Stock assessments show Maritime lobster population strong, fishery sustainable
CBC
Mon, May 22, 2023
So far, increasing water temperatures don't appear to have affected lobster stocks in Atlantic Canada. (Brian McInnis/CBC - image credit)
Lobster populations off all three Maritime provinces remain strong and the $1.7-billion fishery is sustainable, according to the latest assessments from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
It's good news for coastal communities, but warming ocean temperatures caused by climate change is a potential cloud on the horizon.
Adam Cook is a DFO biologist who tracks lobster populations along the Scotian Shelf and Bay of Fundy — waters that support nearly 3,000 commercial licence holders in 12 lobster fishing areas (LFAs).
Cook and his colleagues recently posted stock assessments for 2022. He said all LFAs in the Maritimes are in a healthy zone for stock status.
"Which suggests there's still enough lobster to not raise any sort of conservation concerns. The commercial biomass is doing quite well," Cook said.
It's the same story in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, although DFO's stock assessments for five fishings area in that region have not been posted.
Healthy zone
"Our official publication has yet to be released, but it should not be a huge surprise or secret to anybody that the Gulf lobster stock is still thriving and in the healthy zone," said Amelie Rondeau, a division manager for ecosystem science for DFO in the Gulf region.
LFA 34 off southern Nova Scotia accounts for 20 per cent of all Canadian landings and 10 per cent of North American totals.
Landings have averaged 21,800 tonnes annually over the past five years — high relative to historic levels, but down from the peak of nearly 30,000 tonnes in 2016.
CBC/Source: DFO
In LFA 33 next door — from Halifax to Shelburne County — landings have fallen from 8,400 tonnes in 2017-18 to a little over 7,000 tonnes in 2021-2022.
Both fishing areas remain firmly in the healthy zone, but scientists want to know if the population decline is part of a natural cycle or if climate change is playing a part.
Since 2012, there have been several unusually warm water years in the area — including 2022, when record-high temperatures were broken.
CIimate change concerns
"So it is something we're monitoring," said Cook. "We're currently working through some analysis to see what that impact could be. Whether we can already detect it or when we might expect to see some of those changes."
Cooks says warming water is most likely to negatively affect young lobster and it would be seven to eight years before it shows up in landings.
"Those are the sort of things we are looking at from warm water events that may be affecting reproduction survival," Cook said.
CBC
Dan Fleck represents inshore fishermen in southwest Nova Scotia. He said catches in the 2022-23 winter season have dropped — especially this spring.
"We're pleased to hear that positive information that we are still within the healthy zone, but we are concerned because we have members between Eastern Passage and Digby and there are some pretty grim stories coming out," Fleck said. "Some people [are] down 40 plus per cent, other people not as much. But when we average that out, it's down 25 per cent."
Fishermen are also watching for the impact of rising ocean temperatures, aware of the dwindling lobster catches off southern New England.
Lobsters a resilient species
"We've seen some serious downturns over the last number of years in the southern waters and is it global warming, water temperatures, stocks migrating?"
Cook says there is no smoking gun to explain the dip off southern Nova Scotia.
Lobsters are more resilient than species that survive within a narrow temperature range like snow crabs. Lobsters can tolerate a broader range of temperatures.
"I'm not ready to put it on a single factor right now. We are coming down from the all-time high that we've ever seen for lobster stocks within that area. So at some point, populations are going to decline through natural cycles," Cook said. "We're working to try and parse out that variability, so be able to describe how much variability is in the system and whether we're seeing trends that we can relate back to various factors that are changing."
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‘Uncommon’ creature — with ‘groins of fire’ — discovered as new species in Peru
Aspen Pflughoeft
Mon, May 22, 2023
Walking through the Peruvian Amazon at night, a pair of researchers noticed something tucked among the leaves. The scientists took a closer look at the creature — and discovered a new species.
Study co-authors Germán Chávez and Wilmar Aznaran were surveying a “well-visited” lowland forest in central Peru, Chávez wrote in a May 17 Pensoft blog post. One night, they spotted a small treefrog unlike any they’d ever seen.
“We were quite surprised and kind of speechless,” Chávez said in the blog post. “Externally, the frog is clearly different from any other similar species, and that was evident for us at the very moment we caught it.”
Seen from the top, the roughly 1.5-inch-long treefrog has a dark brown coloring with some speckles of green, according to a study published May 9 in the journal Evolutionary Systems. The animal’s skin looks almost bumpy and textured, photos show.
Scinax pyroinguinis as seen from above.
From the underside, the treefrog has “bright orange blotches” along its groins, thighs and legs, researchers said. Photos show the frog’s cream-colored stomach and vibrant, almost fluorescent, orange spots.
Researchers named the new species Scinax pyroinguinis, a Latin name meaning “groins of fire,” after the creature’s “striking” coloring. The name also refers to “the flames of the wildfires threatening its habitat,” the study said.
Scinax pyroinguinis was found only in a small forest patch near the Ucayali River, the study said. The treefrog’s habitat “was surrounded by farms where vegetation has been burnt or converted to pastures.” The remaining forest is still at risk of wildfires.
The underside of Scinax pyroinguinis.
“We hope that this discovery encourages people and institutions to protect these remnant forests in central Peru, because they may yet harbour unknown species,” Chávez wrote in the blog post. “ If these forests disappear, we will probably lose a diversity that we do not even know now yet, and may never will.”
The new species is morphologically and genetically distinct from other treefrog species, the study said.
Researchers described Scinax pyroinguinis as an “uncommon” animal. In 108 days searching for the treefrog, researchers found only two specimens, the study said.
Still, researchers “tentatively” identified Scinax pyroinguinis as the “most basal” species of its taxonomic group, the study says. This evolutionary categorization means the newly discovered frog likely gave rise to other species of treefrog.
Chávez told McClatchy News that he hopes to study the new species further in upcoming surveys. “We still need to know more about its reproduction and population status. Our hopes are lying on the next rainy season,” he said.
The Ucayali River is about 330 miles northeast of Lima.
‘Dancing’ creature emerges after rainfall — and discovered as new species in Thailand
Aspen Pflughoeft
Mon, May 22, 2023
A small creature crawled along the rain-dampened ground in a forest in Thailand. The animal’s “dance-like movement” caught the attention of researchers who took a closer look and discovered a new species.
Researchers spotted the animal in a limestone rock area of the Phu Pha Lom Forest, according to a study published May 19 in the journal ZooKeys. They surveyed the area after rainfall and discovered the creature “hiding on the ground and in the leaf litter.”
The animal was identified as a new species of “dancing” semislug: Cryptosemelus niger, researchers said.
Semislugs are slug-like molluscs with snail-like shells that are too small for them to live inside. Dancing semislugs are named for the “dance-like movements that it makes when it is disturbed or attacked,” researchers said.
When the new species was disturbed, “they escaped by quickly flipping and (wagging) their tail,” the study said. Researchers don’t know Cryptosemelus niger’s natural predators but suggested the “dancing” escape mechanisms might be used to avoid carnivorous snails found in the area.
Cryptosemelus niger as seen on a leaf.
Cryptosemelus niger has a “blackish body” with a “dark brown” shell and four antenna-like structures jutting out from its head, researchers said.
Photos show the animal’s coloring and the deep textured grooves on its skin. Among the soil and wood of its habitat, the semislug appears to blend in relatively well.
The new species was named after the Latin word for “black” because of its distinct coloring, the study said.
Cryptosemelus niger crawling along ground.
Researchers identified the new species by its morphological characteristics, specifically its tongue-like radula structure, genitalia and body coloring, the study said. They did not analyze the semislug’s DNA or compare its genetic composition to other species.
“Future studies on the (molluscs) of the northeastern part of Thailand require more surveys in overlooked and isolated natural areas,” the study said.
The Phu Pha Lom Forest is about 325 miles northeast of Bangkok and near the Thailand-Laos border.
Hundreds of new species discovered in this remote part of the world, researcher say
JULIA JACOBO
Mon, May 22, 2023
PHOTO: Cyrtodactylus rukhadeva (Thai Nation Parks)
Researchers have discovered hundreds of new animal and plant species in remote parts of the world previously inaccessible to humans, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Among the 380 newly found species include animal vertebrates such as a color-changing lizard, a thick-thumbed bat, a poisonous snake named after a Chinese mythological goddess, an orchid that looks like a muppet and a tree frog with skin that resembles thick moss. They were all found in the greater Mekong region in Asia, according to the WWF's New Species Discoveries report published on Sunday.
Along the Mekong River, which separates Laos and Thailand, lies miles and miles of forests housed in mountainous regions. Without roads, people have no access to the undiscovered species, which causes them to remain a mystery but also allows them to thrive, K. Yoganand, conservation biologist and wildlife ecologist and WWF-Greater Mekong regional wildlife lead, told ABC News.
"These species have been there," Yoganand said. "It's just, they've escaped, so far, the human destruction."
PHOTO: Theloderma khoii. (Le Khac Quyet and Nguyen Thien Tao via WWF)
Hundreds of scientists from universities, conservation organizations and research institutes around the world discovered 290 plants, 19 fishes, 24 amphibians, 46 reptiles and one mammal in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, according to WWF.
The lush evergreen forests drenched regularly by rainfall and hidden in the mountains may contribute to the plethora of plant and animal species that live there, Yoganand said.
MORE: Asian elephants have lost 64% of their suitable habitat, scientists say
Nearly 4,000 vascular plants, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals have been discovered in the Greater Mekong region since 1997, according to the report.
One of the species scientists learned of is the Khoi's mossy frog, a large, mossy-green colored amphibian, which helps it blend into the lichen and moss-covered stony, leafy background. The discovery was described as a "spectacular find" by the WWF.
An extremely venomous snake called the Suzhen's krait was also found. It was named after the Bai Su Zhen, a snake goddess from a Chinese myth called the Legend of the White Snake, according to the WWF.
PHOTO: Akysis patrator. (Parinya Pawangkhanant via WWF)
Discovered in the Tenasserim Mountains bordering Myanmar, researchers found Thailand's bent-toed gecko, named after the mythical tree nymph Rukha Deva, who is said to live in trees and protect the forests, according to the WWF. The gecko aggressively opens its mouth and waves its tail side-to-side when threatened, the scientists said.
A semi-aquatic snake now known as Hebius terrakarenorum was found in the Dawna-Tenasserim Landscape between Thailand and Myanmar, according to the report. It is about 2-feet long and was identified entirely from road-kill specimens collected over a decade, as well as a few photos, researchers said.
MORE: Previously extinct bird, gecko populations from the Galapagos Islands have reappeared
Human encroachment is already affecting some of the newly discovered species. In Vietnam, agricultural encroachment and logging, as well as collection by communities to use as a traditional cure for abdominal pain and parasitic infection, is threatening the Thai crocodile newt, researchers said.
In Vientiane, the capital of Laos, the habitat of a new species of gecko is also being fragmented by construction projects, according to the WWF.
PHOTO: A buffalo is seen grazing on grass by a muddy stream that runs into the Mekong River, Aug. 20, 2022, in Si Phan Don, Laos. (Sirachai Arunrugstichai/Getty Images)
While many of the discoveries were the result of people surveying a never-before-explored area, some of the discoveries were known species that, after further analysis, researchers determined have several different subspecies, Yoganand said.
In Cambodia, researchers discovered the blue-crested agama, an aggressive lizard that changes color as a defensive mechanism. It was identified by studying lizards found near an Angkor era archeological site, according to the WWF. While the species has been known since the first specimen was collected in Myanmar in the 19th century, genetic analysis conducted in 2021 determined that these actually constitute many different species, Yoganand said.
MORE: Climate change, human activity 'decimating' marine life, according to IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
Hayes' thick-thumbed myotis, a mouse-eared bat with unusual fleshy thumbs that was named a new species after a specimen sat in a Hungarian museum for 20 years.
"These remarkable species may be new to science but they have survived and evolved in the Greater Mekong region for millions of years, reminding us humans that they were there a very long time before our species moved into this region," Yoganand said in a statement.
While the Mekong region is a global diversity hotspot it is also experiencing a "vast array of threats," WWF-US Asian Species Manager Nilanga Jayasinghe said in a statement.
"We must continue to invest in the protection and conservation of nature, so these magnificent species don't disappear before we know of their existence," Jayasinghe said.
There are 25 known global diversity hotspots around the world, including the Amazon in Central America and the eastern Himalayas, Yoganand said, adding that he expects the scientific community to keep discovering more and more species.
Immediate action and increased use of new technologies, such as bio-acoustics and genetic sequencing, are needed to help scientists discover more species in the region, Truong Nguyen, a researcher with the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, said in a statement.
"To reverse the rapid biodiversity loss in the region, more concerted, science based, and urgent efforts need to be made and conservation measures need more attention from governments, NGOs and the public," Nguyen said.
Hundreds of new species discovered in this remote part of the world, researcher say originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Huge prehistoric-looking creature spotted in California lake. Take a look — if you dare
Don Sweeney
Mon, May 22, 2023
Screengrab from KGO video
At first, Carlos Rubio couldn’t figure out what he saw beneath the water of Lake Ralphine in a California park.
“At first I thought it was a boulder moving in the water,” Rubio told KGO.
Video posted to Reddit by Rubio shows a large, rock-like object moving under the water in the Howarth Park lake in Santa Rosa.
“I realized it was a pretty big snapping turtle,” Rubio told KGO. He said the turtle appeared to be about the size of a spare tire.
Snapping turtle at Howarth Park
by u/CRSR707 in santarosa
Snapping turtles are not native to California and are illegal to own without a permit, wildlife experts told The Press Democrat.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people get them when they’re babies and do not care about the law,” Wendy Rozonewski of JNW Animal Rescue in Vallejo told the publication. “But when they start to get too big or aggressive, they start releasing the animals in water or not far from where they live. It will survive. The problem is, it kills off our native species.”
The turtle in Lake Ralphine could be one of three subspecies, SFGate reported.
One, the “dinosaur-like” alligator snapping turtle, can reach up to 175 pounds, the National Wildlife Federation said.
“They’ll eat anything — I mean anything. If you put your foot in front of it, it will bite you,” Rozonewski told KGO.
Greg Martinelli, a program manager with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Bay Delta Region, told The Press Democrat the turtles are “voracious and omnivorous.” They’ve been known to bite the legs off birds floating in the water.
The agency and Santa Rosa parks officials are investigating.
Santa Rosa is a city of 177,000 people about 55 miles north of San Francisco.
Elon Musk is nicknamed 'Karen Musk' in a Reddit thread that slams him for calling remote working immoral
Sawdah Bhaimiya
Mon, May 22, 2023
Elon Musk is being criticized for calling remote work immoral.
Redditors nicknamed the billionaire "Karen Musk" and say his comments are out-of-touch.
Musk previously asked both Tesla and Twitter employees to return to the office.
Elon Musk is getting flack for his latest comments disparaging people for working from home with one Reddit thread dubbing him "Karen Musk," as an insult.
The billionaire recently said remote work is "morally wrong" in an interview with CNBC, adding that remote workers need "get off the goddamn moral high horse with the work-from-home bullshit because they're asking everyone else to not work from home while they do."
The Reddit Thread, which links to a video accusing Musk of being out of touch with the average Joe, is titled "Karen Musk: Working from home is IMMORAL!" The name "Karen" is a moniker used to refer to white women who are thought to be acting inappropriately or who are perceived as entitled.
It's now being used to insult Musk who is the owner of five companies including Twitter, Tesla, Neuralink, SpaceX, and The Boring Company.
One Redditor said that remote working "allows companies to not have a large real estate footprint, while employees spend less time in traffic reducing carbon footprint. This is all immoral coming from a guy who's trying to "save the world" with his EVs?"
Another mocked Musk by saying that it's "immoral to work in an office if the company isn't paying rent," referring to reports that Musk hasn't paid rent to the landlords of some of his offices.
Musk was previously referred to as a "Karen" in insults that were projected onto the side of Twitter's office building in San Francisco a few weeks after he bought Twitter in 2022.
These messages appeared just hours after Musk gave company employees the ultimatum to either quit or join his new "hardcore" Twitter 2.0.
Musk has always taken an extreme stance on remote working across his various companies including ordering Tesla workers to return to the office or quit in June 2022, and then later ending Twitter's flexible working policies by calling staff back to the office 40 hours a week in November.
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New nasal spray to reverse fentanyl and other opioid overdoses gets FDA approval
Mon, May 22, 2023
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health regulators on Monday approved a new easy-to-use version of a medication to reverse overdoses caused by fentanyl and other opioids driving the nation’s drug crisis.
Opvee is similar to naloxone, the life-saving drug that has been used for decades to quickly counter overdoses of heroin, fentanyl and prescription painkillers. Both work by blocking the effects of opioids in the brain, which can restore normal breathing and blood pressure in people who have recently overdosed.
The Food and Drug Administration endorsed Opvee, a nasal spray update of the drug nalmefene, which was first approved as an injection in the mid-1990s but later removed from the market due to low sales. Naloxone comes as both a nasal spray and injection.
It’s not immediately clear how the new drug will be used differently compared to naloxone, and some experts see potential downsides to its longer-acting effect. The drug will be available via prescription and is approved for patients 12 and older.
In studies funded by the federal government, Opvee achieved similar recovery results to Narcan, the leading brand of naloxone nasal spray.
Opvee was developed by Opiant Pharmaceuticals, which was recently acquired by rival Indivior, maker of several medications for opioid addiction. Indivior expects to launch Opvee in October at the earliest.
As the opioid epidemic has shifted to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, researchers in the pharmaceutical industry and the U.S. government saw a new role for the drug.
Because fentanyl stays in the body longer than heroin and other opioids, some people may require multiple doses of naloxone over several hours to fully reverse an overdose.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health worked with pharmaceutical researchers on a nasal spray version of nalmefene that would quickly resuscitate users, while also protecting them from relapse. Testing and development was funded by more than $18 million in grants from the U.S. government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and the NIH, which also helped design the studies.
“The whole aim of this was to have a medication that would last longer but also reach into the brain very rapidly,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Still, some experts see potential downsides.
A side effect of all opioid reversal drugs is that they create intense withdrawal symptoms including nausea, diarrhea, muscle cramps and anxiety. With naloxone, those symptoms might last 30 to 40 minutes.
Dr. Lewis Nelson of Rutgers University says those problems can last six hours or more with nalmefene, requiring extra treatment and management by health professionals.
“The risk of long-lasting withdrawal is very real and we try to avoid it,” said Nelson, an emergency medicine physician and former adviser to the FDA on opioids.
Nelson said it's easy enough to give a second or third dose of naloxone if it wears off.
“We’re not suffering from a naloxone shortage where we need to use an alternative,” he said. “We have plenty of it and it works perfectly well.”
The FDA approval comes as drug overdose deaths inched up slightly last year after two big leaps during the pandemic. More than 109,000 fatal overdoses were recorded in 2022, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than two-thirds of those deaths were linked to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, which have largely replaced heroin and prescription opioids.
Naloxone has long been at the center of government efforts to fight the overdose crisis at the federal and local levels. Police, firefighters and other first responders routinely carry the drug. And officials in all 50 states have given orders to pharmacists to sell or dispense the drug without a prescription to anyone who wants it.
In the latest federal push, the FDA recently approved Narcan to be sold over the counter. The change will allow the new version of the drug to be stocked in grocery stores, vending machines and other retail locations. The nasal spray — which includes updated instructions for regular users — is expected to launch this summer. Emergent Biosolutions hasn't yet announced a price for the over-the-counter version.
Indivior said it is still considering what to charge for its drug. It will compete in the same market as naloxone, where most buyers are local governments and community groups that distribute to first responders and those at risk of overdose. Indivior has told investors that Opvee could eventually generate annual sales between $150 million to $250 million.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Matthew Perrone, The Associated Press
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
3M CEO must attend mediation in earplug litigation, judge rules
Dietrich Knauth
Mon, May 22, 2023
(Reuters) - A federal judge has ordered 3M Co CEO Michael Roman to attend mediation aimed at resolving nearly 260,000 lawsuits alleging that 3M military earplugs caused hearing loss, saying the negotiations have reached a "critical juncture."
U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers, in whose Florida court the lawsuits have been consolidated, on Friday ordered Roman to attend mediation talks in Pensacola on May 25 and 26, so that he may "listen and engage directly with the mediators." The mediation so far has been "encouraging," but it requires 3M senior leadership to push ahead, Rodgers said in her order.
Roman's attendance will ensure that 3M's board will have "firsthand knowledge of the current state of the negotiations" when evaluating any settlement offer, Rodgers said.
3M has sought to resolve the lawsuits brought by veterans and members of the military who allege that 3M's combat arms earplugs were defective and damaged their hearing through the bankruptcy of its subsidiary Aearo Technologies LLC, which manufactured the earplugs.
3M had opposed efforts to renew mediation efforts in Florida federal court while Aearo's bankruptcy case is pending. Previous efforts reached an impasse in January, as 3M and the earplug plaintiffs focused their attention on Aearo's bankruptcy.
3M was ordered earlier this month to resume mediation.
A company spokesman said Monday that 3M continues to believe that Aearo's bankruptcy provides a better option for resolving the earplug claims "more quickly, with more certainty and with more balanced recoveries among claimants."
Aearo's bankruptcy strategy has been fiercely opposed by plaintiffs, who said that 3M was merely trying to escape litigation in Florida, following a series of unfavorable legal rulings and trial losses.
Veterans and service members have called for the dismissal of Aearo's bankruptcy, which is proceeding in U.S. bankruptcy court in Indianapolis, and they are awaiting a ruling from the judge overseeing the case.
Aearo filed for bankruptcy last July, with 3M pledging $1 billion to fund Aearo's liabilities stemming from the lawsuits that accuse both Aearo and 3M of misrepresenting the earplugs' effectiveness.
The litigation against 3M and Aearo is the largest-ever multi-district litigation in U.S. history, with nearly 330,000 cases filed and nearly 260,000 pending cases, according to court statistics from May 15.
3M has lost 10 of the 16 cases that have gone to trial so far, with about $265 million being awarded in total to 13 plaintiffs.
The MDL is In re 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Florida, No. 19-md-2885.
For the plaintiffs: Bryan Aylstock of Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz; Shelley Hutson of Clark, Love & Hutson; and Chris Seeger of Seeger Weiss
For 3M: Mike Brock, Christa Cottrell, David Horowitz and Saghar Esfandiarifard of Kirkland & Ellis
Read more:
US veterans suing 3M over earplugs seek to stop unit's 'false alarm' bankruptcy
3M earplug bankruptcy creates 'corrosive' tension with other courts, attorney says
Is 3M earplug bankruptcy the beginning of the end of mass tort MDLs?
3M notches sixth win in combat earplugs litigation
(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth)
Montana is banning TikTok. But can the state enforce the law and fend off lawsuits?
The Canadian Press
Mon, May 22, 2023
NEW YORK (AP) — TikTok is challenging Montana's first-of-its kind law that makes it illegal for people to use the social media app in the state. It's the second lawsuit since the ban was adopted.
Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the law Wednesday expecting a legal fight. The law, scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2024, also faces questions over whether it can be enforced.
Five TikTok users sued the state last week saying the law is unconstitutional. TikTok made similar arguments in its lawsuit Monday in federal court in Missoula.
Montana's rules are more far-reaching than restrictions on TikTok in place elsewhere, which include bans on government-issued devices in nearly half the states and within the U.S. federal government.
There are 200,000 TikTok users in Montana and 6,000 businesses that use the video-sharing platform, according to company spokesperson Jamal Brown.
Here’s what you need to know:
WHY IS MONTANA BANNING TIKTOK?
Proponents of the law in Montana claim the Chinese government could harvest U.S. user data from TikTok and use the platform to push pro-Beijing misinformation or messages to the public.
That mirrors arguments made by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. Senate, as well as the heads of the FBI and the CIA, all of whom have said TikTok could pose a national security threat because its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance operates under Chinese law.
Critics have pointed to China’s 2017 national intelligence law that compels companies to cooperate with the country’s governments for state intelligence work. Another Chinese law, implemented in 2014, has similar mandates.
TikTok says it has never been asked to hand over its data, and it wouldn’t do so if asked.
WHAT DOES TIKTOK ARGUE IN THE LEGAL CHALLENGE?
The lawsuit filed Monday by TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, says the new law violates the Constitution's right to free speech. It says the law is based on unfounded speculation that the Chinese government could access users’ data.
“The state cites nothing to support these allegations,” the company's attorneys wrote. “The state's bare speculation ignores the reality that (TikTok) has not shared, and would not share, U.S. user date with the Chinese government.”
Emily Flower, spokesperson for the Montana Department of Justice, said the legal challenges were expected. She said the Chinese Communist Party was using TikTok as a tool to spy on Americans by “collecting personal information, keystrokes, and even the locations of its users.”
The case could serve as a testing ground for the TikTok-free America many national lawmakers have envisioned.
HOW DOES MONTANA PLAN TO BAN TIKTOK?
The law will prohibit downloads of TikTok in the state and fine any “entity” — an app store or TikTok — $10,000 per day for each time someone accesses, downloads or is offered the ability to access TikTok.
That means Apple and Google, which operate app stores on Apple and Android devices, would be liable for violations. Penalties would not apply to users.
The statewide ban would be void if the social media platform is sold to a company that is not based in a country designated as a foreign adversary.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has pointed to technology used to restrict online sports gambling apps as a way to curtail TikTok from operating in the state. Those violations can be reported by anyone. And once the state verifies a breach has taken place, it sends a cease-and-desist letter to the company involved, said Kyler Nerison, a spokesperson for Knudsen's office.
SO, COULD THE TIKTOK BAN WORK?
Cybersecurity experts say that, other than avoiding the fine, there's nothing incentivizing the companies involved to comply and it will be extremely difficult — if not impossible — to adequately enforce the law.
The U.S. doesn't have anything equivalent to the type of control countries like China have on what their citizens access on the web. Compounding that, internet service providers are out of the picture.
Before the Montana law passed, lawmakers rewrote portions of the bill to let them off the hook after a lobbyist for AT&T said during a February hearing the legislation was “not workable” to put into effect.
COULD TECH COMPANIES BLOCK IT?
A representative for TechNet, the trade group that counts the two tech giants as its members, said app stores don’t have the ability to “geofence” apps in different states and it would be impossible to prevent TikTok from being downloaded in Montana. The group has said the responsibility should be on an app to determine where it can operate, not an app store.
Telecoms analyst Roger Entner, of Recon Analytics, says he believes the app stores could have the capability to enforce the law, but it would be cumbersome to implement and full of loopholes. Apple and Google’s address-linked billing could be bypassed with prepaid cards and IP geolocation easily masked by using a VPN service, which can alter IP addresses and allows users to evade content restrictions, said mobile security expert Will Strafach, the founder of Guardian, which makes a privacy protection app for Apple devices.
Oded Vanunu, head of products vulnerability research at the cybersecurity firm Check Point, agreed it would be difficult for app stores to isolate a single state from downloading an app. He suggested it would be more feasible for TikTok to comply since it controls the software and can “adjust the settings based on the geographical location or IP addresses" of users.
COULD TIKTOK BLOCK ITSELF?
When users allow TikTok to collect their location information, it can track a person to at least 3 square kilometers (1.16 square miles) from their actual location. If that feature is disabled, TikTok can still collect approximate location information - such as the region, city or zip code in which a user may be located - based on device or network information, like an IP address.
But similar to the app stores, cybersecurity experts note that any enforcement measures the company implements could be easily bypassed with a VPN and efforts to use IP geolocating might lead to other issues.
David Choffnes with Northeastern University's Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute said cell providers may use the same types of IP addresses for multiple states, which could mean someone not in Montana could incorrectly be blocked from TikTok.
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AP Technology Writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report from Boston.
Haleluya Hadero, The Associated Press
Labor union says it will start recall effort against Oregon state lawmaker
Mon, May 22, 2023
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — One of Oregon’s largest labor unions says it’s going to try to oust a Democratic state lawmaker who has been a longtime labor ally.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 said Monday it had filed paperwork to initiate a recall effort against Rep. Paul Holvey of Eugene, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
If successful, it could trigger an election later this year deciding whether Holvey, the House speaker pro-tem, can stay in office.
Holvey, joined the House in 2004 and is a former union representative. But the union says his failure to support House Bill 3183, which would block cannabis employers from interfering with employee efforts to unionize, is one of the reasons behind its effort. The union is trying to make the case that the representative has turned his back on working people.
“He has shown that his allegiance lies with large corporations, not with Oregonians,” Local 555 President Dan Clay said in a statement.
Holvey told OPB that the recall caught him off-guard.
“I’m very surprised they’d pursue this sort of retaliation over this particular bill,” he said. “I am a strong labor person, I grew up in labor and have always pursued legislation to help working people.”
The union says Holvey killed the cannabis union bill, and strongly suggests in its planned filing with the Secretary of State that he did so at the behest of La Mota. That’s the cannabis dispensary chain whose owners have come under scrutiny for donating to Democrats while failing to pay their taxes. The business' owners have not given money to Holvey's personal campaign committee, but they did donate $20,000 to the main political action committee for electing House Democrats.
UFCW Local 555 also says Holvey secured a legal opinion from legislative attorneys that suggests the bill could be illegal. The union believes that opinion is misleading and could affect its efforts to help workers unionize.
Holvey said he had questions about whether the UCFW bill was legal and acted accordingly, obtaining two opinions from legislative attorneys suggesting HB 3183 could be precluded by federal law.
“All I could see was this would put us into potential litigation where I felt pretty strongly the state would lose,” he said.
In order to force an election later this year, the union must collect signatures equivalent to 15% of the voters in Holvey’s Lane County district that participated in last year’s race for governor. According to state elections officials, the union needs 4,598 signatures by Aug. 21.
The Associated Press
The housing slowdown is a top signal that the US is headed into a moderate recession, Fannie Mae says
Jennifer Sor
Mon, May 22, 2023
A housing slowdown is a major indicator of a coming recession, Fannie Mae's chief economist said.
Existing home sales are on track to post further declines later this year, the mortgage giant estimated.
But the strength of the sector could also help pull the US out of a recession in 2024.
The housing market is signaling that the US is headed into a moderate, Fannie Mae's chief economist Doug Duncan warned.
Newsday LLC / Contributor/Getty Images
The government-sponsored mortgage agency predicted a modest recession to hit the economy later this year, pointing especially to the slowdown in US housing activity. Existing home sales have plunged to their lowest level since 2010, and are on track to post more declines later this year, per Fannie Mae's estimates.
A decline in sales is particularly expected in multifamily real estate, as credit conditions are expected to tighten this year.
"There are select data available to support several alternative views of the path of the economy, though we maintain our view that a modest recession will begin in the second half of 2023," Duncan said in a statement on Friday. "Housing remains exhibit number one for why we expect the recession to be modest."
Economists have been warning of a possible recession over the last year, largely due to rising interest rates and tighter credit conditions in the economy. Central bankers have raised interest rates 500 basis points in a year to tame inflation, a move that risks pushing the economy into a downturn. It's also influenced mortgage rates to trend higher, and has pushed the 30-year mortgage to 20-year highs. This has has weighed on the housing market as high borrowing costs push both buyers and sellers to the sidelines.
Still, Duncan noted that housing sector has outperformed expectations, given rising interest rates and high inflation. A relatively strong housing market could help the economy exit a recession as soon as 2024, he added.
But housing activity overall is unlikely to pick up soon, other industry experts have warned. That's because affordability will be pressured until mortgage rates begin to drop, and rates are expected to remain near a 20-year-high through the next year, Bankrate analyst Jeff Ostrowski told Insider.
Here's why the US doesn't have to pay off its $31 trillion mountain of debt, according to Paul Krugman
Jennifer Sor
Mon, May 22, 2023
Franck Robichon/Reuters
The US government doesn't have to pay off its $31 trillion debt, Paul Krugman said.
The government debt can't be compared to something like a household's finances, Krugman said.
"When governments for one reason or another run up large debts, it is, as far as I can tell, unusual to pay those debts off."
The US doesn't actually have to pay off its $31 trillion mountain of debt, according to top economist Paul Krugman, hitting back at the idea that government finances can be compared to household balance sheets in an op-ed weeks before the US possibly defaults on some obligations.
Though individual borrowers are expected to pay off debts, the same isn't true for governments, Krugman argued in a column for the New York Times on Friday. That's because unlike people, governments don't die, and they gain more revenue with each passing generation.
"Governments, then, must service their debts – pay interest and repay principal when bonds come due – but they don't necessarily have to pay them off; they can issue new bonds to pay principal on old bonds and even borrow to pay interest as long as overall debt doesn't rise too much faster than revenue," he added.
Though the debt-to-GDP ratio hovered around 97% last year, interest payments on that debt is only around $395 billion, according to the Office of Management and Budget, or around 1% of last year's GDP.
Historically, it's also unusual for governments to pay off large debts, Krugman said. Such was the case for Great Britain, which has largely held onto the debt it incurred as far back as the Napoleonic wars.
Krugman's argument comes amid growing contention over the US debt level, with policymakers still sparring over the conditions they want to raise the country's borrowing limit. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said he would reject a short-term debt ceiling increase unless spending cuts are negotiated, having proposed a bill that would slash around $4.5 trillion on spending.
Congress now has less than two weeks to raise the borrowing limit before the government could potentially run out of cash, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned. A default on the country's obligations could result in catastrophe for financial markets, experts have warned. Krugman has called for the debt ceiling to be abolished, as the risk of a financial crisis offers Republicans a "choke point" on fiscal policy.
Space station welcomes 2 Saudi visitors, including kingdom's 1st female astronaut
Mon, May 22, 2023
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The International Space Station rolled out the welcome mat Monday for two Saudi visitors, including the kingdom's first female astronaut.
SpaceX's chartered flight arrived at the orbiting lab less than 16 hours after blasting off from Florida. The four guests will spend just over a week there, before returning to Earth in their capsule.
The 270-mile-high (430-kilometer-high) docking puts the space station population at 11, representing not only Saudi Arabia and the U.S., but the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
UAE's astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi greeted them with dates, a traditional Arab welcome.
“This shows how space brings everyone together,” said Saudi Arabia's first female astronaut, Rayyanah Barnawi, a stem cell researcher. “I'm going to live this experience to the max.”
Saudi fighter pilot Ali al-Qarni dedicated the visit to everyone back home. “This mission is not just for me and Rayyanah. This mission is also for the people with ambition and dreams.”
The Saudi government is picking up the multimillion-dollar tab for both of them.
John Shoffner, a Knoxville, Tennessee, businessman who started a sports car racing team, is paying his own way. Retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is their chaperone. She now works for Axiom Space, the Houston company that organized the 10-day trip, its second to the space station.
The company cited ticket prices of $55 million each for last year's private trip by three businessmen, but won't say how much the latest seats cost.
Only one other Saudi has flown before in space, a prince who rode on NASA's shuttle Discovery in 1985.
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Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press
Most powerful space telescope ever built identifies ancient star-studded galaxy
Nina Massey, PA Science Correspondent
Mon, May 22, 2023
Astronomers have used the most powerful telescope ever built to identify a massive, densely packed galaxy 25 million light years away.
Known as GS-9209, the galaxy formed around 600 to 800 million years after the Big Bang, and is the earliest of its kind found to date, researchers say.
The scientists, led by University of Edinburgh experts, used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to reveal the properties of GS-9209 for the first time.
Lead researcher Dr Adam Carnall, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Physics and Astronomy, said: “The James Webb Space Telescope has already demonstrated that galaxies were growing larger and earlier than we ever suspected during the first billion years of cosmic history.
“This work gives us our first really detailed look at the properties of these early galaxies, charting in detail the history of GS-9209, which managed to form as many stars as our own Milky Way in just 800 million years after the Big Bang.
“The fact that we also see a very massive black hole in this galaxy was a big surprise, and lends a lot of weight to the idea that these black holes are what shut down star formation in early galaxies.”
The researchers found that despite being around 10 times smaller than the Milky Way, GS-9209 has a similar number of stars to our own galaxy.
According to the study, their combined mass is around 40 billion times that of our sun, and they were formed rapidly before star formation in GS-9209 stopped.
GS-9209 is the earliest known example of a galaxy no longer forming stars – known as a quiescent galaxy.
The James Webb Space Telescope (Nasa/Alamy/PA)
When the researchers observed it at 1.25 billion years after the Big Bang, no stars had formed in the galaxy for about half a billion years.
The study also suggests there is a supermassive black hole at the centre of GS-9209.
It is five times bigger than astronomers might anticipate in a galaxy with this number of stars.
The discovery could explain why GS-9209 stopped forming new stars, the astronomers say.
When supermassive black holes grow they release huge amounts of high-energy radiation, which can heat up and push gas out of galaxies.
According to the researchers, this could have caused star formation in GS-9209 to stop, as stars form when clouds of dust and gas particles inside galaxies collapse under their own weight.
GS-9209 was first discovered in 2004 by Edinburgh PhD student Karina Caputi, who was supervised at the time by professors Jim Dunlop and Ross McLure at the university’s School of Physics and Astronomy.
The research, published in the journal Nature, was supported by the Leverhulme Trust, the Science and Technology Facilities Council and UK Research and Innovation.
