'Intelligent' Chinese marine ranch combines 

high-tech fish farming, tourism


Genghai No 1, China's first ecological marine ranch platform, is anchored off the coast of Yantai, Shandong Province, on Thursday. Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Chinese industry and tourism officials are touting a recently opened "intelligent ecological marine ranch" as a potential game-changer for the country's depleted fishing waters.

Genghai No.1, a marine farm owned by the Shandong Ocean Harvest Corp., opened in July off the coast of Yantai in northeastern Shandong Province as a model of how modern, high-tech fishing techniques can be combined with tourism to revitalize and preserve the industry.

Marine ecosystems in most coastal areas of Shandong have been disrupted over the past 50 years by overfishing and the deterioration of coastal environments, endangering the fish resources.

But local and national leaders are now leading a push to transform the area's fishing economy with marine ranches. With nearly 1,000 square miles of ocean areas suitable for the construction of high-quality ocean ranches, Yantai has emerged as hotbed in the emerging technology, Chinese officials say.
RELATED Overfishing erased sharks from many of the world's reefs, researchers say

Marine ranching, first developed in the 1970s, is a type of aquaculture involving the cultivation of marine organisms for food and other products in an enclosed section of ocean.

The process involves placing artificial reefs on the seabed, releasing juvenile fish, and encouraging the growth of kelp forests. The ranches have also emerged as popular destinations for tourism and leisure fishing in China.

Backers have hailed Genghai No.1 as China's first large-scale "intelligent" ocean ranching platform, making use of artificial intelligence, clean energy, 5G communications, big data and underwater patrol robots.

With a total diameter of 260 feet and a water volume equivalent to 14 swimming pools, the ranch is composed of three identical and rotating sub-cages and is equipped with an automatic system for environmental monitoring and ship collision prevention.

It is expected to produce 330,000 pounds of fish and receive 50,000 tourists annually.

Humans have been cremating the dead since at least 7,000 B.C.
By
Brooks Hays
(0)


The burned bone fragments showed cremated remains found at a pit belonged to a young adult who had been injured by a flint projectile several months before dying. Photo by Mission Beisamoun

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Cremation is a truly ancient practice, with a study published this week in the journal PLOS One showing that humans have been turning the dead to ashes for at least 9,000 years.

An international team of researchers led by Fanny Bocquentin, an archaeologist and anthropologist with the French National Center for Scientific Research, uncovered evidence of direct cremation at a Neolithic dig site in Beisamoun, Israel.

The researchers said it didn't take long after breaking the earth to realize they'd happened upon something special.

"Thanks to the presence of well-trained anthropologists doing fieldwork on the site, the burnt human bones were immediately identified and all attention was focused on digging this exceptional pit," Bocquentin told UPI in an email.

"We realized during the excavation that this was indeed a cremation pyre pit," she said.

The team of scientists used an advanced imaging technique, infrared spectrometry, to determine the composition of the pit and identify the combustion temperature.

The excavation revealed 355 bone fragments. According to the spectral analysis, temperatures in the pyre pit reached 700 degrees Celsius. The size and condition of the bone fragments suggest the remains belonged a young adult who was injured by a flint projectile several months before their death.

The positioning of the bones suggest the body was positioned in a sitting position and remained so throughout the cremation process.

By the 7th millennia B.C., the people of the Levant were practicing agriculture and herding, but they were still hunting for sustenance. Archaeological evidence suggests the region's communities during this time were more isolated than their ancestors, but some degree of interaction persisted.

"For instance, the obsidian found at Beisamoun was imported from Capadoccia, some 1,000 kilometers away," Bocquentin said.
RELATED Stone tools suggest humans were in Arabia as recently as 190,000 years ago



For now, Beisamoun is unique, but researchers have previously found evidence of bone-drying, the step taken prior to cremation, at another site in Jordan. Researchers have also unearthed similar pyre pits dated to 6,500 B.C. at a Syrian dig site.

"These cannot be coincidences, there must be contacts between these populations," Bocquentin said.

Researchers suggest the Bocquentin discovery is evidence of a transition in how humans in the Levant treated the dead.

"In the periods prior to our discovery, funeral practices are often spread out over time, the deceased is buried, waited to decompose and then the grave is reopened, the bones are reorganized, the skull is removed, sometimes a face is plastered with lime on the dry skull, then the skull is re-buried in another grave with other people," Bocquentin said.

The burial process was labor intensive and time consuming. Cremation provided a way to expedite the decomposition process. Additionally, with the advent of cremation, bodies are no longer relocated after decomposition.

"There is therefore a contraction of the time of the funeral which could reveal a new relationship of the living with their dead, [and] of the living with mourning, too," Bocquentin said. "I would bet that it is an efficient way to reduce the power of the ancestors probably to the benefit of other beliefs."

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Humans in ancient Turkey adapted to climate change, thrived


Using radiocarbon dating, researchers created a fine-scale archaeological timeline of societal activity across a northern stretch of the Levant during the early and late Bronze Age. Photo by Tayinat Archaeological Project

Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Climate change can trigger societal collapse and force populations to move, but not always.

New archaeological research suggests populations in ancient Turkey were able to adapt and flourish in the face of two periods of climate change, occurring between 4,500 and 3,000 years ago.

The findings -- published this week in the journal PLOS One -- suggest human responses to climate change are surprisingly variable. The challenges presented by climate change can stress societies beyond the breaking point, but also provide opportunities for resiliency and ingenuity.

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed local, fine-scale archeological data across a northern portion of the Levant known as Tell Tayinat. The Levant is a historical region of human occupation that stretches across the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea.

"The study shows the end of the Early Bronze Age occupation at Tayinat was a long and drawn out affair that, while it appears to coincide with the onset of a mega-drought 4,200 years ago, was actually the culmination of processes that began much earlier," Tim Harrison said in a news release.

"The archaeological evidence does not point towards significant local effects of the climate episode, as there is no evidence of drought stress in crops," said Harrison, a professor of archaeology at the University of Toronto and director of the Tayinat Archaeological Project.

Instead, researchers found archaeological evidence of local political and spatial reconfiguration.

Some of the earliest cities and state-level societies were established in the Levant and surrounding Middle East, during the mid-to late Early Bronze Age, between 3000 and 2000 B.C., and the Late Bronze Age, between 1600 and 1200 B.C.

These novel systems of social and political organization proved unstable, with both periods culminating in collapse.

Without precise, fine-scale archaeological evidence, researchers were unable to tease out detailed changes in societal activity. As a result, archaeologists turned to shifts in climate to explain the societal collapses that marked the ends of the early and late Bronze Age.

Using radiocarbon dating, researchers created a more fine-scale timeline of societal activity at Tayinat during two periods of climate change.

"The absolute dating of these periods has been a subject of considerable debate for many years, and this study contributes a significant new dataset that helps address many of the questions," said lead study author Sturt Manning.

"The detailed chronological resolution achieved in this study allows for a more substantive interpretation of the archaeological evidence in terms of local and regional responses to proposed climate change, shedding light on how humans respond to environmental stress and variability," said Manning, a professor of classical archaeology at Cornell University.

Oversight committee: HHS sought celebrities for scrapped $265 million COVID-19 PSA

The House committee on oversight and reform on Thursday said the Health and Human Services Department paid a contractor to vet hundreds of celebrities for a $265 million ad campaign on the COVID-19 pandemic. File Photo by Stefani Reynolds/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 29 (UPI) -- The Trump administration paid a contractor to vet hundreds of celebrities for a scrapped $265 million ad campaign about the COVID-19 pandemic, House Democrats said Thursday.

The House committee on oversight and reform issued a statement saying it had sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar seeking documents regarding the agency's contracting of a company to vet 274 celebrities to participate in the public service announcement to "defeat despair and inspire hope" amid the pandemic.

Criteria for the ad included previous arrests, prior support for LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage and whether they had disagreed with President Donald Trump in the past.

The PSA campaign also sought to include holiday actors, including professional Santas, and those playing Mrs. Claus and elves, who were offered a chance to get an early COVID-19 vaccine if it became available.

"It is critical that HHS provide accurately nonpolitical public health information to the American people that encourages mask wearing, social distancing and other science-backed public health recommendations," wrote oversight and reform committee, Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney, along with subcommittee heads James Clyburn and Raja Krishnamoorthi. "Yet, the documents we have obtained indicate that HHS political appointees sought to use taxpayer dollars to advance a partisan political agenda and direct taxpayer money to their friends and allies."

The committee said that HHS assistant secretary of public affairs, Michael Caputo sought to influence the PSA for "partisan political purposes" by intervening directly in communications between agency contractors and employees.

It added that contractor employees and career staff at the Food and Drug Administration "pushed back on these inappropriate efforts."

The documents also showed that as of Oct. 1, all of the celebrities who agreed to participate in the ad campaign had withdrawn their consent to do so.

"Your failure to provide the documents we requested -- especially in light of the information we have learned from the contractors -- appears to be part of a cover-up to conceal the Trump Administration's misuse of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for partisan political purposes ahead of the upcoming election and to direct taxpayer funds to friends and allies of Trump administration officials," the chairs added.

Future pandemics will be worse without major strategy shift, study says
By
Sommer Brokaw
(0)

Pedestrians, wearing masks to curb the spread of COVID-19, walk toward the Al Aqsa Compound in the Israeli-controlled Old City of Jerusalem on Thursday. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 29 (UPI) -- International experts in a new scientific study warned on Thursday that pandemics like COVID-19 will emerge more often in the future unless more targeted efforts are made to control them.

The 62-page assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) says future pandemics will spread quicker, kill more people and cause greater economic damage than COVID-19 unless there's a "seismic shift" from reaction to prevention.

Experts said while pandemics typically originate in diverse microbes carried by animal reservoirs, human activities and their environmental impact help drive their emergence.

"There is no great mystery about the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic -- or any modern pandemic," said Dr. Peter Daszak, chair of the IPBES workshop and president of the EcoHealth Alliance. "The same human activities that drive climate change and biodiversity loss also drive pandemic risk through their impacts on our environment.

"Changes in the way we use land; the expansion and intensification of agriculture; and unsustainable trade, production and consumption disrupt nature and increase contact between wildlife, livestock, pathogens and people. This is the path to pandemics."

The report says the risks are increasing rapidly and any of the several new diseases that emerge each year could create another global heath crisis.

It says risk can be reduced through conservation and other measures to reduce human activities that contribute to biodiversity loss. That, the authors say, will dwindle human contact with wildlife and spillover of new diseases.

"We have the increasing ability to prevent pandemics -- but the way we are tackling them right now largely ignores that ability," Daszak added. "We still rely on attempts to contain and control diseases after they emerge, through vaccines and therapeutics.

"We can escape the era of pandemics, but this requires much greater focus on prevention in addition to reaction."

Fiscally, the report notes, the economic damage created by pandemics is about 100 times higher than the estimated cost of prevention.

Experts say there are 1.7 million unknown viruses that currently exist in animals and about 850,000 of those could potentially infect humans.

The report recommends creating a high-level intergovernmental pandemic prevention council to provide decision-makers with data and evidence about emerging diseases and help leaders evaluate the impacts. The councilors would also coordinate a global monitoring mechanism.

It also calls for new taxes on meat consumption, livestock production and other forms of high-risk human activities that invite pandemics.

The United Nations-backed study came from a virtual workshop the IPBES convened to investigate the relationship between pandemic risk and the degradation of nature. Nearly two dozen experts were part of the workshop.

U.S. consumers' focus shifts from COVID-19 to personal finances

Americans have turned their focus toward shopping low prices to ease personal finance troubles. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Americans' worries about COVID-19 have dropped since the start of the pandemic in March as more report that their personal finances are are poor in recent months.

The survey by London-based customer data science firm dunnhumby said 24% of Americans were worried about the coronavirus in September, down from 31% in March. That figure has been on a downward trajectory since then except for a spike to 30% in July.

Worldwide, 22% of people were concerned with the virus in September, down from a high of 34% in March.

Americans' concerns appear to have shift instead to their personal finances. In September, 49% said their personal finances are either "not good" or "poor," up from 41% in July and a low of 36% in April.

RELATED European Central Bank readies to release more stimulus

That concern has translated into a focus on food prices and shopping where regular prices are low. Fifty-eight percent said they shop where regular prices are low, while 22% said they pay more for quality.

"Since the pandemic first hit, we have been analyzing and studying consumer reactions to the virus, how it impacted their shopping behavior, and how they in turn reacted to retailers' actions to combat the virus," said Jose Gomes, president of North America for dunnhumby.

"Seven months after shutdowns, we are now seeing a major pivot with consumer focus turning away from the virus itself to now being more concerned with increasing food prices while the economy and their personal finances are deteriorating.

"Retailers need to take note that most shoppers right now are on the hunt for more value by shopping at stores with regularly low prices, while also seeking discounts and promotions."

The U.S. Commerce Department issued a quarterly report Thursday showing the economy expanded by 33% between July and October after a 31% drop in the prior quarter. The second-quarter dip shattered the previous record for decline over a three-month quarterly period.

"The increase in real GDP reflected increases in personal consumption expenditures, private inventory investment, exports, nonresidential fixed investment and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by decreases in federal government spending," the department said in a statement.

Chinook salmon that migrate in spring, fall more alike than thought

Spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon both spawn in the fall, but spring-run salmon -- pictured here in Northern California's Butte Creek -- migrate upriver early in the year and spend the summer in cool, deep pools. Photo by Allen Harthorn

Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Traditionally, spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon have been classified as two separate subspecies, or ecotypes, but new genetic analysis suggests the two groups are much more similar than they are different.

According to the new study, published this week in the journal Science, the migration patterns of spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon are dictated by differences in a small snippet of DNA in their genomes.

"Understanding the genetic basis of ecotypic differentiation in salmon provides a solid framework for predicting the outcome of different management actions," study co-author John Carlos Garza, professor of ocean sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told UPI in an email.

Scientists previously observed evidence that members of the same Chinook salmon lineages switch between fall and spring migrations. The new research showed spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon are indeed two versions of the same fish, like a brother and sister with different colored hair.

RELATED With global warming, marine heatwaves like 'The Blob' could be commonpl

When researchers compared the genomes of spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon, they discovered two versions of a set of genes in a part of the genome scientists dubbed the Region of Strongest Association, or RoSA -- an E version for early migration and L version for late migration.

Because these versions, or variations, feature a handful of switched-around genes -- not just one -- they're called haplotypes.

And since salmon offspring inherit a chromosome from both their mother and father, they can boast one of three different RoSA haplotypes: EE, LL or EL. Since these haplotypes trigger different behaviors, or traits, they're also referred to as genotypes.

When researchers sampled and analyzed more than 500 salmon caught by the Yurok Tribe in the Klamath River Estuary of Northern California, they found no overlap in the migrations of fish with EE and LL genotypes.

Researchers found EL fish tended to overlap mostly with spring-run fish, but some EL fish were also found migrating alongside fall-run salmon. The abundance of EL fish, they said, suggests fall-run and spring-run salmon regularly interbreed.

As part of the study, researchers analyzed genetic samples from post-spawning salmon carcasses in a handful of rivers throughout northern California, as well as Oregon's Siletz River. The survey turned up EL genotype fish in every river where both spring- and fall-run salmon are found.
RELATED Endangered coho salmon preservation an upstream battle in California



"We also performed an elegant simulation analysis that found that the proportion of combinations of gene variants inside and outside of the core region found in the genomes of Klamath salmon could not have arisen through interbreeding in the period of large-scale human manipulation of the basin," Garza said. "So it is a natural process that has been going on for a long time."

The survey data and genomic modeling also proved the ecotype variations present among Chinook salmon evolved at least 180 years ago. That's good news for the project of salmon conservation in the Klamath River, the researchers said.

For decades, damming has prevented a spring run in the upper reaches of the Klamath River Klamath River.

RELATED Salmon parasite is world's first non-oxygen breathing animal

As the construction of dams depleted cool water refuges in the Klamath, spring-run salmon, which must spend the summers in freshwater, were depleted. But the latest research suggests the migration pattern has been preserved in populations of nearby salmon.

"The finding that the E haplotype is highly conserved across Chinook salmon lineages -- i.e. it is much more similar in those lineages than the rest of the genome -- means that the same ancient mechanism underlies the early migration phenotype throughout our study area," Garza said.

That means a spring run can be reestablished -- once their habitat has been restored via major dam removals -- by introducing or cross-breeding fish carrying the E lineage into a predominately fall-run population.

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Delta, pilots union agree to defer furloughs until at least 2022

The agreement in principle calls for Delta Air Lines to avoid furloughing any of its pilots until at least the start of 2022. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Delta Air Lines and its pilots union say they have reached an agreement in principle under which the carrier would avoid furloughing pilots until 2022.

In a memo to flight operation employees Thursday, Delta Senior Vice President John Laughter said that the agreement allows the carrier to generate "much needed savings through a path to help avoid furloughs."

The Air Line Pilots Association negotiating committee told members the agreement would provide furlough protection "for every Delta pilot on the seniority list until January 1, 2022."

Once the contractual language is finalized and agreed upon, the agreement in principle will become a "tentative agreement" and be put up for a vote by Delta's 14,000 pilots.

"While this agreement is still subject to approval by [ALPA], we are confident this can help Delta to be better positioned through the long and choppy COVID-19 pandemic recovery," Laughter wrote in the memo.

Avoiding furloughs, he wrote, has been "a key goal of ours from the beginning."

While competitors American Airlines and United Airlines began furloughing more than 30,000 employees this month with the expiration of federal COVID-19 stimulus protections, Delta has avoided doing so through a program of buyouts, early retirements and other cost-cutting measures.

Delta posted a net loss of $5.4 billion in the third quarter, $4 billion directly related to COVID-19, including fleet-related restructuring charges.

U.S. one of world's top contributors to plastic pollution


Contaminated plastic waste -- from Australia, the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, China, Spain and Bangladesh -- is seen inside cargo containers in Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia, in 2019, before it is sent back to its country of origin in. Photo by Fazry Ismail/EPA-EFE

Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The coastline of the United States is relatively clean compared to other parts of the world, but new research suggests the U.S. is one of the world's top contributors to coastal plastic pollution.

The U.S. exports large amounts of plastic waste. Previous studies have ignored plastic scrap exports, offering the impression that the United States was effectively collecting, disposing and recycling its plastic waste, researchers have said.

According to a new study, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, more than half of the plastic waste collected for recycling in the U.S. -- 1.99 million metric tons of 3.91 million metric tons -- is shipped out of the country.

Researchers found the vast majority of exported plastic scraps, 88 percent, ends up in countries that are struggling to adequately manage plastic waste. Environmental scientists determined at least 1 million metric tons of plastic waste exported by the U.S. ends up polluting environments abroad every year.

RELATED Watch: Sea turtle sculpture made from washed-up plastic trash


"For years, so much of the plastic we have put into the blue bin has been exported for recycling to countries that struggle to manage their own waste, let alone the vast amounts delivered from the United States," study lead author Kara Lavender Law said in a news release.

"And when you consider how much of our plastic waste isn't actually recyclable because it is low-value, contaminated or difficult to process, it's not surprising that a lot of it ends up polluting the environment," said Law, a research professor of oceanography at the Sea Education Association.

Researchers also determined that a small but not inconsequential amount of plastic waste collected in the U.S. each year -- 2 to 3 percent -- is littered or illegally dumped.

RELATED Study: Cleanup, management won't save ecosystems from plastic pollution

After accounting for exported waste, as well as littered or illegally dumped domestic waste, researchers determined the U.S. was responsible for 2.25 million metric tons of plastic pollution in 2016, the last year for which pollution data is readily available.

Roughly two-thirds of the plastic polluted by the U.S. ends up in coastal environs, according to the new study -- making the U.S. the world's third largest producer of coastal plastic pollution.

Despite accounting for just 4 percent of the world's population, the U.S. is responsible for 17 percent of the world's coastal plastic pollution.
RELATED U.N. report: Global efforts failed to meet biodiversity goals in 2010s



"The United States generates the most plastic waste of any other country in the world, but rather than looking the problem in the eye, we have outsourced it to developing countries and become a top contributor to the ocean plastics crisis," said study co-author Nick Mallos.

"The solution has to start at home. We need to create less, by cutting out unnecessary single-use plastics; we need to create better, by developing innovative new ways to package and deliver goods; and where plastics are inevitable, we need to drastically improve our recycling rates," said Mallos, senior director of the Ocean Conservancy's Trash Free Seas program.

The researchers suggest their findings should serve as a wakeup call for U.S. policy makers and industry leaders to take responsibility for the nation's plastic pollution footprint.

"For some time, it has been cheaper for the United States to ship its recyclables abroad rather than handle them here at home, but that has come at great cost to our environment," said study co-author Natalie Starr.

"We need to change the math by investing in recycling technologies and collection programs, as well as accelerating research and development to improve the performance and drive down the costs of more sustainable plastics and packaging alternatives to address the current challenge," said Starr, principal at DSM Environmental Services.


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ExxonMobil announces 1,900 layoffs


The brand Exxon Mobil and price of Energy are on a display at the New York Stock Exchange on August 17, 2018. The oil giant said Thursday it plans to layoff 1,900.

 Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Oil industry giant ExxonMobil announced Thursday it will be laying off about 1,900 workers through layoffs and voluntary programs, blaming the reductions on the continuing coronavirus pandemic.

The Texas-based company said in a statement the decision came from a "global review" of the oil industry, which has been rocked hard by travel restrictions brought on by the spread of COVID-19 around the globe.

"These actions will improve the company's long-term cost competitiveness and ensure the company manages through the current unprecedented market conditions," ExxonMobil said in a statement. "The impact of COVID-19 on the demand for ExxonMobil's products has increased the urgency of the ongoing efficiency work."

ExxonMobil had previously announced 1,600 layoffs in Australia and its European operations.

"The company recognizes these decisions will impact employees and their families and has put these programs in place only after comprehensive evaluation and thoughtful deliberation," ExxonMobil said. "Employees who are separated through involuntary programs will be provided with support, including severance and outplacement services."

Exxon CEO Darren Woods told workers who attended a town hall meeting last week in the Houston suburb of Spring that it could not hold off layoffs much longer because of the crumbling oil industry.

"ExxonMobil's announcement about thousands of job cuts is another log on the bonfire that's been oil and gas employment in 2020," Jeff Bush, president of CSI Recruiting, said.

ExxonMobil, once of the world's largest publicly traded company at $136 billion, was surpassed by Zoom ($140 billion) in market value this year

Boeing to slash 7,000 jobs due to pandemic, 737 Max crisis



Boeing's shares dropped 5.23% as of Wednesday afternoon announcing third-quarter results and a cut of 7,000 jobs. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. aeronautical company Boeing announced Wednesday it's slashing more than 7,000 jobs as it deals with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing disruptions caused by malfunctions with the 737 Max aircraft.

Boeing announced the cuts as part of its third-quarter results, which showed a net loss of $466 million, a sharp decrease from its $1.2 billion profit the same time last year. Sales were down 29% at $14.1 billion, with the biggest drop among commercial aircraft -- from $8.2 billion in 2019 to $3.6 billion in 2020.

"As we share our third-quarter financial results today, the deep impacts of COVID-19 on the commercial aviation market and our business are reflected in lower revenue, earnings and cash flow compared to this time last year," Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said.

"As we align to market realities, our business units and functions are carefully making staffing decisions to prioritize natural attrition and stability in order to limit the impact on our people and our company. We anticipate a workforce of about 130,000 employees by the end of 2021."
RELATED Boeing, U.S. Navy to develop long-range strike missile demonstrator



The Chicago-based company has seen a drop in new plane orders as airlines worldwide adjust to reduced travel since the start of the pandemic earlier this year.

But even before travel restrictions in response to the novel coronavirus, Boeing was dealing with the fallout of two crashes in its 737 Max within six months, which killed 346 people.

Investigators determined both flights showed problems with their maneuvering characteristics augmentation system, which affects the pitch of the aircraft. Boeing 737 Max planes were grounded worldwide in March 2019 as the company worked to fix the error.

RELATED EU regulator says Boeing 737 Max safety 'high enough' for return

Calhoun said he expects federal regulators to lift the grounding on the plane after testing the newly fixed aircraft, but the pandemic delayed its return to the skies.

Boeing's shares were down 5.34% Wednesday afternoon after news of the job cuts.

Higher COVID-19 deaths could strip some support for Trump, study says

President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at the Waukesha County Airport in Waukesha, Wis., on October 24. Photo by Alex Wroblewski/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Voters who live in areas with more COVID-19 deaths are at least somewhat less likely to support President Donald Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2020 election, according to a study published Friday.

Researchers said the findings provide the first "clear causal evidence" that the rise in COVID-19 deaths have turned some Americans away from Trump.
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Using "granular" data sources such as local-level information on deaths and voter attitude surveys, the researchers concluded that higher death counts are translating into softer support for Trump and other GOP candidates.

"States and local areas with higher levels of COVID-19 fatalities are less likely to support President Trump and Republican candidates for House and Senate. Our results show that [they] would benefit electorally from a reduction in COVID-19 fatalities," wrote authors Christopher Warshaw of George Washington University and Lynn Vavreck and Ryan Baxter-King, both of the University of California, Los Angeles

"This implies that a greater emphasis on social distancing, masks, and other mitigation strategies would benefit the president and his allies."

The study found that Americans who live in counties where COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 residents had doubled in the previous 30 days were 0.14% less likely to support Trump. Where deaths doubled at the on a statewide level, voters were almost 0.4% less likely.

The researchers tapped data compiled by The New York Times to measure variations in the magnitude of the pandemic across the United States, as well as more than 300,000 survey responses gathered by the Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape Project, between mid-2019 and this summer, to measure how attitudes have shifted.

RELATED U.S. governor's races feature a few close contests as election nears

While the difference might seem small and perhaps insignificant, Warshaw said history indicates that the COVID-19 effect could have some impact.

"The margin between Trump and Clinton in the state of Michigan in 2016 was 0.23%," he noted.

100,000 demonstrate for abortion rights in Poland



People take part in the 'March on Warsaw' protest against the tightening of the abortion law in Warsaw, Poland, Friday. Photo by Radek Pietruszka/EPA-EFE

Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of women converged on Warsaw Friday to protest a court decision that would ban nearly all abortions in Poland.

Crowds of women flooded the streets, wearing the red lightning bolt that has become the icon of the movement and playing music that included Darth Vader's theme from Star Wars.

Friday's demonstrations were the culmination of more than a week of protests believed to be the largest since the Solidarity movement in the 1980s that led to the collapse of communism.

Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski estimated that more than 100,000 people rallied Friday, while protest organizers said the number of demonstrators was closer to 150,000.
RELATED Polish protesters block roads, storm churches over abortion ban



Demonstrators also marched in Gdańsk, Białystok, Poznan, Kraków, Wroclaw, Torun, Sczescin, Myślenice, Gorlice and Jasło Friday.

Thousands of men marched alongside women in the demonstrations, as well as coalition groups worried that hard-won freedoms from the post-communist era are slipping away under the rule of the Law and Justice Party.

Police flanked demonstrators amid concerns that violence could break out with right-wing activists.

So far the protests have largely been peaceful, but Bartosz Bekier, head of the right-wing Falanga, gave an interview this week in which he said thousand of nationalists would be going to the protests and that they were "trained in combat tactics."

Police detained about 37 people Friday, saying most were right-wing "soccer hooligans" who threw flares at demonstrators.

On Oct. 22 a court ruled that abortions due to fetal defects would be unconstitutional, making abortion almost completely illegal in the country, though it is still permissible if the mother's life and health is at risk or in cases where the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest.

Halloween weekend's Blue Moon to last through Sunday
By
Jean Lotus
OCT. 31, 2020 

A Blue Moon rises behind One World Trade Center and the Manhattan skyline shorty after sunset on Halloween Night on Saturday, October 31, 2020 in Green Brook Township, New Jersey. A blue moon only happens on Halloween approximately every 19 years. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 31 (UPI) -- October will have its second full moon -- a rare Blue Moon -- beginning Saturday and lasting through Sunday.

The moon appears at its fullest, opposite the sun in earth-based longitude, at 10:49 a.m. EDT on Saturday, according to NASA. It should appear full through Sunday night.

The first full moon after the Harvest Moon -- which appeared Oct. 1 this year -- is also called the Hunter's Moon, according to the Farmer's Almanac, a moniker that appears in the Oxford English Dictionary dating back to 1710.

This full moon will appear smaller Saturday night because it occurs nearest to the time when the moon is farthest in its orbit from the Earth, at its apogee, so NASA calls it a "Micro Moon" as opposed to a Supermoon.

In astronomical terms, Blue Moons occur with a regular pattern about once every two and a half years. After October 2020, the next Blue Moon will take place in August 2023. A full moon will occur on Halloween once every 19 years in the 21st century.

The Native American name for the second full moon of autumn is the Beaver Moon, also called the Frost or Frosty Moon, or the Snow Moon, NASA says.

In North America, the deer rut mating season is in full swing and snow geese arrive at the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and southern Delaware. The Old Farmer's Almanac says it's best to plant garlic and dig up sweet potatoes during the Hunter's Moon.

In the Indian subcontinent, this full moon coincides with the end of monsoon rains, and is called the Sharad Purnima, coinciding with Hindu festivals marking the end of the rainy season.

Bhuddist names for the full moon mark the end of Vassa, or the three-month retreat also called the Bhuddist Lent.

The full moon falls near the end of the Buddhist Hpaung Daw U festival in Myanmar and Indochina which lasts between Oct. 17 and Nov. 3. In Thailand, this full moon coincides with the Loi Krathong festival, in which decorated baskets are floated in rivers.

OPINION: A plea from the Scottish island Donald Trump's mother Mary called home - Let this be the end of our disgrace

The word on the pews and the surf beaches of the Isle of Lewis is – please let this be an end to the disgrace of Trump.

By Ian Stephen
Sunday, 1st November 2020

Favourite son?: Donald Trump visited the home in which his mother grew up on the Isle of Lewis

Church groups on this Island, birthplace of the current President’s mother, spoke out against Trump last week in an article in the Scottish edition of ‘The Times’, not normally the most radical of newspapers.

Churchgoers are now united in this stance with surfers, artists and pretty much everyone else on ‘the rock’.

I live by the shores of Broad Bay, the waters fished by Trump’s Lewis grandfather. This is a few miles along the shore from the village of Tong. These were very productive fishing grounds for past generations. The Donald did once make a much publicised visit.

Point of view: Writer Ian Stephn was born and raised on the Isle of Lewis

The seconds he spent on scene at the family croft were squeezed between the real purpose of the visit – golf course ‘development’ on mainland Scotland.

In the past the Island has had a reputation for extremes – a hard version of Presbyterian Christianity and a vibrant tradition of oral culture in songs and stories.

Several of the strongest figures in twentieth century Scottish literature, notably the Lewis-born poet Iain Crichton Smith, spoke of island religion as a force that would stamp on creativity.

Yet in recent years we have seen collaborations between communities of psalm singers and cutting-edge musicians. These include a collaboration between the psalm singers of Back Free Church (also up from Broad Bay) and gospel choirs from the States.

A documentary film of the sharing and a published CD probed musical affinities across oceans and across race.

When you see the winds speed down from the Northeast you know they’ve come all the way from the Arctic. I used to joke that this was what caused that trademark sweep of hair on the head of cousin DJ Trump.

Of course we now know from the elusive tax returns that it was not the Arctic wind but 70,000 dollars worth of hairdressing. I’ve also had to revise what I’ve learned of the secret of success from The Donald. I thought he had proved it was losing half of your father’s money. Now, if you believe the figures, it seems he lost all of it and a lot more.

If ‘The Apprentice’ wasn’t enough to save the show, maybe a couple of cracks at the Presidency would do it….

The sad thing now, looking at the disaster of Trump’s presidency, is that all the signs were clear in his previous dealings with a community in Scotland.

I happen to be a Hybridean rather than Hebridean, with one side of my family from the Moray Firth coast of Scotland. In fact an uncle of mine lived for some time just up from the beach at Balmedie, now a battleground between a world ranking nature reserve and, yes, another Trump golf course.

In 2011 Anthony Baxter (Journeyman Pictures) dramatised the conflict between a mighty corporation and the families who would be forcibly displaced from their long established and modest settlements. At the time the Scottish establishment didn’t find a long enough spoon to sup with the Trump devil. As so often happens, colossal changes to the environment are presented as necessary to provide jobs, jobs, jobs

These are of course never guaranteed. What really happened? Molly, a widow aged 86 at the time, had her water cut off and world-ranking wetland walks were fenced-off. A unique habitat of shifting wetland was changed forever. Residents who dug their heels in were contained by high fences.

I saw the documentary along with a live link with Baxter at the Stornoway arts centre, an Lanntair. A packed audience was visibly moved at the injustice of it all. The film includes footage of its director being arrested as business interests exert pressure on civic powers. It’s a bit like ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ in a cooler climate.

In 2020 Baxter released his follow-up. ‘You’ve been Trumped Too’ which won a rare four star rating from the film critic Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. It returns to the scene to probe what happened at Balmedie since the first film.

By 2016 Molly still had not got her water back. A son got the tools out and did the job himself. There might be gold taps at Trump Towers but how can we believe the empire couldn’t fix one water supply?

So how come you’ve not seen these films sweep across the far less revealing political ‘debates’?

The film-maker and distributors were subject to the enormous legal pressure applied by Trump’s corporate might. The real-life story is the sad tale of a big bully targeting those who do not have the wealth to fight back with like power.

I was complacent at the time of the last USA presidential election. Then I was a bit worried when some friends said they could not see much difference between the candidates. The result caused countless deaths. Let’s take just one example. One mad phone call to Turkey and the results of years of foreign policies are reversed, either from spite or self interest. Troops are mobilised, previous allies abandoned and innocent lives are lost.

Now there is the privileged Superman’s response to Covid 19. Trump came off more lightly than most but thanks to help not available to most.

Barrack Obama is the Lewisman we would like to claim, if Ireland had not got in there first. Respect for the USA returned for a time. Now is the chance to begin restoring that. From the pews to the surf beaches, most folk on the Island where Mary Trump was born are holding their breath.

We’re depending on you guys to do your bit to rid us of our disgrace. Republicans, if you really can’t bring yourself to vote for the Democrat who at least is rational, please abstain. Disillusioned Democrats, please don’t feel it makes no difference. If you haven’t yet cast your vote do it now for the sake of the planet, as well as the USA.

The You’ve been Trumped trailer can be viewed at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z83Uhje_D0c

The author of this opinion piece, Ian Stephen was born on Lewis and lives there still. He is the author of many books including the novel ‘A Book Of Death and Fish’ (Saraband, 2014).

State of the nation: how the electoral college map looks for Trump and Biden with three days to go

It would take a series of unforeseen events for Republicans to win, but 2020 has been a year for the unprecedented, writes Lorcan Nyhan

Joe Biden and Donald Trump


Lorcan Nyhan, November 01 2029

"Election Outcome Highly Uncertain" - New York Times headline, US election day, 1952.

Back in 1952, Republican candidate Dwight D Eisenhower was on the ballot against the Democratic Party's liberal champion Adlai Stevenson.

Burned by inaccurate polls in 1948 and the subsequent erroneous election night prediction on the Chicago Tribune's front page - "Dewey defeats Truman" - the press were wary to predict the result.

The former Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, Ike Eisenhower, won that election in a landslide, capturing 55pc of the popular vote, 39 states and 442 out of 538 Electoral College votes.

The Republican dominated in the fast-growing suburbs and even flipped the city of Chicago - a Democratic stronghold.

Accepted wisdom points to a similarly comfortable Joe Biden victory this Tuesday. Biden is all but certain to win the popular vote by a considerable margin.

The final YouGov poll has him with an 11-point lead over Donald Trump; 54pc to 43pc. Their corresponding final 2016 poll had Hillary Clinton four points ahead; only two points off her eventual popular vote figure.

Biden's average lead with FiveThirtyEight is nine points. The polling site's electoral model has him with an 89pc chance of an Electoral College victory, while The Economist is even more bullish, giving Biden a 97pc chance.




Donald Trump pitches ‘back to normal’ as Joe Biden warns of tough days for pandemic

The certainty of these models is driven by his national lead but also his strength across swing states. Biden has a commanding lead in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania - an average of 8.1, 8.5 and 5.2 points respectively.


The former vice president also has slimmer but stable polling leads in Arizona (up 3.5), Florida (up 2.1) and North Carolina (up 2.3).

Democratic insiders are loath to admit it publicly, but Biden also has a chance in Republican strongholds like Georgia (where he's up 1.7) and Texas, where Trump is just one point ahead, despite carrying the state by nine in 2016.

The final campaign stops of the Biden-Harris ticket reveal they think they're on the road to a special victory.

Biden is solidifying his vote with visits to Wisconsin but is also including a final stop in Georgia.

Kamala Harris is spending time in Arizona and Texas, hoping to boost turnout in key areas.

You don't spend time in states like Georgia and Texas in the final week if you don't feel they are in reach.

Democrats have good reason for optimism. The US is heading for a historic turnout, and high voting numbers traditionally leads to Democratic success.

Trump was a transformative candidate, but his total vote was similar to that of previous Republican candidates. Since 2000, the Republican candidate, from Bush through to Trump, has always won about 60 million votes. Democrats win when they massively boost turnout on their side.

Early voting figures in America, driven by increased access, have been staggering - 82 million people have already voted.

Given that polling tells us half of voters intend to cast their ballots in person, the eventual turnout could reach 160 million or higher. The total electorate in 2016 was 136 million.

It would take a series of unforeseen and unprecedented events for Trump to win - but 2020 is the year for unforeseen and unprecedented events.

Unshakable confidence in a prediction when faced with several unknowns is rash. Just as rational analysis plots a path toward a dominant Biden victory, a path to a narrow Electoral College victory for Trump can still be found. Taken state by state, and assuming a polling error greater than 2016, successful voter suppression tactics and a turnout boost for Republicans, you can make an argument for Trump holding Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Positive results in these states would get him to 270 Electoral College votes. Not a likely result, but a possible one.

Of these swing states, four should demand your attention - Florida, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Texas - as having the potential to encapsulate the story of the election.

With a tradition of postal voting, Florida will declare its result relatively early. If Biden wins the Sunshine State, the race becomes extremely difficult for Trump and so the election narrative would be cemented early.

Pennsylvania, meanwhile, was key to Trump's 2016 success. A Republican win here would sow doubts in the accuracy of state-level polling and mean Biden would have to secure states where his polling is tighter.

Florida and Pennsylvania were always going to be battleground states. Arizona and Texas are more interesting.

Since it went for Eisenhower in 1952, Arizona has voted Republican in every election except when it broke for Bill Clinton in 1996.

Biden is likely to win Arizona. As a traditionally Republican state, no history for Democratic bias in polls exists and so his lead should be borne out. And if the Democrats are even close to carrying Texas for the first time since 1976, it's a sure sign we have a landslide on our hands and a stunning rebuke of Trump-ism across America.

Like 1952, many are reticent to call the election. And a Trump victory is obviously still possible. But, given the information to hand, this election result is far from uncertain.

Biden is heading for an Eisenhower-esque election - a 55pc+ popular vote victory, a comfortable Electoral College win and the potential for a party to make inroads into the traditional heartland of its opponents.

Anything else would be a historic surprise and a Democratic failure.

Lorcan Nyhan is head of training at The Communications Clinic

THE INDEPENDENT, IRELAND 

Halloween ‘SNL’ cold open features Joe Biden spoofing ‘The Raven’

Saturday Night Live delivered a politically-charged performance yet again in its final cold open before the U.S. presidential election.

The skit, which featured Jim Carrey reprising his role as Joe Biden, had the presidential candidate reading a spooky bedtime story to the audience on Halloween night.

"Greetings, America. It's a spooky time filled with demons and darkness, also it's Halloween," said Carrey's Biden amid a room full of spooky decorations he would later describe as borrowed from First Lady Melania Trump's Christmas display.

"For some Trump voters, it's the only time they'll wear a mask," he said.

Carrey, attempting to take people's minds off the election with a scary story, takes out a book by Donald Trump Jr., which he then says might be "too scary."

Carrey then launches into a parody of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven.

"Once a upon a midnight dreary, while Trump retweeted QAnon theories and rifled through his Adderall drawer, I was writing my acceptance speech, when something stopped me with a screech — it was a knock upon my chamber door. It was someone still a little sore," Carrey said as a vampire Hillary Clinton played by Kate McKinnon walked in.

The skit also featured Mikey Day playing statistician Nate Silver, Kenan Thompson as Ice Cube and Chris Redd as Lil Wayne. Beck Bennett and Maya Rudolph also reprise their roles as U.S. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell and vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, respectively.

"So whatever happens, America, know that we'll be OK. Our nation will endure, we will fight another day. I'm sure it will be peaceful, no matter who has won, though it's never a good sign when Walmart stops selling guns. Use your voice and use your vote, democracy will represent. This daylight savings time, let's gain an hour ... and lose a president," said both Carrey and Rudolph for the poem's final rhyme.

Saudi Twitter users grapple with 'digital authoritarianism'

The former Saudi official's tweet expressing condolences over an activist's death seemed benign, but his mysterious disappearance soon afterwards highlighted what observers call the state's "digital authoritarianism".

© Lionel BONAVENTURE Saudi Arabia, which accounts for the most Twitter users in the Arab world, has sought to harness the power of the platform to promote its ambitious reforms while also aggressively seeking to tame free expression

Abdulaziz al-Dukhail, who had served as deputy finance minister, went missing in April along with at least two other public intellectuals also believed to be in detention for their implied criticism of the state.

In the following months, separate claims surfaced that a Twitter data breach by Saudi infiltrators in 2015 resulted in a wave of "enforced disappearances" of regime critics, many with anonymous accounts on the social media platform.

The cases illustrate how Saudi Arabia, which accounts for the most Twitter users in the Arab world, has sought to harness the power of the platform to promote its ambitious reforms while also aggressively seeking to tame free expression.

The three public figures dropped from view after expressing sympathy over the death of jailed activist Abdullah al-Hamid, according to family members and two campaign groups including the London-based ALQST.

Hamid, a veteran activist, died after suffering a stroke in detention while serving an 11-year sentence, sparking a torrent of criticism from international campaigners.

Dukhail's exact whereabouts are not known and authorities have not revealed any formal charges, his son Abdulhakim al-Dukhail told AFP.

"Why was he taken? What was his crime?" said Abdulhakim, currently based in Paris.

"Is he in jail just for a tweet?".

Saudi authorities did not respond to AFP's request for comment.

- Crackdown -

The detentions mirror an offline clampdown on dissent, with activists, bloggers and even royal family members arrested in recent years as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bolsters his grip on power.

Saudi Arabia has stepped up arrests under a loosely worded anti cyber-crime law, which campaigners including Amnesty International say criminalises online criticism of the government.

"A simple tweet can land you in jail in Saudi Arabia with no access to a lawyer for months, maybe years," said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty's Middle East research director.

Further raising concern is a 2015 Twitter data breach by Saudi moles, which led to the unmasking and arrests of anonymous critics of the government on the platform, according to family members and two lawsuits against the company.

The US justice department has charged two former employees with spying for the Saudi government as they accessed data on more than 6,000 accounts while looking for users "critical of the regime".

"Such private user information included their email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, and dates of birth," the justice department said last year, warning the data may have been used to locate the users.

One of those unmasked was Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, a 36-year-old employee of the humanitarian group Red Crescent who voiced opinions over human rights and social justice issues on an anonymous Twitter account, according to his family.

He was picked up from his Riyadh office by Saudi Arabia's secret police in March 2018, said his San Francisco-based sister Areej al-Sadhan.

Two years after he disappeared, he was allowed a brief call to a relative and revealed he was being held at the high-security Al-Ha'ir prison near Riyadh.

"It was his first and only call -- it lasted less than a minute," Areej told AFP.

"Someone behind him said 'your minute is up'. There was no goodbye, no 'talk to you later', no closure. The line was cut."

- Social media weaponised -

Two Saudi dissidents based in North America claimed in separate lawsuits against Twitter that their accounts were targeted in the breach, which endangered the lives of their associates in the kingdom.

One of them, Ali al-Ahmed who heads the Washington-based think tank Institute for Gulf Affairs, filed an amended complaint in August lashing out at Twitter over its "abject failure" to protect his account.

Ahmed's lawyer provided AFP with a list of eight Saudis who were in contact with him through anonymous Twitter accounts, claiming they ended up jailed, missing or dead after the breach.

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

In recent years, the online giant has deleted thousands of "state-backed" Saudi accounts, citing a violation of the platform's manipulation policies.

Saudi Arabia, which market research firm Statista says has around 12 million Twitter users, has seen a growth in online armies of self-styled patriots who cheerlead government policy and attack critics.

They rose as part of a policy driven by former royal court advisor Saud al-Qahtani, who earned nicknames such as "lord of the flies" for managing an electronic army.

"Saudi's digital authoritarianism... is egregious in its audacity," said Marc Owen Jones, author of the upcoming book "Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East".

"Over the past few years, Saudi-connected entities have successfully utilised and penetrated Twitter to the extent that Twitter itself has become a weapon of authoritarian rule."

ac/sls/hkb

China starts once-a-decade census of world's largest population

Millions of census-takers began knocking on doors across China on Sunday for a once-a-decade head count of the world's largest population that for the first time will use mobile apps to help crunch the massive numbers.

© STR China conducts the census every ten years to determine population growth

Around seven million community workers and volunteers will drive the two-month data-collection effort, visiting homes ranging from residential skyscrapers in downtown Shanghai to remote Tibetan mountain villages.

China conducts the census every ten years to determine population growth, movement patterns and other trends, using the findings to apportion resources for education, health, transportation, labour, elderly care and other services.

The previous tally in 2010 counted 1,339,724,852 persons, an increase of 5.83 percent, or 73,899,804 people -- equal to adding more than the population of France over 10 years.

Much of the attention on this year's census -- expected to take two years to fully compile -- will focus on whether it indicates any population bump from China's relaxation of its former "one-child policy".

The policy was introduced in the late 1970s to slow rapid population growth amid concerns over too many mouths to feed, but was relaxed four years ago to allow two children due to fears over China's fast-ageing society and shrinking workforce.

But the change has not yet resulted in a baby boom.

The national birth rate last year was the slowest since the founding of Communist-ruled China in 1949, with many Chinese today choosing smaller families amid rising living costs.

The government estimates the 2020 census could update the population to 1.42 billion, a 5.99 percent increase.

A research institute affiliated with real estate giant Evergrande Group last week issued a study saying the government figure was an overestimate, and recommended that three children be allowed.

"If adjustments are not made, it will seriously affect national rejuvenation and (China's) rise as a great power," the researchers said, citing two of the stated goals of powerful President Xi Jinping.

- 'Big Brother' fears -

The study sparked a passionate online discussion, with many saying the real curbs on childbirth are rising costs and insufficient policy support for families.

"Even a ten-child policy is useless until we create a society that is childbirth-friendly and childrearing-friendly," said one widely "liked" comment on the WeChat platform of Chinese internet giant Tencent.

Demographic experts have estimated it could take 15 years for the two-child policy to have any noticeable effect as other modern factors mitigate against rapid growth, including increasingly empowered Chinese women delaying or avoiding childbirth, and the slower population growth that comes with rising national affluence.

Despite the door-to-door visits, most citizens are expected to enter their information via a smartphone app, adding to rising concerns about privacy protection.

Vast amounts of Chinese economic activity and payments are handled through digital apps such as WeChat and its rival Alipay, offered by Alibaba-affiliated Ant Group.

Many consumers accept the resulting surrender of data on their buying habits, travel, and other personal information as a small price to pay for digital conveniences.

But others increasingly worry over privacy and data security, heightened further this year with China's introduction of a nationwide system of digital "health codes" that score citizens on whether they pose a potential coronavirus threat and which must be shown to enter many public venues.

The National Statistics Bureau, which oversees the census, vowed in May that all personal data gathered during the process will be kept strictly confidential and used for no other purpose than the census.

The government in mid-October also separately unveiled a draft personal data protection law, which outlines stiff punishments for violators.

jya-dma/je

Chile elite say facing 'uncertain' future after vote

In Santiago's well-heeled suburbs, Chile's elite say they are facing uncertainty after the rest of the country voted to ditch the dictatorship-era constitution that has served them well for decades.

© JAVIER TORRES Aerial view of a luxury condominium at Lo Barnechea commune in Santiago, on October 31, 2020. The results of a recent referendum were testament to a social gap that has been denounced for a year by demonstrators

For some, it's a bitter pill to swallow.

"It's very uncertain. We are trying to move. We are trying to sell the houses, be as liquid as we can in case we have to move to another country," said Aranza, a company executive who declined to give her full name because she had not discussed her family's plan with friends.© JAVIER TORRES View of a luxury cars store at Lo Barnechea commune in Santiago. Nearly 80 percent of Chileans voted to rip up the constitution established under the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, seen as the root of the country's jarring inequalities

Nearly 80 percent of Chileans voted to rip up the constitution established under the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, seen as the root of the South American country's jarring inequalities

.

© JAVIER TORRES A woman walks past a luxury store at Las Condes commune in Santiago on October 31, 2020

Many blamed the constitution for a system that has part-privatized public services, especially health care, education and pensions.

Of the 20 percent that voted no, most live in the "golden triangle" of Lo Barnechea, Las Condes and Vitacura in northeastern Santiago, where the country's political and economic power is concentrated

© MARTIN BERNETTI Demonstrators are sprayed by a riot police water cannon during a protest against Chilean President Sebastian Pinera's government in Santiago on October 30, 2020

- Privileged setting -

These are suburbs of manicured lawns, chic restaurants, glitzy stores and private schools, with Porsche, Maserati and Bentley auto dealerships prominent.

Ana Maria Alvarez Rojas, a social sciences researcher at the Silva Henriquez Catholic University, said these neighborhoods' rejection of change was "not surprising."

"The people favored by the current economic model do not want to lose their privileges. These elites have always been cut off from the people.

"They are saying: 'we want to continue like this, we have a life we value,'" she said, pointing out that nearly 90 percent of Chile's richest 1.0 percent live in the three districts.

Conservative President Sebastian Pinera, interviewed after the October 25 vote, acknowledged that the inhabitants of these neighborhoods "live in a very different reality from the rest of the country, which makes them see the world differently."

Pinera, a billionaire, is a resident of Las Condes.

In neighboring Lo Barnechea, which hugs the foothills of the Andes with a view of the sprawling city of seven million, 60 percent voted to keep the Pinochet-era constitution.

"I work in a public hospital and the gap is enormous. You can't imagine how fast people here access health care," said orthopedic surgeon David Daved, 33.

"It's comfortable, they get what they want, they don't have to wait. People down there," he said, indicating the city, "have to wait, like for years, they are treated like animals. I understand why there are upset."

He voted against because "I know that this will not help the concerns that people have."

- Fears for economy -

It's a common theme of the Rechazo (Reject) campaign, that a new constitution will harm economic growth and that needed change could be more easily wrought by amendments to the existing charter.

Alvarez Rojas pointed out that the unequal way municipalities are funded went to the heart of the city's problems.

Each municipality is given a high degree of financial autonomy.

Financed by local taxes, the richest communes are naturally better off.

"There is no system of redistribution between municipalities. A common municipal fund exists, but it is not effective. All the benefits are concentrated in privileged municipalities," she said.

Municipal expenditure per inhabitant is especially revealing. Vitacura's was about $1,470 (1,260 euros) in 2019, compared with $185 in Cerro Navia, a poor northwestern Santiago neighborhood.

"Inequalities were aggravated under the dictatorship, where segregation was a state policy," she said, adding that the vote reflected a desire to turn the page on the Pinochet era once and for all.

The hard work on replacing it has only just begun, with Chileans now having to choose a 155-member convention to draft the constitution and what it will say.

"A new constitution coming from the deep violence we had last year is something that is not valid for me because the government decided to do this under pressure from the streets," said a businessman in Lo Barnechea who declined to be named.

"This is an uncertainty. And then let's see what type of constitution they prepare, if they maintain the right to property," the man in his 50s said, concerned over who will comprise the new convention, to be voted on in April.

A pre-referendum opinion poll carried widely in the press laid bare the elite's apparent ignorance of the depth of Chile's inequalities.

Entitled "Perceptions of inequality by the Chilean elite" the poll's 500 respondents said they believed the poor represent 25 percent of the population, the middle class 57 percent and the wealthy 18 percent.

However, those perceptions are starkly at odds with World Bank figures that show the proportion of poor in Chile is 77 percent, the middle class 20 percent and the wealthy only 3.0 percent.

bur-db/mjs