. Anderson throughout his career at the university,” the report said. “University personnel failed to appreciate the significance of what they heard. We found no evidence that anyone inquired into his conduct or referred him for investigation.”

Yet WilmerHale also found critical events that could have made a difference, according to the report:

A WRESTLER COMPLAINS

In 1975, Tad DeLuca wrote a 10-page letter to his coach about a range of issues, including Anderson’s insistence that athletes “drop your drawers” for a rectal exam, no matter the reason for a visit. No action was taken. The coach, Bill Johannesen, told investigators that he he couldn’t recall any complaints about Anderson. In 2018, 43 years later, DeLuca wrote to athletic director Warde Manuel about Anderson, a letter that led to a police investigation.

ADMINISTRATOR GETS ANGRY

Thomas Easthope, who supervised the University Health Service, heard complaints that Anderson was “fooling around with boys,” a reference to him taking advantage of gay students, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Easthope claimed he fired Anderson — “Bob, you’re outta here” — but Anderson merely stopped being health service director. By 1981, he had moved to the athletic department. Before he died in 2021, Easthope acknowledged that he didn’t tell local authorities about Anderson. “We live in a different time, and it’s not like that today,” he said.

DID BO KNOW?

Some football players said they told legendary coach Bo Schembechler about Anderson molesting them in the 1970s. Schembechler, who died in 2006, told one to “toughen up.” The disclosure has caused division in Schembechler’s family, with some saying he never would have flippantly dismissed complaints. A son, Matt Schembechler, said he was an Anderson victim and that he told his dad.

There have since been calls to remove Schembechler’s campus statue and take his name off a football building.

Athletic director Don Canham was informed about Anderson, too, but took no action, athletes said. Canham died in 2005.

The overall failure to intervene gave the doctor “countless occasions” to harass, abuse and assault patients during his 37-year career, the report said.

Anderson’s victims included pilots and others in the aviation field who needed physicals for employment. The Federal Aviation Administration had certified him as a medical examiner in southeastern Michigan.

“He continued to provide medical services to student athletes and other patients — and to engage in sexual misconduct with large numbers of them — for the rest of his career,” the report said.



This undated file photo provided by the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan shows Dr. Robert E. Anderson. The University of Michigan has agreed to a $490 million settlement with hundreds of people who say they were sexually assaulted by the former sports doctor at the school. Attorney Parker Stinar says Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022, that 1,050 people will share in the settlement, which was reached the night before.
(Robert Kalmbach/Bentley Historical Library University of Michigan via AP)
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Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez

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Find AP’s full coverage of the University of Michigan sexual assault case at: https://apnews.com/hub/robert-anderson

US announces historic $1.1 bn investment for Everglades rehabilitation

Water vegetation is seen at the Everglades National Park, Florida on September 30, 2021 (AFP/CHANDAN KHANNA)

Wed, January 19, 2022, 11:20 AM·2 min read

The plan to restore the Florida Everglades, the largest wetlands in the United States, will receive a federal investment of $1.1 billion to protect the region against the effects of climate change, the White House said Wednesday.

"The Administration is making the largest single investment in the Everglades in US history," the White House said in a statement.

The money, which comes from already approved funds in President Joe Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure package passed by Congress in November, will be spent by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

"The iconic American landscape provides drinking water supply for over 8 million Floridians, supports the state's $90 billion tourism economy, and is home to dozens of endangered or threatened species," the White House said.

The Everglades, a subtropical ecosystem of more than 607,000 hectares (1.5 million acres), is the scene of one of the biggest ecological rehabilitation projects in the world.

The area is especially vulnerable to sea level rise, a consequence of climbing temperatures due to climate change, as an influx of saltwater could disrupt groundwater reserves and throw off the balance between the region's plants and animals.

The restoration efforts will try to revive the flow of water across the wetland, which has been interrupted by decades of human development.

Scientists envision a complex system of canals, dams and water pumps.

Congress in 2000 approved a $7.8 billion federally and state-funded plan to protect the Everglades, a national park, which, despite some advances, faced delay after delay.

The money from Wednesday's announcement could accelerate the project, according to Florida's Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Shultz.

"This is enormous news, and allows us to set a course for quicker completion of the world's largest ecosystem restoration project," she said in a statement.

gma/yow/caw/st

Guatemala state of siege extended for feuding communities


Corn plantations are seen in Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, Guatemala on December 21, 2021, as indigenous people block a road, demanding the government help resolve a sometimes violent conflict between two communities (AFP/Johan ORDONEZ)

Wed, January 19, 2022, 12:01 PM·2 min read

Guatemala on Wednesday extended by a month a state of siege in two indigenous communities locked in a century-old land dispute that boiled over last month into a massacre of 13 people.

The state of siege, imposed a month ago, restricts certain constitutional rights, such as the bearing of arms and right to protest.

The government said the lingering causes that provoked the state of siege and "the presence of armed groups" meant an extension was needed, according to a decree published in the official gazette, Diario de Centro America.

It said the extension in the neighboring western municipalities of Nahuala and Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan was necessary to "maintain constitutional order, the security of the State and to recover the governability of the territory."

The state of siege must still be ratified by Congress, which is controlled by the governing party and its allies.

Last month, armed men with high caliber weapons ambushed a group of people from Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan who went to the village of Chiquix in Nahuala to pick corn, killing 13 people, including three children and a police officer.

The bodies of the three children, aged between five and 14, were chopped up into pieces and the victims were burned inside the truck they were traveling in.

Three people have been detained over the massacre.

Both warring communities are members of the Mayan K'iche tribe and have been fighting over land -- at times violently -- for more than 100 years.

The Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan community claims those in Nahuala have stolen some of their land.

On January 7, a 6,500-strong contingent of police, soldiers and prosecutors came under fire when conducting searches and arrests in the Nahuala community as part of investigations into the massacre.

One police officer was killed and 19 injured.

Two days later, President Alejandro Giammattei offered a reward worth around $6,250 for information leading to the arrest of four indigenous people accused of taking part in both incidents.

On Tuesday, Giammattei took part in a new meeting with leaders of the two communities to try to find an agreement over the border between them.

Indigenous people, many living in poverty, make up more than 40 percent of Guatemala's population of almost 17 million people, according to official statistics.

hma/yow/bc/caw