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Wednesday, May 17, 2023

In a First, Women Poised to Become Mayors of Philadelphia and Jacksonville

By Reuters
May 17, 2023

Philadelphia City Council Majority Leader Cherelle Parker speaks about protecting abortion access, as Pennsylvania Attorney General and candidate for governor Josh Shapiro listens during a news conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 29, 2022.

REUTERS/Hannah BeierREUTERS

By Brendan O'Brien
(Reuters) - A Philadelphia Democrat who promised to hire more police has won her party's nomination for mayor, while a former TV news anchor has ousted a Republican from the mayor's office in Jacksonville, Florida, the largest city in the country in which the party had control.

Democrat Donna Deegan pulled off an upset in Jacksonville, defeating front-running candidate Republican Daniel Davis on Tuesday to become the city's first female mayor.

"We made history, tonight," Deegan, who is also a founder of a breast cancer research organization, said to her supporters after her win. "Everyone said it could not be done in Jacksonville, Florida."

Deegan's win was improbable as Davis led in fundraising and was endorsed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, widely thought to be weighing a 2024 presidential campaign.

Deegan will replace Lenny Curry, who was term limited in Jacksonville.

In Philadelphia, former state representative and City Council member Cherelle Parker won the Democratic nomination for mayor. She now faces Republican David Oh in the general election in November, a race she will most likely win in the largely Democratic city.

Parker pledged to hire more police officers if she becomes Mayor of Philadelphia, where violent crime remains a chief concern across the nation's sixth largest city. She, like Deegan, would become her city's first female mayor if she wins, taking over for incumbent Democratic mayor Jim Kenney, who was term limited.

In Colorado Springs, political newcomer and Independent Yemi Modolade defeated former Secretary of State Wayne Williams, a Republican, to become that city's first Black mayor. Modolade, a businessman, will take over for Mayor John Suthers, who was term limited.

"It's a new day in our beloved city," he said during his victory speech flanked by his family. "To anyone who doubts that politics can be disrupted ... tonight is for you."

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Tesla restarts India market talks with new factory proposal - source

Reuters
Aditya Kalra and Aditi Shah
Published May 17, 2023

NEW DELHI — Tesla Inc has proposed setting up a factory in India to build electric cars for domestic sale and export, the carmaker told government officials on Wednesday, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

The proposal comes after India refused to agree to Tesla’s request last year to lower the import tax on cars, which can reach as much as 100%. India wanted the carmaker to build vehicles locally but Tesla wanted to test the market first with imports and the talks ended in deadlock.

While Tesla did not discuss lower import taxes with Indian officials, it proposed setting up a new factory, albeit without specifying a location or investment, said the source, who declined to be named as the talks were private.

Making cars locally aligns with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch to attract companies with his “Make in India” campaign, especially as companies look to diversify their supply chains beyond China.

Senior Tesla executives are in India this week to meet the government to discuss local sourcing of parts and other issues, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Tesla met officials from Modi’s office and other ministries on Wednesday, said the person and another source familiar with the matter.

Tesla did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

The electric carmaker’s renewed interest in India comes nearly a year after it put on hold plans to sell cars in the country after failing to secure lower import taxes, which its CEO Elon Musk said are among the highest in the world.

Tesla had hired a local team and began a search for showroom space, but that was also abandoned last year.

The meeting comes weeks ahead of Modi’s visit to the United States in June.

(Additional reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Louise Heavens)

Argentine Shoemakers and Tailors Buckle Under 109% Inflation

By Reuters
May 17, 2023

Juan Capano, 56, sorts shoes on a shelf in his shoe making factory, as small and medium-sized businesses struggle amid rising inflation, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 4, 2023. REUTERS/Mariana Nedelcu

By Horacio Soria

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - In Juan Capano's shoemakers' workshop on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, 109% inflation makes a painful daily impact: constantly changing input costs for the leather, laces and rubber that workers assemble into boots at whirring machines.

Argentina is battling one of the highest inflation rates in the world, with prices growing faster at any time since 1991, raising the specter of hyperinflation and full-blown economic crisis. Four in 10 people are in poverty, while strict currency controls mean dollars trade in unofficial markets at twice the price of the official rate, inflating the cost of imports.

"It is the worst moment for the footwear industry. The worst ever in terms of salary, production, in terms of everything," said 56-year-old Capano, recalling the hyperinflationary period of the early 1990s as the last such comparable time.

What it meant for small businesses like his, he said, was supplier prices changing almost daily. The clothing and footwear sector experienced the highest monthly inflation of all categories in April at 10.8%, data from statistics agency INDEC show. The overall rise was 8.4%.

"Suppliers all bill me in pesos and prices change every day. There are price lists sometimes from important suppliers that we get daily, from others twice a week for sure," he said, adding that the difficult situation was compounded by high taxes and slower sales.

Despite shrinking profit margins and uncertainty, Capano said he wanted to avoid lay-offs among his 40 workers, a wider trend that has seen employment levels hold up, for now. Capano said he felt an obligation to support workers' families. Argentina also has strong labor laws that make it hard to fire employees.

Sales, however, have stalled as hard-hit consumers tighten their belts, Capano and others said.

"We sense people want to buy but they just can't afford to," said Gustavo Casabe, 57, a shoe store owner, who has been trying to spur sales by letting people pay in interest-free installments.

In a clothing market in the capital, traders pointed to higher import prices, given volatile exchange rates. The peso hit almost 500 to the dollar in parallel markets last month, while the official rate is around 231.

"Most of us work with imported goods, the fabrics are imported. Prices fluctuate all the time because of the dollar," said trader Susana Habib. "Your cannot have four or five different exchange rates. It's just impossible.

Shoppers said it was getting harder to afford clothing and fabrics as prices outstripped salaries. Sellers, meanwhile, pointed to changing habits, including more people looking to restore old clothes rather than buying new ones.

"I've seen people bring in a wedding dress so I can transform it into a quinceanera (fifteenth birthday) dress," said designer Maria Teresa Pedulia.

"I never used to fix clothes, but people fix clothes now because they cannot afford to buy them."

(Reporting by Horacio Soria; Additional reporting by Juan Bustamante; Writing by Anna-Catherine Brigida; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Rosalba O'Brien)

Biden's Papua New Guinea no-show deals blow to US credibility in Pacific - analysts

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House in Washington

© Thomson Reuters

By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's cancelled visit to Papua New Guinea, which had declared next Monday a public holiday in honour of his arrival, has dealt a blow to U.S. credibility in the Pacific island region, analysts said on Wednesday.

Biden's planned visit to a nation of 9 million just north of Australia had been viewed as a major step to build trust in a region where China has sought a greater security presence.

An unfolding crisis over the U.S. debt ceiling prompted Biden to postpone plans to visit Papua New Guinea and Australia, cutting short an upcoming Asia trip so he can return to Washington.

"For Papua New Guinea this was a very big deal and they will be disappointed," said Mihai Sora, a Pacific islands analyst with the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney.

The cancellation was also a "blow to U.S. credibility in the region as a consistent partner", he added.

"Up until now Pacific islands leaders have been giving the U.S. the benefit of the doubt over its ability to re-engage."

Related video: Biden scraps visit to Papua New Guinea, Australia (The Associated Press)
Duration 1:09 View on Watch
TaiwanPlus U.S. and Micronesia To Renew Strategic Pact During Biden Visit - TaiwanPlus News
0:35
The Washington PostBiden cuts foreign trip short over debt ceiling negotiations
2:32
NBC NewsAustralia cancels Quad meeting after Biden postpones trip to Sydney
1:22

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape told a radio audience a day earlier that his government was preparing to sign a major defence pact with the United States and a security agreement allowing U.S. Coast Guard vessels to patrol it waters. He made no public comment about Biden's cancellation.

Some Opposition party politicians had criticised the pact as potentially upsetting China, a major infrastructure donor.

Biden had also been scheduled to meet 18 Pacific island leaders in the three-hour visit to the PNG capital Port Moresby.

Asia Society Policy Institute senior fellow Richard Maude said the cancellation of what would have been the first visit by an American president to an independent Pacific islands nation could be a setback for relations.

"The mantra in the region is all about turning up. Turning up is half the battle. China turns up all the time, and so the optics aren't great," Maude, a former Australian intelligence chief, said on Wednesday.

The visit also had a personal dimension for Biden. Two of his uncles were based in PNG in World War Two as airmen, including one who died in a plane crash in 1944, Biden recalled in 2016.

The Pacific islands span 40 million square km of ocean, where vital sea lanes and submarine cables link the United States to its allies Australia and Japan. But leaders there had complained to the U.S. of being seen as "fly over" countries.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has visited the region three times, including a 2018 visit to PNG.

Beijing last year struck a security pact with the Solomon Islands, where a Chinese state company will rebuild the international port. China has continued to lobby for a bigger role in the region, after failing to sign 10 nations to a security and trade deal.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Pacific island leaders in Port Moresby on Monday, and New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he will also travel to PNG.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; additional reporting by Lucy Craymer in Wellington; editing by Nick Macfie)

Disappointment in Papua New Guinea after Biden cancels first visit by a US leader

After six months of preparation in Port Moresby, the President cut short his trip in order to focus on debt limit talks in Washington

Rebecca Kuku in Port Moresby

Wed 17 May 2023

Papua New Guineans have reacted with disappointment to the news that US president, Joe Biden, has cancelled his visit to the capital, Port Moresby, in order to focus on debt limit talks in Washington.

Preparations for the visit – the first by a sitting US president – began six months ago and included a plan to shut down the country’s airspace as well as to designate next Monday a public holiday to allow residents of Port Moresby to catch a glimpse of the president. Roads were set to be closed and students and cultural dancing groups were planning to line the path of Biden’s motorcade.

On Tuesday, before the news of the cancellation broke, the front page of the Post-Courier newspaper featured a full page story on Biden’s security arriving ahead of the visit.

What is the US debt ceiling and what happens if it isn’t raised?

“We are disappointed that this historic visit has been cancelled as we have prepared well, spent a lot of time, effort and energy towards the visit and we were all looking forward to the visit,” said Powes Parkop, the governor of the National Capital District.

Biden had confirmed that he would visit PNG for three hours on Monday, after attending the G7 meeting in Japan, but cancelled on Tuesday evening in order to be in Washington to meet with congressional leaders to avert a debt default.

Biden was also set to travel to Sydney to attend a meeting with the leaders of Australia, Japan and India after his visit to PNG. Australia’s prime minister confirmed on Wednesday that the Quad meeting would be postponed as well.

“We look forward to finding other ways to engage with Australia, the Quad, Papua New Guinea and the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum in the coming year,” the White House said in a statement.

Prime minister James Marape could not be reached for comment, but opposition leader Joseph Lelang said that “many citizens who wanted to catch a glimpse of … Biden would be disappointed”.

“But we do understand that there are domestic issues back in the United States that needed his attention,” he said

Lelang added that the cancellation of the trip would give the prime minister the opportunity to outline the details of a proposed defence treaty with the US.

“Information on the contents of the Defense Cooperation Treaty with the United States [is] sketchy,” said Lelang.

This week Marape confirmed that two security agreements would be signed with the US, on defence cooperation and maritime surveillance, during Biden’s visit. Marape had said his government would provide details on the security agreements on Thursday.

Opposition groups had raised concerns that PNG would be stuck between and increasingly hostile US and China, if the country signed a security treaty with the US.

“We have a foreign policy of ‘Friends to All and Enemies to None’. We … should not be blinded by the dollar sign or be coerced into signing deals that may be detrimental to us, in the long run,” Lelang said.

Despite the cancellation of Biden’s visit, operations to provide security for the five presidents and ten prime ministers – including Indian prime minister Narendra Modi – who will be in the country to attend the Forum for the India-Pacific in Port Moresby next Monday will remain in place, according to internal security minister Peter Tsiamalili.

“The airport closure only applied for the US president Biden’s visit, so only that will not be applicable, but we will continue to maintain [security] operations for the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pacific Leaders,” Tsiamalili said.

Meanwhile, Institute of National Affairs (INA) executive director, Paul Barker, said that the cancellation of the visit by Biden “may not be a bad thing for PNG.

“He will still send a senior representative, but it was always going to be a bit of a rushed visit,” Barker said.

“Preparing for a less rushed visit by the President at a later date, but still before the next US election period rolls out, will enable him to have a more meaningful visit with wider local engagement.”

Asia Society Policy Institute senior fellow Richard Maude said the cancellation of Biden’s visit to Papua New Guinea could set back Washington’s battle for influence with Beijing in the region.

“The mantra in the region is all about turning up. Turning up is half the battle. China turns up all the time, and so the optics aren’t great,” Maude, a former Australian intelligence chief, told a panel discussion on the Quad on Wednesday.

Korean company invests US$50 million in Canadian green hydrogen project

TORONTO — A subsidiary of South Korean company SK Group has signed a deal with World Energy GH2 to buy a minority stake in a Canadian green hydrogen project for US$50 million.

Under the deal, SK ecoplant will acquire a 20 per cent stake in the first stage of the Nujio'qonik project in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Nujio'qonik is designed to be a green hydrogen and ammonia producer powered by renewable electricity from wind projects.

The companies say SK ecoplant will to be an important partner in this project, thanks to its expertise in green hydrogen and engineering.

Related video: Charting a Path for Hydrogen Planes (Bloomberg)
Duration 6:54 View on Watch

World Energy GH2 chairman John Risley called the investment validation that the company has all of the requirements for a successful project.

Canada and Germany signed an agreement to build a new hydrogen supply chain across the Atlantic last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 17, 2023.

South Korea's Yoon, Canada's Trudeau Agree to Boost Cooperation on Critical Minerals

By Reuters
May 17, 2023

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks next to South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol during a joint news conference after their meeting at the Presidential Office in Seoul, South Korea, May 17, 2023.

REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/PoolREUTERS

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Canadian Prime Minister Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed on Wednesday to step up cooperation on critical minerals and other economic security issues.

In a joint statement issued after their summit in Seoul, the leaders also "strongly condemned" North Korea's nuclear and missile development, and agreed to continue joint efforts for a rules-based order in the region.

Trudeau arrived in Seoul on Tuesday for the first visit in nine years by a Canadian leader as the two countries seek to boost cooperation on security and critical minerals used in electric vehicles (EVs).

(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi; Editing by Ed Davies)

Poll: 61% of Americans say AI threatens humanity’s future

Benj Edward
05/17/2023
Ca

Enlarge / An AI-generated image of "real space invaders" threatening the earth.
Midjourney

A majority of Americans believe that the rise of artificial intelligence technology could put humanity's future in jeopardy, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Wednesday. The poll found that over two-thirds of respondents are anxious about the adverse effects of AI, while 61 percent consider it a potential threat to civilization.

Reuters reached out to Landon Klein, director of US policy of the Future of Life Institute, which authored the open letter that asked for a six-month pause in AI research of systems "more powerful" than GPT-4. "It's telling such a broad swatch of Americans worry about the negative effects of AI," Klein said. "We view the current moment similar to the beginning of the nuclear era, and we have the benefit of public perception that is consistent with the need to take action."

Meanwhile, another group of AI researchers led by Timnit Gebru, Emily M. Bender, and Margaret Mitchell (three authors of a widely cited critical paper on large language models) say that while AI systems are indeed potentially harmful, the prevalent worry about AI-powered apocalypse is misguided. They prefer to focus instead on "transparency, accountability, and preventing exploitative labor practices."

Another issue with the poll is that AI is a nebulous term that often means different things to different people. Almost all Americans now use "AI" (and software tools once considered "AI") in our everyday lives without much notice or fanfare, and it's unclear if the Reuters/Ipsos poll made any attempt to make that type of distinction for its respondents. We did not have access to the poll methodology or raw poll results at press time.

Along those lines, Reuters quoted Ion Stoica, a UC Berkeley professor and co-founder of AI company Anyscale, pointing out this potential contradiction. "Americans may not realize how pervasive AI already is in their daily lives, both at home and at work," he said.

AI music could revolutionize the industry — and this artist is leading the way

Story by insider@insider.com (Drew Austin) • Yesterday May 16,2023

Experimental musician and artist Holly Herndon created a digital twin of herself named Holly+. The project challenges how we think about intellectual property.

Holly Herndon, Tyler Le/Insider

As artificial intelligence has gotten better, fears about our AI-enabled future have grown. Even small steps toward more sophisticated AI have triggered concerns that robots will take away human jobs or that AI-generated deepfakes will warp our sense of reality.

In the world of art, misgivings about AI have been particularly acute. An AI-generated piece of art recently won first prize in a competition at the Colorado State Fair, leading to an outcry from artists and critics alike. Other experiments with replacing illustrators and writers have caused similar handwringing.

Despite this widespread apprehension, Holly Herndon — an experimental musician and artist — doesn't think AI is nefarious or will ruin art. These technologies are here to stay, she told me recently, and we might as well learn how to live with them.

"I think the best way forward is for artists to lean into developments with machine learning," she said, suggesting that they "think of ways to conditionally invite others to experiment with them."

Last year, Herndon launched a project called Holly+, a tool that enables other artists to make music using an AI-generated likeness of her voice. The works created using Holly+ are essentially vocal deepfakes sanctioned and encouraged by Herndon.

Herndon's usage of AI shows a way forward for not just artists but also the rest of us. Instead of rejecting new technology, everyone from workers to businesses to amateur creators can learn to use these tools to make their lives easier or open up new creative avenues. By embracing AI, would-be skeptics can help to ensure the burgeoning technology is used for good, rather than leaving it to be shaped by ill-intentioned parties. This doesn't ensure a wholly positive outcome, but with projects like Holly+, Herndon highlights the advantages of a technology like AI, while proving it isn't a mere substitute for human creativity.

From an AI 'baby' to deepfakes and crypto

In Berlin, Herndon has made AI a recurring theme of her work over the past decade, experimenting with human-computer collaboration in her recordings and live performances. An early instance of this was her 2015 album, "Platform," which combined the organic qualities of the human voice with machine sounds and digital-processing techniques. For her 2019 album, "Proto," Herndon took this approach further by creating Spawn, an AI "baby" that merged her voice and the voice of her partner, Mat Dryhurst, into a synthetic female entity that provided additional vocals.

Holly Herndon's 2019 album "Proto" includes vocals from an AI "baby" she created with her partner. Boris Camaca© Boris Camaca

The Holly+ project synthesizes the insights that Herndon has gathered over a decade of engaging with AI, a process of inquiry that has included her earning a doctorate of musical arts at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. The core of Holly+ is straightforward: Anyone can upload an audio file, and the tool will create a new version with Herndon's processed voice, ready for download. In her blog post announcing Holly+, Herndon said she envisioned a future where digitally created voices "soon become standard practice for artists and other creatives."

Related video: AI-generated music growing exponentially, sparking debate

(NBC News)Duration 3:20 View on Watch

A wide variety of music has been created using Holly+, from glitchy electronic tracks to ambient compositions to more conventional pop songs. Many of the tracks push the human voice to its limits, chopping Herndon's voice into nearly unrecognizable fragments or repurposing them as pieces of a sonic collage. Herndon has also used Holly+ in live performances, appearing at the Helsinki Festival with a local choir.

While the project has yielded an ever-growing array of fascinating art, Holly+ also raises questions about the future of that art. If AI can replicate a unique voice like Herndon's, or mine the vast archive of existing human-produced content, then will it eventually replace humans' role in making that art going forward? And who owns the art that an AI model produces?

Who owns what?

AI's prospective influence on the art world is not without precedent. The ease of copying, editing, and distributing digital files today means that content can always change, frequently without any acknowledgment that it has been altered. Analog media, in contrast, is more difficult to modify, and doing so typically leaves a mark. Now, the official versions of songs are endlessly remixed, films and television episodes are altered after their initial release, and text and images go viral as unattributed, ever-evolving memes. Sampling — reusing a portion of a song in another recorded song — has become a staple of pop music over the past few decades.

"In the same way that trying to shut down sampling of media was a dead end, we have entered into an AI era where it will become effortless to generate media using someone's voice, face, or style." Herndon told me. As with sampling, she argued, AI presents a great opportunity for artistic play and innovation "so long as we can mitigate the economic shock of these powerful new tools."

Holly+ highlights a few shocks that might come about, particularly around the ability for artists to control their intellectual property — the legal basis for copyright laws. It's hard enough to lay claim to the content you have created now, but emerging AI tools open up a new set of complications. Is an AI-generated image made in the style of a particular artist plagiarism, or is it an original product of the model that generated it? As AI models improve and become more deeply embedded in the digital world, artists will need to understand the nature of the IP they produce and devise strategies for retaining control of that IP.

"I started the Holly+ project because I think this is a generational opportunity to rewrite how we think about IP," Herndon told me. In the Holly+ announcement post, Herndon said, "There will be demand for official, high fidelity, vocal models of public figures."

This is where crypto comes in: the blockchain technology that undergirds crypto allows users to precisely track ownership of digital files like songs and images, while establishing an indelible record of their origins. This enables artists to sell digital works and ensure they will always receive credit for creating them (even if the work itself is copied freely), while giving the works' buyers confidence that they can prove they have the original version — an ability that, in turn, makes them willing to pay more.

Holly+ is controlled by a DAO, which is similar to a worker's coop.

© Andrés Mañón

Crypto has thus allowed Herndon to help financially reward artists who create songs with Holly+, while receiving compensation herself. To do this, Herndon established a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, which is similar to a worker cooperative. Anyone who owns a specific DAO's crypto tokens becomes a member with voting rights. When other artists create work using Holly+, they can submit it to the Holly+ DAO, whose members vote on which submissions are good enough to be turned into nonfungible tokens and sold via an auction process — think of an NFT as the definitive "original" pressing of a song. (Anyone can use the Holly+ voice tool itself without submitting the output to the DAO, however.) Like a company's shareholders, the members of the DAO benefit from the overall quality of the Holly+ brand via the value of their tokens. Herndon says on her website that DAO members "are incentivized to only certify or license new works that contribute to the value of the voice."

This arrangement benefits Herndon by minimizing the incentives to make bad art with Holly+ or use her voice in a negative way, while relieving her of sole responsibility for managing the tool. The proceeds from each NFT sale are split among the work's creator, the members of the Holly+ DAO, and Herndon — an arrangement that reflects each party's contribution to a given piece. As AI continues to evolve and becomes more central to various creative enterprises, the DAO structure offers a way to credit participants more fairly and help artists retain more control over their work.

AI isn't alien

As technology continues to evolve, artists and creators must keep adapting. Herndon's work, especially Holly+, shows how creative people can approach developments like AI with an open mind, while maintaining a pragmatic awareness of the technology's drawbacks. She said: "Most AI processes we are familiar with now are groundbreaking ways of aggregating the products of human intelligence." In other words, AI can be another tool that artists use, instead of just a threat to their livelihoods.

And working with AI can be fun. "I am in love with the submissions!" Herndon said of the works created with the Holly+ tool. "Artists have taken my voice in all kinds of directions. There are trains whistling at me, tender duets, and insane club tracks."

Now, Herndon is taking the lessons from Holly+ to her new organization, Spawning, which will equip other artists to reap the benefits of AI by using it to enhance their work, while protecting their IP from the threats it introduces. Herndon told me that the organization aimed "to help others take that leap and make their own decisions about how their voices and styles are used."

While artists are among the first to seriously grapple with the implications of AI's cutting edge, the technology is likely to affect everyone — whether in their work or in another area of their lives. Holly+ and the Spawning organization both offer models for embracing technological change and making the most of it, rather than trying to resist or avoid it.

"I see how many things could go wrong," Herndon told me, "but I'm committed to creating ways to steer things in a better direction."

Drew Austin is a technology critic, writer, and author of the newsletter Kneeling Bus.

This story was originally published on September 29, 2022.

Americans have high anxiety about safety
By Cara Murez, HealthDay News

In a new poll by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), 70% of U.S. adults reported being anxious or extremely anxious about keeping safe.

Photo by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke/Pixabay

Americans are less anxious than they were in early 2020, at the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, but many still have anxiety about keeping themselves or their families safe.

In a new poll by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), 70% of U.S. adults reported being anxious or extremely anxious about keeping safe.

About 78% of adults expressed anxiety over inflation. About 70% were anxious about a potential recession.

And 67% had worries about gun violence, including 42% who were "very anxious" about gun violence, which was an increase of 5% over the previous month.

"Ongoing stress about our basic needs can lead to other negative mental health effects," said APA president Dr. Rebecca Brendel.

"The impact of this stress means that psychiatrists will need to continue work with the communities they serve, the larger mental health field and policymakers to ensure those who need care can access it," Brendel said in an APA news release.

The association surveyed about 2,200 adults between April 20 and April 22, weighting the data to approximate a target sample of adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race and region.

Overall, 37% felt more anxious this year than at this time last year. That was also an increase of 5%. In all, 30% said they had talked about mental health issues with a mental health professional in the past few years, up 4% from 2022.

Among the other findings:78% of participants agreed that a person's mental health has an impact on physical health

78% also agreed that untreated mental illness has a significant negative impact on families

64% agreed that untreated mental illness has a significant negative impact on the economy

"The majority of the public understands something we've been saying for a long time: Your mental health is about your health," said Dr. Saul Levin, APA CEO and medical director. "It's contingent upon us as a field to continue to spread that message" along with the messages "that those who are experiencing mental health concerns aren't alone and that there are ways to receive help."

Rich nations should step-up support for poorer countries to go green, Japan says

TOKYO, May 17 (Reuters) - Rich nations should boost financial and technical support to poorer countries to help them tackle climate change and achieve similar decarbonisation goals, a senior Japanese environment ministry official said ahead of a G7 summit in Hiroshima.

Developed countries promised in 2009 to transfer $100 billion annually between 2020 and 2025 to vulnerable states hit by increasingly severe climate-linked impacts and disasters - but that target was never met.

G7 energy and climate ministers discussed how to meet that goal when they met in the Japanese city of Sapporo last month.

Ono Hiroshi, vice-minister for global environmental affairs at Japan's environment ministry, said during an interview with Reuters that Japan has begun disbursing the $70 billion it committed in total financing over the 5-year period.

"All countries should follow the good example of Japan so that we could achieve the $100 billion goal," he said, adding that he hoped that the level would be achieved as soon as possible and maintained through 2025.

Developing countries say they need far more support than that from the rich nations, who are responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions, otherwise they cannot afford to cut CO2 emissions.

G7 climate and energy ministers have underscored the need to broaden the financing contributor base, but the commitment of providing annual financing of more than $100 billion after 2025 was subject to negotiations, Ono said.

Japan and other G7 members aim to reach net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050 at the latest, by accelerating their transition to clean energy.

The G7 leaders are expected to reaffirm their climate goals during the summit in Hiroshima on May 19-21, Ono said, adding that he hopes they will also endorse other agreements reached at the ministerial meeting in Sapporo.

(Source: Yahoo Finance), all rights reserved by original source.

U.S. considers new land swap deal in Alaska wildlife refuge

Deb Haaland 54th U.S. Secretary of the Interior

Reuters
Wed, May 17, 2023

(Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department will review the environmental impacts of a possible land swap deal that would allow a new road to cut through an Alaska wildlife refuge, it said on Wednesday.

The move comes two months after Interior Secretary Deb Haaland withdrew a Trump-era land exchange deal between her agency and the Alaska Native American-led King Cove Corporation, but said she would be open to considering other proposals to replace it.

In a notice published in the Federal Register, Interior said it would consider an exchange that would allow for a road corridor for noncommercial use through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and the Izembek Wilderness Area.

Supporters of the swap say the road would give residents of King Cove, a small village of 1,000 people, access to an airstrip in nearby Cold Bay in case of medical or other emergencies.

Environmentalists have said a road would destroy valuable habitat for birds along Kinzarof Lagoon, and would set a dangerous precedent for other wildlife refuges.

The deal set by former President Donald Trump's administration was controversial because it left open the door to commercial use of the road.

Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service will accept public comments on the analysis for 30 days.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

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Wednesday, May 17, 2023

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