NORAD begins air exercise over Arctic Ocean
NORAD DOES MORE THAN TRACK SANTA

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A U.S. Air Force F-15 arrived at Canadian Forces Northern Area Headquarters Yellowknife, Northwest Territory, on Tuesday to participate in a weeklong NORAD exercise. Photo courtesy of NORAD/Twitter

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- An Arctic Ocean air exercise involving Canadian and U.S. planes is underway this week, the North American Aerospace Defense Command [NORAD] announced.

A U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane and F-15 fighter planes arrived at the Canadian Forces Northern Area Headquarters Yellowknife, in Canada's Northwest Territories, on Tuesday for air defense exercises, with flights ranging from the Beaufort Sea [north of Alaska] to Thule AB [Air Base] in Greenland, a NORAD Twitter message said.
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A KC-10 refueling plane, and Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 fighter planes, a CP-140 long-range patrol aircraft and a CC-150T refueling plane are also involved.

NORAD, a 60 year-old partnership between the air forces of United States and Canada, emphasized in a statement last week that all flights will be at high altitude over sparsely populated terrain, and that the exercise has no connection to either government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

RELATED U.S. intercepts more Russian military planes near Alaska

"NORAD routinely conducts exercises with a variety of scenarios including airspace restriction violations, hijackings and responses to unknown aircraft," the statement added. "NORAD carefully plans and closely controls all exercises. This air defense exercise provides us the opportunity to hone our skills as Canadian and U.S. forces operate together with our allies and partners in the Arctic."

Several scenarios, including violations of sovereign airspace, will be practiced. NORAD is regularly involved in interception of Russian military aircraft entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone.

In June, a NORAD statement said, U.S. F-22 jets intercepted four Russian Tu-142 planes that came within 65 nautical miles of the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska and "loitered in the ADIZ for nearly 8 hours."

Shamans in South Korea removed after complaints

ANIMISM, ANCESTOR WORSHIP UNDERLIES ALL KOREAN RELIGIONS

INCLUDING ITS CHRISTIAN CULTS

South Korean authorities dismantled dozens of tents belonging to local shaman practitioners at a site near the underwater tomb of King Munmu (pictured). Photo courtesy of Republic of Korea Cultural Heritage Administration

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Shamans in South Korea may have been summoning more than spirits near a coastal heritage site in the country.

South Korean authorities dismantled dozens of makeshift tents belonging to local shaman practitioners following complaints. The practitioners of a traditional religion were illegally squatting on land facing a maritime historic site, Yonhap and Daegu Shinmun reported Wednesday.

Authorities in the city of Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province said about 30 tents by the sea had been removed. They were met with little resistance, according to reports.

For the past few years the shamans had been performing "gut" rituals by the underwater tomb of an ancient Korean king, who is believed to have unified the Korean Peninsula, while ruling from A.D. 661 to 681. Shamans who believe they must intercede with the spirit and human world to overcome suffering practice the rituals.

Shamans are free to practice their religion, but authorities in Gyeongju said they had entered a restricted forest without permission.

The shamans were also polluting the environment, disposing of their personal garbage in a protected area near the Tomb of King Munmu, located about 200 meters off the coast. The pollution began to draw complaints from local residents, authorities say.

Residents also complained about "loud noises." Korean shamans believe gods, spirits and ancestors descend into their bodies. Under the "possession" of another spirit, the shaman begins to talk and move in a different manner, eyewitnesses have said.

The demolition of the tents began last week. More than 30 Gyeongju city employees were dispatched to the site to dismantle the tents and collect the garbage collecting in the area. Authorities say they plan to plant trees and build fences to curb squatters, according to reports.

King Munmu ruled Korea when the peninsula was under the domination of Tang China. Munmu forged alliances with neighboring Korean kingdoms to launch a frontal attack on Tang forces, eventually defeating Tang, according to South Korean historians.

SPACE WARS

U.S., Japan to build network of missile-intercepting satellites, report says

KEEPING UP WITH RUSSIA, INDIA AND CHINA 


Japan's existing system of missile defense, which includes PAC-3 missile interceptors, could be complemented with a network of small satellites, according to a Japanese press report Wednesday. File Photo by D. Myles Cullen/White House | License Photo

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- The United States and Japan are to jointly build a network of small satellites capable of detecting new missiles, as Tokyo warns of increasing threats from North Korea.

The purpose of the satellites would be to complement the currently existing system of missile defense, which includes Japan's PAC-3 missile interceptors, the Nikkei reported Wednesday.

Tokyo is growing increasingly wary of North Korean weapons development. In July Japan's defense ministry said North Korea could have perfected the capability to miniaturize nuclear warheads.

China's rising military expenditure and weapons development could be posing new threats. For 2020, China's defense expenditures were up 6.6% from 2019. A total of 2,000 Chinese intermediate-range missiles, capable of reaching Japanese territory, are expected to be in deployment. China could also double the number of nuclear warheads in its arsenal within a decade, the report says

North Korea is also estimated to have hundreds of medium-range missiles. North Korea, China and Russia are believed to be developing missiles that can break through the current U.S.-Japan system of missile defense, according to the Nikkei.

The U.S. and Japanese militaries are keeping a close watch on the development of hypersonic weapons under way in China and Russia. These missiles are difficult to intercept with conventional satellites and can change course unpredictably and quickly.

The Japanese report on satellite networks comes after the U.S. Space Development Agency released a draft request for proposals, seeking a contractor to build eight satellites with infrared sensors to track hypersonic weapons, according to C4ISRNET, a U.S. online military tech publication in May.

Tensions between Japan and China have been building over Chinese boats in the East China Sea.

The civilian boats have been seen near the Japan-claimed Senkaku Islands for 111 consecutive days in 2020, according to Kyodo News on Saturday.

In 2019, Japan disclosed plans to build an electronic warfare unit as a check against Chinese maneuvers in disputed areas of the East China Sea.

#PERMANENTARMSECONOMY

Teen pot use may be climbing again since legalization

Steady reductions in teen marijuana use in Washington state may have been disrupted by legalization of the drug, a new study suggests.

Teens interviewed after voters approved recreational pot in 2012 were several times more likely to report past-year marijuana use.

That suggests legalization may be working against decreases in teen drug use, said lead author Jennifer Bailey. She is principal investigator in the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"When we think about marijuana legalization, a worry is that underage use may go up," Bailey said in a university news release. "Early use and heavy use during adolescence can have a lot of negative health consequences, then and later in life, so we don't want teen use to be going up."

RELATED Legal marijuana has led to increased use, risk for abuse among teens

Researchers study the perception of harm because people are more likely to engage in behaviors they regard as risk-free, Bailey explained.

Drug use in the 1960s and 1970s, for example, was higher than it has been since, because the risk of harm from many drugs was generally thought to be low.

Before legalization, teen use of marijuana and other drugs had been decreasing over the last couple of decades, according to Bailey.

RELATED Teens who use joints, bongs, concentrates more likely to keep using pot

SO ANYBODY SMOKING POT WILL BECOME ADDICTED ....NOT LIKELY 

For the new study, her team surveyed more than 230 young people who were 13 or younger in 2002 and assessed their marijuana use from ages 10 to 20.

Those who were younger were less likely to report using marijuana in the past year. For example, at age 15, 11% of those born before 2000 said they had used marijuana over the past year, compared with 5% of those born after 2000.

The study, published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found no connection between marijuana legalization and teen cigarette use, even though the two often go hand in hand, Bailey noted.

RELATED U.S. teens waiting longer to try alcohol, drugs
NO LONGER A RITE OF PASSAGE LIKE IT WAS IN THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES 

Recreational marijuana is legal in 11 states and Washington, D.C., and 33 states and the District of Columbia allow it for medical purposes, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"A teen usage rate that holds steady isn't good enough if it would normally be going down," Bailey said. "We need to devote more attention to prevention of adolescent use in the context of legalization because we want to keep the decreases we've been seeing before legalization was implemented."

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about marijuana.

Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Poll: Most in U.S. dissatisfied with treatment of Black Americans

THE TIPPING POINT TOOK FIFTY YEARS

A young man looks at photographs of Black Americans who have died by violence in the United States, on a fence outside the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 4. File Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Overall satisfaction in the United States with the treatment of Black persons has fallen this year to a record low, Gallup said in a new survey Wednesday.

According to the poll, just 35% of U.S. adults said they are either "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with the treatment of Black communities -- a decline of 9% since the last survey two years ago and the lowest mark Gallup has recorded since it first asked the question in 2001.

Forty-one percent of White Americans expressed satisfaction, compared to 21% of Black Americans. The figure for Whites is also a record low, but Black satisfaction is 3% higher than it was in 2018.

Sixty-five percent of respondents said they're dissatisfied with the treatment of Black Americans, most of whom (46%) said they're "very" dissatisfied. Just 11% -- including just 4% of Black adults -- said they're "very" satisfied.

RELATED Poll: More Americans now engaged in 2020 election race


"U.S. adults are about equally satisfied with the treatment of Arab people (44%) and Hispanic people (41%)," Gallup wrote. "White adults are much more satisfied than Black adults with the treatment of each group, as racial gaps in satisfaction range from 13 points (for Arab persons) to 22 points (immigrants).

"White Americans and U.S. adults overall have become less satisfied with the treatment of both the Hispanic and Asian people since 2018, but Black Americans' views on these are essentially unchanged."

Respondents are most satisfied (60%) with the treatment of Asian communities, the poll showed. Just 37% said they're satisfied with the treatment of immigrants.

RELATED Gallup: Fewer in U.S. satisfied with treatment of women

The poll was taken from early June to late July amid mass civil rights protests nationwide that spawned from the police killing of George Floyd in May.

Gallup polled more than 1,200 U.S. adults for the survey, which has a margin of error of between 4 and 7 points.


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Study: False health information viewed nearly 4B times on Facebook

B AS IN BILLION

The report called on Facebook to provide all users with independently fact-checked corrections and downgrade erroneous posts by adjusting its algorithms. File Photo by Gian Ehrenzeller/EPA-EFE


Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Billions of Facebook users in several countries came across some type of false health information on the social media platform over the past year, according to a new analysis published Wednesday.

Advocacy group Avaaz said in a 33-page report that it found health misinformation on the platform that generated at least 3.8 billion page views in at least five nations. Websites spreading the inaccurate information peaked at about 460 million views in April in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, it noted.

Avaaz said its findings underscore that Facebook must take greater steps to filter misinformation that can endanger the safety of billions of users who seek health advice online.

"Many of these networks, made up of both websites and Facebook pages, have spread vaccination and health misinformation on the social media platform for years," the assessment said. "However, some did not appear to have had any focus on health until February 2020 when they started covering the COVID-19 pandemic."

The report covered Facebook users in the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy and said anti-vaccine propaganda was also found on the popular platform.

"Factually inaccurate or misleading content doesn't spread in isolation," it said. "It's often shared by actors who are spreading other types of content, in a bid to build followers and help make misinformation go viral."

Campaign director Fadi Quran said the algorithm that Facebook uses to gather information is a "major threat to public health."

"Mark Zuckerberg promised to provide reliable information during the pandemic, but his algorithm is sabotaging those efforts by driving many of Facebook's 2.7 billion users to health misinformation spreading networks," Quran said.

The report called on Facebook to provide all users with independently fact-checked corrections and downgrade erroneous posts by adjusting its algorithms.

A Facebook representative said it shares "Avaaz's goal of limiting misinformation," but added that the new findings don't account for the measures the company has already taken to prevent the spread of misinformation.

Johnson & Johnson buys drugmaker Momenta for $6.5B

 M&AMONOPOLY CAPITALISM

Wednesday's acquisition of Momenta will be an all-cash deal, the company said. File Photo by Justin Lane/EPA-EFE

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. pharma company Johnson & Johnson announced Wednesday it will buy drugmaker Momenta in a $6.5 billion deal, as it seeks to expand its presence in the autoimmune diseases market.

Massachusetts-based Momenta will become part of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen pharmaceutical unit. The purchase will be completed at $52.50 per share -- a 70.4% premium to Momenta's closing price on Tuesday.

The company said the key to the deal was Momenta's "nipocalimab" antibody, which has been shown effective in treating autoimmune diseases like maternal-fetal and neuro-inflammatory disorders, rheumatology, dermatology and autoimmune hematology.

Nipocalimab recently received a rare pediatric disease designation from the Food and Drug Administration, the company noted.

"This acquisition broadens Janssen's leadership in autoimmune diseases and provides us with a major catalyst for sustained growth," Jennifer Taubert, Johnson & Johnson's worldwide chairwoman for pharmaceuticals, said in a statement. "Autoantibody-driven diseases are often serious, and patients are underserved by current treatment options."

In autoantibody-driven diseases, the body's antibodies attack or damage its own proteins, cells and tissues. Nearly 200 million people worldwide, or 2.5% of the global population, have some form of autoantibody-driven disease, some of which are rare.

Wednesday's acquisition will be an all-cash deal, the company said.

MARX'S FORMULA FOR LATE CAPITALISM M-C-M

MONEY-CAPITAL/CONSUMABLES-MONEY

Too much corporate power is driving fiscal inequality, Fed says

SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARIES 

AT THE AMERICAN FEDERAL RESERVE

By

Don Jacobson

Activists march in Oak Brook, Ill., to demand a minimum wage increase to $15 per hour on May 20, 2015. The Federal Reserve says in a study that income inequality in the United States has been a side effect of growing monopolistic corporate power. File Photo by Brian Kersey/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. central bank has found in a recent study that the rising monopolistic market power of dominant American companies is leading to an array of economic ills, such as income and wealth inequality.

In a 41-page report titled "Market Power, Inequality, and Financial Instability," the Federal Reserve said concentration of market power by the largest U.S. companies directly correlates to six "undesirable" economic trends that have endured for four decades.

Federal Reserve Board economists Isabel Cairo and Jae Sim said in the analysis those trends include things like stagnating wage growth, a "dramatic increase" in corporate profits, rising disparities in income and wealth, rising household debt and greater risk of large-scale financial instability.

"The fact that the six secular trends have realized over a time period in which the investment-to-output ratio has steadily declined suggests that the rise of market power of the firms may have been the driving force of the six secular trends," they wrote.

RELATED Study: Climate change crisis requires less growth-oriented global economy

The study says the inequality trend has risen as owners of assets like stocks and property have largely benefited from the concentration of monopolistic power.

To keep up, some workers who have seen smaller economic benefit are borrowing more money than they once did, thus making the entire financial system more fragile and vulnerable to large-scale shocks similar to the financial crisis a decade ago, the authors said.

To address the imbalances, Cairo and Sim recommend new government policies that redistribute wealth to poorer Americans through higher taxes and more social safety net spending, which they say would be "non-distortionary" for markets.

RELATED Pandemic exposes vulnerability of U.S. economy

Both U.S. political parties have shown concerns over the issue of market concentration, particularly in technology.

President Donald Trump has sought increased scrutiny for "big tech" firms and the Justice Department started an investigation last year into various tech platforms amid criticism that they had become too large and too powerful.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has been critical of Facebook and argued that the government should consider breaking up large tech firms, although he acknowledged it was "premature" to make any definitive judgment.

RELATED Joe Biden unveils 'Build Back Better' economic relief plan

Mozambique firm says it bought ammonium nitrate at center of Beirut blast

A Mozambican explosives manufacturing company said it purchased the ammonium nitrate at the center of the deadly blast in Beirut to be used for mining but it never arrived after being detained in Lebanon. Photo by Mustafa Jamaleddine/UPI | License Photo


Aug. 18 (UPI) -- An explosives manufacturing company from Mozambique said Tuesday that it purchased the ammonium nitrate that sparked the devastating blast in Beirut's port.

Fabrica de Explosivos Mocambique told CNN it originally ordered the 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate to be used for mining, but the order never made it to Mozambique but rather remained in a container at Beirut's port for more than six years before the Aug. 4 blast that killed 154 people.

"This is not common. It's absolutely not common," a representative for the company said. "Usually, when you place an order for whatever it is that you're buying, it's not common that you don't get the goods. This is a vessel, it's not like one thing that was lost in the mail, it's a big quantity."

The representative said FEM worked with an outside trading company to facilitate the transfer of the ammonium nitrate, which originated in Georgia before being transported on the Russian ship, Rhosus. The ship was detained and later impounded by Lebanese officials.

RELATED Lebanon judge to open inquiry into deadly Beirut explosions

A pair of explosions rocked Beirut's port on Aug. 4 with a smaller explosion stemming from a fire that started inside a warehouse and a larger secondary blast that sent a shockwave miles throughout the city registering a magnitude-3.3 earthquake.

Last week, Lebanon's Chemical Biological Radio Nuclear Events Preparedness reported materials including flammable liquids and unsafe combinations of fuels and oxidizers were safely removed from the area.

Fabien Tarably, director of security consulting and intelligence firm NIGMA Conseil, described the impact of the blast and its effects on recovery efforts.

"The first and main technical difficulty is the magnitude of the explosion -- everything has been pulverized," Tarably said. "It's going to be very hard, because everything that is of interest has probably disappeared."

A Lebanese civil defense officer said they are still looking for firefighters dispatched to the scene despite fears of heavily damaged silos collapsing.

"We're still searching, but we've brought in engineers to assess their structural integrity and see if we can continue," the officer said. "We're still looking for a 30-ton fire truck we can't find. It's like it was vaporized."

BIG PHARMA & MEDICINE INC.

Psychiatric meds may pose risk to dementia patients, experts say

By Serena Gordon, HealthDay News

As many as 3 in 4 older adults with dementia have been prescribed drugs that may pose a risk to them, researchers report.

The drugs in the study included commonly prescribed medications that can affect the brain or nervous system, such as sedatives, painkillers and antidepressants.

"There just is not a lot of evidence that these medications are helpful in people with dementia," said study author Dr. Donovan Maust.

When I think about somebody who has dementia and the way the brain is changing, it seems like it's not a great thing to be exposing their brain to these drugs when the brain is already having trouble dealing with the changes going on from the dementia," said Maust, a geriatric psychiatrist from the University of Michigan and VA Ann Arbor Health System.

"Medications we use in patients of other ages work different in brains with dementia," he added.

Behavior changes are common in people with dementia. They may include irritability, anger or aggression, anxiety, depression or emotional distress, restlessness, delusions or hallucinations, and difficulty sleeping.

These behaviors are primarily caused by progressive damage to brain cells. Other possible triggers of behavior issues include medications, environmental factors and other medical conditions, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

Maust said that prescribing practices have been studied in patients with dementia in nursing homes, but there was a lack of information on what types of drugs people with dementia are prescribed if they don't live in a nursing home.
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The study included almost 740,000 people with dementia. They were all over 65 -- average age was 82 -- and on Medicare. About 81% were white, 9% were black and 7% Hispanic. Most lived in urban areas.

The researchers found that 73.5% of them were prescribed a central nervous system-active medication, including opioids, antidepressants, antipsychotics, sedatives and anti-epileptic drugs -- can be prescribed for pain or in place of an antipsychotic.

Researchers found that half were given an antidepressant -- a rate that's about triple what it is for older adults in the general population, the researchers noted.

Maust said doctors may prescribe these when someone shows signs of withdrawal or apathy, but in dementia patients, those signs may be due to dementia, not depression.

"Initiation of activity and enjoyment of the activity isn't the same in someone with dementia, but it's easy to look at those symptoms and think they're depressed," Maust said.

These drugs increase fall risk

The concern in taking an antidepressant is that they may make someone with dementia feel jittery. But patients also may have trouble telling a caregiver how they're feeling, which may make them seem agitated or angry. And that, Maust said, may then lead to another prescription to calm them down.

Someone who took antidepressants for depression prior to developing dementia may still benefit from the drug, Maust pointed out.

Thirty percent of the group was given an opioid prescription, though the researchers said these tended to be short-term prescriptions that were probably for acute pain.
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Twenty-seven percent were given sedatives, 22% were given anti-epileptics and 22% were given prescriptions for antipsychotics.

In addition to potentially not helping someone with dementia, many of these medications come with a risk of falls, a common concern for all older adults.

So, why are these medications still being prescribed?

"I think it really speaks to how challenging dementia is to take care of. Many clinicians haven't had a lot of training specifically in dementia. Doctors are just trying to provide good care, and sometimes it feels as if we're not prescribing something, we're not helping. But doctors can help with listening, supporting and helping people get psychosocial support," Maust explained.

Rebecca Edelmayer is director of scientific engagement for the Alzheimer's Association. "There is an urgent need for more options. Behavioral and psychological symptoms can be very frustrating. Physicians are using what they have available to treat these symptoms," she said.

"It's not that physicians aren't well-intentioned, but not all psychoactive medications may be beneficial, and the risks may outweigh the benefits," said Edelmayer, who wasn't part of the study.

She said "person-centered care" is crucial. Before prescribing medications, it's important to do a thorough evaluation to see what might be causing someone's symptoms. If possible, try to solve their concerns without medications, but "if medications are the right solution, they should be on the table as a possibility," she said.

Edelmayer said there are a number of ongoing clinical trials for treatments of the psychological and behavioral symptoms of dementia. "There a lot of promise in the therapeutic pipeline," she said.
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In the meantime, Maust said, "Caregivers should look at the list of medications that a loved one is taking and review it with the doctor. Think about whether something is helpful or not, and whether the drug could be used at a lower dose, or if someone should be tapered off it. Any kind of simplifying you can do to minimize medications for older adults is almost certainly safer."

The findings were published as a letter in the Aug. 18 Journal of the American Medical Association.

More information

Learn more about treatments for behavioral symptoms of dementia from the Alzheimer's Association.

Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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