Container depot fire spotlights Bangladesh industrial safety

By JULHAS ALAM and Al-EMRUN GARJON

June 6, 2022

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People light candles to pay tribute to victims of a massive fire at the BM Inland Container Depot, at Chittagong as they gather at Shahid Minar in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, June 6, 2022. Authorities in Bangladesh were still struggling Monday to determine the cause of the devastating fire that killed at least 49 people, including nine firefighters, and injured more than 100 others.

 (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)


CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh (AP) — Authorities in Bangladesh struggled Monday to determine the cause of a devastating fire that killed at least 41 people, including nine firefighters, and injured more than 100 others at a shipping container storage depot, as experts raised concerns over the country’s industrial safety standards.

Efforts to fully extinguish the fire at the BM Inland Container Depot, a Dutch-Bangladesh joint venture near the country’s main Chittagong Seaport, continued Monday after it broke out around midnight Saturday following explosions in a container full of chemicals. The explosions were felt as far as 4 kilometers (2 1/2 miles) away, officials and local media said.

Authorities said there were more than 4,000 containers at the depot, of which about 1,000 were filled with materials including chemicals.

Nearly 40 hours after the initial explosion, smoke was still coming out of some containers. Explosives experts from the military were called in to assist the firefighters.

Officials said the number of casualties rose dramatically over the weekend because many workers and firefighters were unaware of the chemicals stored at the depot and went too close to the containers. A total of 21 firefighters were either killed or injured.

On Monday, authorities began collecting DNA samples from relatives of victims because severe burns made many of the bodies unrecognizable.

Elias Chowdhury, the area’s civil surgeon, said the death toll was revised down from 49 on Monday, citing errors in earlier counting.

Mominur Rahman, a senior official in Chittagong, about 210 kilometers (130 miles) southeast of Dhaka, the capital, said some bodies were taken to a hospital where they were counted, and were later taken to a second hospital where they were counted again, resulting in the error.

The fire raised concern over whether such storage facilities in Bangladesh observe proper safety standards.

Khairul Alam Sujan, vice president of the Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association, said Sunday that containers with hazardous chemicals are often kept near those with garment products ready for export.



Firefighters said more than a dozen containers stored hydrogen peroxide, which helped spread the fire, but it was still unclear what caused the initial powerful blast.

Containers of chemicals lie scattered after explosion at the BM Inland Container Depot, where a fire broke out around midnight Saturday in Chittagong, about 210 kilometers (130 miles) southeast of, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, June 6, 2022. Dozens of people were killed and more than 100 others were injured after the inferno broke out following explosions in a container full of chemicals. (AP Photo)

Containers of hydrogen peroxide, lie scattered after explosion at the BM Inland Container Depot, where a fire broke out around midnight Saturday in Chittagong, about 210 kilometers (130 miles) southeast of, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, June 6, 2022. Dozens of people were killed and more than 100 others were injured after the inferno broke out following explosions in a container full of chemicals. (AP Photo)

The head of the country’s fire service department regretted that firefighters did not have information from the depot’s management about materials stored there while they were fighting the fire.

Bangladeshi media blamed the high death toll on poor industrial safety standards.

“The fire … is the latest in an ever-growing list of tragedies that put Bangladesh’s appalling industrial safety record once again under the spotlight,” the Daily Star newspaper said in an editorial Monday.

“The poor infrastructure and institutional preparedness for industrial safety … makes such fire incidents almost inevitable,” it said.

The International Labor Organization said in a 2020 report that Bangladesh needs a “credible and accountable industrial safety governance structure.”

Bangladesh has a history of industrial disasters, including factories catching fire with workers trapped inside. Monitoring groups have blamed corruption and lax enforcement.

In the country’s garment industry, which employs about 4 million people, safety conditions have improved significantly after massive reforms, but experts say other sectors need to make similar changes.

In 2012, about 117 workers died when they were trapped behind locked exits in a garment factory in Dhaka.

The country’s worst industrial disaster occurred the following year, when the Rana Plaza garment factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.

In 2019, a blaze ripped through a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses in the oldest part of Dhaka and killed at least 67 people. Another fire in Old Dhaka in a house illegally storing chemicals killed at least 123 people in 2010.

In 2021, a fire at a food and beverage factory outside Dhaka killed at least 52 people, many of whom were trapped inside by an illegally locked door.

___

Alam reported from Dhaka, Bangladesh.

US Farmers at high risk for tick-borne illnesses do little to prevent exposure

By HealthDay News


Only 2% of farmers surveyed said they use tick repellent, and only 10% wear permethrin-treated clothing. Nearly one-quarter said they take no precautions. Photo by Judy Gallagher/Wikimedia Commons

American farmers are at increased risk for tick bites, but new research shows they are doing little to defend themselves against the insects and the illnesses they cause.

Tick-borne diseases include Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted fever, Powassan virus, anaplasmosis, tularemia, ehrlichiosis, heartland virus and Alpha-gal syndrome, and these diseases cost the U.S. health care system up to $1.3 billion a year, the investigators said.

Farm workers have a high risk of exposure to ticks due to the large amount of time they spend outdoors, so scientists from the University of Illinois created an online survey to learn more about their knowledge about ticks and how to prevent tick bites.

To date, 36% of farm workers who have participated in the survey said they have a low level of knowledge about ticks. Fifty-six percent said they rely on friends and family for information about ticks and the diseases they carry; 48% rely on medical professionals, and 40% rely on university extension education programs.

RELATED Tick-borne Heartland virus is spreading across U.S.

Only 38% of respondents say they are concerned about tick-borne diseases, but 90% do self-checks for ticks.

"This is one of the simplest things one can do if going out of doors," said project researcher Sulagna Chakraborty, an ecology, evolution and conservation biology doctorate candidate.

Other recommended precautions include: wearing a hat, long-sleeve shirt and long pants; tucking pants inside boots, and wearing light-colored shirts.

RELATED Gene editing on ticks promises insights into disease prevention

Only 2% of survey respondents said they use tick repellent, and only 10% wear permethrin-treated clothing. Nearly one-quarter said they take no precautions. Only 28% of respondents use tick repellent on their animals.

When they find a tick attached to them, 76% of respondents say they would use the recommended practice of removing the tick with tweezers; 42% remove with their hands; 8% would consult a physician.

"By knowing the knowledge gap, we can provide specific training to fill the gap," Chakraborty said in a university news release.

RELATED 500K in U.S. diagnosed with Lyme disease annually, but some may not have it

Climate change has increased the range of ticks seen in the United States: The nation has seen a 10-fold increase in the number of tick-borne diseases since 2006, according to Rebecca Smith, an associate professor of epidemiology in the university's College of Veterinary Medicine.

More information

For more on avoiding ticks, see the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Vatican’s Pius XII archives begin to shed light on WWII pope


President Truman's envoy to the Vatican, Myron C. Taylor, left, has an audience with Pope Pius XII at Castelgandolfo near Rome, on Aug. 26, 1947. The Vatican has long defended its World War II-era pope, Pius XII, against criticism that he remained silent as the Holocaust unfolded, insisting that he worked quietly behind the scenes to save lives. 

Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Kertzer’s “The Pope at War,” which comes out Tuesday, June 7, 2022 in the United States, citing recently opened Vatican archives, suggests the lives the Vatican worked hardest to save were Jews who had converted to Catholicism or were children of Catholic-Jewish “mixed marriages.” 

(AP Photo/Luigi Felici, File)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has long defended its World War II-era pope, Pius XII, against criticism that he remained silent as the Holocaust unfolded, insisting that he worked quietly behind the scenes to save lives. A new book, citing recently opened Vatican archives, suggests the lives the Vatican worked hardest to save were Jews who had converted to Catholicism or were children of Catholic-Jewish “mixed marriages.”

Documents attesting to frantic searches for baptismal certificates, lists of names of converts handed over by the Vatican to the German ambassador and heartfelt pleas from Catholics for the pope to find relatives of Jewish descent are contained in David Kertzer’s “The Pope at War,” being published Tuesday in the United States.

The book follows on the heels of Kertzer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Pope and Mussolini,” about Pius’ predecessor, Pius XI. It uses the millions of recently released documents from the Vatican archives as well as the state archives of Italy, France, Germany, the U.S., and Britain to craft a history of World War II through the prism of the Pius XII papacy and its extensive diplomatic network with both Axis and Allied nations.

“The amount of material in these archives about searching for baptismal records for Jews that could save them is really pretty stunning,” Kertzer said in a telephone interview ahead of the release.

The 484-page book, and its nearly 100 pages of endnotes, portrays a timid pontiff who wasn’t driven by antisemitism, but rather a conviction that Vatican neutrality was the best and only way to protect the interests of the Catholic Church as the war raged on.

Kertzer, a professor of anthropology and Italian studies at Brown University, suggests Pius’ primary motivation was fear: fear for the church and Catholics in German-occupied territories if, as he believed until the very end, the Axis won; and fear of atheist Communism spreading across Christian Europe if the Axis lost.

To assuage that fear, Kertzer writes, Pius charted a paralyzingly cautious course to avoid conflict at all costs with the Nazis. Direct orders went to the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano not to write about German atrocities — and to ensure seamless cooperation with the Fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini in the Vatican’s backyard.

That meant never saying a word in public to explicitly denounce SS massacres, even when Jews were being rounded up right outside the Vatican walls, as they were on Oct. 16, 1943, and put on trains bound for Auschwitz.

Kertzer concludes that Pius was no “Hitler’s Pope” — the provocative title of the last Pius-era blockbuster by John Cornwell. But neither was he the champion of Jews that Pius’ supporters contend.

Marla Stone, professor of humanities at the American Academy of Rome, said the book “takes a position between the previous poles of historical interpretation.”

“Previously, the choices were either Pius XII was ‘Hitler’s Pope,’ deeply sympathetic to the Nazis, eager for a Nazi-Fascist victory, obsessed with the defeat of the Soviets at all costs, and a dedicated antisemite,” she told a panel at the academy last month. “The other historiographic position held that Pius XII did everything within his power to help those suffering under Nazi and Fascist oppression and that he was merely constrained by circumstances.”

“The Pope at War” is one of several books starting to roll out two years after Pope Francis opened the Pius XII archives ahead of schedule. That gave scholars access to the full set of documentation to resolve the outstanding questions about Pius and what he did or didn’t do as the Holocaust unfolded.

 Brown University professor David I. Kertzer holds his book "The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe" in his office, Monday, April 20, 2015, in Providence, R.I. The Vatican has long defended its World War II-era pope, Pius XII, against criticism that he remained silent as the Holocaust unfolded, insisting that he worked quietly behind the scenes to save lives. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kertzer’s new book “The Pope at War,” which comes out Tuesday, June 7, 2022 in the United States, citing recently opened Vatican archives, suggests the lives the Vatican worked hardest to save were Jews who had converted to Catholicism or were children of Catholic-Jewish “mixed marriages.” (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

One of the first out of the gate was written in-house, by the archivist of the Vatican’s secretariat of state, Johan Ickx. Perhaps understandably, it praised Pius and the humanitarian efforts of the Vatican to care for Jews and people fleeing the war, recounting the hundreds of files of Jews who turned to him, begging for help.

“For the Jews it was obvious and clear that Pius XII was on their side and both he and his staff would have done everything in their possibility to save them,” Ickx told Vatican News.

The Rev. Peter Gumpel, the German investigator who promoted Pius’ now-stalled cause for sainthood, has argued that Pius couldn’t speak out more publicly because he knew it would enrage Adolf Hitler and result in more Jews being killed. He cites the case of a Catholic bishops in the Netherlands who spoke out against the deportation of Jews and the Gestapo’s response: deporting Jews who had converted to Catholicism.

The Vatican had already taken the extraordinary step, between 1965 and 1981, of publishing an 11-volume set of documentation, curated by a team of Jesuits, to try to rebut criticism of Pius’ silence that erupted following the 1963 play “The Deputy,” which alleged he turned a blind eye to Nazi atrocities.

But even the Vatican’s own prefect of the archives, Monsignor Sergio Pagano, said recently that the initiative, while “worthy” at the time, now needs to be revised.

During a panel discussion hosted by a Spanish research institute in Rome, Pagano acknowledged that the Jesuits “sometimes looked at half of one document, and the other half no,” and that he had learned of some “strange omissions” that are now becoming evident. But he insisted there was no attempt at the time to hide inconvenient truths, just a lack of full access to all the files and the chaos of working quickly with a disorganized archive.

Kertzer identifies two major omissions in his book: The first was the transcripts of a series of secret meetings between Pius and a personal envoy of Hitler, Prince Philipp von Hessen, that began shortly after Pius was elected and continued for two years. The secret channel gave Pius a direct line to Hitler that was previously unknown, even to high-ranking Vatican officials at the time.

The second was the full contents of the note from Pius’ top diplomatic adviser on Jewish issues, Monsignor Angelo Dell’Acqua, responding to pleas for Pius to finally say something about the roundup of Italy’s Jews that accelerated in the autumn and winter of 1943. While Dell’Acqua’s opinion — that Pius should not say anything — was previously known, Kertzer says the antisemitic slurs he used to describe Jews had been excised from the Jesuits’ 11-volume text.

FILE - Pope Pius XII, wearing the ring of St. Peter, raises his right hand in a papal blessing at the Vatican, in Sept. 1945. (AP Photo, File)

L’Osservatore Romano has already come out swinging against Kertzer’s scholarship, blasting a 2020 essay he published in The Atlantic on some preliminary findings from the archives as “strong affirmations, but unproven.”

A key example of the Vatican’s priorities, Kertzer says, came during the Oct. 16, 1943, roundup of Rome’s Jews. That cold morning, 1,259 Jews were arrested and brought to a military barracks near the Vatican, bound for deportation to Auschwitz.

The day after their capture, the Vatican’s secretariat of state received permission from German authorities to send an envoy to the barracks, who ascertained that those inside “included people who had already been baptized, confirmed and celebrated a church wedding,” according to the envoy’s notes.

Over the following days, the secretariat of state drew up lists of people the church deemed Catholic and gave the names to the German ambassador asking for his intervention. In all, of the 1,259 people originally arrested, some 250 were spared deportation.

“For me, what this means, and I think this is also a novelty in the book, is that the Vatican participates in the selection of Jews,” Kertzer said in the interview. “Who is going to live and who is going to die.”

Proud Marvel super fan, Iman Vellani, stars in ‘Ms. Marvel’

By ALICIA RANCILIO

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Iman Vellani, star of the Disney+ series "Ms. Marvel," poses for a portrait, Thursday, June 2, 2022, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

NEW YORK (AP) — Iman Vellani, who stars as Kamala Khan in the new Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel,” has a conundrum. Now that she’s a part of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), does she remove the Marvel posters from the walls of her childhood bedroom or leave them up?

“Brie (Larson) is on my wall and she’s in my phone book. So, like, that’s weird,” said Vellani in a recent interview.

“Ms. Marvel,” debuting Wednesday, is 19-year-old Vellani’s first professional acting job. Already an avid reader of the comics, Vellani learned of the open audition from her aunt. She went to the audition. Lo and behold, Vellani got the job.

The first month on set was spent in prep, rehearsing and stunt training. She had to give up her high school diet of McDonald’s and Oreos and build stamina, but Vellani wasn’t interested in changing her shape too much. “I was 17. Kamala was 16. I wanted her to look like a normal high school kid,” she said.

“My first proper day of filming — that was intense,” said Vellani. “It was all of the stunts that I had to do in the real Captain Marvel suit. The one that Brie gets to wear. It was an extremely uncomfortable day. That suit is not made to move in. You’re just supposed to stand and walk like a mannequin, and that’s what it’s made for. There’s so many pieces and it’s just really uncomfortable, and the scenes were pretty intense. So I came home with all these bruises and everything. My mom was like, ‘Oh my God, what happened?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m a superhero. That’s what happened.’”

Vellani just may be the first Marvel actor who is also a massive fan. She especially loves Robert Downey, Jr. and has proudly re-watched “Iron Man” “more than the average person.”

“They really are just a projection of real life and make you feel like you’re a part of something. Isn’t that what we all kind of want, to feel like we belong? And I know it sounds super cheesy, but for the Marvel fandom, it’s comfortable. It’s what we know. We can recite everything under the sun about the MCU.”

Sana Amanat, the co-creator of “Ms. Marvel,” jokes that having an actor who is a stan (or, really big fan) as they say, has its challenges.

“Sometimes she would just pull up in the producer’s chair next to me and just give lots of thoughts and opinions on, you know, either the show or the rest of the MCU. And I’d be like, ’That’s cool, but I need you to just act right now,” she laughed, adding, “Iman brought so much life and love to the character and it just made the entire process so much easier.”

Vellani was browsing a local comic book store when she discovered the “Ms. Marvel” comics and immediately felt represented in a way that is not common in mainstream media.

“I saw a girl who looked like me. She was Muslim and Pakistani and a superhero fanatic and I was Muslim, Pakistani and a superhero fanatic, so it worked out quite well. And I think my favorite part about the comic books was that it wasn’t about her religion or her culture or her ethnicity, it was about a fanfic-writing nerd, who just so happened to be Pakistani and just so happened to be Muslim. Those parts of her life motivated her and drove her as a character. she used her religion as a moral code. .. She never neglected her culture. It was something that kind of uplifted her journey.”

One of the things about South Asian culture that Vellani says “Ms. Marvel” gets right, is the importance of family. Kamala’s parents and brother feature prominently in the series.

“Showing those close, tight-knit family relationships, showing parents that are alive in the MCU, how rare is that,” said Vellani. “We wanted to hopefully get the ball rolling on Muslim representation in the media because there’s 2 billion Muslims and South Asians in the world, and we cannot represent every single one of them. But I do hope that people find some sort of comfort in Kamala’s character or through her brother or her parents or anyone in her community.”

Vellani is not only thrilled to represent in the MCU but also to be entrusted with its secrets.

“It’s an honor to keep these secrets. For some people, power is money. For Marvel fans, it’s knowledge and secrets and all the inside scoop on all the movies that haven’t been released yet. I have it. I have that power and I love it.”

RIP

TWO HIT WONDER
Jim Seals of Seals and Crofts, 'Summer Breeze' fame dies

Jim Seals of soft-rock duo Seals and Crofts died Monday at the age of 80. 

File Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers Records

June 7 (UPI) -- Singer and songwriter Jim Seals of the 1970s duo Seals and Crofts, which produced soft-rock hits "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond Girl," has died, his family announced. He was 80.

Family members confirmed his Monday death on social media.

"I just learned that James 'Jimmy' Seals has passed," said his cousin, Brady Seals of the country band Little Texas. "My heart just breaks for his wife Ruby and their children. Please keep them in your prayers. What an incredible legacy he leaves behind."

No other details or cause of death were given.

Jim Seals was the lead vocalist of the harmonizing duo with mandolinist Darrell "Dash" Crofts. The Texas natives met in local bands during the 1950s. Together they formed Seals and Crofts in 1969 and converted to the Bahai Faith five years before their first big hit.

"It was the only thing I'd heard that made sense to me, so I responded to it," Jim Seals recalled in a 1991 interview with the Los Angeles Times. "That began to spawn some ideas to write songs that might help people to understand, or help ones who maybe couldn't feel anything or were cynical or cold. Lyrically, I think music can convey things that are hard sometimes for people to say to each other."

Seals and Crofts released their hit song "Summer Breeze" in September 1972, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Seals and Crofts' second big hit, "Diamond Girl," followed a year later also landing at No. 6. The pair also found success with their exotic instrumentation in "We Will Never Pass This Way," "I'll Play for You" and "Hummingbird."

"I think our music is a combination of the Eastern part of the world and the Western," Jim Seals said in 1971. "We've had people from Greece, Israel, England and France, China, everywhere, listen to our music and say, 'Oh, it's music from the old country.'"

Seals and Crofts toured and recorded throughout the 1970s, but the pair never bested its two pop-single chart-toppers. In all, Seals and Crofts had four gold and two platinum albums before they broke up in 1980.

The duo attempted to reunite in 1991 and again in 2004 for a new album Traces, which included remakes of their classics. Jim Seals retired from music to Nashville before having a stroke in 2017.

Jim Seals, who was born in 1941 in Sidney, Texas, came from a musical family. His younger brother was Dan Seals of England Dan & John Ford Coley. Dan Seals died in 2009 from cancer.

On Tuesday, John Ford Coley shared his thoughts on Jim Seals' death in a lengthy Facebook post.

"He was Dan's older brother and it was Jimmy that gave Dan and me our stage name," Coley wrote. "You and Dan finally get reunited again."

Britain starts trial of four-day week with thousands of workers


A worker in a face mask cleans a cafe in London, Britain, on October 1, 2020. 

File Photo by Neil Hall/EPA-EFE

June 6 (UPI) -- More than 3,300 workers at more than 70 companies in Britain are participating in a six-month pilot to research the benefits of a four-day work week.

The program is organized by not-for-profit group 4 Day Week Global with the thinktank Autonomy and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College.

Researchers will measure the productivity and well-being of the participating employees throughout the study, including their sleep and levels of stress and burnout.

Juliet Schor, a professor of sociology at Boston College, said that Monday marked a "historic day for worktime reduction."

"Perfect post-Jubilee timing. Very excited to be part of this effort," she said in a tweet.

When asked whether participating workers would still be completing 40 hours each week, Schor responded that employees "must have a significant reduction in worktime with no loss of pay" in order to participate.

The trial is based on a 100:80:100 model, The Guardian reported, meaning that workers receive 100% of pay for 80% of the time while promising to maintain 100% productivity.

"As we emerge from the pandemic, more and more companies are recognizing that the new frontier for competition is quality of life, and that reduced-hour, output-focused working is the vehicle to give them a competitive edge," Joe O'Connor, CEO of 4 Day Week Global, told the Independent.

"The impact of the 'great resignation' is now proving that workers from a diverse range of industries can produce better outcomes while working shorter and smarter."

The pilot comes as the Institute of Employment Rights, another British think tank, said it is also due to release the findings of a study on reducing worktime without reducing pay.

Four-day week trials will also begin later this year in Spain and Scotland.

"We have long been a champion of flexible working, but the pandemic really moved the goalposts in this regard. For Charity Bank, the move to a four-day week seems a natural next step," said Ed Siegel, the bank's CEO, in comments to the Independent.

"The 20th Century concept of a five-day working week is no longer the best fit for 21st Century business. We firmly believe that a four-day week with no change to salary or benefits will create a happier workforce and will have an equally positive impact on business productivity, customer experience and our social mission."

1933

Solid Power revs up pilot production of new EV battery for BMW, Ford


Solid Power begins pilot production on new solid-state battery cells for BMW and Ford that will provide longer range and shorter recharges for less cost. Photo courtesy of Solid Power.

June 6 (UPI) -- Battery start-up Solid Power has begun pilot production of a new solid-state battery cell for BMW and Ford Motor to give electric vehicle drivers shorter recharge times and longer range at less cost.

Solid Power has started building a small number of solid-state batteries to undergo internal testing. The Colorado-based company hopes to deliver the batteries to the two car manufacturers later this year for further testing and have the batteries in vehicles and on the market by 2024.

While other companies such as QuantumScape and Samsung SDI already have started developing solid-state battery cells in new factories, Solid Power said it can build its "new breed of battery" at less cost by reusing the tooling and production at existing lithium-ion battery plants.

Solid-state batteries are considered "next-generation products," which experts point out are safer and more powerful than conventional lithium-ion batteries. The batteries do not require the gel electrolyte, found in lithium-ion batteries currently on the market, which means a lower risk of fires.

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Solid-state batteries also need shorter recharge times and offer more range.

"The mileage of EVs is still not so far. For EVs to become mainstream in the car industry, they need to have similar mileage as cars with internal combustion engines," Daelim University automotive professor Kim Pil-soo told UPI News Korea

As solid-state batteries have higher energy density than lithium-ion batteries, they can substantially increase the EV mileage. But the related technology has been elusive to develop, which means many battery makers struggled to make advances in the field," he said.

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Solid Power said BMW and Ford could start testing its solid-state battery cells in prototype vehicles by the end of this year, according to CEO Doug Campbell, who called it a key step in the "validation" process needed to supply batteries to automakers.

If all goes well, the automakers could sign off on Solid Power's battery design in early 2024, Campbell told CNBC.

Solid Power said it plans to hand off its final design to an existing battery manufacturer for mass production.

Virgin Atlantic allows flight attendants to show tattoo

Two Virgin Atlantic flight attendants show off their tattoos last week as part of a new policy change by the carrier. Photo courtesy of Virgin Atlantic

June 6 (UPI) -- Virgin Atlantic announced it has changed its policy toward flight attendants displaying tattoos while on duty with the carrier.

The airliner said last week that flight attendants, who previously were required to hide their tattoos while in uniform, will be allowed to make their tattoos visible in a nod to self-expression. Virgin Atlantic said it is the first British-based airline to make such a change.

"At Virgin Atlantic, we want everyone to be themselves and know that they belong," Estelle Hollingsworth, chief people officer at Virgin Atlantic said in a statement last week. "Many people use tattoos to express their unique identities and our customer-facing and uniformed colleagues should not be excluded from doing so if they choose.

"That's why, in line with our focus on inclusion and championing individuality, we're relaxing our tattoo restrictions for all our people. We're proud to be the airline that sees the world differently and allows our people to truly be themselves."

RELATED Federal gov't sides with California flight attendants in lawsuit vs. Virgin America

Virgin Atlantic posted photos on social media last week with some of their flight attendants showing off their tattoos in recognition of International Flight Attendants Day.

"Today we're championing the dazzling collection of individuals who are our wonderful cabin crew," Virgin Atlantic said on Twitter. "We've always encouraged our people to be themselves, so from today, they can now show their tattoos with pride."

Virgin Atlantic said the uniform change tied into their latest ad campaign, "See the world differently," with uniforms created by Vivienne Westwood, the British designer who is credited with bringing punk designs into the mainstream.

"So, it's only fitting that Virgin Atlantic team members can express themselves with their unique tattoos, wearing the red uniforms designed by the godmother of punk," Virgin Atlantic said.

Diabetes drug shows promise for treating obesity

By Denise Mann, HealthDay News
JUNE 6, 2022

A new trial of tirzepatide focused on people who are obese but didn't have diabetes. It found they lost even more weight than what was seen in the diabetes studies that led to the drug's approval for this indication in May. Photo by Tiago Zr/Shutterstock

A newly approved drug for Type 2 diabetes may be a game-changer for treating obesity, too.

Given as a shot once a week, tirzepatide works on two naturally occurring hormones that help tell the brain that you are full. It may be as effective as weight-loss surgery.

"About nine of 10 people in the study lost weight, and the average weight loss for the highest dose was 22.5%, which is something we have never seen before," said study co-author Dr. Ania Jastreboff. She is an associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine and co-director of the Yale Center for Weight Management, in New Haven, Conn.

"These results are an important step forward in potentially expanding effective therapeutic options for people with obesity," Jastreboff said.

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The new trial focused on people who are obese but didn't have diabetes. It found they lost even more weight than what was seen in the diabetes studies that led to the drug's approval for this indication in May.

Drug maker Eli Lilly sponsored the new study.

For the 72-week study, more than 2,500 overweight or obese adults received either 5, 10 or 15 mg of the new drug or placebo each week. The average weight reduction for the highest dose was about 52 pounds, the study showed. People who took the 10 mg dose lost about 49 pounds, on average, and those in the 5 mg group shed about 35 pounds. By contrast, people given a placebo injection lost slightly more than 5 pounds. Study volunteers were also counseled on healthy eating and exercise.

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Nearly everyone on the drug saw an improvement in blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, the study found.

The most common side effects were nausea, diarrhea and constipation, and they were generally mild to moderate, Jastreboff said.

Study participants kept the weight off for the full 72-week study period. "Obesity is a chronic treatable disease. We should treat obesity as we treat any chronic disease -- with effective and safe approaches which target underlying disease mechanisms, and these results underscore that tirzepatide may be doing just that," she said.

RELATED Study: Dementia risk factors, such as obesity, now more common among adults

People may need to stay on the medication indefinitely. "If we think of obesity as a chronic disease, then why would we treat a chronic disease for only 72 weeks?" Jastreboff said.

Individuals who developed prediabetes were not included in the new analysis. They will be followed for two years to see how they fare on the new drug. People with prediabetes have higher-than-normal blood sugar levels, but do not have full-blown diabetes yet.

The study was presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association, in New Orleans, and simultaneously published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"This study is a big deal," said Dr. Scott Kahan, director of the National Center for Weight and Wellness in Washington, D.C. "Tirzepatide is the first medication of a new class of medications that will likely become the preeminent medications for both diabetes and obesity treatment," said Kahan, who has no ties to the study.

"We currently have quite good medications available for weight management -- but the magnitude of weight loss far exceeds all other medications," he said. Moreover, it "approaches the amount of weight loss with the most common bariatric surgical procedures," he added.

Also, nearly everyone treated with the medication lost at least a modest amount of weight, if not much more, Kahan said.

So how does this new shot compare to other prescription weight-loss drugs? Kahan said that it looks like a winner.

An obesity treatment approved last year called semaglutide (Wegovy) produces about 15% weight loss. It targets human glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), but the new drug targets GLP-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), which may be why it appears even more effective.

"Other medications approved in the last decade lead to an average of between 10% and nearly 15% weight loss. The most frequently prescribed weight loss drug in the United States -- phentermine (Adipex-P, Lomaira), which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1959 -- typically leads to just 5% to 7% weight loss," Kahan said.

If and when this drug is approved for weight loss, cost will be a consideration, he said.

For diabetes, it is estimated to cost around $800 per month, but it will likely be covered by insurance. "Weight medications are traditionally different because they tend not to be covered by insurance so people have to pay out of pocket," Kahan noted. It's too early to predict the cost of tirzepatide for obesity.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about medications that treat obesity.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Google Doodle honors espresso machine inventor Angelo Moriondo

Monday's Google Doodle is a tribute to Italian inventor Angelo Moriondo on his 171st birthday.
Photo courtesy of Google Doodle

June 6 (UPI) -- Monday's Google Doodle is a tribute to Italian inventor Angelo Moriondo on his 171st birthday.

Because Moriondo is credited with patenting the earliest known espresso machine, Google chose sepia-toned animated images of complicated-looking machines dripping coffee and filling cups for the top of its web page.

Moriondo was born in 1851 into a family of entrepreneurs in Turin.

"Following in his family's footsteps, Moriondo purchased two establishments: the Grand-Hotel Ligure in the city-center Piazza Carlo Felice and the American Bar in the Galleria Nazionale of Via Roma," Google noted.

"Despite coffee's popularity in Italy, the time spent waiting for coffee to brew inconvenienced customers. Moriondo figured that making multiple cups of coffee at once would allow him to serve more customers at a faster pace, giving him an edge over his competitors."

His invention won a bronze medal at the General Expo of Turin in 1884. He died in 1914.

Maine looks to grow space economy, for students, research and business

bluShift Aerospace on February 4, 2021, launched Stardust 1.0 rocket from Maine, their first launch as they look to bring small satellite launches to the Pine Tree State. 

Photo courtesy of bluShift Aerospace/Twitter

BANGOR, Maine, June 7 (UPI) -- Leaders and policy makers in Maine have long been searching for ways to keep more of their in-state high school and college graduates from leaving. But lobstering and forestry, two stalwarts of the Maine economy, aren't what they used to be.

Enter the new space economy.

"There's something sexy about space," Terry Shehata, executive director of the Maine Space Grant Consortium, a NASA-funded nonprofit, told UPI.

Maine -- and its plethora of acreage, far from the light pollution of the Eastern Seaboard's major metropolises -- has always been a great place to gaze at the stars, but not necessarily to launch rockets.

RELATED Space Force studies idea of national spaceport authority

The miniaturization of satellites and the rockets needed to put them into orbit, however, has changed the calculus. The barrier to entry is now low enough that space, or at least low-Earth orbit, is no longer the exclusive playground of national space agencies and giant defense companies.

Now, states not traditionally associated with the aerospace industry -- Maine and Michigan, for example -- want in on the game.

Build it and they will come

In April, Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed bill LD 1923 into law, establishing the Maine Space Corporation, a public-private partnership tasked with growing the state's aerospace industry.

When law goes into effect in August, the corp will get to work filling leadership roles and codifying their goals and governance. Then they'll begin crafting a strategic plan for the construction of the Maine Space Complex, which will feature launch sites, an innovation hub and a data analytics center.

Last year, a Maine-based startup company, bluShift Aerospace, launched the state's first rocket. Though the rocket didn't quite reach space, it successfully showcased the capabilities of the company's "bio-derived" solid fuel.

bluShift, which hopes to begin launching small satellites using its carbon-neutral rockets, is one of several companies that Maine officials reached out to as they considered strategies for capturing a slice of the new space economy.

"We've been thinking about how to take the state to the next level for some time now," Shehata said.

More than a spaceport

Before pushing ahead with LD 1923 and the Maine Space Corporation, Shehata and the consortium worked with members of the legislature to ensure Maine had built-in interest from businesses, researchers and community leaders.

"We knew that one of the critical assets that Maine has is geography in terms of being on the eastern seaboard and one of the positions to launch small satellites into polar orbits," Shehata said.

"But our primary concern has been whether we can capitalize on this new space economy in a way that utilizes our unique assets, spurs economic growth and workforce development, and do so in a way that would allow us to keep our students here in the state."

Surveys and market research revealed a healthy dose of local demand, but they also confirmed the suspicions of Shehata and others that a spaceport wasn't enough.

"What we're doing is more than a spaceport," Shehata said. "In addition to spaceport, we decided we needed to have this innovation center and data analytics hub to make sure we have a more complete complex."

All three units will collect fees and will be able to survive financially on their own, according to Shehata, but the three hubs will operate collectively, as a coordinated, cohesive entity.

Building a more complete complex was key to ensuring the state developed infrastructure that could be used by a diversity of groups, according State Senator Mattie Daughtry, the bill's lead sponsor, from communication providers to student engineers.

Stakeholder diversity

"This is not about putting out an open for business sign or attracting Elon Musk- and Jeff Bezos-style launches," Daughtry told UPI, speaking of the bill. "It's about creating a leadership council that ensures all the different parties and stakeholders are working together."

For states without a long history of aerospace activity, a multi-faceted approach is essential, according to Dylan Taylor, a major investor in the new space economy and CEO of Voyager, a space exploration firm.

"The best strategies are integrated approaches where education, technology development, infrastructure, capital availability and the political support all dovetail around the industry," Taylor told UPI in an email. "Multi-stakeholder coordination is the key to success."

Global data, Maine applications

In addition to engaging Maine's students, Shehata and Daughtry both cited the importance of bridging connections between the Maine Space Corporation and Maine's industries on the ground.

Ali Abedi, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Maine, who testified in support of LD 1923 earlier this year, is currently working to design and build small satellites outfitted with microspectral cameras.

"We can use those cameras to study the concentrations of phytoplankton in the water, so that could be useful to Maine's aquaculture industry," Abedi told UPI. "We can also use data from these cameras to study urban heat island effects."

"The third application is monitoring different forests. By studying the colors in different parts of forests we can see where diseases might be spreading and harming the forest canopies."

Small satellites launched in Maine could be used to study forest, fields, cities and water bodies all over the globe, while also helping researchers monitor the Pine Tree State's own natural resources.

"We have to make sure that the value of the space complex comes back to the various sectors in Maine's economy," said Shehata.

The world economy is increasingly data driven. If companies in Maine can find a way to collect valuable information from low-Earth orbit, it won't be difficult to find customers willing to pay for it -- at least, according to Taylor's logic.

Data, Taylor said, is the draw.

"Now that we have a re-usable, reliable and relatively inexpensive launch, there has been a flourishing of launching hardware into space," Taylor said in an email. "This in turn is generating a treasure trove of spaced-based data."

"With this data, entire new business models are being created. The capabilities are extraordinary as evidenced by some of the space-based data that came out of the Ukraine conflict from the private sector."

Much of the data collected by small satellites launched from the Maine Space Complex won't be for sale -- it will be free, available to students at Maine's universities for all sorts of research purposes.

A green space economy yields broad benefits

Non-space industries will also benefit from work being done at the complex's innovation hub, supporters of LD 1923 said.

"We already have companies right here in Maine that are pushing for climate neutral launches and climate-friendly fuels," Daughtry said.

The work could aid broader efforts to reduce the United States' carbon footprint, she said.

For many in the new space economy, miniaturization is essential. Efforts to squeeze more tech into smaller confines require electronics and instruments to be as efficient as possible.

"Efforts to build more power efficient circuitry or low power radio communication systems with greater data efficiency can benefit other areas of technology," Abedi said.

Financing and the future

It will cost somewhere between $50 million to $250 million to construct the Maine Space Complex, according to Shehata, but the Maine Space Corporation won't be starting from scratch.

Officials expect to utilize some relevant infrastructure that's already there, including a pair of military facilities no longer in use -- Brunswick Naval Air Station in Southern Maine and Loring Air Force Base farther north, near the Canadian border.

It's not clear yet how the Maine Space Complex will be funded, but Shehata said the public-private partnership is likely to pursue federal grants, seek out commercial partners and perhaps even issue bonds.

The grant consortium that Shehata oversees will help the corporation get organized and provide some initial seed funding.

"We are going to basically provide back office services to the corporation with additional funds that we are securing from the federal government to build up the infrastructure, and then in a few years we will step aside and establish a strategic partnership with the corporation," he said.

It's about the kids

Supporters of LD 1923 and the Maine Space Complex expect the project to be financially sustainable without direct support from the state treasury and Maine taxpayers, but both Shehata and Daughtry said that facilitating collaboration is the primary goal.

"The goal is to be having a statewide effort on this," Daughtry said. "The thing that I am really excited about are the links between the space complex, space companies and academics."

"I'm really interested to see how high school students use some of these low cost devices."

Shehata suggests the Maine Space Complex could bring more than 5,500 high-paying jobs to the state by 2042.

If a high school student gets a chance to study the state's resources using data captured by a satellite launched from Maine, maybe that engagement motivates them to pursue an engineering degree at the University of Maine.

And if the Maine Space Corporation is successful at capturing a slice of the new space economy -- expected to be worth $1.5 trillion by 2040 -- maybe, just maybe, upon graduation, that student won't have to look outside the state for a job in the aerospace industry.

Kamala Harris says overturning Roe vs. Wade could impact other privacy rights


Vice President Kamala Harris warned of the potential dangers of overturning Roe vs. Wade during a meeting with faith leaders at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor on Monday. 

Photo by David Swanson/UPI | License Photo

June 6 (UPI) -- Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday warned that the Supreme Court's pending decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade could threaten other privacy rights.

Harris stressed the importance of upholding the abortion protections provided by the landmark Supreme Court case in a meeting with faith leaders on reproductive rights and some of the other "most urgent challenges facing our communities" at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor on Monday.

"I do believe that when we look at the challenge that we will face when that decision comes down, a part of it will be that it will directly, if not indirectly, impact other privacy rights, including the right to have access to contraception and the right to marry the person you love," she said before the meeting.

In May, a leaked Supreme Court opinion signaled that its six conservative justices plan to overturn the landmark 1973 decision before the high court's term ends this month and a largely symbolic proposal to safeguard legalized abortion nationwide by enshrining the practice in federal law failed in a 49-51 Senate vote.

Harris and the faith leaders "underscored the importance of ensuring that healthcare decisions are made by women without government interference" and affirmed the key role that faith leaders play in "bringing people together to move our country in the direction of justice," according to a readout of the conversation released by the White House.

"It's very important, I think, for us to agree and it's an important point to make that to support Roe vs. Wade and all it stands for does not mean giving up core beliefs," Harris said. "It is simply about agreeing that a woman should be able to make that decision with her faith leader, with her family, with her physician -- and that the government should not be making that decision for her."

During the meeting, Harris also raised the issue of gun violence amid multiple mass shootings throughout the nation in recent weeks as Congress works to agree on legislation to prevent further shootings.

The vice president also noted the threat of racially motivated violence, adding that the nation must address "how hate manifests itself in violent acts, most of which are committed with the use of guns."

"We have been experiencing in terms of what I call an 'epidemic of hate,' where we have seen so many communities who are being targeted -- individuals who are being targeted simply because of who they are," she said.

Harris added that "sensible laws" that are "rules-based with a goal of being a civil society" are necessary to combat the shootings.

5% of Americans identify differently than their birth gender


New research released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, finds 5.1% of Americans under age 30 say they identify as a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth. 

File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

June 7 (UPI) -- More than 5% of Americans under age 30 say they identify as a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth, according to a new survey published Tuesday.

Approximately 5.1% of adults under 30 are transgender or nonbinary, according to the survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.

Of that figure, 2% identify as a trans man or trans woman, while 3% are nonbinary, meaning they are neither a man nor a woman.

The figures are higher in younger demographics.

In adults younger than 25, 3.1% identify as a trans man or trans woman, compared to 0.5% of those between 25 and 29.

By comparison, 1.6% of those surveyed between 30 and 49 and 0.3% of those 50 and older are trans or nonbinary.

A much higher percentage of Americans say they know someone who is trans or nonbinary. Approximately 44% say they personally know someone who is trans and 20% know someone who is nonbinary.

The percentage of adults who know someone who is transgender is up from 42% in 2021 and 37% in 2017.

Democrats and independents who lean to the left politically were more likely than Republicans and those leaning right to know a transgender person, but that number is rising.

As of June 2021, 48% of Democrats said they knew a trans person, compared with 35% of Republicans. The gap has narrowed to 6 percentage points. As of Tuesday's research, 48% of Democrats and 42% of Republicans say they know someone who is transgender.

Fact check: Four fakes about monkeypox

Was the monkeypox outbreak caused by AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine? Or did the virus come from a laboratory? DW looks at some of the most blatant monkeypox conspiracy myths.

Monkeypox is primarily found in rodents, monkeys are probably an intermediate host

Is it just fake news?

Claim: There are social media users who claim that monkeypox doesn't even exist. Photos used in reports that are old or show other diseases such as shingles are used to back up that claim. Numerous image comparisons are circulating, for example on Twitter.

DW Fact Check: False.

Monkeypox is real. The virus has been around since 1958. We've known since 1970 that it can also be transmitted to humans. There are recurrent outbreaks that have so far been limited to countries in West and Central Africa. There's an ongoing outbreak in Nigeria, that started in 2017, with over 500 registered cases.

The "old" images used to prove that reports of monkeypox are a hoax are mostly agency images of the disease that have been in the inventory of their respective providers for years. It is not uncommon for the same images to be used repeatedly for reports on medical issues because the overall selection is rather small.

Some Twitter users are juxtaposing monkeypox and shingles article images to prove that the monkeypox coverage is a fake.

In Australia, the Queensland government's explainer on shingles was indeed illustrated with the image from the tweet. In the case of an article on monkeypox that appeared on healthsite.com the situation is a bit more complicated: Since May 19, 2022, the text does not contain the image from the tweet, but a different one.

An older, archived version of the article from July 17, 2021, on the other hand, incorrectly showed the shingles image as an illustration for monkeypox. This error has since been corrected and the article revised. An editorial error on a website does not change the fact that monkeypox does indeed exist.

Monkeypox due to COVID vaccination?

Claim: AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine contains attenuated adenoviruses from chimpanzees as carriers for the DNA of the coronavirus spike protein. For some users, this suggests that monkeypox infections are a result of the vector vaccine. 

DW Fact Check: False.

Even though the word "monkey" may suggest a possible connection at first glance, the viruses have nothing to do with each other.

"It's called monkeypox because it was first detected in a monkey colony in 1958. But they actually come from rodents; monkeys are probably an intermediate host," explains Christine Falk, president of the German Society for Immunology.

She says that adenoviruses, including chimpanzee adenoviruses, which are the basis for vector vaccines, are a very different class of viruses than smallpox viruses — with very different characteristics.

According to Falk, these viruses can cause cold-like infections. "And there are some that have been isolated and modified from chimpanzees for use in vaccines so that our bodies don't have prior immunity, as can be the case with human adenoviruses."Falk and other experts are adamant that COVID-19 vaccines have nothing to do with the monkeypox outbreak.

Monkeypox cases have spread from parts of Africa to Europe, the US and Australia

Did the virus originate in a laboratory in Wuhan?

Claim: The Wuhan Institute of Virology is said to have experimented with monkeypox viruses. To some that's a clear indication for the origin of the current outbreak. It's reminiscent of the "laboratory theory" of the coronavirus, which is now considered unlikely among scientists, but not entirely ruled out.

DW Fact Check: Misleading.

Experiments on PCR testing of monkeypox viruses have taken place in Wuhan. This is undisputed, and a study published by the institute in February 2022 also makes this transparent. However, this study only experimented with a fragment of the virus that had less than one-third of the monkeypox genome. That fragment was perfectly safe, the study says, because any risk of becoming contagious again was eliminated. 

"There is no evidence to indicate that monkeypox escaped from a lab. This virus exists in nature among animal reservoirs in several countries in central and western Africa with small human outbreaks reported almost every year," Mark Slifka, an immunologist and professor at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, told DW.

Slifka also says that scientists can distinguish between different strains of the virus by sequencing the genome. This allows scientists to establish whether the virus is related to the West African strain or the Central African strain of monkeypox virus. "To my knowledge, none of the primary cases reported travel to China prior to being diagnosed with monkeypox," Slifka said.

The World Health Organization has also confirmed that all current cases to date have been linked to a strain of monkeypox virus that originated in West Africa. According to a paper published by the European Center for Disease Prevention, the fact that an increasing number of cases are currently occurring in Europe is probably due to so-called spreader events where the virus was passed on between men having sex with men, as monkeypox is transmitted primarily via direct mucosal contact.

Is monkeypox a 'plandemic'?

Claim: The claim that the new outbreak of monkeypox was prepared long in advance is also spreading on social media networks. A simulation game at the Munich Security Conference, which was based on a monkeypox scenario, is supposed to be proof. Others establish a direct link between Bill Gates and the outbreak of monkeypox. He is said to have repeatedly warned of such a scenario.

DW Fact Check: Misleading.

The simulation game used as evidence of an allegedly planned monkeypox pandemic at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2021 exists and even includes the scenario of a fictitious monkeypox outbreak in May 2022. The simulation was initiated by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) as part of the MSC to draw attention to gaps in global pandemic coordination.

Simulation games are used in many contexts to prepare for complex scenarios/security risks and to rehearse or review procedures. The fact that such a scenario now exists shows how realistic it is, but it does not prove causality.

While the scenario is close enough, it does not correspond with reality. For example, the real pathogen is less infectious, and the transmission routes differ from the scenario at the MSC. The NTI clarified this again in a recent statement: "The fictional scenario in our exercise involved a hypothetical engineered strain of monkeypox virus, which was more transmissible and more dangerous than natural strains of the virus, and which spread globally — eventually causing more than three billion cases and 270 million deaths over a period of 18 months."

NTI said that in the current outbreak there was no reason to believe that it "involves an engineered pathogen, as we have not seen any compelling evidence that would support such a hypothesis. We also do not believe that the current outbreak has the potential to spread as rapidly as the fictional, engineered pathogen in our scenario or to cause such a high case fatality rate."

As far as the claims go regarding Bill Gates, the billionaire philanthropist has long been involved in disease prevention with his foundation and has been warning for years about the dangers of bioterrorism and pandemics — including, for example, a smallpox outbreak. The possibility of such an outbreak, or a bioterrorist attack with smallpox viruses, is also being discussed in various research articles. Gates never specifically mentioned monkeypox itself in his statements.

Ines Eisele contributed to this story.

This article was originally published in German.