'What a miracle': Horse rescued from rubble 21 days after devastating Turkey quake

The animal was reportedly found in Adiyaman, Turkey, which suffered extensive damage during the earthquake

Corné van Hoepen
·Contributor, Yahoo News Canada
Tue, February 28, 2023

Horse found in Turkey rubble 21 days after earthquake

Rescue teams discovered a horse alive and well under the rubble of a collapsed building in the Turkish city of Adiyaman 21 days following the devastating earthquakes that rattled the country.

A video posted to Twitter shows rescue teams working together, eventually freeing the horse after several hours and leading it to safety.

Shared by Turkish entrepreneur Tansu Yeĝen, the video has since gone viral, racking up 3.4 million views by Tuesday afternoon.

“Amazing amazing amazing,” the businessman wrote in the caption of the post.

Comments have been pouring in from across the globe.

Another commenter pondered how many other animals could still be in need of help.

Reports indicate that the horse had been trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed structure since the February 9 earthquake.

It appears to have survived 21 days without food or water.

Some on Twitter questioned whether it is possible for a horse to survive that long without water.

But some others pointed to the rainfall Turkey received shortly after the earthquake as a possible source of water for the horse.

According to Turkish media, Adiyaman, located near the Syrian border, is in a region that suffered extensive damage during the February 6 earthquake.

A general view of the damaged Ulu Cami mosque, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Adiyaman, Turkey February 17, 2023. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

Official numbers released by Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) on Friday pin the death toll at 44, 218 with the number expected to continue to climb.

Nearly 240,000 rescue workers continue rescue efforts across the country’s worst-hit areas, however, there have been no accounts of survivors being rescued over the past several days.

No updates have been provided on the horse’s condition following the rescue.

9th Circuit denies emergency bid to halt Nevada lithium mine

Wed, March 1, 2023 


RENO, Nev. (AP) — A federal appeals court has cleared the way for construction in Nevada of the largest lithium mine in the U.S. while it considers claims by conservationists and tribes that the government illegally approved it in a rush to produce raw materials for electric vehicle batteries.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday denied a request for an emergency injunction that would have prevented a subsidiary of Lithium Americas from breaking ground near the Oregon line this week at the third largest known lithium deposit in the world.

Lawyers for the mining company and the Biden administration said in court filings on Tuesday further delay was undermining efforts to combat climate change as the 2-year-old legal battle lingers and demand continues to grow for the key component in batteries for electric vehicles.

Reserves at the Thacker Pass mine, expected to begin production by the end of 2026 about 200 miles (322 kilometer) northeast of Reno, would support lithium for more than 1.5 million electric vehicles per year for 40 years, the company said.

“There are no other U.S. alternatives to Thacker Pass to provide lithium at the scale, grade or timeline necessary to begin closing the gap between the lithium available and the lithium needed to achieve the U.S.’s clean energy and transportation goals," its lawyers wrote.

On Wednesday, the San Francisco-based court scheduled expedited filing deadlines through April on the merits of the appeal but its four-page ruling didn’t explain its rejection of the injunction.

Environmentalists and tribes trying to block the project support efforts to bolster lithium supplies to build electric vehicle batteries and replace fossil fuels with renewables but they say this particular mine would destroy essential wildlife habitat and sacred cultural values.

“This massive open pit mine has been fast-tracked from start to finish in defiance of environmental laws, all in the name of ‘green energy,’ but its environmental impacts will be permanent and severe,” said Talasi Brooks, a lawyer for the Western Watersheds Project.

Opponents of Lithium Nevada Corp.’s project had filed Monday an emergency motion with the 9th Circuit after U.S. District Judge Miranda Du in Reno rejected their latest request to put the case on hold until the San Francisco-based appellate court can hear their appeal.

“The immediate harm to plaintiffs from the permanent destruction of the Thacker Pass ecosystem outweighs any harm to (Lithium Nevada) from temporary delay of the project activities while this court resolves this appeal,” they said in briefs filed late Tuesday.

Du ruled on Feb. 6 the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management complied with federal law — with one exception — when it approved plans for the mine in January 2021. On Friday, she r efused the request for an injunction pending appeal.

Judge Du “reasonably weighed the public interest and balance of harms, noting that the lithium from this mine is a critical component of electric vehicle batteries, and thus an important domestic resource for reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Biden administration officials representing BLM said in court filings at the 9th Circuit on Tuesday.

Billions of dollars in investments are at stake in the legal battle at the forefront of so-called green energy development in the largest gold-producing state in the nation.

Neighboring California -- the nation’s largest car market -- plans to end the sale of new gas cars and trucks in a little over a decade, which will further drive up demand for electric vehicle batteries.

Lithium Nevada said it already has invested over $150 million in the mine, and projects capital costs of $2.3 billion for its first phase.

A Nevada rancher filed the first lawsuit in early 2021 seeking to block the 5,000-acre project with an open-pit mine as deep as a football field.

Multiple Native American tribes have tried unsuccessfully to persuade Judge Du that the development will destroy sacred cultural values tied to the nearby site of a massacre of dozens of their ancestors in 1865.

A half-dozen conservation groups say habitat critical to dwindling sage grouse, pronghorn antelope, threatened cutthroat trout and others could be lost forever as a result of the project. The groups say the BLM rushed without adequate environmental review in the final days of former President Donald Trump's administration.

“Together, these voices paint a powerful picture of the values at stake from the project that (Lithium Nevada) is now trying to greenwash," the opponents' lawyers wrote in court briefs late Tuesday.

Environmentalists argue a 9th Circuit ruling against an Arizona project in 2022 means the Nevada project can’t dispose of millions of tons of waste as planned under an 1872 law. Du didn’t nix BLM’s approval of the mine, but told the agency to decide whether the company has rights to dispose of waste on 1,300 acres of neighboring land.

The opponents said any lithium mined at the site wouldn’t be available to make electric vehicle batteries for at least three years.

“Although (Lithium Nevada) asserts that the need for lithium outweighs all other factors, that there may be some future benefit from using lithium does not override the rule that the public’s interest in preserving precious, unreplenishable resources must be taken into account in balancing the hardships.”

Scott Sonner, The Associated Press

HINDUTVA IS FASCISM

Indian movement spreads hate, victimizes religious minority groups, report says

Wed, March 1, 2023 

Volunteers of the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) take part in a celebration in Ahmedabad, India, on Oct. 7, 2018. According to a report by the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the World Sikh Organization of Canada, the RSS is at the core of a network of groups 'seeking to remake India into a country run by and for Hindus first at the expense of the country's dizzying slew of minority groups.' (Amit Dave/Reuters - image credit)More

Canada shouldn't allow a movement out of India that "disseminates hate" and victimizes religious minority groups to entrench itself in this country, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the World Sikh Organization of Canada.

The report, called Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Network in Canada, documents the roots of the RSS movement in India and its extensive global reach, promoting far right views in various ways.

"It's one of the most influential organizations in the world," said Steven Zhou, a spokesperson for the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

The council and the World Sikh Organization of Canada are trying to draw attention to what academics, including some in Canada, say they have witnessed for years — an increasing influence and threat from a movement closely linked to the government in New Delhi that they say promotes discrimination against minority religious groups at home and abroad.

"[The RSS] poses a major challenge to Canadian commitments to human rights, to tolerance and multiculturalism," said Zhou.

According to the report, the RSS is at the core of a network of groups "seeking to remake India into a country run by and for Hindus first at the expense of the country's dizzying slew of minority groups."

"It's ... vital to keep in mind that the ideal nationalism projected by the RSS network victimizes not just ethno-religious minorities like Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, but also members of India's lower caste Hindus."

Submitted by Sanjay Ruparelia

"It has domestic and international organs that seize political power, perpetuate its supremacist ideologies and actively participate in communal violence," the report said.

CBC News reached out to RSS's branch in Canada but did not receive a response.

On its website, the organization quotes its founder, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, saying it is "the duty of every Hindu to do his best to consolidate the Hindu society" and that its mission is to strive for "national reconstruction."

On the Canadian website, it says it is a "voluntary, non-profit, social and cultural organization" and "aims to organize the Hindu community in order to preserve, practise and promote Hindu ideals and values."

Researchers say the ideology espoused by RSS is commonly known as Hindutva.

The Indian state has not always supported the RSS and Hindutva, banning it three times since its inception in 1925 as a paramilitary volunteer organization.

In an interview with CBC News in April 2022, Franco-Indian journalist Ingrid Therwath said the RSS network was founded on the principles of Italian facism, is ideologically similar to Nazism and was exported abroad by some in the Indian diaspora, said Therwath, who has been researching Hindu extremism for more than 20 years.

Therwath, who has been researching Hindu extremism for more than 20 years, said the first Canadian branch of the RSS's international organization was established in Toronto in the 1970s.

Zhou, a former researcher with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network who has chronicled far right movements within diaspora groups, told CBC in a previous interview Hindutva is a superficial politicization of Hinduism and has led to discrimination and sectarian violence against minority groups in India like Muslims and Christians.

Human Rights Watch has also attributed religious and ethnic violence to groups that espouse the Hindutva ideology.

In December 2021, in the northern Indian city of Haridwar, Hindu religious leaders openly called for a genocide against Muslims at an event organized by right-wing and Hindutva-following leaders.

Violence against other minority groups like Sikhs and Dalits has increased in India in recent years, say academics. Dalits are members of a caste who do not belong to the social order, according to the caste system.

"There's been an increase in different kinds of hate crimes," said Shivaji Mukherjee, an assistant professor specializing in South Asian political violence at the University of Toronto-Mississauga. He said those crimes are increasing at a time when the current government — with extensive links to the RSS — is enjoying an overwhelming majority.

"Now that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come to power, it's easier for these groups to increase violence, to fulfil their political and social agendas."

'This is not a fringe ideology'

While the RSS has existed for decades, Mukherjee said it has been emboldened to take violent action based on its ideology in recent years by the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP with a majority in 2014.

According to multiple media outlets, the RSS has an estimated membership of more than five million worldwide, including Modi and the majority of ministers in his government.

"This is not a fringe ideology. This is the state ideology, " said Jaskaran Sandhu, a board member with the World Sikh Organization of Canada.

Academics have documented and noticed an increased attempt to challenge and silence criticism by supporters of the BJP and the RSS and Hindutva movement since the party came into power.

Submitted by Jaskaran Sandhu

In December 2021, Sanjay Ruparelia, an associate professor of politics and Jarislowsky Democracy Chair at Toronto Metropolitan University, organized a talk by prominent Indian politics researcher Christophe Jaffrelot hosted by the Toronto Public Library.

Ruparelia said he received hundreds of emails from individuals urging organizers to call it off and for the library to ban the event because it was "anti-Hindu." Academics say this kind of action can be attributed to those who support the views of the RSS.

"It's an attempt to silence them, to undermine their legitimacy," Ruparelia said, pointing out anyone engaging in debate about the Indian government or its views is automatically labelled by these supporters as "anti-Hindu" or "Hinduphobic."

Ruparelia said he knows of many academics who have been harassed and intimidated online by these people based on articles they're writing and events they're organizing.

"It's trying to shut down debate. It's trying to curtail freedom of expression."

RSS operations in Canada

The report on RSS highlights how the movement is operating in Canada, including through political lobbying and through seemingly benign cultural organizations that have charitable status.

In India, the report says, the RSS operates an India-based NGO called Seva Bharati, which operates health-care units, disaster relief efforts and education in the country's underserved areas.

Overseas, Sewa International provides these services and fundraises for these services around the world, according to the report.

It also says RSS operates overseas through an organization called Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) that perpetuates Hindutva ideologies in the Indian diaspora, including in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. The report says HSS has held events on Hinduism in some Ontario public schools.

Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press

Through the report, the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the World Sikh Organization of Canada are urging the federal government to "carefully study and track the growth of a movement that disseminates hate here in Canada."

The report also calls for action from the Canadian government.

"Canadian leaders cannot allow individuals and [organizations] that push a Hindutva vision of India — a supremacist vision that discriminates against minorities and has led to mass bloodshed — [to] entrench themselves in this country, perpetuate their supremacist ideologies and radicalize relations between large faith-based communities," the report's authors wrote.

However, critics say Ottawa has stayed largely silent and complacent as it attempts to foster an economic relationship with India as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, launched in November 2022 to enhance trade and engagement in that region.

"They're valuing trade deals and strategic relationships … rather than actually upholding values that are important to Canadians," said Sandhu, with the World Sikh Organization of Canada.

Several academics use Nepean MP Chandra Arya raising what appears to be the RSS flag on Parliament Hill during Hindu Heritage Month last November as an example of why they're concerned.

The event prompted professors from several Quebec universities to pen a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau explaining why the flag was problematic. A separate letter was sent by community and cultural groups like Hindus for Human Rights and the Canadian Council of Muslim Women.

In an emailed statement to CBC News on Wednesday, Arya said the flag raised on Parliament Hill "represents the Hindu faith and does not represent, or indicate support for, any political organization or ideology."

"This auspicious symbol belongs to all Hindus, and no country or organization or individual can claim ownership or exclusivity to it," he said.

As India is projected by the United Nations to be the most populous country in the world this year, and the fastest growing economy in the next two decades, the world needs to pay attention to its human rights record, said Ruparelia.

"What happens in India has a great impact in the world," he said. "[That's why] the erosion of democracy that we've seen in India is deeply concerning."

In a statement, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada told CBC News "promoting human rights has always been at the core of our foreign policy" especially as India is set to host the G20 in September.

"Canada will continue to engage with India on issues related to security, democracy, pluralism and human rights."

'This is a powerful weapon': If abortion pill is banned in U.S., Canada could see deep, disturbing impact

At the heart of the potential ban of Mifepristone, an abortion pill drug used for decades, is the idea that is unsafe

Elianna Lev
Fri, February 24, 2023

A major legal decision is expected to be revealed on Friday in Texas, which could further impact access to abortion for millions of Americans.

A federal district judge is set to rule on a lawsuit filed in November by a coalition of anti-choice medical professionals, who incorporated themselves as a non-profit under the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.

The lawsuit challenges the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of Mifepristone, known as the "abortion pill", back in 2000. It says the FDA overstepped its role, which could lead to the outright ban of the usage of the drug if the judge holds this position. Many are bracing themselves for Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk to rule in favour of the lawsuit. He had previously worked at a conservative Christian legal group.

RELATED: What you need to know about the abortion pill drug, and its potential halt

A ruling in favour of the lawsuit would effectively mean a ban on abortion pills in the U.S., even making them illegal to be used by a health care professional. While this would undoubtedly have an impact on many people who are able to get pregnant in the U.S., it could also have an effect on Canadians.
Frederique Chabot is the director of health promotion at Action Canada, a pro-choice charity organization. She says they’re closely following anti-choice organizations in the U.S. because their tactics are effectively restricting access to abortion there, despite the fact that it’s an unpopular position.

“They’re using judicial and democratic decisions to successfully do that,” she tells Yahoo News Canada. “Any kind of retrogression on reproductive rights has an impact globally in the sense that we’re seeing human rights chipped away.”

She says the practical implications the lawsuit could have is to sow doubts around the safety profile of Mifepristone, which has been used in 60 countries for over 30 years.

At the heart of their argument is that the FDA overreached because they didn’t do proper due diligence in ensuring this is a safe drug for people using it and that is ludicrous. This is not supported by evidence. In the U.S. alone there’s over 20 years of usage of Mifepristone, there’s millions of doses that have been administered, there's a lot of documented evidence of real world usage.Frederique Chabot, Director of health promotion at Action Canada

She fears that if there’s a court case in the U.S. that shows the FDA should not have approved the drug, then it’ll be revoked on the basis that it’s unsafe. People who aren’t aware of the context or the goals of these organizations have the potential to be fuelled by disinformation about abortion and the safety of these drugs.

“You sow doubt and that can inspire lawmakers in other countries, including Canada,” says Chabot. “This can make people afraid of the drug. This is a powerful weapon from the anti-choice organizations doing this.”

Mifepristone was approved in Canada in 2015. It has been on the market since 2017 and is a widely used method of abortion across the country. Chabot says that over 55 per cent of abortions in the U.S. are done using Mifepristone, and it’s especially important for people who aren’t able to travel to clinics, as it’s often distributed through the mail.

“In a place with geographical barriers, where people have to travel to a clinic and don’t have the capacity to do that financially or otherwise, medical abortion is what permits abortion,” she says.

Chabot stresses that abortion is a very common medical procedure, and that one in three people in Canada who can be pregnant will have an abortion in their lifetime.

“It’s common, it’s not out of the norm, it’s very safe,” she says. “It’s much safer than childbirth. Mifepristone has an incredible safety profile worldwide. We are seeing here how powerful disinformation can be about a very normal healthcare procedure.”

'Ask yourself why you're so angry': Why Canadian singer Jully Black changed 'O Canada' — and would do even more

'I think the whole thing needs to be looked at. From beginning to end,' the singer says about the age-old anthem


Christine Jean-Baptiste
·Contributing Reporter
Tue, February 28, 2023 

Canadian R&B singer Jully Black's alteration of the Canadian national anthem at the NBA All-Star game has sparked debate from both sides of the spectrum over the last week.

Instead of "Our home and native land," the singer opted for "Our home on native land," a subtle but powerful move that honoured Canada's Indigenous Peoples.

"It always felt strange saying 'Our', it felt like I was in some sort of ownership. It just didn't feel right," the Jamaican-Canadian artist told Yahoo News Canada.

After consulting some of her Indigenous loved ones and practising her rendition on the court, the singer knew the lyric swap was necessary.

Aside from the Super Bowl, this is the largest global sporting event that includes the Canadian anthem. So for me, I was like, what better way to move the dial and stand with the Indigenous community.Jully Black, Canadian R&B singer

Black said she doesn't want to dishonour the anthem, but the current version is a dishonour to the progress we've made as a country in recognizing Indigenous Peoples.

"There can be no reconciliation without truth. They tie the two words together, truth and reconciliation," she added.

The lyric swap evoked intense reactions online. Many felt it was about time for an inclusive change.

Some felt offended, claiming the rendition to be "disrespectful."

Criticism for Black has been abound - she's even received disturbing emails from fellow Canadians claiming they were disgusted by her tweak. Black has a few through-provoking questions for the critics.

Ask yourself why you're so angry? Could it be that you are sitting in guilt? Could it be that you are so set in your ways and that you potentially have, you know, fear around equality? Could you feel that you are actually the superior race? Ask yourself why.Jully Black, Canadian R&B singer

The Juno award-winning performer says that every artist is an activist but that it doesn't take an activist "to realize that there's something in the atmosphere saying, change needs to happen now."

In 2018, another of Canada's national anthem lyrics was changed from "In all thy sons command" to "In all of us command" to make it gender-neutral. Black says there are more edits to be made.

"For me, I realized that they went a little too far into the anthem without going through each line to see what needed to be changed first," she told Yahoo News Canada. "So, I wouldn't say that only one word should be changed. I think the whole thing needs to be looked at. From beginning to end."

'This is what I’m getting as a BORN and raised Canadian': Jully Black shares racist email in response to 'O Canada' lyric change

#HateRunsDeep: More than a week after Jully Black's celebrated anthem change, audiences are sending her outraged reactions

Elianna Lev
Mon, February 27, 2023 

More than a week after Jully Black changed one word while performing 'O Canada' at an All Stars Game in Utah, the Canadian musician is sharing the harmful feedback she’s still receiving.

Black changed the words from “Our home and native land” to “Our home on native land” while singing Canada’s national anthem at an NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 19th.

She took to Twitter on Monday to post a racist, expletive-laden email sent to her. The message accuses her of not being originally from Canada and goes on to make outlandish, ignorant and blatantly racist remarks.

The postscript of the message bizarrely clarifies that the author of the email isn’t white or born in Canada, while continuing on with appalling racist language.

Warning: The language and contents of this email may be triggering and disturbing for readers.

“This is what I’m getting as a BORN and raised Canadian,” Black wrote along with screenshots of the email, and the hashtag #HateRunsDeep.

In the replies, many people expressed their outrages, and offered continued support for the singer.

While the move to change the words of the anthem received a flood of reaction, Black has stayed by her decision, telling the Canadian Press, "I wouldn't have sung it if I didn't believe it should be this."

This wasn’t the first time the national anthem has been changed. In 2018, the lyric “in all thy sons command” officially changed to “in all of us command” to make it gender-neutral.

Canada-U.S. border policy, security new target of Republican lawmakers
By Staff The Canadian Press
Posted February 27, 2023 10:55 am

Trudeau says Safe 3rd Country Agreement needs renegotiation amid Roxham Road illegal crossings

A group of Republicans on Capitol Hill is turning its gaze towards Canada as it ramps up political criticism of President Joe Biden’s immigration strategy.

READ MORE: Closing Roxham Road won’t stop irregular migrants coming to Canada: Trudeau

Rep. Mike Kelly from Pennsylvania and Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke are launching a new congressional caucus focused on immigration, crime and national security at the Canada-U.S. border.

The “Northern Border Security Caucus,” to be officially announced Tuesday, is being billed as bipartisan, although it’s unclear if any of its 28 members are Democrats.

Republicans in Congress are usually far more focused on the U.S.-Mexico border, where illegal immigration is one of the Biden administration’s weakest political flanks.

READ MORE: Quebec minister ‘surprised’ asylum seekers given free bus tickets from New York City

But that may be changing, thanks to a steady increase in the number of “encounters” being reported at or near the Canadian frontier with people in the country illegally.

From October through January, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded 55,736 such encounters, more than half of the total number from the 2022 fiscal year.

Poilievre calls on Trudeau to implement plan to close Roxham Road border crossing within 30 days

Caucus members “are concerned about the increased human and drug trafficking, along with the decrease in Border Patrol agents and lack of security, along the U.S.-Canada border,” Kelly’s office said in a news release.

“Recent news reports, along with data compiled over the past two years, show a surge in illegal migrant crossings and drug trafficking across the northern border.”

House Republicans expected to attend Tuesday’s launch include North Dakota Rep. Kelly Armstrong, Minnesota Rep. Pete Stauber, Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York, Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain and Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas.

Officials from the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents U.S. Border Patrol agents, are also expected to attend Tuesday’s event, including vice-president and Fox News fixture Hector Garza.

What time is it on the moon? Scientists want to create a ‘shared’ lunar clock

ASPEN PFLUGHOEFT

February 28, 2023

Photo from Ganapathy Kumar via Unsplash

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie that’s — actually 07:36 lunar time.

Or at least, it hypothetically could be.

Most of us admire the moon, photograph it and occasionally sing a song about it. We don’t often think about lunar timekeeping.

But what time is it on the moon? Does the moon have its own lunar timezone? How do we tell time there? Scientists are grappling with these mind-melting questions, and some have an idea how to answer them.

“A new era of lunar exploration is on the rise, with dozens of Moon missions planned for the coming decade,” the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a Monday, Feb. 27, news release.

To allow these lunar missions to coordinate and communicate with each other, the moon “needs a shared clock” and “common timing system,” the agency said on Twitter.

Currently, the moon does not have an independent timekeeping system. Instead, previous missions to the moon used their timezone from Earth, ESA officials said. Astronauts would be synchronized with Houston, Moscow or whatever timezone in which the mission headquarters was located.

With more lunar missions on the horizon, that system won’t work, the ESA said. Instead, space organizations are trying to decide on a standardized way to keep time on the moon. This timekeeping system will also aid in navigation on the lunar surface and within the lunar orbit.

A standardized timekeeping system and, by extension, navigation system have been established for Earth. The same can be done for the moon, Jörg Hahn, an ESA advisor for the lunar timekeeping project, said in the release.

“The experience of this success can be re-used for the technical long-term lunar systems to come,” Hahn said, “even though stable timekeeping on the Moon will throw up its own unique challenges.”

Time passes at different rates on Earth and on the moon because of variations in gravity, ESA officials said. Clocks on the moon tick faster than clocks on the Earth because of the decreased gravitational pull. For this same reason, clocks tick at different rates on the lunar surface and the lunar orbit.

Accounting for these different rates of time is one of the challenges scientists face in developing a lunar clock.

A “shared” lunar clock faces an additional set of challenges, officials said in the release. Scientists have a lot of complicated questions left to answer, such as:

• Who sets and maintains time on the moon? One organization? Multiple organizations?

• Will lunar time be independent of Earth time? Or will the two be linked and kept in sync?

• In practice, what technology will need to be built or developed to keep time on the moon?

• How can a lunar timekeeping system be made practical for astronauts?

• What will the reference point be for setting time and, by extension, for lunar navigation?

“Throughout human history, exploration has actually been a key driver of improved timekeeping and geodetic reference models,” ESA official Javier Ventura-Traveset said in the release. “It is certainly an exciting time to do that now for the Moon.”

Solving the challenge of a lunar timekeeping system has another benefit, ESA official Bernhard Hufenbach said in the release. “Having established a working time system for the Moon, we can go on to do the same for other planetary destinations.”

Earth is spinning faster than usual, but why? What experts say after shortest day ever

Home away from Earth? Planet with promise found 31 light-years away, researchers say

Earth’s core might be reversing its spin. It ‘won’t affect our daily lives,’ expert says

It Is Time To Get Back To Basics If We Are To End TB

Wednesday, 1 March 2023, 
Press Release: CNS

This year’s World TB Day theme is #WeCanEndTB. However, many nations in the global north were successful in eliminating TB as a public health threat many decades back.

"We can end TB in India and many other high burden nations. It is achievable – we have achieved this milestone in countries of the global north in the past. I come from a country (Australia) which was successful in getting rid of TB in the 1970s. Few other countries in the global north successfully did that in the 1950s and 1960s. But then we moved our foot away from the accelerator, and stopped doing the things that helped us end TB,” said Professor (Dr) Guy Marks, President and interim Executive Director of International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), and noted lung health researcher from University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Active case finding and breaking the chain of infection transmission

Decades back, countries in the global north did active case finding – so that healthcare services could reach everyone with TB – and made efforts to break the chain of transmission of TB infection by protecting people from getting infected from those who had the disease, said Dr Marks.

But in the rest of the world, especially in nations of the global south, we did not do this despite the evidence that the approach helped richer nations get rid of TB as a public health threat back then. “This represents a great betrayal of billions of people in the global south,” said Dr Guy Marks.

He was speaking as the Guest of Honour at the 77th National Conference of Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases (NATCON) in Agra, India. Co-hosted by TB Association of India, Uttar Pradesh TB Association of India, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), and partners, this conference brought together over 800 medical experts and researchers from the field of TB and other chest diseases in India, and worldwide.

“Healthcare workers from varied disciplines and medical specialities and at all levels – from frontline workers in the communities to those in clinics and hospitals or medical colleges, or those shaping national and international guidelines and contributing to TB research – all of them are collectively helping India to advance towards fulfilling the dream of our Prime Minister to eliminate TB by 2025. India has brought the global SDGs target to end TB by 2030, five years earlier to 2025. Together we can end TB,” said Dr Vijay Kumar Arora, Chairperson of Tuberculosis Association of India as well as of Southeast Asia region of The Union.

Are we on track?

The WHO Global TB Report 2022 shows that India had an estimated 3 million new TB cases and over half a million TB deaths. The number of new estimated drug-resistant TB cases has been hovering around 150,000 every year, which includes those who got infected with drug-resistant bacteria as well as those who have been through TB treatment earlier.

Every new case of active TB disease comes from the vast pool of people with latent TB infection. We need to do more to break the chain of transmission of TB as well as make more efforts to prevent emergence of any further drug-resistant TB.

The number of new TB patients declined by 18% between 2015 and 2021 in India but this pace of decline is clearly not enough to end TB by 2025. “Number of new TB cases has to decline much more steeply,” said Dr Vishwa Mohan Katoch, a stalwart TB researcher, who is the former Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research and former Secretary of Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Presently, he is also the President of TB Association of India.

“In the past we have been able to achieve a 2 to 5% annual decline of TB cases but if we want to end TB we have to ensure that the number of new TB cases declines at an yearly rate of over 10%,” said Dr Katoch.

Thinking out of the box approach is key. For example, contacts of a person who has active TB disease may not always be those who are in the household. Infection transmission occurs not only in homes but also at workplaces or even healthcare facilities.

Dr Katoch recollected that one of the two major outbreaks of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) in the USA in early 1990s was traced to the doctor who was performing bronchoscopy with inadequate sterilization, which resulted in some of his patients getting infected with MDR-TB. This led to the game-changing step to ensure proper sterilization of bronchoscopes which yielded enormous public health gains. But infection control in healthcare settings is inadequately addressed as of now.

Last mile is often the hardest

Dr Katoch called upon TB advocates to look beyond the obvious, and ensure that those who are likely to be missed out are first to be reached by the healthcare services. For instance, tribal populations often have double or more incidence of TB.

We cannot find a way out of the TB pandemic by the test and treat ‘carpet bombing’ strategy alone. We have to break the chain of infection transmission and ensure that no further drug resistance emerges, said Dr Katoch.

Building lung health competencies of medical doctors

Over 300 medical experts of tuberculosis and chest diseases were trained in eight workshops held in SN Medical College and elsewhere, before the opening of India’s largest conference of tuberculosis and chest diseases in Agra, India, said Professor (Dr) Surya Kant, Scientific Chair of the 77th National Conference of Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases (NATCON).

Prof Surya Kant is the North Zone Chairman of National Task Force for TB Elimination, Head of Department of Respiratory Medicine at India’s prestigious King George's Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow, and is among the few respiratory medicine experts who have been national Presidents of all 3 professional associations, namely, National College of Chest Physicians of India (NCCP), Indian Chest Society, and Indian College of Asthma, Allergy and Applied Immunology.

'Six pack challenge'

Prof Surya Kant said that apart from TB, there are six other major challenges that confront public health in Uttar Pradesh and the country. Air pollution, all forms of tobacco use, increasing modernization, urbanization and industrialization, bad diet and unhealthy lifestyles, are propelling an amalgam of epidemics in the country that are entirely preventable in terms of disease burden and untimely deaths. These are also causing an alarming rise in allergic disorders, asthma, chronic objective pulmonary disease (COPD), interstitial lung disease, lung cancer, bronchial cases, and so many other lung diseases.

If we are to end TB by 2025 in India and by 2030 globally, much stronger actions are needed with renewed sense of urgency and purpose.

Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant - CNS (Citizen News Service)

(Shobha Shukla and Bobby Ramakant are part of the editorial team at CNS (Citizen News Service). Follow them on Twitter @Shobha1Shukla or @BobbyRamakant)

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