New guidance addresses structural racism in racial and ethnic disparities research

Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes journal statement

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

Research News

DALLAS, February 11, 2021 -- Structural racism is a public health crisis in the U.S. and worldwide. The scientific publishing community can improve our understanding and address the significant health impacts of structural racism in racial and ethnic disparities research, according to a new statement, "The Groundwater of Racial and Ethnic Disparities Research: A Statement from Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes," published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal, from the journal's editors.

It is critical to acknowledge the societal structures - the groundwater, as it is called in "The Groundwater Approach: Building a Practical Understanding of Structural Racism" from The Racial Equity Institute - that have led to disproportionate rates of disease among people from various racial and ethnic groups. Previous research attributes many disparities to issues related to individual factors or local systems not the underlying societal factors, or groundwater.

"Scientific journals are part of the groundwater of the research and health care community. Structural racism underlies the widespread disparities in health and health outcomes that are ubiquitous in the published literature and, thus, must be at the forefront of disparities research," said Khadijah K. Breathett, M.D., M.S., FAHA, lead author of the statement, an associate editor of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes an assistant professor of cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, a cardiologist at the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center and a heart failure specialist with the Advanced Heart Failure, Mechanical Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation Team at Banner - University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona. "Through this statement, we recognize the imperative to address intentionally the entrenched systematic challenges such as structural racism and share our evolving view of best practices for publishing disparities research."

In the statement, the editors of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes challenge the scientific research community to take a broader perspective and to methodically examine structural factors including racism when studying racial and ethnic disparities in health. This includes efforts to flag the historical foundation of race - it is a social not a biological construct that was designed to separate one population from another - and to avoid perpetuating racism. Race has served to grant additional privileges to certain populations at the exclusion of others worldwide, and race is rooted in the development of U.S. health structures and health care delivery systems.

To this end, the Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes editorial team developed detailed, specific instructions for authors to encourage consistent framing, terminology and methods aligned with established best practices for scientific research on racial and ethnic disparities in health. A key first principle urges that measuring race and ethnicity be done correctly - enabling people to self-report race and ethnicity. Race categorization after data collection also matters, therefore, describing subjects as white versus non-white inherently reinforces the belief that white race is the standard by which other populations should be measured. In addition, they strongly recommend the inclusion of researchers of diverse backgrounds as a principle to ensure broad perspectives.

The five best practices recommended include:

Develop questions and methodological strategies informed by conceptual frameworks. Explicitly describe rationale and classification for inclusion of racial and ethnic patient populations in the methods section. Form diverse and inclusive study teams and cite their scholarship.

Contextualize discussion of results within conceptual frameworks and models.

Avoid generalized genetic explanations for racial and ethnic disparities.

The editorial team will continuously review, refine and strengthen best practices as the issue evolves, and the statement and instructions for authors submitting research will be updated accordingly. All guidance is effective immediately for research submitted to Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Strengthening disparities research is a priority, and the guidance is under review by the editorial teams of the Association's portfolio of 11 additional scientific journals: Circulation; Stroke; Hypertension; Journal of the American Heart Association; Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology; Circulation Research; Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology; Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine; Circulation: Heart Failure; Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging; and Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions. As adopted, it will be highlighted in the author instructions for each journal.

"Race is associated with so much more than genetics and ancestry, including social determinants of health (e.g., income, education, housing) that also are inextricably linked to systemic and structural racism," said co-author Erica S. Spatz, M.D., M.H.S., associate editor of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an associate professor and director of the Preventive Cardiovascular Health Program at Yale School of Medicine at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. "We need our work in disparities research to reflect these complexities if we are to move from merely describing differences to making meaningful change."

Brahmajee K. Nallamothu, M.D., M.P.H., editor-in-chief of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes and a professor in the division of cardiovascular diseases and department of internal medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, added: "We do not want this statement to discourage racial and ethnic disparities work. In fact, we hope this statement will inspire more and even stronger research in the field. We must always think about the 'groundwater' and how our efforts together can help us achieve cardiovascular health equity for all racial and ethnic populations."

This statement reflects another step in the American Heart Association's November 2020 Presidential Advisory, "Call to Action: Structural Racism as a Fundamental Driver of Health Disparities." The advisory declared structural racism as a major cause for poor health and premature death from heart disease and stroke for many and detailed the Association's immediate and ongoing action to accelerate social equity and health care and outcomes for all people.

###

Additional authors and members of the Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes editorial board are Daniel B. Kramer, M.D., M.P.H.; Utibe R. Essien, M.D., M.P.H.; Rishi K. Wadhera, M.D., M.P.P., M.Phil.; Pamela N. Peterson, M.D., M.S.P.H.; and P. Michael Ho, M.D., Ph.D. Author disclosures are in the manuscript.

Additional Resources:

Available multimedia is on right column of release link -
https://newsroom.heart.org/news/new-guidance-addresses-structural-racism-in-racial-and-ethnic-disparities-research?preview=b719e28e0cffc1f387148c75e6cb56bd
After February 11, view the manuscript (ADD LINK) online.

Structural racism causes poor heart health, premature death from heart disease and stroke
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Statements and conclusions of studies published in the American Heart Association's scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the Association's policy or position. The Association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers are available here, and the Association's overall financial information is available here.

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public's health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

HOGAN'S ALLEY

Reclaiming 'renewal': Society pitches new life for historic Black Vancouver area

VANCOUVER — When Randy Clark wants to return to the home where he spent his formative years from 12 to 16, it means gazing at a viaduct that many credit with the destruction of Vancouver's historic Black community

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The house where Clark lived with his mother and four of his 10 siblings was demolished in 1970 alongside others that backed onto "Hogan's Alley."

The city approved the construction of the Georgia viaduct under a banner of "urban renewal," but it came at a cost to those who called it home.

"That's where the viaduct currently rests, on that piece of property," Clark, 67, said in an interview.

Clark is part of a group hoping to see a revitalization of the area with acknowledgment of Vancouver's Black history.

Hogan's Alley is named for a T-shaped laneway that ran for several blocks in Vancouver's Strathcona neighbourhood.

Black settlement in the area dates back to 1858 when governor James Douglas introduced a policy welcoming Black Californians to British Columbia. The Great Northern Railway station nearby also meant many Black porters chose Hogan's Alley as a home in the 1920s.

The area east of downtown was also home to Italian, Chinese, Japanese, First Nations and Jewish residents, many of whom were prevented from living in other neighbourhoods by racist housing policies, said Lama Mugabo, a board member with Hogan's Alley Society.

At the height of its vibrancy, Hogan's Alley was an entertainment district attracting the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald. Jimi Hendrix would visit his grandmother Nora Hendrix, who was an active member of the African Methodist Episcopal Fountain Chapel and cooked at Vie's Chicken and Steak House, which was owned by Clark's grandparents.

"It was a place where people came to party, people came to enjoy soul food, to listen to jazz. All the great musicians, when they came to town, they ended up in Hogan's Alley," Mugabo said.

Over the years, the neighbourhood met challenges. The city's efforts to rezone Strathcona made it difficult for residents to obtain mortgages or loans for home improvements. Newspaper articles portrayed Hogan's Alley as a centre of squalor, immorality and crime, the Vancouver Heritage Society says.

Clark said he remembers a lack of garbage pickup by the city compared with other neighbourhoods and debris piling up on lots. When he moved in, plans for the freeway had been announced and an exodus of residents was underway.

"It was very noticeable to me that that area where I lived was not being kept up," Clark said.

The city began bulldozing houses in 1967 and the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts opened in 1972, although plans for a larger freeway never came to fruition.

"For us, these viaducts constitute the monuments of our displacement," Mugabo said.

The impact continues as Black people move into Vancouver and find no cultural core, he said.

Mugabo moved to Vancouver in the 1980s from Rwanda and said he could relate to the story of Hogan's Alley and was drawn to efforts to revitalize it.

"As a political refugee, I know what displacement is. Also, as a Black man, I know how violent racism has been and the impact of racism on our community," he said.

More than 50 years after the viaducts were built, city council voted to take them down in 2015.

The society spent two years consulting the community and meeting with various city departments to submit a proposal that would allow for affordable housing, a cultural centre and business and retail space in their place, Mugabo said.

Ultimately, the society wants a community land trust on the block that would protect the area for public use under a long-term lease.

"The work we're doing today is not about us, it's not for us. It's for our children's children," he said.

The society's proposal has been embedded in the city's northeast False Creek Plan, but some elements remain unfulfilled, including the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the society, Mugabo said.

No one from the city was available for an interview, but it said in a statement that it is continuing discussions with the society on establishing an agreement, including consideration of a land trust.

However, it said the 20-year plan, which includes revitalization of the Hogan's Alley block and removal of the viaducts, relies on development funding and timing to deliver public benefits.

"The City recognizes that this is only the initial stage in building a relationship with the Hogan's Alley Society and the larger Black community, and sees this work as crucial to the long-term success of the city's cultural redress efforts with Vancouver's Black and African diaspora communities," the statement said.

The city said it's committed to prioritizing the needs of Black people who face racism and persistent social and economic exclusion, including work to address historic wrongs and to remove barriers to full participation of their cultures.

It is also in the process of creating a planning position to address systemic anti-Black racism, the statement said.

Clark said he's hoping the neighbourhood has a bright future, but instead of doing so under the umbrella of "revitalization," he chooses to reclaim a different phrase.

"I'm going to use another word: Renewal."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 9, 2021.

Amy Smart, The Canadian Press

Students fight for Black history courses, a more diverse curriculum in high schools

Many high school students are usually preoccupied with fitting in and keeping their heads above never-ending tests and due dates.

The students fighting for a more diverse lesson plan

But Machayla Randall, a high school senior in New Jersey, is more worried about making a difference in her school and beyond.

“There's definitely a lack of education of African American history throughout our school system,” she said. “In our history courses, the most you learn about African American history is during the month of February, which is Black History Month, and it's limited to the civil rights movement and that's pretty much it, unfortunately.”

© ABC VIDEOS

Students fight for Black history courses, a more diverse curriculum in high schools (msn.com)

For Randall and her classmates at Cherry Hill High School East, change begins with a course correction in history.

“Right now … we're asking for a mandatory African American studies course at the high school level that encourages teaching of systematic racism,” she said.

The course is currently offered at both Cherry Hill high schools -- West and East -- only as an elective

.

© ABC Cherry Hill High School East senior Machayla Randall is leading the charge to bring a mandatory course on African American studies to her district.

As protests for social justice erupted across the nation last year following the death of George Floyd, many students faced their own moment of racial reckoning in the classroom.

Last summer, Randall and members of her school’s African American Culture Club formed what they called the Social Justice Committee.

“I was sad. Also, in disbelief, shock and, primarily, I felt isolated,” Randall said. “Eventually, those feelings kind of turned into action.”

The students organized a Juneteenth protest focused on education.

“We were definitely inspired by the rising action across the nation,” Randall said. “Once we saw even local activists start to take action as well, we just needed our voice and we just needed to push for what we wanted.”

© Machayla Randall Machayla Randall helped organize a Juneteenth protest, where she addressed a crowd.

Joseph Meloche, a Cherry Hill native, has been superintendent of the school district for six years. He spoke to a crowd at the protest, where Randall also made a speech.

“It was incredible what they were able to put together,” he said. “As the adults, we have to make sure that we are physically there for them. And sometimes, even if we are just standing alongside to make sure that they have the opportunity to speak, if I can lend my voice, my figure and my presence to that, then that certainly is my responsibility to do that.”  

© ABC “We have to teach it. We have to talk about it,” Dr. Joseph Meloche said. “History through the lens of white eyes or white Americans cannot continue to be the dominant and singular piece through which we teach."

The predominantly white school district would be the first district in the state to make its African American studies course a requirement.

“We have to teach it. We have to talk about it,” Meloche said. “History through the lens of white eyes or white Americans cannot continue to be the dominant and singular piece through which we teach. And again, when we talk about folks of color, it can't just be five or six individuals that children hear about from elementary school through high school. It needs to be all of our history. Black history is our history.”

The director of curriculum, Farrah Mahan, recognizes the flaws in today’s history courses.

“We have to move beyond courses that really talk about how so many people of color were taken from their homes and from their countries and colonized,” Mahan said. “We start to look at our curriculum not through a Eurocentric perspective, but through a perspective that really highlighted Black and brown excellence. It's not OK to be sitting in a classroom and to never hear about yourself or your background… We want our students to feel like, ‘I belong here, I have a place here and I should be able to feel comfortable in the academic environment.’”

© ABC The director of curriculum, Dr. Farrah Mahan, recognizes the flaws in today’s history courses.

Mahan has worked closely with students, authors, local professors and universities to design a potential mandatory course in Black history for the district.

“Even though our teachers write the curriculum, we also are allowing a space for the students to give us their input,” Mahan said. “We're starting to talk about, ‘What are we learning about present day authors? What do our students know about Maya Angelou and the significance behind Malcolm X, not just Martin Luther King.’ We are asking the students, ‘Tell us what part of history would you really like to see brought to life in this course?’”

Randall says students are an integral part of that process.

“You can't really know what's best for your students unless you are willing to hear from them,” she said. “The students are the ones experiencing the culture at school, so I think it's really important that students have an opportunity to reflect their perspectives and their experiences and [for] their opinions to be valued.”

© ABC A mural of advocates for diversity at the Cherry Hill Alternative High School building at the Malberg Administration Building.

Some college students are also mobilizing to change whitewashed narratives in high school classrooms.

Stanford University sophomores Jasmine Nguyen and Katelin Zhou launched the campaign “Diversify Our Narrative” in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as their personal experiences in high school.

“Growing up, it was a bit difficult to see that I wasn't really represented in the classroom or in the media,” Zhou said. “Or, if I was represented and my people were represented, it was often portrayed in a more one-dimensional or stereotypical manner. And so, I think it can be difficult, [for] any person of color when they're growing up and they face similar obstacles where they have to face microaggressions or even systemic racism, when it comes to Black and brown folks… To see this happening all the time, and not really seeing yourself and your people portrayed in a manner that really reflects your rich cultural history in a multidimensional way.”

Nguyen and Zhou created a student-led campaign and organized with students across the country to help them form their own chapters within their school districts.

Their original mission was to get one book by and about a person of color added to the curriculum for every grade, in every school.

“We also have other chapters that have started their own petitions, [and they] are actually advocating for things like... getting police officers off campus,” Nguyen said. “It originally started with this one book campaign, but [has] now kind of spiraled into this much larger idea of racial justice and educational equity on a larger level.”

Their campaign has now reached over 800 school districts across the nation with more than 5,000 organizers participating. But as with any change, there has been pushback.

“There definitely has been backlash in terms of folks interpreting the movement as against white authors,” Nguyen said. “[It’s] really important to highlight [that] we're not so much saying that we don't want these works of literature. I like to see it not so much as subtracting from [a] curriculum, [but rather] as expanding our perspectives and our horizons.”

“We want to diversify the books that we're reading, not necessarily eliminate or trample over others,” Zhou added. “I think a lot of the reason why there is backlash is because a lot of people are uncomfortable when you try to change the status quo.”  

© ABC Stanford University sophomores Jasmine Nguyen and Katelin Zhou launched the campaign “Diversify Our Narrative” in response to the Black Lives Matter movement

That resistance to change is something Maria Montessori Academy, a predominantly white Utah school, is familiar with.

The charter school is no longer allowing parents to opt their children out of its Black History Month curriculum after coming under fire for initially giving families the option to do so. A few parents had requested the exemption from the instruction but later withdrew their requests.

The school’s opt-out policy began receiving public attention after the Academy’s director, Micah Hirokawa, wrote on the school’s Facebook page that he had “reluctantly” issued a letter that said families would be allowed “to exercise their civil rights to not participate in Black History Month at the school.” The post has since been deleted.

Hirokawa, who is of Asian descent, said the parents’ decision goes against his personal beliefs, according to the Standard-Examiner.

“I personally see a lot of value in teaching our children about the mistreatment, challenges and obstacles that people of color in our nation have had to endure and what we can do today to ensure that such wrongs don’t continue,” he said.

The fight to diversify education in the classroom has persisted for generations.

Between 1965 and 1972, African American students from nearly 1,000 schools across the country formed the Black Campus Movement, which demanded that Black studies be implemented in schools, that progressive Black universities be established and that a diverse system of higher education be built.

“If we look throughout history, it almost always comes from the young people, doesn't it?” Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, said. “That in part is because they still are so very idealistic and determined. They come from that place of aspirational thinking and hope and they are not deterred by what has been.

”MORE: Black scuba divers document slave shipwrecks forgotten for generations

In Cherry Hill, the mandatory African American studies course is on the verge of becoming a reality. The proposal will go before the city's Board of Education on Feb. 23, and may be passed in time for the end of Black History Month.

For Mahan, it's about making a difference that will extend far beyond this school year

© ABC For Randall and her classmates at the Cherry Hill High School East, change begins with a “course correction” in history.

“It's really about building our body of work and building a legacy for students,” Mahan said. “I'm hoping that it's something that does not just go away, that there are always advocates who are pushing the need for a course of this nature over the years.”

Meloche urged adults to listen to the feedback from the students.

© ABC Cherry Hill High School East senior Machayla Randall is leading the charge to bring a mandatory course on African American studies to her district.

“The only way that society has grown throughout the last few thousand years is that communities come together and support one another,” Meloche said. “This is not an individual endeavor.”

“It's really important to understand more than one perspective, and that is why it's really important for us to encourage black education,” Randall said. “I hope it has a great effect on the younger generations. Ideally, I'm hoping for younger generations to have better experiences than us."

TikTok is home to the next generation of BLM activists
The TikTok app has become an unlikely yet attention-grabbing tool for activism and education. Sofia Ongele and Jackie James are young tech-savvy activists using social media to educate their massive followings about BLM. Watch to see how they each use a combination of humor, research, and a unique point of view to share their message.
 CNN
Duration: 07:06 

https://madison.com/video/cnn/news/tiktok-is-home-to-the-next-generation-of-blm-activists/video_bb1d3d6b-5cf3-57e2-8d36-bed0d3f5b87a.html

These BLM activists are fighting for the civil rights of the next generation

Story by Chris James
Videos by CNN Digital Productions

Updated 1200 GMT (2000 HKT) February 6, 2021

BLM activists: Meet 9 people behind the Black Lives Matter movement - CNN

Blood-red water floods Indonesian village

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A village south of Pekalongan, an Indonesian city known for its production of batik fabric, was flooded with red water on Saturday.

North Korean hackers stole more than $300 million to pay for nuclear weapons, says confidential UN report

WE DON'T KNOW THAT AT ALL

THEY MAY HAVE HACKED 

AND THEY MAY HAVE NUKES

© Lee Jin-man/AP A woman wearing a face mask walks past in front of a TV screen showing a news program reporting about North Korea's military parade, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on January 15.

North Korea's army of hackers stole hundreds of millions of dollars throughout much of 2020 to fund the country's nuclear and ballistic missile programs in violation of international law, according to a confidential United Nations report.

The document accused the regime of leader Kim Jong Un of conducting "operations against financial institutions and virtual currency exchange houses" to pay for weapons and keep North Korea's struggling economy afloat. One unnamed country that is a member of the UN claimed the hackers stole virtual assets worth $316.4 million dollars between 2019 and November 2020, according to the document.

The report also alleged that North Korea "produced fissile material, maintained nuclear facilities and upgraded its ballistic missile infrastructure" while continuing "to seek material and technology for these programs from overseas."

North Korea has for years sought to develop powerful nuclear weapons and advanced missiles to pair them with, despite their immense cost and the fact that such a pursuit has turned the country into an international pariah barred by the UN from conducting almost any economic activity with other countries.

The UN investigators said one unnamed country assessed that it is "highly likely" North Korea could mount a nuclear device to a ballistic missile of any range, but it was still unclear if those missiles could successfully reenter the Earth's atmosphere.

The report was authored by the UN Panel of Experts on North Korea, the body charged with monitoring the enforcement and efficacy of sanctions levied against the Kim regime as punishment for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development.

Details from the report, which is currently confidential, were obtained by CNN through a diplomatic source at the United Nations Security Council, who shared portions of the document on the condition of anonymity. The Panel's report is comprised of information received from UN member countries, intelligence agencies, the media and those who flee the country -- not North Korea itself. These reports are typically released every sixth months, one in the early fall and another in early spring.

It's unclear when this report will be released. Previous leaks have infuriated China and Russia, both members of the UN Security Council, leading to diplomatic standoffs and delays.

North Korea's mission to the United Nations did not respond to CNN's request for comment, but the claims in the report are in line with recent plans laid out by Kim. At an important political meeting last month, Kim said that North Korea would work to develop new, advanced weapons for its nuclear and missile programs, like tactical nuclear weapons and advanced warheads designed to penetrate missile defense systems to deter the United States, despite the rapport he developed with former US President Donald Trump.

Trump attempted to get Kim to give up his pursuit of nuclear weapons through high-level diplomacy, betting that his negotiating skills could help him achieve where past Presidents had failed. Trump became the first sitting US president to meet a North Korean leader in 2018 and then met him two more times, but failed to convince the young North Korean dictator to stop pursuing nuclear weapons.

It is unclear how exactly US President Joe Biden will move forward, though his aides have made it clear that allies South Korea and Japan will be heavily involved. Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, said last week that the administration is conducting a policy review and that he would not "get ahead of that review" in public.

A new source of income

The UN panel found that North Korea's stringent Covid-19 border controls have affected the regime's ability to bring in much needed hard currency from overseas. Pyongyang uses complex sanctions-evading schemes to keep its economy afloat and get around the stringent UN sanctions.

Coal has historically been one of North Korea's most valuable exports -- the Panel's 2019 report found that Pyongyang collected $370 million by exporting coal, but shipments since July 2020 appear to have been suspended.

That is likely because North Korea severed almost all of its ties with the outside world in 2020 to prevent an influx of coronavirus cases, including cutting off almost all trade with Beijing, an economic lifeline the impoverished country needs to keep its people from going hungry. While that decision appears to have kept the pandemic at bay, it has brought the North Korean economy closer to the brink of collapse than it has been in decades.

Devastating storms, the punishing sanctions and the pandemic pummeled North Korea's economy in 2020, and experts. Experts believe that North Korea may be further relying on its hackers to bring in revenue during the pandemic because of the border closures.


Cooperation with Iran

The report cited multiple unnamed nations who claimed that North Korea and Iran reengaged cooperation on long-range missile development projects, including trading critical parts needed to develop these weapons. North Korea successfully test-fired three intercontinental-range ballistic missiles (ICBM) in 2017 and paraded a gargantuan, new ICBM at a public event in October.

Iran's pursuit of similar technology and its current arsenal of ballistic missiles is a major flashpoint in Tehran's long-running disputes with various Arab neighbors and the United States. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries have called for the curbing of Iran's ballistic weapons, but Iran's leaders have repeatedly said the arsenal is not up for negotiation.

Tehran appeared to deny that it was working with North Korea on missile technology. The report included comment from Iran's UN Mission, which claimed in December that the UN Panel of Experts was given "false information and fabricated data may have been used in investigations and analyses of the Panel."

Ancient bone sheds light on Slav alphabet history

An inscribed cow bone dating back to the seventh century proves that Germanic runes were the oldest script ever used by the ancient Slavs, Czech scientists said Thursday.

© Jitka Janu The rare bone find appears to prove Germanic runes were used before a Slavic alphabet was invented in the ninth century

Up to now, it was believed that the oldest Slavic alphabet was Glagolitic, invented by Byzantine monk St Cyril in the ninth century.

Cyril and his brother St Methodius came to former Great Moravia, covering today's Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia and parts of Austria, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and the Balkans, on a mission in 863.

But the broken bovine rib found in the southern Czech Republic in 2017 and examined by an international team of Czech, Austrian, Swiss and Australian scientists proved the assumption about the alphabet wrong.  

© HANDOUT The Germanic runes belong to the so-called Elder Futhark script

"The team discovered this was the oldest inscription found with the Slavs," head researcher Jiri Machacek from Masaryk University in the city of Brno said in a statement.

The team used genetic and radio-carbon testing to examine the bone.

"These sensitive analyses have shown the bone comes from domesticated cattle that lived around the year 600 AD," said team member Zuzana Hofmanova, an analyst at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

Robert Nedoma from the University of Vienna identified the inscription as so-called Elder Futhark runes, used by the German-speaking inhabitants of central Europe in the second to seventh centuries.

The Elder Futhark alphabet comprised 24 signs, and the last seven were inscribed on the newly-found rib, according to the researchers.

"It is probable that the bone originally comprised the whole runic alphabet. Hence, it is not a specific message but rather a teaching tool," the scientists said.

frj/dt/mas/tgb

GIVING MORE CREDIBILITY TO THE BOOK OF VELES WHICH USED RUNES

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for VELES (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

Twitter Says It Won’t Block Journalists, Activists, And Politicians In India To Protect Free Speech

Defying the Indian government could put Twitter officials in jail. But not doing so would mean enabling a crackdown against free speech.

Pranav DixitBuzzFeed News Reporter
Last updated on February 10, 2021

Hindustan Times / Getty Images
Farmers raise slogans during the ongoing protest against the new farm laws at New Delhi's borders on Feb. 9, 2021.

Twitter has told India’s government that it won’t restrict accounts belonging to journalists, activists, and politicians in India, despite receiving an order from the country’s federal government. It is, however, blocking an unspecified number of accounts that don’t fall into these categories from being able to be viewed internally in the country.


In a blog post published Tuesday, the company said that although it had withheld some accounts that India’s government wanted it to block, it wouldn’t block others because doing so would violate free speech.


“Because we do not believe that the actions we have been directed to take are consistent with Indian law, and, in keeping with our principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression, we have not taken any action on accounts that consist of new media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians,” Twitter’s blog post said. “To do so, we believe, would violate their fundamental right to free expression under Indian law.”

Twitter’s post comes in the middle of a struggle with the government of India, a major market for the company, over restricting accounts on the platform. Earlier this month, the company restricted people in India from viewing more than 250 accounts in the country after receiving an emergency legal order from India’s IT ministry. Among the blocked accounts were the Caravan, an investigative news magazine; critics of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi; and accounts tweeting in support of a monthslong farmers’ protest that is roiling the country.

But Twitter restored the accounts six hours later, arguing with the Indian government that the accounts constituted free speech and were noteworthy. In response, the government threatened Twitter officials with a fine and up to seven years in jail for violating its order.

The standoff with the Indian government has put Twitter in a tough spot. Blocking the accounts would mean enabling a crackdown against dissent, free speech, and journalism by India’s increasingly authoritarian government. But defying the government means risking legal consequences.


In the blog post published on Tuesday, Twitter said it had taken additional steps such as banning hashtags containing harmful content from the platform, something that the government feared would provoke real-world violence amid the protest, and permanently suspending more than 500 accounts for violating Twitter’s rules.

But the post also indicates that Twitter is seeking legal redress to restore some accounts that it has restricted in the country.

“We will continue to advocate for the right of free expression on behalf of the people we serve and are actively exploring options under Indian law — both for Twitter and for the accounts that have been impacted,” Twitter wrote. “We remain committed to safeguarding the health of the conversation occurring on Twitter, and strongly believe that the Tweets should flow.”

THE METHOD OF SCIENCE THE AIM OF RELIGION

Sri Lankan monks 'ordain' last legume

Sri Lankan Buddhist monks Wednesday ordained the world's only known specimen of a species of local tree, in an attempt to stop it being axed to make way for a motorway.

© - Buddhist monks tie a saffron robe around the trunk of the only known specimen of a Sri Lankan Legume or Crudia zeylanica tree

The Sri Lanka Legume (Crudia zeylanica) was first classified in 1868 and last found in 1911. In 2012 it was declared extinct until the surprise discovery in 2019 of a lone tree just north of Colombo.

But the eight-metre (26-foot) plant was set to be felled this week to allow the construction of a motorway to the central pilgrim city of Kandy until environmentalists raised the alarm and appealed for help.

Buddhist monk Thangalle Saarada hot-footed it to the site and together with several others on Wednesday blessed the plant and tied a saffron robe around its trunk while performing sacred chants.

"This tree is now symbolically a monk," Saarada said after tying the robe and sprinkling blessed water.

"We want to save the tree from the government."

The monks' mercy action is expected to save the tree, with Buddhism enjoying widespread respect in the island nation of 21 million people, where it is the majority religion.

Most people in fact will believe they will be cursed if they harm sacred plants.

"From a conservation point of view, it is extremely important that we save it from destruction," said Hiran Amarasekera, professor in Forestry and Environment Science at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

"It is not just the plant, but we need to save the entire eco system," Amarasekera told AFP.

Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said they will take environmental concerns onboard and a final decision will be taken after further consultations.

aj/stu/wat

After Years of Rising, Emissions of an Ozone-Depleting Chemical Are Falling Again

A new study has found that after a mysterious increase in the 2010s, an ozone-depleting chemical is once again in decline. It’s a rare bit of good news, showing that previous research tracking the increase has likely had an impact.

© Photo: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center An astronaut aboard the International Space Station adjusted the camera for night imaging and captured the green veils and curtains of an aurora over Quebec, Canada.

The article, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, focuses on CFC-11, a chemical that both depletes the ozone and heats the planet. It shows that after a half-decade hiccup where CFC-11 pollution rose, the world’s output of the compound fell in 2019 to levels close to the average seen between 2008 and 2012.

That’s great news for the ozone hole and global temperatures. CFC-11 is a type of chlorofluorocarbon, a class of gases once widely used for refrigeration and air conditioning and as chemical solvents. But the use of those chemicals depleted the ozone layer that protects Earth from the sun’s damaging ultraviolet rays, in addition to being very potent greenhouse gases. (CFC-11 specifically has 5,000 times the global warming potential of carbon in the short term.)

In 1987, world leaders came together to sign the Montreal Protocol, an agreement to ramp down CFC usage. The treaty worked—once leaders pledged to stop using CFCs, manufacturers mostly stopped using them in production, and the ozone has been recovering. But a few years ago, scientists found that between 2013 and 2018, emissions of one type of CFC, CFC-11, actually increased despite global reports of near-zero production since 2010. That suggested that emissions from an unreported source were rising.

“We don’t know for sure what caused the CFC-11 emission increase after 2013, but many experts believe that it was likely from new production of CFC-11 for making new foam [insulation] after the 2010 mandated phase-out of CFC production by the Montreal Protocol,” Stephen Montzka, an atmospheric scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration based in Boulder, Colorado who led the study, said in an email.

To determine how progress on phasing out of CFC-11 has been going since then, Montzka and his co-authors analyzed data from NOAA monitoring laboratories, which measure CFC concentrations by collecting air samples from 13 locations around the world using flasks.

“The flask canisters are shipped back to my lab in Boulder and are analyzed on custom laboratory instrumentation to determine the concentration of CFC-11 and other gases,” said Montzka.

The authors found that atmospheric levels of CFC-11 are decreasing again. Specifically, they found that in 2019, the world emitted 57,320 U.S. tons of the gas in 2019, which is nearly 20,000 U.S. tons less than 2018's output. Put simply, we’re back on track.

Another new study published in the same issue of Nature analyzed the same data from NOAA’s monitoring sites and found that about 60% of that reduction was the result of emissions cuts from eastern China specifically—probably the result of local crackdowns on factories in mid-2019.

“It was reported that Chinese authorities reacted, making seizures of CFCs, arrests and destroying production facilities,” Luke Western, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Bristol and the second study’s lead author, wrote in an email.

Those crackdowns came in response to 2019 research also led by Western showed that between 40% and 60% of the unexpected rise in emissions in the 2010s was likely from illicit use of CFC-11 at factories in the coastal province Shandong and the inland province Hebei, which were producing foam for refrigerators and building insulation.

To see if those actions made a difference, the researchers specifically examined data on CFC-11 concentrations from two measurement stations in East Asia. By using computer models that simulate the atmospheric transmission patterns of gases, they were able to determine where exactly emissions were occurring. They determined that in eastern China, CFC-11 output in 2019 was about 11,000 U.S. tons less than it was in 2018, meaning virtually all of the region’s illicit new pollution got wiped out.

The researchers still don’t know where the remaining 40% or so of the mysterious rise in CFC-11 emissions between 2013 and 2018 came from, but thankfully, it looks like that also got wiped out between 2018 and 2019. Western said future research might help them determine the culprit, but that his priority—and the priority of signatories to the Montreal Protocol—is pinpointing the source of all remaining CFC emissions to eradicate them.

“The main focus is on expanding the current measurement coverage to ensure any future challenges can be addressed,” said Western.

Montzka said that rapidly ending CFC-11 emissions “will ensure that the ozone layer heals as fast as is possible.” That’s important, since the layer blocks harmful ultraviolet radiation that can harm plant and animal life and can also cause sunburn and eye disease for humans. Less CFC-11 also means less warming. But at the same time, Montzka noted that the compound isn’t the main contributor to the climate crisis—though it’s potent, emissions are nowhere near the scale of other greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. We’ve also got to curb emissions of other greenhouse gases, including the ones emitted by ozone-depleting chemicals’ replacements, to secure a livable future.