INTERNATIONAL ART CONSPIRACY

California monolith becomes the third to appear and disappear

BECAUSE THERE JUST NOT ENOUGH CONSPIRACIES

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A silver-colored metal monolith has been discovered in California, shortly after similar monoliths in Utah and Romania were discovered and subsequently removed.

The first metal monolith was discovered by a Utah Department of Public Safety Aero Bureau helicopter crew in a rural area in the southwestern part of the state in late November.

The mysterious landmark became a tourist attraction before being removed days later by a group of men who said they were seeking to stop the influx of visitors from ruining the natural landscape and leaving behind trash.

A very similar structure was spotted on a hill near the Petrodava Dacian Fortress in Romania a few days after the Utah monolith first appeared, and it was removed by an unknown party shortly after the initial sightings.

The California monolith was photographed Wednesday at the top of Pine Mountain in Atascadero. Deputy City Manager Terrie Banish confirmed the object was removed by unknown means Thursday morning. She said the city did not remove the monolith and does not intend to investigate the matter.

Witnesses to the California monolith's removal said the culprits were vandals from out of town who replaced the structure with a wooden cross.

The origins of all three objects remain unknown.

California monolith pops up after finds in Utah, Romania

LOS ANGELES — Days after the discovery and swift disappearance of two shining metal monoliths half a world apart, another towering structure has popped up, this time at the pinnacle of a trail in Southern California.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Its straight sides and height are similar to one discovered in the Utah desert and another found in Romania. Like those structures, the origin of the California edifice is also mysterious.

It's at the top of a hill in Atascadero, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, KEYT-TV reported Wednesday. The tall, silver structure drew hikers to the area after photos were posted on social media.

Another monolith spotted two weeks ago in Utah's otherworldly red-rock country became a beacon of fascination around the world as it evoked the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” and drew hundreds of people to the remote spot.

Two extreme sports athletes said they were part of a group that tore down the hollow metal structure because they were worried about the damage the droves of visitors were causing to the relatively untouched spot. Officials said the visitors flattened plants with their cars and left behind human waste.

A structure that appeared last week in Romania is also gone.

The Utah creation evoked famous land-art pieces that dot the West. Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty is an earthwork along the Great Salt Lake and Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels are huge concrete pieces in the desert.

Like those pieces, the monolith was fascinating in part because of its context in the landscape, said Whitney Tassie, a curator of modern and contemporary art at the Utah Museum of Fine Art.

“That’s a big, big part of land art in general is this idea of an experience, of a journey,” she said.

The intense social media reaction to the monolith against the backdrop of the punishing pandemic, along with the quick disappearance of the piece, has become a part of its story, she said. Police have said the dismantling may not be illegal since no one has claimed the structure as their property.

The still-anonymous creator of the Utah monument did not follow steps taken by land artists of the 1970s to secure permission to make their works. Visitation to those remote sites is now managed and overseen to avoid too much stress on the environment. Federal and state officials in Utah had also expressed concern about the area around the monolith being overrun.

“It’s good to think about our relationship with the earth, which is ultimately what these sorts of projects do,” Tassie said. “Man's impact on the environment front and centre."

___

Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

The Associated Press

How Cher is helping save the world's loneliest elephant

MAYBE SHE WILL COME TO EDMONTON FOR LONELY LUCY THE ELEPHANT

Islamabad — Pop music icon Cher was in Pakistan over the weekend to join a lonely elephant on his long-awaited journey to salvation. Kaavan, dubbed the world's loneliest elephant, finally escaped the meager confines of a zoo in Islamabad and was well on his way to a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia on Monday.

© CBS/Maria Usman cher-kaavan-elephant.jpg

The American singer and actress campaigned for years to get Kaavan out of the Marghazar Zoo. Along with U.S. businessman Eric Margolis and the group Four Paws International, she helped pay for his relocation through her charity, Free the Wild. Local Pakistani activists first put Kaavan's plight on Cher's radar with a Twitter campaign, aiming messages with the hashtag #SaveKaavan and #FreeKaavan at celebrities worldwide. 

"World's loneliest elephant" arrives to new home

© Provided by CBS News U.S. singer Cher poses in front of the crate containing Kaavan the Asian elephant upon his arrival in Cambodia from Pakistan, at Siem Reap International Airport, November 30, 2020. / Credit: TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty

At just about a year old, Kaavan was gifted to Pakistan by Sri Lanka in the mid-1980s. He spent decades at the Islamabad zoo in a small enclosure with few of the amenities required for the physical or mental health of an animal of such high intelligence. He performed for visitors, reportedly prodded by handlers to collect cash.

In 2012, Kaavan lost his only companion, a female elephant called Saheli, and his demeanor rapidly deteriorated. He became angry, despondent, and given his unhealthy diet, obese.

The conditions were so dire at the zoo that a Pakistani court ordered it to be shut down in May this year, and all the animals to be relocated. That sparked a global effort to evacuate the animals, and especially Kaavan.   

  

© Provided by CBS News Kaavan the elephant is seen in his enclosure at the Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan on November 28, 2020, where he spent more than 30 years before being transferred to an animal sanctuary in Cambodia. / Credit: CBS/Maria Usman

When news of Kaavan's grim circumstances reached Cher on Twitter, she reached out to Mark Cowne, a global talent agency boss with a passion for wildlife whom she had met years earlier. 

"She had met Mark, who had previously moved 300 elephants, and said, 'Listen, we gotta do something,' so he started coming over here and finding out what's happening, and they decided to form Free the Wild, hoping that we can get big animals, at least starting with big animals, out of zoos," Cher's assistant Jennifer Ruiz told CBS News in Islamabad.

The superstar had originally focused her efforts on trying to get an elephant out of the Los Angeles Zoo, Ruiz said, but they've had no success so far in California. "So this came up and, you know, she always tells me, 'you do your best with what falls in your lap.' If someone asks you, you try to do your best."

Teaming up with Free the Wild, a team of vets and experts from the U.K.-based international animal welfare group Four Paws has spent months on-site, working with Kaavan to prepare him for his big move. 

Four Paws' head of communications Hannah Baker told CBS News that Kaavan's journey is the biggest elephant transfer the charity has ever undertaken, and their first by plane. Elephants have been moved by plane from one state to another in the U.S., for instance, but never an animal as large, or a move as logistically complicated, as this. 

Pulling it all off during a global pandemic has posed some unique challenges, but fortunately Kaavan's pre-flight COVID-19 test came back negative, and arrangements for a 30-day quarantine in Cambodia were in place. 

Kaavan's new home is the vast Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia. While he'll be confined to just three acres for his quarantine period, even that will be a significant upgrade as his enclosure at the Islamabad zoo was just a half-acre, and largely devoid of natural materials.  

© Provided by CBS News A caretaker feeds Kaavan the elephant as he awaits his flight to a sanctuary in Cambodia, during a farewell ceremony at the Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan November 23, 2020. / Credit: SAIYNA BASHIR/REUTERS

Once he completes his quarantine, the plan is to introduce him to three female elephants, and he'll have 25,000 acres to roam.
Rehab with a new friend

Egyptian veterinarian Dr. Amir Khalil, Four Paws International Director of Project Development, is known for rescuing animals from areas stricken by war or disasters. He's become Kaavan's best friend, forming a close bond with him over the last few months as the elephant was brought back to health for his trip. 

"When I first met Kaavan he was severely overweight, had issues with his nails and was displaying what is known as stereotype behavior: Animals in captivity need to move, but if chained they resort to moving their head from side to side in order to release endorphins and all their pent up energy."

Khalil told CBS News that this sad behavior, which Kaavan would engage in for up to 15 hours a day, was mistaken by his previous handlers in Pakistan as dancing. 

"My initial plan was just to examine Kaavan and work on making him fit for travel, but for some reason he seemed to like my voice," said Khalil, who spent hours standing by a tree at the back of Kaavan's enclosure just trying to get the animal to accept him. He would sing Frank Sinatra songs as he stood there and, before long, he realized that Kaavan seemed to be a fan of his rendition of "I did it my way," and other classics. 

The elephant started to trust the vet, and Khalil would often find Kaavan waiting for him.

"All relationships, whether between humans or humans and animals, must be based on trust," he said.  

© Provided by CBS News

 Dr. Amir Khalil, head of project development at Four Paws International, stands outside a crate and feeds Kaavan the elephant before the animal is transported to a sanctuary in Cambodia, at the Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, November 29, 2020. 

/ Credit: SAIYNA BASHIR/REUTERS

Kaavan's diet plan was also crucial if he was going to squeeze into his travel cage. He had been gorging on about 440 pounds per day of sugar cane, but Khalil knocked that on the head quickly. On a more pachyderm-friendly diet of fresh fruit and veggies, Kaavan dropped from 5.5 tons down to a healthy 4.8. The chains that had often bound his legs for more than two decades were removed, forced performances were dropped and his daily routine was made more natural. The changes made him a much calmer and happier elephant before his journey.

For the last four weeks Kaavan underwent routine crate training to get him used to his custom-made travel cage – which he fit into comfortably given his lean new physique. 

Kaavan was celebrated at the Islamabad zoo over the last couple weeks. There was a party and well-wishers were able to come and see him for the last time, bidding farewell to the animal who had for three decades been the main attraction. A slew of government officials stopped by to say goodbye, including President Arif Alvi who paid a visit over the weekend.

© Provided by CBS News 

Singer Cher (third from right) meets Kaavan the elephant at a zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, along with veterinarian Dr. Amir Khalil, International Director of Project Development for the Four Paws International charity, on November 28, 2020. 

 / Credit: CBS/Maria Usman

On Saturday, Cher finally got to meet her elephant friend for the first time, taking the opportunity to serenade the music-lover and offer him a bite to eat.

On Monday, the Russian cargo plane hired for the trip touched down in Cambodia, and the next chapter of Kaavan's life began.

Khalil said he hoped the elephant's story would serve as "a symbol for humanity, and doing what is right for the animals."

Documentary to feature journey of 'world's loneliest elephant' greeted by Cher

Singer Cher (C) greeted the "world's loneliest elephant" Monday as he arrived at Siem Reap Airport in Siem Reap province, Cambodia to be transported to a sanctuary. Photo by Mak Remissa/EPA-EFE

Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A Smithsonian documentary will feature Kaavan, dubbed the "world's loneliest elephant," who Cher greeted Monday in Cambodia after her charity's rescue flight.

Kaavan was sent to Pakistan more than three decades ago as a gift from former Sri Lanka dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. In 2012, his mate for 22 years, Saheli, died, leaving him alone for eight years and leading to him becoming known as "world's loneliest elephant."

Grammy-winning singer Cher, 74, had campaigned for Kaavan's freedom from a zoo in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, where he was on occasion restrained in chains, and suffered malnourishment and negligence leading to cracked nails and behavioral issues.

In May, the Islamabad Hight Court ruled the elephant could be released from the zoo.

Cher greeted the 36-year-old elephant on the tarmac at an airport in Cambodia Monday after his flight from Pakistan in a custom-made crate with more than 440 pounds of food after her charity, Free the Wild, assisted the move. Animal rescue organization Four Paws said Kaavan would be released from the crate in daylight Tuesday to a sanctuary in Cambodia with space to roam and 600 fellow pachyderms.

The documentary to air on the Smithsonian Channel in 2021 is tentatively titled "Cher's Elephant Airlift."

The rescue was a first for the charity Free the Wild, which Cher co-founded to help stop captive animals suffering.

RELATED Appellate court hears landmark case of lonesome elephant at NYC zoo

"This is Free the Wild's first big rescue and I am so proud," Cher said. "We are thrilled to partner with the Smithsonian Channel who will be helping to bring our story to the world."

Last week Cher arrived in Pakistan to thank the government for Kaavan's release and join him for his flight.

"I found out about Kaavan from the people on my Twitter," Cher said in a statement regarding the upcoming documentary. "They would not stop saying, 'Cher, you have to do something, you have to fix this, you have to save him.' I thought, how can I fix this?"

Toxic tire additive blamed for massive coho salmon die-offs

Researcher Zhenyu Tian holds a sampling pole used to collect creek water from streams where migrating coho salmon sometimes turn up dead after heavy rains. 

Photo by Mark Stone/University of Washington

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Almost all Pacific salmon die shortly after spawning, with the nutrients from their decaying carcasses offering nourishment to the next generation.

In many urban waterways, however, hundreds of salmon die before spawning, never getting the chance to deposit their eggs on the riverbed.

"Mortality rates in pristine streams are less than 1 percent, while urban creeks can have over 90 percent mortality prior to spawning," Edward Kolodziej, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Washington, told UPI in an email.

Now, thanks to the work of Kolodziej his research partners, scientists know what's killing salmon who venture too close to urban centers -- 6PPD-quinone, the derivative of a chemical additive that keeps rubber tires from breaking down too quickly.

Kolodziej is one of several co-authors of a new paper, published Thursday in the journal Science, describing the toxin's role in coho salmon die-offs.

Scientists have been documenting what's known as urban runoff mortality syndrome for nearly 40 years.

Not long after efforts to revive coho salmon spawn runs began paying dividends, researchers began noticing coho salmon making their way upstream in creeks surrounding Seattle would start behaving strangely after heavy rains.

The fish, bound for spawning grounds, would list sideways and swim in circles. Eventually, the fish would roll over and die in large numbers.

"Documented reports that urban stormwater killed coho salmon have existed in Washington State since the 1980s," Kolodziej said. "In Seattle, documentation began with mortality observations in urban creeks in the 1990s, and for the last 20-plus years, Nat Scholz, Jay Davis and Jen McIntyre have worked to document and understand coho mortality arising from stormwater exposure."

As part of their work, researchers -- including Scholz, Davis and McIntyre, all co-authors of the new study -- began testing the stormwater runoff near streams where coho salmon were turning up dead. In the lab, researchers divided the stormwater based on different chemical properties.

For example, scientists divided the water into metal and non-metal solutions. This allowed researchers to eliminate large numbers of toxins when a mixture failed to trigger symptoms consistent with urban runoff mortality syndrome.

"This is called 'effects directed analysis," Kolodziej said.

Researchers were able to eliminate flame retardants, plasticizers and other groups from their list of suspects. Eventually, the scientists narrowed their search to just a few chemicals, including one unknown compound that appeared to dominate the mixture.

Researchers were able to identify the likely culprit's chemical composition -- they knew it had 18 carbons, 22 hydrogens, two nitrogens and two oxygens -- but they didn't have a name for it. The chemical fingerprint failed to match anything in the database of known chemicals.

Finally, Zhenyu Tian, a research scientist at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Waters, realized the compound may not be a chemical used in the direct construction of rubber tires, but one added post-production. He also guessed their culprit was likely to derivative of a tire additive, not the additive itself.

Tian's hunch was right. A common preservative used to protect tires from degradation via ground level ozone, a chemical called 6PPD, was a near match for their compound's composition -- with the same ratio of carbon and nitrogen molecules. When 6PPD hits the road and reacts with ozone, it forms 6PPD-quinone -- the unnamed compound scientists isolated in the lab.

Followup experiments showed that, even in tiny quantities, 6PPD-quinone is extremely deadly to juvenile coho salmon.

Since identifying the likely cause of urban runoff mortality syndrome, scientists have documented dangerously high concentrations of 6PPD-quinone in streams surrounding Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence that cars aren't just negatively impacting air quality, but also degrading water quality and harming freshwater ecosystems.

Scientists regularly monitor temperature and oxygen levels -- as well as infamous industrial toxins like mercury and lead -- in streams and rivers important to aquatic species, but the latest research is a reminder that a variety of little-understood chemicals are regularly washed into local waterways.

According to Kolodziej, followup studies to determine the prevalence of 6PPD-quinone in the environment -- and its implications for fish and other -- are underway.

North Korea hackers created spoof Hyundai sites, report says

North Korean hackers are believed to be behind hoax intranet sites bearing the name of Hyundai Motor Group, the largest South Korean car manufacturer.

 Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- North Korean hackers are believed to be behind hoax intranet sites bearing the name of Hyundai Motor Group, the largest South Korean car manufacturer, according to a local press report.

Donga Ilbo reported Thursday hackers created spoof websites that were near identical to the websites of Hyundai Steel, Hyundai Engineering and Construction and the car group.


Kia Motors and Hyundai Motor Co., which operate under the conglomerate, were not targeted. Cybersecurity experts say North Koreans likely created the sites to steal information from Hyundai employees, according to the report.

The spoof sites, which employees described as "very similar" to the company networks, vanished Thursday afternoon. Analysts say the sites were created earlier in the week with URLs similar to the those of the company. It is likely hackers created the site with the aim of phishing or email spoofing victims.

Any ID or password entered on the fake online site would have been transmitted to hackers, potentially given them access to the company intranet and enabling them to snatch corporate secrets.

Hyundai Motor Group said Thursday no damage occurred.

A South Korean computer security expert said evidence exists that the cybercriminals who built the spoof Hyundai sites used the same servers accessed by North Korean hackers believed to be responsible for targeting pharmaceutical companies.

North Korean hackers may have attacked at least six pharmaceutical companies in the United States, Britain and South Korea, all working on COVID-19 treatments, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Johnson & Johnson and Novavax Inc. in the United States and Genexine Inc., Shin Poong Pharmaceutical Co. and Celltrion Inc. in South Korea have been breached. Johnson & Johnson and Novavax Inc. are working on experimental vaccines.

Chun Soo-hong, senior regional director of FireEye Korea, a cybersecurity provider, told the Donga hackers have also attempted to steal information about South Korean semiconductors. Cybercriminals sometimes hack logistics handlers to uncover information about semiconductor deliveries, Chun said.

"To minimize damage, there is no other option than to continue training employees to delete suspicious emails and texts without opening them," Chun said.

Study: Extending COVID-19 programs would save millions of jobs in 2021

Residents protest new COVID-19 restrictions in California for restaurants that were ordered as a response to dramatic rises in coronavirus cases, on the Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, Calif., on Wednesday. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. economy would see growth of nearly 4% and save more than 5 million jobs next year If federal lawmakers would continue emergency COVID-19 programs, according to an analysis by a non-profit think tank Thursday.

The study by the Economic Policy Institute says retaining unemployment insurance programs set to expire this month and reviving enhanced federal unemployment payments -- an extra $600 per week -- would spur the projected growth in 2021.

"If these programs -- including the extra $600 -- are reinstated and extended through 2021, and if the virus is brought under control so that economic growth for 2021 returns to being simply a function of aggregate demand growth, the economy would be boosted by 3.5% and 5.1 million more jobs would be added," authors Elise Gould and Josh Bivens wrote in the report, released Wednesday.

Tens of millions of U.S. workers lost their jobs in the early months of the pandemic before a partial rebound in the early summer. As new outbreaks later began to rise nationwide, states and cities reimposed restrictions or added new orders to clamp down on the spread.

The United States is presently in its most severe period of the pandemic. More than 200,000 cases were added and a record 3,000 patients died nationwide on Wednesday -- and the EPI analysis acknowledges that the domestic economy is still "years away from a full recovery."

For the study, researchers examined the impact of three programs established by the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in March that are set to expire within weeks -- the Unemployment Assistance program, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program and the Unemployment Compensation payments program.

"If the effective safety net functions provided by these programs were maintained through 2021, millions of workers would be better able to avoid economic catastrophe while out of work due to the pandemic," the authors wrote.

RELATED Relief for unemployed in U.S. could be crucial for health, study says

Some 12 million workers will be affected when the UA and EUC programs expire on Dec. 26, Gould and Bivens noted, and 4.4 million others in the programs have already seen their benefits expire.

The Labor Department said in its weekly report Thursday that another 700,000 U.S. workers filed new unemployment claims last week. The level is lower than it was in the early months of the pandemic, but remains three times higher than their pre-pandemic average.

The department will release its November jobs report on Friday.

Pandemic may pull 32M back into extreme poverty, U.N. economists warn

In 2019, average earnings per capita in LDCs was $1,088 compared with a world average of $11,371, the U.N. agency said

A family farmer is shown in Chad, Africa, one of the least developed countries extremely vulnerable to the economic shock caused by COVID-19. 

File Photo by Asselin/UNICEF

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The COVID-19 pandemic's impact may pull 32 million people back into extreme poverty, the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development warned Thursday in a new report.

The economic fallout from the pandemic has risked reversing years of "painstaking progress" addressing poverty in the the least developed countries, UNCTAD warned in a statement on the report.

"The COVID crisis is leading LDCs to their worst economic crisis in 30 years, with per capita GDP for the group expected to fall by 2.6% this year," UNCTAD Secretary General Mukhisa Kituyi said during a virtual press conference.

In the LDCs, the pandemic is expected to lead to an increase in poverty of 3 percentage points, from 32.2% to 35.2%, equating to an increase of 32 million people living in extreme poverty.

The UNCTAD report, which defines extreme poverty line as $1.90 per day, found that the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a bleak economic growth outlook worldwide, but the outlook is even worse for LDCs, especially African and island LDCs.

The LDCs have been hit the hardest because they are "among the world's most vulnerable economies," and they have the least financial and infrastructure means to react to economic shocks such as the the economic fallout from the pandemic, according to the report.

In 2019, average earnings per capita in LDCs was $1,088 compared with a world average of $11,371, the U.N. agency said.

Kituyi urged the international community to help the LDCs overcome their vulnerabilities and improve their manufacturing capacity to avert the potential economic crisis.

"The LDCs that have been most active and innovative in combating the pandemic have been those with the most productive capacity or institutional capacity," Kituyi said. "Countries like Senegal, which produced cheap and rapid COVID testing kits, Bangladesh and others like Ethiopia, repurposing garment factories to produce PPEs (personal protective equipment)."

#CLIMATECHANGE
6 missing after landslides swipe Alaskan town

IT'S RAINING, IT'S DECEMBER, 

IT'S ALASKA,IT'S GLOBAL WARMING 

The U.S. Coast Guard has launched rescue operations to Haines, Alaska, following landslides caused by heavy rain. Image courtesy of Google Maps/Website

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- At least six people were missing after several landslides caused by heavy rains and flooding smashed into the Alaskan town of Haines, authorities said.

One of the landslides has resulted in six people missing and four houses destroyed off of Beach Road, but Alaska State Troopers said Wednesday evening that they have suspended search and rescue operations due unstable ground, KTUU-TV reported.

The Haines Borough Police Department has issued several evacuation orders as flooding and landslides washed out several roads and flooded homes on Wednesday. Officials warned residents to stay clear of land close to water as "the surface is very unstable and likely to fail."

"Please stay away from damaged roads and broken pavement," the Haines borough government said on Facebook.

The U.S. Coast Guard said a Jayhawk helicopter crew has been launched to assist two Coast Guard cutters, which have been ordered to make preparations to set sail for Haines, a city some 92 miles north of Juneau.

"At this point we are aware that damage has occurred in the town of Haines following the report of multiple landslides in the borough," Capt. Stephen White, commander Coast Guard Sector Juneau, said in a statement. "The scope of the damage is unknown at this time but we are proactively moving several assets and personnel to provide assistance to local first responders and the residents who may have been impacted by the landslides."

The landslides occurred as the area was inundated with rain.

The National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Watch until Thursday morning as between 7 to 10 inches of rain has been recorded in Haines in the last 36 to 48 hours.

"Saturated grounds from recent rains have caused debris flows blocking off major roadways. Additional debris flows and flooding are possible through Thursday morning near steep terrain," the NWS warned Wednesday night.

Alaskan Gov. Mike Dunleavy said he has spoken with Douglas Olerud, the mayor of Haines, and said all state resources will be made available.

"That natural disaster unfolding in Haines and the broader southeast area has the full and complete attention of my administration," the governor said in a statement Wednesday evening. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haines tonight."

Olerud said crews would be working through the night but the rain was making it difficult.

He wrote in a statement that the town "is going to be needing lots of prayers."

"Please be patient with each other," he said. "These are stressful times but Haines will come together and help each other."

Robots help seniors learn to use technology in South Korea
By Thomas Maresca

A robot teaches a senior citizen how to use KakaoTalk, a ubiquitous communications app in South Korea. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI


SEOUL, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- In South Korea, one of the most digitally connected societies in the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the growth of contactless technology in everyday life. But one group is finding itself struggling in a fast-changing world of communications apps, fast food-ordering kiosks and robot waiters: senior citizens.

The Seoul city government is trying to help bridge the digital divide with a new program that uses specially designed robots to teach seniors how to use smartphones and touchscreen kiosks. The program, which will teach 3,000 participants over the next three months at 17 facilities, launched last week.

"Our goal is closing the digital gap between young people and seniors," said Shin Eun-kyong, business outreach manager of the Seoul Digital Foundation, the city agency that is running the program in conjunction with five local district governments.

"There are many mobile devices, kiosks and digital devices these days," she said. "But some seniors cannot use these devices by themselves. So we think this makes them feel isolated from society."

At West Seoul Senior Welfare Center on Tuesday, a group of 10 seniors had their first experiences with a small robot named Liku, which used voice instructions, gestures and a specially modified smartphone to teach them how to use KakaoTalk, a ubiquitous messaging app used in South Korea.

Liku is connected to a central server and can answer roughly 200 conversational questions and provide information such as the current weather. The small black-and-white humanoid robot has expressive digital eyes and is designed to interact via facial recognition and voice responses.

The city has worked for over a year with a local startup company called Torooc, which is developing Liku as a companion robot for home use, for the custom teaching application.

"We want the robots to be friendly," Shin said. "We also think they have some advantages over teaching with humans face to face. It can be tiring to go over the same things over and over, but a robot can repeat the instructions until the seniors understand."

For the first group of senior citizens to use the robots, it was a new experience but one they found largely positive.

"I've only ever used a robot vacuum before," said Han Ok-dong, 73. "But this robot started teaching me step by step in a way that I can understand and that will stay in my head. I want to work with it more in the future and keep advancing."

Han said she's faced frustrations using smartphones and kiosks in her everyday life, as have other senior citizens at the center.

"I'm getting older, so its unavoidable that using [new technology] is getting more difficult for me," said another 73-year-old, Yoon Kwang-soon.

Yoon said that it took a while to warm up to using the Liku robot, but that he hopes it will help him to also learn more advanced features on KakaoTalk, such as sharing photos.

"I wasn't used to working with a robot so it felt unfamiliar to me at first," he said. "But if I have time I want to come here and use it again."

A test program that was run for around 100 seniors in August found that 87% of participants were satisfied and that 83% wanted to continue in the program, according to the Seoul city government.

Also on display at the West Seoul center was a custom touchscreen kiosk that offers walk-throughs for a variety of real-world scenarios, such as ordering food or buying a movie ticket. Seniors were able to practice with a tablet app before using the kiosk to complete a transaction from start to finish.

Only two of the practice kiosk machines currently exist, but a wider rollout is planned for next year, said Shin of the Seoul Digital Foundation.

The digital training has become especially timely as South Korea is looking to make contactless -- or "untact," in local parlance -- technologies a key part of President Moon Jae-in's $62 billion Digital New Deal stimulus program.

The program is looking to position South Korea as a leader in addressing the surging demand for remote services driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. Projects include building smart hospitals for telemedicine and supporting small- and medium-size business with virtual conferencing. Investments will target untact technologies such as robots, drones, AI and 5G wireless networks.

Shin said that the city will expand the use of the Liku robots into new areas over the coming months, such as helping to educate seniors on avoiding phishing scams. They will also bring the robots to young children next year, with plans to utilize them for teaching subjects such as English.

"The pandemic is changing society, and it is more important than ever to find non face-to-face ways to teach and to help everyone adapt to the untact world," Shin said

South Korean convenience store chain to offer robot delivery
By Nam Gyeong-sik, UPI News Korea

A sales clerk loads a delivery robot with products at a convenience store in Seoul. 

Photo courtesy of GS Retail

SEOUL, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- A South Korean convenience store chain has announced plans to launch a robot delivery service, as the COVID-19 pandemic pushes the service industry to go contactless.

GS Retail, which runs the ubiquitous GS25 convenience store brand, announced Monday the robot service would be rolled out at its outlet in western Seoul.

"So many South Korean conglomerates and startups are working on the technologies related to delivery robots," said Choi Sung-lok of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. "Technical development and social change will bring about more delivery robots."

Customers will make orders through an instant messenger, triggering a store clerk to place products on the robot while inputting the destination and the customer's mobile phone number.

Then the 4.3-foot-tall robot will carry the items to the customer, who can unlock a drawer on the robot's body by typing a PIN after getting a message that their goods have arrived. The robot can even get on and off elevators, the company said.

The bot can carry a maximum of 33 pounds and has a security system that prevents loss or robbery during delivery.

GS Retail official Park Sang-wook said that the firm will install the robots in its other stores in Seoul next year.

"We will put forth great efforts to realize fanciful services like the delivery robots as part of our digital transformation strategy," he said.

Builder Samsung C&T, discount chain E-Mart, delivery app company Baedal Minjok, and Howard Johnson Jeju Hotel have also shown off robotic services.

Oil refiner GS Caltex is even considering drone delivery services for its gas stations after getting the government approval. The outfit showcased test flights from its drones earlier this year.

Obama compares his younger self to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and says she should've been given more time to speak at the Democratic convention
Eliza Relman
  

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Monday, August 24, 2020. 

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/Pool

Former President Barack Obama said in a Monday night interview that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should have gotten more time to speak at the Democratic Convention in August. 

Obama said the freshman congresswoman "speaks to a broad section of young people" and argued that "new blood is always good," pointing out that he was once the "young, shiny cool guy." 

Ocasio-Cortez was given just 60 seconds to speak at the convention, where she delivered a symbolic endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential bid.



Former President Barack Obama said in a Monday night interview that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the high-profile progressive freshman, should have gotten more time to speak at the Democratic Convention in August.

"The Democratic National Convention I thought was really successful considering the pandemic," Obama told Peter Hamby, host of Snap's "Good Luck America." "But the fact that an AOC only got, what? Three minutes or five minutes? When she speaks to a broad section of young people who are interested in what she has to say, even if they don't agree with everything she says."

He added, "New blood is always good. And I say that as somebody who used to be the young, shiny cool guy. But now is the gray-haired old grizzled vet."

Ocasio-Cortez was given just 60 seconds to speak at the convention, where she delivered a symbolic endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential bid.

Over the summer, the Bronx native worked with Biden's campaign and Sanders on a coalition task force to beef up President-elect Joe Biden's policies proposals to address climate change. But Ocasio-Cortez hasn't shied away from criticizing the president-elect when she diverges from him on policy and personnel decisions, and she has repeatedly called on progressive activists to hold the Biden administration "accountable."

Obama cautioned Democrats against what he considers to be divisive "labels," like the activist calls to defund the police and Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders' democratic socialism.

"Socialism is still a loaded term for a lot of folks," he said. "Once again, instead of talking labels and ideology, we should focus on talking about getting certain things done."