BOY HOWDY DO THEY
Space telescope in home stretch of tests; early pics impress

By MARCIA DUNN

This combination of images provided by NASA on Monday, May 9, 2022, shows part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, seen by the retired Spitzer Space Telescope, left, and the new James Webb Space Telescope. The new telescope is in the home stretch of testing, with science observations expected to begin in July, astronomers said Monday.

 (NASA/JPL-Caltech, NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI via AP)


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s new space telescope is in the home stretch of testing, with science observations expected to begin in July, astronomers said Monday.

The James Webb Space Telescope beamed back the latest test pictures of a neighboring satellite galaxy, and the results are stunning when compared with images taken by NASA’s previous infrared observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Each of the 18 mirror segments on the new telescope is bigger than the single one on Spitzer.

“It’s not until you actually see the kind of image that it delivers that you really internalize and go ‘wow!’” said University of Arizona’s Marcia Rieke, chief scientist for Webb’s near-infrared camera. “Just think of what we’re going to learn.”

Launched last December, the $10 billion Webb is the largest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever sent into space. It will seek light emitted by the first stars and galaxies close to 14 billion years ago, and keep a sharp lookout for possible signs of life.

Scientists are keeping the identity of Webb’s first official target a secret.

Positioned 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth, Webb is considered the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

THEY BOYCOTTED RUSSIA
Donors fall well short of UN target for Syria aid

RUSSIA SHOULD PAY REPARATIONS TO KURDS
By LORNE COOK

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European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, center red tie, and the attending dignitaries of the meeting, Supporting the future of Syria and the region, pose for the group photo at the European Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)


BRUSSELS (AP) — International donors on Tuesday pledged $6.7 billion to help Syrians and neighboring countries hosting refugees but fell well short of a U.N. target for assistance to millions of people from conflict-torn Syria who rely on aid to survive.

European Union Neighborhood Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi acknowledged that the war in Ukraine and the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic weighed heavily on donors’ economies.

Still, “donors are sending now a very strong signal to Syria and this region that we are ready to do even more than before,” he said.

The United Nations had been seeking $10.5 billion for 2022. It says that 14.6 million people in Syria rely on aid – 1.2 million more than in 2021 – and that over 90% of Syrians live in poverty. About 3.9 million people in Syria go hungry every day.

It’s the second year in a row that pledges have not lived up to expectations. Last year, the EU, the United States and other nations pledged $6.4 billion, with the U.N asking for $10 billion to meet vital needs.

Earlier, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is making the plight of poverty-stricken Syrians far worse. Borrell said that 60% of Syria’s population “suffer food insecurity, and barely know where the next meal is going to come from.”

“The Russian war will increase food and energy prices and the situation in Syria will become worse,” he said.

Borrell said the 27-nation bloc would provide an additional 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) for Syria this year, bringing the annual total to 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion). He said the EU would also provide 1.56 billion euros ($1.65 billion) next year. The U.S. pledged over $800 million.

Borrell vowed that the EU would maintain sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and stressed that there can be no normalized relations until Syrian refugees are “safe to go back home.”

Food prices around the world were already rising, but the war in Ukraine — a major wheat supplier — has made things worse. The impact is worsening the plight of millions of Syrians driven from their homes by the country’s 11-year war. Many rely on international aid to survive.

The war in Ukraine has also created a whole new group of refugees. European nations and the U.S. have rushed to help more than 5.5 million Ukrainians who have fled to neighboring countries, as well as more than 7 million displaced within Ukraine’s borders.

Half of Syria’s pre-war population of 23 million people was displaced by the conflict.

Aid agencies had hoped to draw some of the world’s attention back to Syria at Tuesday’s conference, which was hosted by the EU. The funding also goes toward aid for the 5.7 million Syrian refugees living in neighboring countries, particularly Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

Non-EU country Norway pledged 1.5 billion kroner ($156 million) for 2022 

Imogen Sudbery, from the International Rescue Committee aid group, urged the EU to do more, noting that “even if donors pledge the same as previous years, they will not fill this alarming and rapidly increasing funding gap.”

Syria’s foreign ministry criticized the Brussels event, saying neither the Syrian government nor its ally Russia are taking part in it. It said the conference is being organized by countries that are imposing sanctions on the “Syrian people” and blocking reconstruction.

“Countries organizing or participating in this conference occupy or support the occupation of part of the Syrian territories and loot the resources of the Syrian people,” the ministry said. The term “occupation” was a reference to hundreds of U.S. troops present in oil-rich eastern parts of Syria.

Borrell said Russia was not invited due to the war in Ukraine.

“We are inviting those partners who have a genuine, a real interest to contribute to peace in the world,” he said. The U.N. decided not to co-host this year’s conference because the EU refused to invite Russia.

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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/after-eu-shuns-russia-will-moscow-shut.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/syrians-in-desperate-need-of-aid-hit.html

CIA FAILED TO PREDICT IRANIAN REVOLUTION, 9/11

US intel questioned for misjudging Afghanistan, Ukraine

By NOMAAN MERCHANT

DIA Director Lt. General Scott Berrier testifies during a Senate Armed Services hearing to examine worldwide threats on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 10, 2022.

 (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. intelligence officials were questioned Tuesday about why they misjudged the durability of governments in both Afghanistan and Ukraine, and whether they need to reform how intelligence agencies assess a foreign military’s will to fight.

U.S. intelligence believed the U.S.-backed Kabul government would hold out for months against the Taliban and thought Russian forces would overrun Ukraine in a few weeks. Both assessments were wrong. The U.S. and Western allies are now rushing to aid Ukraine’s resistance against Russia in what has turned into a grinding, violent stalemate.

“What we missed was the will to fight of the Ukrainians...and we also missed that in Afghanistan,” said Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He added, “I realize will to fight is a lot harder to assess than number of tanks or volume of ammunition or something. But I hope the intelligence community is doing some soul-searching about how to better get a handle on that question.”

President Joe Biden’s administration disclosed in advance Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions to invade Ukraine, a public campaign that it says built support for crushing sanctions on the Russian economy and military support from NATO members. Top U.S. officials have gone to Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and pledged more military and intelligence support.

Avril Haines, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said that “will to fight” and “capacity to fight” in tandem were difficult to predict. The National Intelligence Council, a group of advisers that reviews the agencies as a whole, is studying the issue, she said.

“The two of them are issues that are, as you indicated, quite challenging to provide effective analysis on,” Haines told King. “And we’re looking at different methodologies for doing so.”

The U.S. might have done more before the invasion to assist Zelenskyy had lawmakers believed Kyiv had more of a chance, King said. And after predictions that the Taliban would be held back as long as a year after the American withdrawal, the coalition-backed government “lasted minus-two weeks,” King noted, a reference to the Taliban overrunning Kabul before the withdrawal formally ended.

The U.S. was forced to negotiate with the Taliban to evacuate of thousands of American citizens and Afghan allies fighting huge crowds to secure space on evacuation flights. An attack at the Kabul airport killed 13 U.S. troops and at least 170 Afghan civilians.

King raised his voice to cut off Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, after Berrier said he believed the intelligence agencies had done “a great job.”

“General, how can you possibly say that when we were told explicitly, Kyiv would fall in three days and Ukraine would fall in two weeks?” he said. “You’re telling me that was accurate intelligence?

U.S. intelligence believed before the war Russia’s forces were so much larger and more powerful than Ukraine’s that “it wasn’t going to go very well for a variety of factors,” Berrier said.

He testified Tuesday that “there was never an intelligence community assessment that said the Ukrainians lacked the will to fight.” That appears to contradict his statement from Senate testimony in March, when Berrier said he “questioned their will to fight. That was a bad assessment on my part because they have fought bravely and honorably and are doing the right thing.”

Illinois historically Black college to close after 157 years

By DON BABWIN


Ke'Shawn Hess, a business student at Lincoln College poses Tuesday, April 12, 2022, in Lincoln, Ill. The historically Black college in central Illinois named after Abraham Lincoln and founded the year the former president was assassinated will close this week, months after a cyberattack that compounded enrollment struggles due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)/Chicago Tribune via AP)

The campus of Lincoln College is shown Tuesday, April 12, 2022, in Lincoln, Ill. 

CHICAGO (AP) — A historically Black college in central Illinois named after Abraham Lincoln and founded the year the former president was assassinated will close this week, months after a cyberattack that compounded enrollment struggles due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Lincoln College, which saw record enrollment numbers in 2019, said in a news release that it scrambled to stay afloat with fundraising campaigns, a consolidation of employee positions, and exploring leasing alternatives.

“Unfortunately, these efforts did not create long-term viability for Lincoln College in the face of the pandemic,” the school, which opened in 1865 in Lincoln, about 170 miles southwest of Chicago, said in the release.

Then, as COVID cases fell and students returned to schools across the country, the college was victimized by a December cyberattack. It left all the systems needed to recruit students, retain them and raise money inoperable for three months.

Lincoln’s president, David Gerlach, told the Chicago Tribune that the school paid a ransom of less than $100,000 after an attack that he said originated in Iran. But when the systems were fully restored, the school that had just over 1,000 students during the 2018-19 academic year discovered “significant enrollment shortfalls” that would require a massive donation or partnership to stay open beyond the current semester.

A GoFundMe campaign called Save Lincoln College was launched with a goal of raising $20 million but as of this week, only $2,352 had been raised. And Gerlach told the Tribune that the school needed $50 million to remain open.

“The loss of history, careers, and a community of students and alumni is immense,” Gerlach said in a statement. The school did not immediately return a call Tuesday from The Associated Press.

The school also announced that the Higher Learning Commission had approved what are called Teach Out/Transfer Agreements with 21 colleges. The school held a college fair last month to give students a chance to learn where they might want to transfer.

New York appeals court dismisses AG suit against Amazon

By HALELUYA HADERO

New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaks during the New York State Democratic Convention in New York, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. An appeals court in New York has dismissed James’ lawsuit against Amazon, Tuesday, May 10. Besides potentially exposing workers to the virus at two Amazon facilities in New York City, the lawsuit filed by James last year had said the company illegally retaliated against workers who spoke up about poor safety conditions. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — An appeals court in New York dismissed New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against Amazon over its coronavirus safety protocols and a former employee who led the successful union organizing effort on Staten Island.

Besides potentially exposing workers to the virus at two Amazon facilities in New York City, the lawsuit filed by James last year claimed that Amazon illegally retaliated against workers who spoke up about poor safety conditions in its warehouses. They include Chris Smalls, the fired Amazon worker who now heads the Amazon Labor Union, and Derrick Palmer, the group’s vice president of organizing.

The appellate court said in its ruling Tuesday that federal labor law preempted state labor law, and the National Labor Relations Board “should serve as the forum” for disputes arising from conduct that’s protected or prohibited by federal labor law, not the states.

It also said the lawsuit’s efforts to require the retailer to comply with New York’s COVID-19 workplace guidelines was dismissed as moot because the restriction in place at the time have since been lifted.

The court also pointed to a separate NLRB case over another fired employee, Gerald Bryson. It said that case involves “essentially the same allegations of retaliation, and the possibility of inconsistent rulings on the same issue poses an ‘obvious and substantial’ ‘risk of interference’” with the NLRB’s jurisdiction.

Palmer, who was given a final written warning in the early days of the pandemic, is still employed at Amazon.

The court’s ruling is a win for Amazon, which had sought to have the case thrown out but its motion to dismiss was denied by a trial court last year.

“Throughout the pandemic, Amazon has failed to provide a safe working environment for New Yorkers, putting their health and safety at risk,” said Morgan Rubin, a spokesperson for the attorney general, in a statement. “As our office reviews the decision and our options moving forward, Attorney General James remains committed to protecting Amazon workers, and all workers, from unfair treatment.”

The Seattle-based online retailer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russian envoy to Poland hit with red paint at war cemetery

By VANESSA GERA

May 9, 2022

Russian Ambassador to Poland, Ambassador Sergey Andreev is covered with red paint in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, May 9, 2022. Protesters have thrown red paint on the Russian ambassador as he arrived at a cemetery in Warsaw to pay respects to Red Army soldiers who died during World War II. Ambassador Sergey Andreev arrived at the Soviet soldiers cemetery on Monday to lay flowers where a group of activists opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine were waiting for him. 

AP Photo/Maciek Luczniewski

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Russia’s ambassador to Poland was splattered with red paint thrown at him by protesters opposed to the war in Ukraine, preventing him from paying respects on Monday at a Warsaw cemetery to Red Army soldiers who died during World War II.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced the attack, saying that “we won’t be scared” while the “people of Europe should be scared to see their reflection in a mirror.”

Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau described the incident as “highly deplorable.”

“Diplomats enjoy special protection, regardless of the policies pursued by the governments that they represent,” he said.

Ambassador Sergey Andreev arrived at the Soviet soldiers’ cemetery to lay flowers on Victory Day, which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allies. The major Russian patriotic holiday was celebrated with pomp in a parade at Red Square in Moscow.

As he arrived at the Soviet Military Cemetery in the Polish capital, Andreev was met by hundreds of activists opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Red paint was thrown from behind at him before a protester standing beside him threw a big blob of it in his face.

The protesters carried Ukrainian flags and chanted “fascists” and “murderers” at him, while some were dressed in white sheets smeared with red, symbolizing the Ukrainian victims of Russia’s war. Other people in his entourage were also seen splattered with what appeared to be red paint.

Zakharova said that “admirers of the neo-Nazis have once again shown their face.” She said that along with the removal of monuments to Soviet army World War II heroes, the attack reflected the “course for the reincarnation of fascism.”

Some Russian commentators suggested that the attack on the ambassador could prompt Moscow to recall him and ask the Polish ambassador to leave Russia.

The Polish government faced some criticism for not providing the ambassador with more security, allowing for an incident to occur that Russia could use to depict Poland as hostile to Moscow.

Among the critics was a former interior minister, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, who said he couldn’t understand why there wasn’t more protection for the ambassador when for weeks “you could feel how May 9 could end in Warsaw.”

Poland’s current interior minister, however, said Poland’s government opposed the ambassador against laying a wreath at the cemetery, and noted that police helped him to safely leave the scene. The ambassador had originally hoped to hold a Victory Day march in Warsaw, but national and city authorities opposed that — and some viewed his appearance at the cemetery as provocative.

“The gathering of opponents of Russian aggression against Ukraine, where the crime of genocide takes place every day, was legal,” Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski added. “The emotions of Ukrainian women taking part in the demonstration, whose husbands are fighting bravely in defense of their homeland, are understandable.”

Protesters also marched in Warsaw on Sunday evening to protest the war, bringing a tank on a tractor and parking it in front of the Russian Embassy. Since the war began on Feb. 24, images of Ukrainian tractors hauling off Russian tanks have been symbols of Ukrainian resistance.

The Soviet cemetery is set amid a vast park on the route linking the downtown to the international airport. It is the final resting place of more than 20,000 Red Army soldiers who perished on Polish soil fighting while helping to defeat Nazi Germany.

While Poland has removed some monuments to the Red Army in the decades since it threw off Moscow-backed communist rule, it has allowed the cemetery to remain undisturbed. Though Soviet soldiers defeated the Nazis, earlier in the war the Soviet forces had invaded Poland following a secret agreement with the German Nazi government, and carried out atrocities against Poles, including mass executions and deportations to Siberia.





Russian Ambassador to Poland, Ambassador Sergey Andreev is covered with red paint in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, May 9, 2022. Protesters have thrown red paint on the Russian ambassador as he arrived at a cemetery in Warsaw to pay respects to Red Army soldiers who died during World War II. Ambassador Sergey Andreev arrived at the Soviet soldiers cemetery on Monday to lay flowers where a group of activists opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine were waiting for him.

 (AP Photo/Maciek Luczniewski)

Al Jazeera reporter killed during Israeli raid in West Bank

By JOSEPH KRAUSS and FARES AKRAM

An undated photo released by the Al Jazeera network shows Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist for Al Jazeera network. Abu Akle. the well-known Palestinian reporter for the broadcaster's Arabic language, channel was shot and killed while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin early Wednesday, May 11, 2022, the Palestinian health ministry said

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Journalists and medics wheel the body of Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist for Al Jazeera network, into the morgue inside the Hospital in the West Bank town of Jenin, Wednesday, May 11, 2022. The well-known Palestinian reporter for the broadcaster's Arabic language channel was shot and killed while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin early Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said. 

(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)


JERUSALEM (AP) — A journalist for Al Jazeera was shot and killed while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin early Wednesday. The broadcaster and a reporter who was wounded in the incident blamed Israeli forces, who said they were investigating.

Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known Palestinian female reporter for the broadcaster’s Arabic language channel, was shot and died soon afterward. Ali Samoudi, another Palestinian journalist, was hospitalized in stable condition after being shot in the back.

The Qatar-based network interrupted its broadcast to announce her death. In a statement flashed on its channel, it called on the international community to “condemn and hold the Israeli occupation forces accountable for deliberately targeting and killing our colleague.”

“We pledge to prosecute the perpetrators legally, no matter how hard they try to cover up their crime, and bring them to justice,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.

The Israeli military said its forces came under attack with heavy gunfire and explosives while operating in Jenin, and that they fired back. The military said it is “investigating the event and looking into the possibility that the journalists were hit by the Palestinian gunmen.”

Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said it had proposed to the Palestinian Authority a joint pathological investigation into the reporter’s death. “Journalists must be protected in conflict zones and we all have a responsibility to get to the truth,” he tweeted.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and cooperates with Israel on security matters, condemned what it said was a “shocking crime” committed by Israeli forces.

Abu Akleh, 51, was born in Jerusalem. She began working for Al Jazeera in 1997 and regularly reported on-camera from across the Palestinian territories. In video footage of the incident, Abu Akleh can be seen wearing a blue flak jacket clearly marked with the word “PRESS.”

Samoudi, who was working as her producer, told The Associated Press they were among a group of seven reporters who went to cover the raid early Wednesday. He said they were all wearing protective gear that clearly marked them as reporters, and they passed by Israeli troops so the soldiers would see them and know that they were there.

He said the first shot missed them, then a second struck him, and a third killed Abu Akleh. He said there were no militants or other civilians in the area — only the reporters and the army.

He said the military’s suggestion that they were shot by militants was a “complete lie.”

Shaza Hanaysheh, a reporter with a Palestinian news website who was also among the reporters, gave a similar account in an interview with Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel, saying there were no clashes or shooting in the immediate area.

She said that when the shots rang out she and Abu Akleh ran toward a tree to take shelter.

“I reached the tree before Shireen. She fell on the ground,” Hanaysheh said. “The soldiers did not stop shooting even after she fell. Every time I extended my hand to pull Shireen, the soldiers fired at us.”

Brig. Gen. Ran Kochav, an Israeli commander, told army radio that the two journalists were standing alongside armed Palestinians. He said the gunmen were “unprofessional people, terrorists, who were shooting at our troops.”

Israel has carried out near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks amid a series of deadly attacks inside Israel, many of them carried out by Palestinians from in and around Jenin. The town, and particularly its refugee camp, has long been known as a militant bastion.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want the territory to form the main part of their future state. Nearly 3 million Palestinians live in the territory under Israeli military rule. Israel has built more than 130 settlements across the West Bank that are home to nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers, who have full Israeli citizenship.

Israelis have long been critical of Al Jazeera’s coverage, but authorities generally allow its journalists to operate freely. Another Al Jazeera reporter, Givara Budeiri, was briefly detained last year during a protest in Jerusalem and treated for a broken hand, which her employer blamed on rough treatment by police.

Relations between Israeli forces and the media, especially Palestinian journalists, is strained. A number of Palestinian reporters have been wounded by rubber-coated bullets or tear gas while covering demonstrations in the West Bank. A Palestinian journalist in Gaza was shot and killed by Israeli forces while filming violent protests along the Gaza frontier in 2018.

Another journalist working for a local Gaza radio station, who was shot on the same day at Gaza frontier, died a week later

In November 2018, Associated Press reporter Rashed Rashid was covering a protest near the Gaza frontier when he was shot in the left ankle, apparently by Israeli fire. Rashid was wearing protective gear that clearly identified him as a journalist, and was standing with a crowd of other journalists some 600 meters (660 yards) away from the Israeli border when he was hit. The military has never acknowledged the shooting.

During last year’s war between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers, an Israeli airstrike destroyed the building in Gaza City housing the offices of The Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Residents were warned to evacuate and no one was hurt in the strike. Israel said Hamas was using the building as a command center but has provided no evidence.

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Akram reported from Hamilton, Canada. Associated Press writer Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem contributed.

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/shireen-abu-akleh-outrage-grows-over-al.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/palestinians-honour-slain-journalist.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/rest-in-power-shireen-abu-aqla.html

Pandemic gets tougher to track as COVID testing plunges


Workers at a drive-up COVID-19 testing clinic stand in a tent as they prepare PCR coronavirus tests, Jan. 4, 2022, in Puyallup, Wash., south of Seattle. Testing for COVID-19 has plummeted across the globe, dropping by 70 to 90% worldwide from the first to the second quarter of 2022, making it much tougher for scientists to track the course of the pandemic and spot new, worrisome viral mutants as they emerge and spread. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)


Testing for COVID-19 has plummeted across the globe, making it much tougher for scientists to track the course of the pandemic and spot new, worrisome viral mutants as they emerge and spread.

Experts say testing has dropped by 70 to 90% worldwide from the first to the second quarter of this year — the opposite of what they say should be happening with new omicron variants on the rise in places such as the United States and South Africa.

“We’re not testing anywhere near where we might need to,” said Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, who directs the Duke Global Health Innovation Center at Duke University. “We need the ability to ramp up testing as we’re seeing the emergence of new waves or surges to track what’s happening” and respond.

Reported daily cases in the U.S., for example, are averaging 73,633, up more than 40% over the past two weeks, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. But that is a vast undercount because of the testing downturn and the fact tests are being taken at home and not reported to health departments. An influential modeling group at the University of Washington in Seattle estimates that only 13% of cases are being reported to health authorities in the U.S. — which would mean more than a half million new infections every day.

The drop in testing is global but the overall rates are especially inadequate in the developing world, Udayakumar said. The number of tests per 1,000 people in high income countries is around 96 times higher than it is in low income countries, according to the Geneva-based public health nonprofit FIND.

What’s driving the drop? Experts point to COVID fatigue, a lull in cases after the first omicron wave and a sense among some residents of low-income countries that there’s no reason to test because they lack access to antiviral medications.

At a recent press briefing by the World Health Organization, FIND CEO Dr. Bill Rodriguez called testing “the first casualty of a global decision to let down our guard” and said “we’re becoming blind to what is happening with the virus.”

Testing, genomic sequencing and delving into case spikes can lead to the discovery of new variants. New York state health officials found the super contagious BA.2.12.1 variant after investigating higher-than-average case rates in the central part of the state.

Going forward, “we’re just not going to see the new variants emerge the way we saw previous variants emerge,” Rodriquez told The Associated Press.

Testing increases as infections rise and people develop symptoms — and it falls along with lulls in new cases. Testing is rising again in the U.S. along with the recent surge.

But experts are concerned about the size of the drop after the first omicron surge, the low overall levels of testing globally, and the inability to track cases reliably. While home tests are convenient, only tests sent to labs can be used to detect variants. If fewer tests are being done, and fewer of those tests are processed in labs, fewer positive samples are available for sequencing.

Also, home test results are largely invisible to tracking systems.

Mara Aspinall, managing director of an Arizona-based consulting company that tracks COVID-19 testing trends, said there’s at least four times more home testing than PCR testing, and “we are getting essentially zero data from the testing that’s happening at home.”

That’s because there’s no uniform mechanism for people to report results to understaffed local health departments. The CDC strongly encourages people to tell their doctors, who in most places must report COVID-19 diagnoses to public health authorities.

Generally, though, results from home tests fall under the radar.

Reva Seville, a 36-year-old Los Angeles parent, tested herself at home this week after she began feeling symptoms such as a scratchy throat, coughing and congestion. After the results came back positive, she tested twice more just to be sure. But her symptoms were mild, so she didn’t plan to go to the doctor or report her results to anyone.

Beth Barton of Washington, Missouri, who works in construction, said she’s taken about 10 home tests, either before visiting her parents or when she’s had symptoms she thought might be COVID-19. All came back negative. She shared the results with the people around her but didn’t know how to report them.

“There should be a whole system for that,” said Barton, 42. “We as a society don’t know how to gauge where we’re at.”

Aspinall said one potential solution would be to use technology like scanning a QR code to report home test results confidentiality.

Another way to keep better track of the pandemic, experts said, is to bolster other types of surveillance, such as wastewater monitoring and collecting hospitalization data. But those have their own drawbacks. Wastewater surveillance remains a patchwork that doesn’t cover all areas, and hospitalization trends lag behind cases.

Udayakumar said scientists across the world must use all the tracking methods at their disposal to keep up with the virus, and will need to do so for months or even years.

At the same time, he said, steps must be taken to boost testing in lower-income countries. Demand for tests would rise if access to antivirals were improved in these places, he said. And one of the best ways to increase testing is to integrate it into existing health services, said Wadzanayi Muchenje, who leads health and strategic partnerships in Africa for The Rockefeller Foundation.

Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said there will come a point when the world stops widespread testing for COVID-19 – but that day isn’t here yet.

With the pandemic lingering and virus still unpredictable, “it’s not acceptable for us to only be concerned about individual health,” he said. “We have to worry about the population.”

__

AP reporters Bobby Caina Calvan in New York and Carla K. Johnson in Seattle contributed to this story.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Minor league players, MLB reach deal in minimum wage suit

Quad Cities River Bandits players warm up before a Class-A Midwest League baseball game against the Cedar Rapids Kernels in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Monday, May 13, 2019. Minor league players and Major League Baseball have reached a settlement in a lawsuit alleging teams violated minimum wage laws. The settlement has not yet been filed with the court and details were not released Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Minor league players and Major League Baseball have reached a settlement in a lawsuit alleging teams violated minimum wage laws.

Terms of the settlement were not filed with the court Tuesday and details were not released. Two people familiar with the negotiations, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the release of details was not authorized, said the sides in recent weeks had been discussing a possible settlement in the $200 million range.

“We are pleased to report that the parties have reached a settlement in principle in this over eight-year-old case, subject to court approval,” lawyers for the players said in a statement. “We look forward to filing preliminary approval papers with the court and cannot comment further until then.”

The two sides asked the court for permission to file by July 11 for approval of the settlement.

The suit was filed in 2014 by first baseman/outfielder Aaron Senne, a 10th-round pick of the Marlins in 2009 who retired in 2013, and two other retired players who had been lower-round selections: Kansas City infielder Michael Liberto and San Francisco pitcher Oliver Odle. They claimed violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and state minimum wage and overtime requirements for a work week they estimated at 50 to 60 hours.

A trial had been scheduled to start June 1 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Several classes of players are part a of case involving laws in different states.

A letter filed with the court by lawyers for both sides asked Chief Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero to postpone a conference scheduled for Tuesday and the trial.

“The parties are pleased to inform the court that they have reached a settlement of the matter in principle,” the letter said. “The parties have agreed upon a confidential memorandum of understanding. The settlement is subject to ratification by the respective parties, and we are in the process of preparing the settlement documents.”

The letter was signed by Elise M. Bloom of Proskauer Rose on behalf of MLB and by Clifford H. Pearson of Pearson, Simon & Warshaw and Stephen M. Tillery of Korein Tillery on behalf of the players.

Spero wrote in a pretrial ruling in March that minor leaguers are year-round employees who work during training time and found MLB violated Arizona’s state minimum wage law and was liable for triple damages. Spero also ruled MLB did not comply with California wage statement requirements, awarding $1,882,650 in penalties.

He said minor leaguers should be paid for travel time to road game s in the California League and to practice in Arizona and Florida.

“These are not students who have enrolled in a vocational school with the understanding that they would perform services, without compensation, as part of the practical training necessary to complete the training and obtain a license,” Spero wrote.

The case was sent back to the District Court by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019 after lawyers for the players and MLB spent years arguing whether it should receive class-action status.

Spero ruled MLB is a joint employer with teams of minor league players; that those players perform “work” during spring training; that travel time on team buses to away games is compensable under FLSA, Florida and Arizona law and that travel time by California League players to away games is compensable under California law.

In 2017, the players suing were defined as those with minor league contracts who played in the California League for at least seven straight days starting on Feb. 7, 2010 or Feb. 7, 2011, depending on state or federal claims; those who participated in spring training, extended spring training instructional leagues in Arizona starting Feb. 7, 2011; and those who participated in spring training, extended spring training instructional leagues in Florida starting Feb. 7, 2009.

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Parents hunting for baby formula as shortage spans US & CANADA

By MATTHEW PERRONE and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH

MAY 10, 2022

Shelves typically stocked with baby formula sit mostly empty at a store in San Antonio, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. Parents across the U.S. are scrambling to find baby formula because supply disruptions and a massive safety recall have swept many leading brands off store shelves. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Parents across the U.S. are scrambling to find baby formula because supply disruptions and a massive safety recall have swept many leading brands off store shelves.

Months of spot shortages at pharmacies and supermarkets have been exacerbated by the recall at Abbott, which was forced to shutter its largest U.S. formula manufacturing plant in February due to contamination concerns.

On Monday, White House press secretary Jenn Psaki said the Food and Drug Administration was “working around the clock to address any possible shortages.”

On Tuesday, the FDA said it was working with U.S. manufacturers to increase their output and streamlining paperwork to allow more imports.

For now, pediatricians and health workers are urging parents who can’t find formula to contact food banks or doctor’s offices. They warn against watering down formula to stretch supplies or using online DIY recipes.

“For babies who are not being breastfed, this is the only thing they eat,” said Dr. Steven Abrams, of the University of Texas, Austin. “So it has to have all of their nutrition and, furthermore, it needs to be properly prepared so that it’s safe for the smallest infants.”

Laura Stewart, a 52-year-old mother of three who lives just north of Springfield, Missouri, has been struggling for several weeks to find formula for her 10-month-old daughter, Riley.

Riley normally gets a brand of Abbott’s Similac designed for children with sensitive stomachs. Last month, she instead used four different brands.

“She spits up more. She’s just more cranky. She is typically a very happy girl,” Stewart said. “When she has the right formula, she doesn’t spit up. She’s perfectly fine.”

A small can costs $17 to $18 and lasts three to five days, Stewart said.

Like many Americans, Stewart relies on WIC — a federal program similar to food stamps that serves mothers and children — to afford formula for her daughter. Abbott’s recall wiped out many WIC-covered brands, though the program is now allowing substitutions.

Trying to keep formula in stock, retailers including CVS and Walgreens have begun limiting purchases to three containers per customer.

Nationwide about 40% of large retail stores are out of stock, up from 31% in mid-April, according to Datasembly, a data analytics firm. More than half of U.S. states are seeing out-of-stock rates between 40% and 50%, according to the firm, which collects data from 11,000 locations.

Baby formula is particularly vulnerable to disruptions because just a handful of companies account for almost the entire U.S. supply.

Industry executives say the constraints began last year as the COVID-19 pandemic led to disruptions in ingredients, labor and transportation. Supplies were further squeezed by parents stockpiling during lockdowns.

Then in February, Abbott recalled several major brands and shut down its Sturgis, Michigan, factory when federal officials concluded four babies suffered bacterial infections after consuming formula from the facility. Two of the infants died.

When FDA inspectors visited the plant in March they found lax safety protocols and traces of the bacteria on several surfaces. None of the bacterial strains matched those collected from the infants, however, and the FDA hasn’t offered an explanation for how the contamination occurred.

For its part, Abbott says its formula “is not likely the source of infection,” though the FDA says its investigation continues.

Chicago-based Abbott said it is increasing production at its other facilities to fill the gap, including air-shipping formula from a plant in Ireland.

The shortages are especially dangerous for infants who require specialty formulas due to food allergies, digestive problems and other conditions.

“Unfortunately, many of those very specialized formulas are only made in the United States at the factory that had the recall, and that’s caused a huge problem for a relatively small number of infants,” Abrams said.

After hearing concerns from parents, the FDA said last month that Abbott could begin releasing some specialty formulas not affected by the recalls “on a case-by-case basis.” The company is providing them free of charge, in coordination with physicians and hospitals.

Food safety advocates say the FDA made the right call in releasing the formula, but that parents should talk to their pediatricians before using it.

“There’s still some risk from the formula because we know there are problems at the plant and FDA hasn’t identified a root cause,” said Sarah Sorscher of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. ”But it’s worth releasing because these infants might die without it.”

It’s unclear when the Abbott plant might reopen.

The FDA said the company is still working “to rectify findings related to the processes, procedures and conditions.” Other infant formula makers are “meeting or exceeding capacity levels to meet current demand,” the agency said.

Among other steps, the FDA said it was waiving enforcement of minor product labeling issues to increase availability of both U.S. and imported products.

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Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri.

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Follow Matthew Perrone on Twitter: @AP_FDAwriter

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.