Both conservatives and liberals want a green energy future, but for different reasons
by Deidra Miniard, Joe Kantenbacher and Shahzeen Attari, The Conversation

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Political divisions are a growing fixture in the United States today, whether the topic is marriage across party lines, responding to climate change or concern about coronavirus exposure. Especially in a presidential election year, the vast divide between conservatives and liberals often feels nearly impossible to bridge.


Our research examines what people know about the energy sources in use today in the United States, and what types of energy they would like to see the nation using in 2050. Energy connects to many important issues, including climate change, jobs and economic growth, equity and social justice, and international relations. It would be easy to assume that America's energy future is a highly polarized topic, especially when the Trump administration is clashing with many states led by Democrats over energy policies.

However, in a nationwide online survey, we recently found that broad support exists across the political spectrum for a future powered mostly by renewable energy sources. Our work highlights a consensus around the idea that the United States needs to move its entire energy system away from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy sources.

Assessing perceptions

To explore people's views on energy sources, we conducted an online survey of 2,429 adults across the U.S. Our participants represented a range of political ideologies, with 51% self-identifying as liberals, 20% as moderate and 29% as conservative. To investigate patterns in the data, we analyzed responses based on participants' political ideologies.

Our survey asked people to estimate the shares that various energy sources contributed to all energy use in the United States, including activities like generating electricity, running factories, heating homes and powering vehicles. We asked participants to estimate what percentage of U.S. total energy used came from nine energy sources: coal, oil, natural gas, solar, wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal and nuclear power.


Next we had participants describe what they viewed as an optimal mix of these nine energy sources that they hoped the U.S. would use in the year 2050. We also asked what kinds of policies they would support to move the nation from its current status to the future that they envisioned. In a follow-on study, we are examining how factors such as cost and environmental impact influence people's preferences for one energy source versus others.

Estimations of today's energy mix

We found that our respondents had some misperceptions about where energy in the U.S. comes from. They tended to underestimate U.S. reliance on oil and natural gas and overestimate coal's contribution. We believe Americans may not realize how dramatically electric utilities have switched from coal to gas for power generation over the past decade, and may therefore have dated impressions of coal's prevalence.

Conversely, we found that participants overestimated the contribution of lesser-used energy sources—specifically, renewables like wind and solar power. This pattern may partially be explained by people's general tendency to inflate estimates of small values and probabilities, which has been seen in areas ranging from household energy use and water use to risk of death.

In the case of the U.S. energy system, this bias means that people think our current energy system is greener than it really is, which could reduce the perceived urgency of shifting to lower-carbon sources.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called on world governments to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in order to slow climate change – a goal that may not motivate conservative Americans.

Shared goals, divergent pathways

When we asked participants to indicate the amount of each energy source they hoped the U.S. would use in 2050, the broad consensus favored a future in which the nation primarily relied on renewable energy and used much less fossil fuel. Conservatives, moderates and liberals shared this outlook.

Particular preferences for a lower-carbon future varied somewhat by political ideology, but on average all groups supported an energy mix in which at least 77% of overall energy use came from low-carbon energy sources, including renewable fuels and nuclear power.

This bipartisan consensus wavered, though, when we asked participants whether they supported or opposed 12 energy policies—six that would lead to larger roles for low-carbon energy sources, and six that would increase use of fossil fuels.

Liberal participants showed strong support for policies consistent with increased use of low-carbon energy sources, such as providing government funding for renewable energy and subsidies for purchasing electric vehicles. They strongly opposed actions that would increase reliance on fossil fuels, such as relaxing oil drilling regulations or lowering fuel economy standards.

On average, conservative participants supported several policies that favored low-carbon energy use, though not as strongly as their liberal counterparts. Conservatives tended to be closer to neutral or only slightly opposed to policies that promote fossil fuel use.

The sharpest contrast between the two political groups was over building and completing pipelines to move oil from extraction points to refineries in the U.S. Several proposed pipelines have generated intense controversy in the past years. Conservatives generally supported pipeline development, and liberals generally opposed it.

Achieving a low-carbon future

An important argument for transitioning to low-carbon energy sources is to limit climate change to manageable levels. Recent polls show that climate change remains a politically divisive issue, with far more Democrats than Republicans rating it as extremely important to their vote in the 2020 presidential race.

Recent research has shown that both Democrats and Republicans strongly support renewable energy development, but do so for different reasons. Democrats prioritize curbing climate change, while Republicans are more motivated by reducing energy costs. We see these motivations playing out in the real world, where conservative oil-producing states like Texas are experiencing huge booms in renewable energy generation, driven primarily by the improving economics of renewable energy.

Realizing the shared vision of an energy system dominated by renewable energy will mean reconciling partisan differences over how to achieve that future. While there is no single rationale that will convince all Americans to support a transition to low-carbon energy sources, our results are encouraging because we find consensus on the U.S. energy future—everyone agrees that it should be green.


Explore furtherU.S. needs to reduce fossil-fuel dependence, but parties disagree about how to do it
Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

COOPERATION & MUTUAL AID
Selfishness is not the way forward: Researcher makes the case for shared spectrum

by University of Oulu MAY 5, 2020

Marja Matinmikko-Blue, senior research fellow and adjunct professor from the University of Oulu, Finland. Credit: University of Oulu

"Radio frequencies are a natural resource, and as such, there is fierce competition on who gets to use them. It really is a fight over natural resources, and we must work toward a more fair and sustainable use of the radio spectrum," says Marja Matinmikko-Blue, senior research fellow and adjunct professor from the University of Oulu.


As the mobile telecommunication world is gradually shifting to 5G, the fight over frequencies is going on as strong as ever. Whoever has control of the spectrum will hold on to it and not let others use it, even if they themselves are not using it everywhere. Think of it like this: There is a village, and in this village, there is a farm that has more water than it needs for irrigation. But instead of sharing the water with others who want to grow crops, they keep it to themselves to use at a later time. Sharing water instead of just sitting on it would grow the total yield for the entire village.

Holding two Ph.D.s in telecommunications engineering and in industrial engineering and management, Matinmikko-Blue has been making the case for shared spectrum use for years. She says the opposition to sharing underutilized spectrum is still strong after decades of intensive research on spectrum sharing that would allow wireless systems to operate in the same frequency band following predefined rules and conditions.

"The fact is that for all the G's, they have always wanted to have all the frequencies they can get. 3G, 4G, 5G, it's always the same. The problem is that there are other users on those frequencies already, so what's the solution? Push others out? Or share?" Matinmikko-Blue says.

"Mobile network operators always want more and more spectrum because they see that as being their competitive edge and a way of maintaining their position in the marketplace. They want to restrict competition and keep everyone else out. And there are huge forces at work here, because everyone is vying for the same frequencies. The telecom operators are on one side of it, terrestrial broadcasting or satellite companies on another, and so on."

Matinmikko-Blue is in her early 40s, but has already been working in the field for over 20 years. She first got into telecommunications when she landed a summer job as a student at Nokia and their plant in Oulu, being around network equipment like base stations.

"That was the time when 3G was coming around. I remember being in a training where a tech person explained what's inside these new boxes and how they work. That was the thing that really sparked my interest in this stuff, this hands-on experience. And realizing that Oulu is actually quite the hotspot for telecom, both in research and in industry," Matinmikko-Blue says.


When she got back to her studies, she enrolled in a lot of telecommunication classes, taking the same courses as the electrical engineering students. The ball had started rolling, and she found herself being drawn to a researcher's life. The next major step in her career was as a research scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd., where she ended up working for 15 years.

"VTT had a lot of close collaboration with industry and I learned a lot while I was there. I was a young woman in my twenties there, so it was not always easy, but I had a lot of responsibility there, being in charge of projects. I also got involved in a major EU project called WINNER in 2004, with all the big companies in the industry. I was lucky to be 25 years old and being able to work with all these people who had so much more experience than I."

Efficiency, equality, exercising control

Matinmikko-Blue found herself working in close collaboration with industry and regulators on mobile communications spectrum requirements for the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2007 at the International Telecommunication Union, or ITU. Increasingly, she became involved in bridging the gaps between industry, academic research and regulators. In this role she got a call from the University of Oulu and was offered a position there, which was tailored to her expertise.

"It really was a position built around spectrum management, regulation, industry collaboration and research, and everything I was interested in. They had realized that this is a critical part of telecommunications research, seeing how things work in the real world and what are the forces that drive or oppose change," Matinmikko-Blue explains.

And change is something that Matinmikko-Blue believes in strongly. In the future, she wants to see a world where spectrum sharing is the norm, for many reasons.

"It is about efficiency. If there is spectrum that's not being used efficiently, it is a resource that's being wasted. It is also about equality. 5G is happening in the big cities, it's not reaching the rural areas or remote locations. If there was local licensing, smaller stakeholders could set up their own wireless networks to serve less populated areas where operators do not build their networks. And it is also about taking control. Right now, businesses are beginning to look at networks as something they want to have control over and not have to rely on operators to make changes in the quickly changing world," Matinmikko-Blue says.

A turning point in the conversation

Right now, the world is also dealing with the COVID-19 crisis that is affecting everyone. This crisis has also highlighted the need for reliable telecommunication networks. Online teaching is just one example, but it underscores the meaning of connectivity in modern society, and how that connectivity has the power to join people together or separate them.

"If we leave spectrum management, local licensing, sharing of this natural resource to the whims of the marketplace, it will not happen. Not in a world where we still grant exclusive nationwide rights to deploy 5G networks for decades. Money should not be the only yardstick with which we measure success," Matinmikko-Blue muses.

And this concept of allowing different stakeholders to operate their own local cellular networks is picking up momentum. Matinmikko-Blue says that she really felt a change happen in the European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC) that took place in Oulu in 2017.

"At the conference I was in a panel discussion explaining the upcoming 5G spectrum situation and its potential ramifications as well as options in moving forward, and I really felt that it was a kind of a turning point. All these EU representatives and national regulators were attending and they picked up the conversation. Who gets to operate 5G networks? This has been a conversation that has been slow in getting started but is gaining momentum. However, in Finland the operator dominance has continued in 5G and the same auction mechanisms are still used although the spectrum bands have very different deployment characteristics," Matinmikko-Blue says.

Matinmikko-Blue has been putting in a lot of effort to this. She has worked on cognitive radio systems and chaired studies on them at the ITU. She has also led the development of pioneering Licensed Shared Access field trials in Finland using 4G networks and developed local 5G licensing and alternative local operator models. She has been the advocate for pushing stakeholder management perspectives into spectrum discussions to respond to the changing world. As such, she does see encouraging examples of optimizing spectrum use in different countries.

"In the United Kingdom, for instance, the regulatory body is very progressive. If an operator is not utilizing a part of their spectrum, there are mechanisms that allow the band to be put to good use. The UK regulator has been inspired by our studies. In addition to Britain, local licensing has become possible in several other countries in the past few months," Matinmikko-Blue says.

Matinmikko-Blue is also the Research Coordinator of 6G Flagship. Together with 30 international experts, she has been writing a White Paper on the connection between 6G and United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The final paper is out this summer and it is built around the idea that the UN SDGs should drive the development of 6G.

With all of this, Matinmikko-Blue is invested in building a world where flexibility and sharing are a given and where efficient spectrum use is seen sustainable at a societal level. Of course, change happens slowly especially when a major paradigm shift is needed. But technology continues to evolve at an ever faster rate. Just look at where we were ten years ago, where we are now, and think of where we will be in another ten years' time. Especially if we think of the entire village, not just our farm.

Japan computer-savvy teen designs app to fight pandemic

by Yuri Kageyama

In this Dec. 14, 2019, photo released by Syu Kato, Syu Kato takes a selfie in Guam. Curbing the spread of the coronavirus outbreak rests on accurate knowledge of where infected people have been and whom they have come in contact with so they can be tested and treated. Kato, a 16-year-old Japanese computer whiz, has designed an iPhone software application that uses GPS so people can keep their own records of where they've been. (Syu Kato via AP)

Curbing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic rests on knowing where infected people have been and who they've come in contact with so they can be tested and treated.

Like many teens, 16-year-old Syu Kato loves skateboarding, Bruno Mars and hamburgers. But he's putting his knack for programming to good use. Kato has designed an iPhone software application that uses GPS so individuals can keep their own records of their whereabouts in their mobile phone, to help with such contact tracing.

Called Asiato, for "footprint," the app keeps track of a phone's movements within a distance of 10 meters (33 feet) or more. An English version of the app is available free from the iPhone App Store.

The app works like a diary, but keeps track of locations. To protect privacy, the data is stored in the phone and is not automatically shared.

If a person discovers they have COVID-19, Asiato identifies where they've been in the past several weeks. They would need to reach out on their own to people they may have infected, or inform health authorities if asked.

Under Japan's pandemic state of emergency, citizens are asked, not ordered, to stay home. Keeping track of their movements remains a crucial way to help control the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. It also could be used elsewhere as economies reopen around the world, Kato said.

Kato got an early start in putting his knack for programming to good use. In the fifth grade, he designed a mathematics application to do division that gives the remainder as a number for the answer, not decimal points.

While in sixth grade, he developed a program for writing book reports. The 240 yen (about $2) program simplifies the process and no cheating is involved, he says.

In 2017, Kato won the "super creator" award from the government-backed Mitou Foundation, set up to support innovation, for his DrawCode, which simplifies writing the language for web pages and programs, known as HTML, so children can do programming.

Yu Ukai, who heads the foundation's youth efforts, said he was impressed with Kato's passion and the speed with which he identifies problems and comes up with solutions.

In this Dec. 20, 2018, photo released by Kenichi Kato, Syu Kato poses for a photo in Hawaii. Curbing the spread of the coronavirus outbreak rests on accurate knowledge of where infected people have been and whom they have come in contact with so they can be tested and treated. Kato, a 16-year-old Japanese computer whiz, has designed an iPhone software application that uses GPS so people can keep their own records of where they've been. (Kenichi Kato via AP)

"There are a lot of ways young people like Syu can contribute to society during the pandemic as the crisis reveals many challenges that can be solved using technology," Ukai said.


Kato's new project is setting up a website for restaurants and customers to share menus and other takeout information.

Tokyo and other major cities have Uber Eats and other services. But in places like Hokkaido, northern Japan, where Kato lives, it's harder for people stuck at home to find options for food takeout or delivery. Such a site would also help hard-hit restaurants find customers.

Kato is a digital whiz in what he says is an "analog" family. His parents run a small amusement park and his older brother works there. The downturn in tourism due to the pandemic has devastated the family business.

Plans for Kato to attend school in the U.S. later this year were canceled because of the pandemic and he is studying online. But he hopes eventually to travel overseas and maybe start his own venture.

What draws him to coding is the sheer joy of creation, he said.

"Then if I can also make a bit of money, that would be great," he laughed.

It's tough competing as the little guy against big players, Kato said.

Going after niche needs sometimes fails because you've gone after something too niche, he said.

"It's not enough to be able to program," Kato said. "You have to make it a real product and release it to the world, without giving up, so lots of people can download it and experience it."

© 2020 The Associated Press

Researchers develop chemistry needed to create marijuana breathalyzer
by University of California, Los Angeles

The legalization and decriminalization of marijuana in California and elsewhere have made marijuana detection especially important, said senior author Neil Garg. Credit: Jesse Herring

UCLA chemists have reported the key chemical discovery necessary for the creation of a small, electronic marijuana breathalyzer. The research is published in Organic Letters, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society.


The legalization and decriminalization of marijuana in California and elsewhere have made marijuana detection especially important, said senior author Neil Garg, UCLA's Kenneth N. Trueblood Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and chair of UCLA's department of chemistry and biochemistry.

"When I grew up, people were taught not to drive drunk," Garg said. "I haven't seen the same type of messages for marijuana yet, and statistics indicate more than 14 million people in the U.S. smoke marijuana and drive. Our goal was to devise a very simple solution that could be adopted by society. We have shown in this study we can change the chemical structure and properties of THC—the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana—using perhaps the simplest chemical means possible: electricity, to determine whether a person is impaired."

"We want a simple breathalyzer that doesn't require specialized training because a police officer is not a trained synthetic organic chemist," said lead author Evan Darzi, a former postdoctoral scholar in Garg's laboratory.

While Darzi and Garg have developed the chemistry that would be at the heart of a marijuana breathalyzer, they have not created an actual device. "We have established the fundamental proof of concept," said Garg, who received the 2018 Robert Foster Cherry Award—which is the largest university teaching prize in the U.S., awarded by Baylor University—and was named the 2015 California Professor of the Year.

Darzi and Garg developed a simple oxidation process similar to that used in an alcohol breathalyzer. Oxidation is the loss of an electron from a molecule. The researchers removed a hydrogen molecule from THC (whose full name is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). Alcohol breathalyzers convert ethanol to an organic chemical compound, and hydrogen is lost through the oxidation process.

"The chemistry we are doing with THC is the same thing," Garg said. "We remove a molecule of hydrogen from THC. That is oxidation. This leads to changes in the color of the molecule that can be detected."


Darzi and Garg report two ways to do the oxidation of THC. Their preferred, inexpensive approach is to use electricity.

"Some of our initial ideas involved trying to get complicated molecules to bind to THC in order to detect a signal," Garg said. "After a while, we realized the simplest solution is to pump electricity into THC and have a chemical reaction occur that produces a change we can detect. It doesn't matter what the change is, as long as it is easy to detect. Oxidation is one of the simplest reactions one can do to a molecule."

The structure of THC includes a unit called a phenol. When chemists oxidize a phenol, the oxidation produces a member of a class of organic compounds called quinones. "We know how to oxidize a phenol into a quinone," Garg said.

THC and the quinone absorb light differently. "Once we knew that," Garg said, "we decided to use electricity to perform the oxidation." Darzi used a new device in Garg's laboratory (called an ElectraSyn 2.0 by IKA Works) that allows him to perform electrochemical reactions.

The chemists saw a change in where the molecules absorb light. THC absorbs light at a certain wavelength, and Darzi and Garg found that when it is oxidized, it absorbs light at a different wavelength.

"Doing organic chemistry using electrochemistry is not something that people in my field historically have done regularly," Garg said. "Evan studied different variations of how to set up the chemical reactions until he found the best way to oxidize THC."

In order to conduct the research, the chemists first obtained a license from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to study THC in their laboratory.

The chemists said they have had positive responses from other chemists with whom they have shared their research.

The next big step, Garg said, is to achieve the same result with a breath sample from a person who has very recently consumed marijuana, and to avoid false positives. Studies suggest marijuana on the breath can reliably reveal whether marijuana was smoked or otherwise consumed in the last four or five hours, Darzi said. Garg hopes his laboratory will continue this research in collaboration with a company interested in developing the technology. However, he noted there are significant challenges to develop this technology at a university due to federal regulations. UCLA has filed a provisional patent application on the THC oxidation.

Garg's hope is that a marijuana breathalyzer would be inexpensive enough for consumers to buy so they can test themselves before deciding whether to drive. Garg and Darzi expect that a marijuana breathalyzer would produce a numerical result, perhaps similar to the blood alcohol level measurements of an alcohol breathalyzer—but the details go beyond the scope of this research.

"Professor Garg and I both have young children," Darzi said, "and our children will grow up in a world where marijuana is legal. We're glad we can play a role in helping society address this issue."


Explore further  Researchers create breathalyzer that can detect marijuana

More information: Evan R. Darzi et al, Electrochemical Oxidation of Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol: A Simple Strategy for Marijuana Detection, Organic Letters (2020). 

DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.0c01241

Journal information: Organic Letters

Provided by University of California, Los Angeles

New genetic study of lions may help to prevent them going extinct

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A large international team of researchers has conducted an extensive genetic analysis of lions, and in so doing, has learned about their evolutionary history. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes how they confirmed long-term divisions between extant lion populations and showed genetic diversity among modern samples.


Prior research has shown that historically, lions have lived in many parts of the word, even in America. Most such species went extinct, however, including the cave lions that once roamed what is now Eurasia approximately 15,000 years ago. Today, lions live in parts of Africa and India and are endangered—just 20,000 African lions remain in the wild today, and their numbers are dwindling. In this new effort, the researchers carried out an extensive examination of the lion genome as part of an effort to save them from extinction.

The work involved analyzing the genomes of 20 specimens, including the cave lion and 12 historic lines that were known to live sometime between the 15th and 20th centuries—and six specimens from modern African and Asiatic lions.

One of the major findings was that modern lions and several extinct lions shared a common ancestor. They also found that approximately 70,000 years ago, two unique lineages of modern lion lineages emerged—and that cave lions lived in cold climates.

The researchers note that prior studies of the lion genome involved analysis of mitochondrial DNA—in this study, they went much further by looking at the whole genome—some of which was derived from 30,00-year-old lion fossils. They learned that modern lines split off from two different lineages in Africa—one in northern parts of Africa, the other in the south.

The researchers also found that the Asiatic lions living in the Gir forest in India have low genetic diversity due to their small population. And they found that the Asiatic lions evolved from the northern range lions in Africa, though they still had remnants of southern lions in their genome. They did not find any evidence of African lions being introduced into India in modern times. The researchers suggest their findings will help with lion conservation efforts in both India and Africa.

Amphibian study shows stress increases vulnerability to virus
by Washington State University

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Even the anti-freeze frog is not invulnerable to stress, according to a new study led by Washington State University researchers.


The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B on May 5, found that wood frogs, known for their ability to survive being frozen through, are more susceptible to lethal ranavirus infections if they have been raised in ponds high in salinity from road deicer. The findings lend more weight to the stress-induced susceptibility hypothesis, which could help explain dramatic wildlife population declines in recent years.

"We're seeing these mass mortality events in wildlife that are often due to infectious diseases; while at the same time, we notice an association with some kind of environmental change," said Emily Hall, the lead author on the study, which was part of her dissertation at Washington State University.

The researchers studied wood frog larvae in ponds in the northeastern U.S. where the use of salt as a road deicer is common. Originally, Hall was interested in the effect of road salt in ponds on the frog's development, but at some of her study sites, all the tadpoles simply died.

"It's really dramatic when you go to a pond and suddenly all the little tadpoles are floating on the surface," Hall said. She discovered they had died of ranavirus, a common viral pathogen that healthy wood frogs often survive.

Working with her advising professor Erica Crespi, who specializes in stress physiology, and Jesse Brunner, a disease ecologist, Hall started a new study using a combination of field work and lab studies to look at the potential link between the stress of salinity and susceptibility to infection.

The researchers found the animals who had been exposed to salt had 10 times more intense infections when exposed to ranavirus. The salt-water tadpoles were also more infectious, shedding five times as much virus into the water as infected animals who had grown up in freshwater without salt added.

The researchers did not see an increase in the frogs' corticosteroids, stress hormones, just from salinity. It was only with the virus infection did they see the magnified hormone levels and that inhibited the immune response.


This finding has implications beyond the small northeastern ponds, said Crespi.

"We may be studying an amphibian-pathogen system, but what we saw is being played out right now with the COVID-19 epidemic," Crespi said. "Chronic non-lethal stressors can cause health outcomes that we aren't aware of until a crisis happens. People, who are in constant socioeconomic stress or have higher incidence of metabolic disease or asthma, are experiencing more severe infections and higher incidence of mortality. That's also what we saw in our salty ponds."

The WSU study also has implications for how scientists approach wildlife conservation and mass die-offs of species. Unlike other species of amphibians, the wood frog is not experiencing major population declines. It is a common, usually resilient frog with a range that extends from Alabama to the Arctic. Mass mortality events from the virus have been observed in many parts of the world, but why one population experiences a die-off and not another is an open question. Researchers hypothesized that underlying poor conditions that elevate stress could play a role in where these mortality events occur.

"Since wood frogs are not a species of concern, people might not consider this a conservation story, but I do," Crespi said. "No one predicts die-offs. It's not a linear progression of decline. It's always a confluence of multiple things that act synergistically to cause an outcome that's more severe than expected. We should consider looking at preventative medicine in conservation."

Practicing preventative conservation would require monitoring populations, evaluating the complex relationship of stressors and health threats as well as looking for ways to reduce the threats, Crespi said. In this case, the researchers recommended that road crews look for opportunities to reduce the use of salt in winter road treatments while balancing safety, such as using gravel as is done in parts of the Pacific Northwest.


Explore further  Study shows hope for fighting disease known as Ebola of frogs

More information: Salinity stress increases the severity of ranavirus epidemics in amphibian populations, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or … .1098/rspb.2020.0062

Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

DESPITE COVID-19 SCIENCE MUST GO ON

Tummy rumbles? Otters juggle pebbles when hungry, study finds

Asian otters’ playfulness with rocks a mystery but Exeter study links juggling to hunger



Nicola Davis Wed 6 May 2020 THE GUARDIAN

Whether tossing pebbles between their paws or rolling stones on their chest and even into their mouth, otters are experts at rock juggling. Now researchers say the behaviour largely appears to be linked to a rumbling tummy.

Many species of otters are known to toss pebbles around, often while lying on their backs, in what appears to be an example of animals playing with inanimate objects. Mari-Lisa Allison, of the University of Exeter, said: “[I have seen] an otter at the fence putting a pebble through the mesh and then catching it underneath and rolling it round, round the fence”.

But quite why otters rock-juggle has been something of a conundrum. Now Allison and colleagues say their experiments back up the view that otters rock-juggle more when they are hungry.

“This seems to be the immediate driver of the behaviour. There, in that moment, they are rock juggling because they are hungry, they are anticipating food and they are getting excited,” said Allison. But, she noted, further research is needed. “The ultimate function is still quite a mystery,” she said.

Writing in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Allison and colleagues told of examining the behaviour of otters at three wildlife parks and zoos in the UK. The team recorded about 12 hours of observations for each of 48 otters, six of which were smooth-coated otters and 42 of which were Asian small-clawed otters.

The team note the small-clawed otters forage for shellfish and crabs, while the smooth-coated feeds on fish. This difference suggested the latter might juggle rocks more frequently as they relied on dexterous movements to a greater degree. However the team found no such difference, although they said that could be due to the small number of smooth-coated otters observed, adding that the two species did show different juggling actions.

Further analysis revealed that among otters aged 11 years or below, juggling was more frequent the younger the animal, suggesting, the team said, that the movements could help with the development of motor skills.

However, the behaviour was also common among senior otters. Perhaps, the team said, the juggling had a role in preventing cognitive decline, although more work is needed to explore the idea.

The researchers also found otters juggled more frequently if they had not been fed for two or more hours. The team said that that could support previous suggestions that rock juggling was a type of “misdirected foraging” – in other words the hungry otters could be performing the type of dexterous movements they would use when extracting meat from shellfish but on rocks or pebbles instead.

Yet rock juggling does not seem to be a way by which the otters practise or improve their skills. The team presented the otters with minced meat inside medicine bottles, tennis balls and between two plastic bricks, but those experiments gave no sign that otters who juggled more frequently had greater success with solving puzzles.

But the team say the experiment had limitations; many of the older otters were arthritic, and the animals could have been put off by the unfamiliar nature of the task or might not have understood the puzzle.


Prof Hannah Dugdale, of the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, who was not involved in the work, welcomed the study. “The reason why otters juggle rocks has been difficult to study as there are many different variables that need to be considered at the same time, such as the age of individuals and how hungry they are,” she said, adding that the new study helped tease apart such factors.

But, she added, more work is needed to explore factors involved in rock juggling in wild otters, and its frequency, to fully understand the evolution of such behaviour.

Dr Elizabeth Chadwick, of Cardiff University, who is principal investigator of the Cardiff University Otter Project, also said questions remained. “Otters are absolutely captivating and rock juggling is one of their most intriguing behaviours,” she said. “The study helps explore and describe some of the differences in rock juggling between individuals, but is unable to provide the elusive answer as to why otters juggle.”

Otters juggle stones when hungry, research shows

by University of Exeter
 

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Hunger is likely to be the main driver of stone juggling in otters, new research has shown.

Researchers from the University of Exeter have carried out an extensive study into why captive otters tend to play with stones, commonly referred to as "rock juggling".

The dextrous mammals are often seen lying on their backs and batting the stones into the air, catching them and rolling them around their chests and necks.

Experts had suggested the behaviour might help the animals practise the foraging skills they need to extract foods from complex prey such as mussels and clams.

However, while the new research showed that young and older otters tended to juggle more than reproductive adults, these frequent jugglers were no better at solving food puzzles—suggesting the practice does not hone foraging skills.

Instead, the study showed that otters juggle more when hungry, in anticipation of feeding times in captivity—suggesting that it could be excitement for food.

The study is published in Royal Society Open Science on Wednesday, May 6th 2020.

Mari-Lisa Allison, lead author of the study said: "Zoo visitors are often enthralled by the otters' playfulness. Surprisingly, very few studies have investigated why otters are so keen to juggle stones. Our study provides a glimpse into this fascinating behaviour. While hunger is likely to drive rock juggling in the moment, the ultimate function of the behaviour is still a mystery."

For the new study, the research team analysed rock juggling in Asian small-clawed (Aonyx cinereus) and smooth-coated (Lutrogale perspicillata) otters found in zoo environments.

While the species are closely related, Asian small-clawed otters perform extractive foraging movements to exploit crabs and shellfish, while smooth-coated otters forage on fish.

The team set a series of puzzles for the otters to solve in order to gain access to a reward of food, to see whether the otters that juggled more frequently were faster at solving the puzzles. They also investigated whether sex, age and hunger levels could explain why some otters juggled more than others.

The team found that both juvenile and senior otters juggled more than adults. The authors suggested that the function of the behaviour may change over an otter's lifetime—aiding development in juveniles while potentially keeping the brain active in seniors. Otter parents may have been juggling less as they did not have the time while looking after their pups. However, rock-juggling frequency did not differ between species or sexes.

Crucially, otters juggled more when "hungry", indicating that juggling may be a misdirected behaviour in anticipation of feeding time.

Senior author Dr. Neeltje Boogert added: "While it did not appear that frequent jugglers solved food puzzles faster, more research is needed to exclude the "practise makes perfect" hypothesis to explain rock juggling in otters.


Explore further  Otters learn by copying each other

More information: The drivers and functions of rock juggling in otters, Royal Society Open Science, royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.200141

Journal information: Royal Society Open Science

Trump's Wuhan Lab Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory Is Bogus, According to, Uh, Everyone

The WHO and Dr. Anthony Fauci have both poured cold water on the conspiracy theory Trump and Mike Pompeo are spreading.

By Tim Hume May 5 2020

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s claims that the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab are getting little support elsewhere, with the World Health Organization, Western intelligence sources and even Trump’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci all saying there is no evidence to back the theory.

Trump made the claims at a White House press briefing last Thursday, claiming he had seen evidence that COVID-19 had originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doubled-down on Sunday, saying there was “enormous evidence” to back up the theory.

But the narrative has found little support elsewhere, with leading health and intelligence authorities pushing back on the claim and saying the evidence pointed elsewhere.

“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, (the scientific evidence) is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated,” Dr. Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told National Geographic in an interview published Monday.

“Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that (this virus) evolved in nature and then jumped species.”

The World Health Organization — which Trump slammed last week as acting “like the public relations agency for China” — also dismissed the president’s claims Monday, describing the theory as “speculative.”

“We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin of the virus — so from our perspective, this remains speculative,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told an online press conference.

Meanwhile, intelligence sources in Britain and Australia told The Guardian that there is no evidence that the virus had leaked from the Chinese lab.

The sources also cast doubt on a recent “15-page dossier” — purportedly leaked from the Five Eyes intelligence network comprising the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and Canada — that was the basis of a report in Australia’s Daily Telegraph on Saturday, claiming that a researcher at the Wuhan lab was the virus’s patient zero, and that China had orchestrated a cover-up.

The sources told The Guardian that the dossier did not appear to be based on classified Five Eyes documents but rather on open source, public domain material.

Three of the four other members of Five Eyes have declined to back up Trump’s claims on the origin of the virus so far, with officials in Ottawa and London saying it was too early to draw conclusions, and that further investigations are needed. On Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison went further, saying it was “most likely” that the virus had come from a wildlife wet market in Wuhan, while calling for an independent international investigation.

As the virus has ravaged the U.S., both Washington and Beijing have sought to blame the other for the catastrophic spread of the virus, prompting warnings from the WHO that the politicized blame-laying could hamper efforts to respond to the pandemic.

The Trump administration, which has long angered Beijing by referring to coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” or the “Wuhan virus,” has recently ratcheted up efforts to paint China as the villain, reportedly pushing U.S. intelligence agencies for information that could support the theory that the outbreak began in the Wuhan lab. The push prompted concern among analysts that the intelligence could be distorted for use in a growing clash over the pandemic with Beijing.

For its part, China has sought to portray itself as a country that has successfully contained its own outbreak and has been using its resources and expertise to help the rest of the world, while spreading a conspiracy theory via state media that a U.S. military athlete brought the virus to Wuhan during the World Military Games in October.

READ: China is blaming a lone U.S. cyclist for coronavirus

Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies director, warned Monday against politicizing any inquiry into the origin of the virus, saying that if the questions were framed as an “aggressive investigation of wrongdoing, then I believe that's much more difficult to deal with.”

“Science needs to be at the center,” he said. “If we have a science-based investigation and a science-based inquiry... then that will benefit everybody on the planet.”

Already, the allegations from Trump and Pompeo have drawn a bristling response from Beijing, with Chinese state media editorials accusing the Secretary of State of “bluffing” with his “groundless accusations."

“Since Pompeo said his claims are supported by ‘enormous evidence,’ then he should present this so-called evidence to the world, and especially to the American public who he continually tries to fool,” read an editorial in the state-run Global Times newspaper Monday.

READ: The Chinese government has convinced its citizens that the U.S. Army brought coronavirus to Wuhan

“The truth is that Pompeo does not have any evidence, and during Sunday's interview, he was bluffing.”

Cover: President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with Daniel O'Day, CEO of Gilead Sciences Inc., in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 1, 2020, in Washington. U.S. regulators are allowing emergency use of first drug shown to help coronavirus patients that is made by Gilead. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

UPDATED

Mercenaries Behind Failed Venezuela Coup Claim to Have Done Trump Security

An Instagram post and promotional video by Jordan Goudreau's Silvercorp claims that the company did security for a Trump rally in November 2018.By Ben Makuch May 5 2020


Silvercorp, the mercenary company caught Sunday in a bizarre attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government, claims to have provided security for President Trump two years ago at one of his political rallies in North Carolina.

Led by Jordan Goudreau, a former special forces soldier, the Florida-based security company, has made headlines after two of its men were, according to Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, among a group of 13 "terrorists" detained by Venezuelan forces while attempting an armed incursion into the country. (Eight people were reportedly killed in the failed invasion attempt.) A photo posted to Instagram by the company is taken from what appears to be backstage at President Trump’s October 2018 political rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“Protecting our Greatest Assets,” reads the post. A suited man wears an earpiece in the background of the rally with two other individuals. The same photo is used on the company’s main website, with the figure's enlarged head in black and white, highlighting the security wire and earpiece on the back of his head.

A SILVERCORP EMPLOYEE AT A TRUMP RALLY.

One of the company’s promotional videos shows a Silvercorp employee among a security detail behind President Trump at that same Charlotte rally. In the video, Trump is seen addressing a large crowd behind a podium. Motherboard has independently confirmed that the video was taken at the same Charlotte rally by comparing people who appeared in the video uploaded by Silvercorp with press photos taken at the same rally.

The Associated Press reported that Goudreau had been introduced to Keith Schiller, President Trump’s longtime bodyguard, and accompanied him to a Miami meeting with representatives of Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaidó in May 2019.

A SCREENGRAB FROM A SILVERCORP PROMOTIONAL VIDEO THAT SHOWS A SILVERCORP EMPLOYEE (FRONT) BEHIND PRESIDENT TRUMP.

In another post from November 2018, Goudreau is pictured sitting down at a Houston restaurant with several other men and a “Make America Great Again” hat beside him. President Trump held a rally in Houston on the run-up to the midterm elections in 2018. Another post from March 2019 shows Goudreau walking toward a private jet; it's captioned with “#potussecurity” referring to the President.

Sunday, Silvercorp tweeted that a strikeforce was invading Venezuela, tagging the president:

The White House did not immediately respond to a Motherboard request for comment on its connections to Silvercorp.

Joseph Cox contributed reporting to this piece.

Captured American Mercenary Appears to Be Really Into Qanon

Airan Berry follows a few too many Q accounts on the ‘gram.
By Ben Makuch May 5 2020

IMAGE VIA MADELEIN GARCIA

Judging by the social media followings of one of the captured, Trump-connected American mercenaries who attempted a bizarre and spectacularly failed coup in Venezuela, he was highly interested in the QAnon conspiracy theory.

The identity of Airan Berry, a U.S. military veteran and former special forces operator apparently working for Silvercorp, a Florida-based mercenary company, was revealed yesterday on Venezuelan state television during a press conference by President Nicolas Maduro. He showed off Berry’s passport and an identification card, along with those of fellow special forces alumnus Luke Denman, also a part of the disastrous, hilarious coup attempt

According to Venezuela, 13 “terrorists” were captured (and eight people were reportedly killed) after a daring and amateurish armed incursion into the South American country, which has been under threat of invasion by the Trump administration for years. In all it played out like the work of people who desperately want to star in a movie starring The Rock and John Cena, and instead may well end up in prison for years.

Do you have information about Silvercorp? We’d love to hear from you. You can contact Ben Makuch securely on Wire at @benmakuch, or by email at ben.makuch@vice.com.

At first glance, Berry’s personal Instagram account is a mixed bag of workout highlights, beard obsession, and tattoo posts—not altogether uncommon themes in the typical social media activities of many veterans. But his following list, which could plausibly be assumed to offer a glimpse into his political interests and perhaps leanings, contains a laundry list of “redpill” accounts and several peddling QAnon conspiracy theories. (The outlandish conspiracy movement, which generally holds that a cabal of Deep State actors are plotting a covert overthrow of President Trump, has, according to the FBI, morphed into a bonafide domestic terrorism threat, and has pulled in people from all stratas of American society.)

Motherboard viewed more than 10 “Q” and truther accounts followed by Berry, some with tens of thousands of followers spreading, among other absurd conspiracies, blatant misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, which is helping fuel dangerous protests across the country defying social distancing orders. He is also following the hashtags "#qarmy" and "#qanon8kun."

Berry’s interest in QAnon is yet another bizarre detail in a coup attempt that makes more sense as the work a child would do narrating the movie playing in his mind as he played with Nerf guns than as anything else. It has not only made headlines around the world, but puzzled onlookers who wonder: Why?

Venezuelan authorities detain U.S. citizens allegedly involved in incursion

Venezuelan soldiers in balaclavas move a suspect from a helicopter after what Venezuelan authorities described was a "mercenary incursion", at an unknown location in this still frame obtained from Venezuelan government TV video, May 4, 2020.

 VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT TV/Handout via REUTERS TV

Vivian Sequera, Brian Ellsworth

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan authorities have detained two U.S. citizens working with a U.S. military veteran who has claimed responsibility for a failed armed incursion into the oil producing country, President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday.

In a state television address, Maduro said authorities arrested 13 “terrorists” on Monday allegedly involved in a plot he said was coordinated with Washington to enter the South American country via the Caribbean coast and oust him.

Eight people were killed during the foiled incursion attempt on Sunday, Venezuelan authorities said.

Maduro showed what he said were the U.S. passports and other identification cards belonging to Airan Berry and Luke Denman, who he said were in custody and had been working with Jordan Goudreau, an American military veteran who leads a Florida-based security company called Silvercorp USA.

“They were playing Rambo. They were playing hero,” Maduro said, adding that Venezuelan authorities had caught wind of the plot before its execution.

Goudreau, who identified himself as an organizer of the invasion on Sunday, told Reuters on Monday that Berry and Denman were also involved.

“They’re working with me. Those are my guys,” he said by telephone.

The State Department did not provide any immediate comment on the alleged arrests. U.S. officials have strongly denied any U.S. government involvement in the incursions.

A person familiar with the matter said the two U.S. citizens were captured on Monday in a second-day roundup of accomplices and were believed to be in the custody of Venezuelan military intelligence.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the details came from contacts with Venezuelan security forces.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido cast doubt on the government’s version of Sunday’s events, insisting Maduro is seeking to distract from other problems in recent days including a deadly prison riot and a violent gang battle in Caracas.

Guaido’s communications team on Monday denied media reports that Guaido had hired Silvercorp to remove Maduro by force, adding the opposition leader and his allies “have no relationship with or responsibility for the actions of the company Silvercorp.”

In a statement on Monday evening, Guaido’s team said: “We demand the human rights ... of the people captured in recent hours be respected.”


Washington has imposed tough economic sanctions against Venezuela in an effort to oust Maduro, whom it accuses of having rigged elections in 2018. Maduro’s government says the United States wants to control Venezuela’s massive oil reserves.

‘ATTACK AGAINST OUR FATHERLAND’

Monday’s arrests come after Maduro’s government on Sunday said mercenaries had attempted to enter the South American country on speed boats from neighboring Colombia, saying eight people had been killed and two detained.

Later on Sunday, Goudreau released a video identifying himself as an organizer of the invasion, alongside dissident Venezuelan military officer Javier Nieto.

Goudreau said in the video that fighters on the ground continued to carry out operations in different parts of the country.

Slideshow (9 Images) https://tinyurl.osucom/y89tx

He identified one of the fighters as “Commander Sequea,” which appeared to be a reference to Antonio Sequea, who was identified on Monday by state television as one of the people arrested.

Silvercorp’s website describes Goudreau as a “highly decorated Special Forces Iraq and Afghanistan veteran.”

A Venezuelan state television anchor on Monday showed photos of men laid out on the ground with their hands behind their backs, adding that the group was traveling near the town of Chuao area in central Aragua state.

The group was “caught by popular force, by fishermen,” the anchor said.

Cabello posted a video of men in black with balaclavas pulling a shirtless man from a helicopter, whom they identified as part of the group captured.

“Without a doubt, the imperialists directed this attack against our fatherland,” Cabello said on Twitter, in reference to the U.S. government.

A U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said the U.S. government had no involvement with the incident. Another source familiar with U.S. intelligence analysis and reporting also said that U.S. agencies have nothing to do with any military incursions in Venezuela.

Trump denies ties to Venezuelan attack with 2 US men jailed

By SCOTT SMITH and JOSHUA GOODMAN, Associated Press 

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States had nothing to do with an alleged incursion into Venezuela that landed two U.S. citizens behind bars in the crisis-stricken South American nation.

© Provided by Associated Press Security forces guard the shore area and a boat in which authorities claim a group of armed men landed in the port city of La Guaira, Venezuela, Sunday, May 3, 2020. Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said on state television that security forces overcame before dawn Sunday an armed maritime incursion with speedboats from neighboring Colombia in which several attackers were killed and others detained. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Trump said he had just learned of the detention of the pair, accused by Venezuela of being mercenaries. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said they were part of an operation to kill him that was backed by neighboring Colombia and the United States.

“Whatever it is, we’ll let you know,” Trump told reporters in Washington before departing from the White House to Arizona. “But it has nothing to do with our government.

Authorities in Venezuela identified the two men as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former U.S. special forces soldiers associated with the Florida-based private security firm Silvercorp USA.

A third U.S. ex-Green Beret and Silvercorp founder, Jordan Goudreau, claimed responsibility for leading “Operation Gideon,” which was launched with an attempted beach landing before dawn on Sunday that left eight suspected attackers dead.

The two ex-U.S. soldiers were detained Monday dozens of miles (kilometers) from the first attempted beach landing in a fishing village. Authorities say they've confiscated equipment and detained dozens of others.

© Provided by Associated Press Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek William Saab gives a press conference regarding what the government calls a failed attack over the weekend aimed at overthrowing President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, May 4, 2020. The government’s claims that it had foiled a beach landing Sunday triggered a frenzy of confusing claims and counterclaims about the alleged plot. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Goudreau said the operation was designed to capture — and not kill Maduro. He said he carried it out on a “shoestring budget” after signing an agreement with U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who Goudreau accuses of failing to pay him. Guaidó denies having any relationship with Goudreau.

Venezuela is gripped by a deepening social and economic crisis under Maduro's rule that has led nearly 5 million residents to flee crumbling social services, such as unreliable water, electricity and broken hospitals.

The U.S. is among nearly 60 nations that back Guaidó as Venezuela's legitimate leader, saying Maduro clings to power despite a sham election in 2018 that banned the most popular opposition candidates from running.

Venezuela and the U.S. broke diplomatic ties a year ago, so there is no U.S. embassy operating in Venezuela's capital of Caracas.

“It shocks me how insane they were,” said Mike Vigil, the former head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration. “They walked right into a coiled rattlesnake without even having minimally studied the capacity of the Venezuelan armed forces. There’s no way the U.S. government would’ve supported an operation like this.”

Venezuela: 2 US ‘mercenaries’ among those nabbed after raid

By SCOTT SMITH and JOSHUA GOODMAN 5/4/2020

Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek William Saab holds up twitter posts during a press conference regarding what the government calls a failed attack over the weekend aimed at overthrowing President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, May 4, 2020. The twitter posts are between two members of the opposition, Humberto Calderon and Yon Goicoechea. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

BAY OF PIGS REDUX

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said authorities arrested two U.S. citizens among a group of “mercenaries” on Monday, a day after a beach raid purportedly aimed at capturing the socialist leader that authorities say they foiled.

Maduro held up a pair of blue U.S. passports, reading off the names and birth dates on them in a nationwide broadcast on state television. He showed images of the fishing boats the alleged attackers rode in on and equipment like walkie-talkies and night-vision glasses collected in what Maduro called an “intense” couple of days. He blamed the attacks on the Trump administration and neighboring Colombia, both of which have denied involvement.

“The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid,” Maduro said, praising members of a fishing village for cornering one group in the sweep netting the “professional American mercenaries.”

Before dawn on Sunday, officials say the first attack started on a beach near Venezuela’s port city of La Guaira, when security forces made the first two arrests and killed eight others attempting to make a landing by speedboats.

The two U.S. citizens arrested Monday were identified as as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former U.S. special forces soldiers.


Security forces guard the shore area and a boat in which authorities claim a group of armed men landed in the port city of La Guaira, Venezuela, Sunday, May 3, 2020. Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said on state television that security forces overcame before dawn Sunday an armed maritime incursion with speedboats from neighboring Colombia in which several attackers were killed and others detained. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)


Florida-based ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau said earlier Monday that he was working with the two men in a mission intending to detain Maduro and “liberate” Venezuela. Goudreau has claimed responsibility for the operation.

The two served in Iraq and Afghanistan with him in the U.S. military, Goudreau said, adding that they were part of this alleged mission in Venezuela called “Operation Gideon.” The aim was to capture Maduro.

Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis under Maduro’s rule. Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care have driven nearly 5 million to migrate. But Maduro still controls all levers of power despite a U.S.-led campaign to oust him. It recently indicted Maduro as a drug trafficker and offered a $15 million reward for his arrest.

Venezuela and the United States broke diplomatic ties last year amid heightened tensions, so there is no U.S. embassy in Caracas. Officials from the U.S. State Department did not respond Monday to a request by The Associated Press for comment.


Security forces patrol near the shore in the port city of La Guaira, Venezuela, Sunday, May 3, 2020. Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said on state television that security forces overcame before dawn Sunday an armed maritime incursion with speedboats from neighboring Colombia in which several attackers were killed and others detained. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

“I’ve tried to engage everybody I know at every level,” Goudreau said of the attempt to help his detained colleagues. “Nobody’s returning my calls. It’s a nightmare.”

Goudreau’s account of the confusing raid has at times seemed contradictory — for example, he says he was plotting a rebellion for months while claiming not to have received a single penny. Meanwhile, a self-aggrandizing Maduro has thrived broadcasting videos on state TV of what he says was a flawless defense of the nation’s sovereignty.

Kay Denman, the mother of one of the Americans, said the last time she heard from her son was a few weeks when he texted her from an undisclosed location to ask how she was coping with the coronavirus pandemic. She said she never heard her son discuss Venezuela and only learned of his possible capture there after his friends called when they saw the reports on social media.

“The first time I heard Jordan Goudreau’s name was today,” she said when reached at her home in Austin, Texas.

Goudreau has said he reached an agreement with the U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó to overthrow Maduro, which Guaidó has denied. The opposition leader said he had nothing to do with Sunday’s raid.

Goudreau says Guaidó never fulfilled the agreement, but the former Green Beret pushed ahead with an underfunded operation with just 60 fighters, including the two U.S. veterans.


He said he last communicated with Denman and Berry when they were adrift in a boat “hugging” the Caribbean coast of Venezuela. They were still in their boat following an initial confrontation with the Venezuelan Navy early Sunday, he said.

“They were running dangerously low on fuel,” Goudreau said. “If they had gone onto landfall, they would have gone to a safe house.”

Goudreau said the two were waiting for a boat on the Caribbean island of Aruba with emergency fuel to help extract them.


Security forces guard the shore area and a boat in which authorities claim a group of armed men landed in the port city of La Guaira, Venezuela, Sunday, May 3, 2020. Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said on state television that security forces overcame before dawn Sunday an armed maritime incursion with speedboats from neighboring Colombia in which several attackers were killed and others detained. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Venezuelan state TV showed showed images on state TV of several unidentified men handcuffed and lying prone in a street. One video clip showed authorities handling a shirtless man in handcuffs.

He was identified as a National Guardsman Capt. Antonio Sequea, who participated in a barracks revolt against Maduro a year ago. Goudreau said Sequea was a commander working with him in recent days on the ground in Venezuela.

Maduro ally and Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that in total they’ve arrested 114 people suspected in the attempted attack and they are on the hunt of 92 others.

Goudreau, a three-time Bronze Star U.S. combat veteran, claims to have helped organize the deadly seaborne raid from Colombia. Goudreau said the operation had received no aid from Guaidó or the U.S. or Colombian governments.

Opposition politicians and U.S. authorities issued statements suggesting Maduro’s allies had fabricated the assault to draw attention away from the country’s problems.

Goudreau said by telephone earlier Monday that 52 other fighters had infiltrated Venezuelan territory and were in the first stage of a mission to recruit members of the security forces to join their cause.

An AP investigation published Friday found that Goudreau had been working with a retired Venezuelan army general — who now faces U.S. narcotics charges — to train dozens of deserters from Venezuela’s security forces at secret camps inside neighboring Colombia. The goal was to mount a cross-border raid that would end in Maduro’s arrest.

___

Investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report.

Ex-Green Beret claims he led foiled raid into Venezuela

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Security forces patrol near the shore in the port city of La Guaira, Venezuela, Sunday, May 3, 2020. Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said on state television that security forces overcame before dawn Sunday an armed maritime incursion with speedboats from neighboring Colombia in which several attackers were killed and others detained. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A former Green Beret has taken responsibility for what he claimed was a failed attack Sunday aimed at overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and that the socialist government said ended with eight dead.

Jordan Goudreau’s comments in an interview with an exiled Venezuelan journalist capped a bizarre day that started with reports of a predawn amphibious raid near the South American country’s heavily guarded capital.

An AP investigation published Friday found that Goudreau had been working with a retired Venezuelan army general now facing U.S. narcotics charges to train dozens of deserters from Venezuela’s security forces at secret camps inside neighboring Colombia. The goal was to mount a cross-border raid that would end in Maduro’s arrest.


But from the outset the ragtag army lacked funding and U.S. government support, all but guaranteeing defeat against Maduro’s sizable-if-demoralized military. It also appears to have been penetrated by Maduro’s extensive Cuban-backed intelligence network.

MORE STORIES:
– Shipping tycoon defends Venezuela gas delivery amid shortage
– Ex-Green Beret led failed attempt to oust Venezuela's Maduro
– Venezuelan prison riot leaves dozens dead; warden injured

Both Goudreau and retired Venezuelan Capt. Javier Nieto declined to speak to the AP on Sunday when contacted after posting a video from an undisclosed location saying they had launched an anti-Maduro putsch called “Operation Gideon.” Both men live in Florida.

“A daring amphibious raid was launched from the border of Colombia deep into the heart of Caracas,” Goudreau, in a New York Yankees ball cap, said in the video standing next to Nieto who was dressed in armored vest with a rolled-up Venezuelan flag pinned to his shoulder. “Our units have been activated in the south, west and east of Venezuela.”

Goudreau said 60 of his men were still on the ground and calls were being activated inside Venezuela, some of them fighting under the command of Venezuelan National Guardsman Capt. Antonio Sequea, who participated in a barracks revolt against Maduro a year ago.

None of their claims of an ongoing operation could be independently verified. But Goudreau said he hoped to join the rebels soon and invited Venezuelans and Maduro’s troops to join the would-be insurgency although there was no sign of any fighting in the capital or elsewhere as night fell.

In an interview later with Miami-based journalist Patricia Poleo, he provided a contradictory account of his activities and the support he claims to have once had — and then lost — from Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader recognized as Venezuela’s interim president by the U.S. and some 60 countries.

He provided to Poleo what he said was an 8-page contract signed by Guaidó and two political advisers in Miami in October for $213 million. The alleged “general services” contract doesn’t specify what work his company, Silvercorp USA, was to undertake.


He also released via Poleo a four-minute audio recording, made on a hidden cellphone, in the moment when he purportedly signed the contract as Guaidó participated via videoconference. In the recording, a person he claims is Guaido can be heard giving vague encouragement in broken English but not discussing any military plans.
Full Coverage: Venezuela

“Let’s get to work!,” said the man who is purportedly Guaido.

The AP was unable to confirm the veracity of the recording.

There was no immediate comment from Guaidó on Goudreau’s claim that the two had signed a contract. Previously, Guaidó has said he hadn’t signed any contract for a military incursion.

Goudreau said he never received a penny from the Guaidó team and instead the Venezuelan soldiers he was advising had to scrounge for donations from Venezuelan migrants driving for car share service Uber in Colombia.

“It’s almost like crowdfunded the liberating of a country,” he said.

Goudreau said everything he did was legal but in any case he’s prepared to pay the cost for anything he did if it saves the lives of Venezuelans trying to restore their democracy.

“I’ve been a freedom fighter my whole life. This is all I know,” said Goudreau, who is a decorated three-time Bronze Star recipient for courage in deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as a special forces medic.

Asked about why his troops would land at one of Venezuela’s most fortified coastlines — some 20 miles from Caracas next to the country’s biggest airport — he cited the example set by Alexander the Great, who had “struck deep into the heart of the enemy” at the Battle of Guagamela.

The government’s claims that it had foiled a beach landing Sunday triggered a frenzy of confusing claims and counterclaims about the alleged plot. While Maduro’s allies said it had been backed by Guaidó, Colombia and the U.S., the opposition accused Maduro of fabricating the whole episode to distract attention from the country’s ongoing humanitarian crisis.

“Those who assume they can attack the institutional framework in Venezuela will have to assume the consequences of their action,” said socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello, adding that one of two captured insurgents claimed to be an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Authorities said they found Peruvian documents, high-caliber weapons, satellite phones, uniforms and helmets adorned with the U.S. flag.

Both U.S. and Colombian officials dismissed the Venezuelan allegations.

“We have little reason to believe anything that comes out of the former regime,” said a State Department spokesperson, referring to Maduro’s government. “The Maduro regime has been consistent in its use of misinformation in order to shift focus from its mismanagement of Venezuela.”

Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis under Maduro’s rule. Crumbling public services such as running water, electricity and medical care have driven nearly 5 million to migrate.

The United States has led a campaign to oust Maduro, increasing pressure in recent weeks by indicting the socialist leader as a drug trafficker and offering a $15 million reward for his arrest. The U.S. also has increased stiff sanctions.

In addition to U.S. economic and diplomatic pressure, Maduro’s government has faced several small-scale military threats, including an attempt to assassinate Maduro with a drone in 2018 and Guaidó’s call for a military uprising a year ago.

Cabello linked Sunday’s attack to key players in the alleged plot led by Goudreau and Ret. Maj. Gen. Cliver Alcala, who is now in U.S. custody awaiting trial after being indicted alongside Maduro on narcoterrorist charges. One of the men he said was killed, nicknamed “the Panther,” had been identified as involved in obtaining weapons for the covert force in Colombia.

Guaidó accused Maduro’s government of seizing on the incident to draw the world’s attention away from the country’s problems.

“Of course, there are patriotic members of the military willing to fight for Venezuela,” Guaidó said. “But it’s clear that what happened in Vargas is another distraction ploy.”

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Goodman reported from Miami.