Samoa in crisis as elected leader locked out of Parliament

Samoa was plunged into a constitutional crisis after the woman who won an election last month was locked out of Parliament and the previous leader claimed he remained in charge

By NICK PERRY Associated Press

23 May 2021

The Associated Press

Samoa's Deputy Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa arrives at Faleolo Airport in Apia, Samoa...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- Samoa was plunged into a constitutional crisis Monday when the woman who won an election last month was locked out of Parliament and the previous leader claimed he remained in charge.

The fast-moving events marked the latest twist in a bitter power struggle that has been playing out in the small Pacific nation since it elected its first female leader. Not only is Samoa's peace and stability at stake, but also its relationship with China.

On Monday morning, Prime Minister-elect Fiame Naomi Mata’afa and her supporters showed up at parliament to form a new government, but were not allowed inside.

The nation’s Supreme Court had earlier ordered the Parliament to convene. And the constitution requires that lawmakers meet within 45 days of an election, with Monday marking the final day by that count.

But Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who was prime minister for 22 years before his unexpected election loss, doesn't appear ready to give up power. He was already one of the longest-serving leaders in the world.

Two powerful allies have been supporting Tuilaepa.

The nation's head of state, Tuimalealiifano Va'aletoa Sualauvi II, wrote in a proclamation last week that he was suspending Parliament “for reasons that I will make known in due course." On Sunday, the Parliament's speaker backed him.

After Fiame was locked out on Monday, Tuilaepa held a news conference proclaiming his government remained in charge.

Samoan journalist Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson translated the back-and-forth into English on Twitter.

At his news conference, Tuilaepa said: “There is only one government in Samoa, even if we are just the custodian government. We remain in this role and operate business as usual."

Meanwhile, Fiame told her supporters: “There will be a time when we will meet again, inside that House. Let us leave it to the law."

Fiame's election win was seen as a milestone not only for Samoa, which is conservative and Christian, but also for the South Pacific, which has had few female leaders.

An advocate for women’s equality, Fiame, who was born in 1957, broke new ground during her campaign by going on the road and robustly criticizing the incumbent.

She has pledged to stop a $100 million port development backed by Beijing, calling the project excessive for a nation that's already heavily in debt to China, according to news broadcaster RNZ.

Fiame said she intends to maintain good relations with China but has more pressing needs to address, RNZ reported.

Last month's election initially ended in a 25-25 tie between Fiame's FAST Party and Tuilaepa’s HRP Party, with one independent candidate.

The independent candidate chose to go with Fiame, but meanwhile, the electoral commissioner appointed another HRP candidate, saying it was required to conform to gender quotas.

That made it 26-26.

The head of state then stepped in to announce fresh elections to break the tie. Those elections in the nation of 200,000 were scheduled to be held last week.

But Fiame’s party appealed and the Supreme Court ruled against both the appointed candidate and the plans for the new elections, restoring the FAST Party to a 26-25 majority.uality, Fiame, who was born in 1957, broke new ground during her campaign by going on the road and robustly criticizing the incumbent.

She has pledged to stop a $100 million port development backed by Beijing, calling the project excessive for a nation that's already heavily in debt to China, according to news broadcaster RNZ.

Fiame said she intends to maintain good relations with China but has more pressing needs to address, RNZ reported.

Last month's election initially ended in a 25-25 tie between Fiame's FAST Party and Tuilaepa’s HRP Party, with one independent candidate.

The independent candidate chose to go with Fiame, but meanwhile, the electoral commissioner appointed another HRP candidate, saying it was required to conform to gender quotas.

That made it 26-26.

The head of state then stepped in to announce fresh elections to break the tie. Those elections in the nation of 200,000 were scheduled to be held last week.

But Fiame’s party appealed and the Supreme Court ruled against both the appointed candidate and the plans for the new elections, restoring the FAST Party to a 26-25 majority.

How Gaza Defeated Israel – OpEd


Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood protestors in East Jerusalem. 

Photo Credit: Fars News Agency

EURASIAN REVIEW
May 24, 2021

By Prakash Kona

Whatever little respect I had for the Israeli on the street, I’ve conclusively lost it after seeing the attempted lynching of a Palestinian motorist by a mob of Jewish men. This is blatant majoritarian violence and there is no other way to describe it except as a sickness, which is what the colonization of Palestine is all about.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Nothing justifies the lynching of Jews by Arabs, and nothing justifies the lynching of Arabs by Jews. We will not accept it. This is not us, not this violence, not this savagery…”

If the brutal occupation of Palestinian Territories and the killing of common people is not savagery, what is! The violence is you and so is the savagery! No two ways about it!

Who started the fight? By all accounts the eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem based “on a 1970 Israeli law that allows Jews to reclaim East Jerusalem land owned by Jews before 1948” was the trigger for the violence. That there is no such a law for the Palestinians who have lost their land is only one part of the issue. The main issue is that an occupier’s law is meaningless for the occupied; they don’t have to recognize or even acknowledge its existence because it is the law of a robber imposed on the one who is robbed.

Israel as a state does not even qualify for a highway robber because the latter have some ethics. They don’t first rob and then embark on murdering innocents. Every Palestinian is by definition innocent because they are not the occupiers. They are fighting an unjust occupation. Yes, morality is universal and no harm should be inflicted randomly on any people in any part of the world. This principle applies to both Israelis and Palestinians. This does not however alter the simple fact that Israel has absolutely no right to colonize the Palestinians and then expect them to behave ethically while their land is appropriated, their homes bombarded and their children killed in cold blood.

Israel’s savagery can only be answered by fearlessly confronting its brutality like it happens in any anti-colonial war of resistance. While the deaths of individuals are extremely tragic for the families, irrespective of whether they are from Israel or Palestinian Territories, there is no doubt that the responsibility lies with Israel and the American state.

Violence comes with a heavy price both for the occupier and the occupied; but, in the case of the latter there is hope that freedom will give them the chance to liberate themselves from the mental chains that enslave them to the past. Israel is a free country that has chosen to walk the path of savagery. There is no such hope for Israel unless it ends the military occupation.

The Palestinians must celebrate their victory over Israel. Every time Israel demonstrates its savagery to the world by indiscriminately bombing and killing civilians, Palestinians are one step closer to freedom. Suffering, death and destruction of homes is the price that Palestinians have to pay for ending the occupation. In the end no price is too big for freedom.

The Gazans have won against the might of the Israeli war machine by reminding the world that Israel’s occupation is illegitimate. A person afraid and in possession of weapons becomes more violent than what he or she would normally be. An abnormally afraid Israeli state used weapons relentlessly on the Gazans because they did not know how to handle the fear of facing a people resisting occupation. They know that the Palestinians are winning and the Iron Dome defense system has nothing to with it. It’s time that the Palestinians start living proudly and with dignity like free citizens in a land that was theirs to begin with.

Prakash Kona
Prakash Kona is a writer, teacher and researcher who lives in Hyderabad, India. He is Professor at the Department of English Literature, The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad

Jewish-Arab ties in region hang in balance after Hamas-Israel heaviest fighting since 2014

(Xinhua) PEOPLES DAILY, May 24, 2021

Palestinian protesters use slingshots to hurl stones at Israeli security members during a protest against the continued Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on May 20, 2021. (Photo by Luay Sababa/Xinhua)

After 11-day-long war between Israel and Gaza that only ended last Friday, tension between Arabs and Jews in the region that grew dramatically during the war can still be felt, leaving a big question mark over the future of their relations.

JERUSALEM, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Despite the cease-fire reached between Gaza's ruler Hamas and Israel for a round of their probably heaviest fighting since 2014, the tension between Arabs and Jews in the region that grew dramatically during the fighting can still be felt, leaving a big question mark over the future of their relations.

In Israel, there are many mixed cities of Jewish and Arab residents. The 11-day-long war between Israel and Gaza that only ended last Friday pushed the underlying turmoil in the region to a climax.

The trigger for this round of fighting, as most previous cases, was from the Old City of Jerusalem. The Palestinians accused Israel of restricting movement in and around Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City, after the Israeli police took a rare step of blocking buses of Arab worshippers heading to the mosque on the holiest night of the Ramadan month.

"Al-Aqsa is a red line. It is a consensus among Arabs. It is explosive and the issue needs to be handled properly," said Afif Abu Much, a political analyst and contributor to the U.S.-based Al-Monitor news website that reports and analyses developments of the Middle East.

Israeli border police(WO)men are positioned during a protest against the continued Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on May 20, 2021. (Photo by Luay Sababa/Xinhua)

In addition, Arabs protested what they said was illegal eviction of Palestinian residents from an East Jerusalem neighborhood to make room for Jewish settlers. Clashes with police erupted throughout Jerusalem and quickly spread to other places in the region.

In the mixed Israeli city of Lod, an Arab man was shot dead by Jews who claimed they were acting in self-defense, while a Jewish man was killed by rocks thrown at his car. Scenes of lynches being committed by both Jews and Arabs were seen across the country.

According to the Israeli police' foreign media spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, 280 policemen were injured in nationwide violence, while more than 1,000 suspected of being involved in the unrest were arrested.

THE WEAPON OF DAVID AGAINST THE ISRAEL MILITARY GOLIATH

A Palestinian protester uses a slingshot to hurl a stone at Israeli security members during a protest against the continued Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on May 20, 2021. (Photo by Luay Sababa/Xinhua)

"There is intense bitterness which blew up this time," said Thabet Abu Rass, co-director of the Abraham Initiatives, a non-governmental organization that promotes Jewish-Arab co-existence. "The combination of the issues together with the ethnic, religious and identity crisis (makes) Arabs feel humiliated."

As a whole, Arab residents in Israel have a lower participation rate in the workforce and lower salaries than Jewish Israelis. Many of the mixed cities are undergoing a gentrification trend, in which the real estate prices have risen and made home ownership for Arabs unattainable. The predominantly Jewish cities are even more expensive and often not welcoming to Arabs.

In addition, the rate of crime and violence in the Arab society is significantly higher than that in Jewish society. Years of empty promises to tackle the problem have resulted in pent-up frustration and ethnic undertones that have the potential of spiralling into a violent internal conflict.

Worse still, the Israeli parliament passed the Jewish-Nation State law in 2018, which essentially downgrades the status of the Arabs that make up 20 percent of the population in the country. Many believe the law was a turning point in the already tense relations between Arabs and Jews.

"Israel has still not come to terms with the fact that it has Arab citizens," said the political analyst Abu Much. "We still see Jewish paternalism and supremacy. This makes the Arabs feel like they are outsiders."

Israeli security members are positioned during a protest against the continued Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on May 20, 2021. (Photo by Luay Sababa/Xinhua)

"The disparity, the uneven development and radical and racist statements ... the years of neglect of civilian projects and development, policies of discrimination ... led to the explosion. If these things will not be taken care of now ... we will witness another outbreak in the coming years," Abu Rass noted.

After what has occurred recently, the possibility of an Arab party joining a government likely to be formed in Israel in the coming weeks may have been ruled out, representing yet another setback for Arab-Jewish relations.

"It is unacceptable that Arabs are not part of the political game," said Abu Rass. "We need to think about how to incorporate them in the decision-making process to promote a sense of belonging and a sense of ownership." 

(Web editor: Meng Bin, Liang Jun)

How the West’s opinion of Israel may be changing

MAHA AKEEL

ARAB NEWS
May 23, 2021



People participate in a pro-Palestinian rally on May 22, 2021 in the Queens borough of New York City. (AFP)

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https://arab.news/rcjd5

Another round of exchanges of fire followed by a negotiated ceasefire between the Israeli occupiers and the Palestinians is complete. This is the never-ending cycle of violence and destruction because of the injustice and humiliation the Palestinians have suffered at the hands of the Israelis for more than 70 years now. Unless true peace and justice is reached, we can expect similar attacks to flare up again.

Security for one group of people living in the same territory as another group will not be attained unless the members of both groups feel secure in their homes and on their lands. Attempting to evict one group of people and replace them with another will only exacerbate the situation and will not result in peace and security. This is the reality that Israel refuses to accept because it feels confident in its power and is immune from accountability as long as it is protected by the US. The latest round of attacks did, however, ignite an unfavorable turn of events for Israel.

Every conflict has two sides, otherwise it wouldn’t be a conflict. Controlling the narrative and public opinion is an essential component in winning any conflict. How the story is framed, including the words used and images published, helps to gain and maintain official and public support. Once there is a more persuasive argument that challenges the dominant discourse and grabs people’s attention, it causes questioning and rejection.

The latest escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict exposed the strengths and weaknesses of the dominant narratives on both sides. Those on the side of the Palestinians are aware of the historical facts that led to the creation of the state of Israel at the Palestinians’ expense, as well as the suffering and deprivation of the Palestinians and their rights ever since. These facts and realities on the ground, however, have not been widely or adequately explained and delivered beyond the region. They are most often overshadowed by other crises and conflicts and undermined by internal divisions and mismanagement.

On the other side are the powerful, rich Western countries and those under their influence who promoted the right of Israel to exist as a haven for Jews who had suffered from discrimination, particularly during the Holocaust, in lands far away. By trying to atone for their bigotry and atrocities against the Jews, the West supported and continues to support Israel politically, financially, militarily and in the media, turning a blind eye to any atrocities it commits.

For people in the region, Israel is a sore reminder of the West’s colonial and imperial legacy — a malign foreign body deliberately created to serve the interests of the former colonizers.


Controlling the narrative and public opinion is an essential component in winning any conflict.
Maha Akeel

Israel calls itself a “democracy” and a “civilized state” that is surrounded by barbaric people and autocratic states. Such words and their framing are important to understand in the wider context of Islamophobia and the demonizing and negative stereotyping of Arabs and Muslims in the West.

A closer look at Israel exposes it as a racist, militaristic and fundamentalist state, which is what a Human Rights Watch report released last month determined. “Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution,” the report stated. Its findings were based on an “overarching Israeli government policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians and grave abuses committed against Palestinians living in the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem.”

A few other significant changes contributed to this reconfiguration in the balance of worldwide public opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Social media has provided a platform for immediate, raw and touching footage by Palestinians of the destruction and abuses they have suffered. This has garnered overwhelming support and sympathy around the world and rallied demonstrators in various cities, even though some of these platforms tried to censor the Palestinians by blocking hashtags and suspending accounts that referred to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, where this latest round of violence erupted after the Israeli security services forcefully tried to displace Palestinians from their homes and attacked worshippers.

Such aggression and violations of human rights infuriated Palestinians in many cities and towns and caused them to rise up in a much-needed show of unity. In response, Israel went as far as bombing a tower in the Gaza Strip that housed media offices in an attempt to silence local and international news coverage under the guise of targeting terrorists. Living under the inhumane conditions of blockade, poverty and threat in Gaza — described as the world’s largest open-air prison — we need to ask, who is being terrorized and dehumanized?

Calls by Western countries for human rights to be upheld and defended ring hollow when these same nations refuse to acknowledge the abuses and violations committed by Israel and bring it to justice. Some even prevent peaceful demonstrators from expressing their support for Palestinians or callously raise the flag of Israel over their institutions in a show of solidarity. Claims that Israel has the right to defend itself need to be challenged by asking, who is the aggressor?

We finally heard a change in the tone of the discourse in the US and other Western nations and a noticeable shift within the Democratic and Republican parties to take a tougher stance against Israel. The presence of conscientious politicians, especially those with Arab and Muslim backgrounds, and other supporters in the corridors of power is giving the Palestinians a voice, which had previously been muffled and their very existence obscured.

It remains to be seen how the Palestinians and their supporters will be able to build on and cultivate this turn of events to reach their ultimate goal of having an independent, viable state where they can live in dignity.

• Maha Akeel is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah. Twitter: @MahaAkeel1
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point-of-view

CRYPTO CRIMINAL CAPITALISM

Cyber attack: When will the Irish health service get a resolution?

By Shane Harrison
BBC News Dublin Correspondent

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES

It is now more than a week since the Republic of Ireland's health service became the victim of a ransomware cyberattack and there is no sign of a resolution any time soon.

It is possible though that a decryption tool supplied by the gang responsible may accelerate a return to some form of normality.

Government ministers have consistently repeated that no ransom will be paid to the hackers for the return of patients' information despite some such details appearing on the dark web.

Many computers were shut down to allow specialists to track down the malware.

It means many hospitals have returned to pen and paper usage to keep records.

But that is causing problems for many doctors, consultants and dentists who cannot access previous scans stored on computers for comparison to see whether a patient may have deteriorated.

It is, obviously, a worrying time for many patients too - especially those who have cancer and other serious ailments.

Not surprisingly, several patients have called radio phone-in programmes to say a ransom should be paid to allow normal service to resume.

But that is very much a minority view among the general public, even though some IT specialists privately suspect money may have to be paid eventually.

Cyber-attack on Irish health service 'catastrophic'
Ireland tests cyber attack data fix
Ireland's cyber-security 'under continuous review'

Routine non-emergency operations, including colonoscopies, have been cancelled in many hospitals.

That will add to waiting lists and missed diagnoses and will increase patients' worries.

One maternity hospital cancelled outpatient visits, unless women were 36 weeks pregnant or later

Overwhelmingly people support the Irish government's stance in refusing to pay a ransom to the hackers, who are believed to be based in St Petersburg in Russia.

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGESimage captionIreland's Department of Health and the Health Service Executive were both targeted by hackers


But the cyber attack has also highlighted the vulnerability of the Ireland's health service because of its continued use of an outdated Windows system.


IT experts have said the attack was an accident waiting to happen because of a failure to invest sufficiently in cyber security.


Others suggest that the Health Service Executive (HSE), the official name for the Republic of Ireland's health service, could face up to €1m (£860,700) in fines for inadequate data protection under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules.

'Tens of millions'


It is too early to say whether any patient whose private details end up published on the internet will sue the health service for negligence and a breach of privacy.


In the meantime, the HSE has secured a High Court order preventing hackers - or any individual or business - from sharing, processing, or selling the information.



The court injunction also applies to social media platforms such as Twitter, Google and Facebook, and therefore limits the gang's scope for disseminating the information.


The head of the HSE, Paul Reid, has estimated it will cost "tens of millions" of euros to get its systems back up and running.


The government is also setting up a helpline for those who are approached and told their health details are going to be published online.


The underfunding of the HSE IT security system is going to come with a heavy price and now the worry is that other public services may also be vulnerable to similar ransomware cyber attacks.

China announces ‘crackdown’ on bitcoin mining and trading

Cryptos mentioned on lists of risks to financial system to be avoided

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Mon 24 May 2021

China has again signalled deep antipathy to cryptocurrency, this time calling for a crackdown on bitcoin mining.

Last Friday the State Council Financial Stability and Development Committee, a body charged with managing risk in China’s financial system, issued a statement detailing its most recent meeting and conclusions about the most pressing risks it needs to manage.

After first mentioning less-specific issues such as building early warning systems to detect financial risks, and reforming smaller financial institutions, the statement said it’s time to “crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading behaviour” as the cryptocurrency and other risks mentioned could introduce external risks, or inflation, or both.

The Committee’s identification of Bitcoin as undesirable came just days after China’s Internet Finance Association, Banking Association, and the Payment and Clearing Association issued a joint statement banning banks from offering access to cryptocurrency investments, while web platforms were barred from hosting crypto companies’ operations or even ads for their wares.

The new statement didn’t specify what actions would be taken against Bitcoin operators, other than saying China will “severely punish” illegal activities. However, the impact of the ban is likely to be felt outside China, as the nation is one of the major sources of miners.

The Financial Stability and Development Committee’s statement is also notable because the risk mentioned before Bitcoin was “supervision of platform enterprises’ financial activities”.

That’s a reference to China’s ongoing restriction of financial services activities conducted by its local web giants. The most visible sign of China’s displeasure with financial forays by its web companies was the cancellation of Ant Group’s colossal IPO. Clearly the likes of Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu aren’t going to be allowed to explore further financial services ventures without scrutiny.

Bitcoin took another dip after China's new announcement, taking its value down by more than 25 percent over the last seven days. Many other cryptocurrencies have followed suit. ®

China’s digital currency adds support for AliPay – the Alibaba payment app with over 700 million users

China’s digital currency finds its first cross-border payments buddy: Hong Kong

US Treasury wants to treat cryptocurrencies like cash – as in you need to report $10k+ transactions

Bitcoin is ‘disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization’ says famed investor Charlie Munger

Pro-Palestinian activists tank Facebook app ratings to protest alleged censorship

Apple is reportedly declining to intervene

J. Fingas@jonfingas
May 23rd, 2021
Katja Knupper/Die Fotowerft/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

People have used app ratings to object to company policies in the past, but an ongoing campaign may be doing significant damage. NBC News has learned that pro-Palestinian activists are succeeding in a campaign to trash Facebook's ratings in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store through "thousands" of one-star reviews. Many of the participants have accused Facebook of silencing Palestinians as they speak out about the recent escalation of violence with Israel.

The social network is taking the campaign very seriously, according to message board info NBC obtained. It's marked as a "severity 1" issue, or just below a full-fledged site outage. A senior Facebook engineer reportedly said that users felt they were "censored" and otherwise suppressed.

Notably, though, the store operators weren't necessarily intervening. A Facebook employee claimed that Apple declined to pull the one-star reviews. It's not clear how Google has responded.

We've asked Apple and Google for comment. Facebook rejected accusations of censorship in a statement to NBC, claiming that its policies provide "everyone a voice" and that it applied them irrespective of beliefs. Spokesperson Andy Stone pointed to a team that was "closely monitoring" the Israeli-Palestinian situation to both pull harmful content and correct enforcement mistakes.

This won't necessarily lead Facebook to change its approach. However, it's notable that the campaign is having an effect in the first place — and that app store hosts might be staying out of the fray. It wouldn't be surprising if more campaigns like this emerge in the future, even if they don't ultimately lead to company action.

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

India reportedly orders social media platforms to remove references to ‘Indian variant’ of COVID-19

The scientific community discourages calling virus variants by place names

IT IS WHY THEY ARE GIVEN LETTERS AND NUMBERS

By Kim Lyons May 23, 2021
THE VERGE 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge


India’s government has sent notices to social media platforms ordering them to take down content that refers to an “Indian variant” of the COVID-19 virus, Reuters reported. The letter from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology sent Friday was not made public, but was viewed by several news outlets.

It was not clear which social media outlets received the letter, but India’s government has recently ordered Twitter to remove tweets and Facebook and Instagram to take down posts that were critical of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“There is no such variant of COVID-19 scientifically cited as such by the World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO has not associated the term ‘Indian Variant’ with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus in any of its reports,” the letter states, adding that the phrase is “completely FALSE.”


A variant of the coronavirus first detected in India last year, B.1.617 is believed responsible for the latest wave of COVID-19 cases in south Asia. The World Health Organization has classified it as a variant of global concern, with some evidence that it is more contagious than other strains of the virus.

But while India’s approach to censoring information about the coronavirus and variants is extreme, WHO and other health organizations and scientists are critical of the practice of referring to viruses and variants with geographic nicknames, since it can be stigmatizing and inaccurate. The WHO’s 2015 guidance for naming infectious diseases discourages using place names, human names, or animal species names.

However, as National Geographic notes in its very good explainer about how virus variants get their names, the current naming conventions are cumbersome and confusing, making them difficult for non-scientists to grasp or remember. National Geographic reports that WHO is working with virologists to create a new way of naming viruses.

UPDATED

FRACKING SAND

Scientists consider true costs of sand, call for sustainability effort

Researchers say that research is needed on the effects of the sand industry -- including sources such as this sand pit in Sunkoshi, near Kathmandu, Nepal -- on the environment, with an eye on sustainability. Photo by Bibek Raj Shrestha


May 21 (UPI) -- The authors of a new research paper want scientists and policy makers to start considering the sustainability implications of global sand use.

Though not as overtly destructive as oil or coal, sand, the authors argue, is a valuable finite resource -- the extraction of which can cause considerable environmental damage.

Sand may seem plentiful, but as a key ingredient in both concrete and glass, it's used for everything from building roads and bridges to windows and phone screens.

In the latest paper, published Friday in the journal One Earth, scientists argue that the global economy's seemingly insatiable appetite for sand is harming the environment, accelerating climate change and even fueling social conflict.

"With this paper, we look forward towards what we need to do as a society if we want to promote a sustainable consumption on global sand resources," lead study author Aurora Torres said in a press release.

"A drastic problem calls for drastic solutions -- truly doing this differently to put aside problems and create pathways to sustainability," said Torres, a researcher at Michigan State University's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability.

Though the aim of the paper was to shed light on the sustainability issues associated with sand use, researchers hope their work will ultimately inspire solutions.

To meet human development needs without overtaxing the planet's natural resources, scientists suggest significant policy reforms are necessary.

To provide an overview of the many environmental and socioeconomic problems caused by sand extraction, the paper's authors recruited the expertise of a variety different scientists.

"Collaborating across the research disciplines made it possible to fit the puzzle pieces into a full picture," researches said in the press release.

Rather than focusing on single extraction sites, which many previous studies have already done, the researchers looked at the "physical and socio-environmental dimensions of sand supply networks."

This allowed them to explore the links between sand extraction, processing, distribution, economics and policy to craft a deeper understanding of these networks' stresses on both nature and people.

For the study, scientists adopted a telecoupling framework, which highlights the social, ecological and economic impacts of the global trade relationships between human and natural systems.

By integrating the framework with what's called material flow analysis, researchers were able to identify the full scope of the sand economy's environmental and socioeconomic impacts -- from extraction sites like mines to consumption sites in cities, as well as the many transport corridors in-between.

"Simple views cannot solve complex sustainability challenges," said co-author Jianguo "Jack" Liu, director of MSU-CSIS. "New ways like the telecoupling framework help untangle and embrace the complexity of global sand challenges and point the way toward effective solutions."

The authors of the new study also considered the geological processes -- including deposit, flow and accumulation patterns -- linked with the most important construction aggregates.

In addition to collecting naturally formed sand and gravel, some companies also blast and crush rocks to meet demands for construction aggregates.

Economists predict demand for construction aggregate will double over the next few decades. To head off mounting environmental problems, researchers suggest solutions are needed sooner rather than later.

In the new paper, the authors call for a multifaceted approach to sand sustainability.

Policies are needed, they say, to reduce material use and encourage more compact development, as are reforms to bolster markets for construction and demolition waste.

"As with climate change, there is not a single solution but multiple entry points for more sustainable consumption," Torres said.

CONSERVATION

How Sand Mining Could Destabilize the World

Dharna Noor
Friday 12:00PM

Photo: Guillermo Legaria/AFP (Getty Images)

The world consumes gargantuan quantities of sand for all kinds of things, which along with related materials like gravel and crushed rock, accounts for 85% of all mineral extraction on Earth. A new study details the massive environmental toll it takes—and how we can fix it.

The new study, published in One Earth on Friday, looks at the world’s extensive sand supply chain. The authors, who come from hard and social science backgrounds, employed a buzzy, holistic framework called telecoupling, which allowed them to look at the interaction between socioeconomic and environmental factors.

“We take a broad look at the physical and socio-environmental dimensions of sand supply networks—linking extraction, logistics, distribution, economics, policy—to gain an understanding of the stresses on both nature and people,” research associate Aurora Torres at Michigan State University’s fisheries and wildlife school and lead author of the study, wrote in an email.

She noted the world uses “around 50 billion tons of sand, gravel, and crushed rock to produce concrete for our houses and to build roads and infrastructure.” But sand is also a source of other essential products, including refining quartz sand to make silica that goes into everything from windows to vaccine vials to microprocessors that power our laptops and solar panels. Some kinds of sand are also used in fracking to hold open cracks deep underground to pull out fossil fuels.

Since sand supply is poorly regulated and managed, there’s not much data on all that activity, so we don’t have exact numbers on how much of it we use. But what is clear is that demand for sand for all these uses is increasing rapidly, which is creating huge problems. In fact, over the next 30 years, eight cities the size of New York will be built each year, the study says.

“Sand and gravel are the world’s most extracted solid materials by mass and their annual consumption is predicted to double by 2060,” said Torres. “This situation is putting pressure on threatened ecosystems, triggering social conflicts, and fueling concerns over sand shortages.”

Increasing extraction, the authors write, will make these issues all the more severe and lead them to compound. For instance, the study says, sand can lead to riverbed collapse and erosion in coastal communities. That means affected populations in places like India and Vietnam may be pushed to migrate inland toward cities, which could in turn lead to increased demand for sand for development. This very process played out in 2016 after Cyclone Winston hit Fiji, according to the study.

Environmental stress from sand mining can also increase the risk of conflict and economic peril. Sand mining has triggered land grabs in places like Singapore. And throughout Southeast Asia, sand smuggling is a dangerous black market. Dangerous sand mining gangs have depleted enough sand to cause 24 Indonesian islands to disappear as a result of erosion. Again, this can all force people to flee to cities, increasing sand demand.

Decreasing the global use of sand is also an important climate mitigation strategy, the study says, because sand is most often used to create carbon-intensive products like cement.

“Urban population growth and associated infrastructure development may claim the entire carbon budget of a 2 degree Celsius [3.6 degree Fahrenheit] warming limit by mid-century,” the authors write. They go on to note that if developing countries’ building stock reaches levels of developed ones, producing raw materials alone would eat up anywhere from 35% to 60% of the carbon budget.

To mitigate all these issues, the authors say, we should more carefully monitor and manage our sand resources. One key strategy is to use alternatives when possible. For instance, sand can be artificially created by crushing rock, which can be far more sustainable. The authors note that this fake sand is already a major export commodity for some countries, especially Norway, and a major source of sand for construction in the U.S. and China.

Recycling could also ward off our sand crises. For instance, when new buildings replace demolished ones, governments could require construction companies to process and reuse the rubble instead of laying new concrete. More sustainable alternatives to sand-based construction materials, including hempcrete and sustainably sourced timber, could also play a role. All this will require some serious regulation—it won’t happen if it’s left up to market forces, because concrete is currently quite cheap to produce despite its environmental toll.

This should all be coupled with attempts to lessen demand overall. For instance, developers should be encouraged to construct buildings that will last a long time and reduce the unnecessary overuse of sand.

“If we continue increasing our consumption of sand, that will not only cause significant impacts from mining in terms of destroying ecosystems, compromising the supply of ecosystem services, and triggering social unrest,” said Torres. The world could also simply run out of sand to use. There’s an incomprehensible amount of it on the planet—some 7.5 quintillion grains—and yet we’re still facing a shortage. We can’t allow ourselves to fall into a sand trap.

UPDATED
Virgin Galactic completes successful space flight

SPACE RACE 2.0 CAPITALISTS IN SPACE 


Virgin Galactic completed a successful space flight Saturday. Image via Virgin Galactic/Twitter

May 22 (UPI) -- Virgin Galactic completed its first successful space flight in more than two years Saturday.

"It was picture perfect," Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier told The Verge after the flight was completed. "We're gonna go through the data deeply and thoroughly as we always do." In a statement, Colglazier called the flight a "major step forward for both Virgin Galactic and human spaceflight in New Mexico," which had never hosted a crewed test mission to space until today.

The crewed VSS Unity spacecraft reached an altitude of more than 44,000 feet before gliding safely back to Earth.

Virgin's VMS Eve carrier launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico at about 10:35 a.m. EDT with Unity onboard, then launched Unity once it had switched to its own battery power and conducted flight control and electrical checks.

The United States considers pilots who have flown above 80 kilometers to be astronauts.

Saturday's trip is the latest step toward Virgin Galactic's goal of creating a space tourism program.

The company taken about 600 reservations for space flight tickets at a cost of $250,000 each

The flight marked the first spaceflight from New Mexico, which is now the third U.S. state to launch humans into space.

The flight also carried research payloads for NASA's Flight Opportunities program.

Virgin Galactic: Milestone Flight from New Mexico (Video)

 By Leonard David
 May 23rd, 2021

Credit: Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic completed on May 22 its third spaceflight and the first ever spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico.

VSS Unity spaceship completed the first-ever human spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico, with two pilots reaching apogee at 55.45 miles above ground. The flight is a meaningful step toward the opening of commercial space travel.

VSS Unity achieved a speed of Mach 3 after being released from the mothership, VMS Eve, and reached space before gliding  to a runway landing at Spaceport America.

On VSS Unity’s flight deck were CJ Sturckow and Dave Mackay, while Kelly Latimer and Michael Masucci piloted VMS Eve.

Credit: Virgin Galactic

Test objectives

According to a Virgin Galactic press statement, the flight fulfilled a number of test objectives, including:

• Carried revenue-generating scientific research experiments as part of NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program.
• Collected data to be used for the final two verification reports that are required as part of the current FAA commercial reusable spacecraft operator’s license.
• Tested the spaceship’s upgraded horizontal stabilizers and flight controls and validated Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) reductions.

Following the flight, Virgin Galactic will conduct a review of all test data gathered and thoroughly inspect the spaceship and mothership.  Once the team confirms the results, the company plans to proceed to the next flight test milestone.

Credit: Spaceport America

 

Important milestone

“Fifteen years ago, New Mexico embarked on a journey to create the world’s first commercial spaceport,’’ said Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic founder. ‘’Today, we launched the first human spaceflight from that very same place, marking an important milestone for both Virgin Galactic and New Mexico.”

To celebrate the first human spaceflight from New Mexico, the Zia Sun Symbol of New Mexico’s state flag was placed prominently on the exterior of the Spaceship.  In addition, we flew green chile seeds, which are synonymous with the state’s rich agricultural and culinary history.

To view a Virgin Galactic video spotlighting the flight, go to:

https://youtu.be/1TVs2lWk_GI

UPDATED

Mount Nyiragongo, One of the World’s Most Active and Dangerous Volcanoes, Blows in a Surprise Eruption


Jody Serra

Lava from the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo is seen in Buhene, on the outskirts of Goma, Congo in the early hours of Sunday, May 23, 2021.Photo: Justin Kabumba (AP)

On Saturday, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo volcano suddenly erupted, forcing thousands to flee to neighboring Rwanda to seek shelter. By Sunday, reports stated that the speed of Nyiragongo’s lava had slowed and that the nearby city of Goma, home to more than one million people, had been spared.

The eruption—which was caused when fractures opened in the volcano’s side and resulted in lava flowing in several directions—took residents, experts, and officials by surprise. According to Reuters, this was in part due to problems at the Goma Volcano Observatory, the scientific entity that monitors Nyiragongo, a volcano near the Democratic Republic of Congo’s border with Rwanda. Volcanologists have struggled to carry out basic checks on the volcano since the World Bank cut off its funding in light of embezzlement allegations.

Observatory officials had not done comprehensive seismic checks on the volcano since October of last year because they didn’t have an internet connection. They managed to reestablish their internet in April when they received funding from a U.S. partner. Officials said that by then, too much time had been lost, however.

“As soon as the internet was restored, we had started recording the warning signals, but since we did not have previous data, we thought it was the start of volcanic activity,” Celestin Kasereka Mahinda, the observatory’s scientific director, said. “Hence this surprise.”



This general view taken on May 22, 2021 in Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo shows flame spewing from the Nyiragongo volcano.

Photo: Moses Sawasawa / AFP (Getty Images)

Although it was a surprise to observatory officials, volcano watchers and experts had been sounding the alarm in recent months about a possible Nyiragongo eruption based on increased volcanic activity and other indicators.

Nyiragongo is one of the world’s most active and dangerous volcanoes and has erupted seven times in the last hundred years. Volcano expert Robin George Andrews noted that one of the reasons Nyiragongo is dangerous is that its lava is very fluid and fast, so fast that it can catch up to speeding cars. Volcanoes in this region also “belch out” a lot of carbon dioxide, he said, which sinks downslope and kills anyone engulfed by it.

News of the volcano’s eruption sparked panic in the surrounding area, which is still haunted by the volcano’s 2002 eruption that killed 250 people and left 120,000 homeless. Although the country’s government said that an evacuation plan had been activated, the official announcement came hours after the sky turned a fiery red on Saturday, the Associated Press reported, after many had already taken it upon themselves to flee.

An army spokesperson told Reuters on Sunday that 13 people had been killed while they were fleeing from the disaster. Of those that died, nine had been involved in a traffic accident and four had tried to escape from a prison in Goma.

Residents check the damages caused by lava from the overnight eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, seen in the background, in Buhene, on the outskirts of Goma, Congo in the early hours of Sunday, May 23, 2021.Photo: Justin Kabumba (AP)

Nonetheless, the number of deaths is expected to increase considerably based on initial eyewitness reports.

Nyiragongo’s lava destroyed hundreds of houses in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. CNN stated that five schools had been decimated, while Reuters reported that cooled lava in some areas had turned to rubble. At some sites, it was three stories high, consuming large buildings and sending smoke into the sky.

On Sunday, people were beginning to return to their homes to assess what, if any, damage Nyiragongo had wreaked. After that, the monthslong restoration effort will begin.

Volcano erupts in Democratic Republic of Congo

By Christen McCurdy

Congolese residents of Goma gather at Rond Point Cercle to flee from erupting Mount Nyamulagira and Mount Nyiragongo part of the Virunga National Park in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo Saturday. Photo by Kinsella Cunningham/EPA-EFE

May 22 (UPI) -- Mount Nyiragongo, the volcano in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, erupted Saturday evening, prompting evacuations as the lava changed direction.

Residents of the nearby city of Goma were asked to evacuate late Saturday as the government began discussing emergency measures, according to a Twitter post from DRC government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya.

The volcano is one of the largest in the world. Its last large eruption of the volcano took place in 2002 and killed 250 people, CNN reported.

The volcano began erupting at around 7 p.m. local time.

By early Sunday morning the eruption appeared to have subsided, but the evacuation plan was still in effect as vulcanologists monitored the situation.

Initially the government chose not to order evacuations and urged calm as the scale of the eruption was not clear, but officials said the situation was unpredictable.

Tom Peyre-Costa, Norwegian Refugee Council spokesman for West and Central Africa, told CNN the lava was not flowing toward the city, but that if it changed direction, residents would have to evacuate to Rwanda.

Power was later cut off in the area as hundreds of residents began to evacuate toward the nearby border with Rwanda, The Guardian reported.

Mount Nyiragongo: DR Congo residents flee as volcano erupts

Lava destroys houses after DR Congo volcano erupts

Thousands of people have fled their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a large volcano erupted.

Fountains of high lava burst from Mount Nyiragongo into the night sky forming a thick red cloud over the town of Goma, which has a population of two million.

The lava flow reached the city's airport but has reportedly now stopped.

The volcano, located 10km (six miles) from Goma, last erupted in 2002 killing 250 people and making 120,000 homeless.

During the early hours of Sunday, many residents headed across the nearby Rwandan border, while others went to higher grounds to the west of the city.

Crowds were seen with mattresses and other belongings, fleeing even before the government's announcement, which came several hours after the eruption started

Rwandan authorities said about 3,000 people had officially crossed from Goma. The country's state media said they would be accommodated in schools and places of worship.

One Goma resident, Richard Bahati, said he was in his house when he heard screaming. "I got out and saw the sky was red. I am so worried, so worried. I lived through the problem with this volcano in 2002. The volcano devastated all our homes and possessions. That's why I'm scared again this time."

"Everyone is afraid, people are running away. We really don't know what to do," local man Zacharie Paluku told the Associated Press news agency.

IMAGE COPYRIGHTEPA

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES


Electricity was out across large areas, and one highway that connects Goma with the city of Beni was engulfed by the lava. There were also reports of earthquakes.

"There is a smell of sulphur. In the distance you can see giant flames coming out of the mountain," resident Carine Mbala told AFP news agency.

An official from Virunga National Park, where the volcano is located, said in a note to staff that the eruption was similar to the one in 2002 and that everyone near the airport should "evacuate without delay".

People have been advised to stay calm, but some complained about the lack of information from the authorities amid conflicting accounts circulating on social media.

Communications Minister Patrick Muyay said on Twitter that the government was discussing "urgent measures" after the prime minister convened an emergency meeting in the capital, Kinshasa.

In a later update, Mr Muyay said the intensity of the lava flow had slowed and an assessment of the humanitarian situation was ongoing.

The UN peacekeeping mission in the country, Monusco, said it was carrying out reconnaissance flights over the city.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

View original tweet on Twitter


Mount Nyiragongo is one of the world's more active volcanoes but there were concerns that its activity had not been properly observed by the Goma Volcano Observatory, since the World Bank cut funding amid allegations of corruption.

In a report on 10 May, the observatory warned that seismic activity at Nyiragongo had increased.

Last year, the observatory's director, Katcho Karume, told the BBC World Service's Science in Action that the volcano's lava lake had been filling up quickly, increasing the chances of an eruption in the next few years. But he also warned that an earthquake could trigger a disaster earlier.

The volcano's deadliest eruption happened in 1977, when more than 600 people died.

Congo volcano forces mass evacuations

Duration: 01:26 

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo volcano has erupted, forcing thousands to evacuate. Experts say it’s unlikely the eruption will hit the city itself as it flows east, away from Goma. Power was cut in the city, leaving its 2 million residents reeling.

In pictures: DR Congo's Mount Nyiragongo erupts

EXCERPTS