Scientists identify mind-body nexus in human brain

human head, chakra power, fantasy abstract thinking, world, universe inside your mind, watercolor painting.

Photo:iStock

By Reuters
19 Apr 2023 

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - The relationship between the human mind and body has been a subject that has challenged great thinkers for millennia, including the philosophers Aristotle and Descartes. The answer, however, appears to reside in the very structure of the brain.

By Will Dunham

Researchers said on Wednesday they have discovered that parts of the brain region called the motor cortex that govern body movement are connected with a network involved in thinking, planning, mental arousal, pain, and control of internal organs, as well as functions such as blood pressure and heart rate.

They identified a previously unknown system within the motor cortex manifested in multiple nodes that are located in between areas of the brain already known to be responsible for movement of specific body parts – hands, feet and face – and are engaged when many different body movements are performed together.

The researchers called this system the somato-cognitive action network, or SCAN, and documented its connections to brain regions known to help set goals and plan actions.

This network also was found to correspond with brain regions that, as shown in studies involving monkeys, are connected to internal organs including the stomach and adrenal glands, allowing these organs to change activity levels in anticipation of performing a certain action. That may explain physical responses like sweating or increased heart rate caused by merely pondering a difficult future task, they said.

The motor cortex is a part of the brain’s outermost layer, the cerebral cortex.

“Basically, we now have shown that the human motor system is not unitary. Instead, we believe there are two separate systems that control movement,” said radiology professor Evan Gordon of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

“One is for isolated movement of your hands, feet and face. This system is important, for example, for writing or speaking -movements that need to involve only the one body part. A second system, the SCAN, is more important for integrated, whole body movements, and is more connected to high-level planning regions of your brain,” Gordon said.

The findings detail the brain’s mind-body nexus.

“Modern neuroscience does not include any kind of mind-body dualism. It’s not compatible with being a serious neuroscientist nowadays. I’m not a philosopher, but one succinct statement I like is saying, ‘The mind is what the brain does.’ The sum of the bio-computational functions of the brain makes up ‘the mind,'” said study senior author Nico Dosenbach, a neurology professor at Washington University School of Medicine.

“Since this system, the SCAN, seems to integrate abstract plans-thoughts-motivations with actual movements and physiology, it provides additional neuroanatomical explanation for why ‘the body’ and ‘the mind’ aren’t separate or separable,” Dosenbach added.

The researchers set out to use modern brain-imaging techniques to test an influential map established nine decades ago by neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield of the brain areas controlling movement. Their findings showed that Penfield’s map, constrained by the technologies of his time, needed revisions.

The SCAN was identified using precision imaging in seven adults to examine the brain’s organizational features, then verified in larger datasets that when combined spanned thousands of adults. Further imaging identified the SCAN circuit in an 11-month-old and a 9-year-old, while finding it had not yet formed in a newborn. Those observations were validated in larger datasets of hundreds of newborns and thousands of 9-year-olds.

The research underscored how there is more to learn about the human brain.

“Actually, the purpose of the brain is highly debated,” Gordon said. “Some neuroscientists think of the brain as an organ intended primarily to perceive and interpret the world around us. Others think of it as an organ designed to produce the best ‘outputs’ – usually a physical action – to optimize survivability and evolutionary fitness for any given situation.”

“Probably both are correct,” Gordon added. “The SCAN fits most cleanly with the latter interpretation: it integrates goals and planning with whole-body actions.”

(Reporting by Will Dunham, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

Philippines and China to open more communication lines to resolve maritime dispute

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. welcomes Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Manila on Saturday. 

| PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE / VIA AFP-JIJI


BLOOMBERG, AFP-JIJI

Apr 23, 2023

MANILA – The Philippines and China have agreed to establish "more lines of communications” to immediately resolve conflicts between the two countries over the West Philippine Sea, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said.

"We are currently working on that and are awaiting the Chinese response and we are confident that these issues would be worked out that would be mutually beneficial for both our nations,” Marcos said in a statement after a meeting with China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who is on a three-day visit to Manila, his first trip to the Southeast Asian nation.

China and the Philippines should work together to promote peace and stability in Asia by deepening their relations, Qin said before meeting Marcos, in a sign that Beijing is seeking to chip away at U.S. sway in the Southeast Asian nation.

With the Marcos administration bolstering a longstanding defense alliance with the U.S., Beijing wants to strengthen ties with Manila. The Philippines recently granted the U.S. access to more military sites near Taiwan and the South China Sea — two potential flashpoints in the region. Beijing has criticized the move.

"It was really useful that we were able to speak with Minister Qin Gang so we can talk directly to one another and iron things out,” Marcos said. "Some of the pronouncements that have been made recently by our two countries and many other countries might be misinterpreted.”

"Amid the ‘fluid’ and turbulent regional situation, a healthy and stable China-Philippines relationship is not only meeting the aspirations of our two peoples, but also in line with the common aspirations of regional countries,” Qin said before the meeting.

China, Qin said, is ready to work with the Philippines to "truly implement a consensus between the presidents of the two countries.” The leaders met in January and "jointly uphold the bigger picture of our bilateral relations.”

Qin’s visit coincides with the largest U.S.-Philippines military exercises in decades. Top diplomats and defense officials from the countries recently met in Washington, where they expressed "strong objections” to Beijing’s sea claims, and agreed to finalize plans for joint patrols in the disputed waters.

In a statement Friday, Philippine Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez said the U.S. pledged $100 million in assistance for the acquisition of medium-lift helicopters for disaster response and non-combat operations. The U.S. also increased funding to $100 million for developing sites that are used under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, bringing the U.S. commitment to 11 billion pesos, he said.

Qin’s visit to the Philippines comes ahead of Marcos’s meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on May 1. They plan to discuss economic cooperation, clean energy transition investment, and efforts to uphold international law and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific.

The Philippines has bolstered defense cooperation with the U.S. amid lingering tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea. Marcos’s government has stepped up protests against China’s actions in the disputed sea, including the potential use of a military-grade laser at a Philippine ship — a claim Beijing has denied.

China’s ties with the Southeast Asian nation have also been challenged recently by remarks made by Beijing’s envoy to Manila. Ambassador Huang Xilian drew attention after saying the Philippines is advised to "unequivocally oppose Taiwan independence” if the Southeast Asian country cares "genuinely” about the 150,000 Filipinos working in the island nation. Manila has adhered to the one-China principle

.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and the Philippines’ top envoy, Enrique Manalo, hold a bilateral meeting in Manila on Saturday.

 | POOL / VIA REUTERS

"It’s very, very useful and very, very productive that Minister Qin came here and that we were able to talk things a little bit through, make plans for the future,” Marcos said.

On Saturday, the Philippines' top diplomat expressed his concern to Qin over escalating tensions in waters around Taiwan.

Philippine foreign secretary Enrique Manalo met Qin as the two countries seek to deepen economic ties while also managing their dispute in the South China Sea, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement after the talks.

"Secretary (Enrique ) Manalo reaffirmed the Philippines' adherence to the One China Policy, while at the same time expressing concern over the escalating tensions across the Taiwan Strait," the department said.

China claims Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to bring the island under its control one day, by force if necessary.

Qin described China and the Philippines as "close neighbors across the sea."

"Amid the fluid and turbulent regional situation, a healthy and stable China-Philippines relationship is not only meeting the aspirations of our two peoples, but also in line with the common aspirations of regional countries," Qin said during the talks.

He told a forum in Shanghai on Friday that recent rhetoric accusing China of disrupting peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait could have dangerous consequences.

"Such claims go against basic common sense on international relations and historical justice," he said.

"The logic is absurd and the consequences dangerous."

China staged military exercises around self-ruled Taiwan this month that simulated targeted strikes and a blockade of the island. That was in response to a meeting between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.

China and the Philippines are also locked in a bitter maritime dispute in the strategic South China Sea.

Manalo said differences in the South China Sea "are not the sum total" of relations between the two nations, which have agreed to manage disagreements through dialogue and cooperation.

G7 calls for extension of Black Sea grain deal

Russia is threatening to walk away from the pact unless its conditions are met.

Vessel loaded with grain departing from a Ukrainian port 

| Chris McGrath/Getty Images

BY ANTONIA ZIMMERMANN
APRIL 23, 2023 4:23 PM CET

The Group of Seven on Sunday called for the "extension, full implementation and expansion" of a grain deal that has been essential to export Ukrainian produce through the Black Sea.

G7 agriculture ministers "recognized the importance" of the deal, following a two-day meeting in Miyazaki, Japan. "We strongly support the extension, full implementation and expansion" of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, they said in a communiqué.

Under the pact, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, some 28 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain have been exported since last July, including to poor countries facing the brunt of the global food crisis.

But Russia is threatening to walk away from the agreement unless its demands are met, portending a return to the full-scale maritime blockade that halted Ukraine’s grain exports in the months after Moscow's full-scale invasion in February last year. The Kremlin has warned that ship registrations would only continue until May 18.

"We condemn Russia's attempts to use food as a means of destabilization and as tool of geopolitical coercion and reiterate our commitment to acting in solidarity and supporting those most affected by Russia's weaponization of food," the G7 ministers said in the communiqué.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday warned on Telegram that if the G7 moved to ban exports to Russia, Moscow would terminate the grain deal. The G7 countries are reportedly considering a near-total ban on exports to Russia.

The call comes as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to meet with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in New York in coming days to discuss an extension of the deal beyond May 18.

Meet Israel’s Version of Marjorie Taylor Greene

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE

Tally Gotliv is the loudest, wackiest backbencher of Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing ruling coalition.


Lloyd Green
Updated Apr. 23, 2023 
OPINION

Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Since bursting onto the political scene with her election to Congress in 2020, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has represented the worst of right-wing American populism. She has no interest in debate, discourse, or policy. Rather, it’s about headlines and clicks, grievances and bomb-throwing. Now with Israel’s latest election, it seems, Israel’s ruling coalition has its own MTG.

That’s how some Israeli media are describing Knesset member Tally Gotliv, a backbench member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

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The freshman legislator is a constant presence on Israeli television and Twitter, ever-ready to trash the political left and swing a cudgel at Netanyahu’s nemeses. From the country’s Supreme Court to Yoav Gallant (the stiff-necked defense minister), no target is immune from her strafing.

Last November, she announced that Israel’s high court lacks the legal authority to invalidate laws enacted by the Knesset, Israel’s unicameral parliament. “I ignore such rulings,” she declared. “This is a ruling without authority, I do not respect it.” She was only warming up.

In February 2023, Gotliv scathingly blamed Supreme Court President Esther Hayut for a lethal Palestinian terror attack. “I blame the Supreme Court President for the terror attack. I blame her for the chaos in Israel,” Gotliv posted. “I blame President Hayut for destroying democracy and the rule of law.”

Later, Gotliv demanded that Netanyahu fire Gallant, saying there was no room for granting the former general a second chance to demonstrate fealty. Beyond that, she lauded Itamar Ben-Gvir, the firebrand internal security minister—formerly banned from government and the military for being too racist and extremist—as “excellent,” and then wished all a happy Passover.

After settlers rampaged through the Huwara, a Palestinian village, she refused to point a finger. “They asked me: ‘Don’t you condemn what happened in Huwara?’ I said to them, ‘Not today,’” Gotliv told the Knesset. “Tomorrow, but not today.”

Like MTG, Gotliv knows that her utility flows from her outrageousness. Both women channel the id of their respective political parties.

On a personal level, Gotliv withdrew from ultra-Orthodox Judaism, the world in which she was raised. MTG is an avatar of white Christian nationalism.

Gotliv last weekend laid her country’s woes at the feet of…Barack Obama (who left office in January 2017). With the camera rolling and in front of a very hot mic, she dished out a bowl of word salad for the ages.

“I’m helping my country from [the] inside… with no fear of anyone,” Gotliv ranted. She then accused former President Obama of paying the Israeli news outlet Walla for “advertisement[s] against Netanyahu.” She added, “So don’t tell me story, because I know how it works.”

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To reiterate, in a spasm of verbal incontinence, a member of Israel’s ruling coalition accused a former U.S. president of orchestrating a paid media campaign that targeted the incumbent Israeli prime minister—without offering a scintilla of proof. She may as well have said that Obama was born in Kenya to Martian parents (hey, it worked for Trump).

Substantively, Gotliv appears to have added her own spin to a report parroted by Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s older son, that the U.S. stood behind the ongoing anti-government protests. On that score, the right-leaning Washington Free Beacon and the far-right Breitbart previously drew a link between a $38,000 U.S. government grant to the Movement for Quality Government, an Israeli NGO, to the current wave of demonstrations. (For the record, the State Department has emphatically denied those allegations.)

But in seeking to assist Netanyahu, Gotliv may have complicated his predicament. She lashed out at the U.S. at the very moment Netanyahu could use a friend in the Oval Office. Since retaking the prime ministership, Bibi has not received an invitation to the White House. And just weeks ago, Joe Biden announced that he would not receive one in the “near term.”

Netanyahu’s attack on the judiciary weighs heavily on U.S.-Israel relations. According to a recent Pew poll, just a third of Americans possess confidence in him. Among Democrats, the number is one-in-six.

Either Gotliv didn’t get the memo, or she was playing to the Likud faithful. However offensive, her gambit is unoriginal. Still, Biden’s inner circle can’t be amused, even as history repeats itself.

“To reiterate, in a spasm of verbal incontinence, a member of Israel’s ruling coalition accused a former U.S. president of orchestrating a paid media campaign that targeted the incumbent Israeli prime minister—without offering a scintilla of proof.”

Team Bibi repeatedly clashed with Obama. In 2011, a microphone caught Obama telling Nikolas Sarkozy, France’s then-president: “You’re fed up with [Netanyahu] but I have to deal with him more often than you.” In the middle of the 2012 presidential campaign, Netanyahu returned the favor. He treated Obama’s 2012 presidential opponent, Mitt Romney, to a post-Tisha B’Av break-fast. (By way of background, the Tisha B’Av fast commemorates the destruction of the Temple and is a day of national mourning. Usually, the fast ends with a whimper, not a bang.)

Later, Netanyahu delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress—which some Democrats boycotted, as the prime minister had not been invited by the White House—in a bid to thwart the Iran nuclear agreement. In his 2022 pre-election memoir, Bibi recounted his past disagreements with the Obama administration, such as when Obama made “an Everest out of an ant hill” in opposing further Israeli expansion on disputed West Bank territory.

Biden, however, is no Obama. His relationship with the Jewish State stretches back decades. His rapport with Israel is the remnant of an earlier era when Democratic support for Israel was taken as a given.

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Yet, for members of Netanyahu’s cabinet, that fact stands as a distinction without a difference. Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister of Diaspora Affairs, unloaded on Tom Nides, Washington’s ambassador to Jerusalem, after he had said that the government should slow down its efforts to defenestrate the judiciary.

“Some official, I don’t know who he is, I never met him, suggested I should stay out of Israel’s business,” Nides clapped back. “I really think that most Israelis do not want America to stay out of their business.”

It’s under these fraught conditions that diplomacy and measured consideration are what’s in Israel’s interests. Sometimes domestic politics are felt beyond the water’s edge. Instead, a prickly and increasingly illiberal Israeli government continues to alienate its most crucial ally, the United States.

And now it’s got Gotliv, its own MTG, a loose cannon recklessly sounding off and riling up the Likud base. Like MTG, she makes the more “serious” members of her coalition look guilty by association. Now, that’s clout.

An Overseas Conflict Breeds Anti-Armenian Hate in America

CONNECT THE DOTS

It’s no coincidence that flyers calling to “complete the Armenian Genocide” are popping up around Los Angeles as Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian hostilities get worse.

Stephan Pechdimaldji
Updated Apr. 23, 2023 
OPINION

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters/Getty

Last month, flyers were posted on light poles throughout Glendale, California, calling for the “completion” of the Armenian Genocide. Earlier this year, similar flyers were found in Beverly Hills calling for the destruction of Armenia.

It’s been a brutal shock to the Armenian-American community in Los Angeles—upwards of 200,000 people—as tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to grow over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of historical Armenia. It’s not hard to connect the dots.

Armenians living in Los Angeles see these as hate crimes, meant to inflict pain as their families in both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh are currently being terrorized by Azerbaijan’s petro-dictator, Ilham Aliyev.

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They feel that these acts are not mutually exclusive. And as victims of the first genocide of the 20th century, when more than 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed by the Ottoman Turks, they see this type of aggression as a reminder of that painful past. (It is a history that both Turkey and Azerbaijan deny to this day.)

These latest attacks should be a warning sign that hate and violence in all its ugly forms don’t stop at the border.

In recent speeches and statements, Aliyev has unequivocally claimed that Armenia is Azerbaijan’s historical land, while calling Armenia “Western Azerbaijan.” He even said Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, belongs to his country.

This is the same leader who plants the seeds of hate by enacting a state policy that hatred towards the Armenian people be taught in schools across Azerbaijan. Since early December, Azerbaijan has implemented a blockade to the only road connected Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, which has rapidly become a humanitarian crisis.

By cutting off the only link to the outside world, Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh have been denied much needed supplies like food, medicine, and gas. This burgeoning catastrophe has led Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Pope Francis to voice their concern for the 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh—including 30,000 children—who are being deprived of basic human rights. And in February, the United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice, ordered Azerbaijan to end its blockade.

Put simply, Azerbaijan’s government is fostering a culture of hate and fear and is breeding a whole new generation of anti-Armenian sentiment—and it’s finding its way to Los Angeles.

Sadly, these types of hate crimes are not new to Armenians, but what is surprising is this type of bigotry is happening in Los Angeles, a region that prides itself on its progressivism, diversity, and acceptance of all cultures—and home to the largest population of Armenians outside of Armenia.

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That shock was only heightened when the Beverly Hills Police Department released a statement claiming that the anti-Armenian flyers were protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Since then, members of the Armenian community have been outraged by this type of selective policing and feel that their cries for help and justice are being ignored.

The Armenian people have suffered much pain and loss throughout their long and rich history. That is why Los Angeles needs to make sure that these hateful attacks stop and are taken seriously by city officials. They can start by using the upcoming Armenian Genocide Day of Remembrance on April 24 as an opportunity to ask themselves if they’re doing enough.

Holding Azerbaijan accountable for its role in perpetuating anti-Armenian hate in America is just one step in that direction.

Stephan Pechdimaldji is a communications strategist who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s a first-generation Armenian American and grandson to survivors of the Armenian genocide.

Why the 155 mm round is so critical to the war in Ukraine

By TARA COPP

yesterday

1 of 12
155 mm M795 artillery projectiles are stored during manufacturing process at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pa., Thursday, April 13, 2023. The 155 mm howitzer round is one of the most requested artillery munitions of the Ukraine war. Already the U.S. has shipped more than 1.5 million rounds to Ukraine, but Kyiv is still seeking more. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)


WASHINGTON (AP) — The 155 mm howitzer round is one of the most requested artillery munitions of the war in Ukraine. Already the U.S. has shipped more than 1.5 million rounds to Ukraine, but Kyiv is still seeking more.

A look at why this particular munition is so commonly used, and why it’s been so critical to the war in Ukraine.

WHAT IS THE 155 MM?

Essentially, the 155 mm round is a very big bullet, made up of four parts: the detonating fuse, projectile, propellant and primer.

Each round is about 2 feet (60 centimeters) long, weighs about 100 pounds (45 kilograms), and is 155 mm, or 6.1 inches, in diameter. They are used in howitzer systems, which are towed large guns that are identified by the range of the angle of fire that their barrels can be set to.

The 155 mm shells can be configured in many ways: They can be packed with highly explosive material, use precision guided systems, pierce armor or produce high fragmentation.

Past variants have included smoke rounds to obscure troop movement and illumination rounds to expose an enemy’s position.

“The 155 mm round and the similar Soviet-era 152 mm rounds are so popular because they provide a good balance between range and warhead size,” said Ryan Brobst, a research analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. “If you have too small a shell, it won’t do enough damage and go as far. If you have a larger shell, you can’t necessarily fire it as far. This is the most common middle ground, and that’s why it’s so widely used.”

155 MM HISTORY

The French first developed the 155 mm round to respond to World War I’s extensive trench warfare, and early versions included gas shells, Keri Pleasant, historian for the Army’s Joint Munitions Command, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

As World War I continued, the 155 mm gun became the most common artillery piece used by the Allies, Pleasant said, and the U.S. Army later adopted it as its standard field heavy artillery piece.

The U.S. military fielded its own version, the M1, for World War II. After the war, the new NATO alliance adopted the 155 mm as its artillery standard.

By the Korean War, the round had been modified again, with a cluster munition variant. “The round contained 88 submunitions, which were dispersed over a wide area to destroy vehicles, equipment, and personnel,” Pleasant said.


ITS USE IN UKRAINE

Howitzer fires can strike targets up to 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 kilometers) away, depending on what type of round and firing system is used, which makes them highly valued by ground forces to take out enemy targets from a protected distance.

“Adversaries don’t have much warning of it coming. And it’s harder to hide from incoming rounds that are arcing in from the top, which makes it highly lethal,” Brobst said.

In Ukraine, 155 mm rounds are being fired at a rate of 6,000 to 8,000 a day, said Ukrainian parliamentary member Oleksandra Ustinova, who serves on Ukraine’s wartime oversight committee. They are eclipsed by the estimated 40,000 Russian variant howitzer rounds fired at them, she told reporters at a recent Washington event sponsored by the German Marshall Fund.

The Pentagon previously had said how many rounds it was providing in each of the security assistance packages being sent about every two weeks to keep weapons and ammunition flowing into Ukraine. But it stopped specifying the number of 155 mm rounds shipped in each package in February, citing operational security.

However, in its overall count of assistance provided to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, the Pentagon says it has sent more than 160 155 mm howitzers, more than 1.5 million 155 mm rounds, more than 6,500 precision-guided 155 mm rounds and more than 14,000 155 mm Remote Anti-Armor Mine (RAAM) Systems — essentially a 155 mm shell packed with four mines that scatter on the ground and can take out a Russian tank if it drives over them.

Other countries have also provided howitzers, but Kyiv has continually asked for more. As of last year Ukrainian officials were requesting as many as 1,000 howitzer systems to push Russian forces back.

SPRING OFFENSIVE

As Ukraine prepares for an intense counteroffensive this spring, it will likely need to fire 7,000 to 9,000 155 mm shells a day, said Yehor Cherniev, a member of Ukraine’s parliament who spoke to reporters at the German Marshall Fund event.

In recent months, the Biden administration has been using presidential drawdown authority to send ammunition directly from U.S. military stockpiles to Ukraine, instead of having to wait and buy rounds from defense firms, so they can get there in time for the anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.

The U.S. has also been training Ukrainian troops in Germany on how to better use the 155 mm rounds in combined arms tactics — coordinating strikes with targeting information provided by forward-based troops and other armored systems to maximize damage and reduce the number of rounds needed to take out a target.

___

Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant contributed to this story.

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

Migrant fears grow as France eyes clearance of Mayotte shantytown


By AFP
Published April 23, 2023

Authorities in Mayotte are expected to launch Operation Wuambushu ('Take Back') to remove illegal migrants who have settled in slums - 

Copyright AFP Daniel LEAL 

Daphne ROUSSEAU

At the entrance to the Majicavo slum on France’s Indian Ocean territory Mayotte, which authorities are seeking to evacuate and demolish, a group gathered around a poster emblazoned with the French flag.

“Every day it’s this or that, they come from the town hall, or the police,” said Fatima Youssuf, 55, who, like most of the migrants on the territory, comes from the neighbouring Comoros Islands.

“It’s to destroy our property, our houses and yet there are people who have been there for 35 years!”, Youssouf said angrily, unable to read the placard.

Authorities in Mayotte were expected to launch Operation Wuambushu (“Take Back”) as early as this weekend to remove illegal migrants who have settled in slums on the island.

The plan is for those without papers to be sent back to the Comoran island of Anjouan, 70 kilometres (45 miles) away, although the Comoran authorities said Friday that they had no intention of accepting them.

In the settlement, the A4 size poster announced a ban on traffic between 5:30 am and 5:30 pm on Tuesday, leaving open the possibility that the slum, known locally as “bangas”, will be cleared by the authorities during that time.

Dubbed “Talus 2” the camp is a maze of blue-and-grey sheet metal on the side of a verdant hill, speckled with sewage, chickens and bright clothes drying outside.

Each metal door bears an identification number, painted in pink by social services.

Behind the door marked 126, the Soufou family live surrounded by wheeled suitcases and packed holdalls.

“We prepared the bags to leave, clothes, sheets, all of our stuff, but we’re not finished,” said Zenabou Soufou, 48, whose seven children are French thanks to their father, born on Mayotte.

On the bed were toy unicorns belonging to the Soufous’ three girls, which had not yet been packed.

The family said they have no idea where they would go, saying they had not been offered any alternative accommodation.

“We didn’t refuse to leave there (the slum), but we want a dignified house so that the children can live peacefully at home. But if they destroy our houses, where are we going to go with the children?” Zenabou asked.

People in the neighbourhood often cite the lack of any alternative option for opposition to being rehoused.

But an official involved in the resettlement told AFP: “This is false, there is a proposal made to each of these families, who accept it or not. It’s pure bad faith.”

In the Soufous’ case they may not be expelled from the island — but their current home is a different matter.

The family perfectly illustrates the social and the administrative headache that each case represents when it comes to a large-scale operation decided upon in faraway Paris.

– ‘Unliveable’ –

More than 2,000 police and administrative officials have been mobilised to set in train the expulsions of those illegally on the island and tear down the makeshift squats housing them.

At “Talus 2”, however, some residents have sought to get ahead of the clearance by leaving the site and heading out of immediate harm’s way.

Ouali Nedja Hamadi, 32, was born here and has grown up at the site — hence his rising anger at being forced out.

“I don’t want to be there” when the officials arrive, he told AFP from behind his sunglasses.

But those present when the operation started would not go quietly, he warned.

“Let them use tear gas, let them push — I shall be wanting to push back too,” said the young construction worker. Molotov cocktails would greet the police and officials when they arrived, he added.

He and other youths warn that the authorities will reap revenge and violence in the “civil war” he says will ensue.

Below the slum, there are those who are glad to see the notice explaining in black and white that the illegals must leave.

“We are forced to lock ourselves in all the time,” said childcare worker Ismaila Faiza. “You can’t walk around with valuables, like a watch, on you.

“If you take the car out of the yard, you never know in what state you’ll bring it back.”

The neighbourhood had become “unliveable” because of the neighbouring slum, she said.

“I can’t wait for (the clearance operation) to start so we can get our island back … our perfumed island,” she added. before ducking out of sight behind her own home’s secure automated gate.

250,000 Gallons of Sewage Spill Into Los Angeles River, Prompting Beach Closures

By Wire Service

April 23, 2023California

A sign that says "Beach Closed." (City of Long Beach)

Around 250,000 gallons of sewage was spilled into the Los Angeles River on Thursday, causing the closure of seven miles of public beaches, according to local authorities.

The massive spill was caused by a malfunction in equipment used by sanitation maintenance crews on Thursday morning, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts. The malfunction caused a blockage that resulted in an overflow of sewage in the city of Downey, which is about 15 miles from Long Beach, resulting in a spill that reached the Los Angeles River, the release said.

Sewage also overflowed into the streets, says the agency.

The city of Long Beach announced in a news release that all open coastal swimming areas would be temporarily closed due to the spill. The city cited a state law that requires temporary closures until the water quality meets state requirements.

“Water from the Los Angeles River connects to the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach, which means pollution anywhere upriver can affect the coastal waters of the City,” the city said in the release.

Sanitation crews finished their first round of cleaning Friday, but it is unclear when the beaches will reopen. Health authorities with the city of Long Beach are “currently monitoring water quality” on the beaches.

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OPINION | Death penalty for WhatsApp message – EU condemns blasphemy laws in Nigeria

An appeal is under way for a Nigerian man, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a Sufi musician in his early twenties, who is awaiting the death penalty in Kano State in the northern part of Nigeria. 

Photo: Blanchi Costela/Getty Images

Tragic human rights violations that inherently accompany blasphemy laws, such as those in Nigeria, need to stop urgently, writes Georgia du Plessis.

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Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a Sufi musician in his early twenties, is imprisoned and awaiting the death penalty in Kano State in the northern part of Nigeria. If his appeal fails, he will be hanged. His "crime"? Sharing a WhatsApp audio message allegedly insulting the prophet Muhammed.

Nigeria is one of only seven countries in the world—including Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania, and Saudi Arabia—with criminal blasphemy laws for which a person can be sentenced to death. Blasphemy laws in Nigeria are an offence found under Islamic law and criminalise religious expressions by the mere fact that they are offensive to some. Despite the Nigerian Constitution stating the contrary, the Kano State Sharia Penal Code mandates the penalty of death by hanging for insulting the Quran or any Muslim prophet. Laws such as this Penal Code, are a flagrant violation of the international right to freedom of religion or freedom of expression (especially articles 18 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) and a grave and inhumane act of censorship. 

Condemnation of blasphemy laws 

This week, the Parliament of the European Union in Strasbourg almost unanimously condemned blasphemy laws in Nigeria by adopting a resolution specifically focusing on the case of Yahaya - "blasphemy laws are in clear breach of international human rights obligations, in particular the ICCPR, and contrary to the Nigerian Constitution, which guarantees religious freedom and freedom of expression." During the Parliamentary debate on the resolution, Katalin Cseh, Member of the European Parliament, stated that the "fact that a person can be sentenced to death just for expressing themselves is a travesty of justice…"

Yahaya was first arrested and charged with "blasphemy” in March 2020 accompanied by a mob burning down his home. In August 2020, he was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging behind closed doors by the Hausawa Filin Hockey upper-Sharia court. The conviction was overturned, and a new trial ordered based on procedural irregularities. Sharif-Aminu remains in prison without bail while awaiting the Supreme Court's ruling. If he were to be tried again, it is highly unlikely that he would not be convicted and sentenced to death again. 

READ | Blasphemy convictions spark Nigerian debate over sharia law

Many others have also been significantly harmed by Nigeria's blasphemy and religious insult laws. Also referred to in the European Parliament resolution is Deborah Samuel Yakubu, a Christian college student from Sokoto. In May 2022, she was stoned and beaten to death by her classmates and her body burnt because of blasphemy allegations. 

Despite this bleak outlook, there is a glimmer of hope. The Nigerian Constitution protects the freedoms of thought, conscience, religion, and expression, including the ability to "receive and impart ideas and information without interference." Unlike the six other countries with death penalty blasphemy laws, Nigeria's Constitution prevents both federal and state governments from adopting any religion as state religion. For example, Sharia law can only be adopted for "personal matters". Also, the Supreme Court is Nigeria's highest court, and its word is final in all cases – including blasphemy laws. This case is historical in that it presents the first-ever opportunity for the Supreme Court of Nigeria to declare blasphemy laws unconstitutional. 

Violation of the African Charter

Not only does Nigeria's blasphemy laws violate the Nigerian Constitution, but it also violates the African Charter and the international right to freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief, especially article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This is more reason for the Supreme Court to declare the blasphemy laws unlawful.

READ | Nigeria frees Muslims accused of murder over blasphemy

The case of Yahaya has received significant international attention. For example, the legal advocacy organisation, ADF International, has directly supported this case and its lawyer Kola Alapinni. Advocating for the protection of fundamental freedoms and promoting the inherent dignity of all people, this organisation has been one of the major driving forces to bring attention to the fate of Yahaya and thousands of others subject to these draconian laws. Several major news outlets, such as CNN and BBC have also reported on this matter.

On 28 September 2020, United Nations human rights experts and bodies urged the Nigerian government to overturn the death sentence for Sharif-Aminu saying that "artistic expression of opinion and beliefs, through songs or other media – including those seen to offend religious sensibilities – is protected in accordance with international law. The criminalisation of these expressions is unlawful." His lawyer, Kola Alapinni, spoke on his behalf on the main stage of the 2023 International Religious Freedom Summit and asked everyone to "speak up loudly on Yahaya's behalf". 

Now, further international pushback and pressure comes from the European Parliament resolution condemning the fate not only of youngsters like Deborah and Yahaya but also of all those affected by such blasphemy laws and persecuted due to their faith. The resolution calls upon Nigeria to immediately withdraw the use of capital punishment for blasphemy and take steps towards the full abolition of such laws. 

These tragic human rights violations that inherently accompany blasphemy laws, such as those in Nigeria, need to stop urgently. The strong condemnation of blasphemy laws in Nigeria by the European Union will hopefully prompt the Nigerian government to release Yahaya, abolish blasphemy laws altogether and free all others convicted under these draconian laws. 

- Georgia du Plessis is a Legal Officer at ADF International, and a Research Fellow at University of the Free State.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SUFIS 

‘Plasticosis’ in Seabirds Could Herald New Era of Animal Disease

Ocean animals are growing sicker from ingesting too much plastic

By Matthew Savoca, The Conversation US 

on March 22, 2023

Scientists have identified a condition called plasticosis, caused by ingesting plastic waste, in Flesh-footed Shearwaters. Credit: Nature Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo

The following essay is reprinted with permission fromThe Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.

As a conservation biologist who studies plastic ingestion by marine wildlife, I can count on the same question whenever I present research: “How does plastic affect the animals that eat it?” 

This is one of the biggest questions in this field, and the verdict is still out. However, a recent study from the Adrift Lab, a group of Australian and international scientists who study plastic pollution, adds to a growing body of evidence that ingesting plastic debris has discernible chronic effects on the animals that consume it. This work represents a crucial step: moving from knowing that plastic is everywhere to diagnosing its effects once ingested. 

FROM INDIVIDUAL TO SPECIES-LEVEL EFFECTS

There’s wide agreement that the world is facing a plastic pollution crisis. This deluge of long-lived debris has generated gruesome photos of dead seabirds and whales with their stomachs full of plastic. 

But while consuming plastic likely killed these individual animals, deaths directly attributable to plastic ingestion have not yet been shown to cause population-level effects on species – that is, declines in population numbers over time that are linked to chronic health effects from a specific pollutant. 

One well-known example of a pollutant with dramatic population effects is the insecticide DDT, which was widely used across North America in the 1950s and 1960s. DDT built up in the environment, including in fish that eagles, osprey and other birds consumed. It caused the birds to lay eggs with shells so thin that they often broke in the nest. 

DDT exposure led to dramatic population declines among bald eagles, ospreys and other raptors across the U.S. They gradually began to recover after the Environmental Protection Agency banned most uses of DDT in 1972.

Ingesting plastic can harm wildlife without causing death via starvation or intestinal blockage. But subtler, sublethal effects, like those described above for DDT, could be much farther-reaching.

Particulates of plastic debris fed to Flesh-footed Shearwater (Puffinus carneipes) chicks by a parent bird. 

Credit: Nature Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo

Numerous laboratory studies, some dating back a decade, have demonstrated chronic effects on invertebrates, mammals, birds and fish from ingesting plastic. They include changes in behavior, loss of body weight and condition, reduced feeding rates, decreased ability to produce offspring, chemical imbalances in organisms’ bodies and changes in gene expression, to name a few. 

However, laboratory studies are often poor representations of reality. Documenting often-invisible, sublethal effects in wild animals that are definitively linked to plastic itself has remained elusive. For example, in 2022, colleagues and I published a study that found that some baleen whales ingest millions of microplastics per day when feeding, but we have not yet uncovered any effects on the whales’ health. 

SCARRING SEABIRDS’ DIGESTIVE TRACTS

The Adrift Lab’s research focuses on the elegant flesh-footed shearwater (Ardenna carneipes), a medium-size seabird with dark feathers and a powerful hooked bill. The lab studied shearwaters nesting on Lord Howe Island, a tiny speck of land 6 miles long by one mile wide (16 square kilometers) in the Tasman Sea east of Australia.

This region has only moderate levels of floating plastic pollution. But shearwaters, as well as petrels and albatrosses, are part of a class known as tube-nosed seabirds, with tubular nostrils and an excellent senses of smell. As I have found in my own research, tube-nosed seabirds are highly skilled at seeking out plastic debris, which may smell like a good place to find food because of algae that coats it in the water. Indeed, the flesh-footed shearwater has one of the highest plastic ingestion rates of any species yet studied. 

Marine ecologist Jennifer Lavers, head of the Adrift Lab, has been studying plastic debris consumption in this wild shearwater population for over a decade. In 2014 the lab began publishing research linking ingested plastic to sublethal health effects.

In 2019, Lavers led a study that described correlations between ingested plastic and various aspects of blood chemistry. Birds that ingested more plastic had lower blood calcium levels, along with higher levels of cholesterol and uric acid. 

In January 2023, Lavers’ group published a paper that found multiorgan damage in these shearwaters from ingesting both microplastic fragments, measuring less than a quarter inch (five millimeters) across, and larger macroplastic particles. These findings included the first description of overproduction of scar tissue in the birds’ proventriculus – the part of their stomach where chemical digestion occurs. 

This process, known as fibrosis, is a sign that the body is responding to injury or damage. In humans, fibrosis is found in the lungs of longtime smokers and people with repeated, prolonged exposure to asbestos. It also is seen in the livers of heavy drinkers. A buildup of excessive scar tissue leads to reduced organ function, and may allow diseases to enter the body via the damaged organs. 

A NEW AGE OF PLASTIC DISEASE

The Adrift Lab’s newest paper takes these findings still further. The researchers found a positive relationship between the amount of plastic in the proventriculus and the degree of scarring. They concluded that ingested plastic was causing the scarring, a phenomenon they call “plasticosis.” 

These images show scarring (blue) in the stomachs of Flesh-footed Shearwaters, from least affected, at left, to most affected, at right. Researchers attributed the scarring to ingestion of plastic fragments. 

Credit: “‘Plasticosis’: Characterising Macro- and Microplastic-Associated Fibrosis in Seabird Tissues,” by Hayley S. Charlton-Howard et al., in Journal of Hazardous Materials, Vol. 450; May 15, 2023 (CC BY 4.0)

Many species of birds purposefully consume small stones and grit, which collect in their gizzards – the second part of their stomachs – and help the birds digest their food by pulverizing it. Critically, however, this grit, which is sometimes called pumice, is not associated with fibrosis. 

Scientists have observed associations between plastic ingestion and pathogenic illness in fish. Plasticosis may help explain how pathogens find their way into the body via a lacerated digestive tract. 

Seabirds were the first sentinels of possible risks to marine life from plastics: A 1969 study described examining young Laysan albatrosses (Phoebastria immutabilis) that had died in Hawaii and finding plastic in their stomachs. So perhaps it is fitting that the first disease attributed specifically to marine plastic debris has also been described in a seabird. In my view, plasticosis could be a sign that a new age of disease is upon us because of human overuse of plastics and other long-lasting contaminants, and their leakage into the environment. 

In 2022, United Nations member nations voted to negotiate a global treaty to end plastic pollution, with a target completion date of 2024. This would be the first binding agreement to address plastic pollution in a concerted and coordinated manner. The identification of plasticosis in shearwaters shows that there is no time to waste.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.