President Biden 'needs to declare a climate emergency': Rep. Ro Khanna

Yaseen Shah

Fri, July 22, 2022 

Amid record heatwaves and extreme weather incidents, the issue of climate change has become front and center this summer.

In a speech on Wednesday, President Biden called climate change a “clear and present danger” and listed actions the administration is taking to address the crisis. However, Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) wants the president to take it a step further.

“He needs to declare a climate emergency," Khanna said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "I’m glad he is highlighting what he is doing, but we need to do more. The declaration of the climate emergency will give him authority to put more funds into solar, wind, renewables. It will give him the authority to stop the permitting for projects that are going to emit tremendous amounts of CO2."

President Biden delivers remarks on climate change and renewable energy at the former Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, Massachusetts, July 20, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Biden was reportedly considering declaring a climate emergency after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) ended talks over climate legislation. The president's remarks Wednesday signaled that the federal government would continue to take steps to fund renewable energy initiatives.

For example, the Department of Energy (DOE) has received $56 million to spur innovation in the solar manufacturing industry and $18.4 million to develop more clean energy technologies. Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Biden-Harris administration has also allocated $2.6 billion to fund the Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program and the Carbon Dioxide Transport/Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) Program.

Khanna stated that declaring a climate emergency is important even as gas prices remain a top concern for Americans. The average national gas price has fallen over the course of the month and is hovering at $4.44 per gallon, according to AAA.

“There are other things we can do to lower gas prices,” Khanna explained. “The things we can do is ban the export of oil and gas, except to our allies. We could have oil windfall profits tax and put the money back in the pockets of working-class folks … the federal government should be buying at the dip and then selling back at a subsidized price.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) speaks during a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing on gun violence on Capitol Hill, June 8, 2022. Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS

In a letter to President Biden, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) called for the U.S. to halt crude oil exports, which Pallone claimed would reduce domestic prices.

The Monthly U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services report from the U.S. Department of Commerce and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) revealed that the U.S. exported $10.4 billion worth of crude oil in May 2022 and $43.7 billion worth of oil year-to-date (YTD).

Khanna and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) have also introduced the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act, which would impose an excise tax on big oil companies and distribute a rebate to individual taxpayers.

In Khanna's view, there isn't a direct trade-off between climate investment and oil investment when it comes to the immediate prices Americans pay at the pump.

“The drilling takes years — that’s not going to do anything to bring down prices right away,” he said. "By the way, if we’re drilling and just exporting it, it is not going to help the U.S. price either.”

US takes emergency action to save sequoias from wildfires



In this Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021 file photo, Flames burn up a tree as part of the Windy Fire in the Trail of 100 Giants grove in Sequoia National Forest, Calif. The U.S. Forest Service is taking emergency action to speed up approval of projects to clear underbrush in giant sequoia groves to save the world's largest trees from the increasing threat of wildfire. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File, File)

BRIAN MELLEY
Fri, July 22, 2022 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service announced Friday it's taking emergency action to save giant sequoias by speeding up projects that could start within weeks to clear underbrush to protect the world’s largest trees from the increasing threat of wildfires.

The move to bypass some environmental review could cut years off the normal approval process required to cut smaller trees in national forests and use intentionally lit low-intensity fires to reduce dense brush that has helped fuel raging wildfires that have killed up to 20% of all large sequoias over the past two years.

“Without urgent action, wildfires could eliminate countless more iconic giant sequoias,” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said in a statement. “This emergency action to reduce fuels before a wildfire occurs will protect unburned giant sequoia groves from the risks of high-severity wildfires.”

The trees, the world’s largest by volume, are under threat like never before. More than a century of aggressive fire suppression has left forests choked with dense vegetation, downed logs and millions of dead trees killed by bark beetles that have fanned raging infernos intensified by drought and exacerbated by climate change.

The forest service's announcement is among a wide range of efforts underway to save the species found only on the western slope of Sierra Nevada range in central California. Most of about 70 groves are clustered around Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and some extend into and north of Yosemite National Park.

Sequoia National Park, which is run by the Interior Department and not subject to the emergency action, is considering a novel and controversial plan to plant sequoia seedlings where large trees have been wiped out by fire.

The Save Our Sequoias (SOS) Act, which also includes a provision to speed up environmental reviews like the forest service plan, was recently introduced by a bipartisan group of congressmen including House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, whose district includes sequoias.

The group applauded Moore's announcement Friday but said in a statement that more needs to be done to make it easier to thin forests.

“The Forest Service’s action today is an important step forward for Giant Sequoias, but without addressing other barriers to protecting these groves, this emergency will only continue,” the group said. "It’s time to codify this action by establishing a true comprehensive solution to fireproof every grove in California through the SOS Act and save our sequoias.”

Work planned to begin as soon as this summer in 12 groves spread across the Sequoia National Forest and Sierra National Forest in would cost $21 million to remove so-called ladder fuels made up of brush, dead wood and smaller trees that allow fires to spread upward and torch the canopies of the sequoias that can exceed 300 feet (90 meters) in height.

The plan calls for cutting smaller trees and vegetation and using prescribed fires — intentionally lit and monitored by firefighters during damp conditions — to remove the decaying needles, sticks and logs that pile up on the forest floor.

Some environmental groups have criticized forest thinning as an excuse for commercial logging.

Ara Marderosian, executive director of the Sequoia ForestKeeper group, called the announcement a “well-orchestrated PR campaign.”

He said it fails to consider how logging can exacerbate wildfires and could increase carbon emissions that will worsen the climate crisis.

“Fast-tracking thinning fails to consider that roadways and logged areas ... allows wind-driven fires because of greater airflow caused by the opening in the canopy, which increases wildfire speed and intensity,” he said.

Rob York, a professor and cooperative extension specialist at forests operated by the University of California, Berkeley, said the forest service's plan could be helpful but would require extensive followup.

“To me it represents a triage approach to deal with the urgent threat to giant sequoias,” York said in an email. “The treatments will need to be followed up with frequent prescribed fires in order to truly restore and protect the groves long-term.”

The mighty sequoia, protected by thick bark and with its foliage typically high above the flames, was once considered nearly inflammable.

The trees even thrive with occasional low intensity blazes — like ones Native Americans historically lit or allowed to burn — that clear out trees competing for sunlight and water. The heat from flames opens cones and allows seeds to spread.

But fires in recent years have shown that although the trees can live beyond 3,000 years, they are not immortal and greater action may be needed to protect them.

During a fire last year in Sequoia National Park, firefighters wrapped the most famous trees in protective foil and used flame retardant in the trees' canopies.

Earlier this month, when fire threatened the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park, firefighters set up sprinklers.

Flames burned into the grove — the first wildfire to do so in more than a century — but there was no major damage. A park forest ecologist credited the controlled burns with protecting the 500 large trees.

Comic-Con returns in full force with costumes, crowds

yesterday

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Jay Acey, right, dressed as A-Train from the television series "The Boys," mingles with Maddox Cruz, 1, of Orange, Calif., outside Preview Night at the 2022 Comic-Con International at the San Diego Convention Center, Wednesday, July 20, 2022, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)


SAN DIEGO (AP) — The pop culture extravaganza that is Comic-Con International is back to its old extravagance. Stars, cosplayers and hordes of fans are filling the San Diego Convention Center in full force for the first time since 2019. Here’s a look at this year’s version of the four day festival.

COMIC-CROWDS

The pandemic necessitated virtual versions of Comic-Con in the summers of 2020 and 2021, and a scaled-back in-person version in November, but none were anything like the usual spectacle, with lovers of all things geeky descending from around the globe and arena-sized panels on films and TV shows that resemble sporting events.

It’s not clear whether the convention will draw the estimated 135,000 people who flooded San Diego before the pandemic.

But thousands of fans came in droves on Thursday for the convention’s first day. As required, nearly all wore masks — the protective kind, not the super-villain kind, though there were plenty of those too — and the excitement amid the crowd was palpable.

“Everybody’s just been cooped up for a while, and they’ve been anticipating this,” said Minneapolis resident Dinh Truong, 34, who came to Comic-Con for the second time and attended Wednesday’s preview night. “It’s nice just to see everybody in the same atmosphere. I’m excited to see the program, see what’s going on, see everybody cosplaying and all that, and just getting back to what we used to be.”

COMIC-COSPLAY

It’s likely no one has missed the in-person convention more than the captains, queens and connoisseurs of cosplay. Comic-Con is their Met Gala, and no getup is too elaborate.

Lorelei McKelvey, 54, who is from San Diego but now lives in Yokosuka, Japan, was dressed as Captain Carter, Captain America’s British, World War II-era counterpart.

“I had to do one that I could authentically replicate,” McKelvey said. “I went and did my research and found out what were the authentic British officer leathers worn in World War II, and I found manufacturers to actually make those leathers.”

She walked the Convention Center floor in real-as-possible officer cavalry boots and Royal Air Force gauntlets, and carried a 5-pound steel shield.

McKelvey came to Comic-Con and worked a booth for 20 straight years. This is her first time coming as a cosplayer, and her second time coming as a trans woman, and she’s excited to be reunited with the cherished friends she’s made here.

“My last convention is the first time they’ve seen me as Lorelei,” McKelvey said. “This is their first time to see me four years later and to see how much I’ve grown since then.”

Others wandered the halls as “Star Wars” Stormtroopers, the Mandalorian, Wonder Woman, Thor and Sailor Moon. Chuckie from “Child’s Play” emerged from one cosplayer’s stomach.

COMIC-COMING ATTRACTIONS

Comic-Con makes most of its news as a venue to show off trailers and footage from forthcoming films and TV shows during star-studded mega-panels held in Hall H, which holds some 6,000 people. Announced panels include Warner Bros. and the DC Universe’s “Black Adam.” It will include Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who plays the titular antihero, director Jaume Collet-Serra, and the stars playing Hawkman, Dr. Fate, and other members of the Justice Society.

“Get ready, because the hype is real,” Johnson said in pro-wrestler promo mode on Instagram earlier this month. “Guess who’s coming to town, the most electrifying man in all the DC Universe.”

Warner Bros. will also provide a preview of “Shazam: Fury of the Gods.”

Marvel may hold back its best material for Disney’s forthcoming D23 Expo, but is expected to tease its next film, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and the Disney+ TV series “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.”

A pair of much-anticipated fantasy prequels will also give fans a taste of their worlds. A new trailer dropped Wednesday in advance of a panel from HBO Max that will show off the “Game of Thrones” spinoff “House of the Dragon,” set 200 years before the original series.

Amazon is going back in time 2000 years for “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” a tale of the emergence of evil among the elves long before Frodo and Bilbo walked Middle Earth. Their panel this year comes 21 years after director Peter Jackson presented footage from the first of the original films at Comic-Con.

EXPLAINER: What’s behind Europe’s spate of deadly wildfires?

By BARRY HATTON

yesterday

A local resident fights a forest fire with a shovel during a wildfire in Tabara, north-west Spain, July 19, 2022. Major wildfires in Europe are starting earlier in the year, becoming more frequent, doing more damage and getting harder to stop. And, scientists say, they’re probably going to get worse as climate change intensifies unless countermeasures are taken. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Major wildfires in Europe are starting earlier in the year, becoming more frequent, doing more damage and getting harder to stop.

And, scientists say, they’re probably going to get worse as climate change intensifies unless countermeasures are taken.

A mass migration of Europeans from the countryside to cities in recent decades has left neglected woodland at the mercy of the droughts and heat waves that are increasingly common amid global warming. One tiny spark can unleash an inferno.

Fighting forest fires in Europe has never been so hard. Here’s why:

___

WHAT’S CAUSING EUROPE’S WILDFIRES?

The continent’s so-called rural exodus since the second half of the last century, as Europeans moved to cities in search of a better life, has left significant areas of countryside neglected and vulnerable.

Woodland is littered with combustible material, says Johann Goldammer, head of the Global Fire Monitoring Center, an advisory body to the United Nations. That includes things like dead tree trunks and fallen branches, dead leaves and desiccated grass.

“This is why we have unprecedented wildfire risk: because never before in history — say, the last 1,000 or 2,000 years — has there been so much flammable material around,” he said.

He adds: “The landscape is getting explosive.”

Carelessness with naked flames is often enough to ignite a wildfire. In Portugal, where more than 100 people died in wildfires in 2017, authorities say 62% of outbreaks stem from farming activities such as burning stubble.

___

IS GLOBAL WARMING A FACTOR IN THE WILDFIRES?

Climate change has added a scary new dimension to wildfires and made them more menacing.

That is especially true in southern Europe, where the increasing occurrence of fire weather conditions — high temperatures, drought and high winds — make summer wildfires “the new norm,” says Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London.

The European Union noted this month that over the past five years the bloc has witnessed its most intense wildfires on record and that the continent’s current drought could become its worst ever. The Mediterranean region is warming 20% faster than the global average, according to the U.N..

EU fire statistics bear witness to the problem. The amount of burned European countryside has more than tripled this year, with almost 450,000 hectares charred through July 16, compared with a 2006-2021 average of 110,000 hectares in those same months.

By that same date, Europe had witnessed almost 1,900 wildfires compared with an average of 470 for the 2006-2021 period.

___

ARE WILDFIRES DIFFERENT NOW?

The droughts and heat waves tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight, as conditions make it easier for them to spread quickly. Scientists say climate change will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

That includes instances of so-called “megafires” — blazes so big they are virtually unstoppable.

Spain’s wildfire problems this year began with the arrival in spring of the country’s earliest heat wave in two decades. Temperatures rose above 40 C (104 F) in many Spanish cities — levels traditionally seen in high summer.

Neighboring Portugal also saw its warmest May in nine decades, when 97% of the land was classified as being in severe drought. In France, it was the hottest May on record.

“We will not be able to completely prevent wildfires,” says Otto of Imperial College. “We have to learn to live with this.”

___

HOW DO WE COEXIST WITH MORE WILDFIRES?

Scientists say there is no need to lose hope, despite the images of terrifying walls of flame and overwhelmed fire services.

“This is not an act of god,” Otto says of the more frequent wildfires. “This is, to a large degree, our doing and we have quite a lot of (power) to do something about it.”

Things we can do to adapt include putting an end to the burning of fossil fuels and educating people about global warming, she says.

Forest management also needs to be reviewed, says Amila Meskin, a policy adviser at the Brussels-based European State Forest Association, which represents governments’ forest companies, enterprises and agencies in 25 European countries.

Projects such as water retention schemes, mixing forest species and the restoration of peat lands are already happening in some places.

The effects are unlikely to be seen soon, however. Short-term planning in forestry can stretch over 50 years, and fundamental change will take decades.

More broadly, Meskin sees a general lack of interest in rural jobs and notes that forestry is not a fashionable business. Those sentiments need to be reversed, but that’s a big ask.

Maybe, she says, the shock of the wildfires will generate renewed public interest in forest care.

“It’s a very emotional thing to see forests burn,” Meskin said. “It’s such a sad, sad, sad situation.”

___

Follow all AP stories on climate change and the environment at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment. ___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

THIRD WORLD U$A
Hyundai subsidiary has used child labor at Alabama factory

By Joshua Schneyer, Mica Rosenberg and Kristina Cooke


© Reuters/SHANNON STAPLETON

A Hyundai auto plant is seen from inside a Greyhound bus outside of Montgomery

LUVERNE, Alabama (Reuters) -A subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co has used child labor at a plant that supplies parts for the Korean carmaker's assembly line in nearby Montgomery, Alabama, according to area police, the family of three underage workers, and eight former and current employees of the factory.


© Reuters/JOSHUA SCHNEYER

A welcome sign stands next to the SMART Alabama, LLC auto parts plant in Luverne

Underage workers, in some cases as young as 12, have recently worked at a metal stamping plant operated by SMART Alabama LLC, these people said. SMART, listed by Hyundai in corporate filings as a majority-owned unit, supplies parts for some of the most popular cars and SUVs built by the automaker in Montgomery, its flagship U.S. assembly plant.


© Reuters/JOSHUA SCHNEYER

A sign advertising jobs stands near the SMART Alabama, LLC auto parts plant in Luverne

In a statement sent after Reuters first published its findings on Friday, Hyundai said it "does not tolerate illegal employment practices at any Hyundai entity. We have policies and procedures in place that require compliance with all local, state and federal laws." It didn't answer detailed questions from Reuters about the findings.

SMART, in a separate statement, said it follows federal, state and local laws and "denies any allegation that it knowingly employed anyone who is ineligible for employment." The company said it relies on temporary work agencies to fill jobs and expects "these agencies to follow the law in recruiting, hiring, and placing workers on its premises."

SMART didn't answer specific questions about the workers cited in this story or on-the-job scenes they and other people familiar with the factory described.

Reuters learned of underage workers at the Hyundai-owned supplier following the brief disappearance in February of a Guatemalan migrant child from her family's home in Alabama.

The girl, who turns 14 this month, and her two brothers, aged 12 and 15, all worked at the plant earlier this year and weren't going to school, according to people familiar with their employment. Their father, Pedro Tzi, confirmed these people's account in an interview with Reuters.

Police in the Tzi family's adopted hometown of Enterprise also told Reuters that the girl and her siblings had worked at SMART. The police, who helped locate the missing girl, at the time of their search identified her by name in a public alert.

Reuters is not using her name in this article because she is a minor.

The police force in Enterprise, about 45 miles from the plant in Luverne, doesn't have jurisdiction to investigate possible labor-law violations at the factory. Instead, the force notified the state attorney general's office after the incident, James Sanders, an Enterprise police detective, told Reuters.

Mike Lewis, a spokesperson at the Alabama attorney general's office, declined to comment. It's unclear whether the office or other investigators have contacted SMART or Hyundai about possible violations. On Friday, in response to Reuters' reporting, a spokesperon for the Alabama Department of Labor said it would be coordinating with the U.S. Department of labor and other agencies to investigate.


© Reuters/JOSHUA SCHNEYER

U.S. flag flies above a welcome sign in Luverne

Pedro Tzi's children, who have now enrolled for the upcoming school term, were among a larger cohort of underage workers who found jobs at the Hyundai-owned supplier over the past few years, according to interviews with a dozen former and current plant employees and labor recruiters.

Several of these minors, they said, have foregone schooling in order to work long shifts at the plant, a sprawling facility with a documented history of health and safety violations, including amputation hazards.

Most of the current and former employees who spoke with Reuters did so on the condition of anonymity. Reuters was unable to determine the precise number of children who may have worked at the SMART factory, what the minors were paid or other terms of their employment.

The revelation of child labor in Hyundai's U.S. supply chain could spark consumer, regulatory and reputational backlash for one of the most powerful and profitable automakers in the world. In a "human rights policy" posted online, Hyundai says it forbids child labor throughout its workforce, including suppliers.

The company recently said it will expand in the United States, planning over $5 billion in investments including a new electric vehicle factory near Savannah, Georgia.

"Consumers should be outraged," said David Michaels, the former U.S. assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, with whom Reuters shared the findings of its reporting.

"They should know that these cars are being built, at least in part, by workers who are children and need to be in school rather than risking life and limb because their families are desperate for income," he added.

At a time of U.S. labor shortages and supply chain disruptions, labor experts told Reuters there are heightened risks that children, especially undocumented migrants, could end up in workplaces that are hazardous and illegal for minors.

In Enterprise, home to a bustling poultry industry, Reuters earlier this year chronicled https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-immigration-alabama how a Guatemalan minor, who migrated to the United States alone, found work at a local chicken processing plant [L1N2UD23Q].

"WAY TOO YOUNG"

Alabama and federal laws limit minors under age 18 from working in metal stamping and pressing operations such as SMART, where proximity to dangerous machinery can put them at risk. Alabama law also requires children 17 and under to be enrolled in school.

Michaels, who is now a professor at George Washington University, said safety at U.S.-based Hyundai suppliers was a recurrent concern at OSHA during his eight years leading the agency until he left in 2017. Michaels visited Korea in 2015, and said he warned Hyundai executives that its heavy demand for "just-in-time" parts was causing safety lapses.

The SMART plant builds parts for the popular Elantra, Sonata, and Santa Fe models, vehicles that through June accounted for almost 37% of Hyundai's U.S. sales, according to the carmaker. The factory has received repeated OSHA penalties for health and safety violations, federal records show.

A Reuters review of the records shows SMART has been assessed with at least $48,515 in OSHA penalties since 2013, and was most recently fined this year. OSHA inspections at SMART have documented violations including crush and amputation hazards at the factory.

The plant, whose website says it has the capacity to supply parts for up to 400,000 vehicles each year, has also had difficulties retaining labor to keep up with Hyundai's demand.

In late 2020, SMART wrote a letter to U.S. consular officials in Mexico seeking a visa for a Mexican worker. The letter, written by SMART General Manager Gary Sport and reviewed by Reuters, said the plant was "severely lacking in labor" and that Hyundai "will not tolerate such shortcomings."

SMART didn't answer Reuters questions about the letter.

Earlier this year, attorneys filed a class-action lawsuit against SMART and several staffing firms who help supply workers with U.S. visas. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on behalf of a group of about 40 Mexican workers, alleges some employees, hired as engineers, were ordered to work menial jobs instead.

SMART in court documents called allegations in the suit "baseless" and "meritless."

Many of the minors at the plant were hired through recruitment agencies, according to current and former SMART workers and local labor recruiters.

Although staffing firms help fill industrial jobs nationwide, they have often been criticized by labor advocates because they enable large employers to outsource responsibility for checking the eligibility of employees to work.

One former worker at SMART, an adult migrant who left for another auto industry job last year, said there were around 50 underage workers between the different plant shifts, adding that he knew some of them personally. Another former adult worker at SMART, a U.S. citizen who also left the plant last year, said she worked alongside about a dozen minors on her shift.

Another former employee, Tabatha Moultry, 39, worked on SMART's assembly line for several years through 2019. Moultry said the plant had high turnover and increasingly relied on migrant workers to keep up with intense production demands. She said she remembered working with one migrant girl who "looked 11 or 12 years old."

The girl would come to work with her mother, Moultry said. When Moultry asked her real age, the girl said she was 13. "She was way too young to be working in that plant, or any plant," Moultry said. Moultry didn't provide further details about the girl and Reuters couldn't independently confirm her account.

Tzi, the father of the girl who went missing, contacted Enterprise police on Feb 3, after she didn't come home. Police issued an amber alert, a public advisory when law enforcement believes a child is in danger.

They also launched a manhunt for Alvaro Cucul, 21, another Guatemalan migrant and SMART worker around that time with whom Tzi believed she might be. Using cell phone geolocation data, police located Cucul and the girl in a parking lot in Athens, Georgia.

The girl told officers that Cucul was a friend and that they had traveled there to look for other work opportunities. Cucul was arrested and later deported, according to people familiar with his deportation. Cucul didn't respond to a Facebook message from Reuters seeking comment.

After the disappearance generated local news coverage, SMART dismissed a number of underage workers, according to two former employees and other locals familiar with the plant. The sources said the police attention raised fears that authorities could soon crack down on other underage workers.

Tzi, the father, also once worked at SMART and now does odd jobs in the construction and forestry industries. He told Reuters he regrets that his children had gone to work. The family needed any income it could get at the time, he added, but is now trying to move on.

"All that is over now," he said. "The kids aren't working and in fall they will be in school."

(Editing by Paulo Prada)

Michigan zoo announces birth of two binturong babies

Two baby binturongs are making the rounds on social media after they were born at a Michigan zoo on July 4, the zoo's first binturong birth in over two decades. 

Photo courtesy of Potter Park Zoo

July 21 (UPI) -- A zoo in Michigan has hailed the arrival of two baby binturongs, or 'bintlets.'

Potter Park Zoo in Lansing, Mich., announced Tuesday that Thistle, their female binturong, had given birth to a trio of babies on July 4.

The zoo added that the event marked the first birth of a binturong at the zoo in over 20 years.



While two of the babies were born healthy and thriving, the zoo said in a press release that the third cub "was found to be sick and despite 24-hour care by veterinary and animal care staff, the bintlet passed away in the week following its birth."

In the lead-up to the birth, animal care experts at the zoo said that they were able to perform research on the binturong life cycle due to Thistle's easygoing nature.

"Animal care staff has done a great job training the mother binturong Thistle to allow awake ultrasounds," said the zoo's director of animal health, Dr. Ronan Eustice. "We've been able to collect valuable information on fetal parameter development in Binturongs and we hope to share this information to the zoo wide community in a scientific publication in the future."

The two babies continue to gain weight and do well, the zoo said, but will not be on display for a few more months while they continue to develop.

The zoo did, however, release a video of the babies hanging out in their new home with mom.

Mother Thistle was born at the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, R.I., in 2019. The babies' father, Barry, was born in 2017 at Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago.

"This successful binturong breeding is incredible for the species. I'm excited for Potter Park Zoo, our community, and the species as a whole," said animal care supervisor Pat Fountain. "The zookeepers worked hard to make this possible."

Binturongs, also known as bearcats, are unique-looking creatures, members of a rare subspecies of animals called viverrids.

Native to southern Asia, binturongs can be found from the Indian subcontinent to Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines. They are known for their quirky personalities as well as the fact that they are described as smelling like popcorn.

In the last few decades, binturongs have faced significant threats, however, from poaching and habitat loss. It is listed as a "vulnerable" species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

AB Conservation, an NGO dedicated to the preservation of the binturong, describes some of the challenges the animal faces.

"[The binturong] is mainly threatened by deforestation and illegal wildlife trade, as it can be sold as a pet or used for its fur and meat," the group said.

Skin becomes canvas at World Bodypainting Festival



An artist paints a model during the annual World Bodypainting Festival in Klagenfurt, Austria, on July 14, 2018. This year's festival, which kicks off Thursday, marks the 25th anniversary of the event. 

 Photo by Florian Wieser/EPA-EFE

July 21 (UPI) -- The World Bodypainting Festival begins Thursday in Klagenfurt, Austria, bringing together hundreds of body painting artists and enthusiasts from around the globe.

The three-day festival, which has been held at the Goethepark in Klagenfurt since 2017, features multiple competitions, stage shows and over 40 live bands. The "Bodypaint City" area of the festival also features a body painting and beauty EXPO, as well as multiple "adventure zones."

The event was founded by Austrian Alex Barendregt in 1997 as the European Bodypainting Festival. Barendregt said he became interested in the art form after seeing photos from the 1970s showing German model Veruschka von Lehndorff with her body covered in paint. He decided to create a festival after discovering there were no large-scale events in Europe dedicated to what was then a niche art form.

"I think transformation was always something human, transformation of the body [and] decoration," Barendregt told National Geographic in 2018. "You can express really good feelings, colors, emotions in an art form that is also moving and screaming and dancing."

The first two years of the festival, held in Seeboden, Austria, featured body painting showcases, and 1999 saw the inception of the first European Bodypainting Awards. Ensuing years saw the addition of showcases and awards for photography and fine art, as well as different categories of body painting including brush and sponge, airbrushing, team body painting, special effects makeup and installation art.

Barendregt launched the European Body Painting Association, a networking organization for body painting artists, in 2001. The group expanded into the World Bodypainting Association in 2004, the same year the festival was redubbed the World Bodypainting Festival.

The festival moved to the city of Poertschach in 2011. Organizers wrote on the event's website that they decided to move away from Seeboden as a result of "politics and problems in the neighborhood." The festival moved again in 2017 to its current home in Klagenfurt.

The festival was held virtually in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2021 saw a "hybrid" version held, with a scaled-down version of the live event being held in conjunction with virtual showcases and competitions.

The 2022 version, the 25th anniversary of the first European Bodypainting Festival, features the return of the large-scale live event, with hundreds of artists from more than 50 countries expected to show off their skills and compete in amateur and professional categories.

The festival, and others that followed in its wake, are credited with increasing the popularity of bodypainting as an art form. The practice is increasingly seen as a fine art by museums and galleries, and the practice became the subject of a reality TV series, Skin Wars, in 2014.

Barendregt said his ultimate goal is to build connections between body painting artists and the rest of the global art community.

"I would now like to create this network, not only within the bodypainting industry, but with other artists and art institutions," Barendregt said. "My vision would be an Art Basel for body painting artists."

Russian, European astronauts make rare joint spacewalk at ISS


The spacewalkers are seen on Thursday outside the International Space Station. They are working to relocate a robotic arm's external control panel and replace a protective window on the arm's camera unit. Photo courtesy NASA

July 21 (UPI) -- A Russian cosmonaut and European Space Agency engineer made a several-hour spacewalk at the International Space Station on Thursday to work on a robotic laboratory arm.

The pair began the spacewalk around 10 a.m. EDT and it was scheduled to last about six 

The objective of the mission is to continue outfitting the European robotic arm on the ISS Nauka laboratory.

Commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos and flight engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA are carrying out the spacewalk.

The objective of the mission is to continue outfitting the European robotic arm on the ISS Nauka laboratory. Commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos and flight engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA are carrying out the spacewalk. Photo courtesy NASA

NASA said the primary objective is to install platforms and workstation adapter hardware near the 37-foot-long Nauka manipulator system.

The spacewalkers will also relocate the arm's external control panel, replace a protective window on the arm's camera unit and extend a Strela telescoping boom to help facilitate future spacewalks, NASA said.

During the walk, the pair will also deploy 10 nano-satellites that will collect radio electronics.

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Artemyev wore a Russian spacesuit with red stripes and Cristoforetti was outfitted in a Russian suit with blue stripes.

NASA said Thursday's is the sixth spacewalk for Artemyev and the first for Cristoforetti, who's also the fourth European astronaut to perform a spacewalk in a Russian spacesuit.

Joint spacewalks involving Russian and ESA astronauts are uncommon, the last having occurred in 1999. Typically, Americans and Europeans or a pair of Russian cosmonauts typically carry out the spacewalks.

FOSSIL FISH EXTINCTION
Chinese paddlefish, last seen in 2003, now officially extinct due to human activity


July 21 (UPI) -- The Chinese paddlefish, a freshwater fish that has been known to live for as many as 100 years, has been officially ruled extinct and more than two dozen similar fish are also threatened, wildlife officials said Thursday.


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The World Wild Fund for Nature announced the status changes in a report that was based on a 13-year sturgeon and paddlefish study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Sturgeon Specialist Group.

The study said that the Chinese paddlefish, which are closely related to sturgeons, were last seen almost 20 years ago and has died out due to human activity such as overfishing and dam-building.

"The assessment officially declares the extinction of the Chinese paddlefish, the extinction in the wild of the Yangtze sturgeon and the regional extinction of ship sturgeon in the Danube," the WWF said in a statement Thursday.The study also said almost two-thirds of sturgeon and paddlefish species are now critically endangered on the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species.

"There's something to be said about humanity, when a species that's outlived the dinosaurs is pushed to the brink of extinction by humans who have, in comparison, existed for a mere blip in time," Beate Striebel-Greiter, WWF Lead of the Global Sturgeon Initiative, said in a statement.

"We call on countries to stop turning a blind eye to the extinction of sturgeon and implement the solutions they know can help save these iconic species.

Sturgeon are among the planet's largest freshwater fish and can grow to 23 feet and weigh up to 1.6 tons. The WWF said sturgeon have been around since the dinosaurs and have remained almost unchanged since.

"The world's failure to safeguard sturgeon species is an indictment of governments across the globe, who are failing to sustainably manage their rivers and live up to their commitments to conserve these iconic fish and halt the global loss of nature," Arne Ludwig, chair of the IUCN Sturgeon Specialist Group, said in a statement.

"These shocking -- but sadly not surprising -- assessments mean that sturgeon retain their unwanted title as the world's most threatened group of species."

We have a choice: thriving healthy rivers that nourish and sustain communities around the world or stick with today's failed policies -- leaving us with empty rivers that benefit neither people or nature."

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Federal watchdog launches criminal investigation into missing Secret Service texts


July 21 (UPI) -- A federal watchdog has launched a criminal investigation into missing Secret Service texts from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, and told the Secret Service to stop any internal investigation it may be conducting.

"To ensure the integrity of our investigation, the USSS must not engage in any further investigative activities regarding the collection and preservation of the evidence referenced above," Department of Homeland Security deputy inspector general Gladys Ayala wrote in a letter to Secret Service Director James Murray on Wednesday.

"This includes immediately refraining from interviewing potential witnesses, collecting devices or taking any other action that would interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation."

According to NBC News, the criminal investigation could result in referral to federal prosecutors.

The Secret Service is facing a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee and a demand for information on the texts from the National Archives.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol tweeted Wednesday its investigators are assessing information provided by the Secret Service and are concerned "about a system migration that we have been told resulted in the erasure of Secret Service cell phone data."

Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson and vice chairwoman Rep. Liz Cheney said in a joint statement that failing to retain the texts "may represent a possible violation of the Federal Records Act."

The Secret Service said it was working to determine whether any text messages had been lost and if they were recoverable after the inspector general told lawmakers that a number of text messages were erased as part of a device-replacement program.

RELATED Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Secret Service records

The Secret Service has handed over a text message conversation between former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and former Secret Service Uniformed Division Chief Thomas Sullivan to the Jan. 6 committee, CBS News reported. In the texts Sund asked for help and resources from the U.S. Secret Service.