Watch drone delve into Siberia's growing 'gateway to the underworld,' the largest permafrost depression in the world

Jennifer Nalewicki
Tue, July 25, 2023 

A giant crater in Siberia covered in snow and ice.

A massive crater in Siberia dubbed the "gateway to the underworld" by locals is continuing to grow larger, new drone footage reveals.

The footage, which was released on July 12, offers viewers a bird's-eye view of the Batagay (also spelled Bagatayka and Batagaika) crater, considered to be the largest permafrost depression in the world, according to Ruptly.tv.

Covering approximately 0.3 square miles (0.8 square kilometers) — equivalent to the area of about 145 football fields — the deep scar cutting through the east Siberian woodlands was likely triggered by deforestation during the 1940s. This led to erosion, which then exacerbated seasonal melting of the permafrost and created a "megaslump," or the massive crater in the ground. Because the permafrost in this region is comprised of 80% ice, the large amounts of melting forced sediment on the hillside to collapse, revealing what looks like a giant gash slashing through the landscape in Russia's Sakha Republic.

Related: Zapotec 'entrance to the underworld' discovered under Catholic church in Mexico

And it's not just drone imagery that shows that the crater continues to expand. Over the years, satellite imagery has also confirmed that the megaslump has grown in size. As the land has retreated, it has revealed "tens of thousands of years of frozen remains," dating as far back as the Middle Pleistocene, which ended 126,000 years ago.

In one study, the melt allowed scientists to access bison meat that had been frozen for roughly 8,000 years, giving researchers new insight into animals and plants that once inhabited the region.

Scientists aren't sure exactly how quickly the crater is expanding. However, locals claim that in the last several years, it has grown between 66 feet and 98 feet (20 and 30 m) at certain points, according to NDTV, a TV station in New Delhi.

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"This is something very rare," Alexey Lupachev, a senior researcher at the Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems of Soil Science at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Ruptly.tv. "This is a unique object of nature, which allows us to see the history of Earth over a period of half a million years preserved in permafrost."

Car companies like Honda, BMW, and Hyundai are banding together to build an EV-charging network bigger than Tesla's Supercharger empire

Tim Levin
Wed, July 26, 2023 

Charging anxiety is one of the biggest factors keeping Americans from buying electric cars.

Seven automakers plan to build an electric-vehicle charging network to take on Tesla.


Tesla's Supercharger network is by far the largest in North America.


The automakers aim to install 30,000 fast-charging plugs in North America, more than Tesla currently has.

Seven car companies are making their own charging network to take on Elon Musk's Tesla Superchargers.

BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis (the European goliath that owns Jeep, Fiat, Dodge, and many others) announced a joint venture on Wednesday aimed at blanketing North America with thousands of fast-charging plugs. They hope the move will make EV charging more convenient and get more people into electric cars, trucks, and SUVs.

The coalition of brands aims to install 30,000 fast-charging plugs, more than Tesla (by far North America's largest provider of fast charging) currently has. Tesla operates around 22,000 Supercharger stalls in the region. Electrify America, the charging company established by Volkswagen as part of the Dieselgate scandal, is the next biggest with 3,592 plugs.

The automakers didn't specify how long building out the network will take, but said the first stations are scheduled to open in the summer of 2024.

Car companies have clear interest in beefing up the continent's charging infrastructure: Worries about where to charge and how long it takes are some of the biggest things turning people off from buying electric cars. The more convenient, accessible, and quick charging becomes, the more EVs car companies can expect to sell. Most current EV owners charge at home in their garages or driveways, and public charging will be key for getting new buyers — particularly those who live in buildings without private parking — on board.

Up until now, most carmakers apart from Tesla turned their buyers loose on a patchwork of third-party public-charging stations. Tesla, by comparison, has spent over a decade building out a vast network of charging stations specifically for its owners. And that network, which historically only allowed Tesla owners to plug in, has been a huge driver of Tesla sales. (Tesla recently began opening up parts of its network to drivers of non-Tesla cars and sharing its charging-plug design with rivals.)

Tesla's chargers are renowned for their reliability and ease of use. For example, Tesla owners don't need to swipe a credit card to pay — they just pull up and plug in, and their car identifies itself to the network. If a Tesla owner goes on a long trip, the car's navigation system will automatically route to Superchargers along the way as needed.

That's a level of convenience and seamlessness other EV owners don't get. Moreover, non-Tesla chargers are notorious for poor reliability and for often being out of order.

It sounds like the planned charging network aims to mimic some of the things Tesla got right, and add some extra conveniences. The automakers said their network will allow owners to reserve charging spots, plan routes with charging stops, and pay for charging just by plugging in. The stations will also include rain awnings wherever possible, something missing from most current locations.

The stations will offer both major charging plugs: The CCS standard that most automakers have used, along with Tesla's NACS plug that's gaining popularity in the industry.

Texas Issues Emergency Order as Chronic Wasting Disease Cases in Deer Breeding Facilities Soar

Katie Hill
Wed, July 26, 2023

Texas is home to more deer breeders than any other state, according to the National Deer Association.

Texas is seeing an “unprecedented” increase in Chronic Wasting Disease cases in deer breeding facilities. This uptick has led to a new emergency order expanding mandatory live CWD testing statewide, TPWD reports. Since 2012, TPWD has recorded 504 confirmed cases of CWD in whitetails and mule deer, both free-range and captive. Sixty percent of the 504 positive tests—300 cases—have occurred since 2021, and breeder deer comprised 258 of them. In other words, 51 percent of all positive CWD tests recorded in Texas have come from breeder deer in the last two and a half years.

Per the new emergency order, a negative CWD test is now required for any captive deer transfer in the state—whether the originating facility is known to harbor CWD or not. The order, signed on July 24, builds on previously enacted emergency regulations that mandated testing for specific breeding facilities that were known to either house CWD-infected deer or receive deer from CWD-positive facilities.

“Since 2021, we have seen an increase in CWD detections from breeder deer at an unprecedented rate,” Silovsky, TPWD’s wildlife division director, said in a press release announcing the new rule. “It’s our hope that these emergency rules will strengthen our surveillance and reduce the number of CWD positive detections across the state.”

TPWD initiated this crack-down after the ninth facility in less than eight months produced a positive test last week. A captive five-year-old whitetail doe from Brooks County tested positive after being transferred from a CWD-positive facility in Frio County in 2022, TPWD reported on July 21. Facilities in three counties—Brooks, Frio, and Zavala—have tested positive since June, bringing the total number of infected counties in the state to 24.

The emergency order will remain in effect for 120 days. If necessary, TPWD can tack on another 60-day extension once the initial period ends.
CWD and Texas Deer Breeding

One explanation for the uptick in CWD cases is that monitoring has also increased substantially in recent years. Cases will likely continue to grow now that every deer transferred between any facility in the state will have to be tested first. (There’s no mention of who will foot the bill for such tests in the emergency order, either.)

Texas has the most known captive deer facilities in the country—858 as of 2021, according to a report from the National Deer Association. Those facilities are the driving force behind a roughly $1.6 billion industry.

Some whitetail managers and conservation groups have long pointed to these breeding operations as hotspots for CWD, since they concentrate animals in pens and make it easier for the prion disease to spread. Texas deer breeders, meanwhile, have fought against this perception and argued that the state will find the disease wherever it looks for it the most. The Texas Deer Association, which represents the state's deer breeders, points out out that roughly 75 percent of their captive deer have been tested for CWD within the past two years, compared to the .27 percent of the state's wild deer that have been tested over the same period of time.

Read Next: In the War Against CWD, Deer Breeders in Texas Are Being Cast as Both the Enemy and the Answer

Still, while it's true that this disparity in testing could lead to a bias in results, it's become abundantly clear that the transfer of captive whitetails throughout the state is allowing the disease to spread. This is what TPWD hopes to tamp down on as it works to protect the state's wild deer herds.

“Deer breeding itself is not the problem. It’s the movement of live deer between and among facilities,” NDA’s chief conservation officer Kip Adams told OL in February 2023. “It’s crystal clear in Texas that the movement of these animals is greatly elevating the spread of the disease in the state.”

Dac Collins contributed reporting to this story.

Night sky 'bleeds' over Arizona after SpaceX rocket punches a hole in the atmosphere. Here's why.


Harry Baker
Wed, July 26, 2023 

A large red streak shines across the night sky

A SpaceX rocket recently punched a hole in Earth's upper atmosphere while venturing into space, leaving behind a blood-red streak of light in the sky similar to an aurora.

The Falcon 9 rocket, which was carrying 15 SpaceX Starlink satellites into orbit, lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on July 19 at around 9 p.m. PDT, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com. As the rocket rose into the upper atmosphere, its exhaust plume became illuminated by sunlight, which created a stunning spectacle seen across California and parts of Arizona.

 But what followed was even more awe-inspiring.

"After the rocket passed overhead, a red fluorescent glow expanded southward and crossed over with the Milky Way [in the sky]," Jeremy Perez, a photographer based in Flagstaff, Arizona, told Spaceweather.com. Perez captured several epic shots of the "fluorescent red glow" from his vantage point at the San Francisco Volcanic Fields, located north of Flagstaff. The light show lasted around 20 minutes, he added.

The unusual red light was the result of the rocket disrupting the ionosphere, the part of Earth's atmosphere where gases are ionized, or lose electrons, and turn into plasma. The ionosphere stretches between roughly 50 and 400 miles (80 and 644 kilometers) above Earth's surface, according to NASA. This is a previously known phenomenon, but the latest episode is one of the most vivid examples to date, Spaceweather.com reported.

Related: SpaceX's Starlink satellites are leaking radiation that's 'photobombing' our attempts to study the cosmos

A red streak of light surrounidng by bright white light in the night sky

"Ionospheric holes" are created when a rocket's second stage burns fuel between 124 and 186 miles (200 and 300 km) above Earth's surface, Jeffrey Baumgardner, a physicist at Boston University, told Spaceweather.com. At this height, the carbon dioxide and water vapor from the rocket's exhaust cause ionized oxygen atoms to recombine, or form back into normal oxygen molecules, which excites the molecules and causes them to emit energy in the form of light, he added.

This is similar to how auroras form, except the dancing lights are caused by solar radiation heating up gases rather than recombining them. The holes pose no threat to people on the surface and naturally close up within a few hours as the recombined gases get re-ionized.

A rocket plume gets illuminated by sunlight

Scientists have known that rockets can trigger these sorts of effects since at least 2005, when a Titan rocket triggered "severe ionospheric perturbations" that were equivalent to a minor geomagnetic storm. But they are becoming more common.

related stories

—Geomagnetic storm sends 40 SpaceX satellites plummeting to Earth

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—Rogue rocket about to smash into the moon is from China, not SpaceX, experts say

In August 2017, a Falcon 9 rocket created a hole four times bigger than the state of California, the largest ever recorded. And in June 2022, another Falcon 9 punched a hole over the U.S. East Coast, sparking a display of red lights from New York to the Carolinas that many observers mistook for the northern lights, Spaceweather.com reported at the time.

As the number of rocket launches, particularly by private companies such as SpaceX, continues to increase in the coming years, it is likely that these ionospheric holes and their associated light shows will become much more common, according to Spaceweather.com.

Meet Harvard’s first Chinese teacher: Ko K'un-hua



Bryan Ke

NextShark
Tue, July 25, 2023 

[Source]

Meet Ko K'un-hua (Ge Kunhua), a Chinese scholar who became Harvard University’s first Chinese instructor during the late 19th century and whose documents became the core of the Harvard-Yenching Library.

The idea of introducing a native Chinese scholar to teach Mandarin at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was formed either in 1877 or 1878 after a group of Harvard alumni from Boston and Salem who conducted trades in China decided their alma mater should also offer Chinese lessons to students, emulating Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, at the time, according to Harvard Magazine in 2008.

Yale University was credited as the first university in the United States to offer Chinese courses in 1877, due in large part to missionary and sinologist Samuel Wells Williams.

The first step

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The group of alumni sought advice from China’s Imperial Maritime Customs Service, which handled the country’s emigrant labor issues, telegraph and postal systems, among other tasks.

Sir Robert Hart, the service’s longtime inspector general, disagreed with the proposition, arguing that “[a] Chinese literary man can undertake no more dreadful drudgery than…teaching Chinese to a foreigner,” adding that those who wanted to join the service have plenty of time to learn Chinese.

Despite that, the group still proceeded with their plan.

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Looking for the right candidate

Harvard alumnus Edward Bangs Drew recommended Ko, who hailed from Ningbo, Zhejiang province, for the position. According to Harvard Magazine, Drew briefly studied with Ko, who, despite not knowing how to speak English, had experience working for the British embassy for five years and the American consulate in Shanghai for two years.

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Problems surfaced, but it was too late

Drew later revealed in a confidential letter to Harvard President Charles William Eliot that while Ko was “very learned,” he was not a recognized scholar as he never obtained any degrees by examination. Drew also added that Ko had purchased his title from the Chinese government.

In response, Eliot wanted to cancel the agreement. But Ko had already quit his job and rented a house for him and his family, so he would lose face if they followed through.

More from NextShark: 56-year-old Chinese millionaire fails China’s university entrance exam for the 27th time

Making history

Ko made history on Sept. 1, 1879, when he officially became Harvard University’s first native Chinese instructor.

Two days after his arrival, however, an unnamed faculty member raised concerns, noting that the university never considered the number of students who wanted to learn Chinese.

That same year, Ko only had one student: Pope Professor of Latin George Martin Lane, who helped teach Ko English in return.

Unfortunately, before Ko could finish his three-year contract, he contracted and later succumbed to pneumonia in February 1882, just three months before the controversial Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law.

According to his Boston Daily Advertiser obituary, despite only having four to five pupils during his time at Harvard, the “results obtained have been most satisfactory,” noting that “[O]ne who has studied with him… has acquired the ability to converse easily with Mandarins, and is nearly ready to establish himself in some business in China.”

Harvard reportedly paid for Ko’s family to return to China, while Drew purportedly began raising funds to help educate his surviving sons.

Lasting legacy

Although Ko had been at Harvard for less than three years before his sudden death, his legacy continues to live on within the university.

When he moved from Ningbon to Cambridge, he reportedly brought several Chinese books with him. Those same books were the Harvard-Yenching Library’s first acquisitions in any East Asian language, marking the beginning of a wide collection of East Asian literature, which is now touted as the “largest in any academic library outside Asia.”

As of 2018, the library reportedly had over 1.5 million volumes in its collections, including over 900,000 Chinese, 400,000 Japanese, 200,000 Korean, 30,000 Vietnamese, 4,000 Tibetan, 3,500 Manchu, 500 Mongolian and 55,000 Western languages collections.

Kashmir Shiites march to mourn martyr after 33-year ban lifted

#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA
AFP
Thu, July 27, 2023 

Shiite Muslims march through Kashmir's largest city for a major Muharram religious festival allowed to proceed for the first time in 33 years

 (TAUSEEF MUSTAFA)

Thousands of Shiite Muslims marched through Indian-administered Kashmir's largest city Thursday for a major religious procession permitted in the restive territory for the first time since a ban was imposed decades ago.

The Islamic calendar is currently in the month of Muharram, the holiest time for Shiites across the world when large processions mark the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein in the seventh century.

But authorities in Kashmir had banned the traditional ceremony in 1990, the year after an armed revolt against Indian rule erupted in the disputed region that is also claimed by Pakistan.

Since imposing direct rule on the territory four years ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been eager to claim improved security in the territory after decades of unrest.

Top police officers and administrators walked alongside mourners who marched through the streets of Srinagar beating their chests and waving flags, following several rounds of negotiations between officials and clerics to allow the march to proceed.

"This is a dividend of peace," the city's top administrator Mohammad Aijaz told reporters after the procession concluded without incident.

Some small Muharram processions have been permitted in Kashmir since the 1990 ban but often ended violently, with mourners shouting slogans demanding independence and government forces dispersing crowds with tear gas and pellet-gun fire.

Shiite Muslims are a minority in mostly Sunni Kashmir but authorities believe they account for at least 10 percent of the region's population of nearly 14 million.

This year's procession was by far the largest in a generation and the first time many of those who joined were allowed to participate.

Authorities allowed the procession on condition that mourners would not use "anti-national slogans or propaganda" or display any references to rebel groups and "banned organisations".

- Decades of unrest -

Tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels have been killed in Kashmir since the outbreak of an insurgency against Indian rule in 1989.

Insurgent groups demand independence or a merger with Pakistan, which controls part of the region, and India has at least half a million troops permanently stationed around Kashmir to keep order.

Modi's government revoked the territory's constitutional guarantees of limited authority in 2019.

Indian tourists have since flocked to the region, cinema halls reopened in Srinagar last year after being shuttered for decades, and in May the city hosted a G20 meeting ahead of a September summit of world leaders in New Delhi.

But critics say that authorities have dramatically curtailed civil liberties in a clampdown on unrest, with ongoing restrictions on journalists, public protests and religious worship.

The region's chief cleric has been confined to house arrest since 2019 and prayers at Srinagar's main mosque remain subject to restrictions on congregation size.

Mansoor Abbas Ansari, a Shiite leader and one of the organisers of Thursday's procession, demanded the release of detained religious leaders and called for an end to the capping of congregations at prayer services.

"Only then will the government's claims of peace be proved," he told reporters.

pzb/gle/pbt

Mineral-rich nodules and the battle over mining the deep sea

Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS with Kelly MACNAMARA in Paris
Wed, July 26, 2023 

Graphic showing the three different types of seabed zones being explored for potential mining

 (Paz PIZARRO)

They might look like pebbles strewn across the seafloor, but to the unique animals of the ocean deep, polymetallic nodules are a crucial habitat.

To the mining firms vying to extract them, on the other hand, they promise to be a "battery in a rock."

These nodules, found on the seafloor several kilometers below the surface, are to be the subject of the first submarine mining contract application, which the government of Nauru is expected to soon submit to the International Seabed Authority (ISA).

The contract is for Nori, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc, a subsidiary of Canada's The Metals Company.
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This has caused concern among conservationists and scientists, who fear the severe impacts of mining a relatively untouched region of the planet that is rich in life, much of which remains unknown to science.

- Ancient -

Polymetallic nodules are most abundant in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) -- off the west coast of Mexico in the Pacific -- as well as in the central Indian Ocean and in the Peruvian Basin, according to the ISA.

The nodules were probably formed over millions of years.

They likely started off as solid fragments -- perhaps a shark tooth -- that sank down to the soft muddy seabed, then grew slowly through the accumulation of minerals present in the water in extremely low concentrations.

Today, they reach up to 20 centimeters (nearly 8 inches) in size: "metal pebbles," according to the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea.

Adrian Glover, of Britain's Natural History Museum, thinks of them as like "potatoes" scattered on the seabed, roughly 15 to 20 kilograms (33 to 44 pounds) of them per square meter.

One of the reasons why the nodules have never been buried under the mud in the Pacific is because the sea is food poor, with fewer dead organisms -- known as "marine snow" -- drifting down to the depths to eventually become part of the seafloor mud.

Sedimentation rates in some areas of the CCZ are "almost zero", Glover said, amounting to just a centimeter per thousand years.

The nodules were first recovered from the Pacific deep in the 1870s by the Challenger expedition, which used thousands of meters of hemp rope, a steam-powered winch and plenty of manpower to dredge the westerly part of the CCZ.

"Straightaway they realized they were very interesting, it was actually one of the biggest discoveries of the voyage for them," said Glover.

But they were not considered to be a "resource," he added.

- 'Clean' power? -

Some 20 companies or research centers have been awarded exploration contracts by the ISA for these nodules. One of these is Nori, whose contract covers four zones totalling some 75,000 square kilometers (about 30,000 square miles) in the CCZ.

These nodules are mainly composed of manganese and iron, but they also contain strategic minerals such as cobalt, nickel and copper.

According to the ISA, the CCZ contains around 21 billion metric tons of nodules, which could correspond to a reserve of six billion metric tons of manganese, 270 million metric tons of nickel and 44 million metric tons of cobalt, exceeding the known totals of these three minerals on land.

Advocates of undersea mining point to their potential use for green technology, particularly for electric vehicles.

"A battery in a rock," says The Metals Company.

"Polymetallic nodules are the cleanest path toward electric vehicles."

But that is an argument rejected by environmental NGOs and some scientists.

This claim is "more public relations than scientific fact", Michael Norton, of the European Academies' Science Advisory Council, told AFP, calling it "rather misleading" to say that demand cannot be met without undersea minerals.

- Impact fears -

Unlike the other two types of subsea mining resources regulated by the ISA -- including the mining of hydrothermal vents -- nodules do not require digging or cutting.

In tests carried out at the end of 2022, Nori lowered a collector vehicle to a depth of 4.3 kilometers (about 2.7 miles).

It swallowed nodules and sediment and then separated them, transporting the nodules to the surface vessel via a giant pipe and discharging the sediment into the water.

Catherine Weller, global policy director at the conservation organization Fauna & Flora, said that while the nodules are lying on the seafloor, they cannot just be "plucked" individually.

The impacts on the wider ocean system of churning up sediment and releasing wastewater was "simply unknown," she added.

Weller said the unique composition of the nodules which attracts mining firms is also what makes them such a special habitat for the creatures that live in the ocean depths.

"So they themselves are a really important part of the deep sea system."

abd-klm/nro

Machu Picchu's servants hailed from distant lands conquered by the Incas, genetic study finds

Kristina Killgrove
Wed, July 26, 2023 

A view of Machu Picchu's rocky ruins from a mountaintop.

Men and women who served Incan royalty at Machu Picchu weren't locals; they came from distant lands conquered by the empire, a new study finds.

An international team of researchers analyzed the ancient DNA of more than 30 people buried at Machu Picchu who were likely servants attending the Incan elite, and compared the genetic data with the DNA from other ancient human remains and modern people from the region.

The results revealed that the servants hailed from throughout the Andean highlands, as well as from all along the coast of Peru, according to the study, published Wednesday (July 26) in the journal Science Advances.

Who lived at Machu Picchu?

The Incas ruled over the Andean region of South America from the early 15th century to the mid-16th century, when the Spanish toppled the empire. More than a century before the Spanish invasion, the Incas built a massive palace high in the mountains of southern Peru, likely for Incan emperor Pachacuti, who reigned from 1438 to 1471. But little is known about the origins and lives of the servants who ran the Machu Picchu estate.

Roughly 750 people lived at Machu Picchu — including the emperor, other members of Incan royalty, guests and permanent servants — during the peak season between May and October, according to the study. Many royals were served by men known as "yanacona," who were not Incan. Rather, they were often taken from conquered lands and presented as gifts to the emperor. Women known as "aclla" were also removed from their homelands and given as wives to these male servants. Together, the yanacona and aclla ministered to the needs of the emperor and his guests as they engaged in feasting, singing, dancing and hunting and carried out important religious ceremonies.

Related: Machu Picchu was built decades earlier than thought

Over the past century of archaeological work at Machu Picchu, researchers have discovered the graves of nearly 200 people who died between the years 1420 and 1532. Given the simple and non-Incan-style ceramics buried with the individuals, it has long been assumed that these burial caves held the remains of the yanacona and aclla servants who attended the royal family. Previous research using biochemical analysis additionally suggested a high level of ethnic diversity among the Machu Picchu burial population.

A map of South America showing where the different servants originated.

To further test the hypothesis that the people buried at Machu Picchu were servants who were brought there from different parts of South America, the researchers analyzed the ancient DNA data of 34 people found in the four cemeteries at Machu Picchu, as well as the DNA of 36 modern and ancient people from the Urubamba Valley, also called the Sacred Valley, north of the Incan capital of Cusco.

The results revealed that "Machu Picchu was substantially more genetically diverse [...] than contemporary rural villages in the Andes," according to their study, led by Lucy Salazar, an archaeologist at Yale University.

Additionally, the team found a significant difference between the genetic ancestries of the male and female servants: Most male individuals came from the highland regions, while the female individuals had much more diverse, non-highland ancestries.

In testing the skeletons for biological relatedness, the researchers found only one pair of first-degree relatives: a mother and daughter buried close to each other. The mother appears to have come from the Amazonian lowlands, while the daughter grew up in the highland or coastal Andes. The lack of additional biological relationships suggests that servants arrived at Machu Picchu as individuals rather than as communities or extended families, the researchers concluded.

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Ken-ichi Shinoda, an anthropologist and the director of the National Museum of Nature and Science of Japan who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email that "considering that Machu Picchu was a significant city at the time, it is not surprising that people from various Andean regions gathered here." Shinoda and his team previously analyzed DNA from skeletons in non-elite burial sites around Machu Picchu and found much less genetic diversity.

The skeletons in the new study, which were excavated and brought to Yale University in 1912, were the subject of repatriation claims until they were all returned to Peru in 2012. Previously, "I couldn't analyze them," Shinoda said. "Now that it has become possible, I'm delighted that new discoveries have been made."

While the new analyses reveal information about the origins and lives of the servants who ran Machu Picchu, questions about the lives of the royalty remain.

"Despite the inherent limitations," the researchers wrote, "our analyses of the nonelite individuals demonstrate that genomic information, in combination with archaeological and ethnohistorical sources, can reveal a more nuanced and comprehensive view of daily life at Machu Picchu than has been available in the past."

France's Macron warns against new 'imperialism' in the Pacific

Ceremony to mark the 140th anniversary of the creation of the Alliance Francaise centres
WHICH IMPERIALIST COUNTRIES WOULD THOSE BE MSSR.

Thu, July 27, 2023 
By Michel Rose

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron warned against "new imperialism" in the Pacific during a landmark visit to the region, denouncing predatory behaviour by big powers in a region where China is extending trade and security ties.

France, which has island territories spanning the Indo-Pacific including French Polynesia, has boosted defence ties with India and other countries in the region as part of a move to counter Chinese influence.

In a speech in Vanuatu, Macron, the first French president to have set foot on the Pacific islands nation since war leader Charles de Gaulle, said France would work "shoulder to shoulder" with states in the region to preserve their independence.


"There is in the Indo-Pacific, especially in Oceania, new imperialism appearing and a power logic which is threatening the sovereignty of many states, the smallest and often the most fragile ones," Macron said, without naming any country.

"The modern world is shaking up the Indo-Pacific's sovereignty and independence. First, because of the predation of big powers. Foreign ships fish illegally here. In the region, many loans with Leonine conditions strangle up development."

Pacific Islands nations are being courted by China, a major infrastructure lender which struck a security pact with Solomon Islands last year, and the United States, which is re-opening embassies closed since the Cold War.

MACRON FOLLOWS AUSTIN

China has been a major infrastructure lender to Pacific Islands nations including Vanuatu over the past decade. Vanuatu's largest creditor is China's EXIM bank, accounting for a third of debt, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Washington has stepped up U.S. Coast Guard patrols and surveillance for illegal fishing in the Pacific islands, after concern at China's naval ambitions.

After Vanuatu, Macron is due to arrive in Papua New Guinea on Thursday evening, hot on the heels of U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who was there on Thursday.

In May, the U.S. and Papua New Guinea (PNG) signed a defence agreement that sets a framework for Washington to refurbish PNG ports and airports for military and civilian use.

The United States and its allies are seeking to deter Pacific Islands nations from establishing security ties with China, a rising concern amid tension over Taiwan.

Macron's advisers say France can be an "alternative" and help island nations diversify their partnerships without becoming too reliant on one single country.

(Reporting by Michel Rose; additional reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

US power regulator to weigh plans to speed up green energy connection


 Plant grows through an array of solar panels in Fort Lauderdale

Updated Thu, July 27, 2023 
By Valerie Volcovici and Nichola Groom

WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. regulators on Thursday will vote on proposals to speed up the connection of new energy projects to the electric grid, which could ease a growing backlog of requests from renewable energy developers and deliver more green energy to consumers.

Long waits for transmission interconnection have slowed efforts to ease wild pricing and tight power supply in some markets, and hobbled the deployment of big solar and wind projects that the Biden administration wants built to combat climate change.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will bring up its proposed improvements for the grid interconnection process at its monthly meeting later on Thursday, according to its agenda. The planned vote comes nearly one year after landmark legislation aimed at boosting renewable energy projects called the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) became law.

FERC Chairman Willie Phillips said in May that the commission could address the problem in part by shifting the approval process from a “first come, first serve” approach to a “first ready” approach – meaning projects that are ready with land rights and permits could move ahead instead of waiting behind developers that are less prepared.

New renewable generators and battery storage resources currently must go through a complex process before they can be connected. That process, which includes multiple studies of how their projects will affect the grid, can be costly and time consuming.

An April analysis by the government-funded Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that the average interconnection process takes five years, more than double the time than in 2008. Meanwhile, last year's passage of the IRA, which offers tax credits for renewable energy, has spurred major investment in new projects.

The interconnection proposal is part of a broader package of reforms FERC is working on in coming months to help hasten the deployment of renewable energy and storage. It is also seeking to finalize proposals this year to improve planning and cost allocation for transmission lines.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Nichola Groom; editing by Susan Heavey)