Turmoil worries Peru as president again overhauls Cabinet

By REGINA GARCIA CANO

 Peruvian President Pedro Castillo attends a ceremony to promote a law that extends automatic graduation from university due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Lima, Peru, Monday, Nov. 22, 2021. Turmoil in Peru's government is boiling after President Castillo overhauled his Cabinet this Jan. 2022, for a third time in six months and then it quickly emerged his new prime minister has faced domestic violence claims. 

(AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo, File)


CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Turmoil in Peru’s government boiled this week as President Pedro Castillo overhauled his Cabinet for a third time in six months and then it quickly emerged his new prime minister has faced domestic violence claims, highlighting doubts about the political neophyte’s ability to lead a nation.

Castillo, a rural schoolteacher in a poor Andean district, was an underdog when he entered the race for the presidency last year and initially campaigned on promises to nationalize Peru’s crucial mining industry and rewrite the constitution to end the historical discrimination against Indigenous people and vulnerable populations. He softened his rhetoric when he advanced to a runoff and shocked everyone when he came out victorious.

Critics immediately warned about his nonexistent political experience. Just months into the job, which he assumed as the country suffered like few others from the coronavirus pandemic, some of his decisions have validated the criticism. But they have also highlighted Peru’s long-dysfunctional political system in which no party holds a majority and it is difficult to push through new programs or make changes.

Castillo on Tuesday appointed a new prime minister and replaced half of the 18-member Cabinet, including the ministers of finance and foreign relations. And as Peru grapples with a big oil spill from a refinery on its Pacific coast, the raised questions by naming a geography teacher and member of the president’s party as minister of the environment.

The changes came after the previous interior minister and prime minister resigned and accused Castillo of not acting swiftly against corruption, an endemic problem in Peru. They also complained that the 52-year-old leader listens to dubious advisers.

“Once in office, inexperience and bad advice do come into play,” said Cynthia Sanborn, political science professor at Peru’s Universidad del Pacifico and a fellow at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center. “Not only was Castillo unprepared for national political office, he also did not have a political or social base to count on for support, nor was he able to bring in capable advisers and experts in the various sectors any president needs to govern.”

Sanborn said Peru was long overdue for social change when Castillo took office last July, but he and his party and allies on his left lacked the political and technical skills to deliver. As a result, she said, various groups are “surrounding the president and taking advantage of the situation to advance private and illicit interests.”

Every Peruvian president of the past 36 years has been ensnarled in corruption allegations, with some imprisoned. One killed himself before police could arrest him.

Finishing first among 18 presidential hopefuls in April’s election, Castillo advanced to a runoff ballot with less than 20% of the overall vote. He then defeated a member of the country’s political elite by just 44,000 votes, becoming Peru’s fifth president since 2016. He succeeded Francisco Sagasti, who was appointed by Congress in November 2020 as the South American nation cycled through three heads of state in one week.

A revolving door of Cabinet members has plagued previous administrations in Peru, but Castillo “is certainly hitting some records,” said Claudia Navas, an analyst with the global firm Control Risks.

Interior Minister Avelino Guillén resigned last week alleging Castillo had not supported him to make changes in the police so authorities could more efficiently fight corruption and organized crime. On Monday, Prime Minister Mirtha Vásquez quit, also saying that Castillo was not addressing corruption.

“What the government lacks is a direction, to define a direction,” Guillén said after resigning.

By Tuesday, Castillo was already reshuffling his Cabinet. He appointed fellow Peru Libre party member and teacher Wilber Supo the environment minister amid the country’s worst environmental disaster in recent years, from the coastal spill of nearly 500,000 gallons of oil in mid-January.

But a bigger problem may be selecting Héctor Valer as prime minister. Shortly after the announcement, it became public that authorities in 2017 granted a protection order to Valer’s wife, who alleged domestic violence, and that a year earlier his daughter reported him to police for allegedly hitting her.

Valer denied the accusations Thursday during an interview with a radio station. He invited psychologists to publicly analyze him, which he said would clear him. “I am not afraid,” he said. “I’m not a perpetrator, I’m not one that hits (others).”

Castillo has not commented on the situation.

Previous members of his Cabinet have also been accused of wrongdoing. So has his former private secretary, whose corruption investigation led the prosecutor’s office to find $20,000 in a bathroom of the presidential palace.

“Castillo is facing growing pressures from the unions and social organizations that supported him who want to have increased participation in his government,” said Navas, the Control Risks analyst. “Some of his Cabinet appointments reflect that pressure — also how he is seeking to strike a balance between responding to the demands of his constituents and improving relations with Congress.”

The analyst added that “this practice is not particularly unique to Castillo, but a reflection of the structural flaws of the political system regardless of who is in power.”

Peru’s 130-seat, unicameral Congress is deeply fragmented among 10 political parties and rarely can come to any consensus on passing legislation. Castillo’s party is the biggest faction, but it has only 37 seats, and opposition members lead key committee.

The divisions make it highly unlikely that Castillo will find sufficient support for passing yet-to-be defined proposals to implement his promise to create a Peru where there are “no more poor in a rich country.”

Analysts say the factionalism also might help keep Castillo in office.

“With local and regional elections coming up later this year, the parties will scramble to get ready and may not want to attempt to win national office at this point,” said Sanborn, the university professor. “A lot depends on how strong public outrage will be — if there are sustained protests — and, also, what position the media take.”

As economy collapses, some young Lebanese turn to militancy

By BASSEM MROUE and FAY ABUELGASIM

1 of 4

Mahmoud Seif, whose brother Bakr, was killed in Iraq last week speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, on the balcony of his apartment in the northern Lebanese village of Wadi Nahleh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. As Lebanon slid deeper into economic misery over recent months, dozens of young men have disappeared from the country’s marginalized north and later surfaced in Iraq, where they are believed to have joined the Islamic State group. The migration has stoked fears of a new wave of radical recruitment, taking advantage of frustration and despair fueled by the economic meltdown and sectarian tensions. (AP Photo/Bassem Mroue)


WADI NAHLEH, Lebanon (AP) — Two weeks before he was supposed to get married, Bakr Seif told his mother he was going out to see his fiancee and would be back for lunch. When he did not show up by nighttime, his mother called the fiancee, who said he had not been to visit her.

That day, Dec. 8, was the last time Seif’s mother saw him. Last week, he was among nine people killed in an Iraqi army airstrike targeting suspected militants in eastern Iraq. At least four of them were Lebanese, all from this this small, impoverished village near the northern city of Tripoli.

As Lebanon slid deeper into economic misery over recent months, dozens of young men have disappeared from the country’s marginalized north and later surfaced in Iraq, where they are believed to have joined the Islamic State group. The migration has stoked fears of a new wave of radical recruitment, taking advantage of frustration and despair fueled by the economic meltdo

But it’s not just poverty driving some young men to join IS. Tripoli and its surrounding areas are also a center for many of Lebanon’s Sunni Muslim community, who resent what they say is neglect from the government in Beirut. Security forces have targeted Sunni youth in crackdowns over militancy, and activists have said for years that thousands have been detained without trial because of suspicions of militant links.

Seif’s mother believed her son was being detained by the Lebanese intelligence. But five or six days before he was killed, he called, the first she’d heard from him since his disappearance. He wouldn’t say where he was, telling her only, “I have been wronged, I have been wronged,” without explanation, she said.

Seif had spent seven years in jail on suspicion of “acts of terrorism” and was released in June without trial. The family maintains his innocence and opened a grocery for him to work in, since no one else would employ him after his release.

“He was living in constant fear. He used to tell me, ‘I trust no one but my family,’” his mother said.

IS’s top leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in a U.S. raid on his safehouse in northwest Syria on Thursday. Experts believe that while his elimination may cause some short-term disruption, the group can replace him and continue its campaign of violence in Iraq and Syria.

The numbers of Lebanese apparently joining IS is nowhere near the hundreds who went to neighboring Syria to join rebels there, including ones linked to al-Qaida, at the height of that country’s civil war. Since that war waned several years ago, the flow of Lebanese to join dried up.

The migration to join IS in Iraq appears to be new. Lawyer Mohammed Sablouh, who heads the Center for Prisoners Rights, said it is believed that between 70 to 100 young men disappeared from the Tripoli area in past months, though the exact number is not known.

They were from the poorest districts in and around Tripoli, and some may have been lured by the promise of jobs, not realizing they were joining IS, he said. Others were afraid of being swept up in crackdowns.

“These men are being manipulated by dark forces led by those who benefit from the revival of Daesh and want to harm the image of Tripoli,” Sablouh said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

Besides the deaths in Sunday’s strike, at least two other Lebanese have been killed in Iraq since December.

Tripoli has been the scene of militant violence in the past — the most serious in 2014, when militants inspired by the Islamic State group carried out attacks against Lebanon’s army.

Disappearances of young men began to rise in late August, not long after a former military intelligence member, Ahmad Murad, was shot and killed in Tripoli.

In the subsequent search, the military said it arrested an IS cell that included six militants involved in Murad’s killing. It appears the capture of the cell led other IS cells in the north to go on the run.

Remnants of IS have been waging a campaign of frequent hit-and-run attacks in Syria and Iraq ever since the group lost its last shred of territory in Syria in March 2019.

They recently launched two of their boldest operations yet.

On Jan. 20, about 200 IS militants attacked a prison in Syria’s northeastern city of Hassakeh and were joined by rioting inmates. It took more than a week for Kurdish-led U.S.-backed fighters to fully regain control over the prison in fighting that killed nearly 500, including several hundred militants, according to Kurdish officials.

On Jan. 21, IS gunmen in Iraq broke into a barracks in a mountainous area in Diyala province, killed a guard and shot dead 11 soldiers as they slept.

On Sunday, Iraq’s military carried out airstrikes on an IS cell it said was behind the barracks attack, killing nine militants, including the Lebanese.

Iraqi officials said four Lebanese were killed. Families and the mayor of Wadi Nahleh, Fadel Seif, said they were five — Bakr Seif, his cousin Omar Seif and three friends, Youssef Shkheidem, Omar Shkheidem and Anas Jazzar. The extended Seif family is the largest in the village.

“There are several factors making the youth flee, and the main one is lack of jobs,” the mayor said.

Omar Seif’s mother said he disappeared on the last day of 2021 and called her days later from a number she didn’t recognize. She informed Lebanese authorities, who told her Omar was in Iraq, using an Azeri telephone number. “I said, he is dead (to me). I did not raise him in order to send him to Iraq or ... Syria or any other place,” she said.

On Sunday, she received a call from another unknown number, telling her her son had been killed.

Omar’s mother said he had long been harassed by Lebanese security officials. He spent years in prison, even while still a juvenile, also on terrorism suspicions, she said. After his release, he was repeatedly detained for short periods, when police would beat him up and give him electrical shocks, she said.

“Prison destroyed us. It burned our children, our reputation and dignity. It burned our money. Even his father died while he was in jail,” she said, speaking in the sitting room of her small, ground floor apartment with peeling walls, as friends and relatives dropped in to offer condolences.

She said Omar could not live a normal life or work because authorities officially revoked his civil rights, meaning he could not vote or get a government job.

“When a young man who is between 15 and 30 cannot get married or buy anything or enter a restaurant to have a meal like all people, of course he will choose death and will be an easy target.”

Report finds racism, bullying, misogyny among London cops

Police scuffle with protesters in London on April 3. They were protesting a bill that would give police greater powers. Photo by Neil Hall/EPA-EFE

Feb. 3 (UPI) -- An investigative police report issued Thursday details evidence of "discrimination, misogyny, harassment and bullying" by Metropolitan Police officers in London.

This police misconduct included racist, bullying and aggressive behavior, discrimination, toxic masculinity, misogyny, sexual harassment and banter used to excuse oppressive and offensive behaviors, according to the report.

The report said some racist messages were posted by police on social media, including one that said, "My dad kidnapped some African children and used them to make dog food."

Black and Asian officers spoke of being ostracized, according to the report.

The Operation Hotton 15-page report said this evidence was found "involving officers predominantly based at Charing Cross Police Station."

That Charing Cross police team was disbanded, but the report says there was evidence of this behavior in subsequent investigations.

"We believe these incidents are not isolated or simply the behavior of a few "bad apples," the report said.

Among the misconduct cited in the report were a police officer assaulting his partner, an officer who had sex with a drunk person at the police station, and discriminatory actions and behaviors in WhatsApp messages.

The report said Operation Hotton was a series of nine linked independent investigations into police conduct. Most officers, the report said, held the rank of constable and were predominantly based at Charing Cross Police Station.

The report recommends 15 changes in policing practices, including taking sufficient steps to eradicate racism from the police force.

The recommendations also include making sure allegations of police bullying and harassment are "adequately detached and independent".

The IOPC urged a zero-tolerance policy on police bullying and harassment.

Past police misconduct in London has included sharing photos of two women who were killed.

In September 2021, a former London police officer pleaded guilty to murdering a woman after falsely arresting her.

Ex-team employees, Congress pressure NFL to release Washington harassment report

Ana Nunez, former coordinator of business development and client service and account executive for the NFL's Washington NFL team, testifies before the House Oversight Committee during a roundtable on Thursday. 

Pool Photo by Graeme Jennings/UPI |

Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Former employees of Washington's NFL team pressured Commissioner Roger Goodell in front of Congress on Thursday to release a report delving into the team's hostile workplace culture, including allegations of sexual harassment.

Six former employees spoke before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. One of the six leveled a new complaint against team owner Dan Snyder, saying she was sexually harassed at a team function.

Former cheerleader and marketing manager Tiffani Johnston said her invitation to a team dinner was an "orchestration by [her boss] and Dan Snyder to put me in a compromising, sexual situation." Johnston said she was later told to keep quiet about the incident.

The team commissioned attorney Beth Wilkinson to conduct the report into its culture after receiving complaints from female employees in 2020. The league said it will not release the completed report, arguing that doing so would compromise the anonymity of those named in it.

The House committee also requested the report from the league.

The NFL eventually fined the team $10 million, while Dan Snyder's wife, Tanya Snyder, temporarily took over the team's day-to-day operations.

Complaints focused on Dan Snyder and other team executives. The six former employees argued that withholding the report means Dan Snyder won't be held accountable.

Dan Snyder apologized for the team's culture but issued a statement denying all allegations leveled specifically at him.

Republicans on the committee argued that looking into the workplace environment of the privately owned NFL franchise falls outside Congress' purview.

"Instead of adhering to our committee's mission to root out waste, fraud and abuse and mismanagement in the federal government, Democrats instead are holding a roundtable about the work culture in one single private organization," Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said.

"There's a lot that can be done," countered Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif.

"Congress can do a lot about this," Speier said. "Next week, all my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who aren't here now could vote for the bill by Cheri Bustos ... that is going to require that no [non-disclosure agreements] can be forced upon employees for sexual harassment or sexual assault. That would go a long way."

This comes a day after the team unveiled its new name, the Washington Commanders, after spending last season known as the Washington Football Team.

Mississippi becomes 37th state to legalize medical marijuana


Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill in to law Wednesday 

evening legalizing the medical use of marijuana.


Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill legalizing the use of medical marijuana, making it the 37th state to allow patients access to the oft-debated medicine.

The Republican governor signed the bill Wednesday night after months of negotiations on its final form.

On Thursday, Reeves issued a statement, saying his goal during the entire process of approving the bill was to ensure that those seeking recreational marijuana don't have access to the drug.

"There is no doubt that there are individuals in our state who could do significantly better if they had access to medically prescribed doses of cannabis," he said. "There are also those who really want a recreational marijuana program that could lead to more people smoking and less people working, with all of the societal and family ills that that brings."

In 2020, nearly 74% of Mississippi voters supported allowing patients up to 5 ounces of medical marijuana a month, but Reeves pushed back, stating on social media that the quantity was too much and suggesting he wouldn't sign it.

The legislature then reduced the allowable amount to 3 ounces, and in late January after both the state's House and the Senate moved the bill to Reeve's desk, the governor told WLOX he was "very pleased" with the reduction achieved.

While the bill legalizes the use of medical marijuana for patients with "debilitating medical conditions," it also includes several restrictions, such as allowing medical professionals to only prescribe the drug within the scope of their practice to patients they know following an in-person visit.

It also states only doctors of medicine and doctors of osteopathic medicine can prescribe the drug to those between the ages of 18 and 25 and bars dispensaries from operating with 1,000 feet of a church or school.

The Mississippi Department of Health will also promulgate rules under the bill concerning packaging and advertising to limit its use by youth.

"I have made it clear that the bill on my desk is not the one that I would have written," Reeves said. "But it is a fact that the legislators who wrote the final version of the bill made significant improvements to get us towards accomplishing the ultimate goal."

"Now, hopefully, we can put this issue behind us and move on to other pressing matters facing our state," he said.

With Reeves' signature on Wednesday, Mississippi is now among the 37 states and four territories to allow the use of medical marijuana, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

MLB asks federal mediator to help in CBA discussions as lockout continues

By Connor Grott

Feb. 3 (UPI) -- With spring training nearing and lockout negotiations at a standstill, Major League Baseball has requested the assistance of a federal mediator to help resolve the labor issues between the league and the players' union.

League sources told ESPN, MLB Media and the Washington Post on Thursday that MLB officials reached out to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a governmental agency that attempts to help settle labor disputes. Mediation is voluntary, meaning the MLB Players Association would need to agree to the involvement of a third party.

The request for a federal mediator comes with less than two weeks until pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to spring training. The request also comes two days after the last bargaining session between MLB and its union, which reports described as heated and underwhelming.

MLB locked out its players on Dec. 2 after the league failed to reach an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement with the players' union. Since then, the sides have met four times to discuss a path toward a resolution, including Tuesday's session between MLB and the MLBPA.

None of those sessions have provided significant traction toward a new collective bargaining agreement, with the sides remaining far apart on a variety of core economic issues ranging from the competitive balance tax threshold to the format of the draft.

During Tuesday's session, the talks centered on service time manipulation of players. Instead of offering a counterproposal to the union Thursday, the league suggested the involvement of a mediator.

The use of mediators has been commonplace through the history of sports labor relations. Mediation was used during MLBPA strikes in 1981 and 1994, the latter of which didn't result in a resolution.

In recent years, mediation efforts have provided successful outcomes in other sports. The NHL resolved its 2013 lockout with the help of FMCS mediator Scot Beckenbaugh, who also successfully mediated the Major League Soccer strike in 2015 and multiple labor disputes between leagues and referees' unions.

Group accuses Utah agency of ruining ancient dinosaur tracks

Ancient dinosaur tracks are seen at a site in Moab, Utah, that conservationists say has been damaged by the state's Bureau of Land Management. Photo courtesy of Center for Biological Diversity

Feb. 2 (UPI) -- The Center for Biological Diversity on Wednesday warned Utah's Bureau of Land Management that it has damaged one of the most significant and earliest Cretaceous track sites in the world and urged the agency to cease its work in eastern Utah.

According to Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director for the organization, the site features more than 200 dinosaur tracks that have been preserved in sedimentary rock, representing 10 distinct species of dinosaur.

"We were shocked and appalled to see reports on January 30th that significant damage had occurred at Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracks site near Moab, Utah, as a part of a BLM project to reconstruct visitor use trails there," Patrick Donnelly, the Great Basin director for the organization, said Wednesday in a letter to the bureau.

Donnelly said that the land management's construction equipment, which included a backhoe left on site, had driven directly over the fossil dinosaur tracks, permanently destroying as much as 30% of the site.

"The BLM must immediately halt the destruction of the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite and take steps to stabilize the site, protect these prehistoric treasures and prevent further harm," Donnelly in a separate press release on Wednesday.

"Paleontological resources are a critical link to the past that help scientists shed light on today's biodiversity. It's essential that our land managers do everything possible to protect them for future generations," he said.

A statement from the bureau's Moab field office denied using "heavy" construction equipment in a statement, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

"The Moab Field Office is working to improve safe public access with an updated boardwalk that is designed to protect the natural resources of this site," the statement said.

"During that effort, heavy equipment is on location, but it is absolutely not used in the protected area," the Moab field office said.

CONVOLUTED HEADLINE
Improved air quality slows brain function decline in women, study finds


Improvements in air quality can slow cognitive decline, a new study has found. File photo by akiyoko/Shutterstock.

Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Reducing air pollution levels can help slow declines in brain function in women, a study published Thursday by PLOS Medicine found.

Women who lived in regions of the United States that saw improvements in air quality performed better on measures of brain function and memory over a 20-year period than those living in areas with stable air quality, the data showed.

Although performance on these assessments of cognitive function continued to decline as the women in the study aged, those living in areas that experienced reductions in air pollution appeared to have a slower progression of dementia symptoms, the researchers said.

"Scientists have known that improved air quality extends life expectancy in the elderly, saves lives in adults, promotes lung growth and reduce the risk of asthma in kids," among other benefits, study co-author Diana Younan told UPI in an email.

"In this study, we found women living in locations with greater improvement in air quality tended to have a slower decline in cognitive function," Younan, an observational research manager at drug-maker Amgen, based in Los Angeles.

This slower decline "was equivalent to being about 1 1/2 years younger," she added.

Cleaner air is already known to improve heart and respiratory health and reduce a person's risk for early death, research suggests.

RELATED Small rise in airborne pollutant exposure increases dementia risk, study finds

An earlier study by Younan and her colleagues found that lower air pollution can reduce the risk for dementia, or decline in brain function, particularly memory, among women living in regions impacted by these improvements.

Conversely, research has shown that exposure to high levels of air pollution increases a person's risk for dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of the condition.

For this study, Younan and her colleagues analyzed the effects of air pollution reduction in 2,232 women who were free of dementia when the research began.

RELATED  Study: Air pollution exposure may be linked to Alzheimer's disease risk

The women were annually assessed for memory and brain function over a 20-year period, the researchers said.

The researchers estimated local changes in air quality in the areas in which the study participants lived and used statistical tests to see if a reduction in air pollution was associated with slower cognitive decline, they said.

Women living in areas with greater improvements in air quality, as measured by lower amounts of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, tended to have a slower decline, based on scores on the two cognitive tests used in the study, the data showed.

PM2.5 is a mixture of microscopic solid substances and liquid droplets found in the air, including dust, dirt, soot and smoke, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Nitrogen dioxide is found in exhaust from motor vehicles, as well as emissions from the combustion of coal, oil or natural gas and various industrial sources, the agency says.

"The magnitude of slower cognitive decline that were associated with reducing the levels of these two pollutants in the air is approximately the same," Younan said.

"This suggests the potential health benefits seen in our study were a result of decreasing levels of outdoor air pollution across the U.S.," she said.

CBD has potential as COVID-19 treatment, but more study needed, experts say

Exactly how CBD the drug works against the COVID-19 virus remains unclear

File Photo by Gary I Rothstein/UPI | License Photo

NEW YORK, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Marijuana and its derivatives, including cannabidiol, have been touted as potential treatments for everything from anxiety and sleep problems to chronic pain conditions.

And because COVID-19 has been the health condition on the top of virtually everyone's mind for nearly three years, it should come as no surprise that momentum is building for a potential role for marijuana, in particular cannabidiol, or CBD, as a treatment.

However, unlike some treatments that have been promoted without scientific evidence behind them, studies exist that suggest the drug may have properties to counteract the virus' effects on the body and perhaps, prevent infection in some cases.

If someone becomes infected with COVID-19, Is it time to head to the local CBD dispensary? Not yet, experts say.

"We don't know yet if CBD can prevent or treat COVID-19, but our results provide a strong case for conducting a clinical trial, such as those done for vaccines, to determine whether this is the case," Marsha Rosner, a co-author of one CBD study, told UPI in a phone interview.

"Having said that, we do not advise anyone to run out and get CBD products from a local dispensary, because we were using very pure, very high-quality CBD in our study," said Rosner, a professor of cancer research at the University of Chicago.

CBD: 'Of Mice and Men'

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CBD is a chemical component of the marijuana plant, known scientifically as cannabis sativa.

However, it is not that ingredient that gives marijuana its intoxicating effect, or high. That comes from tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.

For their study, which was published Jan. 20 by the journal Science Advances, Rosner and her colleagues used a form of commercially available CBD oil approved by the FDA in 2018 to treat epilepsy in children.

In experiments with mice, the drug appeared to prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from infecting cells, including those in the lungs, according to Rosner.

The research team replicated these experiments in several human subjects and had similar results, she said.

In addition, in a separate component of the study, the researchers found that COVID-19 infection rates were lower in people who reported using CBD oil for other purposes, compared with those who did not use the oil, Rosner said.

Exactly how the drug works against the virus remains unclear, though it is possible that its anti-inflammatory properties -- the same ones that make it effective against pain -- also could prevent some of the organ damage caused by infection, she said.

The drug also may work to reduce production of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, or ACE-2, an enzyme found in cells in the intestines, kidney, testis, gallbladder and heart that helps the virus spread throughout the body, studies suggest.

However, by themselves, these findings do not prove that CBD can prevents COVID-19 -- only that the drug may have some effect against the virus, according to Rosner.

Any curative properties will need to be confirmed in clinical trials designed to compare results with its use against those of other treatments or a placebo, a "sham" drug that provides no clinical benefit.

Still, the results of the study suggest that a clinical trial is worthwhile, and the researchers involved are in the planning stages right now, Rosner said.

Other research with CBD

Other studies have also explored the potential value for CBD to treat COVID-19.

In research published in December by the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, scientists at St. John's University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in New York City found that the drug boosted the effectiveness of Remdesivir, a medication that has been used to treat the virus.

CBD essentially slowed the process by which the liver metabolized, or processed, Remdesivir, an antiviral originally developed to treat Ebola, allowing it to remain in the body and work against COVID-19 for a longer period.

In addition, in another study published in October of last year, by the journal Phytotherapy Research, researchers in Italy found that treatment with CBD, at a specific dose and purity, prevented some of the cell damage and inflammation caused by the virus.

However, in perhaps the only clinical trial of CBD's use in COVID-19 to date, the results of which were published in Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research in October, infected patients with mild to moderate symptoms treated with the drug actually took longer to recover than those given placebo.

The 91 participants in this trial received either 300 milligrams of CBD or a placebo, plus steroids and other treatments, for 14 days, though it is unclear how the CBD used in the study was produced.

Is there a future for CBD in COVID-19?

Even after the promising results from Rosner and her colleagues and others, the question remains: Is CBD a viable treatment for COVID-19?

The short answer is: Maybe.

Just because the drug shows promise in laboratory experiments does not mean it will perform well in more stringent clinical trials, according to Peter Cogan, an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Regis University in Denver, who has studied its medical use.

CBD, like many drugs with limited water solubility, will form nanosized waxy globules called "colloids" that interfere with a number of chemicals used in experiments and "tend to give false positive results simply because they stick to everything in the dish," he said.

For this and other reasons, researchers may not be able to replicate the findings with CBD in the lab in human study subjects, Cogan said.

And that is why, although he described the findings of Rosner and her colleagues as "intriguing," he is not "super optimistic" CBD will see widespread use as a treatment for COVID-19, "though it certainly warrants more research," including clinical trials with large patient populations, he said.

"CBD should be treated like any other chemical being investigated for therapeutic purposes, which is to say we should probably figure out what it actually does before planning the parade," Cogan said.

"The nice thing about CBD, though, is that it appears, generally speaking, to be safe, so it could be argued that there isn't any good reason to not put together a clinical trial to see if it has any effect," he said.

Former NASA official starts company to put robotic spacecraft in orbit


An illustration depicts a robotic outpost and several satellites for Maryland-based company Quantum Space. Image courtesy of Quantum Space

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A former NASA official revealed Thursday that his new space company, Maryland-based Quantum Space, plans to launch robotic satellite outposts to orbit the sun about a million miles from the Earth.

The eventual goal is to provide easier and cheaper access to space while also limiting debris in Earth's orbit, Steve Jurczyk, Quantum CEO, told UPI in an interview.

"We'd have a regular cadence or rhythm of launches, and we'll take care of everything needed for a space mission including launch, communications and in-space servicing," said Juczyk, who left NASA in 2021 as acting administrator.

Quantum's spacecraft would head deep into space to gravitational points known as Lagrange 1 or Lagrange 2, where the James Webb Space Telescope arrived Jan. 24.



Lagrange points offer some stability and help keep spacecraft relatively near Earth as they orbit the sun.
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The company plans to launch its first prototype, or pathfinder, in 2024 to Lagrange point 1, Jurczyk said. That's almost a million miles from Earth in the direction of the sun, which is over 90 million miles away.
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"We're in the mission design phase, working to firm up the requirements, on a relatively small satellite," he said. "We're planning a remote sensing mission to do remote sensing of the Earth and the Moon, to give us remote sensing data from that vantage point."

By staging spacecraft at the Lagrange point, such satellites can use relatively little energy or fuel to stay in position -- whereas being closer to Earth requires more thruster burns to maintain position, Jurczyk said.

The Lagrange points will allow broad views of the Earth and moon as they move in their orbits, which Jurczyk said will be of interest to many space customers and the U.S. Department of Defense.
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The company also plans to position spacecraft in locations between the Earth and the moon, he said.

Quantum wants space robots to service spacecraft, refuel them and install or uninstall them from the larger robotic outposts, he said.

Jurczyk has the backing of powerhouse space investment firm IBX, also based in Maryland. The company declined to release any information about the initial investment or company finances.


IBX founder and CEO Kam Ghaffarian also started such companies as Houston-based Axiom Space -- which plans the first all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station in March.

The company also includes Ben Reed, former division chief of NASA's Exploration and In-Space Services at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

"Commercial space companies and activities have advanced, [and] particularly sort of taken off in the last five years with with the help of NASA," Jurczyk said.

"I became more and more motivated to be part of that after I left the agency," he said.