S. Korea pushes to unveil secret dossiers on key inter-Korean talks

SEOUL, March 23 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government is seeking to reveal historic records on inter-Korean talks that have been kept secret for half a century, an informed source said Wednesday, a move that could offer a chance for the public to get a better glimpse into some watersheds in tumultuous ties between the two Koreas.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Unification set up a guideline to establish a legal basis on disclosing the documents on past inter-Korean talks, and it is currently conducting an internal review, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The dossiers that may be unveiled include those on the 1972 meeting in Pyongyang between then North Korean leader Kim Il-sung and Lee Hu-rak, then head of South Korea's state intelligence agency. Kim is the North's founding leader and late grandfather of Kim Jong-un, who is at the helm of the country.

In their historic meeting, the two sides agreed upon the July 4 inter-Korean joint communique, the first agreement signed by South and North Korea since the division of the peninsula.


In this file photo dated Nov. 3, 1972, Lee Hu-rak (L), then head of South Korea's state intelligence agency, shakes hands with the North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang. (Yonhap)hide caption

In accordance with the guideline, the ministry has formed a 10-member panel to review documents and other materials to be revealed first that date back to the period of 1971-91.

julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)

The Microsoft source code breach may be much bigger than we thought


By Anthony Spadafora 

published 2 days ago

37GB of Microsoft's internal source code has been leaked online by the Lapsus$ group

After allegedly gaining access to Microsoft's Azure DevOps source code repositories over the weekend, the South American-based data extortion hacking group Lapsus$ has now made some of the company's internal files available online.

In a recent post on Telegram, the group shared a screenshot of Microsoft's Azure DevOps account to show that they had hacked one of the company's servers which contained the source code for Bing, Cortana and a number of other internal projects.

Now though, Lapsus$ has made the source code for over 250 Microsoft projects available online in a 9GB torrent. According to the group, the torrent itself contains 90 percent of the source code for Bing and 45 percent of the source code for both Bing Maps and Cortana.

While Lapsus$ says that they only leaked some of Microsoft's source code, security researchers that spoke with BleepingComputer say that the uncompressed archive actually contains 37GB of projects. After examining the contents of the torrent more closely, the security researchers are confident that the leaked files are legitimate internal source code from the company.

In addition to internal source code, some of the leaked projects contain emails and other documentation that was used internally by Microsoft engineers working on mobile apps. The projects themselves all appear to be related to web-based infrastructure, websites or mobile apps and at this time, it seems that Lapsus$ did not steal any source code for Microsoft's desktop software such as Windows 11, Windows Server and Microsoft Office.

Microsoft may be the latest victim but over the past few months, the Lapsus$ group has made a name for itself by successfully attacking Nvidia, Samsung, Vodafone, Ubisoft and Mercado Libre.

READ MORE

> Okta reportedly hit in serious breach - Lapsus$ strikes again?

> Nvidia hackers hit Samsung and leak huge data dump

> Ubisoft fans need to change their passwords now

While it's still unknown as to how the group has managed to target the source code repositories of so many big companies in such a short time, some security researchers believe Lapsus$ is paying corporate insiders for access. In fact, in a previous post on its fast-growing Telegram channel, the group said that it actively recruits employees and insiders at telecoms, large software and gaming companies, call centers and dedicated server hosting providers.

Besides recruitment, Lapsus$ also uses its Telegram channel to announce new leaks and attacks as well as for self-promotion. The group has already amassed close to 40k subscribers on the platform which it even uses to chat with its fans.

Now that the Lapsus$ group has gained a great deal of notoriety online, expect law enforcement agencies and even large companies like Microsoft to begin taking action to disrupt its activities before it strikes again.

Via BleepingComputer

France probes Interpol president Nasser Al-Raisi for alleged torture, barbarism

The Emirati general is accused of being responsible for the inhumane treatment in his home country of government opponent Ahmed Mansoor

Despite earlier allegations, Raisi was voted in for the job in November, after the UAE made a generous donation to the international police agency

Agence France-Presse
Published 25 Mar, 2022

Major General Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi, inspector general at the UAE interior ministry and then candidate for the 2021 Interpol election speaks on the phone in Istanbul in November. Photo: AFP

French anti-terror prosecutors have opened a preliminary inquiry into torture and acts of barbarism allegedly committed by Emirati General Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi who in November became president of Interpol, judicial sources said on Thursday.

The probe follows a legal complaint by an NGO which accused Raisi of being responsible for the torture of an opposition figure in his role as high-ranking official at the United Arab Emirates interior ministry.

The Gulf Centre for Human rights (GCHR), holding Raisi responsible for inhumane treatment of Ahmed Mansoor, an opponent of the Emirati government, lodged its complaint in January with the anti-terror prosecutors unit whose brief includes handling crimes against humanity.


Allegations of torture had already been levelled at Raisi by human rights organisations when he ran for president of Interpol saying they feared the agency would be at risk of exploitation by repressive regimes.

British citizens Ali Issa Ahmad and Matthew Hedges pose for a photograph after a news conference in Istanbul, Turkey in November. The two men say they were tortured while being detained in UAE in 2018 and 2019. Photo: AP

He was nevertheless voted in as president in November following generous funding from the UAE for the Lyon, France-based body.

There were also accusations that Abu Dhabi had abused Interpol’s system of so-called “red notices” for wanted suspects to persecute political dissidents.

The probe against Raisi is being handled by the prosecution unit for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, the sources said.

William Bourdon, a high-profile lawyer acting for the GCHR, said it was “totally incomprehensible” that the prosecutors had not immediately ordered Raisi’s arrest which, he said, “they should have done given that he is in France”.

China’s nominee wins Interpol seat despite concerns of human rights groups
26 Nov 2021


The accusations were a sufficient motive to lift Raisa’s diplomatic immunity which he enjoys thanks to an agreement between the French state and Interpol, Bourdon said.

GCHR boss Khalid Ibrahim said he had been interviewed by French police on March 18.

“I told them the French Prosecutor is very slow in taking actions in relation to... very serious allegations of torture against against Major General Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi.”

Two previous complaints against Raisi had been rejected on competency grounds by French prosecutors who said they could not prosecute unless the accused resided in France permanently or temporarily.

But in its latest filing, the NGO was able to show that Raisi was in Lyon in January and again in March, using his activity on Twitter as evidence.

Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock poses at the international police agency in Lyon, France in November 2018. Photo: AP

Raisi was elected following three rounds of voting during which he received 68.9 per cent of votes cast by Interpol member countries.

His four-year role at Interpol is largely ceremonial, with Secretary General Juergen Stock handling day-to-day management of the organisation.

Raisi replaced Kim Jong-yan from South Korea, a vice-president who was swiftly elected as a replacement to serve out the rest of the term of the first-ever Chinese president of the organisation.

Meng Hongwei, vanished midway through his four-year term on a return trip to China in 2018. It subsequently emerged that he had been detained, accused of bribery and other alleged crimes.

Raisi joined the Emirati police force in 1980 and worked there for several decades. His candidacy for the Interpol job prompted a series of protests, including from European Parliament deputies.

Several NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, said Raisi was “part of a security apparatus that continues to systematically target peaceful critics”.

Interpol elects UAE official as new president in contentious move
25 Nov 2021


In a previous complaint against Raisi, British man Matthew Hedges said he was detained and tortured between May and November 2018 in the UAE after being arrested on false charges of espionage during a study trip.

Mansoor, meanwhile, has been detained since 2017 in a four-square-metre (43-square-foot) cell “without a mattress or protection against the cold” and “without access to a doctor, hygiene, water and sanitary facilities”, while serving a 10-year sentence for allegedly threatening state security, according to his lawyers.

The UAE’s foreign ministry rejected the complaints over Mansoor’s detention conditions as “without foundation”.

The UAE donated US$54 million to Interpol in 2017 – almost equivalent to the required contributions of all the organisation’s 195 member countries, which amounted to US$68 million in 2020.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

Consuming artificial sweeteners linked to cancer risk: study


New research suggests a possible link between cancer and artificial sweeteners, which are widely used in diet soft drinks (AFP/JOEL SAGET) 

Daniel LAWLER and Isabelle TOURNE
Thu, March 24, 2022,
Consuming artificial sweetener could increase the risk of developing cancer, a large-scale study suggested Thursday, but experts not involved in the research said it was not enough proof to consider changing current health advice.

Sweeteners are consumed by millions every day in products like diet soda, partly as a way to avoid weight gain from sugar -- but how healthy these substitutes are themselves has long been a matter of controversy.

To assess the cancer risk of sweeteners, researchers analysed the data of more than 100,000 people in France who self-reported their diet, lifestyle and medical history in intervals between 2009-2021 as part of the NutriNet-Sante study.

They then compared consumption to the rate of cancer, while adjusting for other variables such as smoking, poor diet, age and physical activity.

The participants who consumed the largest amount of sweeteners, "beyond the median amount, had an increased cancer risk of 13 percent compared to non-consumers," Mathilde Touvier, research director at France's INSERM institute and the study's supervisor, told AFP.

The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, said that a higher cancer risk was particularly seen with sweeteners aspartame and acesulfame potassium -- both used in many soft drinks including Coke Zero.

Out of the 103,000 participants, 79 percent were women and 37 percent consumed artificial sweeteners.

Soft drinks accounted for more than half of the artificial sweeteners consumed, while table-top sweeteners represented 29 percent.

The study found that "higher risks were observed for breast cancer and obesity-related cancers".

Touvier said "we cannot totally exclude biases linked to the lifestyle of consumers", calling for further research to confirm the study's results.

The US National Cancer Institute and Cancer Research UK both say that sweeteners do not cause cancer, and they have been authorised for use by the European Food Safety Authority.

- 'Not proof' -

"The relationship between artificial sweetener consumption and cancer risk is a controversial one, going back to the 1970s when (sweetener) cyclamate was banned for being linked to bladder cancer in rats -- although this was never shown to be the case in humans," said James Brown, a biomedical scientist at Britain's Aston University.

Brown, who was not involved in the study, told AFP that it was "reasonably well-designed" and had an "impressive" sample size.

But he added he did not "believe the current study provides strong enough evidence" for Britain's National Health Service to "change its advice just yet".

Michael Jones of The Institute of Cancer Research, London said that the link reported in the study "does not imply causation" and was "not proof that artificial sweeteners cause cancer".

He said the findings could suggest that "cancer risk may be raised in the type of person who uses artificial sweetener rather than the sweetener itself."

Thursday's findings also do not mean consumers should rush back to sugary drinks -- a 2019 NutriNet-Sante study found that they were also linked to a higher risk of several cancer types.

Brown said that not all sweeteners were equal, with some such as stevia showing health benefits.

Artificial sweeteners are "still likely a useful tool that can help reduce weight gain when replacing sugar -- if the right sweetener is used," he said.

ito-dl/spm

Seven years into Yemen quagmire, Saudis play oil hardball





lSmoke billows during clashes between forces loyal to Yemen's Saudi-backed government and Huthi rebel fighters in Marib province in March 2021 (AFP/-)


Sahar Al Attar
Thu, March 24, 2022, 

Western powers want Saudi Arabia to pump more oil to ease surging prices driven by the Ukraine war, but the kingdom has its own demand: support for its war in Yemen.

Seven years after a Saudi-led coalition launched its first air strikes against Yemen's Huthi rebels, the conflict in the Arab world's poorest country shows no signs of abating.

As oil prices soar due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Saudis have been pressed by Western countries to boost oil output in order to bring down prices.

"The Ukrainian crisis has given Saudi Arabia more leverage to use its 'hard power' assets (oil) and pressure some of the strongest countries, such as the United States," said Saudi analyst Najah al-Otaibi.

Washington, a close Riyadh ally, withdrew its support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen in early 2021 and signalled a strategic "pivot to Asia".

It also removed the Iran-backed Huthis from the US blacklist of foreign terrorist organisations, to ensure the unimpeded delivery of aid.

But the Saudis are unlikely to boost oil output until their "priority" demand that the Huthis again be designated as terrorists is met, according to Otaibi.

Saudi Arabia turned up the heat this week, warning it "will not incur any responsibility" for global crude shortages in light of recent attacks by the Yemeni insurgents on its oil facilities.

The cross-border drone assaults, including against the YASREF refinery on Sunday, were a "direct threat to the security of oil supplies in these extremely sensitive circumstances witnessed by the global energy markets", it said.

- 'War of attrition' -

"This tone, much more alarmist than the one adopted during previous attacks, could be perceived as a message to the West, saying 'we want your support so that any compromise with the Huthis would be on our terms'," said Elisabeth Kendall, a researcher at Oxford University.

When it first intervened in Yemen on March 26, 2015, the Saudi-led coalition was made up of nine countries.

Today, it is largely just Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser extent, the United Arab Emirates, which says it withdrew troops from Yemen but remains an influential partner.

The intervention has stopped the Huthis' advances in the south and east of the country but has been unable to push them out of the north, including the capital Sanaa, which the insurgents seized in 2014.

"Militarily, the war is now at stalemate," said Kendall, with the Huthis still in control of large swathes of territory in which around two-thirds of the population lives under an "increasingly repressive and supremacist system of governance".

"At one point, the war was estimated to be costing Saudi Arabia around $1 billion per week," she added.

According to Abdulghani al-Iryani, a senior researcher at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, the coalition's intervention has "exhausted the military capability of all parties to the conflict, including its allies, by turning it into a war of attrition".

- Humanitarian catastrophe -

The Huthis have often launched missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia and, more recently, has begun to do so against the United Arab Emirates.

The two oil-rich Gulf states share a reputation as being stable destinations for foreign investment, as well as top markets for weapons.

Saudi Arabia "may at this point be keen to extract itself" from Yemen, said Kendall.

"But it needs to be able to position any withdrawal as a win and to ensure that it is not left with a Huthi-controlled enemy state on its southern border," she added.

For now, the Huthis appear unwilling to share power, as they remain a strong force on the ground, with the international community yet to take a firm position against them.

Meanwhile, Yemeni civilians are paying the heaviest price as the conflict rages.

The United Nations estimates that the war has killed 377,000 people, both directly and indirectly through hunger and disease.

Millions have been displaced and the country teeters on the edge of famine, as aid agencies run out of funds and are forced to slash "life-saving" programmes.

Oxfam said this week that more than 24,000 air strikes since the coalition's intervention have damaged 40 percent of all housing in Yemen's cities.

Save the Children said up to 60 percent of children in Yemen know someone who has been maimed in the conflict, with the Norwegian Refugee Council saying that "millions of children struggle to sleep at night, suffering extreme hunger".

saa/aem/dm/dv/dwo/jfx

Canada torn between economy, climate in deciding oil project


Canada's Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, is in the hot seat over whether to approve a controversial offshore oil project 

(AFP/Ben STANSALL) 

Geneviève NORMAND
Thu, March 24, 2022,

Eco warrior turned Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, picked by Justin Trudeau five months ago to guide Canada's climate policy, will soon face his first major test in deciding on a new offshore oil project.

Norwegian firm Equinor is seeking to develop oil discoveries in the Flemish Pass Basin, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of St. Johns, Newfoundland.

Its proposed Bay du Nord project promises to create thousands of jobs and generate Can$3.5 billion (US$2.8 billion) in royalties for the Atlantic island province, rescuing its floundering economy.

But exploiting an estimated 300 million barrels of oil over 30 years would set back efforts to curb climate change.

Oil market turmoil caused by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions against the Russian energy sector could further complicate matters.

Guilbeault, a longtime activist who scaled Toronto's CN Tower in 2001 to draw attention to climate change, is to announce a decision in the coming weeks.

Environmentalists say this will be a "real test" of his and Prime Minister Trudeau's climate bona fides.

The Trudeau administration faces "a very big dilemma," Pierre-Olivier Pineau, an energy policy expert at HEC Montreal business school, told AFP.

"If I had to bet, I think there is a slightly higher chance that he rejects the project," he said, opining that the government needs to show itself to be taking real climate actions, especially after being thrashed in 2018 for salvaging construction of a major pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific coast.

"If he rejects (Bay du Nord), this sends a message reinforcing Canada's image of being a champion in the fight against climate change," Pineau explained.

Equiterre, an environmental advocacy group co-created by Guilbeault in 1993 following the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro that produced the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said Ottawa must reject Bay du Nord.

"Canada is far from meeting its greenhouse gas reduction targets," Equiterre analyst Emile Boisseau-Bouvier told AFP.

The Trudeau government last year enhanced its Paris Agreement target to reduce carbon emissions by 40-45 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. But it is still short of EU and US goals.

"It is not by betting on a moribund industry that we are going to solve the (climate) problem," said Boisseau-Bouvier, explaining that "the next few weeks will be pivotal" for Canada, as it also prepares to unveil a plan to reach its emissions target.

- Climate politics -

Trudeau's Liberals in the last election won six out of seven House of Commons seats in Newfoundland, out of a total 338 seats.

Those six -- including former resources minister Seamus O'Regan, who is now labor minister -- have lobbied fiercely for approval of the oil project, but have reportedly faced pushback within the Liberal caucus.

With the highest unemployment rate in the country, Newfoundland needs the economic boost Bay du Nord would provide -- especially after reduced oil demand and prices related to pandemic restrictions on travel brought construction of another offshore oil project to a halt in 2020.

Ottawa had provided Newfoundland's oil industry Can$320 million in aid back then.

Newfoundland Premier Andrew Furey said he has pressed Trudeau on "the importance of this project to our province," calling it "critical" to the regional economy.

After a four-year environmental review, Ottawa has twice in recent months postponed announcing a decision on Bay du Nord.

"Folks are pretty down about the delay," said Paul Barnes, Atlantic director for Canada's Oil and Natural Gas Producers.

Canada's environmental impact agency last August concluded Bay du Nord was "not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects, taking into account the implementation of mitigation measures."

Pineau acknowledged that intuitively approving the project would seem to go "against climate objectives," but argued that rejecting it would see oil investments go elsewhere, "which is not necessarily any better for the climate."

University of Waterloo professor Angela Carter, who researches ecological and political-economic risks of fossil fuel dependence, sees the issue simply.

"We cannot have it both ways," she said. "Canada cannot meet its climate commitments and expand oil and gas production."

gen/amc/mlm

Surreal footage shows truck's encounter with an EF2 tornado

By Zachary Rosenthal, Accuweather.com 

A young truck driver in Elgin, Texas, accidentally was treated to the ride of his life after he drove directly through the funnel of a damaging EF2 tornado on Monday.

Just before crossing the road, the tornado destroyed a mobile home, injuring one and sending debris and dust from the house up into the air and across the highway. As the twister churned toward the highway, little was in its path other than a lone red truck and its driver.

The truck, a red 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 1500, was quickly enveloped by the twisting winds of the tornado as it crossed the highway in front of storm chaser Brian Emfinger.

As power lines in the path of the tornado sparked and buckled due to the high winds, the truck was shoved over onto its side. With the truck fully on its side, the winds managed to spin the vehicle a full 360 before somehow flipping the truck back onto all four wheels, all while whipping around large debris from the mobile home, trees and power lines.

"I CANNOT believe they drove away like that," Emfinger tweeted, reacting to the dramatic footage he caught.

The driver, whom Emfinger estimated to be a 16- to 17-year-old boy, kept driving down the road after the unbelievably close encounter with the tornado, suffering just a cut on his arm. Emfinger did stop the truck and give the boy his phone so that he could call his parents, according to reporting from the Fort-Worth Star Telegram.

The truck appeared to survive the storm largely undamaged as well, as it was able to drive away with its headlights on even after the type of weather encounter its manufacturers may not have tested for.

The tornado that hit Elgin was part of a larger, ongoing tornado outbreak hitting the southern United States. At least 66 tornado warnings were issued from Monday afternoon into Tuesday morning. Nineteen out of the 20 tornado reports filed by the Storm Prediction Center on Monday and Monday night were from Texas, and there was one tornado report from Oklahoma.

RELATEDTremendous swarm of bugs crawls across the Outback

More dangerous tornadoes were expected in parts of the South on Tuesday, especially in Louisiana and Mississippi, where the Storm Prediction Center issued a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms. This area covers a population of more than 2 million and includes cities such as Baton Rouge, La., and Jackson and Hattiesburg, Miss.

Julian Assange: Wikileaks founder gets married in Belmarsh prison

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERSImage caption,
Mr Assange married Stella Moris, who wore a wedding dress designed by Dame Vivienne Westwood

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has married his long-term partner at a high-security prison in London.

Mr Assange, 50, married Stella Moris on Wednesday in Belmarsh prison, where he has been held since 2019.

The couple were granted permission to marry last year, and the ceremony was attended by four guests as well as two official witnesses and two guards.

Mr Assange is in prison while US authorities seek to extradite him to face trial on espionage charges.

He is wanted over the publication of thousands of classified documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. He denies any wrongdoing.

Earlier this month, the UK Supreme Court refused to allow his latest appeal against extradition.

Ms Moris, a 38-year-old lawyer, was greeted by a crowd of supporters as she left the ceremony in south-east London. They threw confetti and shouted "congratulations" and "free Julian Assange".

She wore a wedding dress designed by Dame Vivienne Westwood - who has campaigned to stop the extradition of Mr Assange.

"I am very happy and very sad. I love Julian with all my heart, and I wish he were here," Ms Moris told the crowd, before describing her husband's detention as "cruel and inhuman".

"The love we have for each other carries us through," she said. "He's the most amazing person."

The couple began a relationship in 2015 and have two children together.

IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIAImage caption,
Four guests were allowed to attend the wedding at the high-security prison

Both children attended the ceremony on Wednesday, along with Mr Assange's father and brother.

Mr Assange's case will now go back to District Judge Vanessa Baraitser, the original judge who assessed the American extradition request.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is then expected to make a final decision.

Mr Assange faces an 18-count indictment from the US government, which accuses him of conspiring to hack into military databases to acquire sensitive information relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The information was then published on the Wikileaks website.

Documents relating to the war in Afghanistan revealed how the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents. Further documents from the Iraq war revealed that 66,000 civilians had been killed - more than previously reported.

The US says the leaks broke the law and endangered lives, but Mr Assange claims the case is politically motivated.

IMAGE SOURCE,EPAImage caption,
A crowd of supporters gathered outside the prison on Wednesday

Ken Baker: Any reason to fear invasion of giant flying spiders?


Ken Baker
Tue, March 22, 2022, 

"Large, Parachuting Spiders Could Soon Invade the East Coast, Study Finds. –Smithsonian Magazine, March 8, 2022.

Nothing like a giant flying spiders story to brighten up your morning news feed. As if there weren’t enough trouble in the world. Really?

Well, yes and no.

I wonder if it’s possible to set aside our arachnophobia for a few paragraphs to take a relatively clear-eyed look at what’s currently understood about America’s newest invasive species, Trichonephila clavata, the Joro spider from Asia.

I admit that finding a spider scuttling across the carpet gives me the creeps. But I think it needs to be said that spiders are not evil and they are not out to get us. Obviously. And yet the outsized fear spiders trigger in so many of us makes you wonder.

Joro ascribed powers it does not possess

Yes, they can bite if threatened, and all spiders have some level of toxicity to their venom. But it’s one thing to recognize the potential threat posed by an animal and to deal with it — say by nervously avoiding, removing, or killing it — and something else again to sweat bullets while doing so because we’ve invested the creature with powers and intention it doesn’t possess.

The joro spider, a native of Asia, has become a common sight in neighborhoods in Athens and across Northeast Georgia.

Of the 20 or so cover stories I’ve read on the introduction and spread of Joro spiders in the Southeast, almost all refer to a single paper by Andrew Davis and Benjamin Frick published in the February 2022 issue of Physiological Entomology.

According to that report, the first observations of a new orb web-weaving spider began coming in from residents of northeastern Georgia in 2014. Specialists soon identified it as the Joro spider, which is native to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China. It is believed to have arrived as a stowaway on oceanic shipping containers (likely as eggs rather than adults).

Since then, the species has rapidly spread throughout the northern portions of the state and is now also found in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. One specimen was reported in 2021 from Oklahoma by a woman who had recently traveled from Northeastern Georgia. The spider (which she euthanized) had apparently hitched a ride on her car, illustrating one of the principle ways the species is expected to colonize new areas.

Named for mythological Japanese spider

The species is named after Joro-gumo, a mythological spider of Japanese folklore that could morph into a beautiful woman (with a penchant for seducing and then devouring men). The females do get quite large, with a body length of about an inch (similar to that of our common garden spider), and long, spindly legs that would cover the better part of your palm, if you were to let her rest there for a spell.

And she is brilliantly colored. The back of Joro’s bright yellow abdomen is crossed by a series of blue-green stripes, there’s a red blotch toward the rear of the underside, and her black legs are each adorned with several yellow-orange bands. The quarter-inch long brownish male is seldom seen (except when courting a female on her web).

While I’ve read several descriptions stating the female’s fangs are too small to pierce human skin, others suggest its bite can be painful. All reports, however, observe that she is not aggressive, only biting in self-defense, and that her venom is not dangerous to humans.

But it will be the female’s web that is most likely to prove a nuisance. They can reach a diameter of 3three to six feet across, hanging from the vegetation of trees and bushes, telephone poles, gutters and porches. Intriguingly, in good sunlight, the silk of the web shines with a rich golden luster.

Most (but not all) experts feel there seems little to stop Joro’s spread throughout the Eastern coastal states and, some suggest, the rest of the nation wherever there’s adequate prey and structure to support its webs. Its range in Japan covers a similar span of climatic conditions to those seen in the Eastern U.S., and experiments reported in the Davis and Frick paper suggest that adults, which breed in the fall, should be able to handle autumn in the northern states.

Only baby spiders can balloon across the sky

That said, no publications have yet reported on how the eggs, which hatch out in the spring, might manage the subzero conditions of winter in the northern states.

And finally this: There will be no large spiders parachuting out of the sky. Only baby spiders can disperse by air. The process, more appropriately called ballooning, entails a spiderling spewing out a thin strand of silk into the air. On a good day (when the atmospheric conditions are just right) a passing breeze can carry the silk, with its tiny spiderling in tow, for many miles.

If you’ve ever had to claw a silken strand off your face while hiking a woodland trail, you’ve experienced evidence of the process, which is a common method of dispersal for many species of spiders.

Ken Baker is a retired professor of biology and environmental studies. If you have a natural history topic you would like Dr. Baker to consider for an upcoming column, please email your idea to fre-newsdesk@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Ken Baker: How fearsome are giant flying Joro spiders?

Giant of the Australian bush takes top spot in Eucalypt of the Year competition

Eucalyptus regnans, commonly known as mountain ash, swamp gum and stringy gum, named Australia’s favourite eucalypt

The winner of the 2022 Eucalypt of the Year, Eucalyptus regnans, is the tallest of all eucalypts and the tallest flowering tree in the world. 

Photograph: Cathy Cavallo, Remember the Wild

Donna Lu
THE GUARDIAN

Wed 23 Mar 2022 03.07 GMT

The mountain ash has towered above its competition to be voted Australia’s favourite eucalypt.

Eucalyptus regnans, commonly known as the mountain ash in Victoria, the swamp gum in Tasmania, and the stringy gum, has won a public vote to be named the 2022 Eucalypt of the Year.

Eucalyptus regnans is the tallest of all eucalypt species and the tallest flowering tree in the world, said Linda Baird, the chief executive of Eucalypt Australia, a charitable trust that runs the poll.


Eucalypt of the Year: 25 species from tall to small vie for top tree

“The tallest ones are usually younger than the oldest ones,” Baird said. “They grow super tall to get their canopy into the light and then they have a habit of dying out at the top – the top 10 to 15 metres.”

The tallest regnans lives in Tasmania’s Huon Valley. Named Centurion, it towers at 100.5 metres high. Another notable tree, named Gandalf’s Staff, could be 500 years old and is found in the Styx Valley.

Victoria’s tallest mountain ash is along the Black Spur road – an 86-metre-high tree that grew after the area was burnt during a bushfire in 1939, Baird said.

Eucalyptus regnans is one of an estimated 80 species of eucalypt that are killed by fire, and can only regenerate from seed.

Other eucalypt species have epicormic buds beneath the bark, which lie dormant until the tree is damaged by fire. The buds then sprout, resulting in fluffy-looking regrowth.

Eucalyptus regnans trees “don’t normally recover from fire well”, Baird said. The species takes around 20 years to grow to maturity, flower and seed – making the increasing severity and frequency of bushfires with climate change an existential threat. “If you have fires within seven-year gaps like what we’ve been having, those trees can’t get fertile,” Baird said.

The trees can be found in higher rainfall areas of Victoria’s eastern highlands, south of the Great Dividing Range, as well as on Mt Macedon and in the Otway Ranges.

In Tasmania, the species is found in the Huon and Derwent Valleys, as well as inland across the north of the state.

The mountain ash faced stiff competition in the public vote from the red flowering gum, Corymbia ficifolia, which is endemic to south-west Western Australia.

A 40-year-old Eucalyptus regnans tree was also named the best eucalypt in show at the 2022 Victorian Native Bonsai Club’s exhibition, Baird said.

Linda Baird of Eucalypt Australia hands Quentin Valentine the best eucalypt in show award for his 40-year-old mountain ash bonsai. 

Photograph: Eucalypt Australia

The terms eucalypt, Eucalyptus and gum tree are often used interchangeably, but have distinct meanings. Eucalyptus is a type – a genus – of eucalypt (plants belonging to the tribe Eucalypteae). Plants belonging to the Eucalyptus, Angophora and Corymbia genera are known as gum trees in Australia, named for the sticky substance that many produce.

The Eucalypt of the Year result was announced on National Eucalypt Day on Wednesday.