Colombians Protest Tax Reform Proposal Amid Pandemic

By Lina VANEGAS on April 29 2021 

Tens of thousands of people marched in Colombia Wednesday against a proposed tax reform they say will leave them poorer as the country battles its deadliest phase yet of the coronavirus pandemic.

President Ivan Duque's government wants to tax the incomes of those earning more than $656 a month, lowering the threshold to broaden the tax base.

It also wants to impose a tax on basic services in upper-middle class areas and on funerals.

The measures are meant to raise some $6.3 billion in ten years for the country which saw GDP drop 6.8 percent in 2020 -- its worst performance in half a century.

Protesters take to the streets of Bogota to denounce proposed tax reforms on April 28, 2021 AFP / JUAN BARRETO

Protesters took to the streets of several cities to denounce the reforms which they see as an unwarranted attack on the middle class in a time of dire economic straits.

"We do not accept the tax reform. We are thinking of our children, of ourselves... Either we die of the virus or we die of hunger," said protester Victor Cordoba, 33.

Some 47,500 police and security personnel were deployed countrywide.

In the southeastern city of Cali, indigenous protesters pulled down a statue of Spanish conquistador Sebastian de Belalcazar AFP / PAOLA MAFLA

Colombia, where almost one in five people are unemployed and the minimum wage is the equivalent of $248 per month, is battling a deadly new wave of Covid-19.

Its planned reform "will make millions more Colombians go hungry," said Francisco Maltese, president of the CUT workers' union.

In Bogota, thousands marched on the central square, which houses the presidency and congress, to the rhythm of drums.

Protesters clashed with police in Bogota AFP / Raul ARBOLEDA

Caravans of taxis, trucks and motorbikes slowed traffic on the capital's main roads, and there were reports of confrontations with police.

"We are tired of abuse the population must endure ... we are tired of our president not doing anything about it. We are more afraid of our government than of the virus," protester Added Felipe Zapata, 24, told AFP in Bogota.

In the southeastern city of Cali, indigenous protesters pulled down a statue of Spanish conquistador Sebastian de Belalcazar.

Cali mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina said one person died in an incident "related to the demonstration," and advanced to 1:00 pm the 6:00 pm curfew in place for epidemic control.

Thousands more people marched in Medellin, Barranquilla and other cities.

There had been calls for the demonstrations to be canceled given the pandemic risk, and a court on Tuesday ordered that the gatherings be postponed -- a ruling that went unheeded.

Colombia's rights ombudsman also decried the decision to hold mass protests "in this period of such high risk to health and life."

With 2.8 million Covid-19 cases, the country of 50 million inhabitants has the third-highest coronavirus infections in Latin America, behind Brazil and Argentina. It has registered some 72,200 deaths.

While Duque has sought to portray the tax reform as a tool to mitigate the economic crisis unleashed by the pandemic, the initiative faces many obstacles in a legislature where the ruling party has no outright majority.

US Oil Lobby Moves Towards Supporting Carbon Tax

By AFP News on March 03 2021 5:22 AM

The American Petroleum Institute (API) confirmed Tuesday it is considering supporting a carbon tax, a sign of the shifting politics of climate change in the United States.

API has been working with scientists, geologists and others throughout the industry "to meet the world's energy demands and drive down US emissions, and our efforts are focused on supporting a new US contribution to the global Paris Agreement," a spokeswoman for the institute, whose 600 members include ExxonMobil and Chevron, told AFP.

The move comes as newly inaugurated President Joe Biden shifts environmental policy, making aggressive climate mitigation a priority and rejoining the Paris Agreement after former president Donald Trump exited the pact.

A draft statement circulated within the API endorsed an economy-wide carbon tax as a means to "lead to the most economic paths to achieve the ambitions of the Paris Agreement," the Wall Street Journal reported.

The American Petroleum Institute has previously opposed US efforts to tax carbon emissions AFP / Jonathan NACKSTRAND

That would be a reversal for the organization, which opposed Congress's last major legislative attempt to price carbon more than a decade ago.

Taxing carbon would likely speed a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and other emissions-free technologies.

How to respond to climate change has split members of the API, with European oil giants favoring a more aggressive stance at cutting emissions than their American counterparts.

In January, French oil major Total announced it was exiting the API, citing the group's support in 2020 of political candidates who argued against the US participation in the Paris Agreement, among other issues.

Ancient Egypt Martial Art Enthusiasts Eye Olympic Status

By Emmanuel Parisse on April 29 2021

Egypt's tradition of tahtib (stick fighting), popular at festivities and dating back at least 5,000 years, has become a modern martial art that enthusiasts hope will eventually make it to the Olympics.

French-Egyptian Adel Paul Boulad, who for some 15 years has been the driving force behind modern tahtib, calls the push a "unifying project" and a "cultural revolution".

The modern practice "is an updated sports version of a multi-millennial art", said the 69-year-old martial arts teacher.

"It is a sporting practice that is codified, structured... and which spans the entire history of Egypt," he told AFP.

In traditional tahtib, popular in Egypt's rural south, two men perform a dance while wielding bamboo-like rods, in a face-off somewhat resembling a fencing duel.

Folk musicians with loud drums accompany the performance, which is popular at weddings and festivities, and pump up the crowd encircling the men, who don traditional galabeya robes.

The UN cultural agency UNESCO in 2016 listed the martial art as "intangible cultural heritage of humanity".

    

Youths take part in a training session of Egypt's combative sport of 'tahtib' (stick-fighting), in the capital Cairo AFP / Khaled DESOUKI


France-based Boulad, who was also behind tahtib's UNESCO candidacy, formalised its intricate moves and broke it down to 12 forms -- the equivalent of katas in Japanese martial arts.

The "secrets of combat" were inscribed in stone on the walls of temples and tombs of ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom (2,700 to 2,200 BC) until the arrival of the Greeks, who conquered the North African country around 300 BC.

Boulad, who is also a business coach, wants to see tahtib included as a combat sport at the Olympics in the coming years.

Wearing a red belt with three tips -- reminiscent of the style of ancient Egyptian warriors -- and black outfits, competitors wield a 1.3-metre rattan stick.

Unlike traditional tahtib, women can participate in its modern version.

  

Enthusiasts hope the modern martial art will eventually make it to the Olympics AFP / Khaled DESOUKI

With exhibitions, notably at the International Martial Arts Festival in Paris in 2016, modern tahtib already has attracted followers internationally, but is still trying to gain a foothold in Egypt.

Boulad said he had given himself two to three years, with the help of private financing, to create "regional centres" across the world for spreading the sport further, including in Canada, Colombia and Hungary.

"I say to Egyptians, get moving, otherwise tahtib will go to the Olympics without an Egyptian team representing it," he said.

In Cairo's upmarket eastern suburb of Rehab, a leisure park welcomes the first enthusiastic Egyptian instructors trained by Boulad, and their eager students.

Nasser Refai, 44, a physical education teacher and one of the trainers, said the Egyptian fighting style inherited from the time of the pharaohs was a "treasure".

"It's something we have to keep. Like any art form, if we don't practice, we lose it," added Refai, known affectionately as Captain Nasser to his students.

He and his associates have slowly started attracting young local admirers of the sport via social media.

"It's not just about fighting, it's about respecting and changing yourself," he told AFP, adding that it would be his "dream" to see tahtib recognised as an Olympic sport.

Stick in hand and wearing a headscarf, Jasmine Anwar, 25, is keenly taking part in her first training session.

"I will continue. I won't stop at just knowing how to hold the stick," the schoolteacher said.

New recruit, Jouba Ayoub Mohammed, a 27-year-old graphic designer, expressed interest in promoting the sport to others of his generation.

But "we must first let Egyptians know that tahtib is not a folk dance that is performed only at weddings and other cultural events," he said.

"It's a part of ancient Egyptian history."

Torrential Rain Collapses Roof Over Famed Aztec Temple In Mexico

By AFP News on April 29 2021 

The roof over the most important Aztec temple in Mexico City has partially collapsed in a hailstorm, officials said, just one day after the capital's archaeological zone reopened from pandemic closures.

The modern roof, made of metal and acrylic panels, was installed to protect the ancient ruins underneath.

Officials in Mexico City said the roof over the famed Templo Mayor had partially collapsed in a storm AFP / PEDRO PARDO

The extent of damage on Wednesday to the famed Templo Mayor in the city's historic zone was not immediately clear, though archaeologists said it was not severe.

"Despite the spectacular nature of the accident, the damage to the archaeological heritage is not great," said Leonardo Lopez Lujan, director of the Templo Mayor Project.

One person was injured but did not need hospitalization after the structure's partial collapse in the torrential storm, according to a local administrative office.

 

Templo Mayor was the most sacred temple in the Aztec capital AFP / RODRIGO ARANGUA

Images circulating on social media showed soldiers guarding the taped-off area where the roof, along with a part of the site's fence, had been damaged.

Built and rebuilt throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, Templo Mayor was the sacred heart of the Aztec capital and believed to be the site of many human sacrifices.

The vast religious building was destroyed when the Spanish conquistadors razed Tenochtitlan in 1521 and rebuilt a colonial city on top of it.

Archaeologists first uncovered the temple in 1914, but the ruins were not excavated in earnest until the 1970s.

The historic center of Mexico City was named a UNESCO heritage site in 19

Scientists Back Brazil Over Russian Covid Vaccine Import Ban

(ibtimes.com.au)

Scientists have backed Brazil's drug regulator's decision to stop the import of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine on the basis that batches they tested carried a live version of a common cold-causing virus.


Top virologist Angela Rasmussen told AFP the finding "raises questions about the integrity of the manufacturing processes" and could be a safety issue for people with weaker immune systems, if the problem were found to be widespread.

Russia's Gamaleya Institute, which developed the vaccine, has denied the reports.

The issue centers around an "adenovirus vector" -- a virus that normally causes mild respiratory illness but in vaccines is genetically modified so that it cannot replicate, and edited to carry the DNA instructions for human cells to develop the spike protein of the coronavirus.

This in turn trains the human system to be prepared in case it then encounters the real coronavirus.

The Sputnik V vaccine uses two different adenovirus vectors to accomplish this task: adenovirus type 26 (Ad26) for the first shot, and adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) for the second shot.

According to a slideshow uploaded online, scientists at Anvisa, Brazil's regulator, said they tested samples of the booster shot and found it was "replication competent" -- meaning that once inside the body, the adenovirus can continue to multiply.

They added that this had likely occurred because of a manufacturing problem called "recombination," in which the modified adenovirus had gained back the genes it needed to replicate while it was being grown inside engineered human cells in a lab.

Brazilian regulators did not evaluate the first shot.

But on Monday they denied a request from several states in the northeast of the country to acquire more than 30 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. The federal government has additionally ordered 10 million.

A health worker prepares a dose of the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine at a temporary vaccine centre set up at City Hall in Hull, England AFP / Paul ELLIS

Rasmussen, a research scientist at Canada's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, described the problem as a quality control issue, rather than a problem inherent to the vaccine technology.

If batches used in the real world were tainted, then "for most people this probably won't be a big deal because adenoviruses are generally not thought of as really important human pathogens," she said.

"But in people who are immune compromised... there could be a higher rate of adverse effects because of it, including potentially serious ones."

The bigger problem, she added, was the unfortunate impact on confidence over a vaccine that a study in The Lancet journal showed was safe and more than 90 percent effective.

If people aren't sure that the vaccine they are receiving is the same that was studied in trials, then "I can imagine that some people might have their reservations about getting that vaccine at all," said Rasmussen.

Another unknown is whether the manufacturing problem that led to the adenovirus vector being able to replicate also knocks out the DNA code for the spike protein -- rendering the shot ineffective as a coronavirus vaccine.

Denis Logunov, deputy director of the Gamaleya Institute, has responded by saying, "The statements I have read in the press have nothing to do with reality," and that the adenovirus vector was not able to replicate.

But it is not the first time such an issue has occurred.

Earlier this month, Slovakia also said it had concerns over the composition of Sputnik V vaccines it had imported, saying they did not match the samples that were used in clinical studies.

In a blog post for Science Magazine, American chemist Derek Lowe wrote: "This sort of thing calls into question the entire manufacturing and quality control process, and I can see why the Brazilian regulators are concerned."

He added that the response from Sputnik V's makers was not adequate.

"Step up and act like responsible drug developers: address the issues directly, with transparency, and work to find a solution," said Lowe.

Volkswagen aims to be carbon neutral by 2050 ‘at the latest’
New initiatives include the construction of VW solar and wind farms and the usage of green energy at global factories - but not at Chinese plants

by: James Brodie
29 Apr 2021



Volkswagen has announced a series of carbon reduction initiatives, including greener production techniques for passenger vehicles, the usage of green energy at the company’s factories, and the acceleration of all-electric vehicle sales.

The brand will outline its new carbon reduction strategy at a conference being held today, called ‘Way to Zero’. Volkswagen has also said that, through its new measures, it aims to be a fully carbon-neutral car company by 2050 at the latest, with 70 per cent of its sales in Europe to be fully-electric by 2030.

New Volkswagen ID.4 2021 review

We’ve set out on the ‘Way To Zero’ and are consistently placing the environment at the focus of all our activities,” said Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer, Ralf Brandstätter.

“Our big electric offensive was just the start. We’re taking a holistic approach to decarbonisation: from production through service life to recycling.”

A key tenet of the updated carbon strategy is the increased use of green and renewable energy at the brand’s production facilities. All European Volkswagen factories are powered by renewable energy, and the marque plans to copy this worldwide, albeit with the exception of its 33 plants in China.

Volkswagen says it will identify CO2-emitting elements of its supply chain and look to reduce them. The company claims that this will become a key rationale for deciding which third-party suppliers it awards contracts to.

It will switch to more sustainable components where necessary, citing an impending move to wheels made from greener cast aluminium and tyres from low-emission production processes. Battery recycling from electric vehicles will allow up to 90 per cent of their materials to be reused.

The company has also announced that it plans to become a supplier of renewable energy for electric vehicle recharging, and is directly funding the construction of new wind and solar farms, several of which are to be constructed across Europe by 2025.

Click here to read our in-depth review of the all-electric Volkswagen ID.3...

HEY GUYS

MALE FERTILITY ‘PRECARIOUSLY CLOSE’ TO CLIMATE CHANGE EXTINCTION LIMITS

CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS 

THAT'S YOU

The loss of fertility in males as a result of climate change, particularly in the tropics, may be a better predictor of vulnerability to extinction

By Dr Belinda van Heerwaarden, University of Melbourne


As temperatures rise across the globe, species will increasingly face environmental conditions beyond their tolerance limits, posing a major risk to biodiversity, food production and health.

Understanding how much warming that each species can withstand, which species will be most at risk and their capacity to adapt to warmer conditions is one of the biggest challenges facing biologists today

.

The buffer zone between current habitat temperatures and tolerance using male fertility is much lower than estimates using critical thermal limits in adults. Graphic: Supplied

But getting accurate predictions of species risk to climate change is not straightforward.

Some studies have used the buffer zone (or warming tolerance) between maximum habitat temperatures and the temperature at which adults stop moving or die (known as critical thermal limits) to forecast climate change risk across species from different habitats.

These studies suggest that tropical and sub-tropical species may be most at risk to climate warming because they are already experiencing maximum habitat temperatures close to those that incapacitate or kill them.

The complexities of predicting climate change effects
Read more

But whether critical thermal limits in adults are good predictors of species’ vulnerability to future climate change is not yet clear.

Emerging evidence suggests that thermal tolerance may be lower in other life-stages, and upper fertility thermal limits (that is, the temperature at which females or males become sterile) may be lower than critical thermal limits.

Although these studies hint that species may be more vulnerable than currently considered, we still do not know to what extent thermal traits are important in dictating current distributions and future vulnerability.

In our recent study, published in Nature Communications, we exposed different species of Drosophila flies to environmental conditions in the laboratory that mimicked climate change.

The loss of fertility in males occurs at temperatures much lower than lethal temperatures. Picture: Andrew Weeks/University of Melbourne

This helped us to examine whether tropical species are more vulnerable to warming and explore which measures of thermal tolerance are better at predicting extinction risk.

By following population growth and extinction, we found that tropical species indeed went extinct at temperatures lower than the widespread species. Despite living in the warm tropics, these species were no more heat tolerant than species with distributions extending much further away from the equator.

However, the loss of fertility in males - which occurs at temperatures much lower than lethal temperatures – was a better predictor of individual climate change vulnerability.
How do we protect our unique biodiversity from megafires?
Read more

Although critical thermal limits could accurately assess the geographical distribution of vulnerability (that tropical species are more vulnerable to warming), male fertility limits were much better at estimating individual extinction temperatures, suggesting that critical thermal limits may overestimate extinction risk.

Male fertility thermal limits also showed a greater association with current habitat temperatures and rainfall than critical thermal limits, revealing that male fertility may also be more important for dictating species current distributions.

So, how much closer are species to their male fertility limits than their critical thermal limits?

Some of the rainforest species we examined currently experience maximum habitat temperatures around 7 °C below their critical thermal limit or in other words, their warming tolerance is around 7 °C

.

Tropical species went extinct at temperatures lower than the widespread species. PIcture: Belinda van Heerwaarden/University of Melbourne

In contrast, some species are already experiencing average temperatures during summer months within 1 °C of their male fertility limit.

So instead of a buffer zone of 7 °C, they may only be able to handle 1°C of warming before populations crash.

Given that species – particularly tropical species – appear to be living precariously close to their male fertility thermal limits, we also explored whether evolution (genetic changes across generations) or plasticity (immediate changes under different environments) might be able to buffer temperature increases.

Tracking the climate threat to Australia's unique ecosystems
Read more

We looked for signals of genetic adaptation and plasticity by comparing critical thermal limits (the temperature at which adults stopped moving) and male fertility in the Drosophila lines exposed to simulated climate warming for up to 26 generations as well as lines kept at temperatures reflecting current temperature fluctuations in tropical Australia.

Sadly, we found no increases in male fertility or critical thermal limits in the tropical or the widespread species exposed to warming. This suggests species may have limited adaptive potential to buffer future changes.

These findings, along with other studies pointing to the heat sensitivity of male fertility in organisms beyond Drosophila, suggest that male fertility may be the chink in the armour against climate change

.

Tropical species appear to be living precariously close to their male fertility thermal limits. Picture: Andrew Weeks/University of Melbourne

The way we currently estimate climate change vulnerability could be underestimating extinction vulnerability.

Given that many species – particularly tropical species – may be much closer to their thermal limits, the 1.5 to 4 °C of warming currently projected may lead to much more biodiversity loss than most of us probably realise.

Banner: Getty Images

Leading European cultural figures call on EU to offer Scotland ‘path’ to rejoin

Brian Cox, Slavoj Žižek, and Elena Ferrante among signatories asking the EU to offer membership ahead of possible Scottish independence vote

Adam Bychawski

OPEN DEMOCRACY
29 April 2021, 6.45am

EU leaders must not allow Westminster to "bully" Scotland,

 said campaign organisers. |
Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert / Alamy Stock Photo


More than 170 prominent European academics, authors and artists have backed a campaign calling for the European Union to offer Scotland a ‘path’ to membership as pressure mounts for another independence referendum.

The letter, which is signed by figures including Scottish actor Brian Cox, Italian writer Elena Ferrante, and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, urges EU leaders to make a “unilateral and open offer of membership” ahead of any independence vote.

Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum by a 62-38% majority. Campaigners have called for the country to have a second independence referendum in light of the vote. In 2014, Scotland voted against becoming an independent nation in a referendum, by a 55-45% majority.

The letter, which is addressed to European leaders and signed by figures from all 27 EU member states, asks for Scotland to be offered membership prior to a second independence referendum.

“Scotland – where every region voted Remain – must not be left on its own by Europe while being subjected to bullying by the UK government,” said Anthony Barnett, writer and co-founder of openDemocracy. Barnett organised the letter together with openDemocracy main site editor Adam Ramsay. openDemocracy is not involved in the campaign or endorsed it.

The signatories said that an offer from the EU would “make it possible for any referendum to be a clear, practical and democratic choice for Scotland between two unions: the EU or the UK.”

“The usual process is for the EU to respond to a membership request only when it comes from an independent country,” write the signatories.

“Scotland deserves a different process. While it is legally part of the UK, the Scottish government cannot negotiate with the EU. But the EU can declare that, because Scotland has already long been part of the EU, should it become legally and democratically independent it need not apply as a ‘new’ accession candidate,” they add.

Elections for the Scottish Parliament take place on 6 May. The Scottish National Party (SNP) has made a second independence referendum one of its key election pledges and argues that Westminster should accept an SNP majority as a valid mandate for a second independence referendum.

The letter points to EU provisions made in the Brexit deal for extending membership to Northern Ireland in the event of a vote for Irish reunification as a precedent for unilaterally offering Scotland a route to rejoining the EU.

“The EU has demonstrated already that it can recognise the unique circumstance created by Brexit. The European Council unilaterally confirmed at its Summit of 29 April 2017 that Northern Ireland would become part of the EU immediately should it ever vote in the future to join the Republic of Ireland,” said the letter.

The SNP pledged to hold a second referendum in its manifesto at the 2019 UK general election. After the party was reelected with an increased majority, leader Nicola Sturgeon formally requested the power to hold an independence referendum.

However, prime minister Boris Johnson refused the request on the grounds that key pro-independence figures had said that the 2014 referendum was a “once in a generation opportunity”.

‘Good news for internet users’: Elon Musk’s Starlink gets approval for satellites closer to Earth


By Chris Zappone

WA TODAY, AUSTRALIA
April 28, 2021 —

Elon Musk’s Starlink may be on the path to providing faster broadband to rural customers after a US ruling overnight allowed the company to operate part of its satellite fleet at a closer orbit to Earth.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) granted Starlink the rights to orbit 2814 satellites - yet to be launched - in lower orbits than originally planned.


Play video 1:48 Starlink visualisation orbiting Earth

Starlink as it appears in a visualisation of satellites orbiting Earth. (Courtesy of Saber Astronautics).

Starlink, a division of SpaceX, currently has 1300 satellites in orbit, as part of a planned network of 12,000 designed to blanket the Earth with high-speed space-based internet broadband coverage.

The new ruling will bring the 2814 satellites from a planned orbit of about 1150 kilometres to about 550 kilometres, cutting down on the delay in the broadband signal.


“It’s going to be good news for internet users (including many test users in regional Australia) as lag will be reduced,” said Professor Alan Duffy, program lead for SpaceTech Applications at Swinburne University.

In making their ruling, the FCC concluded that “the lower altitude of its satellites enables a better user experience by improving speeds and latency”.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk.CREDIT:AP

Starlink’s latency - the time required to move data from source to destination - is expected to fall by mid 2021 from about 20 to 40 milliseconds to milliseconds measured in the teens or even single digits.

That compares with 600 to 800 milliseconds for the NBN Sky Muster satellites, orbiting at a much more distant 36,000 kilometres.
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Out of space: Astronauts ‘cram’ into space station after SpaceX crew arrives on used rocket

Starlink is among a handful of newly formed companies, including OneWeb and Amazon-backed Project Kuiper, that are offering broadband distributed by satellites in low-Earth-orbit. The technology, unproven at such scale, could potentially bridge the long-standing city-rural digital divide in Australia, the US and elsewhere. Australia has an estimated 2 million people who lack internet access at home.

Satellite-based broadband is made possible by combining existing technologies together in new ways. Starlink satellites are small and sent up in large batches by SpaceX rockets, which, being re-usable, make the cost of launch dramatically cheaper.

How these networks will function fully deployed is still unknown, including what sort of interference the competing networks could create for each other over time.

To gain FCC approval Starlink had to overcome objections by OneWeb, and Musk’s space rival, Jeff Bezos, whose Project Kuiper, which is also supporting an orbital-broadband network.

The companies cited the risk of interference as a reason to deny Starlink’s request.

“It is highly likely we will experience an interference issue at some point if all these satellites get up there,” Adelaide-based satellite designer engineer Julia Mitchell said.

Ms Mitchell, at satellite-manufacturer SITAEL Australia, said there were “hundreds of constellations planned”.

“Ultimately, there has not been a low-Earth-orbit constellation that has actually been profitable and not gone bankrupt at some point.

“Many start-ups fail, so [the companies lodging complaints with the FCC] now, may not actually be the people that put satellites up to offer internet services in the end,” Ms Mitchell said.

Starlink has about 320 customers in Victoria and New South Wales testing the equipment with another 7000 paid up and waiting for their gear, according to the Better Internet for Rural, Regional and Remote Australia site.

Professor Duffy said lower Starlink orbits will benefit astronomers by putting more of them into the Earth’s shadow, which “limits their reflection of sunlight that blind our optical telescopes”.

However, he’s not convinced thousands of new satellites won’t affect radio astronomy. “The biggest danger from the orbit is that it now sits much closer to crewed operations for the International Space Station as well as China’s future efforts with their own space station.”

The prospect of collisions is a threat to the overall safety of the orbit. This month a Starlink satellite nearly collided with a satellite operated by OneWeb, a UK-government-Bharti Global-backed internet satellite service.

Jason Held, chief executive of Sydney-based Saber Astronautics, which tracks satellites in orbit, said there was no real solution to “space traffic” issues today - which leads to near misses.

“It’s all barnstorming at the moment.”

 22 tonnes of COVID-19 supplies from Russia arrive in India

Suhasini Haidar, THE HINDU

NEW DELHI, 

APRIL 29, 2021 

A plane carrying the batch of medical aid for India to help the country tackle the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is pictured at Zhukovsky Airport in Moscow Region, Russia on April 28, 2021. Photo: Russian Emergencies Ministry via Reuters   | Photo Credit: Reuters

Cargo includes ventilators, oxygen concentrators and medicines

Two planeloads of COVID-19 supplies from Russia landed here on Thursday, comprising about 22 tonnes of ventilators, oxygen concentrators and medicines, including a Russian-made version of the widely used drug Favipiravir.

Also read: U.S. COVID-19 assistance en route to New Delhi

The cargo, that came as a grant from Moscow, followed a telephone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi late on Wednesday, in which the two leaders decided to upgrade contacts and institute a “2+2” format of talks between Foreign and Defence Ministers.

“Further development of bilateral relations of the especially privileged strategic partnership was discussed, including a schedule of contacts at various levels,” a statement issued by the Kremlin said, noting that Mr. Modi had thanked Mr. Putin for the aid, which is in “great demand” in India.

Also read: COVID-19 | France to send medical supplies to India

The Russian flights operated by Emercom included 20 oxygen production units, 75 lung ventilators, 150 medical monitors and 2,00,000 packs of medicine.

As The Hindu had reported earlier, Russia decided to cut back on a promise to deliver 3,00,000-4,00,000 injections of Remdesivir produced in Russia as part of a compulsory licence as it would violate the U.S. patent, and India now hopes to source about 4,50,000 vials directly from Remdesivir developer Gilead Sciences Inc. in the U.S.

The Russian aid is part of an international effort that now involves about 25 countries, and has meant a major policy shift for the government, which has refused to accept foreign aid for more than 17 years, as India faces an unprecedented number of Coronavirus cases, deaths and a shortage of oxygen and medicines.

Also read: Coronavirus | Oxygen, medical supplies likely from 15 countries

“Russia is closely watching the situation in India, which is becoming more and more alarming due to the Coronavirus pandemic,” said Russian Ambassador Nikolai Kudashev in a video statement, adding that Russia had appreciated India’s gesture in 2020 of making stocks of the drug HCQ available to the country.

“The only way to defeat Coronavirus is to unite and help each other,” he added.

India and Russia are also discussing how to ramp up production of Sputnik V vaccine, which is also being accepted in parts of the subcontinent like Bangladesh. Indian companies are expected to produce about 850 million doses of the vaccine annually, with production expected to begin in May.

“The leaders welcomed the registration of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in India and noted its high efficiency and safety,” the Kremlin statement on the Modi-Putin conversation read.

The decision to begin a 2+2 format of talks between Delhi and Moscow is significant as it comes ahead of a planned visit by Mr. Putin for the annual dialogue in the second half of the year. At present, India holds annual “2+2” consultations with its Quad partners — the U.S., Australia and Japan.

RUSSIA WAS A COLD WAR ALLY WITH INDIA, WHICH WAS A MEMBER OFH TE NON ALIGNED NATIONS. THE US AND PAKISTAN WERE ALLIES DURING THAT PERIOD.