Ghosts in their machines: Thai livestream spooks a new generation

Agence France-Presse
April 03, 2023

It's almost midnight, and above a semi-abandoned Bangkok mall, Ghost Radio is on air, with host Watcharapol Fukjaidee broadcasting live from his studio © Jack TAYLOR / AFP

It is almost midnight, and above a semi-abandoned Bangkok shopping centre, Ghost Radio is on air.

Rapid-fire comments ping across the studio's screens as thousands tune in online to hear callers describe their encounters with Thailand's supernatural.

Belief in spirits runs deep in the kingdom, which has a celebrated canon of ghosts from individuals like Mae Nak, a woman who haunted her village after dying in childbirth, to more sinister creatures like krasue -- bodyless women who float through the night looking to devour flesh.

Now these ancient tales are being reinvigorated through online platforms like YouTube, TikTok, WhatsApp and even delivery app Grab.

"She met a man in a white suit who told her that her time was up, and that she had to go with him," the first caller recounts, her voice quavering.

"But when she turned back, she could see her body lying in bed."

In the studio, host Watcharapol Fukjaidee listens patiently, gently prying out details.

The charismatic 46-year-old, also known by his nickname Jack, films two live episodes a week from 11 pm to dawn, fielding calls from spooked Thais as millions tune in and thousands comment online.

"When there is more technology, the chance to see ghosts increases," he tells AFP.

"Ghosts come with apps, chat lines, phone calls. Technology becomes the channel where they can contact people."

Watcharapol recounted a caller who was contacted by a distant friend, asking him to meet at a temple, but when he got there he made a chilling discovery.

"It turns out that his friend had died and his phone was put into the coffin," he says, raising his eyebrows, a mischievous chuckle lurking.

Ghostly meet-ups


The host got his break 20 years ago under Thailand's "godfather of ghosts" Kapol Thongplub, whose late-night call-in show was a favorite with the capital's taxi drivers.

It is now food delivery riders rather than cabbies who frequently encounter the supernatural as they endlessly crisscross Bangkok at all hours, Watcharapol says.

And unlike Kapol's show, which was dominated by the host's larger-than-life reactions, Watcharapol is more low-key and a little tongue-in-cheek.


"Now with the influence of Twitter and TikTok, more young people call," says Ghost Radio worker Khemjira Jongkolsapapron.

There has been a shift, with audiences now wanting to not only be scared, and then soothed -- but also entertained.

"This isn't a matter of 'still believing' or not," cultural anthropologist Andrew Alan Johnson, whose book "Ghosts of the New City" examines how recent events have reshaped Thai beliefs, told AFP.

"Ghosts become a way to tell stories that are denied elsewhere," he said.

This is especially true in rapidly changing Bangkok, Johnson said, where ghost tales help preserve local memory -- explaining unlucky locations, or feelings of alienation.

"Folk belief is incredibly adaptable, in that it seeks to speak to people's everyday experiences," he said.

The Ghost Radio YouTube channel has almost three million subscribers and is sponsored by various local firms as well as pulling income from the themed cafe on the ground floor.

Watched over by an eclectic collection of ghost-themed toys, Khemjira sifts through scores of submissions, weeding out political stories or anything that might touch the kingdom's tough laws against insulting the monarchy.

Not every tale makes it on air, but Khemjira is confident the people telling them believe them to be true.

"I think people meet ghosts a lot. We hardly ever hear the same story," she says.
'Scared to death'

As Watcharapol listens upstairs, downstairs his cafe is raucous with young fans and families.

Munching on a tombstone-shaped brownie, 25-year-old policeman and regular caller Chalwat Thungood explained how he shares his colleagues' tales.

His own spooky experience came on a call out to a house. As he arrived he glimpsed the shadow of an overweight man walk into a bathroom.

He struggled to open the door -- until suddenly it gave way.

"I found a big man who had been dead for at least five hours. It proved to me that I saw a spirit of the big man walking into the bathroom," he said.

"I 100 percent believe that ghosts exist."

Watcharapol refuses to be drawn on whether he actually believes, stating he has to maintain an open mind before admitting he is "scared to death" of hospital ghosts.

People tune in to his show, he says, to find a like-minded community "because sometimes they can't speak to their family about their ghostly experiences".

Lit up by the multiple screens in his plush studio, Watcharapol says: "No one can prove it is real except the caller."

And then he grins.

© 2023 AFP

Basquiat-Warhol: a rare artistic duo, reunited in Paris

Agence France-Presse
April 03, 2023

Basquiat and Warhol created some 160 paintings together between 1983 and 1985 

© BERTRAND GUAY / AFP

There are vanishingly few great collaborations in the annals of fine art. For a brief moment in the 1980s, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat showed the world how it was done.

It started with a bang. Warhol, 54, met Basquiat, 22, for lunch in October 1982 and took a polaroid of them together.

Basquiat took it to his studio and returned just two hours later with a portrait. Warhol was stunned by its brilliance.

Soon they were working together on portraits that combined their favored tropes: Basquiat's masks, skulls, graffiti and obscure symbols; Warhol's pop-art imagery, logos and newspaper headlines.
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The brief, intense collaboration lasted from 1983 to 1985 and produced some 160 works.

An unprecedented number of them -- 70 -- have been brought together for a show at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris that opens Wednesday, mostly plucked from private collections.

"It's definitely the most successful collaboration in the history of art between two great artists. It's never been matched at this level or in this short space of time," said Dieter Buchhart, the show's lead curator and a Basquiat expert.

In room after room, two different aesthetics, generations and temperaments collide -- and find an unexpected synergy.

"It is neither Warhol, nor Basquiat, but a third artist that emerges," said Suzanne Page, the museum's artistic director.

"There was a great generosity between the two. They played with and provoked each other," she told AFP. "Warhol allowed himself to be completely subverted by Basquiat's interventions."

At their best, it is hard to tell where one artist begins and the other ends, as in the monumental, 10-meter-long (33 feet) "African Masks".

Others are unexpected: "Ten Punching Bags", never shown in their lifetimes, has the bags suspended in a line and decorated with the face of Jesus Christ inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper", drawn by Warhol with the word "judge" and a crown of thorns added by Basquiat.

Cartoonist Keith Haring, a close friend of both -- and who makes a cameo in the exhibition -- praised their collaboration at the time as a "conversation in painting".

But there were doubters as well. Many felt portraits should be the singular vision of an individual artist.

Their supporters saw the two artists more like great jazz musicians, riffing off each other. Basquiat was inspired by the master, Warhol was reinvigorated by his young friend.

"It released an incredible energy," said Page, and on a more straightforward level, they shared an intuitive genius for composition and combining colors.

If Basquiat was the more serious, the more socially engaged -- "carried by anger" at the invisibility of black people -- Warhol was not as detached as he sometimes came across.

"He accepted the social engagement side of Basquiat, and shared it," Page said. "Warhol was engaged too, in his own way. He was a very complex creature."

What might have been seen as insolence in Basquiat's approach -- scrawling over works that Warhol had left around his Factory studio, for example -- was totally accepted by the elder artist.

Their collaboration ended happily. But within two years both were dead -- Warhol following routine surgery and Basquiat from a heroin overdose. Already global superstars, their fame would only continue to grow.

© 2023 AFP

Picasso: king of the $100 million club

Agence France-Presse
April 04, 2023

Pablo Picasso is the world's biggest-selling artist at auction, holding several records for sales of his works © TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP/File

Pablo Picasso, who died 50 years ago this week, remains the star of art auctions, with several of his works commanding record sums.

Five works by the Spanish artist have been sold for more than $100 million (93 million euros), 16 for more than $50 million, and 39 for more than $30 million, according to AFP's count.

Most expensive: $179.4 million

"The Women of Algiers (Version O)", painted in 1955, is the most expensive work by Picasso ever sold at auction, going for $179.4 million on May 11, 2015, fivefold what the seller had paid 18 years earlier.

At the time it was the biggest art auction sale in history.

It was dethroned in November 2017 by the sale of "Salvator Mundi" attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which went under the hammer for $450 million and holds the record to this day.
Previous record-holders

In the last 20 years, two other Picasso works have held the record for the biggest art auction sale: "Boy with a Pipe", from May 2004 to February 2010, and "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" from May 2010 to May 2012, according to an AFP database.
$4.7 billion in a decade

With sales of Picasso works adding up to $4.7 billion over the past 10 years, according to Artprice's annual reports, no other artist can touch his totals.

Andy Warhol ($3.4 billion) and Claude Monet ($2.6 billion) lag well behind the King of Cubism.

3,000 pieces sold annually

Picasso was not only a painter, his oeuvre also includes sculptures, drawings, ceramics, engravings, lithographs, illustrated books and ballet costumes.

These have appeared in 31,745 auctions in 10 years -- an average of more than 3,000 objects up for sale every year.

© 2023 AFP

Sabertooth cat skull newly discovered in Iowa reveals details about this Ice Age predator

The Conversation
April 03, 2023

Sabertooth cat (Shutterstock)

The sabertooth cat is an Ice Age icon and emblem of strength, tenacity and intelligence. These animals shared the North American landscape with other large carnivores, including short-faced bears, dire wolves and the American lion, as well as megaherbivores including mammoths, mastodons, muskoxen and long-horned bison. Then at the end of the Pleistocene, between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, they all vanished. The only place to see them now is in the fossil record.

Carnivore fossils are extremely rare, though, in comparison to those of their prey. Prey are always more abundant than predators in a healthy ecosystem. So the probability of burial, storage and discovery of carnivore bones and teeth is therefore slim compared to those belonging to herbivores.

Scientists have a relatively small and scattered inventory of sabertooth fossils. The exception comes from Rancho La Brea in downtown Los Angeles, where over 1,000 individual sabertooths were mired in tar-seep death traps.

That’s why the recent discovery of an exquisite sabertooth cat skull in southwestern Iowa is so exciting. The Smilodon fatalis skull was collected from late Pleistocene sand and gravel exposed along the East Nishnabotna River. My colleague, biologist David A. Easterla, and I are studying this specimen to learn more about the life history, prey selection and eventual extinction of this ancient predator.




The recent sabertooth find is a complete cranium, albeit missing one of its namesake sabers. Chris Gannon, ISU News Service

The animal’s common name – sabertooth cat – comes from its highly distinctive, saberlike canine teeth that poke out of the mouth as much as 5 or 6 inches (13 to 15 centimeters).

Sabertooths are sexually dimorphic, with males generally larger than females. The Iowa skull is larger than those of many adult males from Rancho La Brea. Several bones of the skull have not sealed together and the teeth are basically unworn, leading us to believe this individual was almost certainly a young male between 2 and 3 years old that was still growing.

We estimate he weighed 550 pounds (250 kilograms). That’s upwards of 110 pounds (50 kilograms) greater than the average adult male African lion. Given a few years to mature and fill up loose skin, he might have tipped the scale at 650 pounds (300 kilograms).


Observations of the life cycles of modern lions and tigers suggest this sabertooth was newly independent or on the cusp of independent living.


Sabertooths might have lived and hunted together in groups like modern lions – but all other modern cats live more solitary lifestyles. jez_bennett/iStock via Getty Images Plus

However, whether sabertooths stuck together in groups or were loners is hotly debated. Disagreement revolves around just how much of a size difference there is between males and females. In many living animals, males are typically larger than females in male-dominated harems, as in modern lions. In the case of sabertooths, some scholars identify this pronounced sexual dimophisim between the sexes and contend these ancient cats lived in groups, akin to today’s lions. Other researchers see only minimal size differences and view sabertooth cats generally as solitary predators, perhaps more like tigers and all other felines.

Whatever the case, at 2 or 3 years old the cat obviously possessed the weaponry – jaws and paws – and heft to take down large prey alone. He likely garnered experience hunting by first watching his mother locate, stalk, ambush and kill prey and defend the carcasses, then perhaps with her help, and finally, alone. His learning curve was probably a lot like lions and tigers as they mature physically and behaviorally.

Hunting for survival is high stakes. Repeated failure means death from starvation. And attacking large prey equipped with defensive gear like horns, antlers, hooves and trunks is always dangerous and sometimes lethal. For instance, a recent study of 166 modern lion skulls from Zambia revealed that 68 had healed or partially healed injuries associated with taking down prey. Put another way, 40% had survived major head trauma to hunt another day.




One of this cat’s distinctive sabers was broken off before it died. Chris Gannon, ISU News Service

One saber in the Iowa skull is broken off where the canine tooth emerges from the roof of the mouth. Morphological details of the fracture edges indicate the damage happened around this animal’s time of death. It’s possible the break may relate to a defense wound thanks to a prey animal’s well-placed hoof, antler, horn or swat. Since the stub is not worn, the encounter may have even caused the cat’s death.

Additional technical analysis yields more info

A technique called stable isotope analysis allows researchers to figure out what an animal ate and even where it lived based on ratios of isotopes in its teeth or bones.

Andrew Somerville, a specialist in isotopic biogeochemistry, is leading this effort with the Iowa sabertooth. Our team suspects that sabertooth cats in this area would have focused their hunting on the Jefferson’s ground sloth, a massive, lumbering and solitary browser. With adults weighing around a ton, its size was probably a major deterrent to other predators – but not necessarily to sabertooths. Sharp sabers to the neck could have killed the sloth, size be damned.

My colleagues and I are also developing what natural science researchers call diet-breadth mixing models. Using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen preserved in Ice Age carnivore, herbivore and omnivore bones from southwest Iowa, our models should tell us if sabertooths, short-faced bears and dire wolves competed for the same prey, the habitats they searched for prey and, possibly, how these food-web connections collapsed at the end of the Ice Age.

Radiocarbon dating indicates this Iowa sabertooth lived between 13,605 and 13,455 years ago, making it among the last of its kind to walk the Western Hemisphere. Slightly younger dates – but not by much – come from Rancho La Brea, eastern Brazil and far southern Chile.

These dates mean sabertooths and the first people to infiltrate these places – Clovis foragers in North America and Fishtail foragers in South America – shared the landscape for a short period of time. People probably chanced upon sabertooth tracks, scat and kills now and again. Maybe a few lucky people observed the magnificent animal going about its life. But neither knew what the future had in store.

The big cat vanished from both continents shortly after people arrived. The ultimate cause of the die-off is difficult to pinpoint, and multiple factors were certainly at play. However, at least with sabertooths, we can say extinction was a hemisphere-wide synchronous event that transpired in a geological instant, perhaps over just 1,000 or 2,000 years, which makes it difficult to directly or indirectly tie people to the die-off.

The Iowa skull, combined with other fossil evidence from the region and observations of modern large carnivores, has cast new light on the life history and behavior of sabertooth cats. Ongoing research promises to provide additional clues about the diet and ecology of this iconic predator.

Matthew G. Hill, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Iowa State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Austria glaciers retreat 'more than ever': measurement

Agence France-Presse
March 31, 2023

Austria's Jamtal glacier © KERSTIN JOENSSON / AFP

Austrian glaciers last year retreated "more than ever", the country's Alpine Club said Friday, as climate change threatens glaciers around the globe.

On average, 89 Austrian glaciers observed by the organisation have become 28.7 metres (94.2 feet) shorter, compared to 11 metres in 2021, it said in a statement, sounding a "red alert".

"Never before in the history of the Alpine Club's glacier measurement service, which dates back to 1891, has there been a greater loss of glaciers," it said.

"The drastic glacier retreat undoubtedly makes the consequences of the anthropogenic massively intensified climate change clear," it added, warning that glaciers in Austria would disappear at the latest in 2075.

It urged the better protection of glaciers in the ski-mad Alpine nation.

"The touristic development of glacier areas is simply no longer justifiable at a time when the climate crisis is already having an enormous impact on the glaciers," it said.

Half of the Earth's 215,000 glaciers and a quarter of their mass will melt away by the end of the century, according to a study published in the journal Science in January.

This will happen even if global warming can be capped at 1.5-degrees Celsius, the ambitious Paris Agreement target that many scientists now say is beyond reach, the study said.

Global mean temperature is currently estimated to be increasing by 2.7-degrees Celsius which would result in a near-complete loss of glaciers in Central Europe, Western Canada and the continental United States and New Zealand.

Migrants cried for help in Mexico fire but no one came, survivor recalls



By Lizbeth Diaz

Reuters
April 03, 2023

CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO

 (Reuters) -Eduard Caraballo screamed for help.

Thick suffocating smoke was filling the cell where he was held with over 60 other migrants in northern Mexico, but there was no way out. The single door was locked shut.

"We screamed for them to open the cell door, but no one helped us," Caraballo, 26, said through tears during a phone interview from his hospital bed.

One by one people began to die, he said.

In total, 40 people were killed in the fire last Monday in one of the deadliest migrant tragedies in years.

Mexican prosecutors say they are investigating the fire as a possible homicide and arrested five people last week in connection with the incident. The probe is focusing on why the male migrants held at the center appeared to be left in their cell while the fire burned, while women detainees were safely evacuated from a neighboring cell.

Officials blamed the fire on a migrant who allegedly set mattresses alight to protest their imminent deportation.

A short video circulating on social media - appearing to be security footage from inside the center during the blaze - showed men kicking on the bars of a locked door as their cell filled with smoke.

Three uniformed people can be seen walking past without trying to open the door. Investigators have said the video is part of the probe.

Mexico's National Migration Institute, which ran the center in the border town of Ciudad Juarez, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Caraballo's account.

Caraballo, a Venezuelan migrant, said he survived by soaking his sweater in water, covering his face, and moving to the bathroom at the back of the cell.

As the fire started, all the lights went out, he recalled.

"When I saw everything begin to fill with smoke, I worried a lot about my family," he said. "My God, don't let me die."

The last thing he remembers were desperate screams, and how, using a "heavy object" someone finally bashed open the door of the cell.

"They pulled me by the hand, I think it was a firefighter, and they helped me out, others were already dead," he said, crying.

Caraballo was transferred on Saturday to a hospital in El Paso after he and his family received humanitarian parole to enter the United States. He is still on oxygen and being treated for smoke exposure.

He is anxious to get better so he can be fully reunited with his family and start a new life in the United States.

Like millions of others, Caraballo and his family fled Venezuela's economic and political crisis, setting off for the United States last October.

The young father was the first to be able to cross into the United States, via the government's CBP One scheme which allows some migrants to formally enter the United States, but returned to Mexico in February after his infant daughter fell ill.

He never imagined it might cost him his life.

Caraballo was detained around midday last Monday and locked in the cell. As the fire broke out his wife was waiting outside, expecting him to be released.

"I could hear my wife's screams from the ambulance they loaded me into, then I lost consciousness," he said. "It was hell."

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Aurora Ellis)

Migrants treated 'like criminals' in Mexican immigration centers

Agence France-Presse
April 01, 2023

The immigration detention center in Ciudad Juarez near the US border where 39 migrants died in a fire(AFP)

Luisa Jimenez thought she was visiting an office to regularize her stay in Mexico, but instead she found herself detained in an immigration center similar to the one where dozens of migrants perished in a fire.

"It's a holding cell, a detention center, like we're criminals," the Venezuelan migrant told AFP in Ciudad Juarez, where 39 people died and 27 were injured in the blaze that began on Monday.

Jimenez said the facility where she was held was in Tuxtla Gutierrez in the southern state of Chiapas.

She was taken there with the promise that she would be given a permit to remain in Mexico while seeking asylum in the United States.
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Jimenez was actually notified that she had to leave the country, she added.

"It's a disgusting place," the 56-year-old woman said, describing conditions similar to those in Ciudad Juarez.

The tragedy there unfolded after a migrant lit a fire in apparent protest over deportations, according to authorities, who have accused immigration officials and guards of failing to even try to evacuate the migrants.

Arrest warrants have been issued against three officials, two private guards and a migrant who allegedly started the fire, as part of a homicide investigation.

Just a week earlier, Moises Chavez was held in the same cell, which he described as a smelly room where guards treat migrants with disdain.

"There are no fire extinguishers or smoke detectors, but there are cameras," the 41-year-old Nicaraguan told AFP.

It was the second time that Chavez had been taken to the National Institute of Migration facility, where the fire claimed the lives of 18 Guatemalans, seven Salvadorans, seven Venezuelans, six Hondurans and one Colombian.Harsh conditions -

Video surveillance footage appeared to show guards leaving the 68 detainees locked inside as flames spread and smoke filled the room.

Ostensibly, such facilities are service and accommodation centers for foreigners who cannot prove their legal stay in Mexico.

In reality "you're treated like a prisoner," said Yusleidy Garcia from Venezuela, who was detained in Ciudad Juarez, where women and men are held in separate places.

"It was cold at night. They take away all your belongings. In the cell where I was there were 150 people" of various nationalities, she said.

Such conditions are in sharp contrast with rules issued by the government in 2012 requiring adequate food, hygiene protocols and protection of people and property in the event of riots.

Migrants are not supposed to remain in temporary-stay centers like the one that caught fire for more than seven days.

Some are transferred to other immigration facilities -- where the stay must not exceed 15 days -- to resolve their situation and receive legal assistance, and may be deported.
'Not shelters' -

Mexican immigration last year detained at least 281,149 people in "overcrowded" centers and deported at least 98,299 people, including unaccompanied children, Amnesty International said this week in an annual human rights report.

Following Monday's fire, the rights group called for "an end to the practices that have caused untold damage, including torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, to thousands of migrants who have passed through these centers."

"These facilities are not 'shelters,' but detention centers, and people are not 'housed' there, but deprived of their freedom," Amnesty said, alluding to statements by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The United Nations office in Mexico noted that the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration -- an intergovernmentally negotiated agreement -- outlaws arbitrary detentions and calls for legal detentions to be as short as possible.

Other international standards advocate alternatives to arrest, the UN said.

Jimenez's detention lasted for two days, following a long and dangerous journey during which she said she slept next to the bodies of migrants who died in the Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama.

Outraged at being locked up when she was only trying to regularize her status, she recounted asking an immigration official: "Is it a crime to migrate?"

"She turned her back on me and left," Jimenez said.


© Agence France-Presse

Maker of eye drops linked to deadly outbreak flunks FDA inspection
FDA found brown slime, lack of sterility checks at Global Pharma's facility.

BETH MOLE - 4/3/2023

Getty | DEA / M. FERMARIELLO/De Agostini60WITH

The maker of eye drops linked to a deadly outbreak of extensively drug-resistant infections in the US had a slew of manufacturing violations—from brown slime on filling equipment to a lack of basic measures and systems to ensure sterility—according to an inspection report released by the Food and Drug Administration (PDF).

FURTHER READINGTwo more dead as patients report horrifying details of eye drop

 outbreak

In February, the regulator warned consumers to immediately stop using eye drops and eye ointment made by Global Pharma, whose products were sold in the US under brand names EzriCare and Delsam Pharma and were available through Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and other retailers. Global Pharma later issued voluntary recalls of the products.

Health investigators had linked the drops to cases of an extensively drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain that had never been seen before in the US. The strain is identified as VIM-GES-CRPA, which stands for a carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa (CRPA) with Verona integron-mediated metallo-β-lactamase (VIM) and Guiana extended-spectrum-β-lactamase (GES). Although affected people reported using multiple brands of eye drops, EzriCare was the most common. Additionally, testing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and independent researchers have identified the outbreak strain in opened bottles of EzriCare artificial tears.

As of March 14, 68 people in 16 states have been infected with the strain, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Three people have died from the infection, eight have lost vision, and four have had their eyeballs surgically removed.

Back in February, the FDA noted that Global Pharma had several manufacturing violations, but the inspection report lays out the extent of the deficiencies. The 14-page report came from a 10-day inspection of Global Pharma's manufacturing facility in Thiruporur, India, (just south of Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu) that took place between February 20 and March 3.

The inspection report outlines eleven "observations" of failures, with specifics. The first is that Global Pharma didn't seem to bother verifying whether its eye drops, which the company claimed were sterile, were actually sterile. There is "not adequate validation data to demonstrate" that the company's filtration system can "reliably sterilize" the eye drops, the FDA inspection report said.Advertisement

Deadly deficiencies

The facility, it seemed, was primed to produce contaminated products. FDA inspectors noted that Global Pharma didn't verify that components of the solutions, bought from suppliers, were sterile to begin with. And the areas of the facility where the solution was supposed to be made aseptically—contamination-free—weren't fit for producing sterile products. That is, the walls, ceilings, and floors were not smooth, hard surfaces that could be readily sterilized as they should be. Instead, there were cracks, protruding nails, and holes in the wall. But, even if the area was cleanable, the company's protocols for cleaning were also deficient, the report noted.

FURTHER READING68 now sickened, 4 lose eyeballs in outbreak linked to eyedrops

FDA inspectors noted problems with cleaning and maintenance of machinery, which could have led to cross-contamination from other products manufactured in the facility. On the second inspection day, an inspector also noted "black, brown colored greasy deposit" on parts of the filling machine, and the facilities equipment logbook noted that it hadn't been cleaned in nearly a month. A few days later, a manager told the inspector that there was "no procedure for cleaning" the filling machine.

Environmental monitoring for contamination in the facility was also lacking, the report found. And the sterility of primary packaging—including bottle caps—were not verified before they were used. Once the eye drops were bottled, the formula did not contain a preservative to prevent microbial contamination, and batches were released to the US without going through the quality control unit.

A CDC official told Ars previously that she feared the outbreak of VIM-GES-CRPA in the US will seed more infection and drug resistance. "To date, extensively drug-resistant Pseudomonas with genes that rapidly spread resistance, like VIM and GES, have been rare in this country," Marissa Grossman, a CDC epidemic intelligence service officer, said. "The widespread introduction of the outbreak strain … threatens to undermine efforts to prevent these highly resistant organisms from becoming more common," she said.

In March, the FDA posted recall notices for two other types of eye drops—from Pharmedica and Apotex—for non-sterility concerns. The products, both listed as manufactured in North America, have not been linked to the VIM-GES-CRPA outbreak.

Ford invests $50 billion in EV production through 2026


Ford plans to nearly double production capacity of the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup. The company has a massive investment target supporting electric vehicles.

File Photo courtesy of Ford


April 3 (UPI) -- U.S. carmaker Ford said Monday it set aside more than $50 billion for electric vehicles and battery components, with a goal of 2 million in production runs for EVs by 2026.

"We are undertaking a massive transformation to lead the electric and connected era of transportation and are committed to being transparent about our progress and opportunities for improvement," Executive Chairman Bill Ford said.

Data show Ford could be carbon-neutral across its vehicles, operations and supply chain by 2050. Over the five years ending in 2022, the company cut its manufacturing emissions by 40% and 60% of the electricity it used last year was carbon-free.

Through 2026, the company is investing $50 billion in EVs.

"The company is on the path to reach its targeted annual production run rate of 600,000 EVs by the end of 2023 and more than 2 million by the end of 2026," it said. "By 2030, half of Ford's global vehicle sales volume is expected to be electric."

Ford faced a setback on its EV line in February when it forced to halt production of its F-150 Lighting electric pickup after a fire started from its battery. A truck caught on fire near its Dearborn, Mich., plant during a pre-delivery quality inspection earlier this month, also damaging two nearby vehicles.

Meanwhile, CNN reported Ford estimates it will lose $3 billion in EV sales this year, but it will nevertheless reach its profit goal for the year of around $10 million.

For the fourth quarter, the company reported net income of $1.3 billion, $11 billion lower year-on-year. For the full year, Ford lost $2 billion."We should have done much better last year," CEO Jim Farley said in an earnings release.

Finland's new LNG terminal gets its first shipment



Commodity trader Vitol said it made the first-ever delivery of LNG to a new receiving terminal in Finland. The LNG was sourced from the United States.

 Photo courtesy of Vitol

April 3 (UPI) -- Dutch commodity trader Vitol said Monday it delivered the first-ever cargo of liquefied natural gas sourced from the United States to a terminal in Finland.

Vitol delivered the cargo to Finland's new Inkoo terminal onboard the Vivit Americas LNG tanker. The tanker loaded from the Calcasieu Pass terminal on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

"The opening of the terminal will enhance energy security in Finland and the Baltic region, facilitating the flow of LNG from around the world to European industry and consumers," said Pablo Galante Escobar, Vitol's head of LNG in Europe.

Russia's now-idled Nord Stream natural gas pipeline network runs through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The pipeline was a source of concern before military forces invaded Ukraine as it represented the choke-hold that Russia had over the regional energy sector.

RELATED U.S. gas producer Chesapeake makes LNG handshake with Gunvor

Saboteurs targeted the pipeline network with explosives last year and Western economies have largely shunned any fossil fuel deliveries from Russia. Before the war, Russia was the primary gas supplier to Europe, though U.S. LNG has now taken up a considerable market share.

Of the total volume delivered last year, Vitol said around 67% of its LNG deliveries went to Europe. Finland, meanwhile, started receiving small amounts of U.S.-sourced LNG only last year.

"A total of seven deliveries will arrive in Finland's Inkoo port in the spring and summer," Vitol said in a statement.

If it isn't already, the United States is expected to become the world's leading exporter of LNG, passing Australia and Qatar. U.S. LNG exports averaged 10.6 billion cubic feet per day last year and the government expects that to reach 12.7 Bcf/d next year.

For the seven-day period ending March 29, 20 vessels left U.S. export terminals carrying LNG. Only one left from Calcasieu Pass.
RELATED

Final analysis shows Hurricane Ian reached Category 5 over Gulf

By Brian Lada, Accuweather.com

1/5
The Sanibel Causeway on Florida's Gulf Coast was washed out by Hurricane Ian last September. File Photo by POC3 Riley Perkofski/U.S. Coast Guard | License Photo

Hurricane Ian was the storm that defined the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane season with communities across Florida still grappling with the aftermath of one of the most catastrophic weather events in the United States last year.

On Monday, the National Hurricane Center released its final analysis of the monstrous storm. When reanalyzing data from the hurricane, meteorologists found that it was stronger than previously thought, propelling Ian into the upper echelon of hurricane intensity.

Just seven hours before making landfall on Sept. 28, peak winds in the eye of Hurricane Ian reached 160 mph, meeting the criteria of a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, the NHC said in the report. Previously, meteorologists believed that winds topped out at 155 mph, just 2 mph shy of Category 5 status.

Ian did not remain a Category 5 storm for long, and the hurricane lost some wind intensity right before landfall.

"Environmental conditions became less favorable soon thereafter, and Ian weakened slightly during the next several hours before it made landfall on the barrier island of Cayo Costa, Florida, at 19:05 UTC [3:05 p.m. EDT] 28 September with an intensity of 130 kt [150 mph]," the report stated.

A satellite image of Hurricane Ian on Sept. 28. A reanalysis by the National Hurricane Center found Ian was a Category 5 storm at this time but weakened shortly before landfall. Image courtesy of AccuWeather

Since record-keeping began, only 39 hurricanes have been classified as Category 5, with maximum sustained winds of at least 157 mph. However, only four made landfall on the U.S. mainland at such a magnitude: Hurricane Michael (2018), Hurricane Andrew (1992), Hurricane Camille (1969) and the Labor Day Hurricane (1935).

On Wednesday, the World Meteorological Organization announced that Ian would be retired from the list of hurricane names due to the death and destruction that it caused across the Caribbean and the United States.

It is not uncommon for the category of tropical systems to change after a post-storm analysis.

Seven months after Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle as a Category 4 storm, the NHC released a report saying that Michael briefly reached Category 5 status as it made landfall.

The category may be different in history books, but the slight change in wind speed is negligible when looking at the real-life impacts the storm had on the lives of people in the path of the hurricane.

The NHC echoed this sentiment in its reanalysis of Ian, stating that the NHC track issued during the storm has an uncertainty of around 10 and that "there is very little practical difference" between Ian being a Category 4 storm with winds of 155 mph or a Category 5 storm with winds of 160 mph.

Florida will once again be at risk for land-falling tropical systems this year, including the regions that faced Ian's wrath.

According to AccuWeather meteorologists, the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season will spawn 11 to 15 named storms and four to eight hurricanes. Additionally, two to four of these tropical systems will have a direct impact on the United States.

"The highest chance of direct and significant impacts will be from the Florida Panhandle around the entire state of Florida to the Carolina coast," said senior meteorologist and hurricane expert Dan Kottlowski, who has been issuing forecasts for AccuWeather for over four decades.

"There appears to be a lower chance for direct impacts over the western Gulf of Mexico and for the northeast U.S.," he said.

Hurricane Ian leaves trail of destruction in Florida

A U.S. Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk aircrew conducts flights over the southwest coast of Florida on October 1, 2022 to survey the damage from Hurricane Ian. 

Photo by POC3 Riley Perkofski/U.S. Coast Guard | License Photo

CRYPTO CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Justice Department seizes $112M linked to crypto investment scams

By Sheri Walsh

The Justice Department has seized more than $112 million linked to cryptocurrency investment schemes, often called "pig butchering" or romance scams used to entice victims online. File photo by Christopher Schirner/Flickr 

April 3 (UPI) -- The Justice Department has seized more than $112 million linked to cryptocurrency investment schemes, often called "pig butchering" or romance scams to entice victims online.

Judges in the District of Arizona, the Central District of California, and the District of Idaho authorized the seizure warrants for six virtual currency accounts, which were allegedly used to launder funds from various cryptocurrency confidence scams, the Justice Department announced Monday.

According to court documents, the alleged swindlers cultivated long-term relationships with victims they met online before enticing them to invest in cryptocurrency trading platforms run by scammers.

"Transnational criminal organizations are combining confidence scams with technological savvy to swindle Americans out of their hard-earned funds," said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite, Jr., of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

"These particularly vicious frauds -- where scammers carefully cultivate relationships with their victims over time -- have devastated families and cost individuals their life savings. Now that we have seized this virtual currency, we will seek to swiftly return it to victims," Polite said.

According to the FBI, investment fraud caused the highest losses out of any scam in 2022, totaling $3.31 billion. Most of the schemes involved cryptocurrency scams, which increased 183% between 2021 and 2022.

The FBI says most of the victims were between the ages of 30 and 49, and most of the schemes were called "Sha Zhu Pan," which is a Chinese phrase that loosely translates to "pig butchering." The scam is also referred to as a romance scheme, where the scammer develops a relationship and gains the trust of the victim before encouraging them to invest in cryptocurrency trading. The victims are then denied access to their funds.

"Financial fraud schemes like these demonstrate the great lengths criminals will take to swindle innocent victims out of their money," said Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division. "We continue to see these schemes evolve and provide new avenues for criminals to exploit."

"In addition to our tireless efforts to disrupt these schemes, we must also work to raise public awareness and help inform potential victims," Polite added.

"Be wary of people you meet online; seriously question investment advice, especially about cryptocurrency, from people you have not met in person; and remember, investments that seem too good to be true, usually are."