Sunday, December 18, 2022

Emirati astronauts complete ESA Columbus training module

Crew 6 will be launched to the International Space Station in mid-February next year aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft with Sultan AlNeyadi and two other astronauts.

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) astronauts Sultan AlNeyadi and Hazzaa AlMansoori, have officially completed the European Space Agency Columbus training module for the SpaceX Crew 6 mission under the UAE Astronaut Programme.

The intense training dealt with technical disciplines of significant categories including Expedition 69’s payloads, The expedition’s experiments, Handling hardware, Routine maintenance and Responding to contingencies. Both the astronauts went through theoretical and real-time practical sessions on the above categories.

The entire training module took place at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC), which is located in Cologne. For astronauts and ground operations personnel, EAC is the training centre for all European-built ISS hardware, including ESA’s Columbus laboratory and European payloads.

Aboard SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Sultan AlNeyadi along with two other astronauts, Crew 6 will launch to ISS from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in mid-February next year. The crew will spend about six months on the space station, beginning with a brief handover from Crew-5, who arrived in October for a science expedition at the microgravity laboratory.

During the mission, Sultan will conduct numerous in-depth and advanced scientific experiments as part of the second mission of the UAE Astronaut Programme, that will pave the way for future UAE missions and further push the capabilities for a journey beyond Earth.

The UAE Astronaut Programme launched by the MBRSC aims to establish the infrastructure of the UAE’s space sector and is one of the most inspiring programmes that seek to meet the aspirations of young people with unique scientific capacities and skills.

The programme is one of the projects funded by the ICT Fund of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) which aims to support research and development in the ICT sector in the UAE.

CREMATORIUMS WORKING OVERTIME

In COVID-hit Beijing, funeral homes with sick workers struggle to keep up

Reuters
December 17, 2022

By Ryan Woo and Winni Zhou

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Funeral homes across China's COVID-hit capital Beijing, a city of 22 million, scrambled on Saturday to keep up with calls for funeral and cremation services as workers and drivers testing positive for the novel coronavirus called in sick.

After declaring that the Omicron strain has weakened, and unprecedented public protests against a zero-COVID policy championed by President Xi Jinping, China abruptly shifted its COVID management protocols more than a week ago.

Moving away from endless testing, lockdowns and heavy travel restrictions, China is realigning with a world that has largely reopened to live with COVID.

China has told its population of 1.4 billion to nurse their mild symptoms at home unless symptoms become severe, as cities across China brace for their first waves of infections.

In Beijing, which has yet to report any COVID deaths since the policies changed on Dec. 7, sick workers have hit the staffing of services from restaurants and courier firms to its roughly one dozen funeral parlours.

"We've fewer cars and workers now," a staffer at Miyun Funeral Home told Reuters, adding that there was a mounting backlog of demand for cremation services.

"We've many workers who tested positive."

It was not immediately clear if the struggle to meet the increased demand for cremation was due to a rise in COVID-related deaths.

At Huairou Funeral Home, a body had to wait for three days before it could be cremated, a staffer said.

"You can transport the body here yourself, it's been busy recently," the staffer said.

China's health authority last reported COVID deaths on Dec. 3. The Chinese capital last reported a fatality on Nov. 23.

Yet respected Chinese news outlet Caixin reported on Friday that two veteran state media journalists had died after contracting COVID-19 in Beijing, among the first known deaths since China dismantled most of its zero-COVID policies. And on Saturday, Caixin reported a 23-year-old medical student in Sichuan died of COVID on Dec. 14.

Still, the National Health Commission on Saturday reported no change to its official COVID death tally of 5,235.

China's abrupt lifting of its ultra-strict policies could cause over a million deaths through 2023, according to the U.S.-based Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).

Had those policies been lifted earlier, say on Jan. 3 this year, 250,000 people in China would have died, prominent Chinese epidemiologist Wu Zunyou said on Saturday.

As of Dec. 5, the proportion of seriously or critically ill COVID patients had dropped to 0.18% of reported cases, Wu said, from 3.32% last year and 16.47% in 2020.

This shows China's fatality rate is gradually falling, he said, without elaborating.

It was unclear if the proportion of severely ill has changed since Dec. 5. Regular PCR testing and mandatory reporting of cases was scrapped on Dec. 7.

'NORMAL DEATHS'

"There're long queues of hearses here, and it's hard to say when there'll be available slots," said a staffer at Dongjiao Funeral Home.

"Normal deaths," the staffer said, when asked if the deaths were COVID-related.

The lack of reported COVID deaths for the past 10 days have stirred debate on social media over data disclosure, fuelled also by a dearth of statistics over hospitalisations and the number of seriously ill.

"Why can't these statistics be found? What's going on? Did they not tally them or they just aren't announcing them?" one netizen on Chinese social media asked.

China stopped publishing asymptomatic cases from Wednesday, citing a lack of PCR testing among people with no symptoms that was making it difficult to accurately tally the total count.

Official figures have become an unreliable guide as less testing is being done across the country following the easing of zero-COVID policies.

In Shanghai, more than 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Beijing, local education authorities on Saturday told most schools to hold classes online starting on Monday, to cope with worsening COVID infections across China.

In a sign of staffing crunches to come, Shanghai Disney Resort said on Saturday that entertainment offerings may reduce to a smaller workforce, although the theme park was still operating normally.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing and Winni Zhou in Shanghai, with additional reporting by Jindong Zhang; Editing by Tom Hogue)

In COVID-hit Beijing, funeral homes and crematoriums are busy

Fri, December 16, 2022
By Alessandro Diviggiano, Ryan Woo and Winni Zhou

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Hearses bearing the dead lined the driveway to a designated COVID-19 crematorium in the Chinese capital on Saturday while workers at the city's dozen funeral homes were busier than normal, days after China reversed tight pandemic restrictions.

In recent days in Beijing the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has hit services from catering to parcel deliveries. Funeral homes and crematoriums across the city of 22 million are also struggling to keep up with demand as more workers and drivers testing positive for coronavirus call in sick.

China is yet to officially report any COVID deaths since Dec. 7 when the country abruptly ended many key tenets of its zero-COVID policy that had been championed by President Xi Jinping, following unprecedented public protests against the protocol.

A U.S.-based research institute said this week that the country could see an explosion of cases and over a million people in China could die of COVID in 2023. A sharp surge in deaths would test authorities' efforts to move China away from endless testing, lockdowns and heavy travel restrictions, and realign with a world that has largely reopened to live with the disease.

On Saturday afternoon, a Reuters journalist saw about 30 stationary hearses stopped in the driveway leading to the Dongjiao funeral home, a COVID-designated crematoriusm in Beijing.

Parked among them were an ambulance and a wagon with a sheet-wrapped corpse in the open trunk that was later picked up by workers in hazmat suits and moved to a preparatory room to await cremation. Three of the numerous chimneys billowed smoked continuously.

A few metres away from the crematorium, in a funeral parlour, the Reuters journalist saw about 20 yellow body bags containing corpses on the floor. Reuters could not immediately establish if the deaths were due to COVID.

The parking security operator and the owner of an urn shop at the funeral home building, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the number of deaths was above average in this period and was more when compared to the period before lifting of most pandemic curbs on Dec. 7.

Sick workers have also affected staffing at the roughly one dozen funeral parlours in Beijing.

"We've fewer cars and workers now," a staffer at Miyun Funeral Home told Reuters by phone, also speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that there was a mounting backlog of demand for cremation services. "We've many workers who tested positive."

It was not immediately clear if the struggle to meet the increased demand for cremation was also due to a rise in COVID-related deaths.

At Huairou Funeral Home, a body was kept for three days before it could be cremated, a staffer said.

"You can transport the body here yourself, it's been busy recently," the staffer said.

TRACKING DEATHS AND CASES

China's health authority last reported COVID deaths on Dec. 3. The Chinese capital last reported a fatality on Nov. 23.

Yet respected Chinese news outlet Caixin reported on Friday that two veteran state media journalists had died after contracting COVID-19 in Beijing, among the first known deaths since China dismantled most of its zero-COVID policies.

On Saturday, Caixin reported a 23-year-old medical student in Sichuan died of COVID on Dec. 14.

Still, the National Health Commission on Saturday reported no change to its official COVID death toll of 5,235 since the pandemic emerged in Wuhan province in late 2019.

Since lifting restrictions earlier this month, China has told its population of 1.4 billion to stay home if they have mild symptoms, as cities across China brace for their first waves of infections.

Had the strict containment policies been lifted earlier, say on Jan. 3 this year, 250,000 people in China would have died, prominent Chinese epidemiologist Wu Zunyou said on Saturday.

As of Dec. 5, the proportion of seriously or critically ill COVID patients had dropped to 0.18% of reported cases, Wu said, from 3.32% last year and 16.47% in 2020.

This shows China's fatality rate from the disease is gradually falling, he said, without elaborating.

Official figures on cases have become an unreliable guide as less testing is being done across the country following the easing of zero-COVID policies.

China stopped publishing the number of asymptomatic cases from Wednesday, citing a lack of PCR testing among people with no symptoms.

The lack of officially reported COVID deaths for the past 10 days has stirred debate on social media over data disclosure, fuelled also by a dearth of statistics over hospitalisations and the number of seriously ill.

"Why can't these statistics be found? What's going on? Did they not tally them or they just aren't announcing them?" one person on Chinese social media asked.

In Shanghai, more than 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Beijing, local education authorities on Saturday told most schools to hold classes online starting on Monday, to cope with worsening COVID infections across China.

In a sign of staffing crunches to come, Shanghai Disney Resort said on Saturday that entertainment offerings may reduce due to a smaller workforce, although the theme park was still operating normally.

At one of Shanghai's Christmas markets, in the city centre, there were few visitors on Saturday.

"Everyone is too scared," said one staffer at the ticket booth.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo and Alessandro Diviggiano in Beijing and Winni Zhou in Shanghai Additional reporting by Jindong Zhang, Brenda Goh and Eduardo Baptista Writing by Sumeet Chatterjee Editing by Tom Hogue and Frances Kerry)

US weapons makers set to profit as 'pacifist' Japan readies $320 billion military buildup

Common Dreams
December 17, 2022

A training flight from the military airfield of the Southern Military District, an Su-34 aircraft crashed, the ministry said

Amer ALMOHIBANY AFP/File

In a significant departure from its postwar national security strategy—nominally limited to self-defense along with hosting U.S. troops—Japan on Friday announced its plan to embark on a five-year, $320 billion military buildup to secure offensive strike capacity amid growing regional tensions.

Japan "faces the severest and most complicated national security environment" since the end of World War II, according to the new blueprint unveiled by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's conservative government, which named China as its "biggest strategic challenge," followed by North Korea.

Acknowledging that the pursuit of cruise missiles represents "a major change to Japan's postwar security policy," Kishida told reporters that obtaining them is "indispensable" to preempting foreign aggression.

As Al Jazeera reported, Japan worries that Russia's invasion of Ukraine "has set a precedent that will encourage China to attack Taiwan, threatening nearby Japanese islands, disrupting supplies of advanced semiconductors, and putting a potential stranglehold on sea lanes that supply Middle East oil."

In response to those concerns, Japan plans to buy long-range weapons capable of striking China, including hundreds of Lockheed Martin's Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles—a boon for one of the biggest players in the powerful U.S. arms industry, which is already poised to rake in hundreds of billions of dollars in public money following Congress' passage of an $858 billion military budget for next fiscal year.

As NPR reported, "Japan also plans to develop its own weapons, including advanced fighter jets, hypersonic missiles, and armed drones."

According to Al Jazeera, Japan is also preparing to "stockpile spare parts and other munitions, reinforce logistics, develop cyber-warfare capabilities, and cooperate more closely with the United States and other like-minded nations" in a purported attempt to "deter threats to the established international order."

"Unthinkable under past administrations, the rapid arming of Japan... will double defense outlays to about 2% of the gross domestic product (GDP) over the next five years, and increase the defense ministry's share to about one-tenth of all public spending," the news outlet noted. "It will also make Japan the world's third-biggest military spender after the U.S. and China, based on current budgets."

Kishida contends that Japan's existing missile defense systems are no longer up to the task of intercepting missiles fired by its neighbors. According to The Associated Press: "North Korea fired more than 30 ballistic missiles this year, including one that flew over Japan. China fired five ballistic missiles into waters near Japanese southern islands including Okinawa."

"When threats become reality, can the Self-Defense Force fully protect our country? " the prime minister asked Friday. "Frankly speaking, the current (SDF capability) is insufficient."

The five-year military spending proposal approved by his cabinet asserts that "counterstrike capacity is necessary," though it won't be implemented prior to 2026, when the deployment of U.S.-built cruise missiles is set to begin.

Although successive Japanese governments have intimated that counterstrikes to neutralize foreign attacks would be permissible under the country's long-standing military restrictions, there had previously been little appetite for ensuring such capability.

As AP noted: "Because of its wartime past as an aggressor and national devastation after its defeat, Japan's postwar policy prioritized the economic growth while keeping its security light by relying on American troops stationed in Japan under their bilateral security agreement. Japan's defense buildup has long been considered a sensitive issue at home and in the region, especially for Asian victims of Japanese wartime atrocities."

However, the growing military might of China, a record number of North Korean missile launches in recent months, and escalating fears that China could emulate Russia by invading nearby Taiwan have provoked a shift in public opinion, with surveys finding that roughly two-thirds of Japanese voters now support bolstering the country's military.

"Still, in a nod to the sensitivity of the issue, the documents rule out preemptive strikes, and insist Japan is committed to 'an exclusively defense-oriented policy,'" Al Jazeera reported.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Friday warned Japan that "hyping up the so-called China threat to find an excuse for its military build-up is doomed to fail" and urged the country to "reflect on its policies."

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, meanwhile, called Japan's shift "a bold and historic step to strengthen and defend the free and open Indo-Pacific."

Japan's beefed-up military roadmap comes just weeks after the U.S. announced its plans to deploy up to six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to northern Australia, where they would be close enough to strike China.

Relations between the U.S. and China have deteriorated since August, when U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other members of Congress visited Taiwan (the Republic of China, or ROC) despite opposition from Beijing, which—along with most of the international community, including Washington since the 1970s—considers the breakaway province to be part of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Deviating from more than four decades of "One China" policy—in which the U.S. recognizes the PRC as the sole legal government of China and maintains informal relations with the ROC while adopting a position of "strategic ambiguity" to obscure how far it would go to protect Taiwan—U.S. President Joe Biden has repeatedly threatened to use military force in response to a Chinese invasion of the island.

Although Biden warned earlier this year that Russia's assault on Ukraine has brought the world closer to "Armageddon" than at any point since the Cuban Missile Crisis, his move to station B-52 bombers in Australia further increases the global risk of nuclear war. Japan's new stance could escalate the prospects of war in the Indo-Pacific as well.

"After elevating its defense cooperation with Australia to semi-ally levels in recent years, Japan hopes to practice [its] new capability in joint exercises hosted by Australia and including U.S. militaries as well," AP reported. "Last month, Japan and the United States held a major joint military exercise in southern Japan to step up the allies' readiness."

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

RUPERT MURDOCH'S DOG BARKS
'Dimwitted' Republicans buried by Wall Street Journal over post-midterm chaos

Tom Boggioni
December 17, 2022

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Photo by Mandel Ngan for AFP)

In a blistering opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal on Saturday morning, the editorial board hammered House Republicans for turning their takeover of the House in the midterms election into a circus as members battle over who will be the new Speaker.

With their slim majority margin -- due in great part to the failure of the so-called "red wave" to materialize in the November midterm election -- presumptive new Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is finding it impossible to get the 218 votes he needs to move on from being House Minority Leader.

As the WSJ editors point out, there is little difference in the policies espoused by McCarthy and his detractors and the battle is not only a waste of time but evidence that the House Republicans are bound and determined to screw up their success at becoming the House majority.

In a word, the editors called un-named GOP House members "dimwitted."

After writing, "A handful of other backbenchers say they’ll also oppose Mr. McCarthy, which could lead to multiple ballots and perhaps even a Democratic Speaker," the editors added, "What’s bizarre is that the dissenters don’t have major policy differences with Mr. McCarthy or a plausible alternative candidate for Speaker. Mr. Biggs has no chance. He and his rump group also don’t seem to have any constructive reason to oppose Mr. McCarthy beyond a desire to grab the media spotlight or blow everything up."

They continued, "... a narrow GOP majority of only 222-213 requires a leader who can enforce party discipline. That’s how Nancy Pelosi has been able to govern with the mirror-image majority in the last two years. Too many House Republicans are too dimwitted to understand the uses of power and how to wield it. They’d rather rage against the machine to no useful effect."

Also swept up in the WSJ editorial attack are the Republicans in the Senate who are working on an omnibus deal with the Democrats that the editors said is not helping McCarthy's cause.

"[Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP don’t trust that Mr. McCarthy can deliver in January, or so they say. They won’t even give him the chance," they wrote before adding, "Senate Democrats and the White House will have a united front and could roll over a divided GOP."

The editors then lamented, "The GOP dysfunction since Election Day won’t matter if it teaches Republicans that their only chance of influencing policy is to stay united. On the evidence so far, however, Republicans are the gang that couldn’t shoot straight—except at one another."

You can read the whole piece here -- subscription is required.

Why are pregnancy and childbirth killing so many Black women in Texas?

Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune
December 17, 2022

Pregnant Black Woman (Shutterstock)

Dec. 17, 2022

Nakeenya Wilson was at a meeting of Texas’ maternal mortality review committee when she got the call: Her sister, who had recently had a baby, was having a stroke.

Wilson raced to the hospital, leaving behind a stack of files documenting the stories of women who had died from pregnancy and childbirth complications. Many of the women in those files were Black, just like Wilson, who experienced a traumatic delivery herself.

“The whole thing just reminded me, if you change the name on those files, it could be me. It could be my sister,” said Wilson, who serves as the committee’s community representative.

A decade ago, when Texas first formed the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee, Black women were twice as likely as white women, and four times as likely as Hispanic women, to die from pregnancy and childbirth.

Those disparities haven’t improved, according to the committee’s latest report, published Thursday.

In 2020, pregnant Black women were twice as likely to experience critical health issues like hemorrhage, preeclampsia and sepsis. While complications from obstetric hemorrhage declined overall in Texas in recent years, Black women saw an increase of nearly 10%.

Wilson said these statistics show the impact of a health care system that is biased against Black women.

“We’re still dying and being disproportionately impacted by hemorrhage when everybody else is getting better,” Wilson said. “Not only did it not improve, it didn’t stay the same — it got worse.”

The causes of these disparities aren’t always simple to identify, and they’re even harder to fix. It’s a combination of diminished health care access, systemic racism, and the impact of “social determinants of health” — the conditions in which someone is born, lives, works and grows up.

Wilson said she and her sister are prime examples. They grew up in poverty, without health insurance, routine doctor’s visits or consistent access to healthy food.

“We started behind the ball,” she said. “We’ve had so many hard things happen to us that have contributed to our health by the time we’re of childbearing age.”

Maternal health advocates in Texas say addressing these disparities will take more than fixing labor and delivery practices. It will require building a comprehensive health care system that addresses a community’s needs across the board, starting long before pregnancy.

In the end, Wilson’s sister survived her postpartum health scare. But the experience reminded Wilson why she volunteers her time to read, review and analyze stories of women who have died from pregnancy and childbirth.

“When you look at the work marginalized people do, they do it because they don’t feel like they have any choice,” she said. “If we want to see things change, and we want to be safe, we have to advocate for our own safety.”

Implicit bias

For more than three months, D’Andra Willis had been waiting for the release of the state’s maternal mortality report. As a doula with The Afiya Center, a Black-led reproductive rights organization in North Texas, Willis has been a vocal advocate for Black maternal health. Doulas are trained professionals who assist pregnant women, physically and emotionally, during childbirth.

But when the report was finally released Thursday, Willis didn’t rush to read it. She was busy trying to convince one of her pregnant clients to go to the hospital, and she didn’t need any more evidence that the health care system was stacked against Black women, she said.

Her client had other kids to juggle and, after previous experiences, was worried about how she’d be treated at the emergency room.

“She’s scared to go, and she needs to go,” Willis said. “She’s fighting for her life. … I see how this happens.”

For the first time, the review committee considered discrimination as a contributing factor to maternal death, finding it played a role in 12% of deaths in 2019. Wilson said that’s likely just the tip of the iceberg.

“That’s 12% as definable by the system we currently use,” she said. “Does that capture everything? Probably not.”

Dr. Rakhi Dimino, an OB-GYN in Houston, said discrimination often shows up in subtle ways that may not be apparent to a health care provider — but make a huge impact on the patient.

“If you asked a hospital, ‘Do you have an employee on staff who is racist?’ they would say, ‘No, we would never allow that,’” she said. “But it’s not always those obvious situations. It’s in the smaller conversations, in the notes, in the chart, and that can be just as dangerous.”

She said patients are sometimes recorded as noncompliant, or leaving against medical advice. But when doctors take time to talk with them, they learn that they have to be home to meet the school bus, or can’t get transportation to a specialist’s office across town.

“These are barriers we can solve for, if we are open to doing so,” she said.

One of the committee’s recommendations was to diversify the state’s maternal health workforce. Willis also wants to see more Black women using doulas, who can advocate for a pregnant patient who may be experiencing discrimination.

State Rep. Shawn Thierry, D-Houston, has introduced a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would require health care providers and medical students to be trained in cultural competency and implicit biases.

“In practice, much of this is happening on the unconscious, on the subconscious level,” Thierry said. “We’re never going to be able to correct it until we begin to identify it. It’s the elephant in the room.”

Health care access

Almost two-thirds of Black women are on Medicaid when they give birth, compared with less than a third of white women. The report found women without private-pay health insurance were at a particularly elevated risk for severe maternal morbidity.

Women without consistent health insurance are less likely to access timely prenatal care, contributing to pregnancy and childbirth complications, and more likely to have other health complications, including obesity and gestational diabetes.

Until recently, women who delivered on Medicaid in Texas lost their health insurance after two months. The report found that 15% of maternal deaths happened more than 43 days after childbirth.

In 2021, the Texas House voted to expand postpartum Medicaid for 12 months, the maternal mortality committee’s top recommendation. The Senate knocked it down to six months; the federal government has said that proposal is “not approvable” in its current form.

Currently, no one is being moved off of Medicaid due to the pandemic public health emergency, giving lawmakers a second chance at passing 12 months of postpartum Medicaid before anyone loses coverage.

Thierry said this proposal should be an easy win for lawmakers and Black women alike.

“However, our work does not stop there,” she said. “It is incredibly important that the Texas Legislature understand that that is not enough.”

Thierry is preparing what she’s calling the “Momnibus” — a package of bills aimed at expanding health care access, gathering better information and strengthening the maternal mortality review process. The bills are aimed at improving maternal health across the board, but with special attention to the experiences of Black women.

“Black women should not be a footnote in this report,” she said. “We are the report.

That’s my takeaway.”

Thierry, who is Black, has firsthand experience with these issues. While she was undergoing an emergency C-section, a doctor placed the epidural too high. She knew something wasn’t right and begged to be put under anesthesia, which likely saved her life, she said.

For years, she blamed herself and kept quiet about her experience. It wasn’t until she was elected to the Texas Legislature in 2017 and read the maternal mortality report that she started to put her experiences in a larger context.

“I almost died. I was treated terribly. No one saw me,” she said. “I don’t think a woman should have to be a sitting member of the Texas Legislature to feel comfortable sharing their story.”

Post-Roe legislation

The data in the latest maternal mortality report is from 2019, almost three years before Texas became the largest state in the nation to ban nearly all abortions. These bans are expected to have a disproportionate impact on Black women, who nationally account for about 40% of all abortions.

One study from the University of Colorado Boulder estimates that a national abortion ban would lead to a 24% increase in maternal mortality, with Black women experiencing the sharpest increase, at 39%.

A particular concern is the treatment of ectopic pregnancies, which occur when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus and are life-threatening if left untreated. Ruptured ectopic pregnancies were the leading cause of obstetric hemorrhage deaths in Texas in 2019, the report found.

While ectopic pregnancies are specifically exempt from Texas’s abortion laws, doctors are reportedly delaying care of these nonviable pregnancies due to confusion and fear. According to a letter from the Texas Medical Association, one Central Texas physician was instructed by their hospital to not treat an ectopic pregnancy until a rupture occurred.

Dimino, the Houston OB-GYN, said the new laws are making doctors extra cautious, which inevitably leads to delays.

“We're taking these further out than we used to, instead of providing treatment based on the best evidence that we have,” she said. “If a woman is at home, over a week’s time, this pregnancy can grow and burst open, and you end up with a life-threatening or life-ending situation.”

Qiana Arnold, a doula with The Afiya Center, said she’s particularly anxious, in light of the new abortion bans, to see what happens to the number of women who die due to homicide or suicide. In 2019, violence accounted for 27% of pregnancy-related deaths.

“People are going to kill themselves,” she said. “People will kill themselves because they did not want to have that child.”

In the first post-Roe legislative session, which starts Jan. 9, Democrats are hopeful that proposals to improve maternal health will get more traction than before.

“It is my hope that all of my colleagues in the Legislature will stand and say it is time to prioritize Black mothers,” Thierry said. “These are the women that are bearing life, but they should not have to do so in exchange for their own.”

Disclosure: The Texas Medical Association and The Afiya Center have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/12/17/texas-maternal-mortality-black-women/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Phoenix airport 1st to offer self-driving ride service Waymo

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego arrives in a self-driving vehicle, Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, at the Sky Harbor International Airport Sky Train facility in Phoenix. Mayor Gallego announced Friday that Sky Harbor will be the first airport to have self-driving, ride-hailing service Waymo available. A test group has been using Waymo vehicles from the airport's sky train to downtown Phoenix since early November.

Credit: AP Photo/Matt York

As Phoenix gets ready to host the Super Bowl, Mayor Kate Gallego announced Friday that Sky Harbor International Airport will be the first to offer the self-driving ride-hailing service Waymo.

"The future is here," Gallego said at a news conference in front of the airport's sky train station. "Phoenix is the first airport anywhere in the world to have autonomous service bringing people to our airport."

A test group has been using Waymo vehicles from the station, which connects to the airport terminals, to downtown Phoenix since early November. The cars are electric Jaguar models.

The announcement comes at a time when the city wants to expand its reputation as a place for innovation and just before visitors arrive for the holidays and events such as the Super Bowl, on Feb. 12.

NFL fans will be able to take self-driving cars from the airport to downtown Phoenix, where many pregame festivities will happen, Gallego added.

The airport later this month will launch an extension of the PHX Sky Train connecting two major terminals to a rental car center. Typically, travelers have had to wait in long lines outside the terminals for courtesy shuttles.

Waymo, the autonomous vehicle unit of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., will also double its service territory in downtown Phoenix, said Michelle Peacock, of Waymo.

A Waymo self-driving vehicle drives away with a passenger, Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, from the Sky Harbor International Airport Sky Train facility in Phoenix. Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego announced Friday that Sky Harbor will be the first airport to have self-driving, ride-hailing service Waymo available. A test group has been using Waymo vehicles from the airport's sky train to downtown Phoenix since early November.Credit: AP Photo/Matt York

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego announces a new self-driving vehicle service, Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, at the Sky Harbor International Airport Sky Train facility in Phoenix. Mayor Gallego announced Friday that Sky Harbor will be the first airport to have self-driving, ride-hailing service Waymo available. A test group has been using Waymo vehicles from the airport's sky train to downtown Phoenix since early November.Credit: AP Photo/Matt York

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego stands beside a self-driving vehicle, Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, at the Sky Harbor International Airport Sky Train facility in Phoenix. Mayor Gallego announced Friday that Sky Harbor will be the first airport to have self-driving, ride-hailing service Waymo available. A test group has been using Waymo vehicles from the airport's sky train to downtown Phoenix since early November.Credit: AP Photo/Matt York

A Waymo self-driving vehicle sits curbside, Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, at the Sky Harbor International Airport Sky Train facility in Phoenix. Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego announced Friday that Sky Harbor will be the first airport to have self-driving, ride-hailing service Waymo available. A test group has been using Waymo vehicles from the airport's sky train to downtown Phoenix since early November.Credit: AP Photo/Matt York

© 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Explore further Waymo to expand autonomous vehicle rides to San Francisco

Look over there: A robot delivers food to an Uber Eats' customer in Miami

by Michael Butler

drone delivery — Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A small, self-driven vehicle heads across a sidewalk to a person and stops. Then the individual reaches down, opens the hatch and gets out the food he or she ordered. This isn't a scene in a science fiction movie, rather Uber Eats' newest mode of food delivery coming for Miami-Dade residents.

Uber on Thursday announced a partnership with California technology company Cartken that enables Cartken's self-driving robots to deliver Uber Eats' customer orders. For now, people in the Dadeland area can have food delivered by the robot.

Early next year, Uber plans to expand its robot food delivery service to the rest of Miami-Dade County and also to more cities and college campuses nationwide. Cartken's robots are currently delivering food on the campuses of Ohio State University and the University of Arizona, as well as in parts of California, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.

Where the automated delivery is available, customers don't have to pay an additional charge to have food brought to them by the robot. They receive a notification on their Uber app that a robot will handle delivery and get notifications about its location until it arrives. Upon arrival of the robot, customers use their mobile phones to unlock the robot's storage compartment and take out the food they ordered.

Noah Zych, an Uber executive, said the ride-hailing and food delivery operator considers Miami a "thriving Uber Eats market," and sees greater opportunity for local Uber Eats customers through its automated sidewalk robot delivery collaboration with Cardken.

"Our partnership with Cartken marks another important milestone for our efforts in automated and autonomous technology and will provide greater reliability and affordability to Miami merchants and consumers," Zych said.

Cartken CEO Christian Bersch said the partnership with Uber will provide consumers with an eco-friendly delivery service.

"We are excited about how this partnership with Uber will bring the advantages of robotics to food delivery—and ultimately create more connected communities," Bersch said in a statement. "Together, we have the opportunity to reduce traffic congestion, help local merchants to increase delivery capacity, and bring consumers fast, convenient, and emission-free deliveries."

In 2021, Cartken partnered with Miami-based tech company Reef to test delivery service for Miami's urban ghost kitchens. Residents within a quarter-mile radius of downtown Miami or Brickell were eligible to receive automated food delivery.

2022 Miami Herald.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Uber offers robotaxi rides in Las Vegas

Quadruped robot with magnetized feet can climb on metal buildings and structures (video)

A trio of researchers at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, working with a colleague at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has designed and built a working quadruped robot with magnetized feet that can climb on the walls and ceilings of metal buildings and structures.In their paper published in in the journal Science Robotics, Seungwoo Hong, Yong Um, Hae-Won Park and Jaejun Park describe their robot and how well it worked when tested under real world conditions.

As the technology used to build robots improves, engineers find more ways to use them. In this new effort, the researchers set out to build a robot that could assist with maintenance work on large metal structures such as bridges, oil tanks and some buildings. They constructed a four-legged robot that could walk around on a flat surface, then approach a wall and walk straight up its side like a spider—and then continue across the ceiling if need be.

Summary video explaining agile and versatile climbing with MARVEL. Credit: Seungwoo Hong et al, Agile and versatile climbing on ferromagnetic surfaces with a quadrupedal robot, Science Robotics (2022). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.add1017

The robot was uses both magnetic elastomers and electro magnets. Together, they allow the robot feet to magnetize and demagnetize on demand. By turning the magnetism on and off, the robot is able to have a single foot cling to a vertical spot on a wall and hold on while other feet are adhered—and then to let go with one foot at a time to take steps.

The researchers also had to program the robot to allow for first beginning a climb and then for moving around or over obstacles. For this, they simulated the way a cat tests a surface before moving forward, taking tiny first steps with its front paws before adding the action of back paws.

Testing showed the robot capable of climbing metal walls and walking across ceilings in their test lab. Further testing showed the robot was able to climb up an old outdoor storage tank with walls orange with rust.

Not only was it able to climb the tank, it was able to climb over spots that lacked metal and to move around obstacles. It was also found capable of carrying a payload up to 3kg. It moves at variable speeds depending on the terrain, with a top speed of 0.7/ms.

More information: Seungwoo Hong et al, Agile and versatile climbing on ferromagnetic surfaces with a quadrupedal robot, Science Robotics (2022). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.add1017

Journal information: Science Robotics

A millirobot for climbing around in the gut to deliver drugs

COP15

Robot plant grows, wilts on fate of UN nature talks

by Issam AHMED

A 5.5-meter (18 feet) tall artwork took a year to build from recycled steel and is currently on display in Montreal Convention C — A 5.5-meter (18 feet) tall artwork took a year to build from recycled steel and is

It's not always easy to make sense of the complex environmental diplomacy taking place at a UN summit billed as humanity's last hope to save nature.

That's why a scientist and artist have teamed up to build a large, data-driven robotic plant that withers or flourishes depending on countries' policy commitments: a tangible demonstration of how human actions will impact the world's threatened species.

Called "ECONARIO," the 5.5-meter (18-foot) tall artwork took a year to build from recycled steel and is currently on display in Montreal Convention Centre, keeping policymakers at the COP15 meeting on their toes as they attempt to hammer out a deal to protect ecosystems.

Its creator, Dutch artist Thijs Biersteker, told AFP the idea behind it is simple: "If the research does not reach us, then how can the research teach us?"

"Art reflects the time we're in, and it should reflect these important issues."

The plant feeds on data from the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII)—an estimated percentage of the original number of species that remain, and their abundance in any given area, despite human impacts.

Data scientist Adriana De Palma of London's Natural History Museum, who serves as research lead for the BII, told AFP it is based on a robust, peer-reviewed and open access methodology.

As negotiations happen, the team behind BII input, for example, how many countries have committed to implement a cornerstone pledge of protecting 30 percent of lands and oceans by 2030.

"We can then predict what that is going to mean for biodiversity in 20, 50 or 100 years," she said.

Dutch artist Thijs Biersteker (L) and scientist Adriana de Palma pose in front of "ECONARIO" an art installation by Bi — Dutch artist Thijs Biersteker (L) and scientist Adriana de Palma pose in front of

Rooting for success

New funding pledges by wealthy countries to assist lower income nations in protecting their biodiversity have helped to nudge up slightly the predicted global average of BII to 70.7 percent by 2050—meaning the average ecosystem will have that percentage of its natural ecological community left.

The current figure is 68.5 percent, set to drop to 66.4 percent if "business as usual" continues but rise to 76.4 percent in case of "real action" which the UN summit was meant to deliver.

For now, ECONARIO is cycling between the pessimistic and optimistic scenarios in order to show what could be possible—but if policymakers fail to achieve an ambitious target, that will be reflected in a very sorry looking robotic plant.

"We shouldn't shy away from the hard numbers, it's not time to sugarcoat anymore," said Biersteker.

De Palma added they were in talks with North American museums to loan the artwork out after the UN summit concludes, and it will eventually return to Europe.

"Using a piece of art like this to really connect with people so they see the damage that individual choices, company choices and government choices are having on the world, is incredibly valuable," she said.

Rich nations oppose new biodiversity fund

by Benjamin LEGENDRE

Participants speak beside a whale picture during the United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Montreal, Quebec.

Creating a new global fund for biodiversity—a core demand of developing countries at UN talks in Montreal—"would take years" and be less effective than reforming existing financial mechanisms, Canada's environment minister said Tuesday.

Ottawa's position reflects the consensus among developed nations on the thorny issue, which has emerged as a key sticking point in negotiations to hammer out a new global pact for nature at the meeting, known as COP15.

Delegates from around the world have gathered for the December 7-19 summit aiming to secure a new deal: a 10-year framework aimed at saving Earth's forests, oceans and species before it's too late.

Draft targets include a cornerstone pledge to protect 30 percent of the world's land and seas by 2030, eliminating harmful fishing and agriculture subsidies and tackling invasive species and reducing pesticides.

Dozens of countries, led by Brazil, India, Indonesia and African nations, are demanding financial subsidies of at least $100 billion a year until 2030, or one percent of global GDP, to protect ecosystems. The current figure is around $10 billion annually.

"The countries of the North understand that ambition must be accompanied by financial resources," Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault said at a press conference held halfway through the talks.

But "my concern is that the creation of new funding could take years, and during those years, countries in the South wouldn't be receiving any money from that fund," he added.

He recalled the Global Environment Facility, currently the main multilateral mechanism for biodiversity, took seven years to create. Donors have pledged $5.3 billion to this fund for its current cycle, 2022-2026.

"So I think it would be better to use existing funds" while pursuing reforms that would make money more accessible, he said.

"On the other hand, we have to agree on the fact that it cannot only be public money," said Guilbeault, stressing that private and philanthropic contributions must come into play, as well as multilateral lenders such as the World Bank and IMF.

"We all need to push harder this week," he concluded, after the first week of talks ended in stalemate.

Yawning funding gap

The divide between developed and developing nations on the issue of creating a new biodiversity fund mirrors a similar debate during recent UN climate talks in Egypt on creating a "loss and damages" fund for the most climate-vulnerable nations—though that demand was eventually met.

Given this precedent, Basile van Havre, co-chair of one of COP15's working groups, did not rule out a similar decision for biodiversity.

"The landscape or the context now is a lot more favorable," he told AFP, acknowledging growing political momentum for such a move.

Whatever the final mechanism, the gap in expectations over resource mobilization that would allow lower income nations to hold up their side of the biodiversity deal remains a sore spot.

"The EU says it hears the needs of the Global South and the Africa Group, and recognizes that current finances are not enough. So what is the hold up?" said Greenpeace policy advisory Anna Ogniewska.

© 2022 AFP

Explore furtherBiodiversity talks open as UN chief calls for 'peace pact' with nature

EU studies ways to rival vast new US subsidies on greener tech

by Marc BURLEIGH

The European bloc is unsettled by the US Inflation Reduction Act which lavishes subsidies and tax cuts for US purchasers of elec — The European bloc is unsettled by the US Inflation Reduction Act which

EU leaders on Thursday tasked the European Commission with coming up with ways to vie with huge US subsidies on greener tech such as electric vehicles to protect the bloc's industrial base."We will come forward in January with a state aid proposal that is not only faster and simpler, but even more predictable," commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said after a summit.

The European bloc is unsettled by parts of the multi-billion-dollar US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which lavishes subsidies and tax cuts for US purchasers of electric vehicles—if they "Buy American".

The bloc views the act as discriminatory against European car manufacturers, a breach of World Trade Organization rules, and a threat to investment in Europe.

To compete—and keep big industrial companies on its shores—many EU countries want rules around national subsidies loosened and public investment in cleaner energy boosted.

European companies "need subsidies in the same way as those in the United States, and of the same magnitude, if you want to avoid a fragmentation of the European market," French President Emmanuel Macron said.

The EU leaders, in their summit conclusion text, stressed the need to safeguard "Europe's economic, industrial and technological base and of preserving the global level playing field".

The commission's upcoming proposals, it said, should look at "mobilising all relevant national and EU tools as well as to improving framework conditions for investment, including through streamlined administrative procedures."

Some unconvinced

Some EU countries, though, were not convinced that a big-gun response was needed.

"Finland is not ready for new instruments," Prime Minister Sanna Marin said, adding that Europe needed to ensure that "we do not get into an unnecessary trade war with the US".

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he believed the EU had a possibility of winning status like Canada within the United States' application of its subsidies—despite it not being part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"In the next few weeks, we will have to agree on a fair framework with the US and then we will have to make regulations to defend our own industrial development," Scholz said.

Macron and the commission have tried to persuade US President Joe Biden to change the contentious parts of the IRA, to no avail apart from receiving promises of some "tweaks".

Biden and his administration believe the EU is free to come up with its own subsidy arrangement for electric vehicles—a sector in which China has advantages when it comes to batteries and rare-earth supplies.

While positions were being worked out on that issue, the European Union on Thursday adopted a plan to sign a global minimum 15 percent tax on multinational businesses, after months of wrangling.

The landmark agreement between nearly 140 countries is intended to stop governments racing to cut taxes to lure the world's richest firms to their territory.

"Today the European Union has taken a crucial step towards tax fairness and social justice," EU economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said.

"Minimum taxation is key to addressing the challenges a globalised economy creates."

The plan was drawn up under the guidance of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and already had the backing of Washington and several major EU economies.

US green plan should be 'wake-up call' for EU industry: French minister