Henri 'Pocket Rocket' Richard, 11-time winner of Stanley Cup, diagnosed with CTE after death in 2020

Henri Richard’s family says the late Hockey Hall of Famer has been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy

ByJIMMY GOLEN

AP Sports Writer

June 14, 2023

 

Henri Richard’s family says the late Hockey Hall of Famer has been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease linked to concussions.

“I hope my father’s brain donation and diagnosis will lead to more prevention efforts, research, and eventually a CTE treatment,” Denis Richard, Henri’s son, said on Wednesday, a day after the clinching game of the Stanley Cup Final. “I want people to understand this is a disease that impacts athletes far beyond football.”

Richard, who died in 2020 at the age of 84, was diagnosed with CTE by Dr. Stephen Saikali at Université Laval in Québec City. The disease, which can only be diagnosed posthumously, can cause memory loss, depression and violent mood swings in athletes, combat veterans and others who sustain repeated head trauma.

The Concussion Legacy Foundation said 16 of 17 NHL players studied have now been diagnosed with CTE, including Steve Montador, Ralph Backstrom, Bob Probert, and Hall of Famer Stan Mikita.

“Henri Richard was not an enforcer and CTE still ravaged his brain,” said Tim Fleiszer, a former Canadian Football League player who is CLF Canada’s executive director. “It is far past time for all of us in the Canadian sports community to acknowledge the long-term effects of repetitive impacts on the brain.”

Nicknamed the “Pocket Rocket” after following his brother, fellow Hall of Famer Maurice “Rocket” Richard into the sport, Henri Richard won the Stanley Cup 11 times in a 20-year career — the most in NHL history. He scored 358 goals with 688 assists for the Montreal Canadiens from 1955-75.

Teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Ken Dryden said Richard “fits none of the easy stereotypes” from an era when players didn’t wear helmets and fighting was common.

“Like Stan Mikita and Ralph Backstrom, he was a great skater, and physical, but he had a playmaker’s mind, and played that way. But all those hits to the head,” Dryden said. “We have to understand, whatever the sport, a hit to the head is not a good thing.

Biden vetoes legislation rolling back EPA emissions standards

By Donald Judd, CNN
Published Wed June 14, 2023

President Joe Biden shows an air quality chart caused by Canadian wildfires before a joint-press conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in the East Room of the White House in Washington on June 8, 2023.

Kevin Lamarque/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

CNN —

President Joe Biden on Wednesday vetoed SJ Res. 11, a Republican-backed bill that would’ve rolled back a 2022 EPA rule that set stronger vehicle emissions standards to reduce air pollution set to take effect in model year 2027.

“Earlier today, President Biden vetoed SJ Resolution 11, the most recent attempt by congressional Republicans to pollute the air our children breathe,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during a White House press briefing.

“Just think about it – while millions of Americans were taking shelter to escape unhealthy wildfire smoke made worse by climate change, congressional Republicans were pushing a bill to repeal the president’s efforts to make our air cleaner and safer.”

The final rule, which was adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency in December, sets “new emission standards that are significantly more stringent and that cover a wider range of heavy-duty engine operating conditions compared to today’s standards,” according to the EPA, which said the change is needed because emissions from those trucks are “important contributors to concentrations of ozone and particulate matter and their resulting threat to public health.”

Republicans were able to pass the measure through the Senate with the help of Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin; California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein did not vote on the legislation. The House passed it about a month later in May.

A veto override would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers, a high threshold not expected to be reached.

Republicans criticize the emissions rule as overly burdensome, arguing it will hurt the trucking industry and have negative ripple effects through the economy. Democrats say the rule is needed to limit pollution and improve air quality across the US.

In a statement announcing the veto Wednesday, Biden wrote the EPA rule “cuts pollution, boosts public health, and advances environmental justice in communities across the country,” adding “It will prevent hundreds, if not thousands, of premature deaths; thousands of childhood asthma cases; and millions of missed school days every year.” Biden also tweeted a photo of him vetoing the bill from the Oval Office earlier Wednesday.

“President Biden won’t let congressional Republicans take us backwards in our fight for cleaner air – he vetoed this health-harming bill today, as I just mentioned,” Jean-Pierre said Wednesday, pointing to additional steps Biden has taken since taking office to protect the environment, including provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act to curb climate change.

The veto is the sixth of Biden’s presidency.

Previously, Biden vetoed legislation that would’ve overturned his student loan forgiveness program, a bill would’ve blocked a DC justice reform bill from taking effect, a bill overturning a retirement investment rule allowing managers to consider environmental, social and governance factors when picking investments, a measure that would’ve rescinded the administration’s landmark water rule, and a resolution that would’ve blocked the temporary suspension of tariffs on solar panel imports.

Amid Widening Divisions, Labour Market Shifts, People-Centred Policies Guided by Social Justice Essential, Secretary-General Tells World of Work Summit

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the World of Work Summit, in Geneva June 14, 2023

ILO Director-General [Gilbert F.] Houngbo, distinguished representatives, excellencies, dear friends, I send my warmest greetings to the World of Work Summit and the International Labour Organization (ILO.

Work is central to our economies and our lives, but, as you have highlighted so effectively, the world of work is changing at warp speed. Societies and economies are still reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Poverty, hunger and inequalities are rising; the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on life support. 

The climate crisis, conflict and humanitarian emergencies are uprooting and disrupting the education and working lives of hundreds of millions of people.  Divisions are widening, hatred and discrimination are rampant, women rights are under attack and people are losing trust in the institutions that represent them.

The fourth industrial revolution is unfolding against this chaotic backdrop.  We cannot predict its results — but we already know the outlines of the seismic shift that is under way:  Greater automation; the digital transition; a shift towards renewables; sustainable production; and a need for quality education, reskilling and retraining.  Jobs will be lost in some areas and created in others.  But they will require different skills.

We must prepare now, to avoid even greater divisions, injustice and mistrust.  The ILO has been at the forefront of laying out a road map to navigate the transitions to a sustainable and just future of work.  The foundation of that road must be social justice.

I thank Director-General Houngbo and all of you for working to mobilize a Global Coalition for Social Justice.  I see such a coalition as a crucial force to help advance the Sustainable Development Goals and meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. 

At its heart, this effort is about rebuilding the social contract through people-centred policies grounded and guided by social justice.  The social contract must have women and young people at the centre and encompass equal opportunities for all; access to essential services; lifelong education and training; decent jobs; and social protection.

The Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection is our platform to coordinate global financing for hundreds of millions of new jobs, and to extend social protection to the 4 billion people who are without coverage.

I look forward to the outcome of your discussions, which will inform the SDG Summit in September, the Summit of the Future in 2024 and the World Social Summit in 2025.

The world is at a decisive moment.  Today’s policies on climate, on threats to global security, on social solidarity and more will shape our future and that of our children and grandchildren.  The World of Work Summit is an opportunity to explore solutions that will make that future more just, equitable, sustainable and inclusive.

Thank you.

Canada Freezes Ties with China-Led AIIB, Probes Allegations of Communist Domination

June 14, 2023 
Reuters

Canada's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland said, June 14, 2023, Canada is freezing ties with the 

China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Ottawa —

Canada is freezing ties with the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, while it probes allegations it is dominated by the Chinese Communist Party, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Wednesday.

Freeland said she did not rule out any outcome of the investigation, a clear hint that Ottawa could pull out of a bank it officially joined in March 2018.

The bank's global communications director, a Canadian, said on Wednesday he had resigned and criticized the bank as "dominated by the Communist Party," allegations which the AIIB said were baseless.

"The Government of Canada will immediately halt all government led activity at the bank. And I have instructed the Department of Finance to lead an immediate review of the allegations raised and of Canada's involvement in the AIIB," Freeland told reporters.

She said as the world's democracies worked to limit their strategic vulnerabilities to authoritarian regimes, they must be clear about the ways such governments exercised their influence.

"The review I am announcing today is to be undertaken expeditiously. And I am not ruling out any outcome following its completion," she said.

The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in power when Canada joined the AIIB. The opposition Conservatives have long demanded Ottawa pull out of the bank, saying it is a tool for Beijing to export authoritarianism throughout the Pacific.

Freeland's remarks mark a new dip in bilateral relations with China, which have been frosty for the last five years.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Tuesday it was investigating allegations China tried to intimidate a federal Conservative legislator.

Canada has accused China of trying to interfere in its affairs through various schemes, including illegal police stations and the targeting of lawmakers. Beijing denies all such allegations.

 

Freedom of speech and LGBT rights: Americans’ views of issues in Supreme Court case

BY J. BAXTER OLIPHANT AND CARROLL DOHERTY

Supporters of Colorado web designer Lorie Smith and counterprotesters demonstrate at the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

A majority of Americans think business owners should be able to refuse to provide services in situations where providing them may “suggest support for beliefs about lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) issues” to which they have personal or religious objections, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

How we did this

In earlier surveys, the public has expressed positive views of the impact of legalization of same-sex marriage and broad support for policies aimed at preventing discrimination against transgender Americans.

But in a question reflecting the arguments in a pending Supreme Court case, 60% of Americans think business owners should not have to provide services if it might signal support for beliefs on LGBT issues that they oppose, according to the survey conducted in early April. Around four-in-ten (38%) say business owners should be required to provide services in these situations.

The Supreme Court case centers on a challenge to Colorado’s public accommodations law by website designer Lorie Smith, who says the law violates her right to freedom of speech by requiring her to design wedding websites for same-sex couples.

The oral arguments in the case highlighted the competing rights at issue. Smith’s attorney said her client’s complaint is based on the message being conveyed by her work, not the customers who may be affected. However, Colorado’s solicitor general said that by ruling in favor of Smith, the court would undermine the state’s accommodations law and open the door to discrimination because of a person’s race or religion, in addition to their sexual or gender identity.

The survey question does not ask whether business owners should have the right to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people. Rather, it asks whether business owners who object to providing services that could suggest beliefs on LGBT issues – such as a “designer of wedding websites who has objections to same-sex marriage” – should be required to provide these services or be able to refuse to do so.

Views by party, religion

As with opinions on same-sex marriage and transgender issues, there is a wide partisan gap in views of whether business owners should be able to refuse to provide services if it conflicts with their views on LGBT issues. Republican and Republican-leaning independents overwhelmingly side with business owners who object to providing services in these situations (82% vs. 17%). By a smaller margin (59% to 40%), Democrats and Democratic leaners say business owners should have to provide services in these cases.

Opinions also differ by religious affiliation. For example, while 83% of White evangelical Protestants say business owners should be able to deny services in situations where it could conflict with their beliefs, just half of religiously unaffiliated adults say the same.

Note: Here are the questions used for the report, along with responses, and its methodology.

Despite war, post-Soviet states find breaking up with Russia hard to do

Pelagiya Tikhonova/Moscow News Agency/ReutersView caption


By Fred Weir Special correspondent
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
June 14, 2023|MOSCOW

There was a time, not so long ago, when Russia’s Victory Day, marking the USSR’s triumph over Nazi Germany, was considered a shared international holiday. At one point, it even included contingents of NATO troops marching in the traditional military parade across Red Square under the gaze of Russian leader Vladimir Putin and visiting Western leaders.

The outside world largely ignored this year’s parade on May 9, which was a greatly scaled-back affair amid the war in Ukraine and the very real threat of Ukrainian drone attacks. But to the surprise of many analysts, Mr. Putin was joined on the reviewing stand by the leaders of seven other post-Soviet countries, including all five former Soviet Central Asian republics, plus Armenia and Belarus.

After more than a year of severe stress, many of those countries have sought to distance themselves from embattled Moscow and find alternative avenues for trade, political connections, and security. But it’s not that easy to escape the bonds of geography, history, economic integration, and geopolitical dependence. All of the leaders sitting with Mr. Putin, and a few others who weren’t, have discovered evergreen reasons not to burn their bridges with Moscow.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine initially shook many of its neighbors into looking for other geopolitical partners. But economic and geographical necessity is returning them to Moscow’s orbit.

Most of the Central Asian leaders, and Belarus, run some degree of authoritarian regimes that make them almost as unwelcome in the West as Mr. Putin himself. As a recent study by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development details, the war in Ukraine has uprooted traditional trading patterns, with former Soviet neighbors of Russia benefiting enormously from cheap Russian energy exports that used to go to the West, while their own exports to Russia – including sanction-evading ones – have proved extremely profitable.

“Many of these countries are hedging their risks,” says Dmitry Suslov, a foreign policy expert with the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. “This leads to some distancing from Russia, making gestures to avoid the threat of secondary sanctions from the U.S. and the EU. That gives an impression that Russia’s relations with them are deteriorating. But in fact, they simply cannot afford to break with Russia.

“There is too much economic interdependence, shared security concerns – Central Asian states are far more worried about Afghanistan than Ukraine – and demographic considerations. Millions of workers from Central Asia, from Georgia and Armenia, come to Russia as guest workers, and their remittances are very important. A lot of Russians have moved to these countries since the war began. Some are draft dodgers, but others are relocating businesses, developing new ways to keep working in the Russian market in an age of blanket sanctions. There are a lot of new dynamics in play.”

Alexey Maishev/Sputnik/AP “Why would we pick a quarrel?”

For Central Asian states, at least, the main counterbalance to Russia is not the West, but China. In mid-May, Beijing hosted a lavish summit for Central Asian leaders in Xi’an, which included major promises of Chinese aid and investment, and a general warming of relations. Many commentators have pointed out that these new ties between former Soviet states and China may come at Russia’s expense, but Moscow and Beijing are very much on the same page about excluding Western influence from the region.

“Realistically, only Russia and China are in a position to support economic development in Central Asian countries,” says Alexander Knyazev, a Central Asia expert with the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, which trains Russian diplomats. “Countries like Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan are more wary about China, and look to balance those concerns through relations with Russia. After American troops left Afghanistan, they sought to strengthen security cooperation with Russia. Who else can provide stability and security in that region?”

Kazakhstan’s new leader, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has huge hopes for his resource-rich country, and has made efforts to balance geopolitical relations between Russia, China, and the United States. But in practice, Kazakhstan’s political stability was ensured during riots last year by the timely intervention of Russian-led military forces, who left after restoring order. Kazakhstan, which has seen a huge influx of Russian business and investment since the war began, has declined to condemn Russia’s war outright.

“You couldn’t say that Kazakhstan supports Russia. We have a multivector foreign policy” that aims to balance the country’s interests, says Pyotr Svoik, a political analyst and opposition politician in Kazakhstan. “But we have lots of ties to Russia – through history, language, culture – which can’t be wished away. About three-quarters of Kazakhstan’s exports to the West are transported through Russian pipelines, railroads, and ports. Why would we pick a quarrel with Russia? We had no part in creating these problems; why should we pay for it?”

One of the more pro-Western states in the post-Soviet region is Georgia, which actually fought a war with Russia in 2008 over its Russia-sponsored breakaway territories. Despite popular sentiment in favor of joining NATO and the European Union, the little country has been drawn back into Russia’s orbit by economic dynamics and a reluctance to be drawn into the Ukraine war. The country has seen major unrest in recent months by pro-Western civil society groups seeking to curtail what they see as an authoritarian and pro-Russia drift by the Georgian Dream government. Fresh protests broke out in mid-May after Mr. Putin ordered visa requirements for Georgians be canceled, and the reopening of airline links between Tbilisi and Moscow.

The Georgian government argues that easing tensions benefits Georgian business, stimulates tourism, and is also good news for the large Georgian diaspora in Russia.

“Georgian society would prefer to join the EU and NATO, but these options are not realistic,” says Andrey Kortunov, academic director of the Russian International Affairs Council, which is affiliated with the Foreign Ministry. “Meanwhile, Russia can offer very real advantages, which a normalization of relations brings. Why should they lose that? Georgia hasn’t shifted its nature, but it is becoming more realistic.”

Vladimir Smirnov/Sputnik/AP  The necessity of maintaining ties

Azerbaijan, an oil-rich post-Soviet state on the Caspian Sea, has likewise carefully threaded the needle between Russia, Iran, Turkey, and the West. It has recently won a major victory over a longtime enemy, Russia-allied Armenia. With Western mediation, Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed to settle their key differences over the Armenian-populated region of Nagorno Karabakh, a deal that suggests a hope that peace may reign in the troubled region for the first time in three decades.

Azerbaijan could be a key link in the long-stalled North-South Transport Corridor project, which is intended to connect Iranian ports on the Indian Ocean by rail with Russia’s vast east-west railway network. In mid-May, Mr. Putin signed off on $1.6 billion in Russian financing to complete the last leg of the railway in northern Iran. When completed in four years, the new transport route could rival the Suez Canal, advocates say.

“Azerbaijan sees what is happening in Ukraine, and we try to help the Ukrainians,” says Ilgar Velizade, an independent political scientist in Baku. “But distancing ourselves from Russia is not a geographical possibility. How do you isolate yourself from a close neighbor? Transport relations are impossible to break. The dialogue we maintain with Russia is essential for political and economic processes in our region.”

The ongoing war in Ukraine hangs over the wider region, and drives a good deal of the instability and shifting stances of many countries, says Mr. Suslov.

“Russia has certainly suffered a loss of influence in many areas, but the necessity of maintaining ties has also asserted itself. Russia is going to retain a central place in regional relations. In general, the West has been too blunt in demanding post-Soviet countries sacrifice their own interests for the anti-Russian cause, and too quick to threaten secondary sanctions. If they matched the threats with real resources and economic opportunities, Western diplomacy would be more effective in taking advantage of Russia’s weakness,” he says.

“As long as the Ukraine war continues we’ll see this intense rivalry between Russia and the West in the post-Soviet region, with various losses and gains on both sides. How the wider spheres of influence develop will depend very much on the results of the war, and how Russia emerges from it.”

Key building block of life found on ocean world orbiting Saturn

By Ashley Strickland, CNN
Wed June 14, 2023

Dramatic plumes release ice particles, water vapor and organic compounds into space through cracks in the ice shell of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Beneath the ice shell is a salty ocean.

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

CNN —

A key chemical building block of life has been found on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

Phosphorus was detected in salty ice grains that were released into space by plumes that erupt between the cracks of the moon’s ice shell.

An ocean exists beneath the thick, icy surface of Enceladus, and plumes of material regularly release from geysers at the moon’s south pole.

That material becomes incorporated into Saturn’s outermost E ring.

Scientists used data from NASA’s Cassini mission, which studied Saturn and its moons between 2004 and 2017. The spacecraft flew through the plumes of Enceladus and Saturn’s E ring many times, and Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer detected minerals and organic compounds necessary for life.

Previously, researchers detected the presence of sodium, potassium, chlorine and carbonate compounds in the ice grains collected and analyzed by Cassini. Now, scientists can add phosphorus to the list. A study detailing the findings was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.


Wispy arcs of icy material expand out from Enceladus (brightest white dot above) into Saturn's E ring.

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

“Phosphorus in the form of phosphates is vital for all life on Earth,” said lead study author Dr. Frank Postberg, a professor of planetary sciences at Freie Universität Berlin, in a statement. “It is essential for the creation of DNA and RNA, cell membranes, and ATP (the universal energy carrier in cells) for example. Life as we know it would simply not exist without phosphates.”

It’s the first time that phosphorus has been discovered in an ocean beyond Earth.

“Previous geochemical models were divided on the question of whether Enceladus’ ocean contains significant quantities of phosphates at all,” Postberg said. “These Cassini measurements leave no doubt that substantial quantities of this essential substance are present in the ocean water.”

A habitable ocean on another world

The data revealed high concentrations of sodium phosphates, or molecules that chemically bind sodium, oxygen, hydrogen and phosphorus together, inside the ice grains.

The collective detection of phosphorus and other organic compounds in Enceladus’ ocean suggests that it could be habitable for life, if it exists on the icy moon, the researchers said.

“By determining such high phosphate concentrations readily available in Enceladus’ ocean, we have now satisfied what is generally considered one of the strictest requirements in establishing whether celestial bodies are habitable,” said study coauthor Dr. Fabian Klenner, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington, in a statement.

Webb telescope spies massive plume erupting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus

Although the ocean exists beneath an ice shell, there are indications of hydrothermal environments along the seafloor that keep the ocean at a warmer temperature.

“The important part for habitability is that we found phosphates that have been dissolved in Enceladus’ ocean and, with that, are readily available for the formation of potential life,” Postberg said.

“In most cases, phosphates (on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system) are locked up in rocky minerals, but on Enceladus, they are dissolved in large quantities (as salts) in the ocean.”

The researchers also conducted lab experiments to model Enceladus’ salty ocean, and they determined the phosphate concentrations are at 100 times and possibly up to 1,000 times higher than in Earth’s oceans. That’s because “soda oceans,” or those rich in carbonates and carbon dioxide like the one on Enceladus, can dissolve large amounts of phosphates that are otherwise locked inside rocky minerals, Postberg said.

“High phosphate concentrations are a result of interactions between carbonate-rich liquid water and rocky minerals on Enceladus’ ocean floor and may also occur on a number of other ocean worlds,” said study coauthor Christopher Glein, a planetary scientist and geochemist at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, in a statement. “This key ingredient could be abundant enough to potentially support life in Enceladus’ ocean; this is a stunning discovery for astrobiology.”

Some of the additional ocean world moons around Jupiter and Saturn include Europa, Titan and Ganymede. Future missions to Europa, like the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer and NASA’s Europa Clipper, could determine more about the ingredients within these oceans.

Searching for signs of life

Although the Cassini mission ended by intentionally burning up in Saturn’s atmosphere in 2017, the data collected by its instruments is changing the way scientists understand Enceladus and similar ocean worlds, which may be the best bet for finding life beyond Earth across our solar system.

The Cassini spacecraft captured an image of Enceladus on July 14, 2005, revealing its craters and fractured icy crust.

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

“This latest discovery of phosphorus in Enceladus’ subsurface ocean has set the stage for what the habitability potential might be for the other icy ocean worlds throughout the solar system,” said Linda Spilker, planetary scientist and Voyager project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement. Spilker, who served as Cassini’s project scientist, was not involved in the study.

“Now that we know so many of the ingredients for life are out there, the question becomes: Is there life beyond Earth, perhaps in our own solar system? I feel that Cassini’s enduring legacy will inspire future missions that might, eventually, answer that very question,” Spilker said.

Although the building blocks of life and conditions for habitability exist on Enceladus, no actual life has been detected yet.

Webb telescope spots water in rare comet

“Having the ingredients is necessary, but they may not be sufficient for an extraterrestrial environment to host life,” Glein said. “Whether life could have originated in Enceladus’ ocean remains an open question.”

“The next step is clear — we need to go back to Enceladus to see if the habitable ocean is actually inhabited,” said study coauthor Dr. Nozair Khawaja, a planetary scientist and postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin.

Sending a dedicated mission to Enceladus is a priority for astronomers. Plans are underway to design the Enceladus Orbilander, which would both orbit the moon and land on the surface. If the mission were to launch later this decade, it would likely arrive at the distant moon in the early 2050s.

A spacecraft capable of landing on plume deposits on Enceladus could perform a chemical analysis to further investigate the subsurface ocean, said planetary geochemist Mikhail Zolotov, a research professor at Arizona State University and author of an accompanying News & Views article to the Nature study. Zolotov did not participate in the study.

“Those plume deposits could be taken inside a lander, melted, and analyzed for dissolved salts, gases, organic compounds, and possible biosignatures that all will characterize oceanic chemistry and habitability,” Zolotov said.

ZOO'S ARE PRISONS

Activists say Benito the giraffe is struggling in Mexico zoo

Climate is a major concern, as well as his small enclosure, activists say

Christian Chavez/Associated Press 

Children visit Benito the giraffe at the city run Central Park, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, June 13, 2023.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
PUBLISHED: June 14, 2023 

By Mark Stevenson | Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Benito the giraffe arrived in Mexico’s arid northern border city of Ciudad Juarez just last month, and already the climate appears to be a problem — and he’s only had to deal with the scorching heat of summer.

The snow and freezing temperatures of winter are still to come, and animal activists are up in arms and pushing a campaign under the hashtag “Save Benito” seeking to have the animal moved somewhere more hospitable.

On a recent day, the 3-year-old male giraffe could be seen crouching with only its head under a small, circular canopy for shade. The structure did little to protect him from a pelting rain and a hail storm later.

There is also a small shed for winter, but activists say it is cruel for the city-run Central Park to keep the giraffe in a small fenced enclosure, by himself, with only about a half acre to wander and few trees to nibble, in a climate he’s not used to.

“We have been fighting for a month, a group of animal activists, to demand that he be taken to an animal sanctuary, a zoo, somewhere where there are appropriate facilities and qualified personnel to care for this type of animal,” said Ana Félix, a Ciudad Juarez animal rights activist. “We are in the desert here and the climate here is extreme in winter and in summer.”

Blue Hills, a sanctuary ranch in Texas that rescues animals and books private tours to help offset the cost, has offered to buy or adopt Benito.

“We can offer him a brand new heated barn, so in the winter he doesn’t stand in the snow and freeze,” ranch operator Matt Lieberman wrote in response to The Associated Press. “We have an on-staff vet that cares for our animals and we have 24-hour staff for him.”

He added that the giraffe would have 320 acres (130 hectares) to roam in. “He doesn’t have any trees to browse from” at the park in Mexico, Lieberman said. “He needs trees to eat from and keep stimulated.”

Benito appears to have just about finished off the only small trees within his reach at Central Park and can do little more than walk in circles.

Officials at the park reject the criticism, though they acknowledge they can’t provide more trees. They say they are working to improve Benito’s compound, saying his presence has been important in boosting the park’s popularity among visitors, largely children. Monthly visits rose from about 140,000 before Benito arrived to 200,000.

Park visitor Derek Reyes, 11, had mixed feelings about Benito.

“He could be fine here,” Reyes said, “but it would also be good if they could take him to a place where they belong, with a herd.”

Park director Rogelio Muñoz said authorities are planning to build Benito a new, heated winter house by September.

The park is also building a larger sun canopy for the giraffe and dredging out garbage and fetid water from a pool that takes up much of the enclosure. Benito will have fresh water in a trough.

“The conditions, attention and care in the habitat of the park’s new resident are optimal for his stay,” the park wrote in a social media message.

Benito was donated by a zoo in the much more temperate climate of Sinaloa, a state on Mexico’s northern Pacific coast. Benito couldn’t stay with two other giraffes at the Sinaloa zoo because they were a couple, and the male could become territorial and attack the younger Benito.

The giraffe’s arrival was a point of pride for Ciudad Juarez, a tough, dusty city across from El Paso, Texas, that is best known for its hundreds of maquiladora assembly factories and its endemic gang violence. El Paso has giraffes at its zoo, the thinking goes, so why can’t Ciudad Juarez?

“We want to be like El Paso,” Muñoz said.

Central Park, which also holds a few other animal species like ducks and donkeys, invited kids from across the city to come visit the new giraffe; the government of the border state of Chihuahua sponsored a contest among grade schoolers to name him.

The first prize — about $500 — went to a little girl who proposed the name “Benito.” One critic, Alfredo Casas, commented on Facebook, “They would have done better spending that money on better shade for the giraffe.”

The park had a giraffe for 21 years named Modesto. He died last year, and activists say they don’t want his experience — being alone and sometimes caught in the snow and frost — to be repeated for Benito.

“When Modesto died, we thought that was the end of it,” said Félix. “But then they bring us a new animal, and that really isn’t fair. It isn’t fair to repeat the story of Modesto.”

Muñoz acknowledged that Modesto’s life was far from the best — children who used to visit the giraffe would feed him potato chips and snack foods. But park officials have launched a campaign to teach kids to bring Benito only lettuce and carrots.

Muñoz said he also doesn’t want Benito to live out his life alone.

“When his quarters are fixed up, his house, with heating … then we want to bring in a female, because he cannot be alone,” Muñoz said.

ANTI-STATE SPEECH IS NOT HATE SPEECH

UN adopts resolution acknowledging effect of extremism and hate speech on global peace

UAE Minister of State notes that no nation or region is immune to the growing threat of hate speech


Ahead of the vote, Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE's ambassador to the UN, stressed the root causes of conflicts past and present are multifaceted. 

Photo: UN


The National
Jun 14, 2023

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Wednesday acknowledging the role of hate speech, racism and other forms of intolerance in fuelling conflicts.

Jointly drafted by the UAE and the UK, the resolution also highlighted the adverse effects of gender discrimination and acts of extremism on global peace and stability.

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UN Security Council must focus on regional issues, not only Ukraine, Arab League head says

Noura Al Kaabi, UAE Minister of State, who headed the ministerial-level Security Council session on the values of human fraternity in promoting and sustaining peace, noted that no nation or region is immune to the growing threat of hate speech.

She added that the “clear challenges” posed by hate speech and extremism cannot be “overlooked”.

“Our approach and initiatives are based on the challenges experienced by the Arab region, including the spread of hate speech and its role in inciting, exacerbating and prolonging conflicts,” she said.



Ahead of the vote, Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE's ambassador to the UN, stressed the root causes of conflicts past and present are multifaceted.

“Yet we continue to see common threat multipliers that drive the outbreak escalation and recurrence of conflict across the files on the council's agenda,” she said.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres argued that hate is not new to “our time”, but what is new is its speed and reach.

“Social media has equipped hate-mongers with a global bullhorn for bile,” he said.

Fox News Hits Panic Button As White House Criticizes Network On Live TV

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to Fox News' "dictator" graphic, and the network didn't seem to like it.


By Ed Mazza
Jun 15, 2023



Fox News can dish it out ― but they can’t seem to take it.

The right-wing network hurriedly cut away from a White House news conference Wednesday after press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about an on-screen “Fox News Alert” graphic the night before labeling President Joe Biden a “wannabe dictator.”

“There are probably about 787 million things that I can say about this,” Jean-Pierre replied, referring to the $787 million penalty Fox News agreed to pay to settle a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for spreading lies about the 2020 election.

“That was wrong, about what we saw last night,” she continued, but most Fox News viewers didn’t hear what came next as the network dropped her audio and cut away from the White House completely.

Host Sandra Smith interrupted to say the network would monitor for news “obviously as major allegations are waged against the current president, obviously after the arrest of the former president, Donald Trump.”

The network quickly moved on to a story about a 10-foot crocodile:

Fox News viewers missed Jean-Pierre saying she wasn’t “going to get into it” over the Fox News “wannabe dictator” graphic.

“There’s no comment the White House has on it?” the reporter pressed.

“I think I just commented,” she said, prompting a few chuckles from the press.

The exchange was about a moment on Tuesday’s “Fox News Tonight,” hosted by Brian Kilmeade, who defended Trump after the former president was indicted on 37 federal criminal charges in the classified documents scandal.

At one point, the Fox News screen featured side-by-side images of Biden and Trump with a chyron across the bottom that read: “Wannabe Dictator Speaks at the White House After Having His Political Rival Arrested.”

Fox News later released a statement saying the graphic was “taken down immediately and was addressed.”

Here’s the full exchange on Wednesday that Fox News cut away from: