World's oldest dog turns 31 in Portugal


Bobi, the world's oldest dog, celebrates his 31st birthday on Thursday. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records

May 11 (UPI) -- The world's oldest dog, a Portugal canine named Bobi, is celebrating his milestone 31st birthday on Thursday.

Bobi, born May 11, 1992, was named the world's oldest dog living and oldest dog ever by Guinness World Records earlier this year.

Bobi has lived in the village of Conqueiros with his owner, Leonel Costa, 38, for his entire life.

Costa said a party is being held Saturday to celebrate Bobi's 31st birthday. He said the party will feature more than 100 guests, including fans flying in from other countries.

Costa said he has had several long-lived dogs in the past, including Bobi's mother, Gira, who lived to the age of 18.

"If Bobi spoke only he could explain this," Costa told Guinness World Records. "We see situations like this as a normal result of the life that they have, but Bobi is one of a kind."

Costa, who was 8 years old when Bobi was born, said he sees the dog as a link to the previous generations of his own family.

"Bobi is special because looking at him is like remembering the people who were part of our family and unfortunately are no longer here, like my father, my brother, or my grandparents who have already left this world," he said. "Bobi represents those generations."

Moroccan locust outbreak in Afghanistan could cause massive crop losses


The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization says an outbreak of Moroccan locusts in Afghanistan's "wheat basket" could cause massive crop losses. Pictured is a locust swarm in southwestern Morocco. Photo by Magnus Ullman/Wikimedia Commons

May 11 (UPI) -- A big Moroccan locust outbreak in Afghanistan's "wheat basket" could cause massive crop losses and dramatically worsen food insecurity, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

"The reports of Moroccan locust outbreak in Afghanistan's wheat basket is a huge concern," said the FAO's Richard Trenchard in a statement. "The Moroccan locust eats more than 150 species of plants, including tree crops, pastures and 50 food crops, all of which grow in Afghanistan. It represents an enormous threat to farmers, communities and the entire country."

A full outbreak this year could destroy a quarter of the total annual harvest. With pesticides in short supply, the FAO said thousands of people are working day and night in Afghanistan to eradicate the locusts using traditional mechanical control methods.

Those methods are aimed at destroying the locusts before they develop into adults and form massive swarms.

If left untreated, the Moroccan locusts could multiply by a hundred times next year, according to the FAO.

The locusts at different development stages have been seen in the Afghan provinces of Badakhshan, Badghis, Baghlan, Balkh, Kunduz, Samangan, Sar-e-Pul, Takhar, Heart and Ghor.

Trenchard said the FAO is working with local communities, local authorities and NGO's to fight the outbreak. He said there has been a "a strong, rapid and encouraging response from the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, although their capacity to respond is heavily constrained by a lack of resources."

The FAO said conditions this year in Afghanistan were perfect for locust outbreaks due to over-grazing, drought and very limited control measures, creating an "ideal environment for locusts to hatch and swarm."

New task force to investigate environmental crimes in Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands

May 11 (UPI) -- A new Department of Justice task force announced Thursday will investigate and prosecute federal environmental crimes in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The force will focus on illegal harm to the environment and wildlife, as well as human health, officials said, adding that agents will be investigating any possible associated fraud, waste or other abuse in the region.

"All communities deserve clean air, clean water, and the robust protection of their natural resources -- both, today and for generations to come," said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim in a statement. "This task force demonstrates the department's continued commitment to environmental justice and its comprehensive strategy to address significant concerns faced by communities overburdened with pollution."

Law enforcement personnel from 16 agencies will work closely with local counterparts to enforce environmental laws in the region.

"Environmental justice and ensuring that all residents of Puerto Rico enjoy a healthy environment free of hazardous waste and other pollutants is a top priority of the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Justice Department," said U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow for the District of Puerto Rico in a statement. "This Task Force will combine and leverage resources from many federal agencies to aggressively enforce civil and criminal environmental laws."

Also on Thursday, a federal grand jury in Puerto Rico indicted two men over violations of the Clean Water Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act. They allegedly built illegal structures and dumped construction fill material into waters and wetlands of the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and Las Mareas community of Salinas.

Luis Enrique Rodriguez Sanchez and Pedro Luis Bones Torres face up to fours years in prison along with fines and injunctive relief to remove the structures.

The Jobos Bay site was designated in 1981 as a National Estuarine Research Reserve. It consists of about 2,800 acres of coastal ecosystems in the southern coastal plain of Puerto Rico.

ZIONIST ASSASSINATION
Questions remain year after journalist Shireen Abu Akleh killed in West Bank


A Palestinian walks past a mural of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem in 2022. The one-year anniversary of her shooting death Thursday sparked more calls for an independent probe into her death. File Photo by Debbie Hill/UP | License Photo

May 11 (UPI) -- Journalists, the Carter Center and others on Thursday reiterated calls for an official investigation into the fatal shooting of reporter Shireen Abu Akleh on the one-year anniversary of her death in the West Bank.

Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian-American journalist working for Al Jazeera, was covering an Israeli military raid on a refugee camp in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on May 11, 2022, when she was killed by gunfire.

Israeli and United Nations investigations concluded that the bullets likely came from Israeli military gunfire. The Israeli government admitted in September there was a "high possibility" that Abu Akleh was hit by its forces but has claimed the death was accidental and has since refused to pursue any further investigation.

Published reports, however, have since cast doubt on Israel's contention. A Washington Post investigation concluded last year the fatal shot came from an Israeli soldier during a moment of relative calm, not during the heat of battle as Israel has claimed.

The incident also fit a pattern of 20 reporters -- 18 of whom were Palestinian -- whose deaths can be attributed to the IDF since 2001, the newspaper found. No one has been charged or held accountable for any of them.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the family of Abu Akleh last year, promising a "commitment to pursue accountability for her tragic killing." The FBI in November opened an investigation but has not provided any further information about the probe.

The anniversary of Abu Akleh's death was marked in Washington in an event held by the National Press Club.

Al Jazeera asks for ICC to investigate Abu Akleh's death

Abu Akleh "learned how to keep safe while publishing news in risky areas," said NPC President Eileen Drage O'Reilly. "She wore her vest marked 'press' and her and helmet and followed all of the safety protocols that meant she should have been safe. But she was killed exactly one year ago today."

Journalists, she said, "are still waiting for an independent and impartial investigation into what happened one year later. Saying the shot came from the direction of the IDF, or that there was no intent, is not justice."

Her call was echoed by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

"As President [Joe] Biden recently made clear at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, we have a duty to protect American citizens around the world," he said. "As he also said, we have a duty to help protect journalists who work to present the facts and report the truth. That's why we must not rest until we get all the facts about the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh.

"One year later, I am still committed to getting the full truth about her killing and getting accountability -- and I will not stop pressing until we have them."

The Carter Center also urged the more action on the case in a statement issued Thursday.

"This highlights the urgent need for the United States to prioritize journalists' safety and bring to justice those responsible," the group said.

"We urge the U.S. government to release the complete and unedited U.S. security coordinator report to members of Congress under appropriate classification and to hold those responsible accountable for their actions."

"I am appalled that we are marking the one-year anniversary of Shireen's killing and that Israel has yet to pursue any credible investigation into her killing," said Frane Maroević, executive director of the Vienna-based International Press Institute.

"Shireen's killing represents a deeply disturbing attack on the press, not least because of credible reports that she and other journalists were intentionally targeted by Israeli forces, but also in light of rampant impunity for crimes against journalists by Israel in the occupied Palestine territory," he added in a statement.

SpaceX says it will launch first commercial space station by mid-2025

SpaceX confirmed Wednesday it signed a contract to launch the world’s first commercial space station, being built by private aerospace firm Vast. Photo courtesy of Vast

May 10 (UPI) -- SpaceX confirmed Wednesday it signed a contract to launch the world's first commercial space station.

The company also will perform manned space flights shortly after launching the station into orbit "no later than August 2025," SpaceX said in a statement.

The Haven-1 space station is being built by Vast, a private aerospace company based in Long Beach, Calif. Its "mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space -- a future in which the human population and our resources expand far beyond our current imagination."

Vast is solely funded by its billionaire founder and CEO Jed McCaleb.

SpaceX will use its Falcon 9 rocket to carry the Haven-1 station into orbit.

Manned crews will then use the company's Dragon reusable spacecraft to get to the space station, docking for up to 30 days while in orbit.

Vast plans for the initial module to become part of a larger 100-meter-long multi-module spinning space station with artificial gravity.

SpaceX confirmed it also will provide crew training, as well as spacesuit and spacecraft ingress and egress exercises. SpaceX also will conduct mission simulations, as part of the agreement with Vast.

"A commercial rocket launching a commercial spacecraft with commercial astronauts to a commercial space station is the future of low-Earth orbit, and with Vast we're taking another step toward making that future a reality," SpaceX Senior Vice President of Commercial Business Tom Ochinero said in a statement.

"The SpaceX team couldn't be more excited to launch Vast's Haven-1 and support their follow-on human spaceflight missions to the orbiting commercial space station."

Crew selection is underway, the company said Wednesday, and will be announced at a future date.

"Vast is thrilled to embark on this journey of launching the world's first commercial space station, Haven-1, and its first crew, Vast-1," McCaleb said in a statement.

"We are grateful to SpaceX for this exciting partnership that represents the first steps in Vast's long-term vision of launching much larger, artificial gravity space stations in Earth orbit and beyond."

Images from NASA's Mars Perseverance rover show evidence of ancient deep rivers

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover transmitted this image of a geological formation on the planet's surface known as "Shrinkle Haven" to scientists. Researchers believe the structures in the image are evidence that ancient rivers flowed much faster and deeper than previously believed. 

Photo courtesy of NASA

May 11 (UPI) -- Images transmitted to Earth from NASA's Perseverance rover may show evidence that ancient rivers that once flowed over the planet ran much deeper, and flowed much faster, than researchers previously thought.

A composite image was created by piecing together hundreds of images taken with Perseverance's Mastcam-Z instrument.

For two years, Perseverance has been researching in the area of the Jezero crater, which is home to a rippled area known to scientists as "the curvilinear unit," which is believed to have once been the location of a series of waterways.

The "curvilinear unit" was previous observed from orbit, but Perseverance has given researchers an opportunity to observe the area more closely.

Mars reveals liquid core as scientists measure first seismic waves

The image was taken on a geological structure within the curvilinear unit known as "Shrinkle Haven" to researchers.

A second composite image, taken about a quarter mile from "Shrinkle Haven" shows a hill dubbed "Pinestand" by scientists, along with a series of ripples in the foreground.

A second composite image shows a hill known as "Pinestand" to scientists along with a series of ripples that are believed to have been created by flowing water.

 Photo courtesy of NASA

The scientific consensus is that the ripples at "Shrinkle Haven" and "Pinestand" were created by water, but there is uncertainty over how substantial the water flow was.

Volcanic eruption created extremely rare mineral found on Mars

"We do see deposits like this on Earth, but they're never as well exposed as they are here on Mars. Earth is covered in vegetation that covers these layers," said Michael Lamb, a river specialist who works with the Perseverance science team.

The ripples in the image are also believed to have been worn down by wind over millions of years.

"The wind has acted like a scalpel that has cut the tops off these deposits," said Lamb.

NASA adds 2 helicopters to mission to bring Mars samples back to Earth

"Those indicate a high-energy river that's truckin' and carrying a lot of debris. The more powerful flow of water, the more easily its able to move larger pieces of material," said Libby Ives, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which operates the Perseverance rover.

In addition to observing geographical formations on the surface of Mars, Perseverance is equipped with a ground-penetrating radar system, the Rader Imager for Mars' Subsurface Experiment, that can observe geographical formations below the planet's surface.

Future NASA missions will collect samples that have been gathered by Perseverance and return them to Earth.

Massive Chicago River snapping turtle dubbed 'Chonkasaurus'

May 11 (UPI) -- A giant snapping turtle dubbed Chonkasaurus is becoming an online celebrity after it was caught on camera lounging on some rocks in the Chicago River.

Joey Santore posted a video to Twitter showing the gargantuan amphibian he spotted enjoying the sun near Goose Island on the North Branch of the Chicago River.

"Great to see this beast thriving here on what was once such a toxic river, but is slowly getting cleaned up & restored. Somebody planted a bunch of native plants up the river from here, too. I can only wonder this things been eating," Santore wrote.

The massive snapping turtle was dubbed "Chonkasaurus" by locals.

Santore estimated the snapping turtle, believed to be a female, weighs at least 60 pounds.

Biologists said Chonkasaurus appears to be 40 to 50 years old.

CLIMATE CRI$I$ DENIAL

Fed's Waller says climate change does not deserve special financial treatment

Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller said climate change does not deserve "special treatment" from monetary policymakers, while it may cause an impact on local communities such as flooding seen here from Hurricane Ian in Naples, Fla. 

File Photo courtesy of the Naples Police Department

May 11 (UPI) -- U.S. Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller on Thursday acknowledged the existence of climate change but said it does not warrant special consideration when assessing financial risks.

"Climate change is real, but I do not believe it poses a serious risk to the safety and soundness of large banks or the financial stability of the United States," he said in his prepared remarks to an audience at Spain's central bank in Madrid.

Waller noted, meanwhile, that the case could be made that the Fed is giving climate change "special treatment" due to the creation of a Financial Stability Committee, for example, but that was simply not the case.

Physical risks such as forest fires or hurricanes are certainly cause for financial concern in the area they impact but not on a major economic scale, he said.

"These events, of course, are devastating to local communities," he said. "But they are not material enough to pose an outsized risk to the overall U.S. economy."

A 2022 report from The Brookings Institution that followed a vote at the Securities and Exchange Commission to require public companies to reveal any risks from climate change suggested, however, that the risks are real.

Analysts at Brookings said that more than 40 weather-related disasters from 2020-2022 inflicted well over $1 billion in damage.

Waller's comments, meanwhile, are in contrast to a position taken by the Federal Reserve Bank in San Fransisco, which said in 2021 that climate change "will result in economic and financial losses for many businesses, households, and governments" that require attention.

Nevertheless, Waller said that risks are risks and it is unreasonable to give undue attention to any single factor.

"My job is to make sure that the financial system is resilient to a range of risks," he said. "And I believe risks posed by climate change are not sufficiently unique or material to merit special treatment relative to other

His remarks followed last week's rate hike of 25 basis points from the Federal Reserve. When announcing the hike, Fed Chair Jerome Powell focused largely on concerns in the U.S. banking sector given the recent failures from the likes of California's Silicon Valley Bank.

Elsewhere, Powell said the Fed has a dual mandate to keep employment levels healthy while at the same time creating stable prices for consumers. Recent data on both consumer-level and wholesale prices show some moderation, but a core metric of inflation remains above the 2% target rate set by the Fed.

FDA issues new rules, makes it easier for gay, bisexual men to donate blood

By Matt Bernardini

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved new rules that could make it easier for gay and bisexual men to donate blood. 

File Photo by Alyssa Banta/UPI | License Photo

May 11 (UPI) -- The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved new rules that could make it easier for gay and bisexual men to donate blood.

The agency said it will require questions pertaining to the risk of transfusion of HIV to be the same for every donor, regardless of sexual orientation, sex or gender.

The new policy brings the United States in line with countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom and expands the number of people eligible to donate blood.

"The implementation of these recommendations will represent a significant milestone for the agency and the LGBTQI+ community," Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. "The FDA is committed to working closely with the blood collection industry to help ensure timely implementation of the new recommendations, and we will continue to monitor the safety of the blood supply once this individual risk-based approach is in place."

The agency's current guidelines require men who have sex with other men to wait three months before they donate blood. Before 2020, a 12-month waiting period was required.

The new policy eliminates those time restrictions, giving all prospective donors the same set of questions. Marks said the science supported these changes.

"The FDA has worked diligently to evaluate our policies and ensure we had the scientific evidence to support individual risk assessment for donor eligibility while maintaining appropriate safeguards to protect recipients of blood products," Marks said

The new rules come at a time when blood banks across the country are reporting shortages. According to The Week, the American Red Cross declared its first-ever blood crisis in January 2022 after a 10% decline in the number of people donating.

GLAAD, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, applauded the FDA's decision, saying it was an important move away from homophobia.

"The FDA's decision to follow science and issue new recommendations for all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation, who selflessly donate blood to help save lives, signals the beginning of the end of a dark and discriminatory past rooted in fear and homophobia," Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, told UPI.

Supreme Court rejects pork industry challenge to California animal welfare law
By Matt Bernardini

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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals demonstrate outside the Supreme Court on Thursday after the court rejected a challenge to a California law that bans the sale of pork that comes from breeding pigs in small spaces. 

May 11 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to a California law that bans the sale of pork that comes from breeding pigs in small spaces.

The law, called Proposition 12, was approved by California voters in 2018 and bans the sale in California of eggs, pork and veal from facilities that confine animals in small cages.

Thursday the Supreme Court said that it did not unlawfully regulate pork produced in other states, as a group of farm interests had claimed. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, saying that the pork producers were seeking to have the court impose restrictions on the ability of states to regulate goods sold within their borders.

"While the Constitution addresses many weighty issues, the type of pork chops California merchants may sell is not on that list," Gorsuch said.

The Humane Society of the United States, which had intervened to support California, applauded Thursday's decision.

"Today's news demonstrates loud and clear that the future is cage-free," Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, said in a statement.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals demonstrate outside the Supreme Court on Thursday after the court rejected a challenge to a California law that bans the sale of pork that comes from breeding pigs in small spaces. The law, called Proposition 12, was approved by California voters in 2018 and bans the sale in California of eggs, pork and veal from facilities that confine animals in small cages. 

The National Pork Producers Council, which represents the pork industry, and the American Farm Bureau Federation, which represents farming interests, sued California in 2019, saying the law violates the commerce clause. They argued that the state's law interferes with interstate commerce because much of the pork sold in California is produced elsewhere.

"We are very disappointed with the Supreme Court's opinion. Allowing state overreach will increase prices for consumers and drive small farms out of business, leading to more consolidation," Scott Hays, president of the National Pork Producers Council, said in a statement according to NBC News.

The other justices in the majority were Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

Ingrid Newkirk, President of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, demonstrates outside the Supreme Court on Thursday. 

Photos by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo