House Speaker Kevin McCarthy backs anti-’woke’ bill that hurts America’s military
2023/07/21

Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America/TNS

When it suits their purposes, Republicans in Congress love to wrap themselves in the flag, proclaim their patriotism and show honor to U.S. military members.

But pay travel costs for a female sergeant in the Army with a pregnancy that, for medical reasons, must be ended and who must travel to a state where abortions are performed? Why, that’s an unacceptable use of taxpayer dollars, say these same Republicans.

Support diversity efforts? That is nothing but “wokeism,” say conservatives. And don’t even bring up Pentagon support for helping service members with gender transition.

Leading the way to put these restrictions into the new defense budget bill is House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield. The Republican whose district now includes Clovis and eastern Fresno County was front and center proclaiming the strength of the $886 billion defense bill his GOP-majority House passed on a slim 219-210 tally.

McCarthy declared the bill had the largest pay hike ever for military personnel, at 5.2%. On that point, Republicans and Democrats could agree.

But hard-right members from the ironically named House Freedom Caucus forced McCarthy to accept other provisions. One is the ban on granting time off and paying travel expenses for military women who are based in a state where abortions are outlawed.

Hard-right House members argued that the government should not be paying for abortions. Heads up to Freedom Caucus members: Time off for needed medical services, plus gas and motel money, is not paying for abortions.

Naval Air Station Lemoore is in McCarthy’s district, but it is also in California, where reproductive health services are still available to any women needing such medical care. So none of McCarthy’s Lemoore constituents will actually be harmed by the ill-considered provision. Pity military women stationed in Alabama, Tennessee, Texas and other states.

GOP says no to diversity outreach

Military efforts at recruiting could take a hit on another aspect of the House’s defense bill.

Recruiting has become difficult for the military. A year ago, the Army had achieved just 66% of its recruiting goal. The Navy was at 89% of the goal. The other branches had met their targets, but overall, the Defense Department had a total rate of just 85%. This year is shaping up to be another down year, with only the Space Force expecting to achieve its goals.

So it is understandable that the Pentagon would include diversity efforts in its outreach. If recruits see people like them in the military, chances are good that more Americans will be attracted to join.

Nope, that’s bad, said Freedom Caucus members, and McCarthy backed them up.

Any efforts to focus on diversity, equity and inclusion — DEI, as it is known — is just progressive “woke” policy, McCarthy said.

A tweet of the speaker’s remarks was particularly offensive: McCarthy likened U.S. military leadership to Disneyland.

“A military cannot defend themselves if you train them in woke. We don’t want Disneyland to train our military.”

McCarthy’s slight was a jab at Disneyland and its support of gay rights, which has put it in the culture war cross-hairs of conservatives and their mouthpiece, Fox News.

America trusts its generals and admirals to protect our interests around the globe, and the military uses high-tech weapons that cost billions of dollars to make, like fighter jets and Navy destroyers. But Pentagon leadership is no better than Disneyland characters? That reasoning is absurd on its face.

Extremist policies put on military

McCarthy said that he and his GOP colleagues “want our men and women in the military to have every defense possible and that is what our bill does.”

When servicewomen have to go out of state for medical care, “every defense possible” is just an empty talking point. When barriers to diversity are built into a military spending bill that, for 60 years, has been a solid bipartisan measure, that is not helping the Pentagon with recruitment. And prohibiting the military from offering health coverage for gender transition surgeries, as the GOP’s bill does, further alienates soldiers, sailors and airmen seeking such help.

The defense spending bills now head to the Democratic Senate, where the hard-right provisions will almost certainly be stripped out. A conference committee of the chambers will then have to settle the differences. That will likely be a heated process. Whether a military funding bill can be put into place by Oct. 1, when the next budget year begins, is anyone’s guess.

As is becoming his norm since taking over in January as speaker, McCarthy sacrifices bipartisan leadership to placate hard-right members, without whom he would not be speaker, but with whom he capitulates to extremist policies.

© The Sacramento Bee
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The Sacramento Bee

US Senator: N. Korea Stole $1.7 Bln in Crypto Assets Last Year

Written: 2023-07-22 

Photo : YONHAP News

U.S. officials have raised concern over North Korea's ever increasing cryptocurrency theft that is funding its nuclear and missile programs.

According to Voice of America, Senator Elizabeth Warren noted the scale of Pyongyang's cryptocurrency extortion during a congressional hearing Thursday for Air Force Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, the nominee to lead the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.

Warren said the North stole a record-breaking one-point-seven billion dollars worth of crypto assets last year, accounting for two thirds of the total stolen from the so-called decentralized finance or DeFI space.

In a February report, an expert panel at the UN Security Council North Korea sanctions committee said the regime's estimated cryptocurrency theft in 2022 was at least 630 million dollars and may even hover above one billion dollars.

Warren said the stolen funds, laundered through Chinese networks, are funneled into its nuclear program, responsible for about half the funding.

During the hearing, Timothy Haugh stated that North Korea continues to adapt to global trends in cybercrime by stealing cryptocurrency to bring in significant amounts of revenue and it is certainly an enabler for the regime to raise funds focused on their military program.

He said the North's cyber program poses a sophisticated threat to the U.S. and its allies and state actors conduct malicious cyber activity to collect intelligence, carry out attacks and generate revenue to bypass sanctions and fund regime goals.

We Underestimated the Speed and Scale of the Climate Crisis, Scientists Warn

“We need to hold governments to start to act sensibly now and reduce emissions,” one expert said.


A tree burns during a wildfire in the town of Palaiochori near Athens, Greece, on July 20, 2023.
(Photo: Costas Baltas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

ANDY ROWELL
Jul 21, 2023

Oil Change International

As leading climate scientists watch the devastating, breakneck speed of unfolding climate disasters unfolding across the globe—from record soaring temperatures to catastrophic flooding—many are aghast at how rapidly their worst predictions are being now being played out in real-time.

Some are also now admitting that they might well have underestimated the speed and scale of our impending climate crisis and how bad things could get.

This is deeply ironic because, for years, those scientists who sounded the alarm over climate change were attacked by the oil industry or their funded front groups for exaggerating or playing “chicken little.”

“The research community must be brutally honest. We are on a pathway to 2-3°C, and probably closer to the upper end of that range.”

But now some of the most senior climate scientists on the planet are speaking out about their concerns.

Speaking to the BBC Thursday morning, Sir Bob Watson, who is currently emeritus professor of the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said, “I am very concerned. None of the observed changes so far (at +1.2°C) are surprising. But they are more severe than we predicted. We probably underestimated the consequences.”

He added “The research community must be brutally honest. We are on a pathway to 2-3°C, and probably closer to the upper end of that range. We are likely to pass 1.5°C in the mid-2030’s and 2°C around 2060. Current pledges and the policies needed them are totally inadequate.”

As the BBC notes, although Watson’s “comments are candid on the state of action on climate change, many of his colleagues will agree with his conclusion that we are on course for a temperature rise of 2.5°C or more.”

And Watson’s colleagues do concur. Ellen Thomas, a Yale University scientist who studies climate change told TheGuardian “It’s not just the magnitude of change, it’s the rate of change that’s an issue.”

Thomas added: “We have highways and railroads that are set in place, our infrastructure can’t move. Almost all my colleagues have said that, in hindsight, we have underestimated the consequences. Things are moving faster than we thought, which is not good.”

Other leading scientists agree too:

Meanwhile, others are being candid that nothing will change until we reduce our use of fossil fuels. “I’ve been expecting this for 20 years,” Professor Camille Parmesan, from the National Center for Scientific Research and an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report author, told Bloomberg. “This is just going to keep happening given that we’re not reducing emissions.”

Speaking to TheGuardian, James Hansen, often seen as the Godfather of climate science, warned we are hurtling towards a superheated climate because “we are damned fools” for not acting sooner. “We have to taste it to believe it.”

He told TheGuardian: “There’s a lot more in the pipeline, unless we reduce the greenhouse gas amounts. These superstorms are a taste of the storms of my grandchildren. We are headed wittingly into the new reality—we knew it was coming.”'

“The climate crisis is in the main a fossil fuel crisis.”

“This does not mean that the extreme heat at a particular place this year will recur and grow each year,” he continued. “Weather fluctuations move things around. But the global average temperature will go up and the climate dice will be more and more loaded, including more extreme events.”

In a so far unpeer-reviewed scientific paper, Hansen and colleagues said: “It seems that we are headed into a new frontier of global climate,” one not seen for millions of years.

They warn: “As long as more energy is coming in than going out, we must expect global warming to continue.”

Al Gore is another who is alarmed by what they are witnessing: “Everywhere you look in the world, the extremes have now seemingly reached a new level,” he told TheNew York Times in an interview. “The temperatures in the North Atlantic and the unprecedented decline of the Antarctic sea ice, both simultaneously. We see it in upstate New York, we see it in Vermont, we see it in southern Japan, we see it in India. We see it in the unprecedented drought in Uruguay and in Argentina.”

“The climate crisis is in the main a fossil fuel crisis,” Gore added. “If the world is not permitted to discuss the phasing down of fossil fuels because the fossil fuel companies don’t want the world to discuss it, that’s the sign of a very flawed process.”

But it’s not too late to act. As Watson said: “We need to hold governments to start to act sensibly now and reduce emissions.” And its not just governments. It’s the oil industry, too; as Gore points out, this is a fossil fuel crisis. Created by the fossil fuel industry. Because their decades-old public relations strategy of denying the evidence, spreading doubt, and delaying action is the reason our world is on fire right now.

© 2023 Oil Change International


ANDY ROWELL is a staff blogger for Oil Change International in addition to working as a freelance writer and investigative journalist who specializes in environmental, health and lobbying issues. He is a senior Research Fellow at the University of Bath and Director of the Tobacco Tactics team at the Tobacco Control Research Group, which is a partner in the global tobacco industry watchdog, STOP.
Full Bio >

The Greenland Threat Escalates

 

Will the world’s major coastal cities, such as NYC, survive escalating global heat conditions in Greenland?

July 21, 2023 by Pressenza 

By Robert Hunziker

Will the world’s major coastal cities, such as NYC, survive escalating global heat conditions in Greenland? And what if both Greenland and Antarctica follow the recent very disturbing pattern of the world’s oceans? For the first time that scientists can recall, sea surface temperatures that always recede from annual peaks are failing to do so, staying high.

Climate change is getting dangerously worse, which is becoming a more common statement among scientists. Ecosystems are starting to fail right before our eyes. For example, in 2022 Europe experienced a big scare with the temporary loss of full service for navigable commercial waterways, like the Rhine, and the loss of potable water in regions of France and Italy, necessitating water delivery by truck to over 100 communities, with much of Asia experiencing similar issues, especially China and India.

Suddenly, the world is a different place, a description that fits Greenland, especially August 14th, 2021, when it rained at Summit Station, 10,551 feet elevation. There’s no previous record of rainfall at the 2-mile summit. It was one more unprecedented climate event. More on Greenland and coastal cities follows herein.

According to the IPCC 6th Assessment Report: “There is high confidence that climate change has already caused irreversible losses in terrestrial, freshwater and coastal and open ocean marine ecosystems.” Still, climate scientists continue pumping out reports about those same irreversible losses, but frustration mounts as reports pile on top of reports in the face of negligible efforts by the 195 signatories to Paris ‘15.

It’s not surprising that climate scientists are becoming street protestors.

Scientists Rebel

In December 2021 an offbeat science article called for scientists to stop feeding research into a bottomless pit of inaction: “The science-society contract is broken. The climate is changing… The tragedy of climate change science is that at the same time as compelling evidence is gathered, fresh warnings issued, and novel methodologies developed, indicators of adverse global change rise year upon year.” (Source: Bruce C. Glavoic, et al, The Tragedy of Climate Change Science, Climate and Development, Vol 14, Issue 9, 2022

Furthermore: “We, therefore, call for a halt to further IPCC assessments. We call for a moratorium on climate change research until governments are willing to fulfill their responsibilities in good faith and urgently mobilize coordinated action from the local to global levels. This third option is the only effective way to arrest the tragedy of climate change science,” Ibid.

“Over 1,00o scientists from 25 countries staged protests last week following the release of IPCC’s new report.” (Source: Scientists Stage Worldwide Climate Change Protests After IPCC Report, Smithsonian Magazine, April 13, 2022).

At the American Geophysical Union meeting in December 2022, which is the largest annual meeting of scientists, activists’ scientists unfurled a banner that read: “Out of the lab & into the streets,” demanding rapid deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 to avoid catastrophic climate effects, meaning all hell will break lose. But maybe it’s already breaking loose? In fact, in many respects, it is already breaking loose.

Greenland is starting to come apart at the seams right before our eyes, threatening to impact the world’s most prominent cities: New York City, Miami, Bangkok, Amsterdam, Ho Chi Minh City, Cardiff, New Orleans, Manila, London, and Shenzhen are the 10 most vulnerable cities for sea level rise. Based upon the following chart of Greenland melt extent, capturing only a short duration in time, the famous cities must hope this ominous graph, June 28th, is nothing more than an aberration that dissipates soon. A nearly vertical spike of ice sheet melt extent can be seen on the chart from Jason Box, climatologist, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.

Surely the radical spike up does not forecast new higher levels down the road, as it naturally dissipates, but what if it does not dissipate, similar to sea surface temperatures that always recede from annual peaks but failed to do so, staying high? Then, seawalls become mandatory.

“Sea surface temperatures (SST) have risen 5 degrees Celsius above normal during June. This is the warmest they have been in more than 170 years for this time of the year.” (Source: North Atlantic Marine Heatwave ‘Beyond Extreme’, Down to Earth, July 5, 2023)

Already, the combined ice mass loss for Greenland and Antarctica has been accelerating, fast and faster, from 116 billion tons per year in the late 1990s to 410 billion tons per year in 2017-2020, which comprises the most recent data set. That’s a 250% increase in one decade, which is piping hot for a colossal block of ice. At that rate, it’s probably a good idea to start building seawalls, forget the plans, just build.

Meanwhile, the 10 coastal cities should keep their collective fingers crossed that the spike up doesn’t portend the future, like the recent experience with ocean heat, which demonstrated major, major unwelcomed changes in climate behavior.  If so, the word “trouble” takes on new meaning for some of the world’s biggest cities. In fact, The Economist declared Greenland a “goner” a couple of years ago: The Greenland Ice Sheet Has Melted Past the Point of No Return, The Economist, April 25th, 2020.

However, the problem runs deeper yet. A recent study of ice sheets shows that the current generation of sea level rise modeling that’s commonly used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and policymakers is too conservative, unintentionally lowballing, missing data that changes the complexion from a cautionary yellow to a red alert.

According to the study, the hidden interior of the Greenland ice sheet is destabilizing because of millions of hairline cracks that cause hydro-fracking that satellite observations and previous studies have not yet recognized. (Source: David M. Chandler, et al, Widespread Partial-Depth Hydrofractures in Ice Sheets Driven by Supraglacial Streams, Nature Geoscience, June 2023)

The implications of the Chandler study are profound as the hydrofractures occur far from crevasse fields and melt lakes where science ordinarily finds such occurrences. Over time tiny hairline cracks grow into giant gaping maws large enough to swallow a cathedral. Ice sheet stability is compromised.

Beyond the Chandler study, other recent studies reveal vulnerabilities that are not yet factored into sea level expectations by the IPCC or policymakers. For example (1) warm ocean currents are flowing under ice shelves in Greenland and Antarctica, destabilizing, and undercutting outlet glaciers (2) Abnormal levels of rainfall in Greenland, including regions where, in unprecedented fashion, it’s never rained before, accelerate surface melt (3) foreign surface materials darken Greenland’s ice sheet and absorb more solar radiation, accelerating melt. And (4) Is Antarctica included in IPCC calculations for sea levels, or did they not have enough data points to include it? I think not. Meantime, the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica are already teetering, like listing ships at sea. Nobody knows for sure how soon a crash happens, maybe Thwaites, the alleged Doomsday Glacier, hmm.

An international collaboration of 65 polar scientists was established in 2011, named Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-Comparison Exercise -IMBIE- to reconcile measurements of ice sheet mass balance. It’s supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. According to an April 20, 2023, press release: Since the early 1990s there has been a fivefold increase in melting of ice sheets. A five-fold increase is beyond disturbing, whatever that may be.

Underestimating sea level rise by the IPCC and policymakers is exposed in study after study, for example, Eric Rignot, senior research scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and professor, at the University of California, co-led a study of the Petermann Glacier, Greenland which proved that the melt rate at the junction of the ocean with grounded ice is much more vigorous than expected. Their finding potentially doubles projections of sea level rise.  (Source: Enrico Ciraci, Eric Rignot, et al, Melt Rates in the Kilometer-Size Grounding Zone of Petermann Glacier, Greenland, Before and During Retreat, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 2, 2023)

Doubling sea level rise is difficult to fathom and would be nearly impossible to handle, especially with nobody planning for it to happen.

“These ice-ocean interactions make the glaciers more sensitive to ocean warming,’ said senior co-author Eric Rignot, UCI professor of Earth system science and NASA JPL research scientist. ‘These dynamics are not included in models, and if we were to include them, it would increase projections of sea level rise by up to 200 percent – not just for Petermann but for all glaciers ending in the ocean, which is most of northern Greenland and all of Antarctica,” Ibid.\

Based upon numerous requests for a shorter-term forecast of likely sea level rise, an analysis was undertaken by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey, expecting significant sea level rise over the next 30 years, by region. They projected 10 to 14 inches (25 to 35 centimeters) of rise on average for the East Coast, 14 to 18 inches (35 to 45 centimeters) for the Gulf Coast, and 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) for the West Coast. (Source: NASA Study: Rising Sea Level Could Exceed Estimates for U.S. Coasts, NASA- Global Climate Change, November 1, 2022)

The wild card in NASA’s calculations is whether “the accelerating rate of sea level rise detected in satellite measurements from 1993 to 2020 – and the direction of those trends” used to determine future sea levels remains the same or accelerates beyond initial baseline calculations.

What can be done?

The answers for what can be done are in the public domain. Indeed, what can be done is all about when, or if it will be done, which is the real issue.

“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” (Robert Swan, one of the world’s greatest explorers, first to walk both the North and South Poles)

 

—

Previously Published on pressenza with Creative Commons License

Rewetting German marshes to blunt climate change impact

Agence France-Presse
July 22, 2023

The marshes dried up over centuries as its peat was harvested and the soil cultivated for grain or keeping livestock (Paul NOLP)

Amid the fields of northern Germany a vast expanse of bulrushes has been planted to form one of Europe's largest reclaimed marshes.

Just four years ago, the 10-hectare (25-acre) plot close to the town of Malchin was a simple field.

Like 98 percent of Germany's historic wetlands, the area slowly dried up over centuries as its peat was harvested and the soil cultivated for grain or keeping livestock.

Now, the land has been rewetted and planted with rushes that rise up to two meters (seven feet) high.

With rubber boots that go up to her knees and a GPS navigation device in hand, biologist Meline Brendel wades through the marshes' stagnant waters.

"Marshes cover three percent of the Earth's surface and trap twice as much CO2 as all forests," says Brendel.

Left alone, such bogs are massive sinks for carbon locked into the peat and prevented from escaping as gas by the water that covers the ground.

Once dry, however, the earth releases the stored carbon when it comes into contact with oxygen.

"In this region, marshes therefore emit more CO2 than all forms of transport put together," says the scientist.

Over a year, one hectare of drained marshland produces as much CO2 as a car traveling 145,000 kilometers (90,000 miles), according to the Greifswald Mire Centre.

- Wetland habitat -

In Germany, current and former wetlands cover some five percent of the country's land area -- although the overwhelming majority has been drained.

To keep these emissions in check, the government-financed Paludi-PROGRESS project funded the rewetting of the former marshland.


The land was criss-crossed with trenches, flooded and planted with bulrushes.

Today, the area is habitat to a multitude of birds, fish, insects, spiders and amphibians. The bulrushes are cut each year and used for household insulation, among other practical applications.

Her eyes glued to the GPS, Brendel navigates her way through the wet maze, sinking a spike into the peat as she goes to measure the level of the water.


"The problem is that projects like ours are still just pilots. The plants cannot yet be used on an industrial scale" as material for roofing or insulation, she says.

The German government, which aims to make Europe's top economy carbon neutral by 2045, last year launched a four-billion-euro ($4.5 billion), four-year plan of action to "improve the general state of ecosystems" in the country.

Half of the program's funds will go toward protecting marshes.


A new law encouraging such efforts within the EU was recently adopted by the European Parliament. However, the programs have run into opposition from farmers.

- Cows and carbon -

For Brendel, the point is not to "force the rewetting of fields on farmers", but to convince them of its importance for the climate and the possibility to make a living from cultivating wetland.

The 28-year-old scientist concedes that farming marshes is currently "not recognized as agriculture and farmers therefore don't have access to organic farming subsidies".

"We need to make it more accessible and less bureaucratic to turn drained land back into marshes and to share what we have learned."

Twenty years ago, Bavarian farmer Lorenz Kratzer opted for an intermediate solution: keeping livestock on marshland that is slightly less wet than normal and giving his animals plenty of land to roam.

On a hot summer's day in Freising in southern Germany, 20 or so of his cows seek the shade of the trees and bushes growing on his marshland used for grazing.

As the soil dries out due to climate change, the 64-year-old says it "would be a very good thing... to let the marshes return to nature, to flood them again".

"The creation of pastures goes along well with this. You can see that the grass is growing better," he said.

Kratzer sells his organic meat locally, showing that it's possible to combine agriculture and marshland protection.

Back in Malchin, across the way from the reclaimed marsh, a herd of cows grazes peacefully in a field.

"You can't see it but carbon is escaping from the ground" dried to make pastures for livestock, says Brendel, who dreams of a world where "there are no more dry marshes".

World's biggest permafrost crater in Russia’s Far East thaws as planet warms

2023/07/22


BATAGAI, Russia (Reuters) - Stunning drone footage has revealed details of the Batagaika crater, a one kilometre long gash in Russia's Far East that forms the world's biggest permafrost crater.

In the video two explorers clamber across uneven terrain at the base of the depression, marked by irregular surfaces and small hummocks, which began to form after the surrounding forest was cleared in the 1960s and the permafrost underground began to melt, causing the land to sink.

"We locals call it 'the cave-in,'" local resident and crater explorer Erel Struchkov told Reuters as he stood on the crater's rim. "It developed in the 1970s, first as a ravine. Then by thawing in the heat of sunny days, it started to expand."

Scientists say Russia is warming at least 2.5 times faster than the rest of the world, melting the long-frozen tundra that covers about 65% of the country's landmass and releasing greenhouse gases stored in the thawed soil.

The "gateway to the underworld," as some locals in Russia's Sakha Republic also call it, has a scientific name: a mega-slump.

And while it may attract tourists, the slump's expansion is "a sign of danger," said Nikita Tananayev, lead researcher at the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk.

"In future, with increasing temperatures and with higher anthropogenic pressure, we will see more and more of those mega-slumps forming, until all the permafrost is gone," Tananayev told Reuters.

Thawing permafrost has already threatened cities and towns across northern and northeastern Russia, buckling roadways, splitting apart houses, and disrupting pipelines. Vast wildfires, which have become more intense in recent seasons, exacerbate the problem.

Locals in Sakha have taken note of the crater's rapid growth.

"(Two years ago the edge) was about 20-30 metres away from this path. And now, apparently, it is much closer," Struchkov said.

Scientists aren't sure of the exact rate at which the Batagaika crater is expanding. But Tananayev says the soil beneath the slump, which is about 100 metres deep (328 feet) in some areas, contains an "enormous quantity" of organic carbon that will release into the atmosphere as the permafrost thaws, further fuelling the planet's warming.

"With an increasing air temperature we can expect (the crater) will be expanding at a higher rate," he said. "This will lead to more and more climate warming in the following years."

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Andrew Osborn and David Holmes)









© Reuters

Around 2,000 penguins have appeared dead on the coast of eastern Uruguay

Dead penguins are scattered on the beach Barra Laguna de Rocha in Uruguay on July 20, 2023 (STRINGER)

Around 2,000 penguins have appeared dead on the coast of eastern Uruguay in the last 10 days, and the cause, which does not appear to be avian influenza, remains a mystery, authorities said.

The Magellanic penguins, mostly juveniles, died in the Atlantic Ocean and were carried by currents to Uruguayan shores, said Carmen Leizagoyen, head of the Environment Ministry's department of fauna.

"This is mortality in the water. Ninety percent are young specimens that arrive without fat reserves and with empty stomachs," she said, and stressed that all samples taken have tested negative for avian influenza.

Magellanic penguins nest in southern Argentina. In the southern hemisphere winter, they migrate north in search of food and warmer waters, even reaching the coast of the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo.

"It is normal for some percentage to die, but not these numbers," Leizagoyen said, recalling that a similar die-off occurred last year in Brazil, for undetermined reasons.

Hector Caymaris, director of the Laguna de Rocha protected area, told AFP that he counted more than 500 dead penguins along six miles (10 kilometers) of Atlantic coast.

Environmental advocates attribute the increase in Magellanic penguin deaths to overfishing and illegal fishing.

"From the 1990s and 2000s we began to see animals with a lack of food. The resource is overexploited," Richard Tesore, of the NGO SOS Marine Wildlife Rescue, told AFP.

A subtropical cyclone in the Atlantic, which hit southeastern Brazil in mid-July, probably caused the weakest animals to die from the inclement weather, he added.

In addition to penguins, Tesore said he has recently found dead petrels, albatrosses, seagulls, sea turtles and sea lions on the beaches of Maldonado, a department east of the capital Montevideo.

No stars? Comic-Con returns to roots as Hollywood strikes

Agence France-Presse

July 22, 2023

A Barbie cosplayer arrives for San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, on July 20, 2023 (Chris Delmas)

Comic books, video games and colorful "cosplay" outfits took center stage at Comic-Con as the giant pop culture event kicked off Thursday without its usual A-list stars due to the Hollywood strike.

Braving the soaring heat, tens of thousands of fans dressed as characters from Wonder Woman to Barbie and Ken flocked to San Diego, California.

While Comic-Con typically draws headlines for glitzy movie announcements and panels featuring stars like Tom Cruise and Dwayne Johnson, fans told AFP they welcomed the chance to focus on costumes and comics -- the event's original focus.

"Honestly, I'm more excited about the cosplay," said Janelle Hinesley, 32, who came dressed as Astrid from the "How to Train Your Dragon" films

]

"Besides, I can't sit in this, so we're not going to any panels right now," she added, pointing to the giant axe strapped to her back.

The convention center's huge Hall H, where Hollywood stars and studios typically unveil the latest superhero movies to screaming fans who camp in line for days to get in, was markedly more relaxed than in previous years.

Early presentations included Paramount's new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" animated film, India's first-ever Hall H presentation for "Kalki 2898-AD," and an eagerly awaited look at video game "Marvel's Spider-Man 2."

Dressed as Ken in anticipation of the new "Barbie" movie, Tony Ring-Dowell joined the roughly half-hour Hall H line to see the Spider-Man presentation, excited that video games were getting "more exposure" this year.

"Going to a movie launch or announcement was not a big draw for me anyway," he said.

"Celebrities? I don't feel the need to see them in person. I'll watch the movie trailer online."

- 'Solidarity' -

With actors last week joining writers on strike, A-listers are banned from promoting movies and shows.

That has forced Hollywood studios, still eager to reach Comic-Con fans, to get creative.

Paramount brought out "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" director Jeff Rowe -- directors are not part of the strike -- and played a video message from actor Seth Rogen, pre-recorded before the strike.

"Spider-Man" voice actor Yurie Lowenthal told the audience that his branch of the profession is not on strike as it has a different contract, but "stands in solidarity" with those on picket lines.

"Kalki 2898-AD" put on a presentation featuring Indian mega-stars such as Prabhas and Kamal Haasan -- plus Amitabh Bachchan via video -- who are not members of the striking US-based Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA).

The uncertainty over this year's line-up also created logistical headaches for organizers.

Talks between Hollywood actors and studios went right down to the wire last week, giving Comic-Con just a few days to pivot since the strike was called.

Sorting the event's sprawling schedule is "like a Rubik's Cube" every year, said Comic-Con marketing chief David Glanzer, but this installment has required more contingency plans than usual.

"We're all rolling with the punches," he told AFP.

"We really wish that a resolution could have been found before this."

- Celebrating roots -

Comic-Con began more than 50 years ago as a tiny event where fans could connect with each other and meet their heroes -- the comic book creators.

But it has ballooned to become North America's largest pop culture gathering, drawing 130,000 annual visitors.

Besides Hall H, a giant convention floor with countless talks, seminars and signings has continued to allow fans to do just that.

"I am probably more excited this year than any year in recent memory," said Chris Gore, owner of the "Film Threat" website and director of "Attack of the Doc!"

"San Diego Comic-Con is gonna get back to its roots -- which is celebrating the art of comic books," he said.

"Comic-Con has never been just Hall H," agreed James Witham, host of the "Down & Nerdy Podcast."

"It's a unique animal... you have movies, television, comics, anime, animation, toys."

Janelle Hinesley and her sister Kelsey -- dressed as Wonder Woman -- said they would not have gone to Hall H panels even if there were no strike, "because we don't want to wait in line."

"Honestly, they deserve to strike. I hope it makes things better," she said.

"I'm OK with it. There's going to be less waiting I guess!"

Tornado that struck Pfizer plant ripped through warehouse where drugs were stored

The company is working with the FDA to assess the extent of the damage and gauge how it will impact the country's already strained drug supply.

The Pfizer plant in Rocky Mount, N.C. on July 21, two days after it was struck 

a tornado. 

Sean Rayford / Getty Images


July 21, 2023

By Berkeley Lovelace Jr.


The tornado that ripped through a major Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina on Wednesday "almost completely destroyed" the plant’s warehouse, which stored raw materials, packaging supplies and finished medications awaiting release to hospitals across the United States, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said during a press conference on Friday.

The company is working with the Food and Drug Administration, which on Friday said it was still trying to gauge the impact the natural disaster could have on the nation’s drug supply. The plant, based in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, made about 150 medicines, many of which are used by hospitals, including fentanyl and morphine for pain management, and anesthetics for surgery. Half of the drugs made at the facility are on the FDA’s essential medicines list, according to the United States Pharmacopeia, a group that tracks drug supply chains.


A review from USP released Friday found many of the medications were already at risk of a shortage before the tornado occurred.

The Pfizer plant is “obviously an important contributor to the U.S. supply chain,” said Vimala Raghavendran, vice president of informatics product development at the organization.

Assessing the damage will be difficult, according to Pfizer, as only a small number of people have limited access to the facility due to hazards still present from the tornado.

“We are watching the situation closely as it evolves,” Chanapa Tantibanchachai, an FDA spokesperson, said in an email.

Michael Ganio, senior director of pharmacy practice and quality at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), said that damage to warehouses storing supplies and finished products would be likely easier to recover from, by ramping up production again.

Repairing or replacing equipment to make the drugs would be a more challenging and slower process, he added.

Bourla said that the production facility didn't suffer any damage. Still, he said, the company is exploring alternative manufacturing locations.

Pfizer said in a statement that it is moving what it can to nearby sites for storage. The facility will remain closed while the damage continues to be assessed.

The Pfizer Rocky Mount facility produces nearly 25% of the drugmaker’s sterile injectables drugs used in hospitals in the U.S. and is one of the largest facilities for these drugs in the world, according to the drugmaker’s website. Sterile injectable drugs refer to any medications that are injected, either intravenously or as a shot, and are free from contamination

Among the drugs made at the facility are anesthetics used to sedate patients during surgery and intubation, including propofol and etomidate, said Mittal Sutaria, senior vice president for pharmacy contract and program services for Vizient, a group dedicated to preventing drug shortages.

The facility also makes analgesics for pain management; powerful antibiotics such as vancomycin; and neuromuscular blockers such as cisatracurium and succinylcholine, which are used during surgical procedures, Sutaria said.

The natural disaster comes as the nation’s supply of drugs is already strained. As of the end of June, there were 309 active drug shortages in the U.S., the most in nearly a decade, according to the ASHP.

Problems at Pfizer’s plant have the potential to tip the U.S. past 320 active drug shortages, the highest ever reported, Ganio said. “I am absolutely concerned,” he said.

It would mean more patients are unable to get access to the medications they need.

“We are working with distributors to request they immediately implement proactive management of any product anticipated to be affected to help minimize additional strain to the supply chain,” Sutaria, of Vizient, said.

The last time a natural disaster caused a critical shortage of drugs in the U.S. was in 2017, after Hurricane Maria battered a Baxter manufacturing plant in Puerto Rico, which cut into the supply of amino acids used to feed sick patients, and saline solution, which is used to administer IV drugs.

It took close to a year before the shortages from Hurricane Maria were alleviated, Ganio said.

Follow NBC HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook.

Berkeley Lovelace Jr. is a health and medical reporter for NBC News. He covers the Food and Drug Administration, with a special focus on Covid vaccines, prescription drug pricing and health care. He previously covered the biotech and pharmaceutical industry with CNBC.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/07/tornado-damage-to-north-carolina-pfizer.html

 

Tube strikes cancelled: Next week’s London Underground strike dates called off by RMT and Aslef unions

Train drivers’ union Aslef hailed the ‘major step forward’ as the industrial action was called off

A series of Tube strikes were planned for next week (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

By Joe Duggan

July 21, 2023 12:12 pm

Strikes planned for next week on the London Underground that were set to cause chaos for millions of commuters have been called off.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) and Aslef unions have suspended planned industrial action on the Tube, Transport for London (TfL) confirmed.

Aslef drivers had been due to walk out next Wednesday and Friday, with Tube station staff for the RMT poised to walkout on Sunday until Saturday.

Finn Brennan, Aslef’s organiser on the London Underground, said: “After a week of intense negotiations, we have made real progress in making sure our members’ working conditions and pensions are protected from the impact of the Tory Government cuts to TfL funding.

“There will be no changes to pension benefits before the next general election. And any future changes to working conditions and agreements will only be made by negotiation. This is a major step forward.”

The RMT announced it had suspended all strike action planned for next week on London Underground after progress was made in its dispute over pensions and jobs.

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Union leaders claimed “significant concessions” were made by TfL whose original plans for jobs cuts and pension changes would not be carried out, they said.

RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch, said: “There has been significant progress made by our negotiating team in ACAS talks with TfL.

“However this is not the end of the dispute nor is it a victory for the union as yet. Our members were prepared to engage in significant disruptive industrial action and I commend their resolve.”

But he warned that RMT’s strike mandate would remain until October, with the union “prepared to use it if necessary”.

London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, said the negotiations had been successfully completed “despite the onerous funding deal conditions imposed by the Government”.

“I want to thank the RMT, Aslef and Unite who worked really closely with TfL to pull these strikes off for next week,” he added.

“Negotiations are what it is all about. Our transport workers were heroes during the pandemic keeping transport going to allow key workers to get to work.”

This story is being updated