Monday, January 10, 2022

Parthenon fragment repatriated from Sicily to Greece

Mon, 10 January 2022

The fragment is thought to depict the goddess Artemis (AFP/Giorgos KONTARINIS)

Greece on Monday welcomed Italy's return of a marble fragment from the Parthenon, calling on the British Museum to open talks on returning those parts of the archaeological monument it still holds.

The Greek culture ministry said the 2,500-year-old fragment had been returned from a museum in Sicily as "a deposit, not a loan" and would remain in the Greek capital for the next eight years.

Prime Minister Mitsotakis said that two "very important exhibits" would be sent to the Antonino Salinas Museum in Palermo in recognition of the gesture.

And he welcomed its arrival as a "very important step" towards Greece's ultimate goal -- the return of a large collection of Parthenon sculptures held by the British Museum.

"I think it paves the way also for the British Museum to enter into serious discussions with the Greek authorities, to find a solution that will be mutually acceptable," Mitsotakis said at the Acropolis Museum, which has housed the Parthenon sculptures since 2009.

"When there is a will, there is a way... sooner or later it will happen," he added, citing favourable opinion polls in the UK.

The fragment -- a foot and lower tunic from a sculpture thought to depict the huntress goddess Artemis -- was returned following an agreement between the museum and the Greek culture ministry.

It was in the collection of Robert Fagan, a 19th-century British consul to Sicily and Malta before the museum acquired it in 1836, the Greek PM's office said.

- The 'Elgin Marbles' dispute -

The Parthenon temple was built in the 5th century BCE on the Acropolis to honour Athena, the patron goddess of Athens.

After a Venetian bombardment partially destroyed it in 1687, workmen stripped entire friezes from the monument on the orders of Scottish nobleman Thomas Bruce, known as Lord Elgin, in the early 1800s.

Elgin sold the marbles to the British government, which in 1817 passed them on to the British Museum where they remain one of its most prized exhibits.

London has long argued that the sculptures had been taken with permission from the Ottoman Turks who ruled Greece at the time, but Athens insists they were stolen.

In an interview in March, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ruled out the return of the marbles to Greece. They had been legally acquired by Britain and legally owned by the British Museum's Trustees since their acquisition, he said.

After a meeting with Mitsotakis in November, Johnson reiterated that the issue must be resolved by the trustees of the British Museum, not the British government.

Athens, which has received backing from a groundswell of celebrities on the issue, has repeatedly said it does not wish to pursue legal action to settle the bitter dispute.

It has called for the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO to act as mediator, an offer rejected by the British Museum.

Smaller Parthenon frieze collections and fragments are also in the Louvre and museums in Copenhagen, Munich, the Vatican, Vienna and Wurzburg.

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Time has come for UK to return Parthenon marbles, says Greek PM

Kyriakos Mitsotakis says deal with Sicily ‘opens way’ for return of marbles from British Museum

Parthenon sculptures displayed at the British Museum. Lord Elgin had the sculptures hacked from their monument more than 200 years ago.

Photograph: Waltraud Grubitzsch/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB

Helena Smith in Athens
Mon 10 Jan 2022

The long-awaited homecoming of a marble fragment, honed to adorn the Parthenon but long in exile in Italy, must “open the way” for other masterpieces to be reunited with the monument, the Greek prime minister has said.

As the artwork was unveiled at the Acropolis Museum, Kyriakos Mitsotakis said its restitution – sealed in a breakthrough deal between Sicily and Athens – offered a blueprint for similar accords to be reached, for example with the UK.

“This important step today opens the way, I believe, for other museums to be able to move in a similar direction,” he told attenders at Monday’s ceremony. “Most importantly, of course, the British Museum should understand that the time has come for the Parthenon marbles … to finally return here, to their natural home.”

The exquisite piece is barely the size of a shoebox. Carved 2,500 years ago, it depicts the foot of a draped Artemis, goddess of the hunt, peeking out from beneath an elaborate tunic. The fragment once embellished the eastern part of the Parthenon temple’s monumental frieze, long regarded as the high point of classical art.

The treasure was returned last week to Greece by the Antonio Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum in Sicily, ostensibly as part of a cultural exchange.

Conservators at the Acropolis Museum in Athens place the Parthenon fragment sent from Sicily.

Photograph: Panayotis Tzamaros/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

Under the deal it was agreed that the loan, due to expire in 2026, could be extended for a further four years. In return, Athens has lent the Palermo Museum a headless fifth-century BC statue of the goddess Athena and an eighth-century BC amphora.

But culture ministry officials acknowledged negotiations were under way to ensure that the artefact’s repatriation was “indefinite”, in what would amount to added pressure on the British Museum to follow suit.

More than half of what survives of the 160-metre long frieze is on display in London. Lord Elgin, Britain’s then ambassador to the Sublime Porte, had the sculptures hacked from the monument more than 200 years ago before he sold them, bankrupt and despondent, to the British Museum in 1816.

Eight museums across Europe house other parts of the frieze; the Acropolis Museum in Athens, custom-built to exhibit the treasures, exhibits about 50 metres worth.

Mitsotakis, who has reinvigorated Greece’s decades-long campaign for the antiquities’ reunification in Athens, made the marbles’ restitution the central issue of his first Downing Street talks with the prime minister, Boris Johnson, in November.

Athens has long argued that the marbles were stolen by Elgin at a time when stateless Greece was under Ottoman rule.

Although once a passionate champion of the sculptures’ return to the country, Johnson has changed course, insisting that the carvings were legally acquired. He rejected Mitsotakis’ assertion that the row should be resolved as an intergovernmental matter, saying it was an issue for the British Museum to discuss.

But the Greek leader said on Monday that Athens remained undeterred in its battle to retrieve the treasures, and that the deal with the Palermo museum had proved that where there was a will, a “mutually acceptable solution” could be found. Athens has offered to give London antiquities that have never before left Greece in return for the masterpieces.

“I am especially encouraged by the fact that the majority of Britons appear to support our demand,” Mitsotakis said, referring to successive polls that have shown most UK citizens believe the marbles should be returned to Athens.

Prehistoric rock art carved over by vandals at Texas national park

Elisha Fieldstadt
Mon, January 10, 2022

Ancient rock art at a Texas national park was "irreparably damaged" last month, prompting officials to urge the public to come forward with information about the vandals.

"On December 26th, a panel of ancient petroglyphs in the Indian Head area of Big Bend National Park was irreparably damaged when vandals chose to boldly scratch their names and the date across the prehistoric art," the National Park Service said in a statement.

The carvings that were destroyed are between 3,000 and 8,500 years old, Tom VandenBerg, chief of interpretation and visitor services with Big Bend National Park, told NBC News.

"The particular style of rock art that was damaged in this instance is classified by archeologists as the 'Pecked Abstract Tradition," VandenBerg said. "It is characterized by abstract, complex, geometric shapes and lines."

Damaging park resources violates the Code of Federal Regulations. Additionally, rock art and ancient cultural sites are protected under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act.

"Park managers have seen an increase in vandalism and graffiti in the area, and ask anyone with information about these incidents, or the persons involved, to contact the law enforcement staff of Big Bend National Park," officials said.

Image: Big Bend petroglyphs (National Park Service)

The petroglyphs, or rock carvings, in Big Bend appeared to be carved over with the names Issac, Ariel, Norma and Adrian; the year 2021; and the date 12-26-21, according to a photo from the park service.

"National Parks are treasured lands and protect our national heritage," the park service's statement said. "Graffiti is vandalism, is costly, and extremely difficult if not impossible to remove."

Big Bend archeologists have seen more than 50 instances of vandalism since 2015, according to the statement. The park service asked people not to try to clean graffiti or vandalism themselves, but rather contact park staff who "will attempt to mitigate the damage as quickly as possible, using highly specialized techniques."

Staff have worked to treat the rock carving, but "much of the damage is, unfortunately, permanent," officials said.

VandenBerg said the vandalism is under investigation, and the park service has received "a number of potential leads."

Ancient giant "sea dragon" fossil discovered in U.K.
Li Cohen

Paleontologists have made a massive discovery in the United Kingdom's smallest county — the fossilized remains of a giant Jurassic sea creature. The fossil, which researchers said is "very well-preserved," is said to be the "palaeontological discovery of a lifetime," according to the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.

The fossil was found at the Rutland Water Nature Reserve in central England in February 2021, according to an announcement from the wildlife trust. Joe Davis, who works on the water conservation team for the trust, found it during a routine draining procedure for re-landscaping.

© Provided by CBS News Ichthyosaur skeleton found at Rutland Water Nature Reserve in central England, August 26, 2021. / Credit: Matthew Power Photography/Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust

At first, he said in a statement, he thought the remains were clay pipes sticking out of the mud, except that "they looked organic." He told a colleague that they looked like vertebrae, and when they got closer, they saw "what indisputably looked like a spine" as well as a jawbone at the spine's end.

"We couldn't quite believe it," Davis said. "The find has been absolutely fascinating and a real career highlight. It's great to learn so much from the discovery and to think that this amazing creature was once swimming in seas above us."

The fossil was excavated in August and September, and has since been identified as an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that somewhat resembled dolphins. This particular fossil, found nearly complete, is nearly 33 feet long and is roughly 180 million years old, researchers said. Its skull measures at more than 6.5 feet long.

Davis told the BBC that the fossil was "very well-preserved, better than I think we could have all imagined."

Video: Drone footage shows huge sea reptile fossil

Ichthyosaur expert Dean Lomax, who helped with the fossil's research, said that the find is the "largest ichthyosaur skeleton ever discovered in Britain."

"These animals, they first appeared in a time called the Triassic period around roughly 250 million years ago," Lomax said in a video for Rutland Water Nature Reserve. "Our specimen, the Rutland Ichthyosaur, or the Rutland Sea Dragon, is the biggest complete ichthyosaur ever found in Britain in over 200 years of collecting these things scientifically, which is an incredible feat."

Ichthyosaurs are not swimming dinosaurs, he clarified.

According to company Anglian Water, which helps maintain the reservoir in which the fossil was found, ichthyosaurs of this size and completeness are "incredibly rare," especially in the U.K., with most comparable examples being found in Germany and North America.

Alicia Kearns, who represents Rutland Melton in Parliament, said the discovery "surpassed every possible expectation."

"It is utterly awe-inspiring," she said.

Though the largest, this was not the first ichthyosaur fossil found in the reservoir. The Wildlife Trust said that two incomplete and "much smaller" remains were found in the '70s when the reservoir was first being constructed.

The paleontologists working on the remains are continuing their research and are working on an academic paper about the findings.

Like humans, clitoris key to pleasure for female dolphins

Dolphins are well known for having sex not just for reproduction but also bonding and self-gratification.

Now, a new study in the journal Current Biology has shown females of the species have a large clitoris packed with sensory nerves and erectile tissue, features suggesting it has a strong role in providing pleasure.

Lead author and animal genital expert Patricia Brennan of Mount Holyoke College told AFP that non-human sexuality was a neglected area of study, particularly when it comes to females.

“These are things that are critically important for us to understand evolutionarily. They may actually have something to teach us about our own sexuality,” she said.

Outside primates, dolphins are one of the main species known for using sex as a way of creating and maintaining social bonds.

The aquatic mammals have sex — including females with other females and males with other males — throughout the year, and the clitoris is located in a spot where it would be stimulated during copulation.

They rub against sand to masturbate and there have also been reports of females rubbing each other’s clitorises with their snouts, flippers and flukes.

All of these behaviors signal they enjoy the experience, but Brennan and colleagues wanted to confirm the idea and to deepen biological understanding.

As it is difficult to analyze dolphins having sex under lab conditions to collect data like heart rate, or scan their brains, they decided to study the features of the dolphin clitoris to make inferences.

For the paper, they carried out detailed analysis on the clitorises of 11 females that had died naturally and found strong evidence to support the organ’s functionality.

The first feature was the presence of erectile tissue structures, with many blood vessels.

“What that means is these are tissues that actually engorge with blood, very much like a penis, and the human clitoris,” said Brennan.

The shape of these structures changed from calves to adults, indicating their use when the animal became sexually mature.

Secondly, the clitoris has large nerves and many nerve endings right underneath the skin, similar to in human fingertips, and indeed genitals.

Moreover, the skin of the clitoris was very thin to heighten sensitivity.

Finally, they found sensory structures called genital corpuscles, which are very similar to those found in human penises and clitorises and are known to exist specifically for pleasure.

Humans last shared a common ancestor with cetaceans some 95 million years ago, making the similarities surprising — unlike commonalities with primates, from whom we diverged around six million years ago.

– Discomfort –

For Brennan, the lack of previous research into dolphins, but also female animal sexuality more generally, was “baffling,” and might speak to a sense of discomfort among scientists and the public.

Nevertheless, it is important to study, she said.

For example, past research has shown that the success of artificial insemination of heifers and pigs increases drastically when a person stimulates the animal’s genitals.

“People might be uncomfortable if they knew that in order for me to have my beef, somebody had to stimulate the clitoris of a cow,” she said.

Studying animal sexuality could also have implications for human health, said Brennan.

“There are certainly plenty of females who have problems during sex, for example, related to arousal, or related to pain during sex or inability to orgasm,” she said, and studying fellow mammals can improve understanding about why, as well as provide possible solutions.

Part of the reason for the neglect of female sexuality specifically might stem from a historic imbalance in the number of female scientists, said Brennan. Even the human clitoris wasn’t fully described until the 1990s.

Brennan next plans to turn her attention to alpacas, which copulate for up to half an hour, far longer than fellow ungulates. She suspects the males might be stimulating the females’ clitorises, facilitating reproduction.

Gigantic water snake climbs onto family dock to sunbathe

Jan 10, 2022

Water snakes can grow to 1.5m (4.5 feet) in length. They are often confused with venomous rattlesnakes and cottonmouths. Snakes strike fear in the hearts of many, even though they are beneficial to our own existence. Perhaps it is the fear of the venomous snakes that could potentially cause us illness, or worse. Perhaps it is more rooted in the common fear of snakes that is the second most common fear in the world. It is helpful to at least understand which of the snakes pose a threat and which do not. Unprovoked attacks by snakes are rare and most of these are caused by an accidental close encounter that makes the snake react in self defence. Another common cause for mishap is when snakes are handled irresponsibly.

This common northern water snake has similar markings as Massassauga rattlesnakes and cotton mouths. They are often mistaken for the more dangerous varieties. Water snakes swim beneath the water, able to hold their breath and completely submerge while hunting or moving in the water. Rattlesnakes keep their head above water when they swim. Watersnakes prey on fish, frogs, and other small animals along the shore. Although they can inflict a painful bite, they are not capable of seriously harming a human.

Even the bite of a Massassauga rattlesnake, Canada's only venomous snake, is not powerful enough to cause life threatening symptoms for most humans. These snake make a loud buzzing sound when threatened and people and animals often have ample opportunity to avoid a regrettable encounter. Understanding snakes and their benefit to us is an important step in avoiding a problem with them, and preventing unfounded fear. Without them, rodent populations would go unchecked and we would have serious problems with parasites and other illness. Rodents are also an extreme problem for farmers, causing crop damage and increased costs.

Burrowing badger unearths Roman-era treasure in Spain

The coins were likely dug up by a badger searching for food during the vast snowstorm which paralysed Spain in January 2021 — *The coins were likely dug up by a badger searching for food during the vast snowstorm*

A treasure trove of some 200 Roman-era coins was discovered in northwestern Spain thanks to the apparent efforts of a hungry badger hunting for food, archaeologists have said.

Described as "an exceptional find", the coins were discovered in April 2021 in La Cuesta cave in Bercio in the Asturias region, with details outlined in the Journal of Prehistory and Archaeology published last month by Madrid's Autonomous University.

The coins were likely dug up by a badger searching for food during the vast snowstorm which paralysed Spain in January 2021.

At that time, many creatures struggled to find berries, worms or insects to eat, with this luckless mammal only unearthing a handful of inedible metal discs that were later spotted by a local.

"On the floor of the cave... in the sand likely dug up by badger at the entrance to its sett, we found the coins with more inside," the archaeologists wrote after finding 209 coins dating back to between the 3rd and the 5th century AD.

Most of these late Roman era coins "originate from the north and eastern Mediterranean" from Antioch, Constantinople, Thessaloniki which later passed through Rome and Arles and Lyon in southern France, although at least one coin came from London, they wrote.

"The quantity of coins recovered, as well as the undoubted archaeological interest of the transition to the early medieval period, make the hoard discovered at Bercio an exceptional find," they wrote.

The researchers said the coins had likely been moved there in the "context of political instability" linked in particular to the invasion of the Suebians, a Germanic people, who pushed into the northwestern part of the Iberian peninsula in the 5th century.

Israeli archaeologists find treasures in ancient shipwrecks

Shark seen looming in floodwaters after heavy rain in northeast Australian city

By Adam Douty, Accuweather.com

Jan. 10 -- After heavy rain in Australia brought on by Tropical Cyclone Seth last week, a damaged levee system failed and caused water to inundate downtown Maryborough, Queensland. And if the flooding wasn't, a bull shark was spotted swimming in the murky waters.

The storm brought extremely heavy rainfall to the central and southeastern coast of Queensland late last week and into the weekend. Around 24 inches of rain fell in parts of southeast Queensland and sparked major flooding along the Mary River in and around Gympie and Maryborough.

On Saturday, a valve within the levee protecting the central business district of Maryborough was damaged which lead to water rushing into downtown parts of the city. Emergency evacuation orders were promptly issued for more then 30 downtown city blocks.

Maryborough has a population of about 15,000 and is located about 130 miles north of Brisbane.

There has already been one death attributed to the flooding, according to Yahoo News. A 14-year-old girl remains missing after she was swept away by floodwaters while abandoning a flooded car.

As if the floodwaters were not enough, a video showed the fin of a small bull shark swimming through the waters at one of the city's parks.

"I do want to remind people about the dangers of floodwaters," said Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Mike Wassing. "We've had the shark in the park, we've got contaminated water, you've seen what can occur with roads in the local areas and how dangerous that is."

In nearby Gympie, Mayor Glen Hartwig said "very significant damage" had already been discovered, according to The Guardian. "I've been in this area for 40 years, and we haven't seen anything like it," he said.

BOO

As of late Sunday, floodwaters were cresting along the Mary River around the Maryborough area. Upstream areas are seeing floodwaters recede, which is expected to translate into the Maryborough area. Without significant additional rainfall in the forecast, AccuWeather Meteorologists expect the flooding around Maryborough to slowly fall in the coming days.

Meanwhile, northern Queensland is bracing for a hit from Tropical Cyclone Tiffany which is gaining strength across the Coral Sea

"Some strengthening is possible and Tiffany can intensity to the strength of a strong tropical storm or minimal Category 1 hurricane before making landfall Monday night, local time," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls. This would make Tiffany a Category 2 cyclone on the Australia intensity scale.

Tiffany can bring flooding across the Cape York Peninsula through Tuesday before tracking into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Localized wind damage is expected near landfall in northeast Queensland. This is the most likely between Cape Malville National Park and Lockhart.

"Tiffany may then reach the Northern Territory with heavy rain and gusty winds later in the week," added Nicholls.

Record snow is making moose cranky and dangerous, Alaska park says. ‘Be ready to run’

Mark Price
Mon, January 10, 2022

Tourists daring to visit Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve are advise to “be ready to run,” because the moose population has become extremely cranky.

There’s been a record-breaking 5 feet of snow that blankets the park — “an armpit-deep wallow” — and temperatures have been a consistent minus 40 degrees, officials says.

Moose are not handling the situation well, given it’s nearly impossible for them to walk.

“The moose around the park are highly stressed out,” Denali officials wrote on Facebook.

“If you are out and about in the park, stay vigilant, keep your head on a swivel, moose are dangerous. Even though these are pretty big animals, they can be extremely quiet, if not downright sneaky, sometimes they seem to come out of nowhere. Be ready to run if needed.”

Part of the problem is moose are now gravitating to spots cleared of snow by the maintenance crew and those are the same roads, parking lots and sidewalks where visitors tend to linger.

Moose, which can weigh up to 1,400 pounds, have always had a reputation for being aggressive if they feel threatened, experts say. The snow has worsened their paranoia.

“Moose typically respond to threat by flight or fight. Flight is no longer an efficient option, so fight is the dominant response under these conditions,” the park explained.

The National Park Service reported Dec. 31 that Denali National Park and Preserve had broken a series of weather records dating to 1923. The site saw 74.5 inches of snow last month and nearly 55 inches of it fell the week of Dec. 23-29.

The park posted a series of moose safety tips for visitors, including:

“Keep your head up and look around before you walk out the door or around the corner and especially while walking on trails or in the dark. Moose can be anywhere and are often hard to see until you are too close.

If you see a moose, alter your route and give them a very wide berth. Do not approach! If a moose charges, run away!

Don’t try to scare moose away. No yelling, clapping, or approaching on foot or by vehicle, no horn honking, to get them to move. This just makes them ornery and may result in a charge.”

Rarely seen Everglades mink captures ‘giant’ snake

Pete Thomas
Mon, January 10, 2022

A Florida resident has captured extraordinary footage showing an Everglades mink scurrying across a dirt road with a large snake it had just captured.

Hannah Cardenas sent her footage to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). The FWC, explaining that mink sightings are rare because of the animals’ elusive nature, shared the footage via Facebook on Monday, stating:

“Imagine the surprise seeing this Everglades mink scampering across the road carrying DINNER! A mother and daughter were on their way home from a nature hike in Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park when they spotted this mink run across the road in front of them – seconds later, it ran BACK across the road with a GIANT SNAKE in its mouth!”

Mink occasionally prey on snakes longer than their body lengths. They also eat fish, birds, and small mammals

According to the FWC website, mink are difficult to study in terms of abundance and distribution “because this species is small sized, fast moving, and excellent at remaining out of sight. They are often confused with the much larger and more common river otter.”

Mink are listed as threatened in Florida.

–Image courtesy of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Hungry bear finds lost GoPro in Wyoming, records itself trying to eat it, video shows

If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to get French kissed by a bear, the experience was caught in vivid detail on a lost GoPro recently recovered in Wyoming.

The video — which is both disgusting and fascinating — was posted Sept. 21 on Facebook by Dylan Schilt of Laramie, Wyoming.

“Last week when I was up archery hunting, I stumbled across a GoPro that was lost while snowmobiling. When I got back to camp I charged it up and couldn’t believe what I saw,” he wrote in his post.

“After four months of it sitting there, a big old black bear found it and not only managed to turn it on but also started recording himself playing with it. Hands down the craziest thing I’ve ever found!”

Schilt told ViralHog he believes the bear “was playing with it,” rather than trying to eat it.

The nearly 5-minute long video shows the bear finding the camera, sniffing it, tasting it and appearing to pull it apart with its teeth.

Claws are seen and some views look past stained teeth and a sticky tongue, straight down the bear’s throat.

Cat on a hot satellite dish: Elon Musk’s Starlink antenna hits surprise problem

Adam Gabbatt
Mon, January 10, 2022

Photograph: Pablo Sanhueza/Reuters

Elon Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, has ambitious plans to bring internet access to people anywhere in the world. But it turns out the venture is providing another service: warming up cats.

A customer tweeted a photo of five cats huddled on his Starlink dish, which links homes to more than a thousand satellites, and noted that the presence of the furtive felines had slowed his internet performance.

“Starlink works great until the cats find out that the dish gives off a little heat on cold days,” Aaron Taylor said.

After the photo was widely shared online, Taylor clarified that the cats had taken to the dish by choice, rather than necessity.

“They have a heated cat house, with water and food, but -25C and they decide to sit on the Starlink dish. When the sun goes down, they head back to their house,” he said.

The attraction may be due to a “self-heating” feature on the dish which is designed to melt snow. In 2020, Starlink engineers touted efforts to “upgrade our snow melting ability”.

Taylor said the cats’ attraction to his Starlink dish interrupted movie streaming and affected internet speed.

“Doesn’t shut it down completely but definitely slows everything down,” he said.

He also said he planned to move the dish from the ground to a higher location. Futurism first reported on Taylor’s photo.

Starlink, a division of Musk’s SpaceX company, has launched more than 1,600 satellites. The company, which has permission from US authorities to launch up to 12,000 satellites, says the service is “ideally suited for areas where connectivity has been unreliable or completely unavailable”.

The apparent attraction of Starlink dishes to cats has not been the only hiccup, however.

In December, China accused the US of ignoring international treaty obligations after the Tiangong space station was nearly struck by Starlink satellites.

Tiangong had to take “preventive collision avoidance control” during two “close encounters”, China wrote in a note to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

The note said the incidents “constituted dangers to the life or health of astronauts onboard the China space station”, and asked the UN secretary general “to circulate the above mentioned information to all states parties to the outer space treaty”.

What is 5G? An electrical engineer explains

Prasenjit Mitra, Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State
Mon, January 10, 2022

Telecommunications companies around the world are expanding their

next-generation, or 5G, networks. Guo Shining/VCG via Getty Images

5G stands for fifth-generation cellular network technology.

It’s the technology that enables wireless communication – for example, from your cellular phone to a cell tower, which channels it to the internet. 5G is a network service provided by telecommunications carriers and is not the same thing as the 5 GHz band on your Wi-Fi router.

5G offers an order of magnitude – 10 times – more bandwidth than its predecessor, 4G. The greater bandwidth is possible because over and above low and medium frequency radio waves, 5G uses additional higher-frequency waves to encode and carry information.

Bandwidth is analogous to the width of a highway. The broader the highway, the more lanes it can have and the more cars it can carry at the same time. This makes 5G much faster and able to handle many more devices.

The top right corner of a smartphone screen showing signal bars, 5G indicator and battery indicator

5G can deliver speeds of around 50 megabits per second, up to more than 1 gigabit per second. A gigabit per second connection allows you to download a high-definition movie in less than a minute. Does this mean no more bad cell connections in crowded places? The increased bandwidth will help, but just as increasing the number of lanes on highways does not always reduce traffic jams, as more people use the expanded highways, 5G is likely to carry a lot more traffic than 4G networks, so you still might not get a good connection sometimes.

In addition to connecting your phone and cellular-enabled laptop, 5G will be connecting many other devices ranging from photo frames to toasters as part of the Internet of Things revolution. So even though 5G can handle up to a million devices per square kilometer, all that bandwidth could be quickly used up and require more – a future 5.5G with even more bandwidth.

Flavors of 5G

5G can use low-, mid- and high-band frequencies, each with advantages and disadvantages. Lower-frequency waves can travel farther but are slower. Higher-frequency waves travel faster but can go only limited distances. Higher-frequency 5G can achieve gigabit-per-second speeds, which promises to render ethernet and other wired connections obsolete in the future. Currently, however, the higher frequency comes at a higher cost and thus is deployed only where it’s most needed: in crowded urban settings, stadiums, convention centers, airports and concert halls.

A type of 5G service, Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications, can be used where data needs to be transmitted without loss or interruption in service – for example, controlling drones in disaster areas. One day, after the technology is more robust, it could even be used for remote surgery.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Prasenjit Mitra, Penn State.

Read more:

What’s cellular about a cellphone?

How does Wi-Fi work? An electrical engineer explains

Prasenjit Mitra receives funding from the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy.

GOOD!
U.S. CDC advises Americans to avoid travel to Canada

THANK YOU, MERCI;

PLAGUE CARRIERS

A general view of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

headquarters in Atlanta

Mon, January 10, 2022
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday advised against travel to Canada because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases.

The CDC elevated its travel recommendation to "Level Four: Very High" for Canada, telling Americans they should avoid travel to its northern neighbor. The CDC currently lists about 80 destinations worldwide at Level Four. It also raised the island of Curaçao to Level Four on Monday.

The United States in November lifted restrictions at its land borders with Canada and Mexico for fully vaccinated foreign nationals, ending historic curbs on non-essential travelers in place since March 2020 to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canada remains one of the top foreign destinations for Americans.

The Canadian government did not immediately comment Monday.

Last month, Canada's government implored residents not to leave the country for non-essential travel.

Canada advised residents in March 2020 not to travel abroad for non-essential reasons like tourism. It withdrew the notice in October - before the first Omicron cases were reported - citing the success of vaccination campaigns.

The CDC on Monday also lowered travel recommendations from Level Four to "Level 3: High" to Armenia, Belarus, Lesotho and Zimbabwe. It also rate Singapore as "Level 3," after it previously was listed as unknown.

The CDC says Americans should be fully vaccinated before traveling to Level 3 destinations.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States reached a fresh high of 132,646, according to a Reuters tally on Monday, surpassing the record of 132,051 set in January last year, amid a surge of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; additional reporting by David LjunggrenEditing by Chizu Nomiyama and Aurora Ellis)

China, Philippines suspend beef imports from Canada after BSE case

SHOOT, SHOVEL, SHUT UP; RALPH KLEIN

Mon, January 10, 2022
By Rod Nickel

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - China and the Philippines have suspended imports of Canadian beef due to Canada's detection in December of a cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a spokesperson for Canada's agriculture department said on Monday.

The moves follow an import suspension by South Korea last month, after Canada reported its first BSE case in six years.

China is the world's biggest importer of beef and veal, and Canada's third-biggest export market, according to the Canadian Cattlemen's Association (CCA). China took similar action against Brazil after that country confirmed BSE cases, before restoring imports in December after a three-month interruption.

BSE is a fatal disease of the nervous system in cattle.

Canada, the eighth largest beef and veal exporter, reported the BSE case in December in an 8-1/2-year-old beef cow in the province of Alberta.

Canada's latest case is atypical - meaning it is a form of BSE that can occur naturally in older cattle - as opposed to classical BSE, caused by an animal eating contaminated feed.

The three countries to suspend Canadian imports are seeking more information about the case, said Dennis Laycraft, the CCA's executive vice-president.

The disruption has not had any noticeable impact on Canadian prices, he said.

"We expect these (suspensions) to be short in duration," Laycraft said. "We've been able to manage through it."

The cow was euthanized on the farm and did not enter the food or animal feed chain, according to the Canadian government.

The first confirmed Canadian case of BSE, a classical form, was detected in 2003, resulting in some 40 export markets closing. Many have long since reopened.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Editing by Chris Reese)

P.O.CHINA
Taiwan, Canada to start talks on investment agreement

Canada's Minister of International Trade Ng speaks on Parliament Hill in Ottawa

Taiwan's chief trade negotiator John Deng

Mon, January 10, 2022

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan and Canada have agreed to start talks on an investment protection agreement, both governments said on Monday, part of the Chinese-claimed island's efforts to boost ties with fellow democracies in the face of growing pressure from Beijing.

Taiwan has been angling for trade deals with what it views as like-minded partners such as the United States and the European Union.

While a member of the World Trade Organization, Taiwan's only has free trade agreements with two major economies, Singapore and New Zealand, and China has pressured countries not to engage directly with the government in Taipei.

Taiwan's cabinet said chief trade negotiator John Deng had met virtually with Canada's International Trade Minister, Mary Ng, and the two agreed to start "exploratory discussions" on a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Arrangement, or FIPA.

The cabinet statement said the move was "an important milestone" in strengthening economic and trade relations.

The Canadian government, which like most countries has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, said in its statement that Ng "highlighted Taiwan is a key trade and investment partner as Canada broadens its trade links and deepens its economic partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region".

The direct meeting between the two government ministers could anger China, which has stepped up efforts to isolate Taiwan as Beijing asserts its sovereignty claims.

China views democratically-governed Taiwan as part of its territory with no right to state-to-state ties, a view Taiwan's government strongly rejects.

Canada is also a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, which both Taiwan and China have applied to join.

(Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

The double life of Munich’s ‘good German’ – and would-be Hitler killer – Adam von Trott zu Solz

Tom Fordy
Mon, January 10, 2022

In Munich, Jannis Niewöhner plays a character based on Nazi opposer Adam von Trott zu Solz - Frederic Batier / NETFLIX

On June 7, 1939, the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain met with a German diplomat named Adam von Trott zu Solz – a young, intelligent idealist and Oxford Rhodes Scholar. Sent by the German Foreign Office, Trott came to England on a double mission. Officially, to sound out British attitudes towards the Hitler-led Germany – eight months after appeasement at the Munich Agreement, three months before the declaration of war. Unofficially, Trott was attempting to lobby British officials into taking a firmer stance.

The plan had been thought up by Ernst von Weizsäcker, a naval officer turned diplomat, and others in the German Foreign Office. If Britain removed its guarantee to Poland, which promised to take action if the Nazis invaded, the Poles might reassess their situation and relinquish disputed territories back to German rule; in return, Germany might relinquish its grip over Czechoslovakia while retaining the Sudetenland. The aim was also to buy time for dissidents within the German military, who had been ready to depose Hitler back in 1938.

Trott, through his friendship with Lord and Lady Astor, spent a weekend at the Cliveden estate and first presented the idea, dressed up as diplomatic political chitchat, at a dinner attended by Lord Lothian, Sir Thomas Inskip, and Lord Halifax. Another attendee, William Douglas Home, called Trott “as passionate an anti-Nazi as he was patriot”.

It was through Lord Halifax that Trott managed to meet with Chamberlain just days later. As far as Chamberlain was concerned, Germany should make the effort to improve relations. “It was for Herr Hitler to undo the mischief he had done,” said Chamberlain. The prime minister would rather go to war than see another nation destroyed by the Nazis. Trott told friends that Chamberlain was polite but “ice cold”. Chamberlain, he said, “seemed a bit tired” and hadn’t quite grasped Trott’s point.

The meeting is the basis for a key scene in the new Netflix film, Munich: The Edge of War, based on a novel by Robert Harris. In a fictionalised account of the Munich Agreement, which reframes Chamberlain’s appeasement, Trott is the inspiration for one of the main characters, Paul von Hartmann (Jannis Niewöhner) – a German who is at first emboldened by the rise of Hitler and restoration of German pride. He learns the truth about Hitler’s intentions and conspires with an English diplomat to bring the Nazis down.

The real Adam von Trott opposed Nazism from the start, though, as a central figure in the German resistance, he has been accused – like other conservative opponents to the Nazis – of sharing the ambitions for German power and territories. He was also suspected of being a Nazi spy – the result of leading a double life.

Five years after his meeting with Chamberlain, Adam von Trott was dead, hanged for his role in the July 20, 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler – commonly known as Operation Valkyrie. Trott is one of five Germans named on the war memorial at Balliol College, Oxford.

Adam von Trott was born on August 9, 1909. His father was the Prussian Minister of Culture and Education and his mother came from an aristocratic Silesian family. She was also a descendent of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States.

Trott studied at Munich University and the University of Göttingen, and in 1929 spent Hilary term at Mansfield College, Oxford. He became friends with AL Rowse, the historian and author. Rowse professed a platonic admiration and attraction. He described Trott in his book, All Souls and Appeasement: “[An] immensely lofty forehead, deep-violet eyes, nobility and sadness in the expression even when young, infinitely sensitive and understanding.”

A rift later developed between them over Trott’s belief in the work of German philosopher, Hegel. Trott, said Rowse, was “deeply German”. The friendship between the pair is the loose inspiration for the central Anglo-German relationship in Munich: The Edge of War – Chamberlain’s secretary, Hugh (George MacKay) and German Foreign Ministry translator, Paul.

George MacKay as Hugh Legat, Jannis Niewöhner as Paul Hartman

(based on Adam von Trott) in Munich: Edge of War - Netflix

Trott returned to Germany to study law, then became one of the first Germans since the Great War to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. He returned to Oxford in 1931, this time at Balliol College, where he read Modern Greats: Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He made influential friends, including David Astor, son of Lord and Lady Astor of Cliveden set, and later the editor of The Observer.

“My great aunt, Shiela Grant Duff, knew him very well at Oxford,” says David Boyle, historian and author of Munich 1938. “She wrote to him often. They were even engaged at one stage.” They later fell out. The fear of war “froze all hearts” wrote Duff in a 1982 memoir about their relationship, The Parting of Ways.

Another friend, Charles Collins, recalled Trott’s reaction to learning that Hitler had ascended to German Chancellor in January 1933: “He knew at once that a terrible disaster had befallen his country; it was a future in which a bitter struggle would be needed to achieve even the smallest result; that many of his friends and acquaintances were at once in personal danger.” David Astor recalled that Trott’s demeanour was “gloom” – that he feared Hitler would make Germany hated again, as it had been during WWI.

Unlike other German students at Oxford, Trott spoke out against Nazism and argued with others. Friends didn’t understand how he could be opposed to Hitler and be a firm German nationalist at once. “Instead of going to America, like he thought he might, he ended up going back to Germany,” says David Boyle. “He came to believe that Hitler had to be stopped.” He knew that covert resistance was the only way. He would only join the Nazi party unless forced to do so for the greater good. But he admitted that returning to Germany had caused a “damaging distrust” among his Oxford pals.

Adam von Trott in July 1944, the month Trott planned to assassinate Hitler

Back in Germany, he trained as an Assessor in Law and – according to David Astor – “quietly sought allies in Germany able and willing to attempt political opposition. He reached the conclusion that no political action was yet possible.” He was awarded a Rhodes Trust grant in 1937 – personally signed off by Lord Lothian – and visited the US and China. An enthusiastic Sinophile, Trott hoped that ancient wisdom and spirituality from the Far East could answer the Western world’s problems.

Trott called into German embassies to avoid potential suspicion that he was a British intelligence agent. “This, however, was taken by watchful British Intelligence officers as conclusive evidence that he was working for the Nazis, a view they never changed,” wrote Astor.

While in China he met General Alexander von Falkenhausen, who later supported the plot against Hitler. One account, detailed by historian Hsi-Huey Liang, says that Trott suggested to Falkenhausen that he should shoot Hitler during an inspection tour of Czech underground bunkers in October 1938.

“Falkenhausen, however, refused, calling it an act incompatible with soldierly honour,” wrote Liang. Giles MacDonogh’s book on Trott, A Good German, describes a different version: that one of the young soldiers made the suggestion, to which Falkenhausen said he’d prefer to give Hitler two minutes to decide: be shot or commit suicide.

Trott felt the effects of the deteriorating Anglo-German relations when he returned to England. He found “a severe frostiness which I have not met with before”. He first made contact with the German Foreign Office – the Auswärtiges Amt – through Walther Hewel, a diplomat and personal friend of the Führer’s. According to Giles MacDonogh, Hewel had “the reputation of being civilised by Nazi standards”. Trott was offered a position as secretary.

Also there was Ernst von Weizsäcker, a non-Nazi member of the Auswärtiges Amt. As described by MacDonogh, Weizsäcker attempted to prevent the impending war by scrambling Hitler’s instructions and advising foreign diplomats on how best to deal with him.

Adam von Trott being sentenced to death at the

Volksgerichtshof (People's Court) in August 1944 - Alamy

In 1939, Trott made several trips back to England to lobby British officials and his friends – which included his meeting with the Astors and Chamberlain while on his double mission for both the Auswärtiges Amt and resistance.

Back in Germany he prepared a report of the proposals and reception – a Nazi-fied account that was intended for the eyes of top Party members. Hitler only saw a shortened version of it. Some Brits saw him as an appeaser. “I think the feeling about him was suspicion at the time,” says David Boyle. “They didn’t understand why they were willing to denounce their own government.”

He revealed his double mission to one college friend, Maurice Bowra, who asked what would become of recently claimed territories, such as the Sudetenland. Trott explained they’d need to keep the support of right-wing Germans. Bowra decided that Trott was “really on the side of the Nazis” and showed him the door.

Trott went to the US on a similar mission. Bowra wrote to an influential friend in Washington, warning him about Trott. Just as in Britain, the trip started well but descended into failure and suspicion. Trott found himself being followed by the FBI. “From his clash with Bowra, if not before, Trott was surrounded by whisperings alleging him to be a ‘spy’ or a ‘Nazi agent,’” wrote German historian Joachim Fest. “He himself seemed to encourage these reproaches.”

In 1940 Trott married Clarita Tiefenbacher, whom he’d first met in China. Shorty after getting married he officially entered the Foreign Service, and joined the Party – the best means of battling the Nazis. He even wore the Nazi badge in the office. He was constantly under suspicion in Germany, too.

Trott became a prominent member of the Kreisau Circle, a group of intellectuals, aristocrats, Christians, and socialists who opposed Nazis. Trott was key in maintaining contact between resistance groups. Using his position in the foreign office as a cover, he travelled regularly to Sweden, Switzerland, and Italy – he tried to make connections between the Allies and resistance, passed messages, and liaised with anti-Nazis on both the left and the right. The efforts took their toll – he became gaunt, broken, and physically depleted. He confessed to one friend that he was “bitterly disappointed, shattered even” by the futility of their efforts.

“The British government didn’t really play ball,” says David Boyle. “They started insisting at that stage on unconditional surrender. Von Trott was let down by the British.”

There were multiple attempts on Hitler’s life, though the best-known effort occured on July 20, 1944, when Claus von Stauffenberg hid a bomb in a briefcase and took into to a conference at the Wolf’s Lair HQ.

Munich; Edge of War rehabilitates the reputation of Neville Chamberlain and his role in the Munich Agreement - Universal Images Group Editorial

In the days before, Trott had attended meetings, some at Stauffenberg’s apartment, to lay out the plan of action. Trott offered advice on how to make peace with the West after Hitler was dead. He wrote a letter to his wife, which she partly destroyed but memorised. He wrote: “The reason I have written to you so little in the last few days is not that I have too little but too much to tell you. During the next weeks and perhaps for longer, you may not hear from me at all.”

The plot failed. The briefcase was moved and a table leg shielded Hitler from the blast. He escaped with tattered trousers. Trott was arrested five days later. In the meantime, he’d refused offers to escape the country so that he wouldn’t endanger his wife and two daughters.

What he didn’t know is that his two daughters had been seized by the Nazis as part of the repercussions – aged just two and nine months, they were sent away and their names changed.

The Gestapo actually knew very little about Trott. The main evidence against him was his friendship with Stauffenberg. There were suggestions to keep him alive, as his knowledge might be useful. Hitler threw a tantrum at the suggestion. Trott was executed on August 26 – hanged from an iron hook on Hitler’s orders. “Terrible to think how he came by his end,” wrote AL Rowse. “That head upon a butcher’s meat-hook in Plotzensee prison.”

The British later estimated that almost 5,000 were executed in response to the July 20 plot. Lord Elton, who was chairman Rhodes trustees, wrote a letter after Trott’s execution, describing how he’d previously heard that Trott had “thrown in his lot with the Nazis” but later learned he’d be playing a double game all along.

“He was a charming man of distinguished family,” wrote Lord Elton, “and his latter history seems to make it certain that he was on the right side, though at one time it seemed a little dubious.”

Munich: The Edge of War in on Netflix from January 21

Small rural co-op planned to provide power to new Ford plant. Then KU came knocking.

Austin Horn
Mon, January 10, 2022

Before the grand announcement on the Capitol steps heralding the state’s largest-ever private investment, $5.8 billion by Ford Motor Company and SK Innovations for plants in Hardin County, two companies fought over who would get to call the occupants its customers.

Kentucky Utilities (KU), the state’s largest power company, occupies roughly 20% of the electric service boundary on the 1,551-acre site that will manufacture batteries for electric vehicles near Glendale. The much smaller, not-for-profit Nolin Rural Electric Cooperative (RECC) has the remaining 1,200 acres according to maps provided by the Cabinet for Economic Development. Both Nolin and KU claimed that they should provide electric service to what could become one of the state’s largest electric service loads.

KU won the argument.

The companies agreed to a settlement that would make the company, which along with its sister company Louisville Gas & Electric serves well over a million customers, the sole provider of electricity to the site according to a joint settlement agreement filed to the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC).

Nolin RECC would get 800 acres of largely undeveloped nearby land and an amount of money redacted from the agreement in exchange if the PSC approves.

The PSC is responsible for regulating the state’s utilities and protecting their customers, and any modification to service territories needs their stamp of approval.

How that agreement was reached, despite Nolin RECC territory currently taking up a vast majority of the site, is unclear. The settlement hints that part of the incentive for Nolin to hand over its territory was “to avoid protracted and costly litigation” had it dug its feet in.

Tom FitzGerald of the Kentucky Resources Council said that it’s hard to know if the deal is fair to Nolin without knowing how much money KU gave the co-op in exchange for the valuable service territory.

“Unless you’re a party to this case, you’re not going to know, and even then you couldn’t share that knowledge due to the confidentiality request unless it is denied by the commission,” Fitzgerald said. “… It’s impossible to look at what is publicly available and determine whether those customers are benefiting from this deal or not.”
Why is this happening?

The governor’s office has not responded to questions about whether it was involved in the swap, instead deferring to a spokesman for the Energy and Environment Cabinet who only gave a brief overview of the case’s timeline. He added that the two utilities have filed a petition for the PSC to approve the agreement by Feb. 1.

KU, for its part, said that its existing relationship with Ford played a role. Ford has a truck plant and an assembly plant in Louisville, which are located within the service boundary of its sister company Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E).

“Given our current relationship with Ford as an LG&E customer, it made sense to expand that relationship to include Kentucky Utilities,” KU spokesperson Chris Whelan wrote in an email to the Herald-Leader.

KU deferred to the governor’s office and Ford on questions regarding Beshear’s involvement in the swap and if Ford had a preference for either KU or Nolin.

A Ford North America media representative has yet to respond to a request for comment.

President & COO of Elizabethtown/Hardin County Industrial Foundation Rick Games didn’t offer comment on the deal, saying it was “above his paygrade.”

Neither Nolin RECC or East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC), of which it is a member, offered comment. EKPC is a not-for-profit organization owned by 16 smaller co-ops like Nolin around the state. EKPC generates and transmits power to its owner/members, which distribute, and in total provides power to 1.1 million people. It has access to the PJM Interconnection, one of the largest energy markets in the world. In a publicly-available revenue report from 2019, the Winchester-based company posted more than $887 million in revenue.

KU/LG&E, by contrast, are for-profit and control generation, transmission and distribution of power. They’re owned by Pennsylvania-based PPL Corp, a publicly traded company worth more than $22.7 billion.

According to Yahoo Finance, KU/LG&E serves just under a million electric customers across Kentucky and 332,000 natural gas customers in the Louisville area.

EKPC’s 16 members cover much more total territory than KU, but serve less dense places that are harder to reach. Many of its co-ops were formed under the Rural Electrification Act, a New Deal program that provided massive federal loans to such entities to power rural America.

EKPC was actively advertising the site on its own channels, creating a webpage featuring drone footage, renderings and other information to do with the site on its dataispower.org. The company produced similar pages for other industrial sites across the state, including another in Hardin County.

The settlement agreement states that the cost estimate for removal of EKPC’s and Nolin RECC’s facilities on site, including a transmission line, is around $4 million.

One of three commissioners on the PSC, Marianne Butler, has not participated in discussions or deliberations on the case, according to PSC documents. Butler is a former manager of community initiatives at KU/LG&E and also served on the Louisville Metro Council for 12 years.

Above is a map detailing the boundaries for the Glendale megasite.

A map detailing the current electric service territory for the Glendale site; current Kentucky Utilities territory is marked in yellow while the rest is Nolin RECC territory.
PSC asking questions

In a “data request” filed last week, the PSC asked for information concerning the logistics of the service to the incoming twin battery plants and the impact of that service to ratepayers as well as data backing any projections made in the settlement agreement.

The PSC asks for estimates concerning cost of service to the site for both KU and Nolin RECC.

It also asks for explanation, documents and studies that led them to the determination of the redacted settlement money that KU is paying Nolin in exchange for the megasite land.

Responses to the PSC’s data request are due Wednesday and were not submitted by late Monday morning, according to the PSC.

Former Xinjiang official takes charge of Hong Kong garrison

Chinese soldiers based in Hong Kong demonstrate their skill at the Shek Kong barracks of People's Liberation Army (PLA) Garrison during an open day to celebrate the upcoming 21st anniversary of the city's return to Chinese sovereignty from British rule in Hong Kong on June 30, 2018. China's military says the former head of internal security in the Xinjiang region will lead the People's Liberation Army's garrison in Hong Kong, in the latest in a series of moves aimed at bringing the semiautonomous city under Beijing's tight control.

AP Photo/Kin Cheung

Mon, January 10, 2022

BEIJING (AP) — China’s military says the former head of internal security in the Xinjiang region will lead the People’s Liberation Army’s garrison in Hong Kong, in the latest of a series of moves aimed at bringing the semiautonomous city under Beijing’s tight control.

A brief report on the Defense Ministry’s website Monday said Maj. Gen. Peng Jingtang’s appointment had been signed by president, Communist Party leader and PLA commander Xi Jinping.

It said Peng had pledged to “perform defense duties in accordance with the law, resolutely defend national sovereignty, security and development interests, and firmly safeguard Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability.”

Peng met Monday morning with Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who told him her government would work with the garrison to “jointly safeguard the sovereignty, security and development interests of the nation and help maintain the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong," according to a government news release.

The move follows China’s stamping out of political opposition and curtailing free speech in the city, a former British colony that was promised it would keep its civil liberties and independent legal system intact for 50 years following the handover to Chinese control in 1997.

China imposed a sweeping National Security Law on Hong Kong following anti-government protests in 2019, resulting in the imprisonment, intimidation and exile of most opposition voices. Independent media outlets have been raided and forced into closure through seizure of assets or threats of prosecution.

Candidates considered insufficiently loyal to Beijing were barred from running in elections for the local Legislative Council.

From 2018, Peng commanded the paramilitary People's Armed Police force in Xinjiang, where China has detained hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other members of Muslim minority groups in political reeducation camps. The vast region remains enveloped in a security blanket that controls most aspects of the lives of its Muslim residents.

The U.S. and others have labeled the campaign as genocide, while China says all participants in what it describes as a push for job training and de-radicalization have now graduated.