Myanmar military says it withdrew ‘for safety of people’

A RETREAT BY ANY OTHER NAME

ByAFP
PublishedAugust 6, 2024


Near-deserted streets in Laukkai in Myanmar's northern Shan State in mid-July

 - Copyright AFP/File -

Myanmar’s military withdrew from some positions close to China’s border to prioritise the “safety of people”, the junta chief said, days after an alliance of ethnic armed groups said they had routed state troops in the area.

Shan State in eastern Myanmar has been rocked by fighting since late June when the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) renewed an offensive against the military along a major trade highway to China.

“With regard to the situation of Shan State, security forces withdrew their positions by considering the security of current areas and safety of people,” Min Aung Hlaing said in a speech on state television on Monday night.

“The government will continually strive to ensure peace and stability — not only in Shan State, but the entire nation,” he added.

His comments came days after the MNDAA said it had captured a regional military command after weeks of clashes, in a major blow to the junta.

Alliance fighters “fully captured the headquarters of the northeast military command” in Lashio, the group said in a statement Saturday.

Junta spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun admitted Monday that the military had lost contact with senior officers from the command after intense fighting.

“Got last contact with the senior officers at 6:30 pm on August 3, and we lost contact with them till now,” he said in a statement.

“According to reports that are still being confirmed, it is known that terrorist insurgents arrested some senior officers.”

Dozens of civilians have been killed or wounded in the recent fighting, according to the junta and local rescue groups.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to myriad ethnic armed groups who have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 for autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

Some have given shelter and training to newer “People’s Defence Forces” that have sprung up to battle the military after its ouster of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in a 2021 coup.

China is a major ally and arms supplier to the junta, but analysts say it also maintains ties with armed ethnic groups in Myanmar that hold territory near its border.

Min Aung Hlaing said Monday the alliance was receiving weapons, including drones and short-range missiles, from “foreign” sources, which he did not identify.

“It is necessary to analyse the sources of monetary and technological power,” the military leader said.

Shadow of war looms over Gaza amputees in Qatar


By AFP
August 6, 2024


Maryam Ahmed, six, is among some 300 child amputees from Gaza who are receiving therapy at the Thumama complex in Qatar, 2022 World Cup accommodation now being used to house Gaza war evacuees and their carers 

- Copyright Futuro Vegetal/AFP Handout

Callum Paton and Ali Choukeir

Wheeling herself around Doha’s Thumama complex for medical evacuees from Gaza, Maryam Ahmed wears a look of determination, breaking into a smile when she sees someone she knows.

The six-year-old was evacuated to Qatar from Gaza in February after her home was hit by an Israeli strike which killed her mother, father and brother, and took her right leg.

Sitting in her new wheelchair, Maryam hitches up the skirt of her colourful, floral patterned dress to reveal what remains of her limb, amputated above the knee.

Her missing lower leg is “in heaven”, like her family, she says.

Maryam’s aunt Fatima Farajallah, 20, travelled with her niece to Qatar, and describes her as “psychologically better now”.

They are among roughly 2,000 residents at the Thumama complex who are now trying to adapt to life away from the battlefields of Gaza.

Both carry the memory of the morning the home they shared was destroyed by two Israeli missiles.

Maryam was mistaken for dead in the chaotic aftermath of the strike and her body placed with those of her dead relatives.

“She did not move or make a sound. Then suddenly I heard a voice,” Farajallah said, recalling the moment her niece cried out.

After her evacuation, Maryam spent two months in hospital in Doha, most of it at the Hamad General, and required three operations to complete the amputation of her leg.



– Culture shock –



Adapting to life in the wealthy Gulf emirate after the horrors of war-devastated Gaza has been confusing. “At night she asks a lot” of questions, Farajallah said.

Even for Farajallah, the change has been disorientating. “Here, everything is available,” she said. “Why is Gaza not like the other countries? Why is it occupied?” she asked.

Maryam is among the lucky ones who were evacuated via Egypt for medical treatment before Israeli troops closed the Rafah border crossing from Gaza in earlier May.

By the end of June, a total of 2,000 Gaza children had had one or both legs amputated following Israeli military action, the equivalent of around 10 a day, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said at the end of June.

The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 39,623 people, mostly women and children, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

The head of Hamad Medical Corporation’s special education department, Mousa Mohammad, runs group therapy clinics at the Thumama complex for 190 children aged between three and six.

He said that the sessions, which include social skills and art therapy, are an “important pillar” for rehabilitation.

Three months ago, Mohammad explained, the children could not sit still, and were prone to violent outbursts, with some “hitting the doors, hitting people, hitting the children beside them”.

Progress in the sessions has been painstaking but over time the children have become more cooperative.

“Their behaviour changed from aggressiveness, refusing the routines we are trying to build… now they want to come every day.”



– Personality change –



The Thumama complex was originally built as accommodation for visiting football fans watching the 2022 World Cup.

Now it accommodates 1,000 medical evacuees from Gaza, accompanied by carers, around 300 of them amputees.

At dusk, when the sun sets over the complex’s identikit sugar-white apartment blocks, the scorching summer heat eases and residents venture outside.

Many are missing limbs.

Karim al-Shayyah, 10, rides his bike around the complex despite losing his left leg.

It was amputated below the knee after he was hit with shrapnel while playing in the family garden in Gaza.

“Things were good. We were having fun outside when they bombed a restaurant near us and shrapnel flew,” he said.

His mother, Sabrine al-Shayyah, said “the injury changed Karim’s personality”. He became nervous and often locked himself in his room.

But after nearly four months of group sessions and counselling, Karim’s outlook is improving. “The interaction with children here is very positive,” his mother said.

Speaking in the apartment they now call home, Karim said that he misses his friends back in Gaza, one of whom was recently killed.

“Here we are comfortable, they take care of us and make us play,” Karim said, adding he still wants to “return to Gaza if the war stops”.

Climate activists target Messi’s mansion in Spain’s Ibiza

By AFP
August 6, 2024

Climate activists spray-painted Messi's mansion on the Spanish holiday island of Ibiza - Copyright Futuro Vegetal/AFP Handout

Climate activists on Tuesday spray-painted a mansion on the Spanish holiday island of Ibiza belonging to Argentina football star Lionel Messi to highlight the “responsibility of the rich for the climate crisis”.

Campaigners from the group Futuro Vegetal released a video showing two members standing in front of the house near the cove of Cala Tarida on Ibiza’s western coast holding a banner that read: “Help the Planet — Eat the Rich — Abolish the Police.”

The activists then sprayed the white facade of the building with red and black paint.

In a statement, the group said they wanted to show “the responsibility of the rich for the climate crisis” by targeting the mansion which they said was an “illegal construction.”

Futuro Vegetal cited a 2023 Oxfam report that found that the richest one percent of the world’s population generated the same amount of carbon emissions in 2019 as the poorest two thirds of humanity, despite the fact that the most vulnerable communities are the ones suffering the “worst consequences” of this crisis.

Messi, who currently plays for Inter Miami in the US, reportedly bought the property on the Mediterranean island — which includes a spa with a sauna and a cinema room — in 2022 from a Swiss businessman for around 11 million euros ($12 million).

But the mansion lacked a certificate of occupancy, a document issued by a local government agency certifying it is in a liveable condition, due the construction of several rooms in the property without a licence, according to Spanish media reports.

Futuro Vegetal, which is linked to similar groups internationally, has staged dozens of similar protests, including one in 2022 where they glued their hands to frames of paintings by Spanish master Francisco de Goya at Madrid’s Prado museum.

Last year activists from the group spray-painted a superyacht moored in Ibiza with red and black paint that reportedly belonged to Nancy Walton Laurie, the billionaire heiress of US retail giant Walmart.

Spanish police in January said they had arrested 22 members of the Futuro Vegetal, including the two who staged the protest at the Prado as well as the group’s top three leaders.

ECOCIDE

‘Miseries of the Balkhash’: Fears for Kazakhstan’s magical lake


By AFP
August 7, 2024


A teenager jumps into the water near the huge Kazakhmys copper plant on the shores of Lake Balkhach in Kazakhstan - 

Copyright AFP Ruslan PRYANIKOV

Bruno KALOUAZ

Seen from the sky, with its turquoise waters stretching out into the desert expanses in the shape of a crescent, you can see why they call Lake Balkhash the “pearl of Kazakhstan”.

But pollution, climate change and its overuse are threatening the existence of one of the most unique stretches of water in the world.

One side of the Balkhash — the biggest lake in Central Asia after the Caspian Sea — has salt water, but on the other it is fresh. In such a strange environment, rare species have abounded. Until now.

“All the miseries of the Balkhash are right under my eyes,” fisherman Alexei Grebennikov told AFP from the deck of his boat on the northern shores, which sometimes has salty water, sometimes fresh.

“There are fewer and fewer fish, it’s catastrophic, the lake is silting up,” warned the 50-year-old.

A dredger to clear the little harbour lay anchored, rusting and unused, off the industrial town of Balkhack, itself seemingly stuck in a Soviet timewarp.

“We used to take tourists underwater fishing. Now the place has become a swamp,” said Grebennikov.

In town, scientist Olga Sharipova was studying the changes.

“The Balkhash is the country’s largest fishery. But the quantity of fish goes down when the water level drops, because the conditions for reproduction are disrupted,” she told AFP.

And its level is now only a metre from the critical threshold where it could tilt towards disaster.

There was an unexpected respite this spring when unprecedented floods allowed the Kazakh authorities to divert 3.3 million cubic metres of water to the Balkhash.

The Caspian also got a six-billion-cubic-metre fill-up


– China ‘overusing’ water –


But the few extra centimetres has not changed the longterm trend.

“The level of the Balkhash has been falling everywhere since 2019, mainly due to a decrease in the flow of the Ili River” from neighbouring China, said Sharipova.

All the great lakes of Central Asia, also known as enclosed seas, share a similar worrying fate.

The Aral Sea has almost disappeared, the situation is alarming for the Caspian Sea and Lake Issyk-Kul in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan.

Located on dry lands isolated from the ocean, they are particularly vulnerable to disturbances “exacerbated by global warming and human activities”, according to leading scientific journal Nature.

Rising temperatures accelerate evaporation, as water resources dwindle due to the melting of surrounding glaciers.

These issues are compounded by the economic importance of the Balkhash, which is on the path of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure project also known as the New Silk Road.

A 2021 study by Oxford University scientists published in the journal “Water” concluded the lake’s decline resulted from China’s overuse of the Ili River which feeds it for its agriculture, including cotton.

“If the hydro-climatic regime of the Ili for 2020–2060 remains unchanged compared to the past 50 years and agriculture continues to expand in China, future water supplies will become increasingly strained,” the study said.

Beijing is a key economic partner for Kazakhstan but it is less keen to collaborate on water issues.

“The drafting and signing of an agreement with China on the sharing of water in transborder rivers is a key issue,” the Kazakh Ministry of Water Resources told AFP.

“The main objective is to supply the volumes of water needed to preserve the Balkhash,” it said.

– Heavy pollution –

The water being syphoned away adds to “pollution from heavy metals, pesticides and other harmful substances”, authorities said, without citing culprits.

The town of Balkhash was founded around Kazakhstan’s largest copper producer, Kazakhmys.

Holidaymakers bathing on Balkhash’s municipal beach have a view of the smoking chimneys of its metal plant.

Lung cancer rates here are almost 10 times the regional average, which is already among the highest in the country, health authorities said.

Despite being sanctioned for breaking environmental standards, Kazakhmys denies it is the main polluter of the lake and has vowed to to reduce pollution by renewing its equipment.

“Kazakhmys is carrying out protective work to prevent environmental disasters in the Balkhash,” Sherkhan Rustemov, the company’s ecological engineer, told AFP.

In the meantime, the plant continues to discharge industrial waste into another huge body of water, right next to the lake.

Saudi delivery drivers bake in ‘deadly’ summer heat


By AFP
August 6, 2024


A Pakistani delivery worker poses for a photo during a break in the Saudi capital Riyadh - Copyright AFP Kazuhiro NOGI

Haitham EL-TABEI

Sheltering under a palm tree in Saudi Arabia’s capital, a Pakistani delivery driver stole a quick break during the lunch rush when orders — and scorching temperatures — are at their peak.

Gulping a bottle of cold water as the mercury neared 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), the motorcycle driver said he was well aware the Gulf kingdom’s harsh summer heat could be fatal.

Yet only by pushing through and filling the daily blitz of food orders will he earn enough money to send something back home, his main reason for coming to Saudi Arabia in the first place.

“The heat is intense and the sun is deadly. I always feel tired and exhausted,” the 26-year-old said, asking to be identified only as Mohammed to avoid reprisal from authorities or his employer.

“But it is a good job for me and my family,” added the father of two small children who live in Pakistan.

Sprawling Saudi Arabia, already one of the world’s hottest countries, faces rising threats from high temperatures attributed to climate change.

Its scorching summers could become longer and hotter as the planet warms, experts warn.

The risks were on display in June, when more than 1,300 people died while performing the annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, according to an official tally — most of them unauthorised pilgrims exposed to long periods outdoors.

To protect labourers, Saudi Arabia bans work under direct sunlight and in open-air areas between noon and 3:00 pm from mid-June until mid-September as part of a longstanding “midday break” policy widely adopted across the Gulf.

But Mohammed and other drivers, many of whom use motorcycles rather than cars and so are exposed to the heat, told AFP they felt pressure to work during these busy hours to meet their targets.

“The work is very hard, but I have no other choice,” Mohammed said, sweating profusely under the long-sleeve rash guard that protects him from the sun.

Saudi officials did not respond to a request for comment.


– ‘Life-threatening’ –


For years, Saudi restaurants organised their own food deliveries, mostly using small air-conditioned cars.

The meteoric rise in recent years of food delivery apps, which are especially popular in the Gulf, has boosted demand for motorcycle drivers, many of them South Asian migrants.

Mohammed arrived in Riyadh four months ago and joined a food delivery company, which provides him with a motorcycle, housing and one hot meal a day.

The young man, who speaks poor English and little Arabic, works from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm seven days a week, earning just over $666 a month, including tips.

“My family is in a much better situation now,” he said, adding that he was able to send back $533 after his first month on the job.

Yet while the money is alluring, the toll of extreme heat on the body can be high.

“Working in Saudi Arabia’s scorching midday sun poses severe health risks to delivery workers. Their bodies can overheat dangerously, leading to potentially life-threatening conditions like heat stroke,” said Karim Elgendy, senior non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

“The pressure to meet delivery deadlines often makes it difficult for workers to take adequate breaks, potentially nullifying protective measures” like drinking water and wearing light clothes, he said.



– ‘No time to rest’ –


Workers in Arab states face some of the highest exposure to heat stress in the world, with 83.6 percent suffering from excessive heat exposure on the job, according to a recent report from the International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency.

In Saudi Arabia, many delivery drivers seek temporary relief during breaks in air-conditioned bus stops or restaurants.

To stay hydrated, Hassan, a 20-year-old Pakistani delivery driver, keeps two bottles of yoghurt and a water flask in the box of his bike.

But “inaccurate locations and waiting in the sun for customers to arrive” make an already difficult job all the more arduous, he said, catching his breath outside a luxury eyewear shop in central Riyadh.

There is “no time to rest”, he told AFP as he strapped on a red helmet and whizzed off to collect a new order.

Shakil, a 22-year-old Bangladeshi delivery driver, also said he could not afford a pause.

“The sun is very strong, but I cannot miss work during the day,” he said after delivering a lunch order at around 2:00 pm to a guest at a hotel in central Riyadh — a job that earned him a tip of $2.

“I will lose a lot.”

SPACE

NASA weighs SpaceX rescue for stranded Boeing Starliner crew


By AFP

August 7, 2024

A final decision on whether to persist with Starliner -- seen here docked with the ISS -- is expected later this month, officials said - Copyright Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies/AFP/File -
Issam AHMED

What was meant to be a weeklong trip to the International Space Station (ISS) for the first NASA astronauts to fly with Boeing could extend to eight months, with the agency considering bringing them home on a SpaceX spaceship.

A final decision on whether to persist with Boeing’s Starliner — which experienced concerning propulsion system problems as it flew up to the orbital platform in June — is expected later this month, officials said Wednesday in a call with reporters.

Detailed planning is already under way with Boeing’s rival SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, to potentially launch their scheduled Crew-9 mission in September with just two astronauts rather than the usual four.

The Crew Dragon capsule would then be able to return to Earth with Starliner’s crew of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, revealed that there had been intense discussions on the best way forward, with Boeing expressing confidence in its spacecraft after carrying out ground testing to replicate the technical issues seen in space.

“I think the NASA community in general would like to understand a little bit more of the root cause and the physics,” he said.

Notably absent from the briefing were representatives from Boeing, heightening the perception of a rift.

On August 2, the company released a blog update stating it “remains confident in the Starliner spacecraft and its ability to return safely with crew.”



– Design flaws –



NASA and Boeing have been conducting tests at the White Sands Testing Facility in New Mexico to better understand why some of Starliner’s thrusters experienced a loss of power as it approached the ISS, and why it sprung several leaks of helium, used to pressurize the propulsion system.

Stich said the latest analysis of why the thrusters failed pointed to a “poppet” valve swelling and choking the flow of fuel, as well as overheating causing some fuel to vaporize.

Officials previously said the helium leaks might be due to the use of undersized seals.

NASA’s Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, insisted that returning with Starliner remained the “prime option.”

However, if Wilmore and Williams return with SpaceX, it would mark the biggest setback to date for Boeing’s space program, as the aerospace giant continues to reel from the safety crisis affecting its commercial jets.

Both Boeing and SpaceX were awarded multibillion-dollar contracts in 2014 to provide the US space agency with rides to the ISS, with SpaceX succeeding in 2020 and carrying dozens of people since.

Boeing’s program, by contrast, has faced numerous delays amid setbacks ranging from a software bug that put the spaceship on a bad trajectory on its first uncrewed test, to the discovery that the cabin was filled with flammable electrical tape after the second.

The crewed test itself experienced two aborted launch attempts that came as the astronauts were strapped in and ready for liftoff.

Yunus says ‘looking forward’ to helping Bangladesh ‘get out of trouble’


By AFP
August 7, 2024


Bangladesh's finance pioneer Muhammad Yunus appeared happy to be returning home - Copyright AFP/File Federico PARRA

Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who is due to head an interim government in Bangladesh after the ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said Wednesday he was looking forward to helping the country overcome its current turbulence.

“I’m looking forward to going back home, see what’s happening and how we can organise ourselves to get out of the trouble we are in,” he told reporters before boarding a flight at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for Dubai where he was to connect to Dhaka.

He headed for the boarding zone pushing a small wheeled piece of luggage, waving goodbye.

The Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer will head the interim government after longtime and autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country.

The appointment came quickly after student leaders called on the 84-year-old Yunus — credited with lifting millions out of poverty in the South Asian country — to lead.

Hasina, 76, who had been in power since 2009, resigned on Monday as hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Dhaka demanding she stand down.

Swiss mining giant Glencore drops plan to exit coal

By AFP
August 7, 2024


Glencore has a 'managed decline' strategy to phase out its coal mines - Copyright AFP/File CHARLY TRIBALLEAU

Swiss commodities giant Glencore announced Wednesday that it had decided against spinning off its coal business for now after consulting shareholders who view the polluting fossil fuel as a cash-generating activity.

Glencore completed its takeover of the steelmaking coal unit of Teck Resources in July following a protracted battle over the business with the Canadian company.

The Swiss mining and commodities trading group had considered merging the newly acquired business, Elk Valley Resources, with its own coal activities and spinning it off.

But Glencore said that after consulting its shareholders, most expressed a preference for retaining the coal and carbon steel materials business.

“Following extensive consultation with our shareholders, whose views were very clear, and our own analysis, the Board believes retention offers the lowest risk pathway to create value for Glencore shareholders today,” chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi said.

“The expected cash generative capacity of the coal and carbon steel materials business significantly enhances the quality of our portfolio,” Madhavpeddi added in a statement.

The company said shareholders preferred to keep the coal business “primarily on the basis that retention should enhance Glencore’s cash generating capacity to fund opportunities in our transition metals portfolio” such as copper.

They also concluded that it would “accelerate and optimise the return of excess cash flows to shareholders”.

Oil, gas and coal companies are under pressure to transition away from fossil fuels, the biggest contributor to climate change.

While Glencore’s Australian rival Rio Tinto and British group Anglo American are exiting coal, the Swiss company has a “managed decline” strategy to ensure a “responsible” phase out its coal operations.

Glencore said Wednesday that while it has decided to keep coal, its board “preserves the option to consider a demerger of all or part of this business in the future if circumstances change”.

Separately, Glencore posted a $233-million loss for the first half of the year, after earning $4.6 billion over the same period last year, as commodity prices fell, “particularly thermal coal”.

Judge dismisses $10 bn Mexico lawsuit against six US gunmakers

ByAFP
August 7, 2024

Glock was among the gun manufacturers which had filed the dismissal plea - Copyright AFP/File Albari ROSA

A US judge on Wednesday dismissed a $10 billion lawsuit brought by the Mexican government against six gun manufacturers based in the United States that sought to hold them responsible for deaths from guns trafficked into Mexico.

Judge Dennis Saylor dismissed the suit based on a lack of jurisdiction, ruling that the connections of the gun manufacturers to the state of Massachusetts, where the suit was brought, were not substantial.

“As to those defendants, the connection of this matter to Massachusetts is gossamer-thin at best,” Saylor’s verdict read.

Mexico tightly controls weapons sales, making them practically impossible to obtain legally.

But drug-related violence involving firearms remains widespread — with more than half a million weapons trafficked into Mexico from the United States annually, according to the Mexican government.

In recent years, it has filed suits in the US states of Massachusetts and Arizona seeking to hold US-based gun manufacturers and dealers responsible.

Wednesday’s ruling sees the charges against gunmakers Beretta USA, Colt, Glock, Barrett, Century International, and Sturm, Ruger and Company dismissed in Massachusetts.

Judge Saylor ruled that the six defendants against whom charges were dismissed did not have a sufficient link to Massachusetts to establish jurisdiction, and that the data presented by the Mexican government in the suit relied on assumptions and did not prove a direct link.

“In short, plaintiff has been unable to muster sufficient proof to establish a sufficient relationship between the claimed injuries and the business transactions of any of the six defendants in Massachusetts,” the verdict read.

The suit brought in the border state of Arizona seeks sanctions against five dealers that sold guns which were used in serious crimes in Mexico.

Op-Ed: Bringing back mammoths – Yes and No with too many caveats for both


ByPaul Wallis
August 6, 2024

DIGITAL JOURNAL

The Steppe mammoth was the first stage in the evolution of the steppe and tundra elephants and the ancestor of the woolly mammoth and Columbian mammoth of the later Pleistocene. — Source: Mauricio Antón (CC BY 2.5)

There’s not a single simple or straightforward issue in the Bring Back the Mammoth proposal. The idea of reincarnating the mammoths isn’t just some sort of scientific fad. This science is far too valuable to avoid. It includes a limitless range of useful biology that could be applied to just about anything living.

The degree of difficulty is also very high, but so what? All new science is tough. It’d be the first time a species had been reborn. At the genetic level, the whole process of reviving the mammoths would be all breakthroughs.

There’s another strong recommendation for mammoths in particular. A vast amount of study, actual tissues, and about a century’s worth at least of analysis can be used to do it.

This isn’t the mammalian version of Jurassic Park. This science already exists, with tissues as blueprint references for the whole animals. Every biological element in the process can be cross-checked.

None of these things makes any of it simple.

For example:

How does an ancient animal survive in what is effectively a different world?

Are they prone to disease and resistant to modern diseases?

How do you do basic maintenance for a huge animal like a mammoth?

What sort of habitat can be provided for them?

What happens if you revive them, and they just die?

How do you maintain a mammoth throughout its growth cycle, let alone for generations?

What do you feed them, and can you deliver that food in sufficient quantities?

What about warming? Big animals and heat are a foreseeable issue.

What sort of range do they need to exist independently?

How do you fix an injured mammoth?

What if anything at all goes wrong, as it may be expected to do?

These are just the basics. These basics can evolve to the point of being a bit queasiness-inducing and much less obvious:

How safe is the huge volume of very tricky and demanding science from bad actors?

Do we get great science followed by McMammoth burgers 5 minutes later? (Admittedly prehistoric burgers would probably be safer.)

Theme parks, anyone? Novelty tends to produce tackiness.

Genetic science often generates “Offshoot science” or more accurately in some cases “Oafshoot science”. Genetic hybrids and similar highly dubious science-swiping options are a possible issue. It has produced some pretty bizarre ideas, like crossing rats and humans, presumably to keep the sociologists happy. Solutions to this issue, if any?

Microbiology is one of the most productive and most contentious, minefield-ridden forms of science. Is there any risk of an intellectual property stampede ripping off the mammoth project science? How do you protect the science? You’d need keystone genetics IP at the very least.

If you’re somehow getting the mystic impression that I don’t trust the commercial environment for good science, let alone for this much critical science, bingo.

Let’s face it – The sheer scale of scientific fraud, plagiarism and disingenuity of recent years is no incentive to be trusting. “Bad actors” is more than a euphemism. Nor is the salivating, money-mad IP sector any great aesthetic relief.

Science is in the midst of its own MESA (Make Everything Sleazy Again) Era. At risk of extinction are talent, real science, and a lot of high-value IP. The mammoth project would be the epitome of a horrific learning curve nobody needs or wants to do.

Let’s hope the science survives its likely environment, too.