CRYPTOZOOLOGY

Horned creature — a new species of dragonfish — pulled from watery depths off Brazil


Aspen Pflughoeft
Wed, June 21, 2023 at 2:04 PM MDT·2 min read


Chugging along the ocean’s surface off the coast of Brazil, scientists trawled the watery depths, searching. They hauled in the net and found a horned creature caught in it. Looking closer, they realized they’d captured a new species.

Researchers spent a month trawling the northeastern coast of Brazil for fish and invertebrates, according to a study published May 19 in the journal Ichthyology and Herpetology.

Toward the end of the survey, researchers pulled in the net and spotted a dark-colored fish, the study said. They identified the creature as a new species of dragonfish: Melanostomias dio.

Dragonfish are a type of deep-sea fish known for being “cunning predators,” according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. They lie in wait — sometimes attracting prey with a “luminescent lure” on their chin — then ambush their prey.

Melanostomias dio, or the horns-up dragonfish, has a dark black body with polka dots down its side, researchers said. The fish measured about 7 inches long and had a skinny body.

Photos show the horns-up dragonfish curled up, its mouth wide open. The animal’s mouth is filled with sharp teeth.

The horns-up dragonfish with its mouth wide open.

A close-up photo of the horns-up dragonfish’s teeth.

The dragonfish’s chin barbel had a “unique” shape, the study said. The barbel extended below the fish on a thin strand, ending in a “bulb” with two “horns” protruding from it. A close-up photo shows this barbel.

The shape of the dragonfish’s barbel reminded researchers of the “horns-up” hand gesture. The new species was named for the heavy metal vocalist Ronald James Padavona, or Ronnie James Dio, who “popularized the (horns-up) hand gesture” and was one of the genre’s “most influential” vocalists.

A close-up photo of the horns-up dragonfish’s chin barbel.

The new species was recognized as distinct based on the shape of its chin barbel, the study said. No other related dragonfish have the same “horns.”

The only horns-up dragonfish specimen was “a little damaged” during its capture, Bárbara Teixeira Villarins told McClatchy News. Deep-sea fish are commonly damaged when caught by trawling nets.

A drawing shows the fish’s full body shape, including its tail fins.

The new species was discovered in the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of the state of Rio Grande De Norte. This state is about 1,510 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro.

A drawing shows a full horns-up dragonfish.

Researchers noted that “more surveys” are needed to better understand dragonfish and their distribution. Like “other deep-sea fish groups,” dragonfish diversity is poorly understood because of “the scarcity of collections,” the study said.

The research team included Bárbara Teixeira Villarins, Luciano Gomes Fischer, Artem Mikhailovich Prokofiev and Michael Maia Mincarone.

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SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for LAKE MONSTERS 

Tourist spots something strange lurking in ocean below plane — it was a rare creature


Photo by Pat Whelen on Unsplash

Moira Ritter
Wed, June 21, 2023 at 3:20 PM MDT·2 min read


Francesca Emm was recently flying over the Great Barrier Reef near Whitsunday Islands when something peculiar caught her eye.

Beneath her plane, a white spot disrupted the vivid blue of the ocean. Emm took her camera out and started recording.

She sent her video to the White Whale Research Center, and sure enough — she had caught a glimpse of an incredibly rare all-white humpback whale, according to a June 16 post by the center on Twitter.

“It was definitely swimming,” Emm told the center, another tweet said. “We were heading North East and it was heading the same direction as us!”



White whales are extremely rare, Vanessa Pirotta, a whale expert at Macquarie University, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

“There’s only a handful of white whales and people are fascinated by them, because they look different,” she told the news outlet.

One white whale is particularly famous in Australia: Migaloo.

“I’ve seen Migaloo,” Pirotta told ABC. “He’s like an iceberg underwater; there is something magnificent about seeing this wide, illuminating animal underwater.”

In 1991, an all-white whale was captured on camera in Byron Bay, according to a website dedicated to Migaloo. At the time, it was the only documented creature of its kind.

The whale was soon named Migaloo, which is the name the Australian Aboriginal community in Queensland uses for “white fella,” the site said. Over the past two decades, experts have studied Migaloo by tracking his location and testing his skin for DNA.

However, the beloved creature has not been spotted since 2020, leaving some experts concerned that he might have died, according to 9 News.

Pirotta said there isn’t enough evidence yet to determine whether the white whale in Emm’s video is Migaloo.

“It does not provide us with the amount of information we would require to identify Migaloo,” she told 9 News. “It could be him or possibly another white-ish whale as part of this east Australian humpback whale population.”

Elusive creature lurking in shipwreck spotted by divers in ‘once in a lifetime’ moment

Watch rare sighting of ‘impressive beast’ swimming near Scottish coastline

Mississippi Governor Left State After Tornados

June 21, 2023 

 By Taegan Goddard 

“Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves traveled to Alabama for a Republican fundraising event as people in his state were still reeling from back-to-back tornadoes that killed one person, injured dozens and destroyed homes and businesses, and in the midst of lingering power outages from severe thunderstorms,” the AP reports.

Thousands of chickens stay put after tornado strikes Mississippi poultry farm

Chris Oberholtz
Wed, June 21, 2023

LOUIN, Miss. – A large Mississippi poultry farm in the direct path of an EF-3 tornado was leveled earlier this week, leaving tens of thousands of chickens unsheltered.

The tornado that stuck Louin, in Jasper County, late Sunday was also responsible for killing at least one person and injuring 25 others. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said 72 homes were damaged in the county as well.

Videos from Louin after the tornado touched down around 11:40 p.m. CDT showed buildings that were destroyed, trees snapped like toothpicks and vehicles obliterated by the storm’s ferocious winds.

"We’ll be here for the long haul to support these communities and help them recover," the governor said. "I look forward to being with the people of Jasper County (Wednesday) and supporting them in this difficult time. Please continue praying for those affected."

DRONE VIDEO: FIRST GLIMPSE OF DEADLY MISSISSIPPI SUSPECTED TORNADO DAMAGE

Footage recorded by Christian M. Chevres Nevarez on Monday showed the aftermath at the poultry farm in Jasper County. Massive flocks of chickens could be seen in the video as they fluttered in place.

He added that the tornado left more than 1,000 chickens dead and more than 80,000 out in the open.

"It was sad to see what people lost," he said of the destruction following the tornado.

On Monday, the Jasper County Community Center opened its doors for all those displaced. The Red Cross was also on site helping those in need.

The National Weather Service office in Jackson said five tornado paths were identified from Sunday night and Monday morning's storms. Additional surveys are ongoing for damage that occurred with these storms and are expected to continue for at least a few days.

The NWS said the EF-3 tornado in Louin had estimated peak winds of 150 mph and was on the ground for nearly 8 miles.

Multiple tornadoes leave 1 dead and nearly 2 dozen injured in Mississippi


Michael Goldberg and Rogelio Solis
Tue, June 20, 2023 


LOUIN, Miss. — Multiple tornadoes swept through Mississippi overnight, killing one and injuring nearly two dozen, officials said Monday.

State emergency workers were still working with counties to assess the damage from storms in which high temperatures and hail in some areas accompanied tornadoes. The death and injuries were reported by officials in eastern Mississippi's Jasper County.

The small, rural town of Louin bore the brunt of the damage. Drone footage and photos showed wide expanses of debris-covered terrain, decimated homes and mangled trees. At least one person was lifted from the wreckage in a stretcher.

Standing in front of his damaged home on Monday, Lester Campbell told The Associated Press that his cousin, 67-year-old George Jean Hayes, is the person who died. Reached by phone Monday, Jones County Coroner Don Sumrall said Hayes was pronounced dead at 2:18 a.m. from “multisystem trauma.”

Campbell fell asleep in his recliner Sunday evening. He was awakened around midnight after the lights went out. After he walked to the kitchen to grab something from the refrigerator, the tornado struck.

“It happened so fast," Campbell said. “It was like a train sound, a ‘roar, roar, roar.’”

He dropped to the floor and crawled to his bedroom closet, where his wife had already taken shelter. By the time he reached the closet, the tornado had passed.

Campbell said he heard calls for help across the street, where Hayes lived in a trailer home. He emerged from his home to find emergency workers carrying his cousin, with a bloodied forehead and leg, into an ambulance. She was conscious and talking when he saw her but died before reaching the hospital, he said.

Most of the people injured in Jasper County, including Hayes, were transported to the South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel between 2 and 3 a.m., said Becky Collins, a spokesperson for the facility. About 20 people had bruises and cuts. Most were in stable condition Monday morning.

Eric Carpenter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said an unseasonably strong jet stream blew through the area. A tornado emerged near Louin before traveling at least 7 miles (11 kilometers) south to Bay Springs.

Tornadoes typically hit Mississippi in early to mid-spring. Carpenter called the timing of the tornadoes, along with persistent thunder and hail as well as high temperatures, “a very unusual situation.”

“This is a whole different game here," Carpenter said. "What we would typically see in March and April, we're seeing in June.”

On March 24, a vicious tornado carved a path of destruction through parts of western and northern Mississippi, killing at least 26 and damaging thousands of homes. Some towns in the rural, poverty-stricken Mississippi Delta face a daunting task to rebuild.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday's tornadoes also struck Rankin County, which borders the capital city of Jackson. Emergency crews were doing search and rescue missions and damage assessments, deploying drones in some areas because they were impossible to reach by vehicle due to downed power lines.

On Monday afternoon, another possible tornado struck the south Mississippi town of Moss Point. Photos showed homes with obliterated roofs and tilted power lines. As high winds and heavy rain blanketed Jackson County, WLOX-TV reported that eight people were trapped inside a bank in downtown Moss Point. They were later rescued uninjured. The county remained under a flash flood warning Monday.

In a Monday news release, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said more than 49,000 homes in central Mississippi were without power. Tens of thousands of people in Hinds County, the most populous area of the state, were still without power Monday morning after high winds pummeled the state early Friday.

Reeves said the state is opening command centers and shelters for those displaced by the severe weather.

After fleeing his home Monday morning, Campbell returned to survey the damage. He arrived to find that half of the roof was gone, the garage destroyed and the windows shattered. He felt lucky compared to his neighbors.

“Most of the houses are gone. They are demolished. They’re done,” Campbell said.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi tornadoes leave 1 dead and nearly 2 dozen injured

Ocasio-Cortez joins other squad members in boycotting Modi speech



Sarakshi Rai
Wed, June 21, 2023 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is joining other progressives in boycotting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s joint address to Congress.

In a tweet, the New York Democrat urged her colleagues who stand for “pluralism, tolerance and freedom of speech” to join her boycott.

Ocasio-Cortez highlighted Modi’s previous ban from entering the U.S. and reports from the State Department on India’s record on religious freedoms, as well as the country’s current ranking in the Press Freedom Index.

“A joint address is among the most prestigious invitations and honors the United States Congress can extend. We should not do so for individuals with deeply troubling human rights records – particularly for individuals whom our own State Department has concluded are engaged in systematic human rights abuses of religious minorities and caste-oppressed communities,” Ocasio-Cortez added.

Her statement comes a day after Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the two Muslim women in Congress, said they would not be attending the Indian leader’s speech.

Tlaib added Tuesday on Twitter that Modi’s “long history of human rights abuses, anti-democratic actions, targeting Muslims and religious minorities, and censoring journalists is unacceptable.”

“Prime Minister Modi’s government has repressed religious minorities, emboldened violent Hindu nationalist groups, and targeted journalists/human rights advocates with impunity,” Omar wrote in her own statement.

While Democrats in both the House and the Senate have urged President Biden to address the issue of human rights in his meetings with Modi, the historic address is set to be a widely attended event.

This will be the Indian prime minister’s second address to the joint session of Congress and first official state visit to the United States.

'It's very awkward': Biden throws lavish state dinner for India’s right-wing PM Modi

Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY
Thu, June 22, 2023 

Flags of India adorn lampposts on Pennsylvania Avenue outside of the White House in Washington, DC on June 16, 2023. US President Joe Biden will be hosting India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a State visit.

WASHINGTON — India’s democracy is at a weak point. The U.S. government has accused India of engaging in significant human rights abuses.

And yet, on Thursday, the U.S. president plans to throw India’s prime minister a lavish state dinner.

For a politician who has made strengthening democracy a central theme of his administration, President Joe Biden’s courtship of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi underscores the tension between his campaign principles and the realities of being president.

Biden’s administration has charged India’s government with participating in unlawful and arbitrary killings, restricting freedom of speech and allowing violence against religious, racial and ethnic minorities.

Organizations that track democracy have downgraded India. Freedom House now rates it only partially free.

“It's very awkward, and embarrassing even, to have the rhetorical emphasis on democracy for the foreign policy, while at the same time this critical partner is seen as backsliding,” said Irfan Nooruddin, a professor of Indian politics at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Preview of the White House State Dinner place settings ahead of Thursday's dinner with the Republic of India.

Modi pressed on human rights

Progressive Rep. Rashida Tlaib says she will be boycotting Modi’s address to Congress during the visit over his “long history of human rights abuses, anti-democratic actions, targeting Muslims & religious minorities, and censoring journalists.” She described the conduct in a tweet as “unacceptable.”

“It’s shameful that Modi has been given a platform at our nation’s capital,” Tlaib said.

The White House said Biden would raise human rights issues with Modi when they speak privately. A spokesman stressed it is a topic Biden routinely addresses.

“Certainly human rights is of concern to the United States, and it's a foundational element to President Biden's foreign policy,” White House national security strategic communications coordinator John Kirby said.

A group of more than 70 lawmakers in a Tuesday letter asked Biden to “discuss the full range of issues” facing the two nations during the visit. They noted that “independent, credible reports reflect troubling signs in India” and told him that “friends can and should discuss their differences in an honest and forthright way.”

“We think it's important that we have a strong relationship between India and the United States, regardless of who India's Prime Minister is, but we also think it's important that the President raise these human rights issues and make it clear that the institutions of democracy — free press, freedom of religion, a free judiciary, an independent judiciary — these are all things that ensure a democracy,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat who was born in India, said in an interview. “And without a democracy, it's going to be much harder for the United States and India to have a long term, strong relationship.”

Discrimination, harassment and erosion of trust

Trust in India’s judiciary system is also eroding. Earlier this year, a court convicted one of Modi’s chief political opponents, Rahul Gandhi, of defamation for disparaging the surname Modi in a case that is viewed as highly political.

If the conviction stands, Gandhi, who highlighted India’s struggles with democracy during a recent trip to the U.S., will be barred from competing in India’s national elections next year.

Modi and his political party have increasingly used government institutions to target political opponents. Discriminatory policies against the Muslim population and harassment of journalists and government critics grew significantly under Modi, Freedom House president Michael Abramowitz said.

“So it is still a democracy, as they say. It’s got a thriving election system. But it's these other policies that cause concern for Freedom House,” Abramowitz said.

Modi has not fielded questions at a news conference since he became prime minister. But the White House said he and Biden would speak with the media on Thursday.

Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman who co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, said that the U.S. should be “candid” about freedom of press issues and human rights.

But the congressman, who said he plans to attend the state dinner, argued, “The imperfections in democracy should not prevent the alliance of democracies.”

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, center, practices yoga during the International Yoga day event at United Nations headquarters in New York on June 21, 2023.

Ukraine on the menu

India has refused to denounce Russia’s war on Ukraine and has continued to buy Russian oil amid the conflict.

The United States has not been able to put meaningful pressure on India to join the U.S. and its allies in working to cripple Russia’s economy and Modi’s government views itself as having a lot of leverage in the relationship, Nooruddin said, because of how focused the Biden administration has been on maintaining positive relations with the nation that it hopes can serve as a counterweight to China.

The war will be on the United States’ agenda during the meeting, the White House says. However, the conversation is likely to focus on the importance of territorial sovereignty and the humanitarian assistance India has provided to Ukraine.

“We haven't since the beginning of this war, nor are we going to start, browbeating or arm twisting other nations about the way they're looking at this war in Ukraine,” Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.

One way that Biden could indirectly create a further separation between Russia and India is by accelerating U.S. approvals of defense equipment for India, said Richard Rossow, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“It won’t be something dramatic. The tilt that has been happening over the years, where India is tilting away from Russia as a primary weapons’ supplier, I think that will accelerate,” he said, “but you’re not going to have a cold hard stop, and I don’t think this trip is going to trigger that.”

Emerging superpower

Biden has sought to deepen the United States’ security partnership with India through a group known as the Quad. It is part of his administration’s efforts to counter China’s global influence.

With a population of nearly 1.4 billion people, India will soon be the world’s third largest economy, only behind China and the United States.

Rossow said India’s growing economy and competition between the U.S. and China are at the heart of Biden’s decision to roll out the red carpet for Modi, who attended a large Texas rally during a previous visit to the U.S. with former President Donald Trump.

Modi held a reciprocal rally for Trump in 2020 when the Republican politician visited India. He is expected to host Biden in September during the Group of 20 Summit. The two leaders also met a month ago in Japan.

“You’re not going to see the big theatrics I think that you saw with the Trump administration,” Rossow said. “So maybe not the warmth and bombast that you saw in the previous administration but regular engagement.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets supporters as he arrives in New York on June 20, 2023.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why is Biden lavishing India’s right-wing PM Modi with a state visit?

India’s Worsening Democracy Makes It an Unreliable Ally

Salil Tripathi

TIME
Tue, June 20, 2023 

BJP Party Celebrate Modi Government's 9th Anniversary

A supporter of the rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wears a mask of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he listens to speeches of the party leaders during a public rally in Srinagar. Thousands of BJP supporters attended the rally to mark the 9th anniversary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. Credit - Firdous Nazir-Future Publishing

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in the United States on 21 June, which is World Yoga Day. Asserting India’s soft power, he will participate in a yoga demonstration at the United Nations headquarters in New York, while the Biden administration will be laying out the red carpet in Washington. On the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Japan last month, Indian media claimed President Joe Biden reportedly quipped to Modi that that his staff was struggling to cope with the demand surge for invitations to the State dinner he will host. Modi will also address a joint session of the Congress.

World leaders visit Washington all the time, but the hyper-nationalist Indian media sees American eagerness in welcoming Modi as a sign of India’s arrival on the international stage. The drum roll began in April, when commerce secretary Gina Raimondo gushed over Modi, anointing him as the world’s most popular leader, calling him “unbelievable” and “visionary.” The White House called India “a vibrant democracy.”


India’s pliant media is projecting the visit as unprecedented. Don’t rule out stories that count the number of times Congress members will applaud Modi, whether they stand up when they clap, measure the duration of the applause, and compare it with responses to similar addresses by former Indian leaders, hoping that Modi will set a record. For Modi likes adulation and believes in superlatives, and the bulk of the Indian media today aims to please him.

To be sure, India has arrived. The U.S. wants closer, stronger, and more meaningful relationship with India as a destination of investments, as a strategic ally, and as a bulwark against the rise of China. India is now the world’s most populous country. As it regularly holds elections, India is called the world’s largest democracy, although most indices that measure human rights or democracy show the precipitous decline in India’s record on both counts in the nine years Modi has been in power. Depending on how you measure economies, India is now the world’s fifth-largest—according to the World Economic Forum, it overtook its former ruler, the U.K., last year. While some international economists are skeptical over India’s public statistics, its chief economic adviser claimed in March that India’s economy grew 7.2% last year. It remains among the top ten destinations for foreign direct investment in the world.

No doubt India is a military power, and it is part of the Quad, a diplomatic alliance including Australia, Japan, and the United States, ostensibly intended to spread stability and prosperity in Asia-Pacific, but really a thinly-veiled alliance to rival China. Surely India is an ally of western democracies?

Not so fast. India unequivocally defended anti-colonial struggles until the end of the Cold War (it was one of the earliest countries to impose sanctions on apartheid South Africa, and supported Palestine and many African liberation movements). But it has dragged its feet in supporting democracies since. The generals who annulled elections in Myanmar consider India a steadfast friend. It has issued only tepid, pious platitudes for peace in response to Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. Its trade with Russia has not stopped, and it is accused of selling Russian oil in international markets undermining sanctions. It is wary of China, but only with regard to its disputed border; it has abstained U.N. resolutions on the treatment of Uyghurs and is unlikely to say anything meaningful if China invades Taiwan.

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, and Joe Biden show the peace sign with their hands at the G20 summit after the second working session. The group of G20, the strongest industrialized nations and emerging economies, meets for two days on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Kay Nietfeld/dpa

India’s interpretation of its own interests are therefore not aligned with western interests, and if its positions align with certain western positions, those have less to do with any perception of shared values, and more with defending its own perspective. Even if India’s non-alignment was never consistent, and John Foster Dulles in fact called it immoral, India saw it as a practical response in a polarized world. And the Modi administration’s differences with earlier Indian governments are only a matter of degree, and not of kind.

Western wooing of India is real. There is the roadmap of defense collaboration with the U.S., the proposed submarine deal being negotiated with Germany, and France has invited Modi as a guest of honor on Bastille Day this July. These measures suggest a qualitatively different relationship, for India wants to diversify its defense procurement, which is still overwhelmingly reliant on Russian weapon systems. But the ties with Russia are historic, and China is a formidable neighbor which occupies vast stretches of territory India considers its own, and Chinese incursions have only increased in recent years. And yet, other than cosmetic steps like banning Tik Tok, India has not retaliated. Bilateral trade has grown to $136 billion (an 8% increase over the previous year) and its trade deficit with China has widened to $100 billion. While India would love to attract investors who look for alternate destinations other than China as part of their de-risking strategies, other countries in Asia are also looking to attract the same investments.

Realpolitik apart, the U.S. does speak of building ties based on values, such as democracy and human rights. First, India has always been a flawed democracy, but its human rights record has worsened significantly during Modi’s tenure. Researchers Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia have identified about 250 non-violent political prisoners who were put in jail without being formally charged or tried between May 2014, when Modi came to power, until July 2022, in their forthcoming book, How Long Can The Moon Be Caged?. The detained prisoners include lawyers, writers, human rights activists, and other socially-conscious dissidents. According to watchdog Access Now, India leads the world in network shutdowns, and as western tech companies have learned, India browbeats telecom and social media companies to take down content and threatens them with police action if they don’t comply.

The treatment of Muslims, who form 14% of India’s population, has worsened. A 2019 report by Human Rights Watch documented 44 murders (36 of them being Muslim) by lynch mobs who killed people they suspected of possessing beef, consuming it, or trading cows. Muslims find it hard to buy or rent property, are denied permission to build mosques in some cases, and prevented from praying in public. Vigilantes prevent Muslims from praying at home. Female Muslim students in one state were banned from wearing head-scarves. A senior politician from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party had welcomed convicted cow protectors with garlands. BJP-ruled states have passed laws to make it harder for inter-faith marriages from taking place. Right wing Hindus celebrated the early release of 11 men who were convicted of having raped a Muslim woman and murdered some of her family members during the massacres of 2002. Those incidents occurred when Modi was Gujarat’s chief minister and had failed to stop Hindu violence against Muslims. Modi was then barred from entry into the U.S. or the E.U. until India’s Supreme Court said Modi did not have a case to answer. A recent BBC film which blamed Modi for complicity, is banned in India.

Organizations that measure democracies have concluded that India’s democratic record has worsened. Freedom House has down-graded India to ‘partly-free’ status. India has fallen from 27 in 2014 to 46 in 2022, as per the Economist Intelligence Unit’s democracy index. The V-Dem project of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden has relegated India to “electoral autocracy.” The Civicus Monitor calls India’s civil society environment to be “repressed.” The Pew Research Center survey shows India’s social hostility score has worsened. And the World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders places India at 161, a historic low, down from 150, of the 180 countries it surveys. In the global impunity index of the Committee to Protect Journalists, India ranks 11th, with 20 unsolved murders of journalists.

More broadly, India’s rank in the U.N.’s Human Development Index has fallen slightly, from 130 the year Modi took office to 132, the International Food Policy Research Institute’s world hunger index shows India ranked at 107 out of 121 surveyed countries. the World Economic Forum’s gender gap index shows India ranked 135th of the 146 surveyed countries. Thomson Reuters Foundation calls India the world’s most dangerous country for women. Unsurprisingly, Cato Institute, which measures human freedom, downgraded India between 2015 and 2022 from 75 to 112.

These organizations are drawn from different countries, use different methodologies, and are not ideologically aligned. Yet, they present a consistent image of a country where freedoms are under peril. No doubt, such rankings can be arbitrary and subjective, and there may indeed be some methodological problems. For its part, India disputes many such findings.

This is hardly a report card any government should be proud of. But while such report cards annoy Modi, and his feisty foreign minister Dr S Jaishankar dismisses them pithily, Modi realizes two things: these organizations do not matter in India, and western governments note these concerns and privately might even agree, but publicly they are not about to challenge India. And so he goes on, his party members whip up religious passions to divert attention and he organizes picture-perfect spectacles. By raising the toast for Modi this week, the U.S. is helping him write the script of his re-election campaign and providing him excellent visual footage, which Modi will use to silence critics back home as his party prepares the script for the elections in 2024.

India Is Not a U.S. Ally—and Has Never Wanted to Be

Alyssa Ayres
Wed, June 21, 2023 

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, during a news conference in Sydney, Australia, on May 24, 2023. Credit - Brent Lewin—Bloomberg/Getty Images

With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi slated for a June 22 State Visit to Washington, India will, if briefly, be front-page news in the United States. Since President Clinton ended a chill in U.S.-India relations almost 25 years ago, successive American and Indian administrations across political parties have worked to strengthen ties. So it’s fair to ask: how robust is this relationship today? As with the blind men and the elephant, the answer varies. Is India a bad bet, or is it, as the White House senior Asia policy official said recently, “the most important bilateral relationship with the United States on the global stage”?

Despite careful nurturing by Washington over the years, many aspects of U.S. ties with India remain challenging. Bilateral trade has grown tenfold since 2000, to $191 billion in 2022, and India became the ninth-largest US trading partner in 2021. But longstanding economic gripes persist, meriting 13 pages in the 2023 Foreign Trade Barriers report from the U.S. Trade Representative. Multilaterally, India’s role in the fast-consolidating “Quad” consultation (comprised of the United States, Australia, India, and Japan) has brought shared purpose to Washington and New Delhi, both of which harbor concerns about China. But New Delhi also champions alternative non-Western groupings like the BRICS, and it remains outside bodies central to U.S. diplomacy like the U.N. Security Council and the G7.

Read More: Indian Prime Minister Modi’s Visit to Washington Is His Most Important So Far. Here’s What to Know

Today, U.S.-India cooperation spans defense, global health, sustainable development, climate, and technology, among other things. But deep differences remain, including concerns in Washington about India’s democratic backsliding under Modi, and India’s failure to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In other words, the U.S.-India relationship has been transformed over the past quarter-century, but that transformation has not delivered a partnership or alignment similar to the closest U.S. alliances.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone. India is not a U.S. ally, and has not wanted to become one. To see relations with rising power India as on a pathway that culminates in a relationship like that the United States enjoys with Japan or the United Kingdom creates expectations that will not be met. Indian leaders across parties and over decades have long prioritized foreign policy independence as a central feature of India’s approach to the world. That remains the case even with Modi’s openness to the United States.
More from TIME

For India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, protecting his country’s hard-fought independence was a guiding principle for foreign policy. Speaking in the Indian Parliament in March 1951, Nehru noted that “By aligning ourselves with any one Power, you surrender your opinion, give up the policy you would normally pursue because somebody else wants you to pursue another policy.” Twelve years later, evaluating his country’s nonalignment policy in the pages of Foreign Affairs, Nehru went on to observe that it had not “fared badly,” and that “essentially, ‘non-alignment’ is freedom of action which is a part of independence.”

American President Harry S. Truman shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the tarmac as Nehru’s sister, diplomat Vijaya Pandit, and daughter, future Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, stand with them, in Washington D.C., on October 11, 1949.

PhotoQuest/Getty Images

For famously allied Washington, nonalignment in the 20th century was a bridge too far; in 1956 then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles proclaimed that neutrality was “an obsolete conception…immoral and shortsighted.” It did not help matters that the United States had entered an alliance with India’s arch-rival Pakistan in 1954, and sided with the Pakistani military in the bloody civil war that gave birth to Bangladesh in 1971. Nor, too, when Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed a “Treaty of Peace, Friendship, and Cooperation” with the USSR in 1971, definitively tilting India toward the Soviet Union even as the United States had tilted toward Pakistan.

Especially since the end of the Cold War, Indian leaders have sought to improve ties with Washington, but not by curtailing India’s independent approach to foreign policy. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee proclaimed India and the United States “natural allies” in a landmark 1998 speech in New York. Yet this was perhaps more a term of art than a call for an alliance as it occurred against the backdrop of India’s nuclear tests, underscoring New Delhi’s willingness to upset global nuclear nonproliferation conventions, which it never joined. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose 10 years at the helm greatly improved Indo-U.S. relations, pursued a civil-nuclear agreement with Washington and ushered in new cooperation in high technology, defense, and clean energy. But his government too defended its principle of “strategic autonomy” as a redline for its foreign policy even as it moved closer to Washington than ever in the past. Defending the civil-nuclear deal with Washington before Parliament in 2008, Singh twice asserted that “Our strategic autonomy will never be compromised.”

Read More: What Modi’s Visit to Washington Tells Us About Indian American Voters

In important ways, Prime Minister Modi represents a break with India’s past, most notably in his emphasis on India’s Hindu, rather than syncretic and secular, cultural heritage. But his approach to the United States remains consistent with the history of his country’s foreign policy independence.

Modi has deepened ties with the United States, now across three U.S. presidents, through increased partnership in defense, in advanced technology, and in energy, just to name a few, as well as through moments of high symbolism, like his 2015 Republic Day invitation to former President Barack Obama, the first time an American president joined this day honoring India’s constitution. Even so, Modi has leaned into the United States while leaning into many other partners around the world. The Modi government invokes a Sanskrit saying, the “world is one family” (vasudhaiva kutumbakam), to frame Indian diplomacy. This approach has been termed “multialignment,” a theory of seeking positive ties as far and as widely as possible, without seeing contradictions in this approach.

In practice, New Delhi has carefully managed its relationships with Saudi Arabia as well as Iran; with Israel as well as the Palestinian Territories; with the United States as well as Russia. India’s G20 presidency this year encapsulates this orientation, with its Sanskritic theme of “One Earth, One Family, One Future,” and its twin efforts to lead the forum for the world’s 20 largest economies while self-consciously presenting itself as the “Voice of the Global South.”

With this history in mind, it’s easier to perceive that momentum in the U.S.-India relationship does not necessarily imply a path to a formal alliance or mutual defense treaty. In the United States, the mental model for positive international cooperation defaults to seeing “ally” as the ultimate endpoint. For India, that suggests a curtailment of independence. And with India, even as cooperation becomes more extensive than ever in the past, consequential differences remain.

Read More: How India’s Record-Breaking Population Will Shape the World

For many in Washington, the dramatic growth of coordination and joint activities under the Quad consultative group fills a growing need in light of China’s rise, encompassing subjects as far-flung as maritime security, infrastructure, climate and resilience, vaccines, technology standards, and higher education—all underlining Indian strategic convergence with the United States in the Indo-Pacific. Yet strategic convergence there does not mean everywhere: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its year-long war has elicited a tepid tut-tut from New Delhi, while India has escalated its purchases of cheap Russian oil at a time Washington seeks to isolate Moscow.

On closer examination this foreign policy independence and desire to define its own path so prized by India may offer lessons for U.S. foreign policy. The unipolar moment has passed; in its place we have more actors with their own perspectives, and a rising China with global ambitions and its own priorities increasingly shaping the priorities of others. The array of special relationships and alliances nurtured by the United States over decades are still in place, but many of these are now inflected by divergences with Washington. Take Turkey, or France, or Egypt, Pakistan, or Brazil. These U.S. allies do not always see their alliance relationship with Washington as barriers to taking decisions that contradict U.S. preferences. Indeed, President Emmanuel Macron too invokes “strategic autonomy.”

It’s here that India’s ambivalence offers a lens onto the world Washington is likely to encounter on a growing scale. In this world of more diffused power—a world with more diverse actors taking more distinctive foreign policy steps—partnerships and even alliances marked by substantial disagreements might be the new normal. In fact, managing ambivalence may be the central skill for American foreign policy in the years ahead.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Hinduism Is Fascism 

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

‘Tiger King’ star 'Doc' Antle convicted of wildlife trafficking in Virginia

Associated Press
Wed, June 21, 2023 

This image provided by the Horry County Sheriff's Office in Conway, S.C., shows Bhagavan "Doc" Antle, wild animal trainer featured in the popular Netflix series “Tiger King”, who has been convicted of wildlife trafficking in Virginia, the attorney general’s office announced Tuesday, June 20, 2023. Antle was accused of illegally buying endangered lion cubs in Frederick County, Va., for display and profit at his South Carolina zoo,. (Horry County Sheriff's Office via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More


WINCHESTER, Va. (AP) — A wild animal trainer featured in the popular Netflix series “Tiger King” has been convicted of wildlife trafficking in Virginia, the attorney general’s office announced Tuesday.

Bhagavan “Doc” Antle was accused of illegally buying endangered lion cubs in Frederick County, Virginia, for display and profit at his South Carolina zoo, Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a news release. A jury convicted Antle on Friday of two felony counts each of wildlife trafficking and conspiring to wildlife traffic.

Antle, who owns the Myrtle Beach Safari, appeared in “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” a Netflix documentary miniseries that focused on tiger breeders.

The jury acquitted Antle of five counts of animal cruelty and Judge Alexander Iden dismissed four additional animal cruelty charges against Antle and all charges against his two adult daughters, The Winchester Star reported.

Prosecutor Michelle Welch said Myrtle Beach Safari's lucrative petting zoo motivated Antle to maintain a steady supply of immature lion cubs that he purchased from Wilson’s Wild Animal Park near Winchester, calling the arrangement a “cub pipeline” from Virginia to South Carolina.

When Antle and Keith Wilson, the park's former owner, began doing business in 2015, it was still legal to buy and sell lions, Welch said. But after lions were designated as an endangered species in December 2015, lions could only be traded between zoos and wildlife preserves that were part of an established breeding program and had permits. There were three illegal cub exchanges in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Welch said.

Antle was indicted in 2020 on several offenses including felony counts of wildlife trafficking and conspiracy. In August 2019, 119 animals — including lions, tigers, bears, camels, goats and water buffalo — were seized from Wilson’s roadside zoo after a judge found that Wilson “cruelly treated, neglected, or deprived” the animals of adequate care.

Wilson testified that Antle paid him in advance under the guise of a donation. He said Antle paid $2,500 to $3,000 per cub with the exception of the 2017 transaction when Antle traded three lynx kittens for three lion cubs.

Wilson is charged with nine misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and 10 felony counts of selling an endangered species and a hearing in his case is scheduled for Friday.

Defense attorney Erin Harrigan called Antle’s prosecution politically motivated in response to a growing public outcry against wild animals being exploited for entertainment purposes.

“This has been an agenda in search of a crime from the beginning of the investigation,” Harrigan said.

Harrigan maintained that the cubs were gifts and Antle sent Wilson donations for an expanded tiger habitat.

“These were not sales,” Harrigan said.

Iden allowed Antle, who faces up to 20 years in prison, to remain free on bond pending sentencing on Sept. 14.

Israeli lead producer to use ACE Green emissions-free recycling

Reuters
Wed, June 21, 2023

Workers dismantle batteries to obtain lead from them at ACE Green recycling Inc in Ghaziabad

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S.-based ACE Green Recycling, which has developed a lead battery recycling process with no greenhouse gas emissions, said it will deploy its technology to Israel's Hakurnas Lead Works.

The deal to set up the processing at Hakurnas' facilities in Israel and Romania will progressively create 50,000 metric tons of annual lead battery recycling capacity, worth $60 million of lead metal sales a year, ACE Green added in a statement.

Initial operations using ACE Green's equipment are expected to commence at the Hakurnas plant by the fourth quarter.

ACE Green's technology replaces the hot smelting process for lead battery recycling with one at room temperature, running on electricity.

It has been developed in response to bets that demand for recycled metals, especially with healthy environmental footprint, would rise with the global energy transition.

In December, ACE Green signed a 15-year agreement which allows for global miner and trader Glencore to purchase up to 100% of its products from its planned lead-acid and lithium-ion battery recycling parks in several countries.

(Reporting by Pratima Desai; writing by Polina Devitt; editing by Alexander Smith)

‘The only fish that can eat plastic’ is helping to keep trash out of the ocean — here’s why they should be on every beach



Jeremiah Budin
Wed, June 21, 2023 at 4:15 AM MDT·2 min read

There is a staggering amount of plastic waste — an estimated 2.6 million tons — floating around our oceans right now.

One art project in India, later replicated in Bali, is helping to bring awareness to the issue. “Yoshi the Fish” was created in Mangaluru, India, in 2018 by artist Janardhan Havanje. The large fish sculpture is made out of iron rods and is filled with plastic bottles, making it “the only fish that can eat plastic.”

India’s government recently took steps to curb the ever-worsening plastic waste problem that the country faces, banning several types of single-use plastic products. However, it remains to be seen how effectively the ban will be implemented.

India is far from the only place experiencing a plastic crisis. In Bali, the tourism industry (roughly 80% of its economy relies on tourism) combined with a waste management infrastructure that is not up to the task turns the island into an “island of trash” during the rainy months.

As a result, one resort was inspired to create a sibling for Yoshi the Fish. “Goby the Fish” was created by W Bali, Seminyak, a luxury boutique resort on the island. Goby functions as a large trash can, encouraging visitors to throw plastic waste into his open mouth, providing a way for them to help clean up the plastic waste they greatly contribute to while also sparking awareness and conversation around the issue.

While both sculptures, when filled with luminescent plastic bottles, are quite beautiful, the reason behind their existence is saddening.

Millions of tons of plastic waste continue to find its way into the ocean every year, as efforts to clean it up cannot even come close to keeping up with the constant influx of trash. And plastic never truly decomposes, instead breaking down into microplastics, which have now entered the food chain.

Plastic has now been ingested by most marine animals and has been found to be blocking the digestive tracts of at least 267 different species.

Hopefully, tourists who see Yoshi and Goby realize that they are the only two fish on Earth who actually want to eat plastic and, consequently, take steps to curb their own contributions to the problem.

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Black Bear Attacks and Kills Man Drinking Morning Coffee in Arizona

Sage Marshall

FIELD & STREAM
Tue, June 20, 2023 

There are around 3,000 black bears in Arizona.

A tragic fatal bear attack recently took place in Arizona's Yavapai County. According to a statement from the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office (YCSO), the unexpected attack took place on the morning of June 16. "At approximately 7:50 this morning, the YCSO dispatch center received multiple 911 calls about a man who was being mauled by a bear in the Groom Creek Area," wrote the agency on the day of the attack. "When YCSO deputies and Prescott PD arrived at the scene, which was in a heavily wooded remote area, they found Steven Jackson, 66 years old of Tucson dead of an apparent bear attack, and the bear dead nearby."

According to several witnesses, Jackson sitting at a table on his property, where he was building a house, having a morning coffee when the bear caught him by surprise, before dragging him 75 feet down an embankment. "Neighbors who heard the victim screaming tried to intervene through shouts and car horns, but the bear did not let go of Jackson until one neighbor was able to retrieve his rifle and shoot the bear," wrote the YCSO. "Unfortunately, by that time Jackson had succumbed to his horrible injuries."

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Fatal black bear attacks are extremely rare—especially ones predatory in nature, which this incident appears to be. Before this one, the most recent fatal black bear attack in the United States took place near Durango in 2021, when a woman was mauled and partially eaten.

In the Arizona attack, the offending bear was an adult male. Officials are still investigating the incident but so far have not found any evidence of unsecured food or cooking items that could have attracted the bear. The site of the attack is not near any camping areas. "Officials at the moment do not have a theory other than a predatory response by the bear," explained the YCSO. "Officials still caution revelers to take precautions when camping, such as locking up food in a vehicle and not leaving out items such as toothpaste that may bring a bear to your campsite."

"Our sincere sympathies go out to Mr. Jackson’s family,” said Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes. “I cannot express how deeply sad this situation is and can only say our prayers are with you.”

Mystery of huge bear that killed Arizona man deepens with new lab report


Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office

Helena Wegner
Wed, June 21, 2023 at 1:02 PM MDT·2 min read

The mystery around an unusual bear attack in Arizona has deepened after wildlife officials released a health report of the dead animal.

A male black bear attacked 66-year-old Steven Jackson as he was drinking coffee and dragged him 75 feet down an embankment June 16, in the Groom Creek area near Prescott, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

Wildlife officials called the fatal mauling unusual and “predatory in nature.”

A necropsy was conducted on the 365-pound animal, which officials estimated being 7 to 10 years old, the Arizona Game and Fish Department said in a June 21 news release.

The bear was determined to be in “good condition with no apparent signs of disease,” according to Dr. Anne Justice-Allen, a wildlife veterinarian who performed the examination.

Human remains, vegetation and seeds were found in the bear’s stomach, wildlife officials said. Its body fat also pointed to it being in “good nutritional condition.”

And the bear tested negative for rabies, officials said. A bear last tested positive for rabies in Arizona in 1971, according to Arizona Game and Fish.

Lastly, the report determined the animal’s cause of death was from multiple gunshot wounds. A neighbor heard Jackson screaming and shot the animal dead, officials said.

Watch bear belly flop into Alaska river in pursuit of salmon dinner. ‘Never gets old’


U.S. Department of the Interior
45
Brooke Baitinger
Wed, June 21, 2023 at 4:46 PM MDT·3 min read

It’s bear-lovers’ favorite time of year again — at least outside of Fat Bear Week.

The National Park Service’s Explore camera is back on and pointed at bears feasting on sockeye salmon in Alaska.

The camera captured a hungry brown bear belly flopping from a waterfall into the river below in Katmai National Park and Preserve in pursuit of a salmon dinner.

“Bear belly flop!” the U.S. Department of the Interior posted on its social media platforms, adding that the BearCam is back for the season. “Every year, they congregate to feast on sockeye salmon in the Brooks River.”

“You can’t tell me he or she didn’t enjoy that,” someone commented on Twitter.

“Never gets old!” someone else said.

On Instagram, people praised the bear’s form.

“If you don’t give that a 10/10 I don’t want to be friends,” someone wrote.

“An 11 for form and extra point for jumping into ice cold water,” another suggested.

“The greatest flop ever captured in all of Katmai!” someone agreed.

The area of the park gets a healthy salmon run this time of year, attracting bears hoping to feed on the nutrient-rich fish as they migrate upriver, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

In March, a couple visiting the park encountered a bear while hiking and said they had learned from “bear school” with a park ranger that the bears don’t have much interest in humans because of their healthy diet of salmon, McClatchy News previously reported.

The hiker explained that different bear populations might act differently during certain times of the year.
What to do during a bear encounter

Bear attacks in the U.S. are rare, according to the National Park Service. In most attacks, bears are trying to defend their food, cubs or space.

There are steps people can take to help prevent a bear encounter from becoming a bear attack.

Identify yourself: Talk calmly and slowly wave your arms. This can help the bear realize you’re a human and nonthreatening.

Stay calm: Bears usually don’t want to attack; they want to be left alone. Talk slowly and with a low voice to the bear.


Don’t scream: Screaming could trigger an attack.


Pick up small children: Don’t let kids run away from the bear. It could think they’re small prey.


Hike in groups: A group is noisier and smellier, the National Park Service said. Bears like to keep their distance from groups of people.


Make yourself look big: Move to higher ground and stand tall. Don’t make any sudden movements.


Don’t drop your bag: A bag on your back can keep a bear from accessing food, and it can provide protection.


Walk away slowly: Move sideways so you appear less threatening to the bear. This also lets you keep an eye out.


Again, don’t run: Bears will chase you, just like a dog would.


Don’t climb trees: Grizzlies and black bears can also climb.