This robot doctor can help in areas where human doctors can’t

The robot can take a patient’s temperature, check their pulse, and administer injections, among other tasks.

University of Sheffield  

By Chloe Nordquist
 Aug 2, 2023


This robot doctor was designed to go and treat patients where human doctors can’t.

“The medic could drive a robotic system to a location and perform a series of different kinds of triage tasks on that patient,” said David King, the head of digital design at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. King was one of the leaders of the project.

Medics can remotely operate the robot’s arms and talk to the patient.

“They wear a virtual reality headset and the robot itself has got a 360 degree camera on it,” he said.

The robot was developed by researchers at the University of Sheffield in the UK.

Robot-assisted surgery is revolutionizing heart procedures

Robot-assisted heart procedures are reducing recovery time and complications for patients who need the delicate surgeries.

The robot can take a patient’s blood pressure and temperature, check their pulse, and administer injections, among other tasks. All of this can be seen and performed by the remote medic controlling the robot in real time.

“It’s also [applicable] to anywhere where you've got casualties and you don't really want to be sending people,” King said.

This could include humanitarian disaster areas, like earthquake zones for example, war zones, and sites of biological or chemical accidents.

The robot is still being tested in representative outdoor terrain on dummies.

King said it took them 9 months to go from concept to functioning design, as part of a competition.

Researchers are looking for partnerships with organizations to deploy these into specific disaster zones.

Report: Big waves becoming more common off California as Earth warms

The report adds to the evidence that climate change is causing massive shifts in the world’s oceans.

Jeff Chiu / AP

By AP via Scripps News
Aug 4, 2023

Waves are getting bigger and surf at least 13 feet tall is becoming more common off California's coast as the planet warms, according to innovative new research that tracked the increasing height from historical data gathered over the past 90 years.

Oceanographer Peter Bromirski at Scripps Institution of Oceanography used the unusual method of analyzing seismic records dating back to 1931 to measure the change in wave height.

When waves ricochet off the shore, they collide with incoming waves and cause a ripple of energy through the seafloor that can be picked up by seismographs designed to detect earthquakes. The greater the impact, the taller the wave is.

Until now, scientists relied on a network of buoys by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that collect data on wave height along U.S. coasts, but that data along the California coast only went back to 1980.

"Until I stumbled upon this data set, it was almost impossible to make that comparison with any kind of reliability," Bromirski said.

To go back further, Bromirski gathered a team of undergraduate students to analyze daily seismic readings covering decades of winters. It was a slow, painstaking process that took years and involved digitizing drums of paper records. But he said it was important in learning how things have changed over nearly a century along California's coast.

They found that average winter wave heights have grown by as much as a foot since 1970, when global warming is believed to have begun accelerating. Swells at least 13 feet tall are also happening a lot more often, occurring at least twice as often between 1996 to 2016 than from 1949 to 1969.

Bromirski was also surprised to find extended periods of exceptionally low wave heights prior to about 1970 and none of those periods since.

"Erosion, coastal flooding, damage to coastal infrastructure is, you know, something that we're seeing more frequently than in the past," Bromirski said. "And, you know, combined with sea level rise, bigger waves mean that is going to happen more often."

Changes in waves are showing up in other ways, too.

"There's about twice as many big wave events since 1970 as there was prior to 1970," Bromirski said.

The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, adds to the evidence that climate change is causing massive shifts in the world's oceans. Other studies have shown waves are not only getting taller but also more powerful.

Damage from intense storms and massive surf is already playing out. This winter, California's severe storms and giant waves collapsed bluffs, damaged piers and flooded parts of the state's picturesque Highway 1.

Bromirski said that is a harbinger of the future. Scientists say global warming may even be accelerating, ushering in even bigger waves.

As sea levels rise and storms intensify, bigger waves will cause more flooding in coastal communities, erode away beaches, trigger landslides and destabilize remaining bluffs, he said.

These issues are of particular concern along the California coast, where sea cliffs have already started crumbling and brought down homes in recent years. Because of sea level rise, projections at the end of the 21st century indicate even moderate waves might cause damage comparable to that of extreme weather events, according to the study.

Oceanographer Gary Griggs at the University of California Santa Cruz said while a jump of a foot in wave height over more than 50 years is not huge, the findings are consistent with what scientists know is happening to the world's oceans as they warm: They are becoming increasingly violent due to more extreme storms and wreaking havoc along coasts.

Griggs, who was not involved in the research, said it adds to growing scientific data showing how fast the world is warming and how quickly seas are rising.

"We know hurricanes are more intense and last longer, and now we've got, you know, waves increasing in power. So those are all consistent," he said. "The challenge ... is sort of how to really respond to that."

4 out of 5 people have felt climate change-driven heat this year

New analysis shows worldwide, more than 6.5 billion people experienced unusual heat driven by climate change in July.

John Locher / AP

By Scripps News Staff
Aug 2, 2023

July of 2023 was noticeably warmer for 4 out of every 5 people on Earth, according to a new analysis by the science nonprofit Climate Central.

The group found that sometime in July, more than 6.5 billion people experienced noticeably elevated temperatures due to the effects of climate change. More than 2 billion people experienced the effects of accelerated warming on a daily basis.

The analysis found fossil fuel emissions tripled the likelihood of elevated temperatures in 4,019 cities worldwide, or 85% of all cities that were measured.

A billion people, most of them in tropical regions, experienced temperatures that were three times more likely to be elevated during every single day of July.

In the U.S., more than 244 million people felt hotter temperatures due to climate change. The effect was most pronounced in Florida, and generally diminished as the measurement location moved north.

UN: 'The era of global boiling has arrived'

United Nations leaders say human-driven climate change is to blame for the hottest month in recorded history.

The findings have not yet been peer-reviewed, but experts who spoke to The Associated Press said the findings were credible.

And other data collected in July of this year shows that the month stood as a temperature outlier worldwide. Climate data has shown July of this year set multiple records for the hottest day, week and month ever recorded.

UH OH

Antarctic ice is unusually low right now, even in the middle of winter

Antarctica is gaining ice during its winter season — but it's never had less at this time of year.

Photo by: Climate.gov

By: Scripps News Staff
Posted Aug 04, 2023

It's the middle of winter in Antarctica, and the sea ice surrounding it is at a record low for this time of year.

Beginning around April, sea ice levels in Antarctica have typically entered an annual growth phase and approached their greatest extent for the year around October.

As recently as 2014, this growth phase peaked with a record high extent of sea ice. But since 2016, annual ice extent has declined, falling mostly below the 1981–2010 30-year average. Now NOAA says even though ice cover is still growing for the year, daily extents have been at record lows since April of 2023.

Melting sea ice doesn't contribute to sea level rise on its own, since it's already floating on the ocean surface. But the sea ice surrounds glaciers and other ice shelves on continental Antarctica — and the less sea ice there is, the less protection that inland ice has from warming temperatures.

SEE MORE: Study Finds Doomsday Glacier Shrinking Faster Than Expected

The water frozen there has the potential to significantly alter global sea levels, were it to melt.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is on land in Antarctica, this year experienced some of the most significant melting on the continent. If all of its ice melted, it could raise global average sea levels by more than 10 feet.

While such melting is not expected to happen all at once, the effects of ongoing melting are expected to grow more apparent in the coming years.

In 2022, NOAA predicted that in the U.S., sea levels may rise as much as 12 inches on average by 2050. The impacts may also vary regionally — the U.S. East Coast may see up to 14 inches, for example, and the Gulf Coast could experience as much as 18 inches of rise.

Researchers say what melts now will also make it more difficult for Antarctica to regain lost ice later.

Global ocean temperatures are climbing, which melts more ice.

And the less ice there is, the less sunlight is reflected by its bright surface. Instead, darker ocean water absorbs even more of that heat.


If ice maximums continue their downward trend, experts say, later years could see even more ice loss as the effects compound.

#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA

India’s Kashmir clampdown continues four years after Article 370 abrogated

The 2019 move heralded a slew of policies by the ruling BJP government to tighten New Delhi’s grip over the disputed region.

An Indian paramilitary trooper stands guard along a street in Srinagar 

[File: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP]

Published On 5 Aug 2023

Saturday marks four years of India scrapping the special status of Indian-administered Kashmir, New Delhi’s most far-reaching move against the disputed region in seven decades.

The abrogation of Article 370 of India’s constitution that granted the region partial autonomy in 2019 heralded a slew of policies by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to tighten New Delhi’s grip over a region also claimed by its nuclear-armed neighbour, Pakistan.

Residents and critics slammed the move in India’s only Muslim-majority region as the BJP’s bid to impose “settler colonialism” aimed at changing its demography and land ownership patterns and depriving Kashmiris of their livelihoods.

Earlier this week, India’s Supreme Court began hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the BJP’s 2019 move.

But people in the valley say they have little hope anything will change.
Anxieties over land ownership

Article 370 barred outsiders from settling permanently or buying property in Indian-administered Kashmir.

However, a domicile law introduced in 2020 permits anyone who has lived in the region for 15 years or studied there for seven years to apply for a domicile certificate, entitling them to apply for land and jobs.

The policy proposes the provision of five marlas of land (.031 acres) and the construction of houses under the Prime Minister Housing Scheme-Rural – a government initiative to provide housing to the rural poor.

In another measure, the federal rural development ministry allocated a target of 199,550 new houses in the region for the financial year 2023-24 for people belonging to the economically weaker sections (EWS) and low-income groups in the region.

Kashmiri activists and politicians have raised suspicion over the schemes, accusing the government of a “deliberate ambiguity” over who the beneficiaries will be.

“[…] the wide discrepancy between figures for the landless and housing allocation raises suspicion. According to official figures, there were 19,047 landless people in the region in 2021,” said a report released on Thursday by the Forum for Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir, a civil society group advocating for the rights of the people in the region.

“Presumably the allocation of 199,550 new houses … will cover urban migrants, including labourers, street vendors, and rickshaw pullers. According to the Jammu and Kashmir Housing Board, however, any citizen of India who migrated temporarily or permanently, for employment, education, or a ‘long-term tourist visit’, would be eligible to apply. If the affordable housing policy is implemented, it would lead to the inclusion of around a million people,” the report said.

Mehbooba Mufti, the former chief minister of the region, accused the government of “importing poverty and slums to the region under the pretext of providing housing to homeless individuals”.

“There is total disempowerment of the locals, whether it is in land or jobs,” Mufti told Al Jazeera.

‘The situation is bad’

A year before India scrapped the region’s autonomy, its elected legislative assembly headed by Mufti was dissolved in 2018.

Since then, the region is being ruled by the federal government through its hand-picked administrator as the regional pro-India political parties demand fresh elections.

Mufti accused the government of adopting policies aimed at “disempowering” the local residents and “being driven by a desire to increase their [BJP] vote bank, thus leading to a change in the demographic makeup”.

Mufti said the last four years were “full of surveillance and raids by investigative agencies”.

“Economically also, the situation is bad. Except for showcasing the so-called tourism, whether it’s the fruit industry or any other industry, they are killing it. With such surveillance, no one can express or talk,” she said.

But Altaf Thakur, spokesperson for the ruling BJP in Indian-administered Kashmir, claimed tourism is at an all-time high and for the first time, an international event such as a Group of 20 (G20) meeting on tourism took place in the region earlier this year.

“There is no strike, no stone pelting, no anti-national slogan is being raised. Kashmir is on the way to peace progress and prosperity,” he told Al Jazeera.

The government justifies its 2019 move by saying it ended a decades-long era of “stone-throwing protests”. The region’s administrative head Manoj Sinha says the BJP regime will establish peace in the region “rather than buy it”.

Crackdown on free media

Press freedom in Indian-administered Kashmir has seen an unprecedented crackdown since 2019.

Since last month, nearly a dozen journalists from the region writing for international publications have told Al Jazeera they received emails asking them to surrender their passports for being a “security threat to India”, or face action.

Three journalists from the region are currently jailed outside Indian-administered Kashmir under stringent laws, including the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

Security restrictions on reporting and travel have made the job of a journalist difficult. Many journalists, including Pulitzer Prize winner Sanna Irshad Mattoo, have been barred from travelling abroad.

“The freedom to report is increasingly getting restricted. For example, too many stories on human rights issues will inevitably bring allegations that you have an anti-national agenda,” a 31-year-old Kashmiri journalist told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity since he feared reprisal from the government.

“We have seen reporters facing summons, raids, detentions, no-fly-lists, and now passport seizures. So it automatically narrows down the scope of our reporting,” he said.

The journalist said conflating critical journalism with being anti-national hobbles the ability to gather information and report truthfully.

“No official wants to be seen as speaking to someone who is anti-national. It looks like journalism – unless it is devoted to praising the government or limiting criticism to potholes or lack of sanitation – is being criminalised.”

‘Break the Kashmiris’

At least 50 government employees in Indian-administered Kashmir have been terminated from their services since 2019 on vague charges of being a “threat” to the security of the state.

The law under which the termination was done allows the government to fire its employees without providing an explanation for it.

Meanwhile, unemployment in the region stands at 18 percent – nearly twice the national average – despite promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the government will “end the miseries of the youth”.

“Even if one protests over unemployment, it could be considered anti-national,” Muhammad Saqib, a 28-year-old engineering graduate, told Al Jazeera.

Mohamad Junaid, a Kashmiri anthropologist at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in the United States, told Al Jazeera India has enforced a “blanket silence” in Indian-administered Kashmir.

“Order after arbitrary order is autocratically issued and implemented to disempower, dispossess and break the Kashmiris,” he said.

“Not a single law passed in the last four years has had inputs from the Kashmiri population whose lives these laws are meant to radically alter.”

AL JAZEERA

Ambiguity surrounding BJP’s Kashmir policy

Durdana Najam

August 05, 2023

The writer is a public policy analyst based in Lahore. She tweets @durdananajam

Trump’s time in Washington is marked with three important decisions.

The first decision relates to Afghanistan, where the US had been engaged in one of the longest wars in history. Twenty years of mostly macabre presence did little to persuade the Afghans to shelf their traditional tribal warfare scheme of things in the national interest. The Afghan Taliban refused to comply with nothing less than the US exit from their country. Trump agreed to the quest with an argument that it was for the region to take care of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan and not a country that resided thousands of miles away.

The second decision relates to Israel. Washington recognised Jerusalem — a disputed territory between the Jews and the Palestinians — as Israel’s capital, upending seven decades of the American foreign policy. It coincided with the US-propelled decisions of the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco to recognise Israel as a part of the Middle East.

The third decision relates to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019. The law abrogated Article 370 and brought Kashmir under the direct control of India. The decision led to one of the longest lockdowns in Kashmir history, exacerbated by the Covid-19 lockdown.

All these decisions have had implications for regional and global peace and stability.

Ever since the annexation of Kashmir with India and the hasty, unprepared and unplanned exit of the Americans from Afghanistan, terrorism has returned to the Pak-Afghan borders with the ramification of spreading its wings farther into India and other neighbouring countries. The indifference exhibited by the international establishment is reminiscent of the hasty departure of the US from Afghanistan in 1989 that eventually led to international terrorism culminating in the felling of the twin towers and the attack on the Pentagon —the symbols of capitalism and the US defence power.

There is a similarity between the issue of Kashmir and Israel.

Under a senseless partition plan and an arrangement that backed Nehru’s proposal rather than that of the ailing Jinnah, Kashmir, the largest Muslim area aligned with two borders with Pakistan, was given to India.

The state of Israel is a story of usurpation. The Balfour agreement carved a place for the wandering Jews in Palestine without the latter’s consent. Once the French and the British left the Middle East and South East Asia, the conundrum built in the geographical demarcation became nastier. Not that peace is not welcomed; however, peace brokered against the will of the natives has a short shelf life.

Today is the fourth anniversary of India’s forced annexation of Kashmir — the application of force does not stop at that. It was the beginning of the never-ending cycle of BJP-led reforms, targeted at altering the demographics of Kashmir to axe the premise on which the issue of Kashmir — a Muslim-majority state — rests. One after another, the Kashmiri leadership has been pushed to the wall and incarcerated. The latest in the series was an attempt to execute Yasin Malik by commuting his life imprisonment into death sentence.

Sweden’s V-Dem Institute, which measures the health of democracies based on a comprehensive database, has categorised India as an “electoral autocracy” along with El Salvador, Turkey and Hungary and predicts India’s democracy falling to a new low.

It began with the election of Modi as India’s prime minister, now in his ninth year of rule. India has changed manifold under his rule. What once was a secular, socialist republic has transformed into a theocratic Hindu state, leaning on police and the militarised RSS to prosecute people on the other side of the ideological line.

On the frontline are Muslims. Despite evidence declaring Modi the insinuator of the Gujarat program that killed almost 2,000 Muslims, the so-called human rights champions in the West have failed to implicate him. BBC did try to do that through a documentary, but like many other international media and human rights organisations like Amnesty, the BBC office in Delhi was ransacked. Before becoming the prime minister, Modi was banned from entering the US. Now he is its geo-economic poster boy.

Modi is the darling of India’s business community. The essence of this love affair is apparent from Oxfam’s 2023 report, which shows that the top 1 per cent of India’s population owns more than 40 per cent of total wealth, while the bottom 50 per cent (700 million people) has around 3 per cent of total wealth. That makes India, according to Indian author Arundhati Roy, “a very rich country of very poor people”.

Instead of bringing actual reforms, the BJP government has built a false narrative about peace in Kashmir. The decision to hold G20 environmental meeting in Jammu and Kashmir was taken to prove that the valley and its adjutant areas were safe for tourists. However, deploying India’s elite National Security Guard, including its counter-drone unit and marine commandos, to help police and paramilitary forces secure the event venues said it all. China and Saudi Arabia refused to attend the huddle, with the former questioning India’s right to hold such an event in disputed territory.

According to the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, the entire valley has been turned into a Guantánamo Bay prison.

Recently the BJP allowed the Shia community, for the first time in 30 years, to take out processions on the 10th Muharram. The permission was welcomed with a pinch of salt because of the high security, creating a sense of awe and fear among the participants.

India’s insistence on painting the issue of Kashmir as an indigenous matter is a smokescreen that would eventually bust as more skirmishes like Manipur emerge, exposing India’s brutal handling of freedom of expression and right to live.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5th, 2023.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUISM IS FASCISM 

THIRD TIME LUCKY

Western Canada dock workers vote to accept contract offer

Reuters

August 4, 2023

10:32 PM MDT

A worker walks to the Port of Vancouver as International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) union members returned to clear a backlog of containers and bulk cargo from a 13-day strike in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, July 20, 2023. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo/File Photo

Aug 4 (Reuters) - Dock workers in Western Canada voted to accept an improved labor contract after a month-long dispute that affected trade and disrupted operations at the country's busiest ports, their union said on Friday.

The vote was 74.66% in favor of the terms of the settlement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) said in a statement.

Disagreements in contract negotiations have disrupted billions of dollars in trade, raising concerns about fueling inflation.

‘Maus’ evades a ban in Iowa after school district cites ‘ambiguity’ in new state law

After uproar, Urbandale Schools outside Des Moines walks back removal of Holocaust graphic novel

By ANDREW LAPIN

Today, 

An illustrative image of Art Spiegelman's 'Maus.' (Philissa Cramer/JTA)

JTA — A new Iowa state law forbidding instruction on sexual and gender identity prompted one school district this week to briefly order staff to remove Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” and hundreds of other books from its shelves.

But days later, following national outrage, the district reversed course, issuing a trimmed-down list of 65 books for removal that contained neither “Maus,” nor several other Jewish-themed books on the first list.

The quick about-face in Urbandale Schools, a suburb of Des Moines, was the latest example of the confusing and often contradictory landscape for Jewish texts amid the growing nationwide “parents’ rights” movement targeting what its proponents say are inappropriate books in schools. In Iowa and other states, that movement has fueled legislation targeting educators who distribute content that could be interpreted as sexual.

“We have determined that there is ambiguity regarding the extent to which books that contain topics related to gender identity and sexual orientation need to be removed from libraries,” the district’s superintendent, Rosalie Daca, wrote in a memo to staff Thursday that an Urbandale spokesperson shared with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“As such,” the memo continued, with bolded emphasis, “we will pause removing books that reference gender identity and sexual orientation until we receive guidance from the Iowa Department of Education.”

The memo followed one from earlier this week that, as reported in the Des Moines Register, instructed staff to comb their libraries for more than 300 books in potential violation of the law, including “Maus,” Judy Blume’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” the Holocaust novel “Sophie’s Choice” and Jewish author Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play for adults, “Angels in America.” That initial list prompted a passionate response from the literary free-expression advocacy group PEN America, which implored the district not to follow through with its removals.

In pointed language, administrators blamed the state’s education department for issuing vague and unclear guidance on how to comply with the new law, which Iowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, signed in May and is scheduled to take effect in January 2024. The law states that it is “prohibiting instruction related to gender identity and sexual orientation in school districts” and also forbids “any material with descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act.”

It’s unclear how “Maus” wound up on the initial list of books flagged for removal, or how the district’s decision not to touch books related to “gender identity and sexual orientation” resulted in a stay of execution for Spiegelman’s book. “Maus” recounts the author’s parents’ traumatic experiences surviving the Holocaust, and doesn’t contain any discussion of gender or sexual identity. It does contain a single panel of a nude mouse representing Spiegelman’s mother after she dies by suicide.

The same image previously provoked the ire of a Tennessee school board, which removed “Maus” from its district’s middle-school curriculum over the image last year and catapulted the book into the center of the nationwide book-ban debate. Districts in Missouri also previously removed or considered removing “Maus” over the wording of a new state law forbidding the distribution of explicit materials.

Daca’s memo noted that the Urbandale district compiled its initial list of books by culling “book lists from other states who had passed similar laws.” The district did not respond to follow-up questions about ”Maus.”

Other Jewish books that have been rescued from district-wide book removals include “The Fixer” in South Carolina and “Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation” in Texas, though other districts in Florida have permanently removed the Anne Frank adaptation as well as a Holocaust novel by Jodi Picoult and a picture book about Purim featuring a same-sex couple.

One Jewish-themed book that remains on Urbandale’s removal list is Andre Aciman’s novel “Call Me by Your Name,” which details a Jewish LGBTQ youth’s coming of age and is explicit in its description of sexual acts.

LOOKING BACKWARD

Webb telescope captures iconic Ring Nebula in unprecedented detail

By Ashley Strickland, CNN
Fri August 4, 2023

The Ring Nebula is seen in breathtaking detail, in a composite image released on August 4

.NASA/ESA/CSA/JWST Ring Nebula Team

CNN —

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope for a fresh perspective of an iconic celestial favorite called the Ring Nebula.

The new image captures never-before-seen details within the colorful nebula, located in the Lyra constellation about 2,600 light-years from Earth.

The structure of the Ring Nebula can be glimpsed through amateur telescopes and has been observed and studied for years.

The planetary nebula, which despite its name has nothing to do with planets, is home to the remnants of a dying star as it releases the bulk of its mass.

Planetary nebulae usually have a rounded structure and were so named because they initially resembled the disks from which planets form when French astronomer Charles Messier discovered the first one in 1764.

“I first saw the Ring Nebula as a kid through just a small telescope. I would never have thought that one day, I would be part of the team that would use the most powerful space telescope ever built, to look at this object,” said astrophysicist Jan Cami, a core member of the JWST Ring Nebula Imaging Project, in a statement. He is a professor of physics and astronomy at the Western University’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration in London, Ontario.

“Scientifically, I am very interested to learn how a star turns its gaseous envelope into this mixture of simple and complex molecules and dust grains, and these new observations will help us figure that out.”

The nebula was created as a dying star, called a white dwarf, began shedding its outer layers into space, creating a complex structure of glowing rings and expanding clouds of gas.

“The James Webb Space Telescope has provided us with an extraordinary view of the Ring Nebula that we’ve never seen before. The high-resolution images not only showcase the intricate details of the nebula’s expanding shell but also reveal the inner region around the central white dwarf in exquisite clarity,” said Mike Barlow, University College London professor emeritus of physics and astronomy and colead scientist of the JWST Ring Nebula Imaging Project, in a statement.

“We are witnessing the final chapters of a star’s life, a preview of the Sun’s distant future so to speak, and JWST’s observations have opened a new window into understanding these awe-inspiring cosmic events. We can use the Ring Nebula as our laboratory to study how planetary nebulae form and evolve.”
Stellar life history and chemical makeup

The star’s radiation interacts with the elements that have already been released, causing them to glow. Each chemical element creates a specific color, allowing astronomers to study the evolution of the star.

And astronomers still have questions about the different processes that take place within planetary nebulae.

“The structure in this object is incredible, and to think that this is all created by just one dying star,” said astrophysicist Els Peeters, a core member of the JWST Ring Nebula Imaging Project, in a statement. She is a professor of physics and astronomy at Western’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration.

“Beyond the morphological treasure trove, there is also much information on the chemical makeup of the gas and dust in these observations. We even found large carbonaceous molecules in this object, and we have no clear idea how they got there, yet.”

Observing the universe with the James Webb Space Telescope

Jewish settlers kill MURDER Palestinian teen in West Bank

19-year-old Qusai Jamal Maatan shot dead in raid on village of Burqa, says Palestinian Health Ministry

Awad Rjoob |05.08.2023 - Update : 05.08.2023

JERUSALEM

A 19-year-old Palestinian was killed in a raid by Jewish settlers on the village of Burqa, Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported Friday.

The Palestinian Health Ministry announced that Qusai Jamal Maatan was shot dead by settlers who stormed the village, which is located east of Ramallah.

He was killed during a clash between the settlers and Palestinian villagers.

The settlers also brought animals with them to show that they wanted to establish a settlement by confiscating Palestinian land in the region, WAFA said.

In a message of condolence issued by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on the occasion of the murder of the boy, it called on Palestinians to mobilize to counter the attacks of Jewish settlers.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also issued a statement condemning the armed and organized attacks carried out by settlers on innocent Palestinians in Burqa.

Since the beginning of this year, the West Bank has been witnessing frequent raids and attacks by Jewish settlers under the protection of Israeli forces.

*Writing by Merve Berker

UPDATED

Protesters demand answers on third anniversary of Beirut port explosion

By Eyad Kourdi, Niamh Kennedy and Shirin Faqiri, CNN
Published 11:56 PM EDT, Fri August 4, 2023

Protesters in Lebanon mark the three-year anniversary of the August 4, 2020, Beirut port blast.Mohamed Azakir/Reuters
CNN —

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Lebanon on Friday to mark the third anniversary of a devastating explosion that ripped through a port in Beirut, demanding accountability from officials over a disaster that remains shrouded in mystery.

Footage from Lebanese media showed demonstrators taking to the streets during a nationwide three-day mourning period and chanting slogans against politicians they accused of obstructing the investigation into the blast, which killed at least 200 people and injured 6,000 on August 4, 2020.

The incident at the Port of Beirut in the country’s capital was one of the world’s largest non-nuclear explosions.
The blast sent up a huge mushroom cloud-shaped shockwave, flipping cars and leveling buildings.

It registered as a 3.3 magnitude earthquake and was felt hundreds of miles away, as far as Cyprus.

Investigators attributed the blast to approximately 2,750 tons of seized ammonium nitrate that had been stored in a port warehouse since 2014.

Relatives hold the pictures of some of those killed in the August 2020 Beirut port blast during a march marking the three-year anniversary of the disaster.Emilie Madi/Reuters

But three years on and what caused the ammonium nitrate to ignite remains a mystery.

An investigation aimed at prosecuting several top politicians for criminal neglect has come to a standstill, with activists and legal experts urging the United Nations to initiate a fact-finding mission to uncover the truth.

Earlier this week, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati declared the anniversary of the blast a nationwide holiday.

He also launched a nationwide three-day mourning period for those affected by the blast.

Grain silos damaged in the 2020 Beirut port blast.Emilie Madi/Reuters

“Public institutions and municipalities should close on Friday, August 4, 2023 in memory of the tragedy of the port explosion as a show of solidarity with the families of the innocent martyrs and the injured and their families,” he said.
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Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged support for the former French colony.

In a tweet Friday, Macron recalled his visit to Lebanon days after the explosion, saying he was “at the side” of the Lebanese people.

“Lebanon was not alone. It still isn’t. You can count on France, our solidarity, our friendship,” the French leader said.

Last month, Macron appointed his former foreign minister, Jean Yves Le Drian, to the role of special envoy to Lebanon as part of France’s effort to end the political deadlock in the country.

Beirut port blast: three years on, victims still await accountability

Story by Reuters •

 Smoke rises from the site of an explosion in Beirut

t© Thomson Reuters

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon on Friday marks the third anniversary of the Beirut port explosion which killed at least 220 people, wounded thousands, and damaged swathes of the city.

Despite the devastation, an investigation has brought no senior official to account. Here is a summary of what happened and how the investigation has been stymied:

THE EXPLOSION

The blast is thought to have been set off by a fire at a warehouse just after 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Aug. 4, 2020, detonating hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate.

Originally bound for Mozambique aboard a Russian-leased ship, the chemicals had been at the port since 2013, when they were unloaded during an unscheduled stop.

No one claimed the shipment, tangled in a legal dispute over unpaid fees and defects.

The amount that blew up was one fifth of the 2,754 tonnes unloaded in 2013, the FBI concluded, adding to suspicions that much of the cargo had gone missing.

The blast sent a mushroom cloud over Beirut, and was felt 250 km (155 miles) away in Cyprus.

WHO KNEW ABOUT THE CHEMICALS?

Many Lebanese officials, including then-President Michel Aoun and then-Prime Minister Hassan Diab, knew of the cargo.

Aoun said after the blast he had told security chiefs to "do what is necessary" after learning of the chemicals. Diab has said his conscience is clear.

Human Rights Watch said in a 2021 report that high-level security and government officials "foresaw the significant threat to life ... and tacitly accepted the risk of deaths occurring".


Families of victims of August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast attends a mass on the eve of the third anniversary of the explosion

© Thomson Reuters

INVESTIGATION STYMIED

Related video: Beirut firefighters struggle years after port blast (Reuters)

Duration 2:08  View on Watch

Ruling factions have big sway over the judiciary, which Lebanon's top judge acknowledged in 2022 in general criticism of the problem.

Judge Fadi Sawan appointed by the justice minister to investigate the blast charged three ex-ministers and Diab with negligence in December 2020. But a court removed him from the case in February 2021 after two ex-ministers - Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeitar - complained he had overstepped his powers.

Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai holds shakes hands with a family member of one of the victims of August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast, on the eve of the third anniversary of the explosion

© Thomson Reuters

Sawan's successor Tarek Bitar sought to interrogate senior figures including Khalil and Zeitar. All deny wrongdoing.

Suspects' demands for Bitar's removal over alleged bias and mistakes have prompted several suspensions of the investigation.

The judges meant to rule on those complaints retired in 2022 and no successors were appointed, leaving the probe in limbo.

In early 2023, Bitar unexpectedly resumed his probe and charged more officials including Abbas Ibrahim, a top security official at the time of the blast.

However, Lebanon's top public prosecutor charged Bitar for allegedly exceeding his powers and ordered the release of people detained since the blast, including the former head of the Beirut port authority, putting the probe on hold again.

HEZBOLLAH'S ROLE

Iran-backed Hezbollah has dismissed public accusations it controls the port or stored arms there and it campaigned against Bitar as he sought to question its allies.

In 2021, a Hezbollah official warned Bitar the group would "uproot" him, and its supporters marched in an anti-Bitar protest that prompted deadly violence in Beirut.


Smoke rises from the partially-collapsed Beirut grain silos, damaged in the August 2020 port blast, in Beirut

© Thomson Reuters

Hezbollah has also accused the United States of meddling in the probe. The U.S. ambassador has denied this.



 capsized ship is seen at Beirut port

OVERSEAS ACTION

Victims have turned to foreign courts.

Last year, some filed a $250 million claim in the United States against a company linked to the ship.

In June, a London court awarded nearly $1 million in damages to victims. But it was a symbolic victory because the identity of the beneficial owner of a British-registered firm that had sold the chemicals was not disclosed, making it unclear who would pay.

(This story has been corrected to change the judge's name to 'Tarek Bitar' from 'Fadi Sawan' in paragraph 13)

(Writing by Tom Perry, Timour Azhari, Maya Gebeily; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

Lebanon: Unacceptable lack of justice, truth and reparation three years after Beirut blast

JOSEPH EID/AFP via Getty Images

NEWS

August 3, 2023

Ahead of the three-year anniversary of the catastrophic explosion in Beirut’s port that killed at least 235 people and damaged more than half of the city, Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:

“The Lebanese authorities have had three years to investigate what caused the devastating explosion in Beirut’s port and to hold those suspected of criminal responsibility to account. Yet to this day, absolutely no one has been held responsible for the tragedy that unfolded on 4 August 2020.

Instead, the authorities have used every tool at their disposal to shamelessly undermine and obstruct the domestic investigation to shield themselves from accountability – and perpetuate the culture of impunity in the country.

The international community has repeatedly condemned the authorities’ blatant political interference in the domestic investigation, including in a joint statement at the United Nations Human Rights Council earlier this year. Today, over 300 Lebanese and international civil society groups, as well as survivors and victims’ families, are once again appealing to the Human Rights Council to urgently establish an international fact-finding mission to investigate the causes of the Beirut Blast and identify those responsible for the catastrophe.”

“The Lebanese authorities have had three years to investigate what caused the devastating explosion in Beirut’s port and to hold those suspected of criminal responsibility to account. Yet to this day, absolutely no one has been held responsible for the tragedy that unfolded on 4 August 2020.Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa
Background:

The domestic investigation into the Beirut Blast has been suspended since December 2021 due to a series of legal challenges filed against the lead investigator, Judge Tarek Bitar, and other judges involved in the case by politicians who have been targeted by the investigation.

When Judge Bitar tried to resume the investigation in January 2023, he was slapped with a lawsuit and a travel ban by Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oweidat, who was charged in the port investigation. Oweidat ordered the release of all detained individuals suspected of involvement in the explosion. At least one defendant has since fled the country.

Oweidat’s actions have been deemed illegal by the Beirut Bar Association and the Lebanese Judges Association. However, since then, there has been no progress with the investigation yet to resume.

In March 2023, Australia delivered a joint statement on behalf of 38 states at the United Nations Human Rights Council expressing concern that the domestic investigation into the explosion had been “hampered by systemic obstruction, interference, intimidation, and a political impasse.” The statement called on the Lebanese authorities to abide by their international human rights obligations and safeguard the independence of the judiciary, and to carry out a swift, independent, impartial, credible and transparent investigation.

Three years on, survivors seek answers as Lebanon remembers Beirut blast

Probe on the disaster that killed more than 220 people is virtually at a standstill, with original lead investigator Fadi Sawan dismissed from his job after he charged top government officials.



The massive August 4, 2020 blast at Beirut's port destroyed swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring at least 6,500. (Mohamed Azakir/Reuters File Photo)

Lebanon on Friday marks three years since one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions rocked the capital, Beirut. Yet nobody has been held to account as political and legal considerations continue to undermine investigation.

On August 4, 2020, the massive blast at Beirut's port destroyed swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring at least 6,500.

Authorities said the disaster was triggered by a fire in a warehouse, where hundreds of tonnes of industrial chemical ammonium nitrate, originally bound for Mozambique, had been haphazardly stored for years.

Three years on, the probe is virtually at a standstill, leaving survivors still yearning for answers and wondering who knew about the existence of the stockpile of explosive materials.

The main activist group representing families of those killed has called for a protest march on Friday afternoon, converging on the port.

"This is a day of commemoration, mourning and protest against the Lebanese state that politicises our cause and interferes in the judiciary," said Rima al-Zahed, whose brother was killed in the explosion.

"The judiciary is shackled, justice is out of reach, and the truth is shrouded," she said.

The blast struck amid an economic collapse that the World Bank has dubbed one of the worst in recent history and which is widely blamed on a governing elite accused of corruption and mismanagement.

Since its early days, the probe into the explosion has faced a slew of political and legal challenges.

In December 2020, lead investigator Fadi Sawan filed charges against top government officials, but his action led to his dismissal instead.

'Culture of impunity'

His successor, Tarek Bitar, unsuccessfully asked lawmakers to lift parliamentary immunity for MPs who were formerly ministers. Now he is also facing accusations of bias and dismissal calls.

The interior ministry has refused to take action on arrest warrants which the lead investigator has issued.

Adding to the mystery were revelations that about 80 percent of the explosive chemicals are still missing, and that only a fifth of the 2,754 tonnes originally seized and unloaded in 2013 blew up during the disaster.

In December 2021, Bitar suspended his probe after a barrage of lawsuits, mainly from politicians he had summoned on charges of negligence.

But in a surprise move this January, Bitar resumed investigations after a 13-month hiatus, charging eight new suspects including high-level officials.

In response, he was charged with insubordination and "usurping power", and ordered the release of all those detained over the blast.

Bitar has refused to step aside, yet has not set foot inside Beirut's justice ministry building for months.

"Work (on the investigation) is ongoing," said a legal expert with knowledge of the case, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Bitar is determined to keep his promise to deliver justice for victims' families, the expert added.


A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos, damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast as Lebanon marks third anniversary of the explosion on Friday. 

(Issam Abdallah/Reuters)

'We will get the truth'

Some victims have turned to foreign courts.

Last year, some filed a $250 million claim in the United States against a company linked to the ship.

In June, a London court awarded nearly $1 million in damages to victims. But it was a symbolic victory because the identity of the beneficial owner of a British-registered firm that had sold the chemicals was not disclosed, making it unclear who would pay.

Zahed, whose brother died in the blast, said: "The truth does not die so long as there is someone to demand it.

"We believe that we will get the truth."

On Thursday, 300 individuals and organisations including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International renewed a call for the United Nations to establish a fact-finding mission, a demand local officials have repeatedly rejected.

"International action is needed to break the culture of impunity in Lebanon," HRW's Ramzi Kaiss said in a statement.

Amnesty's Aya Majzoub accused authorities of using "every tool at their disposal to shamelessly undermine and obstruct the domestic investigation to shield themselves from accountability".


Family members of a firefighter who was killed during August 2020 Beirut port explosion react during a memorial ceremony, at a fire station in the Lebanese capital on Wednesday, August 2, 2023. (Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

SOURCE: TRTWORLD AND AGENCIES

Beirut blast 3 years on

Still seeking justice in Lebanon

Three years after the explosion in Beirut port that killed nearly 220 people and displaced tens of thousands from their homes, the family of one of the youngest victims is still seeking answers and fighting for justice. By Diana Hodalip

As 4 August comes around again, so do the memories for the Naggear family. On that date in 2020, the windows in the Naggears' apartment, located in the Beirut neighbourhood of Gemmayzeh, just up the hill from the port, shattered and burst following a huge explosion in the Lebanese capital.

Tracy Naggear and 3-year-old Alexandra were badly injured. A few days later the preschooler, nicknamed Lexou, died in hospital. "We are not good. It's been three years now and it's as if nothing has happened, as if our daughter was just taken like this by chance, and nobody cares," Paul Naggear says.

The child was one of the youngest victims of the port explosion, which eventually claimed the lives of more than 220 people. Thousands more were injured and 300,000 people were displaced after 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate blew up in what was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded. The ammonium nitrate had been improperly stored in a Beirut port warehouse for six years.

A life in pieces: on 4 August 2020, the windows in the Naggears' apartment,
located in the Beirut neighbourhood of Gemmayzeh, just up the hill from the port,
burst following a huge explosion in the Lebanese capital. Tracy Naggear and
3-year-old Alexandra were badly injured. A few days later the preschooler,
nicknamed Lexou, died in hospital. "We are not good. It's been three years now
and it's as if nothing has happened, as if our daughter was just taken like this
by chance, and nobody cares"

Blast investigation stalled

For a long time, the Naggears found it impossible to return to their apartment in Beirut because of the emotional pain, fear and memories; everything about the place hurt for them.

So they moved to Beit Mery, in the hills east of Beirut. On top of the anguish that the explosion had caused, the family has also had to deal with worsening political and economic chaos in Lebanon. The country is dealing with an economic crisis that the World Bank classifies as one of the 10 worst in the world since the 19th century. Lebanon also doesn't have a president right now. 

The Naggears eventually moved back into their Beirut apartment at the end of 2022. "We've been trying to put our life back together for a while," says Paul Naggear, an architect. "And I think we're doing better now." The couple are still fighting for accountability for Alexandra, though.

Hardly a day passes when the Naggears don't meet with the relatives of other victims also engaged in the same fight. "You have to find your own ways to get justice," Naggear says. "It's not a human right in Lebanon. So it's very, very tough for us to bear."

Blaming political elite

Three years on, nobody has been held accountable, despite the fact that there is evidence that Lebanese officials and politicians were implicated in the root causes of the explosion. "Unfortunately the investigation into the port explosion has been suspended for a long time in Lebanon," says Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East Institute at SOAS University in London and an associate fellow at Chatham House.

Political elite seek to suppress inquiry led by Judge Tarek Bitar: the investigation was suspended in 2021, after complaints were filed against Bitar by officials summoned for questioning. "Judge Tarek Bitar is being attacked because he was indicting and incriminating members of the political elite in the August 4 blast," says Diana Menhem, head of Kulluna Irada, an advocacy group for political reform

Khatib is talking about the investigation into the explosion led by Judge Tarek Bitar. Families like the Naggears were optimistic that Bitar, who comes from Akkar in the north of Lebanon and who had a reputation for being incorruptible, would help them. Lebanon doesn't have a good track record of holding criminals to account, but Bitar's investigations had seemed to be moving in the right direction. In a rare February 2021 interview with the French-language Beirut newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour, Bitar had said the investigation was a "sacred" cause for him.

But there have been many obstacles for Bitar. The investigation was suspended in 2021, after complaints were filed against Bitar by officials who had been summoned for questioning. However, the complaints could not be heard at the court of cassation because the relevant judges retired and were not replaced.

In October 2021, the case caused protests in Beirut, some of which became violent. "Judge Tarek Bitar is being attacked because he was clearly indicting and incriminating members of the political elite in the August 4 blast," says Diana Menhem, head of Kulluna Irada, an advocacy group for political reform that is supported financially by Lebanese people from both inside and outside the country.

When Bitar tried to restart the investigation in January 2023, Lebanon's top prosecutor, another judge, Ghassan Oweidat, said Bitar was doing so despite the unresolved legal challenges. Oweidat also said Bitar was overstepping his judicial authority and issued a travel ban against him. Oweidat also ordered that everyone detained in connection with the investigation so far should be set free again.

Threats to Bitar 

"The investigation is stalled because of politically motivated judicial delays that aim to absolve members of the political establishment from accountability," Khatib says. "Leading political figures in Lebanon from across the spectrum do not want to see the investigation yield fruit. And that is because most people who have links with the port explosion, whether directly or indirectly, happen to be from this circle of political leaders."

There are also increasing concerns about threats to Bitar's life. Lebanon has a long history of politically motivated assassinations that have never been cleared up.




Victims' families still pushing for accountability: attempts to restart the investigation in January 2023 were blocked by Lebanon's top prosecutor Ghassan Oweidat, who issued a travel ban against Judge Bitar and ordered everyone detained in connection with the investigation be released. "Such delays aim to absolve members of the political establishment from accountability," says Chatham House fellow Lina Khatib. "Leading political figures in Lebanon from across the spectrum do not want to see the investigation yield fruit"

Paul Naggear also hopes that Bitar can continue his investigations without being targeted. "That would be terrible," he says.

Families of victims, rights groups and some politicians are pursuing multiple routes in their quest for justice. For example, they have requested that the United Nations set up a special international investigation into the exposition.

"An international investigation could establish the facts and circumstances, including the root causes, of the explosion", Human Rights Watch wrote in February 2023. "It could also establish state and individual responsibility and support justice efforts and reparations for the victims".

Another possibility for justice involves civil lawsuits against the responsible parties. One in the United Kingdom has already been successful. It charged a London-registered chemicals trading firm, Savaro Ltd., that was suspected of having chartered the 2013 shipment of ammonium nitrate that ended up exploding in Beirut in 2020. In February 2023, a British court decided in favour of the three families of victims who were involved.

"The ruling gives us hope because it's been the only first step towards getting some justice in this case," Naggear says.

There may be more to come. The Swiss foundation Accountability Now and other victims' families have filed a lawsuit against the U.S.-Norwegian geophysical services group TGS. The company reportedly owns the firm that sub-chartered the ship carrying the ammonium nitrate back in 2012. The lawsuit was filed in Texas.

A failed state in so many ways: with a sectarian political system fraught with cronyism and corruption and an economy that has collapsed as a result, the outlook for Lebanon is bleak. "Lebanon is currently in a state of despair," Khatib continues. "People have almost lost hope that the state will be able to deliver on even their most basic needs"

'State of despair'

Three years ago, Lebanon's relatively well-off middle class might have been able to focus on pursuing justice. But now many Lebanese people are fighting for economic survival. "Lebanon is currently in a state of despair," Khatib says. "People have almost lost hope that the state will be able to deliver on even their most basic needs."

The Naggears feel that way. They have since welcomed a baby son to their family, but they no longer feel safe in Lebanon and are trying to spend as much time as possible in nearby Cyprus. They say they will keep fighting for justice for their lost daughter, even though they know that will be difficult to achieve as long as the corruption and cronyism in Lebanon's political system continues. They also still want to win more supporters to their side in their struggle.

"Of course, we will continue our fight indefinitely," Naggear says, "until we get truth and justice for our daughter."

Diana Hodali

© Deutsche Welle 2023

US decries 'lack of progress' toward justice 3

years after Beirut port explosion

Victims, their families deserve justice and accountability for

 

those responsible, says Statement Department

 

spokesperson

Firdevs Bulut Kartal |04.08.2023 -


TORONTO

The "lack of progress" towards ensuring accountability for the devastating explosion that upended Beirut three years ago "is unacceptable," the US State Department said on Friday.

"The lack of progress towards accountability is unacceptable and underscores the need for judicial reform and greater respect for the rule of law in Lebanon," spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

"The victims and their families deserve justice and accountability for those responsible for the disaster and the underlying causes," he added.

Beirut was rocked by a massive explosion on Aug. 4, 2020 that killed more than 200 people and injured 6,500 others. About 50,000 housing units suffered damage, with property damage estimated to cost $15 billion. It is considered to be the largest non-nuclear explosion ever recorded.

Lebanon's highest court decided in January to release all suspects arrested as part of the investigation into the explosion. Ghassan Oweidat, Lebanon's chief prosecutor, went on to file charges against the judge leading the investigation into the massive blast.

The actions were taken two days after judge Tarek Bitar resumed his inquiry into the deadly blast following a 13-month suspension prompted by political resistance to his attempts to question top officials.

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