NASA: Give us back our moon dust and cockroaches

By MARK PRATT

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This April 2022 handout photograph provided by RR Auction shows moon dust from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, which was pulled from an auction listing after NASA said the dust, and some cockroaches that were fed the dust, are property of the federal government. 

(Lawrence McGlynn/RR Auction photo via AP)

BOSTON (AP) — NASA wants its moon dust and cockroaches back.

The space agency has asked Boston-based RR Auction to halt the sale of moon dust collected during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission that had subsequently been fed to cockroaches during an experiment to determine if the lunar rock contained any sort of pathogen that posed a threat to terrestrial life.

The material, a NASA lawyer said in a letter to the auctioneer, still belongs to the federal government.

The material from the experiment, including a vial with about 40 milligrams of moon dust and three cockroach carcasses, was expected to sell for at least $400,000, but has been pulled from the auction block, RR said Thursday.

“All Apollo samples, as stipulated in this collection of items, belong to NASA and no person, university, or other entity has ever been given permission to keep them after analysis, destruction, or other use for any purpose, especially for sale or individual display,” said NASA’s letter dated June 15.

It went on: “We are requesting that you no longer facilitate the sale of any and all items containing the Apollo 11 Lunar Soil Experiment (the cockroaches, slides, and post-destructive testing specimen) by immediately stopping the bidding process,” NASA wrote.

In another letter dated June 22, NASA’s lawyer asked RR Auction to work with the current owner of the material to return it to the federal government.

The Apollo 11 mission brought more than 47 pounds (21.3 kilograms) of lunar rock back to Earth. Some was fed to insects, fish and other small creatures to see if it would kill them.

The cockroaches that were fed moon dust were brought to the University of Minnesota where entomologist Marion Brooks dissected and studied them.

“I found no evidence of infectious agents,” Brooks, who died in 2007, told the Minneapolis Tribune for an October 1969 story. She found no evidence that the moon material was toxic or caused any other ill effects in the insects, according to the article.

But the moon rock and the cockroaches were never returned to NASA, instead displayed at Brooks’ home. Her daughter sold them in 2010, and now they are up for sale again by a consignor who RR did not disclose.

It’s not unusual for a third party to lay claim to something that is being auctioned, said Mark Zaid, an attorney for RR Auction.

“NASA has a track record of pursuing items related to the early space programs,” although they have been inconsistent in doing so, Zaid said. By its own admission, NASA acknowledged in one of its letters that it did not know about the previous auction of the cockroach experiment items.

“We have worked with NASA before and have always cooperated with the U.S. government when they lay claims to items,” Zaid said. “At the end of the day, we want to act appropriately and lawfully.”

RR Auction is holding on to the lot for now, but ultimately, it’s up to the consignor to work something out with NASA, he said.

Biden picks first woman, person of color as science adviser

By SETH BORENSTEIN

June 21, 2022

Arati Prabhakar, left, the director of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency speaks after introducing then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter to speak Sept. 9, 2015, at the opening of the DARPA conference at the America's Center in St. Louis. President Joe Biden has chosen Arati Prabhakar to be his science adviser.

 (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden nominated the former head of two federal science and engineering agencies to be his science adviser, who if confirmed by the Senate, will be the first woman, person of color and immigrant to hold that Cabinet-level position.

Biden nominated engineer and physicist Arati Prabhakar, who during the Obama administration directed the James Bond-like Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) which came up with the Internet and stealth aircraft, to the science adviser job, which also includes running the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Prabhakar helped kick-start work in DARPA that eventually led to the type of RNA vaccine used to develop shots for COVID-19. In the 1990s, starting at the age of 34, she was the first woman and youngest person to run the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Prabhakar would take over after Biden’s initial science adviser, Eric Lander, resigned when a White House investigation found he bullied staff members amid complaints about how he treated co-workers. It was the first such resignation of the Biden administration. Lander had previously been criticized for downplaying the contributions of women in science. He would be replaced by Prabhakar, who was also the first woman to earn a doctorate in applied physics from Caltech, after getting a master’s and bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.

“She clearly is very smart, articulate, a visionary who makes things happen,” said Trump science adviser Kelvin Droegenmeier, who said he didn’t know her personally but heard a talk of hers at the National Academy of Sciences “and was quite frankly blown away.”

Droegenmeier said Prabhakar’s “first and most important role is to restore trust and integrity at OSTP, which I have no doubt she can do.”

In nominating her, Biden called Prabhakar “a brilliant and highly respected engineer and applied physicist” who will help use science and technology to “solve our toughest challenges and make the impossible possible.” The job includes dealing with climate change, public health, defense, energy and technology issues.

Sudip Parikh, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest general science society, highlighted Prabhakar’s work at DARPA as something that “led to pioneering work on RNA technology underlying COVID-19 vaccines.”

Prabhakar immigrated to Chicago and then Texas with her family from New Delhi, India, when she was 3. After getting her PhD, Prabhakar worked for DARPA, later becoming the first person to run its microelectronics office. She then ran NIST, which deals in engineering standards. In between government gigs, she worked in Silicon Valley as an executive and venture capitalist and in 2019 she founded the research non-profit Actuate.

When Lander resigned earlier this year he was temporarily replaced by former National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins and Office of Science and Technology Policy deputy director Alondra Nelson. Nelson and other women have been head of the science and technology office on an acting basis before, but until Prabhakar none had been nominated for the permanent Senate-confirmed post.

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears

SC medical ethics law prompts concerns re: LGBTQ healthcare

JAMES POLLARD

June 21, 2022

A new South Carolina law that allows physicians, medical students and nurses to refrain from doing procedures that violate their conscience has prompted concern that the measure will restrict healthcare options for the state’s LGBTQ population.

Signed into law by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster on June 17, the “Medical Ethics and Diversity Act” gives medical practitioners, health care institutions and health care payers protection for objecting to performing a procedure that goes against their moral, ethical or religious views. The law does not apply to emergency procedures where such life-saving services must be provided per federal regulation. Physicians are also not required to make a referral should they deny care.

The bill allows doctors to do their job “in a way that doesn’t contradict with their best medical judgement or their moral and religious beliefs,” Brandon Charochak, the governor’s deputy communications director, said in an email. “It’s important that South Carolinians receive the best care possible from providers who fully believe in the work they’re doing.

South Carolina joins several other states that have moved recently to protect “conscience” objections for medical providers. In March 2021, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a similar proposal into law. Earlier this year, the Nebraska legislature considered another such measure.

Commonly rejected procedures listed in other states include abortion, certain contraception, genetic experimentation, death penalty executions and the sterilization of minors, according to Republican state Sen. Larry Grooms.

Proponents in South Carolina said that the law allows providers to opt out of specific procedures — not discriminate against specific patients.

“If you have a moral religious or ethical objection to a particular procedure, then that would mean you’re opposed to that procedure for all patients,” Grooms said last month as the state Senate originally debated the bill.

But when specific types of care are disproportionately necessary for certain groups of people — gender-affirming hormone therapy for a transgender person or fertility treatments for a same-sex couple, for example — then the law is discriminatory, according to Ivy Hill, a leader in the SC United for Justice and Equality coalition.

“We already face so many additional barriers in accessing healthcare and this just adds another one,” Hill, who is the community health program director with the Campaign for Southern Equality, told The Associated Press.

Last month, a group of 50 healthcare professionals urged the governor in a letter to veto the bill. The group warned that the measure would negatively impact LGBTQ people, who might already face barriers to accessing services such as HIV prevention and treatment, gender affirming care and family planning services.

Upon the state House’s passage of the bill in April, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, issued a statement opposing the measure.

“It is disturbing that some politicians in South Carolina are prioritizing individual providers’ beliefs ahead of patient health and wellbeing. This legislation is dangerously silent in regards to the needs of patients and fails to consider the impact that expanding refusals can have on their health,” Sarah Warbelow, the Human Rights Campaign’s legal director, said in a statement in April.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston supported the law in a Friday press release.

“Every American has the freedom to live according to his or her ethical and religious beliefs –- doctors, nurses, and medical care providers must not be treated differently,” the diocese said in a statement. “When freedom of conscience is compromised, patient care is compromised.”

State senators debated whether or not the measure would improve efforts to expand healthcare services across the state. Speaking against the proposal, Democrat state Sen. Vernon Stephens suggested that rural patients who lack easy access to healthcare facilities might struggle to find alternatives should a doctor deny their procedure.

Grooms said the bill would help the state retain physicians — particularly older ones — who fear discipline for not performing procedures to which they object.

Hill pointed transgender people in South Carolina concerned about healthcare access to the Campaign for Southern Equality’s “Trans in the South” guide.

“For LGBT folks and for trans folks in South Carolina, I want them to know that they’re not alone,” Hill said.

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James Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow James Pollard on Twitter.

Tribal leaders and feds reestablish Bears Ears Commission

By SAM METZ

June 21, 2022

The "House on Fire" ruins in Mule Canyon, which is part of Bears Ears National Monument, near Blanding, Utah, is seen June 22, 2016. Federal officials and tribal nations have formally reestablished a commission to jointly govern the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Federal officials and tribal nations have formally reestablished a commission to oversee land management decisions at a national monument in Utah — among the first such joint governance agreements signed by Native Americans and U.S. officials.

Leaders from agencies including the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service met with representatives from five tribal nations Saturday to sign a document formalizing the Bears Ears Commission, a governing body tasked with day-to-day decisions on the 2,125-square-mile (5,500-square-kilometer) Bears Ears National Monument.

In 2021, President Joe Biden restored two sprawling national monuments in southern Utah — Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — reversing a decision by President Donald Trump that opened for mining and other development hundreds of thousands of acres of rugged lands sacred to Native Americans and home to ancient cliff dwellings and petroglyphs.

Together, the monuments encompass an area nearly the size of Connecticut, and were created by Democratic administrations under a century-old law that allows presidents to protect sites considered historic, geographically or culturally important.

 The "House on Fire" ruins in Mule Canyon, which is part of Bears Ears National Monument, near Blanding, Utah, is seen June 22, 2016. Federal officials and tribal nations have formally reestablished a commission to jointly govern the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Tribes have long sought a larger role in their oversight.

“This is an important step as we move forward together to ensure that Tribal expertise and traditional perspectives remain at the forefront of our joint decision-making for the Bears Ears National Monument. This type of true co-management will serve as a model for our work to honor the nation-to-nation relationship in the future,” said Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning, one of the agreement’s signatories.

The Bears Ears Commission and Obama-era joint governance plan was altered to the chagrin of tribal officials when Trump downsized the monument in 2017. The five nations, all of which were driven off land included in the monument, are the Hopi, the Navajo Nation, the Pueblo of Zuni, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.

“Today, instead of being removed from a landscape to make way for a public park, we are being invited back to our ancestral homelands to help repair them and plan for a resilient future. We are being asked to apply our traditional knowledge to both the natural and human-caused ecological challenges, drought, erosion, visitation, etc.,” said Bears Ears Commission co-Chair and Lt. Gov. of Zuni Pueblo Carleton Bowekaty.

Tribes also play a role in jointly managing some resources within national park units, including Canyon de Chelly National Monument on the Navajo Nation and Point Reyes National Seashore on the historic lands of the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo in California.

Investigator: DNA could identify 2 Tulsa massacre victims

By KEN MILLER

June 22, 2022

 In this Friday, July 30, 2021, photo, a group prays during a small ceremony as remains from a mass grave are reinterred at Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa, Okla. Investigators say another step forward has been taken in efforts to identify possible victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre. The committee overseeing the search for mass graves of victims was told Tuesday, June 21, 2022, that enough usable DNA for testing has been found in two of the 14 sets of remains that were removed from Tulsa's Oaklawn Cemetery a year ago. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP, File)


Investigators seeking to identify victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre have found enough usable DNA for testing on two of the 14 sets of remains removed from a local cemetery a year ago, a forensic scientist said Wednesday.

Danny Hellwig with Intermountain Forensics in Salt Lake City, which is examining the remains, told The Associated Press that it’s a promising step toward identifying the people whose remains were removed from Oaklawn Cemetery.

“We have two (sets) that we’re very excited about,” Hellwig said. “It doesn’t guarantee us a result, but it gives us hope” for learning the names.

The key, Hellwig said, is having descendants of those individuals provide DNA to a database so a match can be made when DNA sequencing is complete.

The sequencing is expected to begin in July or August, Hellwig said. A match to a family member could be made within days if the descendant is in Intermountain Forensics’ DNA database.

None of the remains are confirmed as victims of the 1921 massacre, which occurred when a white mob descended on Greenwood, a predominantly Black neighborhood in Tulsa. More than 1,000 homes were burned, hundreds were looted and the thriving business district known as Black Wall Street was destroyed.

Historians who have studied the event estimate the death toll to be between 75 and 300.

To confirm the remains are massacre victims, investigators are seeking signs of trauma, such as gunshot wounds. Based on accounts at the time, most of those who were killed by the mob were male, according to forensic scientist Phoebe Stubblefield, a member of the team that excavated the cemetery and the remains.

One set of the remains sent to the Intermountain Forensics’ DNA lab in Utah includes a male with a bullet in his shoulder, but did not have enough usable DNA, Hellwig said.

“We’re talking with the investigative team to see if additional evidence can be provided” in hopes of extracting more DNA of that individual, Hellwig said.

Bones and teeth from each of the remains have been provided to the lab, with the usable DNA coming from the teeth, according to Hellwig.

A search for the graves of massacre victims began in 2020 and resumed last year with nearly three dozen coffins containing remains of possible victims recovered.

Investigators haven’t said when they’ll analyze additional sites where suspected mass graves are located and are potential search areas are planned, according to a news release from the city of Tulsa.

Fact check: Just how safe is Rwanda for migrants?

The UK has struck a deal to deport undocumented migrants to Rwanda. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed the East African country is one of the world's safest, with a track record of welcoming immigrants.

London's claim that Rwanda is safe for migrants is misleading, according to a DW fact check

The United Kingdom has seen a sharp influx of migrants crossing the English Channel from France in recent years. Whereas in 2020 just over 8,000 people made the crossing in small boats, last year that figure jumped to more that 28,000. British officials expect this year's figures to exceed 2021 numbers by far.

In a bid to deter people from crossing the Channel while simultaneously cracking down on human traffickers, the UK signed a deal to deport undocumented migrants to the East African country of Rwanda in April. Rather than coming to the UK, migrants are encouraged to apply for asylum, then settle and build new lives in Rwanda. In return, the British government has promised to pay £120 million ($157 million, €144 million) for Rwanda to integrate the new arrivals.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has praised and defended the Rwanda deal

A first plane with deportees was scheduled to leave the UK for Rwanda on June 14. A last-minute injunction by the European Court of Human Rights, however, grounded the flight. But British Interior Minister Priti Patel has said the government will stick to the resettlement plan and schedule new deportation flights.

Claim: Prime Minister Johnson has praised the scheme, lauding Rwanda as "one of the safest countries in the world, globally recognized for its record of welcoming and integrating migrants."

DW fact check: Misleading

Political plurality

Rwanda has been touted as a poster child of development on the African continent due to its stability and economic growth. Its constitution guarantees the right to freely join political organizations, and protects Rwandans from discrimination on grounds of membership, or non-membership, in such organizations. It also states that "Freedom of press, of expression and of access to information are recognized and guaranteed by the State."

Yet Freedom House, a respected US nongovernmental organization ranking political rights and civil liberties across the world, says Rwanda has "suppressed political dissent though pervasive surveillance, intimidation, torture, and renditions or suspected assassinations of exiled dissidents." It classifies Rwanda as "not free." A DW report lists over a dozen politicians, journalists and other figures who were killed, or have disappeared, in recent years after speaking out against long-time President Paul Kagame or his ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front. Similarly, a report by NGO Human Rights Watch finds that judicial authorities in Rwanda "are prosecuting opposition members, journalists, and commentators on the basis of their speech and opinions." 

Deported migrants were supposed to be hosted in Kigali's Hope Hostel

The country is evidently unsafe for individuals who express opinions that challenge or criticize Rwandan authorities. British deportees would be ill-advised to speak out against the Rwandan government. 

LGBTQ+ stigmatization and discrimination

Rwanda’s constitution bars discrimination based on "ethnic origin, tribe, clan, colour, sex, region, social origin, religion or faith, opinion, economic status, culture, language, social status, physical or mental disability." And President Kagame said in 2016 that LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people living in Rwanda have not been a problem, "and we don't intend to make it a problem." The country also supports a raft of international conventions and statements affirming LGBTQ+ rights.

That said, many LGBTQ+ people have reported experiencing stigmatization and discrimination in Rwandan society. Human Rights Watch has documented several cases of LGBTQ+ people being rounded up and arbitrarily detained ahead of major conferences in Rwanda. Most recently, LGBTQ+ people were taken off the streets and locked up prior to the planned but ultimately postponed Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in June 2021. Human Rights Watch learned that detainees who identified as gay or transgender were mistreated and beaten.

Indeed, the UK's very own government travel advice page warns that in Rwanda, "LGBT individuals can experience discrimination and abuse, including from local authorities." 

While Rwanda is legally safe for LGBTQ+ people, reports from inside the country suggest otherwise. 

Track record on integrating migrants

While Rwanda has a history of hosting migrants, their treatment has varied. 

In 2013, Israel and Rwanda struck a secretive deal to transfer Eritrean and Sudanese migrants to the east African country. The scheme remained in place until April 2018.

Kagame met with British PM Boris Johnson at London's 2020 UK Africa Investment Summit

Evidence suggests Rwanda was reluctant or loath to receive and integrate migrants sent from Israel. A 2018 Oxford University report, compiled on the basis of interviews conducted with Eritrean migrants, found they had their identity documents seized upon arrival in Rwanda. The researchers wrote that the individuals were then "transferred to a guarded hotel and were prevented, under threat, from leaving." They also write that none "were given the opportunity to apply for asylum."

Those findings are corroborated by a report published in Israeli daily Haartez that same year, which found Rwandan authorities had not recognized migrants' rights to be in the country and refused to issue residency permits to them. Without documents, the report finds, migrants were frequently "arrested and jailed." Many migrants later left Rwanda, eventually making their way to Europe, where they claimed asylum.

More recently, Rwanda agreed to take in scores of migrants stranded in squalid Libyan detention centers as part of a UN-African Union deal. They are under direct care of the United Nations and will be relocated to third countries. No reports of mistreatment or poor conditions have so far emerged in this context.

Edited by: Andreas Illmer

Commonwealth leaders met in Kigali on Friday to discuss cooperation on topics from trade to health to climate, against a backdrop of criticism of host Rwanda's human rights record and of a British policy to deport asylum seekers there.

Deported Ethiopian migrants tell of suffering in Saudi Arabia detention

Tens of thousands of Ethiopian migrants are being deported from Saudi Arabia. They tell of being detained for months in miserable conditions. At home, they face an uncertain future.

Ethiopians deported from Saudi Arabia arrive in Addis Abeba

Abdela Mohammed spent 13 "unbearable" months languishing in an overcrowded Saudi detention center before being repatriated back to Ethiopia in May.

He was locked in a cell with about 200 others, he said. The detainees slept on the bare floor and were barely fed enough to survive.

"There wasn't enough food," Abdela said of his time in the Shmeisi Detention Center, east of Jeddah. "We only ate breakfast and the rice we were given wasn't even enough for a single mouthful."

The detainees were also denied medical care, the 31-year-old said. 

"When we knocked on the doors to tell them someone was sick, they called us 'dogs' and told us to 'let them die'," Abdela recalled in an telephone interview from his hometown in Ethiopia's southern region, where he has been living with his family since his return.

Ignored by Ethiopia

He and other detainees called Ethiopia's embassy from prison, he recounted, but they "didn't help us." 

"One day an embassy employee, who witnessed us being beaten up by the police [in detention], said to us: 'Let them beat you'."

No one visited us when we told them that someone was sick. When we informed them about the death of an old man, they refused to take his corpse and bury it."

Abdela despaired of making it out of the cell alive: "I thought I would never get out and be a human being again."

DW has tried to contact Ethiopia's embassy in Saudi Arabia for a comment but has so far been unsuccessful. 

Popular destination for migrants

Solomon Belete spent even longer in detention. He doesn't want to talk about his 22 months locked up, other to say that it was "suffocating".

But the 33-year-old is happy to describe the dreams that sent him to Saudi Arabia in the first place: to build a family home for himself and his parents and save money to start a business back in Ethiopia.

A trained physical education teacher, he had spent several years looking for job at home after graduating from university.

Saudi Arabia relies heavily on foreign workers

So when a friend living in Saudi Arabia told him it would be easy to get a driving job in the Gulf state, Solomon jumped at the chance.

“He told me: ‛You'll live in comfort driving rich people's car. You are well educated. It won't be difficult for you to get the driver's license'," Solomon recalls.

But Solomon was detained at the airport upon arrival and thrown straight into a deportation center. 

Deportation agreement

Solomon and Abdela are two of at least 38,000 Ethiopians who have been deported from Saudi Arabia since March 30, 2022 when an agreement between the governments of the two countries came into effect. 

More than 100,000 Ethiopian migrants currently detained in the oil-rich nation will be returned home under the agreement. 

Saudi Arabia is a popular destination for Ethiopian migrants — with an estimated 750,000 of them residing in the Middle East country, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 

Of these, some 450,000 have probably migrated through "irregular means" and will need help to return home, the IOM said in a recent statement. 

Languishing in detention 

In the past few years, Saudi Arabia has carried out regular sweeps of undocumented workers, holding those arrested in large deportation centers.

Human rights organizations have been denouncing the conditions of these centers for years. 

Detainees are "chained together in pairs, forced to use the floor of their cells as a toilet, and confined 24 hours a day in unbearably overcrowded cells," according to a 2020 Amnesty International investigation into the ill-treatment of Ethiopian detainees in the Middle East country. 

"Pregnant women, babies and small children are held in these same appalling conditions," the investigation found.  

In interviews conducted in 2020, detainees told Human Rights Watch that at a center in Riyadh, some 350 men shared two to five toilets and had no access to soap and showers. 

Detainees also talked of being assaulted and beaten by guards, "especially when they asked for medical attention or complained about the conditions," the rights organization reported.

Perilous journey getting there

Before his last journey, Abdela Mohammed had twice worked in Saudi Arabia to earn money to support his family. 

That's why he decided to make the trip for a third time in 2018 — paying smugglers 10,000 riyals (€2,500 or $2,700) to take him from the coastal town of Bosaso in Somalia across the Bab-el-Mandeb strait to Yemen and then on to Saudi Arabia.

But perhaps a portent of the tribulations to come, this third time proved to be a nightmare. Four people died on the boat to Yemen from the heat, Abdela said. 

Then at the border to Saudi Arabia, the caravan of Ethiopian migrants came under fire from guards.

When he eventually made it over the border, he picked up odd jobs, working as a goat herder, a day laborer and a bulldozer operator. 

But he said, to the Saudis he was just a drudge: "They called me a dog and a donkey. I was insulted while working."

Then he was arrested laboring on a mango and avocado farm.

Little of promise at home

Ethiopia's government has put out a donor call for $11 million to help provide those returning with food, temporary accommodation, medical assistance and counseling services. 

After more than a year locked behind bars, Abdela landed in Ethiopia with just the clothes on his back. 

He was given bus fare to pay his way home to Alaba, a small town in a rural area of southern Ethiopia.

He has no plans to return to Saudi Arabia again, except perhaps to pray, said Abdela, a Muslim.  

As for returnee Solomon Belete, he is one of those who urgently needs help.

He has come back to Ethiopia a broken man with a chronic health problem that started during his long detention.

"My body is trembling. I can't keep my balance. I never sleep well," he said.

Hundreds wait in line for registration after their arrival in Ethiopia from Saudi Arabia

Edited by: Kate Hairsine

Harvard: Descendant can sue over 'horrific' slave photos

A court in the US State of Connecticut ruled a woman can sue the Ivy League university for emotional distress over photos she says depict her enslaved ancestors. They were photographed in 1850 for a racist study.

After an initial setback in a lower court, Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court

 has cleared Tamara Lanier to sue Harvard

A woman in the United States who says she's descended from slaves portrayed in widely-published, historical photos owned by Harvard can sue the university for emotional distress, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled on Thursday.

Tamara Lanier says she is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Renty Taylor, who along with his daughter Delia was forced to be photographed for an 1850 study by a professor trying to prove the inferiority of Black people.

Lanier demanded the photos and unspecified damages from Harvard, saying the school had exploited the daguerreotype for profit.

Thursday's ruling overturns a lower court judgment that dismissed Lanier's 2019 complaint.

Supreme Judicial Court Justice Scott Kafker wrote that Harvard had "cavalierly" dismissed Lanier's claims of an ancestral link and disregarded her requests for information about how it was using the images, including when the school used Renty's image on a book cover.

In his judgment, he said Harvard had a "horrific, historic role" in creating the images, and it had a duty to respond.

Kafker said Harvard's conduct meant a jury could reasonably determine it recklessly caused Lanier to suffer emotional distress through its "extreme and outrageous conduct."

Who will keep the photos?

He, however, agreed with the lower court that the Ivy League university does not need to hand over the photos to Lanier, concluding the photos are the property of the photographer who took them and not the subject themselves.

"A descendant of someone whose likeness is reproduced in a daguerreotype would not therefore inherit any property right to that daguerreotype.''

They were taken as part of a study by Harvard Professor Louis Agassiz. His theories on racial difference were used to support slavery in the US.

The images are considered some of the earliest photos of enslaved people in the US, with every inch of their bodies captured in daguerreotype. They also had every body part, including their buttocks and genitals, measured.

How does Harvard use the photos?

Harvard spokeswoman Rachael Dane said the original daguerreotypes were in archival storage, not on display, nor have they been lent out to other museums for more than 15 years because of their fragility.

"Harvard has and will continue to grapple with its historic connection to slavery and views this inquiry as part of its core academic mission,'' she said in a statement.

"Harvard is not the rightful owner of these photos and should not profit from them,'' Lanier's attorney, Josh Koskoff said in a statement.

"As Tamara Lanier and her family have said for years, it is time for Harvard to let Renty and Delia come home.''

lo/rt (AP, Reuters)

A farm feeding chickens with marijuana instead of antibiotics is fetching higher prices from consumers seeking organic poultry, researchers say


Matthew Loh
Thu, June 23, 2022

A worker prepares chicken meat at Khlong Toei market in Bangkok.

Adisorn Chabsungnoen/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

A farm in Thailand has started feeding its chickens with cannabis instead of antibiotics.

Researchers from Chiang Mai University say the experiment is showing positive signs.

The chickens are fetching double the usual price from consumers looking for organic poultry.

A farm growing medical marijuana in northern Thailand has been feeding its free-range chickens with cannabis instead of antibiotics, and researchers said the experiment has yielded promising results.

Researchers from Chiang Mai University's Department of Animal and Aquatic Sciences said fewer than 10% of the 1,000 chickens at the farm in Lampang have died since they introduced pot to the chickens' diet in January 2021.

While the study's findings are still under review and only cover one year's worth of research, Chompunut Lumsangkul, an assistant professor who led the study, told Insider that the cannabis feed appears to be working. The mortality rate for the chickens at the farm has been the same as in regular seasons when there isn't a severe outbreak of any bird-killing disease, she said.


Scroll back up to restore default view.

The birds' special food is produced by adding crushed cannabis to their feed and water, said Lumsangkul. No antibiotics and medicines are fed to or used on the chickens during this time.

Besides healthy chickens, the experiment has also allowed the farm to sell its birds for higher prices to consumers seeking organic poultry.

The birds are fetching double the regular price, at about $1.50 per pound, mostly because buyers want organic chickens that haven't been administered antibiotics, Lumsangkul said. She also claimed that the chickens' meat — which they call "GanjaChicken" — is more tender and tastes better than regular chickens.

"Consumers in Thailand have been paying attention to this because demand is increasing for chickens and many farmers have to use antibiotics. So some customers want to find a safer product," the assistant professor said.

The farm in Lampang primarily grows cannabis as one of its major products but also raises chickens.CHOMPUNUT LUMSANGKUL

As part of the experiment, Lumsangkul said her research team would sometimes give the chickens bolstered levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — the substance in marijuana that gives users a high — that went past the legal limits for humans in Thailand.

Earlier this month, the Thai government legalized the sale of cannabis products but limited the amount of THC in the items one can consume to 0.2%. By comparison, the chickens at the farm would sometimes get up to 0.4%, Chompunut said.

"I can't say the cannabis doesn't let the chickens get high, but they exhibit normal behavior," she said.

The farm has over 1,000 chickens that have been feed with cannabis since January last year.

CHOMPUNUT LUMSANGKUL

Lumsangkul noted that it's not immediately clear what the full benefits of feeding chickens cannabis are, nor is it known why the cannabis is keeping the birds healthy in the first place. However, she said it's likely that marijuana has bioactive compounds, or substances that promote metabolic activity and better health conditions, which are boosting the birds' immune systems.

The study has only been a "screening test" so far and the researchers have yet to test if the cannabis feed helps to protect the chickens against bird flu or other severe diseases, said Lumsangkul.

As for whether people can get high from eating cannabis-fed chickens, Lumsangkul said there's "no way" this could happen. The THC is fully metabolized in the chicken's body before slaughter, so its form is completely changed by the time it gets to the table, she said.

Drought hits Italy's hydroelectric plants

Fri, June 24, 2022, 

Hydroelectric power in Italy has plunged this year thanks to a drought that has also sparked water restrictions and fears for agriculture, industry sources said Friday.

Hydropower facilities, mostly located in the mountains in the country's north, provide almost one fifth of Italy's energy demands.

But the lack of rain is causing problems, at a time when Rome is desperately trying to wean itself off its dependence on Russian gas due to the war in Ukraine.

"From January to May 2022, hydro production fell by about 40 percent compared to the corresponding period in 2021," a spokesman for Utilitalia, a federation of water companies, told AFP.

"Hydro production has been steadily decreasing since July 2021," he said, blaming "the severe shortage of water even at high levels".

An industry source told AFP that while the situation was constantly changing, estimates for the first six months of 2022 suggest nationwide hydroelectric generation will be almost half the equivalent period of 2021.

One small plant near Piacenza, southeast of Milan, was shut indefinitely on June 21 due to low levels on the River Po that feeds it, the Enel energy company said.

"Considering the current drought situation, other hydro plants are not operating at full capacity," a spokesman added, without giving further details.

The Po River is Italy's largest reservoir of fresh water. Much of it used by farmers, but is suffering its worst drought for 70 years.

Italy's largest agricultural association, Coldiretti, said the drought is putting over 30 percent of national agricultural production and half of livestock farming in the Po Valley at risk.

In the northwest region of Piedmont, water is being rationed in more than 200 municipalities, according to the ANSA news agency.

The Maggiore and Garda lakes are both far lower than usual for this time of year, while further south, the level of the River Tiber that runs through Rome has also dropped.

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