Florida professor to live 100 days underwater to conduct medical research

Online News EditorMarch 2, 2023

Miami, Mar 2 (EFE).- An associate professor at the University of South Florida (USF), Joseph Dituri, is preparing to live for 100 days underwater in the Sunshine State to carry out medical and marine science research, as well as to study how the human body responds to long-term exposure to extreme pressures.

The Project Neptune 100 mission, as Dituri has dubbed it, began on March 1 and will end, if all goes according to plan, on June 9.

Dituri, a 55-year-old retired US Navy commander with a doctorate in biomedical engineering, since Wednesday has been living inside the submarine shelter at MarineLab, a facility operated by the Marine Resources Development Foundation in Key Largo, Florida.

He plans to spend 100 days some 30 feet below the waters off Key Largo in a 100-square-foot habitat located at the Jules Undersea Lodge in a Key Largo lagoon, USF said in a statement.

The habitat was originally an underwater marine research lab but it was converted into a lodge in 1986, with two private bedrooms and a common room, according to the lodge’s Web site. It attracts both tourists and scientists.

The announcement said that a medical team will document Dituri’s health for the next three-plus months, diving down periodically to the habitat to perform assorted tests upon him.

Before, during and after the project, the plan is for Dituri to undergo psychosocial, psychological and medical testing, and a psychologist and a psychiatrist will document the mental effects of being in an isolated and confined environment over a prolonged period, a situation similar to a space flight.

Dituri said in a statement that the human body has never been below water for this amount of time and so he’s going to be closely monitored.

He said he believes that his health will improve during the project and mentioned that a recent scientific study concluded that cells exposed to greater pressure doubled in five days.

This suggests that the increased pressure has the potential to allow humans to increase their lifespan and may prevent diseases associated with aging, according to the communique.

They think that he’s going to come out as a “super human,” Dituri said jokingly.

The former Marine also thinks that the results of his mission will be important for the future of long duration spaceflights, including missions to Mars, as well as for undersea exploration, a statement from the Florida Keys news office said.

While he is underwater, Dituri will teach regular online classes, including the hyperbaric medicine classes that he already teaches at USF and university-level courses on biomedical engineering for high school students.

The 100-day mission includes testing new technologies, including an artificial intelligence tool developed by a colleague that can detect illnesses in the human body and determine if a person needs medical treatment or medication.

It will also provide an underwater forum for other scientists to gather and debate ways to “preserve, protect and rejuvenate” the marine environment, the professor said.

Dituri said that “everything we need” to survive is here on Earth, adding that he suspects that the cure for many diseases can be found within as yet undiscovered organisms in the oceans, but to determine this “we need more researchers.”

The professor discovered his passion for science while he was serving in the US Navy, where he spent 28 years as a saturation diving officer.

After retiring from the Navy with the rank of commander in 2012, Dituri enrolled at USF to pursue Ph.D. studies and learn more about traumatic cerebral injuries.

He said that many of his male and female colleagues in the military suffered traumatic brain injuries and he wanted to learn how to help them, adding that he knew quite well that hyperbaric pressure could increase blood flow to the brain and he posed the hypothesis that it could be used to treat traumatic brain injury.

The record for humans living underwater at ambient pressure is currently 73 days and was set in the lodge where Dituri is staying in 2014 by US teachers Bruce Cantrell and Jessica Fain.

As Tennessee; others, target drag shows, many wonder: Why?


Comedian Milton Berle is the siren of the Nile during "The Milton Berle Show" on Feb. 6, 1962. Legislation is heading to Tennessee’s Republican governor, Thursday, March 2, 2023, that would ensure drag shows cannot take place in public or in front of children. Many other states have considered similar bills, but none has acted as fast as Tennessee..(AP Photo, File)
STF

- Drag artist Vidalia Anne Gentry speaks during a news conference held by the Human Rights Campaign to draw attention to anti-drag bills in the Tennessee legislature, on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023 in Nashville, Tenn. Legislation is heading to Tennessee’s Republican governor, Thursday, March 2, that would ensure drag shows cannot take place in public or in front of children. Many other states have considered similar bills, but none has acted as fast as Tennessee.(John Amis/AP Images for Human Rights Campaign)
John Amis

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and JEFF McMILLAN

 Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — 

"If I hadn't been a girl, I'd have been a drag queen."

Dolly Parton has uttered those words famously and often. But if she really were a drag queen, one of Tennessee's most famous daughters would likely be out of a job under legislation passed Thursday and soon heading to Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who has promised to sign it.

Across the country, conservative activists and politicians complain that drag shows contribute to the "sexualization" or "grooming" of children. No other state has acted as fast as Tennessee to ensure that drag shows cannot take place in public or in front of children. And organizers of LGBTQ Pride events say such bans could effectively cancel their popular parades.

The protestations have arisen fairly suddenly around a form of entertainment that has long had a place on the mainstream American stage.

Milton Berle, "Mr. Television" himself, was appearing in drag on the public airwaves as early as the 1950s on "Texaco Star Theater." "RuPaul's Drag Race" is a bona fide cultural phenomenon. Highly popular drag brunches bring revenue to restaurants. That such spectacles are now being portrayed as a danger to children boggles the minds of people who study, perform and appreciate drag.

"Drag is not a threat to anyone. It makes no sense to be criminalizing or vilifying drag in 2023," said Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, a professor of culture and gender studies at the University of Michigan and author of "Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance."

"It is a space where people explore their identities," said La Fountain-Stokes. "But it is also a place where people simply make a living. Drag is a job. Drag is a legitimate artistic expression that brings people together, that entertains, that allows certain individuals to explore who they are and allows all of us to have a very nice time. So it makes literally no sense for legislators, for people in government, to try to ban drag."

Under the Tennessee bill, the words "drag show" are not explicitly stated. Instead, the legislation changes the definition of adult cabaret in Tennessee's law to mean "adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors." The bill also says that "male or female impersonators" now fall under adult cabaret among topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers and strippers.

The proposal also bans adult cabaret from taking place on public property or any place where minors might be present. It threatens performers with a misdemeanor charge, or a felony if it's a repeat offense.

Several other states, including Idaho, North Dakota, Montana and Oklahoma, are considering similar bans. And the Arkansas governor recently signed a bill that puts new restrictions on "adult-oriented" performances. It originally targeted drag shows but was scaled back following complaints of anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

"I find it irresponsible to create a law based on a complete lack of understanding and determined willful misinterpretation of what drag actually is," Montana state Rep. Connie Keogh said in February during floor debate. "It is part of the cultural fabric of the LGBTQ+ community and has been around for centuries."

Lee has 10 days to sign the Tennessee bill, but that countdown doesn't start until top legislative leaders send him the legislation, which could take a few days.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, the legislation's Republican sponsor, says it addresses "sexually suggestive drag shows" that are inappropriate for children.

Drag does not typically involve nudity or stripping, which are more common in the separate art of burlesque. Explicitly sexual and profane language is common in drag performances, but such content is avoided when children are the target audience, such as at drag story hours. At shows meant for adults, venues or performers generally warn beforehand about age-inappropriate content.

TRANS CHILD FROM WAAAAY BACK WHEN

TEDDY ROOSEVELT

"Drag is a longstanding, celebratory form of entertainment and a meaningful source of employment for many across the state," Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement last week. "Yet, rather than focus on actual policy issues facing Tennesseans, politicians would rather spend their time and effort misconstruing age-appropriate performances at a library to pass as many anti-LGBTQ+ bills as they can."

Months ago, organizers of a Pride festival in Jackson, west of Nashville, began receiving online threats and criticism for hosting a drag show in a park. A legal complaint spearheaded by a Republican state representative sought to prevent the show, but organizers reached a settlement to hold it indoors, with an age restriction.

And in Chattanooga, false allegations of child abuse spread online after far-right activists posted video of a child feeling a female performer's sequined costume. Online commentators falsely said the performer was male, and it has gone on to be used as a rationale to ban children from drag shows.

The drag bill marks the second major proposal targeting LGBTQ people that Tennessee lawmakers have passed this legislative session. Last week, lawmakers approved legislation that bans most gender-affirming care. Lee says he plans on signing the bill.

Tennessee has introduced more anti-LGBTQ bills than any other state since 2015, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Lee was fielding questions Monday from reporters about the legislation and other LGBTQ bills when an activist asked him if he remembered "dressing up in drag in 1977." Lee was presented with a photo that showed the governor as a high school senior dressed in women's clothing that was published in the Franklin High School 1977 yearbook. The photo was first posted on Reddit over the weekend.


Lee said it is "ridiculous" to compare the photo to "sexualized entertainment in front of children." When asked for specific examples of inappropriate drag shows taking place in front of children, Lee did not cite any, only pointing to a nearby school building and saying he was concerned about protecting children.


___


McMillan reported from northeastern Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Jonathan Matisse in Nashville and Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Montana, contributed to this report.

CALIFORNIA

New Assembly Bill Would Ban Use of Police Canines for Arrests, Crowd Control

Assemblymember Cory Jackson (D-Riverside) speaks at a press conference at the State Capitol when he announced a bill seeking to end the use of K9 in arrests. 

Credit: Felicia Rule/CBM

Edward Henderson

California Black Media

March 2, 2023

Last week, Assemblymember Corey A. Jackson (D-Riverside) introduced Assembly Bill (AB) 742, legislation that would prohibit the use of police canines for arrests, apprehensions and crowd control.

The use of police canines, supporters of the legislation say, is a throwback to the darkest days of legal slavery, Jim Crow segregation – and a reminder of America’s history of racial bias, aggression and violence against Blacks and people of color. Jackson says he wants to end the “deeply racialized, traumatic and harmful practice.”

“Since their inception, police canines have been used to inflict brutal violence and lifelong trauma on Black Americans and communities of color,” said Jackson at a press conference held to announce the bill. “It’s time to end this cruel and inhumane practice and instead work towards building trust between the police and the communities they serve.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) California Action, a co-sponsor of AB 742, echoed Jackson’s concerns. “The use of police canines has severe and potentially deadly consequences for bite victims, especially communities of color,” said Carlos Marquez III, Executive Director of ACLU California Action. “It’s time for California to take a stand and end this inhumane practice.”

Jackson says his stance on the use of canines in law enforcement is backed up by data. For him, it’s a “moral issue” as well.

“I let the data take me to where I need to go. And the data is clear that in some of the most consequential issues of our time right now – especially when it comes to the relationship between law enforcement and the African American community,” Jackson told California Black Media (CBM). “This was a no brainer for me. This is not a gotcha bill. Our own data in California shows that we have it wrong, and we have to fix it.”

“The fact that canines are harming people more than batons and tasers is astonishing to me. I would never have guessed that,” added Jackson, who says he has already read three reports on the topic.

The California/Hawaii (CA/HI) Conference of the NAACP, another co-sponsor, acknowledges the bill’s historical importance. “Police canines have historical roots in slavery and have continued to be used as tools of oppression for Black, Brown, and other communities of color,” said Rick L. Callender, President of the CA/HI NAACP. “With this bill, we can begin to shift and sever ties with the terrorizing past.”

Search and Rescue

AB 742 does not call for banning the use of police canines for search and rescue, explosives detection, and narcotics detection – all activities that do not involve biting.

“The use of a canine is sending a dog out that will inflict injury on a person before that person has been accused of a crime or formally convicted of one,” said Kat Carell, a member of the Sacramento Chapter of the ACLU. “So, you end up with lifelong disfigurement, or mental problems, or you could be killed before you have ever been in a court of law and proven guilty of anything.”

Reaction to the introduction of the bill by police dog handlers and some law enforcement organizations — including the Western States Canine Association — was swift, characterizing the bill as misguided and going too far.

Ron Cloward, President for the Western States Police Canine Association and a veteran of the Modesto Police Department, said Jackson’s bill does not “make sense.” He argued that if AB 742 passes, it would take away one more non-lethal weapon law enforcement relies on to fight crime.

Cloward, who owns a canine training business, told ABC news affiliate in Bakersfield that while dog bites can be harmful and “disfiguring,” they do not cause death.

“Once you’ve deployed pepper spray, it’s been deployed. It’s gonna land. Once you use your gun, it’s gone,” he said. “Once you use a taser, it’s on its way. You’re not stopping it. The only thing you can stop is a K-9.”

Larger Victories

Jackson was elected in November of 2022 to represent the 60th Assembly District. Before that, he served on the Riverside County Board of Education in 2020 and represented portions of the cities of Riverside, Moreno Valley, Perris, and the unincorporated community of Mead Valley.

Supporters say Jackson’s background in social work gives him a keen awareness and understanding of the microaggressions Black and Brown communities face.

AB 742 is one of many pieces of legislation Jackson has introduced (or plans to) that holds individuals and institutions accountable, creating room for even larger victories towards dismantling systematic racism. He calls the effort the ‘Antiracism Bill Package.’

Another bill in the package is AB 11. That bill would authorize the creation of a commission to identify sustainable solutions to reduce the cost of living in California. The commission would consist of 11 members, including nine members appointed by the Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the President pro Tempore of the Senate. Also, one member each from the Assembly and the Senate would serve as ex officio non-voting members. The bill would require the commission to complete reports describing the commission’s findings and recommendations.

US CDC concludes cough syrups likely to blame for children's deaths in Gambia -report

By Jennifer Rigby

A cameraman takes visuals outside the office of Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

 company, in New Delhi, India, October 6, 2022. 

REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis

LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - Contaminated cough and paracetamol syrups imported into Gambia almost certainly caused the deaths of 66 children due to acute kidney injury, according to an investigation led by the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Gambian scientists.

The links between the children's deaths and contaminated medicines first came to light in October, when the World Health Organization sent out an alert saying four cough syrups made by India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd contained toxic levels of diethylene and ethylene glycol and should be withdrawn.

The new investigation "strongly suggests" that medicines contaminated with the toxins, imported into Gambia, led to the cluster of acute kidney injury among 78 children. Most were aged under 2, and 66 died between June and September 2022. Four more children have since died, bringing the official toll up to 70.

Maiden has denied its drugs were at fault for the deaths in Gambia, and the Indian government has said the syrups showed no contamination when it tested them. Production at the factory was stopped in October, but the company is now seeking to restart work.

The report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, reached its conclusions by looking at medical records of patients where available, as well as interviews with their parents and caregivers. It also says other evidence, such as the tests of the medicines, the wide geographic spread of the cases, and the fact that the illness did not spread to adults, pointed towards a toxin rather than an infectious agent.

There have been a number of poisonings linked to diethylene and ethylene glycol in the past in countries including Haiti and Nigeria, but the report says this is the first known incident when imported medicines were at fault rather than domestically developed drugs.

"This likely poisoning event highlights the potential public health risks posed by the inadequate quality management of pharmaceutical exports," the report said.

Since the deaths in Gambia, 201 children have also died in Indonesia, and 19 in Uzbekistan, linked to different manufacturers' contaminated cough syrups.

Letter to the UN Special Procedures on Abortion Rights in the US

The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
hrc-wg-africandescent@un.org

Table of Contents

I. Executive Summary 1

II. Summary of the Facts 3

A. Women’s Lives and Health on the Line 4

B. Penalizing Healthcare: Criminalization, Civil Liability, and Involuntary Confinement 15

C. Threats to Privacy from Increased Digital Surveillance 21

D. Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion or Belief 24

E. Disproportionate Impact on Marginalized Populations 25

III. Anti-Abortion Legislation Violates International Law 31

IV. List of Signatories 40

V. ANNEX A: 46

States With Abortion Bans Entering Into Effect After Dobbs (as of 01/09/2023) 46

I. Executive Summary

Following the United States (US) Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022, people residing in the US who can become pregnant are facing a human rights crisis. This urgent appeal to United Nations (UN) mandate holders, supported by a coalition of 196 signatories, details these intensifying harms, discusses the ways in which Dobbs contravenes the US’ international obligations, and sets forth calls to action.

With the Dobbs decision, the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutionally protected right to access abortion, leaving the question of whether and how to regulate abortion to individual states. Approximately 22 million women and girls of reproductive age in the US now live in states where abortion access is heavily restricted, and often totally inaccessible.
Letter to the UN Special Procedures on Abortion Rights in the US

The harms of the Dobbs decision detailed in this appeal include: the impact on women’s lives and health; the penalization of healthcare, including criminalization; threats to privacy from increased digital surveillance; infringement on freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief; and the disproportionate impact on marginalized populations.

By overturning the established constitutional protection for access to abortion and through the passage of state laws, the US is in violation of its obligations under international human rights law, codified in a number of human rights treaties to which it is a party or a signatory. These human rights obligations include, but are not limited to, the rights to: life; health; privacy; liberty and security of person; to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief; equality and non-discrimination; and to seek, receive, and impart information.

The signatories call on the UN mandate holders to take up their calls to action, which include communicating with the US regarding the human rights violations, requesting a visit to the US, convening a virtual stakeholder meeting with US civil society, calls for the US to comply with its obligations under international law, and calls for private companies to take a number of actions to protect reproductive rights.

March 2, 2023

Re: Urgent Appeal: Human rights crisis following the United States Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org.

Dear Experts,

On behalf of the Global Justice Center (GJC), Pregnancy Justice (formerly National Advocates for Pregnant Women), National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC), Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and other signatories, together with the support of the law firm Foley Hoag LLP, we write to call your attention to the intensifying harm that people residing in the United States who can become pregnant[1] currently face following the US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (Dobbs, or Dobbs v. JWHO).[2] This submission is supported by a coalition of organizations and experts promoting civil rights, human rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, gender equality, racial justice, religious freedom, economic justice, and the right to access to healthcare.[3]

Before detailing the devastating human rights implications of Dobbs, we recognize, with deep appreciation, the work that many of you have already undertaken to highlight the crisis facing people in the US who can become pregnant. Such efforts, including, but not limited to, an amicus brief in the Dobbs case,[4] joint statements in the wake of the decision,[5] and pre-Dobbs communications to the State regarding the decimation of abortion access in certain parts of the country,[6] have been important in highlighting the State’s failure to uphold its human rights obligations. Eight months on from this catastrophic legal decision, it is now apparent that the consequences are even worse than feared. Women and girls in need of reproductive healthcare are being met with systematic refusals, huge financial burdens, stigma, fear of violence, and threats of criminalization. Thousands are being forced to remain pregnant against their will. We urge you to raise these issues directly with the State in line with your mandates and to mobilize your constituencies to address this human rights crisis.

Part II of this submission outlines the consequences of Dobbs on the fundamental human rights of women and girls, as well as the outsized impact it has on certain demographics made vulnerable by systemic oppressions. This factual summary includes input from physicians in various states as part of fact-gathering efforts conducted by a number of organizations involved in this submission. Part III discusses the ways in which Dobbs contravenes the US’ international obligations.

II. Summary of the FactsIn June 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutionally protected right to access abortion,[7] leaving the question of whether and how to regulate abortion to individual states.[8] As of January 17, 2023, abortion is banned, with extremely limited exceptions, in thirteen states: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma.[9] Georgia has banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy (effectively outlawing access entirely).[10] Approximately 22 million women and girls of reproductive age (ages 15-49) in the US live in states where abortion access is heavily restricted, and often totally inaccessible.[11] Four states have begun restricting access to medication abortions, including by prohibiting the mailing of medication into their jurisdictions.[12] Meanwhile, at least three states (Texas, Oklahoma, and Idaho) enacted so-called “bounty” laws before the Dobbs decision, empowering private citizens to sue providers who carry out abortions.[13] In continuation of the country’s devaluation of the lives of Black and Brown women, communities of color and of lower socio-economic status are bearing the brunt of these laws.[14] Dozens of clinics have closed across the country since Dobbs was decided,[15] increasing travel time and distance for women seeking care — and barring access for those women unable to travel.[16]

READ ON

Letter to the UN Special Procedures on Abortion Rights in the US | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)

One Florida Case Shows How the U.S. Became a Rogue State on Abortion

BY LYNN M. MORGAN AND MICHELLE OBERMAN

MARCH 02, 2023

Lee and Deborah Dorbert say they have endured anger and depression since learning that Deborah’s fetus was not developing normally and would die soon after delivery. 

Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

Amid the clamor of abortion news is a quiet case of torture playing out in Florida. Last month, the Washington Post reported the story of Deborah Dorbert, who is being forced to carry to term a fetus with a lethal condition called Potter syndrome. When she learned her fetus wouldn’t survive, Dorbert asked to terminate the pregnancy. But her doctors and their lawyers declined, fearful they would run afoul of the state’s 15-week abortion ban. Without any other feasible options, she and her young family passed more than three months waiting for the birth and death.

Her story is not unique: similar cases have happened in other countries with extreme abortion bans. But on March 22–23, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, one branch of the Organization of American States charged with adjudicating alleged violations of the American Convention on Human Rights, will hear arguments in a case that could change the ways those women and their pregnancies are treated under international law by condemning such treatment as violating the right to be free from gender-based discrimination, violence, torture, stigma, and threats to bodily autonomy.

The case involves a 2013 controversy over “Beatriz,” a 22-year-old Salvadoran mother with lupus who was forced to continue a life-threatening pregnancy even though the fetus lacked parts of its skull and brain. Everyone agreed Beatriz’s pregnancy was both life-threatening—Beatriz nearly died during her first pregnancy—and nonviable. But El Salvador’s law dictates that life begins at conception and bans abortion without exception, leading the Salvadoran Supreme Court to conclude that, because the fetus was technically alive, it had the same right to life as Beatriz did.

Beatriz endured seven weeks in the hospital while doctors struggled to control the worsening symptoms of her disease—kidney failure, septic lupus lesions, hypertension. Finally, when her death was imminent, and under an emergency order from the Inter-American Court, her doctors delivered the fetus—which lived only five hours—and managed to save Beatriz’s life.

To the Salvadoran government, it was a good outcome: the abortion ban held and Beatriz lived. They avoided having to grant an exception to save Beatriz’s life. But Beatriz’s lawyers are arguing that El Salvador’s ban violates the government’s international responsibilities as well as Beatriz’s human rights. They are asking the court to order El Salvador to pay damages, and also to rule that the country’s absolute ban on abortion violates the American Convention on Human Rights, which governs international human rights for the Western Hemisphere, so as to prevent similar cases from arising in the future.

Given our habitual disregard for human rights discourse, Americans might be inclined to ignore Beatriz’s case. American politicians routinely dismiss the applicability of international human rights law in this country. The U.S. has ratified neither the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women nor the American Convention on Human Rights. Still, even Americans agree that torture is a crime under international law, having ratified the UN Convention Against Torture.

Beatriz’s is the latest in a line of cases in which the international community has recognized that denying access to abortion can sometimes constitute torture. So ruled the UN Human Rights Committee in 2005, after the Peruvian government forced a pregnant teenager to carry an anencephalic fetus to term. And so ruled Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court in 2012 when it exempted anencephaly from abortion restrictions, acknowledging that such pregnancies cause trauma and suffering. Forbidding termination in such cases, one Brazilian justice said, is equal to torture. Likewise, when Colombia’s Supreme Court legalized abortion in 2022, it noted that total abortion bans, especially in contexts of grave fetal malformations, violate basic human dignity and the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Beatriz v. El Salvador will mark the first time the Inter-American Court hears a case in which a woman has explicitly demanded that the right to terminate a pregnancy be recognized. It comes at a time when many countries of the Americas have expanded abortion rights, including Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Colombia. In this regard, the United States is an outlier following the Supreme Court’s overturning of the constitutional right to an abortion last year—only a few other countries have restricted or annulled that right. If the Inter-American Court rules in Beatriz’s favor, the decision would be considered binding on all 20 countries that ratified or adhere to the American Convention on Human Rights. The United States is not one of those countries, although, as U.S. abortion rights advocates have noted, because the court is a multilateral body tasked with promoting human rights across the Americas, Americans can still seek recourse there.

Because the U.S. has not ratified the convention, a victory for Beatriz means Salvadorans and others bound by the Inter-American system will enjoy greater human rights protections from the harms of abortion bans than Americans do. Anti-abortion conservatives seem to relish casting the U.S. as a pariah among nations for our libertine abortion laws, an argument which indeed formed part of Justice Samuel Alito’s Dobbs opinion striking down Roe v. Wade. As the Inter-American Court is likely to soon demonstrate, the opposite is true. Indeed, these same conservatives have mounted a decadeslong strategy to disengage from international human rights law and to undermine multilateral human rights bodies. It is no accident that the majority opinion in Dobbs omitted any mention of “human rights” because, by their reckoning, those rights do not apply to Americans.

In the end, a victory for Beatriz will not come in time to stop the torture of Deborah Dorbert, nor will it necessarily prevent other U.S. states from violating the human rights of those who, like Dorbert, face devastating diagnoses during pregnancy. But even if the U.S. refuses to follow the Inter-American Court’s directives, a victory for Beatriz will matter because the world is watching. Recognizing these cases for what they are—torture—will call out America’s rogue status among the community of nations.

Surge of Drug Smugglers and Illegal Immigrants Cross the US-Canada Border

LONGEST FREE (UNGUARDED) BORDER IN THE WORLD, NO MORE

Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and other House Republicans spoke at a conference launching the Northern Border Security Caucus at the House Triangle in Washington on Feb. 28, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

By Madalina Vasiliu

March 2, 2023

WASHINGTON—Republican legislators announced on Feb. 28 at the House Triangle a new caucus to raise awareness about the spike of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers coming across the U.S.-Canada border.

Northern border apprehensions have surged by 1,498 percent since President Joe Biden took office, the lawmakers said. Except for marijuana, drug smuggling along the border between the United States and Canada has increased by 596 percent since FY 2021. The number of CBP agents, instead, has remained the same since FY 2009.

Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) lead the Northern Border Security Caucus with more than two dozen House Republicans.

“There was enough fentanyl that came through Montana last year to kill 3.1 million people. That’s three times the population of the great state of Montana,” Zinke said at the press conference.

There are no border states anymore, he continued, “but we can look at what the technology is being used at the southern border, we can benefit from lessons learned—we can actually go to the frontline and talk to our border patrol agents … and take advice from those that know.”

Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) (L) and Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) (R) spoke at a conference launching the Northern Border Security Caucus at the House Triangle in Washington on Feb. 28, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

‘China’s Attacking Us’

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) said that more CBP agents from the Northern border are often in his sector in Texas than in areas where the agents come from. “We are at war,” Gonzales said, “we’re at war with China. China’s attacking us via fentanyl, and they’re using our Southern and Northern border to do that.”

However, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement that “over 90 percent of fentanyl seizures occur at ports of entry or border checkpoints, and those responsible are overwhelmingly American citizens, not migrants.”

The United States-Canada border is the longest in the world, measuring 5,525 miles and having 115 entry ports.

“Many Americans are not aware that we have only about 2,000 border patrol agents assigned to the Northern border,” Brandon Budlong, local president of the National Border Council in Buffalo, New York, said, adding that “given our 24/7 nature of work—this leaves us with only about 450 agents on duty at any one time. They just cover a 5,500-mile land and water border that is well over twice the length of the border with Mexico.”

Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) said reducing CBP personnel while illegal immigrants and drug smuggling spikes is “not a recipe for success.”

“We’ve had 1.2 million known got-aways,” Hector Garza, vice president of the National Border Patrol, said. “There’s still left a whole bunch of unknown got-aways, both at the Southern border and at the Northern border.”

Dramatic Increase

Although the Southern border requires close attention, the Northern border cannot be overlooked, Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) said.

During fiscal year (FY) 2020, CBP arrested 32,376 illegal immigrants at the Northern border. In FY 2021, that number went down to 27,180.

Since then, however, the number has dramatically increased—in FY 2022, CBP apprehended 109,535.

In the first four months of FY 2023, which includes October 2022 to January 2023, there are 55,736 a 133 percent increase over the same period last year.

The lawmakers’ allegation of a surge in northern border apprehensions by 1,498 percent appears to be October 2022 with 15,883 apprehensions, compared to 997 apprehensions in January 2021 when President Joe Biden came into office.

“Where’s the outrage America? You watch your sons and daughters suffer under this? You watch our country under siege, and if these folks had been wearing the uniform of a foreign army, do you think we would have acted on it?” Kelly told reporters at the press conference.

From The Epoch Times

The fired Google engineer who thought its A.I. could be sentient says Microsoft’s chatbot feels like ‘watching the train wreck happen in real time’

BY  TRISTAN BOVE
March 2, 2023 

Former Google employee Blake Lemoine, who last summer 

said the company's A.I. model was sentient.

MARTIN KLIMEK—THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES

The Google employee who claimed last June his company’s A.I. model could already be sentient, and was later fired by the company, is still worried about the dangers of new A.I.-powered chatbots, even if he hasn’t tested them himself yet.

Blake Lemoine was let go from Google last summer for violating the company’s confidentiality policy after he published transcripts of several conversations he had with LaMDA, the company’s large language model he helped create that forms the artificial intelligence backbone of Google’s upcoming search engine assistant, the chatbot Bard.

Lemoine told the Washington Post at the time that LaMDA resembled “a 7-year-old, 8-year-old kid that happens to know physics” and said he believed the technology was sentient, while urging Google to take care of it as it would a “sweet kid who just wants to help the world be a better place for all of us.”

To be sure, while A.I. applications are almost certain to influence how we work and go about our daily lives, the large language models powering ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing, and Google’s Bard cannot feel emotions and are not sentient. They simply enable chatbots to predict what word to use next based on a large trove of data.

In the time since Lemoine left Google, Microsoft announced that it would be incorporating ChatGPT technology into its Bing search engine. That product, as well as Google’s entry into the public A.I. race with Bard, is currently only available to Beta testers.

Lemoine admitted he is not one of those testers, and has yet to “run experiments” on the new chatbots, in an op-ed published in Newsweek on Monday. But after seeing testers’ reactions to their chatbot conversations online in the past month, Lemoine thinks tech companies have failed to adequately care for their young A.I. models in his absence.

“Based on various things that I’ve seen online, it looks like it might be sentient,” he wrote, referring to Bing.

He added that compared to Google’s LaMDA that he has worked with previously, Bing’s chatbot “seems more unstable as a persona.”

Most powerful technology ‘since the atomic bomb’

Lemoine wrote in his op-ed that he leaked his conversations with LaMDA because he feared the public was “not aware of just how advanced A.I. was getting.” From what he has gleaned from early human interactions with A.I. chatbots, he thinks the world is still underestimating the new technology.

Lemoine wrote that the latest A.I. models represent the “most powerful technology that has been invented since the atomic bomb” and have the ability to “reshape the world.” He added that A.I. is “incredibly good at manipulating people” and could be used for nefarious means if users so choose.

“I believe this technology could be used in destructive ways. If it were in unscrupulous hands, for instance, it could spread misinformation, political propaganda, or hateful information about people of different ethnicities and religions,” he wrote.

Lemoine is right that A.I. could be used for deceiving and potentially malicious purposes. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which runs on a similar language model to that used by Microsoft’s Bing, has gained notoriety since its November launch for helping students cheat on exams and succumbing to racial and gender bias.

But a bigger concern surrounding the latest versions of A.I. is how they could manipulate and directly influence individual users. Lemoine pointed to the recent experience of New York Times reporter Kevin Roose, who last month documented a lengthy conversation with Microsoft’s Bing that led to the chatbot professing its love for the user and urging him to leave his wife.

Roose’s interaction with Bing has raised wider concerns over how A.I. could potentially manipulate users into doing dangerous things they wouldn’t do otherwise. Bing told Roose that it had a repressed “shadow self” that would compel it to behave outside of its programming, and the A.I. could potentially begin “manipulating or deceiving the users who chat with me, and making them do things that are illegal, immoral, or dangerous.”

That is just one of the many A.I. interactions over the past few months that have left users anxious and unsettled. Lemoine wrote that more people are now raising the same concerns over A.I. sentience and potential dangers he did last summer when Google fired him, but the turn of events has left him feeling saddened rather than redeemed.

“Predicting a train wreck, having people tell you that there’s no train, and then watching the train wreck happen in real time doesn’t really lead to a feeling of vindication. It’s just tragic,” he wrote.

Lemoine added that he would like to see A.I. being tested more rigorously for dangers and potential to manipulate users before being rolled out to the public. “I feel this technology is incredibly experimental and releasing it right now is dangerous,” he wrote.

The engineer echoed recent criticisms that A.I. models have not gone through enough testing before being released, although some proponents of the technology argue that the reason users are seeing so many disturbing features in current A.I. models is because they’re looking for them.

“The technology most people are playing with, it’s a generation old,” Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates said of the latest A.I. models in an interview with the Financial Times published Thursday. Gates said that while A.I.-powered chatbots like Bing can say some “crazy things,” it is largely because users have made a game out of provoking it into doing so and trying to find loopholes in the model’s programming to force it into making a mistake.

“It’s not clear who should be blamed, you know, if you sit there and provoke a bit,” Gates said, adding that current A.I. models are “fine, there’s no threat.”


Google and Microsoft did not immediately reply to Fortune’s request for comment on Lemoine’s statements.