Thursday, April 25, 2024

Eleven dolphins trapped in mud off Wellfleet. Rescuers worked for hours to save them.

MERRILY CASSIDY, CAPE COD TIMES
April 24, 2024

PROVINCETOWN – Ten Atlantic white-sided dolphins were released off Provincetown Tuesday night after stranding on the mud flats in Wellfleet.

A team from the International Fund for Animal Welfare Marine Mammal Rescue, volunteers and AmeriCorps Cape Cod members, about 45 in all, responded after receiving a report of 11 dolphins stranded in Wellfleet Tuesday afternoon before the early evening low tide.

Eight dolphins were found off the Wellfleet pier in Duck Creek. Three others were stranded near the mouth of the Herring River. This area of the river, referred to as "the gut," is a frequent stranding location due to extreme tidal fluctuations and shallow slopes. One dolphin died on scene.

A dolphin is transported off the Wellfleet mud flats after stranding Tuesday. Rescuers responded to a mass dolphin stranding in Wellfleet Tuesday afternoon. Eleven Atlantic white-sided dolphins were found stranded on the outgoing tide. Eight were found in the Duck Creek area and another three were stranded at "the gut," an area near the entrance to the Herring River. Ten of the dolphins were transported to Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown where they were released. One dolphin died. International Fund for Animal Welfare's Marine Mammal Rescue and Research team responded to the mass dolphin stranding as did volunteers and members of AmeriCorps Cape Cod.More

Rescuers were met with harsh conditions at both locations with thick muddy flats and pockets of water that they had to navigate as the tide continued to roll out. In Provincetown, rescuers added head lamps to their gear to help illuminate the way as they walked down to Herring Cove Beach pushing the dolphin carts along the sandy path to where they would released.

Over seven hours, the rescuers worked to get the dolphins off the flats and into transport vehicles. Six of the dolphins were transported in IFAW’s mobile dolphin rescue clinic which allows veterinarians and other marine mammal technicians to stabilize the dolphins and perform health assessments before they are released back into deeper water.

Volunteers Craig Bodamer, left, and Paula Putnam wait with a dolphin until it is transported off the flats.

“This rescue had many challenges due to the number of dolphins, the difficult mud conditions, and having to deal with two simultaneous mass strandings," said Lauren Cooley, IFAW stranding biologist, in a press release. “The team was able to overcome all of these challenges to give these dolphins their best chance at survival.”

10 dolphins released back to the wild after seven-hour rescue off Cape Cod

April 24, 2024

Michaela Wellman, an animal care technician with IFAW's Marine Mammal Rescue team, stays with a dolphin as another is brought down to the beach to be released. Photo: Anita Yankova / © IFAW, Activities conducted under a federal stranding agreement between IFAW and NMFS under the MMPA.

(Cape Cod, MA – April 24, 2024) – Ten dolphins were released back to the wild today following a near seven-hour stranding response in global stranding hotspot. The dolphins were rescued in a highly coordinated response effort across two mass stranding locations and released back to deeper waters, thanks to experts in the area.

Staff and volunteers from IFAW received the first report of 11 Atlantic white-sided dolphins close to shore off Wellfleet late Tuesday afternoon, three hours before low tide.

Eight dolphins were found in Duck Creek, near Wellfleet Town Pier. Three were found in a part of the Herring River known locally as “The Gut,” a frequent stranding location due to its shallow slopes, hook-like shape, and extreme tidal fluctuations. Both have incredibly harsh conditions for rescues.

“This rescue had many challenges due to the number of dolphins, the difficult mud conditions, and having to deal with two simultaneous mass strandings," said Lauren Cooley IFAW Stranding Biologist. “The team was able to overcome all of these challenges to give these dolphins their best chance at survival.”

Six of the dolphins were transported to a deeper water release site off Provincetown, MA, traveling in IFAW's mobile dolphin rescue clinic. This one-of-a-kind vehicle was custom designed to meet the needs of what is considered a global stranding hotspot on Cape Cod. The vehicle enables IFAW veterinarians and experts to perform health assessments and stabilize the dolphins while quickly reaching the best site for release.

While one animal died on scene due to trauma associated with the event, the remaining dolphins were rescued from the challenging mud and transported in a separate response vehicle for release in Provincetown. All ten dolphins were released together.

“While the dolphins suffered from stress related to the stranding, we’re very optimistic and full of hope for their return to deeper waters,” added Cooley.

The entire effort included about 45 people, including 15 AmeriCorps members and IFAW staff and volunteers.

Conservation is helping to halt biodiversity loss, new study reveals

25 April 2024

Cuban Crocodile hatchings in the Zapata Swamp breeding sanctuary.

Image: Robin Moore/Re:wild

Scientists can now definitively say that nature conservation is having a positive impact on global biodiversity, offering ‘room for hope’

New evidence reveals that, worldwide, nature conservation is working. Not only that; scientists say that if we can scale-up conservation efforts, it would be transformational for halting and reversing biodiversity loss.

The findings come from a first-of-its-kind study, published in the journal Science, which provides the strongest evidence to-date that conservation interventions are an effective tool against biodiversity loss. ‘Our study shows that when conservation actions work, they really work,’ says author and conservation scientist Jake Bicknell, a professor at the University of Kent. ‘In other words, they often lead to outcomes for biodiversity that are not just a little bit better than doing nothing at all, but many times greater.’

Rangers in Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, play a key role in safeguarding protected areas. Image: Bobby Neptune

In a comprehensive meta-analysis of conservation actions taken over the last century – including the establishment and management of protected areas, the eradication and control of invasive species, and the sustainable management and restoration of habitats and ecosystems – a team of scientists found that in most cases (66 per cent), biodiversity improved or slowed its decline.

Examples of some of the conservation success stories studied include Redonda, once a barren Caribbean island plagued with rats, where habitat restoration and the removal of invasive species has transformed the landscape into a thriving biodiversity hotspot; tropical forests in the Congo Basin, where forest management plans and FSC certification have reduced deforestation (in some cases by as much as 74 per cent) and support higher populations of large and endangered animals; and Zapata Swamp, where a breeding facility for critically endangered Cuban crocodiles has successfully released crocodile hatchlings into the wild.

Gustavo Sosa from the captive breeding facility in Zapata Swamp releases a Cuban Crocodile from captivity into the wild with actress Abril Schreiber. Image: Robin Moore/Re:wild

Even in cases where conservation actions did not succeed in recovering or slowing the decline of species or ecosystems, conservation has benefitted from the lessons learned. In fact, the authors of the study found a correlation between more recent conservation interventions and positive outcomes for biodiversity – suggesting that conservation is getting more effective over time. With more than 44,000 species currently documented as being at risk of extinction, Oxford University ecologist and study co-author Joseph Bull says the results ‘clearly show that there is room for hope’.

Biodiversity loss is a crisis that is projected to have tremendous consequences for the Earth’s ecosystems, as well as the billions of people around the world who depend on them. It’s estimated that more than half of the world’s GDP, almost US$44 trillion, is moderately or highly dependent on nature.

‘This study comes at a critical time where the world has agreed on ambitious and needed global biodiversity targets that will require conservation action at an entirely new scale,’ says Claude Gascon, a director at the Global Environment Facility, which provides grants for biodiversity projects. ‘Achieving this is not only possible, it is well within our grasp as long as it is appropriately prioritized.’

U.S. government plans to restore grizzly bears to the North Cascades region of Washington

SEATTLE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A grizzly bear roams an exhibit at the Woodland Park Zoo on May 26, 2020, in Seattle.

ELAINE THOMPSON/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The federal government plans to restore grizzly bears to an area of northwest and north-central Washington, where they were largely wiped out.

Plans announced this week by the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service call for releasing three to seven bears a year for five to 10 years to achieve an initial population of 25. The aim is to eventually restore the population in the region to 200 bears within 60 to 100 years.

Grizzlies are considered threatened in the Lower 48 and currently occupy four of six established recovery areas in parts of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and northeast Washington. The bears for the restoration project would come from areas with healthy populations.

There has been no confirmed evidence of a grizzly within the North Cascades Ecosystem in the U.S. since 1996, according to the agencies. The greater North Cascades Ecosystem extends into Canada but the plan focuses on the U.S. side.

“We are going to once again see grizzly bears on the landscape, restoring an important thread in the fabric of the North Cascades,” said Don Striker, superintendent of North Cascades National Park Service Complex.

It’s not clear when the restoration effort will begin, the Seattle Times reported.

Fragmented habitat due to rivers, highways and human influences make it unlikely that grizzlies would repopulate the region naturally.

According to the park service, killing by trappers, miners and bounty hunters during the 1800s removed most of the population in the North Cascades by 1860. The remaining population was further challenged by factors including difficulty finding mates and slow reproductive rates, the agency said.

The federal agencies plan to designate the bears as a “nonessential experimental population” to provide “greater management flexibility should conflict situations arise.” That means some rules under the Endangered Species Act could be relaxed and allow people to harm or kill bears in self-defence or for agencies to relocate bears involved in conflict. Landowners could call on the federal government to remove bears if they posed a threat to livestock.

The U.S. portion of the North Cascades ecosystem is similar in size to the state of Vermont and includes habitat for dens and animal and plant life that would provide food for bears. Much of the region is federally managed.

Wild horses to remain in North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt National Park, lawmaker says

Wild horses stand in a group along a hiking trail in Theodore Roosevelt National Park on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023, near Medora, N.D. U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said Thursday, April 25, 2024, he has "secured a commitment" from the National Park Service to keep the roughly 200 horses that roam the park's South Unit. In 2022, the Park Service began a process that included proposals for removing the horses, which park visitors adore.

(AP Photo/Jack Dura)

Jack Dura,

The Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Wild horses will stay in North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt National Park amid fears from advocates that park officials would remove the beloved animals from the rugged Badlands landscape, a key lawmaker said Thursday.

Republican U.S. Sen. John Hoeven said he has secured a commitment from the National Park Service to maintain the park's roughly 200 horses. His office said the Park Service will abandon its proposed removal of the horses under an environmental review process begun in 2022.

“This will allow for a healthy herd of wild horses to be maintained at the park, managed in a way to support genetic diversity among the herd and preserve the park’s natural resources,” Hoeven’s office said in a statement.

Park visitors, much to their delight, often encounter the horses while driving or hiking in the rolling, colorful Badlands where a young, future President Theodore Roosevelt hunted and ranched in the 1880s.

The horses roam the park’s South Unit near the Western tourist town of Medora. In 2022, park officials began the process of crafting a “livestock plan” for the horses as well as about nine longhorn cattle in the park’s North Unit near Watford City. Park officials have said that process aligned with policies to remove non-native species when they pose a potential risk to resources.

“The horse herd in the South Unit, particularly at higher herd sizes, has the potential to damage fences used for wildlife management, trample or overgraze vegetation used by native wildlife species, contribute to erosion and soil-related impacts ... and compete for food and water resources,” according to a Park Service environmental assessment from September 2023.

Proposals included removing the horses quickly or gradually or taking no action. Park Superintendent Angie Richman has said the horses, even if they ultimately stay, would still have to be reduced to 35-60 animals under a 1978 environmental assessment. It wasn’t immediately clear how Hoeven’s announcement affects the future number of horses or the longhorns.

Thousands of people made public comments during the Park Service review, the vast majority of them in support of keeping the horses. North Dakota’s Republican-controlled Legislature made its support official in a resolution last year. Gov. Doug Burgum offered state help to maintain the horses.

Hoeven's announcement comes after Congress passed and President Joe Biden recently signed an appropriations bill with a provision from Hoeven strongly recommending the Park Service maintain the horses. The legislation signaled that funding to remove the horses might be denied.

The horses descend from those of Native American tribes and area ranches and from domestic stallions introduced to the park in the late 20th century, according to Castle McLaughlin, who researched the horses as a graduate student while working for the Park Service in North Dakota in the 1980s.

Jack Dura, The Associated Press

Frustrated with Brazil’s Lula, Indigenous peoples march to demand land recognition

An Indigenous woman marches with a sign that reads in Portuguese “More fish, less mining,” during the 20th annual Free Land Indigenous Camp in Brasilia, Brazil, April 23, 2024. Thousands of Indigenous people continue to march on Thursday, April 25, calling on the government to officially recognize lands they have lived on for centuries and to protect territories from criminal activities like illegal mining.

Indigenous people march during the 20th annual Free Land Indigenous Camp in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Thousands of Indigenous people continue to march on Thursday, April 25, calling on the government to officially recognize lands they have lived on for centuries and to protect territories from criminal activities like illegal mining.

. (AP Photo/Luis Nova, File)Read More

BY FABIANO MAISONNAVE
April 25, 2024S

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Thousands of Indigenous people marched on Thursday in Brazil’s capital, calling on the government to officially recognize lands they have lived on for centuries and to protect territories from criminal activities like illegal mining.

With posters bearing messages like, “The future is Indigenous,” they walked towards Three Powers Square, where Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Planalto presidential palace are located in Brasilia.

In addition to calls for more land recognition, some tribes protested a proposed 950-kilometer (590 miles) rail project to transport soybeans from the state of Mato Grosso, in the central part of the country, to ports along the Tapajos River, a large Amazon tributary.

Indigenous leaders from the Kayapo, Panará and Munduruku tribes said they hadn’t been adequately consulted and feared the new infrastructure would lead to increased deforestation.

An Indigenous woman marches during the 20th annual Free Land Indigenous Camp in Brasilia, Brazil, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Luis Nova)

Thursday’s rally marked the culmination of the annual Free Land Indigenous Camp, now in its 20th edition. This year’s gathering marked a critical view of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration. Unlike the two previous years, the president was not invited to visit the camp, set up in Brasilia’s main esplanade.

Previously president between 2003 and 2010, Lula began a third term in January of last year. Since then, his administration has created 10 Indigenous territories, which Indigenous leaders say is not enough. According to the non-profit Socio-Environmental Institute, at least 251 territories have pending claims for recognition before the federal government.

Indigenous territories comprise about 13% of Brazil’s territory. Most of these areas are in the Amazon rainforest.
___

Indigenous people march in Brazil to demand land demarcation

By AFP
April 23, 2024

Indigenous Brazilians from multiple groups march in Brasilia April 23, 2024 - Copyright AFP EVARISTO SA

Thousands of Indigenous people with colorful feathered headdresses and bows and arrows marched Tuesday in Brazil’s capital to demand the demarcation of their lands, an issue that pits a leftist president again a conservative-dominated congress.

One of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva’s campaign pledges before taking power last year was to set boundaries for the traditional lands of Brazil’s 1.7 million Indigenous people, resuming a policy that his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro had abandoned.

Scientists say Indigenous people are so good at preserving their land that demarcation helps protect the environment.

Lula so far has set up 10 new officially recognized Indigenous areas, but the demonstrators who were out Tuesday want him to do more.

“There is an Indigenous emergency,” Jaqueline Arandurah, a leader of the Kaiowa people in the southern state of Mato Grosso do Sul, told AFP.

“Lula has been in power more than 400 days and our lands have not been demarcated.”

Wearing their traditional dress, they filled a broad esplanade that houses many government ministries in Brasilia while others, some with their faces painted, marched on Congress, singing and dancing as part of an annual Indigenous land-rights festival.

Demarcating Indigenous lands is a touchy subject in Brazil, with critics in the powerful agro-business sector and its allies in Congress.

These lawmakers managed to keep on the books a controversial policy that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional. It holds that Indigenous people can lay claim to lands they were living on as of 1988, when the current constitution came into effect, but not before.

Indigenous people say this ignores their presence in these lands going back centuries.

The court threw out this policy in September of last year but will have to address the issue again as it is still part of the law.

“It is offensive to say were invaders, as we are not,” said Walderir Tupari of the Tupari people in the northern state of Rondonia.

“We have not been here only since 1988. We have been here a long, long time,” he added.

Native American tribes want US appeals court to weigh in on $10B SunZia energy transmission project

BY SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
April 25, 2024

Native American tribes and environmentalists want a U.S. appeals court to weigh in on their request to halt construction along part of a $10 billion transmission line that will carry wind-generated electricity from New Mexico to customers as far away as California.

The disputed stretch of the SunZia Transmission line is in southern Arizona’s San Pedro Valley. The tribes and others argue that the U.S. Interior Department and Bureau of Land Management failed to recognize the cultural significance of the area before approving the route of the massive project in 2015.

SunZia is among the projects that supporters say will bolster President Joe Biden’s agenda for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The planned 550-mile (885-kilometer) conduit would carry more than 3,500 megawatts of wind power to 3 million people.

A U.S. district judge rejected earlier efforts to stall the work while the merits of the case play out in court, but the tribes and other plaintiffs opted Wednesday to ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene.

The Tohono O’odham Nation has vowed to pursue all legal avenues for protecting land that it considers sacred. Tribal Chairman Verlon Jose said in a recent statement that he wants to hold the federal government accountable for violating historic preservation laws that are designed specifically to protect such lands.

He called it too important of an issue, saying: “The United States’ renewable energy policy that includes destroying sacred and undeveloped landscapes is fundamentally wrong and must stop.”

The Tohono O’odham — along with the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Center for Biological Diversity and Archeology Southwest — sued in January, seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the clearing of roads and pads so more work could be done to identify culturally significant sites within a 50-mile (80.5-kilometer) stretch of the valley.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs have alleged in court documents and in arguments made during a March hearing that the federal government was stringing the tribes along, promising to meet requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act after already making a final decision on the route.

The motion filed Wednesday argues that the federal government has legal and distinct obligations under the National Historic Preservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act and that the Bureau of Land Management’s interpretation of how its obligations apply to the SunZia project should be reviewed by the appeals court.

California-based developer Pattern Energy has argued that stopping work would be catastrophic, with any delay compromising the company’s ability to get electricity to customers as promised in 2026.

In denying the earlier motion for an injunction, U.S. Judge Jennifer Zipps had ruled that the plaintiffs were years too late in bringing their claims and that the Bureau of Land Management had fulfilled its obligations to identify historic sites and prepare an inventory of cultural resources. Still, she also acknowledged the significance of the San Pedro Valley for the tribes after hearing testimony from experts.

SPACE

NASA astronauts arrive for Boeing's first human spaceflight

by Marcia Dunn

The two NASA astronauts assigned to Boeing's first human spaceflight arrived at their launch site Thursday, just over a week before their scheduled liftoff.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will serve as test pilots for Boeing's Starliner capsule, which is making its debut with crew after years of delay. They flew from Houston into Kennedy Space Center on Thursday.

Due to blast off May 6 atop an Atlas rocket, the Starliner will fly to the International Space Station for a weeklong shakedown cruise. Boeing is trying to catch up to SpaceX, which has been launching astronauts for NASA since 2020.

No one was aboard Boeing's two previous Starliner test flights. The first, in 2019, didn't make it to the space station because of software and other problems. Boeing repeated the demo in 2022. More recently, the capsule was plagued by parachute issues and flammable tape that had to be removed.

Wilmore stressed this is a test flight meant to uncover anything amiss.

"Do we expect it to go perfectly? This is the first human flight of the spacecraft," he told reporters. "I'm sure we'll find things out. That's why we do this."

NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing a decade ago, paying billions of dollars for the companies to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. The space agency is still keen on having two capsules for its astronauts, even with the space station winding down by 2030.

"That's vitally important," Wilmore noted.

Wilmore and Williams will be the first astronauts to ride an Atlas rocket since NASA's Project Mercury in the early 1960s.

Next up is launch, as Boeing's Starliner takes trek to Cape Canaveral

Saturn’s ocean moon Enceladus is able to support life − my research team is working out how to detect extraterrestrial cells there

THE CONVERSATION
Published: April 17, 2024

Saturn has 146 confirmed moons – more than any other planet in the solar system – but one called Enceladus stands out. It appears to have the ingredients for life.

From 2004 to 2017, Cassini – a joint mission between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency – investigated Saturn, its rings and moons. Cassini delivered spectacular findings. Enceladus, only 313 miles (504 kilometers) in diameter, harbors a liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust that spans the entire moon.

Geysers at the moon’s south pole shoot gas and ice grains formed from the ocean water into space.

Though the Cassini engineers didn’t anticipate analyzing ice grains that Enceladus was actively emitting, they did pack a dust analyzer on the spacecraft. This instrument measured the emitted ice grains individually and told researchers about the composition of the subsurface ocean.

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As a planetary scientist and astrobiologist who studies ice grains from Enceladus, I’m interested in whether there is life on this or other icy moons. I also want to understand how scientists like me could detect it.

Ingredients for life

Just like Earth’s oceans, Enceladus’ ocean contains salt, most of which is sodium chloride, commonly known as table salt. The ocean also contains various carbon-based compounds, and it has a process called tidal heating that generates energy within the moon. Liquid water, carbon-based chemistry and energy are all key ingredients for life.

In 2023, I and others scientists found phosphate, another life-supporting compound, in ice grains originating from Enceladus’ ocean. Phosphate, a form of phosphorus, is vital for all life on Earth. It is part of DNA, cell membranes and bones. This was the first time that scientists detected this compound in an extraterrestrial water ocean.

Enceladus’ rocky core likely interacts with the water ocean through hydrothermal vents. These hot, geyserlike structures protrude from the ocean floor. Scientists predict that a similar setting may have been the birthplace of life on Earth.

The interior of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Surface: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute; interior: LPG-CNRS/U. Nantes/U. Angers. Graphic composition: ESA

Detecting potential life

As of now, nobody has ever detected life beyond Earth. But scientists agree that Enceladus is a very promising place to look for life. So, how do we go about looking?

In a paper published in March 2024, my colleagues and I conducted a laboratory test that simulated whether dust analyzer instruments on spacecraft could detect and identify traces of life in the emitted ice grains.

To simulate the detection of ice grains as dust analyzers in space record them, we used a laboratory setup on Earth. Using this setup, we injected a tiny water beam that contained bacterial cells into a vacuum, where the beam disintegrated into droplets. Each droplet contained, in theory, one bacterial cell.

Then, we shot a laser at the individual droplets, which created charged ions from the water and the cell compounds. We measured the charged ions using a technique called mass spectrometry. These measurements helped us predict what dust analyzer instruments on a spacecraft should find if they encountered a bacterial cell contained in an ice grain.

We found these instruments would do a good job identifying cellular material. Instruments designed to analyze single ice grains should be able to identify bacterial cells, even if there is only 0.01% of the constituents of a single cell in an ice grain from an Enceladus-like geyser.

The analyzers could pick up a number of potential signatures from cellular material, including amino acids and fatty acids. Detected amino acids represent either fragments of the cell’s proteins or metabolites, which are small molecules participating in chemical reactions within the cell. Fatty acids are fragments of lipids that make up the cell’s membranes.

In our experiments, we used a bacteria named Sphingopyxis alaskensis. Cells of this culture are extremely tiny – the same size as cells that might be able to fit into ice grains emitted from Enceladus. In addition to their small size, these cells like cold environments, and they need only a few nutrients to survive and grow, similar to how life adapted to the conditions in Enceladus’ ocean would probably be.

The specific dust analyzer on Cassini didn’t have the analytical capabilities to identify cellular material in the ice grains. However, scientists are already designing instruments with much greater capabilities for potential future Enceladus missions. Our experimental results will inform the planning and design of these instruments.
Future missions

Enceladus is one of the main targets for future missions from NASA and the European Space Agency. In 2022, NASA announced that a mission to Enceladus had the second-highest priority as they picked their next big missions – a Uranus mission had the highest priority.

The European agency recently announced that Enceladus is the top target for its next big mission. This mission would likely include a highly capable dust analyzer for ice grain analysis.

Enceladus isn’t the only moon with a liquid water ocean. Jupiter’s moon Europa also has an ocean that spans the entire moon underneath its icy crust. Ice grains on Europa float up above the surface, and some scientists think Europa may even have geysers like Enceladus that shoot grains into space. Our research will also help study ice grains from Europa.

NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will visit Europa in the coming years. Clipper is scheduled to launch in October 2024 and arrive at Jupiter in April 2030. One of the two mass spectrometers on the spacecraft, the SUrface Dust Analyzer, is designed for single ice grain analysis.

The SUrface Dust Analyzer instrument on Clipper will analyze ice grains from Jupiter’s moon Europa. NASA/CU Boulder/Glenn Asakawa

Our study demonstrates that this instrument will be able to find even tiny fractions of a bacterial cell, if present in only a few emitted ice grains.

With these space agencies’ near-future plans and the results of our study, the prospects of upcoming space missions visiting Enceladus or Europa are incredibly exciting. We now know that with current and future instrumentation, scientists should be able to find out whether there is life on any of these moons.

Author

Fabian Klenner

Postdoctoral Scholar in Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington
Disclosure statement

Fabian Klenner is an affiliate of the Europa Clipper mission (SUrface Dust Analyzer instrument). He receives funding from NASA.

Philippines' counter-terrorism strategy still stalled after 7 years since the 'ISIS siege' on Marawi

by University of Portsmouth

Following the 2017 siege of Marawi, the Philippines' counter-terrorism efforts have faced an increasingly complex and unpredictable landscape. While authorities have claimed victory, one which garnered global media attention during the peak of ISIS reign in Syria and Iraq, the aftermath of Marawi highlights the urgent need for a comprehensive reassessment of the country's counter-terrorism strategy.

A new study, led by experts in security and terrorism studies at the University of Portsmouth, provides a thorough examination of the terrorist environment following the armed conflict between Philippine forces and Islamist militants who seized the southern city of Marawi for five months, in which over a thousand people died and a million were displaced.

The research is published in the Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism.

The study evaluated the effectiveness of strategies implemented by Philippine security forces since the battle and found that while steps have been taken in the right direction, the opportunity to fundamentally reset counter-terrorism has been squandered.

The analysis reveals that, seven years after Marawi, the focus on combating the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in Sulu has overshadowed persistent security threats posed by long-standing insurgent groups such as the MNLF, MILF, and the NPA. The proliferation of these other rebel groups and the resurgence of terrorism pose significant challenges that demand commitment and capability to a more nuanced and comprehensive approach to peace in the region.

Other key findings from the paper include the politicization of US security assistance to the Philippines in wake of confrontation with China in the South China Sea dispute. Similarly, the concerning ongoing struggles with anti-corruption and human rights issues; the ineffectiveness of the National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (NAP-P/CVE); and an in-prepared judicial system that has struggled to implement The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

Study co-author, Ann Bajo from the University of Portsmouth and former National Defence Analyst from the Philippines, said, "Our findings underscore the importance of addressing systemic issues such as governance and community neglect in Marawi. Failure to address these issues risks undermining the progress made in counter-terrorism efforts and perpetuating instability in the region.

"Philippine security forces must be receptive to developing softer skills and collaborating with civil society and international partners to gauge their impact on communities and strike a balance in their approach. This necessitates a commitment to ongoing training and reforms, particularly in community engagement and welfare operations.

"Moreover, addressing generational grievances requires sustained effort and a long-term perspective, with a focus on cultivating trust and respect within communities being paramount."

The authors argue that heavy handed military attention centered around local militants branding themselves "ISIS" must be measured by an approach targeting the symptoms of extremism, risks exacerbating grievances and further alienating communities, rather than addressing the underlying causes of violence.

Co-author Dr. Tom Smith, Associate Professor in International Relations at the University of Portsmouth and Academic Director of the Royal Air Force College, said, "The international media attention Marawi received at a time during the height of the global campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq has diminished. Yet the city is still in ruins, along with the lives of hundreds of thousands who have no homes to return to.

"Seven years later violence in Marawi is flaring up again from the very same groups thought extinguished at great cost. We show how, despite changes, the opportunity to build peace in the rubble of Marawi has been squandered.

"While changes in strategy, resource allocation, and legal frameworks have been initiated, their tangible outcomes on the ground remain to be seen in terms of a reduction in terrorist violence across the country's complex landscape.

"As such, the journey towards effective counterterrorism in the Philippines post-Marawi is one that demands an as yet unseen perseverance and adaptability, and a steadfast commitment to rebuilding the city and lives destroyed."

Bajo added, "The release of our paper comes at a critical juncture for the Philippines, as it grapples with ongoing security challenges and seeks to chart a course for sustainable peace and stability. It is hoped that the findings and recommendations outlined in the paper will inform policy discussions and contribute to the development of more effective counter-terrorism strategies."

More information: Tom Smith et al, The false dawns over Marawi: examining the post-Marawi counterterrorism strategy in the Philippines, Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism (2024). DOI: 10.1080/18335330.2024.2346472

Provided by University of Portsmouth Early chances to identify terrorists are missed due to inadequacies in UK data sharing laws, says study

New 'cold war' grows ever warmer as the prospect of a nuclear arms race hots up

by Becky Alexis-Martin, The Conversation

nuclear missile — Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Champagne corks popped on December 3, 1989 as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US president George H.W. Bush met on the cruise ship, Maxim Gorky, off the coast of Malta to declare the end of the cold war.

Gorbachev and Bush's predecessor in the White House, Ronald Reagan, had—at two summits over the past five years—thrashed out agreements that would limit and reduce both sides' nuclear arsenals. With the cold war over, Gorbachev liberalized the Soviet Union, presiding over its dismantling, which formally occurred on December 26, 1991.

To those adversaries who accused him of capitulation and the tame surrender of the Soviet bloc countries, his reply was simple: "To whom did we surrender them? To their own people."

Reagan and Gorbachev agreed that a nuclear war couldn't be won, so must never be fought. Yet this month, the UN's high representative for disarmament affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, warned that "the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is higher now than any time since the height of the cold war and the architecture designed to prevent its use is ever more precarious."

So how did we get here? Russia's aggression under the leadership of Vladimir Putin has plunged the world into a new era of nuclear uncertainty by reasserting Soviet isolationist strategies. By embracing the notion of a nebulous western threat, he has preserved his totalitarian leadership, while justifying political isolation, party control within Russia, and revanchist adventurism abroad—the latest of which has been the unlawful invasion of Ukraine.

Nuclear saber-rattling and posturing are unsettling features of Putin's military strategy. He has now explicitly threatened to resort to use of nuclear weapons three times since launching his invasion in 2022. And he recently ordered that tactical weapons be stationed in Belarus.

His strategists clearly see the threat of a nuclear confrontation as a realistic deterrent to Nato intervention in Ukraine. Nuclear blackmail is being used to guarantee Russian sovereignty, to coerce and force adversaries to adhere to Russian terms, and to dissuade global actors from meaningful intervention or resolution in Ukraine.

Putin's behavior is emblematic of a global shift in attitude towards the nuclear taboo. Other leaders, among them the former US president Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un have carelessly returned nuclear warfare to the table as a viable strategy instead of a deterrence.

'Nuclear neolateralism'

This is an age of nuclear neolateralism. Nation states have unstable and mercurial political, economic and cultural relations involving new networks, conflicts and complexities. Since the turn of this century, the world has seen the resurgence of populism and religious nationalism, the near ubiquity of digital technology, and an increasing velocity of nuclear proliferation and brinkmanship.

These factors make our current situation more complex than the cold war. A new Silk Road nexus has emerged across China, Russia, Iran, Israel and North Korea since the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. This web of relationships is shaped by regional dynamics, strategic interests and global power shifts that influence security and global weapons proliferation.

China and Russia have recently developed stronger strategic ties. But tensions remain along shared borders—and freshly leaked classified papers reveal Russia's fear of Chinese nuclear attack. China has 500 active nuclear warheads, and is expanding its nuclear arsenal. Beijing is also learning lessons from Russia and Israel about how a future Taiwanese conflict may unfold.

An unexpected alliance has arisen between North Korea and Russia. Historically, Russia advocated for diplomatic solutions to North Korean nuclear proliferation. Pyongyang has supplied weapons to Russia since 2023 in violation of UN security council sanctions, and seeks to leverage this support to gain acceptance as a nuclear state.

In 2019, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned his people to prepare for war with the US by 2024. A leaked military document confirmed this, saying: "the Dear Supreme Commander will dominate the world with the nuclear weapons." On April 22, Pyongyang claimed it had tested a new command-and-control system in a simulated nuclear counter-strike exercise.

South Korea has responded by developing its own submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) in 2022 and is the only nation state to possess SLBMs without nuclear warheads. In February 2023, the leader of the People Power Party, Chung Jin-suk, argued that South Korea needs nuclear weapons. But this strategy could also make South Korea more vulnerable to attack from hostile North Korea.

Iran and Russia are cooperating in the nuclear sphere. Iran's nuclear weapons program was limited under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. But Trump pulled the US out of the treaty in 2018 and there is strong evidence (denied by Iran) that it has reinvigorated its weapons program. In 2023, UN inspectors reported that Iran had enriched trace amounts of uranium to almost weapons grade.

Israel has targeted Iran with assassinations, cyberwarfare, drone attacks and commando raids to destroy its burgeoning nuclear program, adding to Middle East tensions. Saudi Arabia does not have nuclear weapons, but officials have said that they will acquire them if their regional rival, Iran, becomes nuclear.

A new arms race

The UN has said that a quantitative arms race seems imminent. The latest US nuclear posture review revealed a plan worth US$1.5 trillion (£1.21 trillion) to modernize US nuclear capability and create a "nuclear sponge" of 450 nuclear silos to absorb a future Russian attack.

Now the UK has announced it will increase its defense budget to 2.5% of GDP to put it on a "war footing." The government has reaffirmed its commitment to its nuclear arsenal, despite Britain's UN ambassador, James Kariuki, stating: "Nuclear war cannot be won and must not be fought" at a recent security council meeting.

Professor Ramesh Thakur, the director of the Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament at the Australian National University, expressed the same thought more hauntingly when he wrote: "If you want the peace of the dead, prepare for nuclear war." We must hope that this new cold war doesn't become hot.

Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Russia announces its suspension from last nuclear arms agreement with the US, escalating nuclear tension

Bernie Sanders issues scathing statement directed at Netanyahu over campus protests

The Vermont Senator, one of America’s highest-profile Jewish lawmakers, said the Israeli leader was head of an ‘extremist and racist government’ and that the US campus protests against the Gaza war are ‘not antisemitic’

Andrew Feinberg
Washington, DC

The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
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Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is pushing back after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused US college students protesting against the war in Gaza of being antisemitic.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu’s office released a video of the US-born Israeli leader attacking the student-led protests that have taken over campus spaces at numerous universities. In the video, Netanyahu referred to the protesters as “antisemitic mobs” and accused them of physically attacking Jewish students and faculty.

The Israeli leader added: “This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. It’s unconscionable. It has to be stopped.”

Senator Sanders — one of America’s highest-profile Jewish lawmakers — responded in a statement on Thursday in which he directly refuted Netanyahu’s accusations and addressed him by name.

“No, Mr Netanyahu. It is not antisemitic or pro-Hamas to point out that in a little over six months your extremist government has killed 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 77,000 – seventy percent of whom are women and children. It is not antisemitic to point out that your bombing has completely destroyed more than 221,000 housing units in Gaza, leaving more than one million people homeless – almost half the population,” Mr Sanders said.

The Vermont Senator — an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats — continued that it was “not antisemitic” to say that the Israeli government “has obliterated Gaza’s civilian infrastructure – electricity, water, and sewage” or “to realize that your government has annihilated Gaza’s health care system, knocking 26 hospitals out of service and killing more than 400 health care workers”.

“It is not antisemitic to agree with virtually every humanitarian organization in saying that your government, in violation of American law, has unreasonably blocked humanitarian aid coming into Gaza, creating the conditions in which hundreds of thousands of children face malnutrition and famine,” he continued.

Sanders closed the statement by again addressing the Israeli leader directly and calling antisemitism “a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to many millions of people”.

“But, please, do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist government. Do not use antisemitism to deflect attention from the criminal indictment you are facing in the Israeli courts. It is not antisemitic to hold you accountable for your actions,” he said.

Protests have taken place at multiple prominent US universities including Yale, Columbia University, New York University, University of Southern California, and the University of Texas, Austin.

Riot police were called to multiple campuses on Wednesday, and scores of students have been arrested in the last two weeks.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed Netanyahu’s criticisms during a visit to Columbia on Wednesday, where he was greeted with a chorus of boos from gathered demonstrators.

Republicans have sought to use the campus protests as a cudgel with which to accuse Democrats generally of supporting antisemitism. They have also sought to contrast President Joe Biden — who has called on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza — with their party’s leader, former president Donald Trump, who during his term in office did not criticize Israel, even when the country was accused of human rights abuses.

Trump has been accused of failing to criticize Israel out of fealty to his evangelical Christian base of support. He did, however, recently say that he believed the war in Gaza must end, as it was causing Netanyahu to lose support on the world stage.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment