Pushed to the limits, Edmonton animal centre halting intake of healthy dogs

Story by Lisa Johnson •

John Wilson, director of animal care and park rangers, speaks about shelter capacity at the Animal Care and Control Centre, 13550 163 St., in Edmonton on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023.© David Bloom

Edmonton’s Animal Care and Control Centre isn’t accepting healthy dogs as the number of abandoned animals at shelters and rescues across the province reaches a critical limit.

John Wilson, animal care and park rangers director, told reporters Tuesday the centre has been operating for 30 years but has never seen such a dramatic demand for care.

“I’m a little bit saddened that we are where we are. It’s a very difficult place for anybody who has compassion and empathy for the animals in our community to find ourselves in this place where so many animals are being abandoned, or being surrendered,” Wilson said.

The move is temporary for the city-funded facility, which is giving priority to dogs that are injured or in “significant distress” until there is more kennel space. Others will be put on a waiting list.

It comes after animal rescues in Edmonton have been raising the alarm over the rise in abandoned pets, in part because of inflation and a lack of accessible pet-friendly housing.

Wilson said people don’t often volunteer why they give up their pets but “financial factors are definitely a part of that equation.” At the same time, many animals adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic may have presented unanticipated behavioural problems or health problems.

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The centre sees between 6,000 and 7,000 animals each year but only has space at one time for 47 dogs. Normally, animals stay for between three and 10 days but now stress on the system has turned the average stay into four to six weeks.

Related video: Increased pet surrenders and wildfires create strain on rescue agencies (cbc.ca)   Duration 0:47   View on Watch

Staff from the centre have also been offering pet daycare for thousands of people displaced by wildfires in the Northwest Territories at the Edmonton Expo Centre. It’s the third time this summer they’ve been called in to support evacuees, Wilson said.

An Animal Care and Control Centre staff member with a dog the staff have nicknamed Lovely Lady during a news conference outside the centre in Edmonton on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023.© Photo by David Bloom

The latest city budget saw the Animal Care and Control Centre get a $3.3-million increase .

On Tuesday, Wilson called that boost a “godsend” that has allowed for the hiring of more kennel care and veterinary staff.

“It’s not just about kennel space. It’s also about staffing levels, training, it’s about the condition of the animals when they come into us, the duration of their stay — there’s a lot of factors,” he said.

City budget documents from December noted the sheer volume of animals, from birds to reptiles, has created “challenges in providing the legislated standard of care” under Alberta’s Animal Protection Act.

“The City of Edmonton continues to incur reputational and legislative risk because the capacity to maintain animals in an environment free from distress is inadequate,” the document states.

Wilson said Tuesday that is no longer the case, and the centre is currently not euthanizing healthy animals due to space constraints.

“Now, that is not what we’re doing, and the reason we’re here today is to ask the community for its help in dealing with this community issue,” he said.

Some advocates have already called for a mandatory spay and neuter bylaw in Edmonton, a possibility that could come to council after public consultations this fall to update its more than 20-year-old animal licensing and control laws.

Wilson encouraged Edmontonians to continue helping lost dogs reunite with their owners using the city’s lost and found pet page , by bringing animals to a vet to check for a microchip, or reaching out through social media and neighbourhood networks.

He emphasized the importance of educating people on pet ownership and the resources available to help them, including financial support for vet care and pet food banks around the city .

lijohnson@postmedia.com

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Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations plan to sue governments

Leaders from First Nations communities across the Canadian Prairies stood in unison on Tuesday, announcing plans to pursue legal action against provincial and federal governments for allegedly breaching treaty agreements.

“They held my hand and said, ‘You’re my friend,’ ” Sweetgrass First Nation Chief Lorie Whitecalf said at a Tuesday news conference in Saskatoon. “As soon as the pipes were turned on, they forgot my name.”

Gathering under a large wooden teepee outside the offices of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) — with the support of chiefs from Saskatchewan and Alberta — expressed frustrations that have led to this point.

Leaders said they feel that agreements — including the 1930 Natural Resources Transfer Agreement and Treaty Land Entitlement Framework — are being ignored.

“What we are saying is our treaties are of international law. They trump federal and province laws,” FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron said.

“This is our basis. They failed in their duty to consult … This statement of claim has been a long time coming — many, many decades to get to this point.”

Each chief shared stories of frustration and disappointment with provincial and federal leaders surrounding breaches to treaties, some of which were signed before several provinces became legally ratified.

The chiefs and leaders collectively called on governments to recognize promises that were made to First Nations people that have since fallen by the wayside, affecting their communities and putting them in dire straits.

Others cautioned that potential investors looking to Saskatchewan for business and natural resources to stay clear while the lawsuit is impending. Several of the chiefs said First Nations have not received agreed-to shares of profits from natural resources, as provinces and private businesses have reaped benefits in the trillions.

“There is no reason for us to be beggars in our own lands,” said Chief Kelsey Jacko of Cold Lake First Nations in Alberta.

“We talk about equalization payments when my people are in poverty right across Turtle Island, and there’s no need for that.”

They spoke of the suffering of the First Nations people. While there are prominent Indigenous members of the community in Saskatoon, others are seen daily gathering on the streets outside charity organizations.

“Surrender: there’s no word for that in our languages. We agreed to share,” Jacko said. “Christopher Columbus didn’t find us. We found him, and we helped him out.”

Kimiya Shokoohi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The StarPhoenix

EPA head says he's 'proud' of decision to block Alaska mine and protect salmon-rich Bristol Bay



ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The nation’s top environmental official said he fully supports his agency’s decision to block a proposed gold and copper mine in Alaska’s salmon-rich Bristol Bay, even as the state of Alaska has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn that action.

“Let me be clear, we are very proud of our decision to really evaluate the Pebble Mine project and do what is necessary to protect Bristol Bay,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday as he began a four-day tour of Alaska, starting in a Bristol Bay village.

The EPA in January vetoed the proposed Pebble Mine, citing concerns with possible impacts on the aquatic ecosystem in southwest Alaska that supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. The region also has significant mineral resources.

Last month, the state of Alaska asked the nation’s high court to intervene.

“The EPA’s order strikes at the heart of Alaska’s sovereignty, depriving the State of its power to regulate its lands and waters,” according to the court filing.

The EPA and the Department of Justice are reviewing the complaint and have until late next month to file an optional response, Regan said.,

Regan’s first stop will be in the Bristol Bay village of Igiugig, located about 250 miles (402 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage, where Lake Iliamna feeds the Kvichak River. The village’s 68 residents comprised mostly of Indigenous people lead a subsistence lifestyle, relying mostly on salmon.

Regan planned to talk to tribal leaders about solid waste management issues and energy generation, but also “to highlight the significance of our decision around Pebble Mine, to protect the bay for environmental and cultural, spiritual and sustenance reasoning.”

When asked if there are other actions EPA could or should take to block the mine if the state were to prevail, he said their process is to follow the science and law on a project-by-project basis, the way the agency evaluated the Pebble Mine proposal.

“I feel really good about the decision we made,” he said.

Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. owns the Pebble Limited Partnership, which has pursued the mine. As proposed, the project called for a mining rate of up to 73 million tons a year.

Regan planned to discuss environmental justice concerns, climate change, subsistence food security, water infrastructure and pollution from contaminated lands conveyed through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act during his first visit to the nation’s largest state.

Discussions will also include how the EPA might help support community projects with money provided with the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, or the climate and health care bill passed last year.

Other stops will be in Utqiagvik, the nation’s northernmost community formerly known as Barrow; Fairbanks; Anchorage, and the Native Village of Eklutna, located just north of the state’s largest city.

Alaska became the fourth stop on what is billed as Regan’s “Journey to Justice” tour to learn how pollution has affected people. Previously, visits were made to Puerto Rico; McDowell County, West Virginia, and one that included stops in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

Regan is not the only Biden administration official set to visit. U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge will address housing needs in Alaska later this week.

Other administration officials who have visited this summer include U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press

Suncor's revised focus on oil production proof of need for emissions cap: Guilbeault

Story by The Canadian Press •8h


OTTAWA — Recent statements by the CEO of a major oilsands company further the case for federal regulations to cap greenhouse-gas emissions in the oil and gas sector, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Guilbeault called the Aug. 15 comments by Suncor CEO Rich Kruger "disappointing," particularly in the middle of a summer when "tens of thousands of Canadians" were forced to flee wildfires and global temperatures hit record highs in July.

"To see the leader of a great Canadian company say that he is basically disengaging from climate change and sustainability, that he's going to focus on short-term profit, it's all the wrong answers," Guilbeault said.

"If I was convinced before that we needed to do regulation, I am even more convinced now."

This fall, Guilbeault intends to publish draft regulations to cap emissions from oil and gas production and then force them downward over time. Oil and gas contributed 28 per cent of Canada's total emissions in 2021, and the oilsands alone account for 13 per cent.

Suncor contributed 17.4 million tonnes, or 2.5 per cent of the national total. Suncor's emissions in 2021 were 50 per cent higher than they were in 2011. Canada's total emissions have fallen six per cent compared with 10 years ago.

Guilbeault hasn't yet said exactly what the first cap will be, but the Emissions Reduction Plan published in 2022 included a cut of more than 40 per cent to oil and gas emissions by 2030.

Kruger, who only took over as Suncor CEO in April, told investors during Suncor's second-quarter results conference call that the company had a "disproportionate" focus on the longer-term energy transition to low-emitting and renewable fuels.

"Where we stand is we judge that our current strategic framework ... is insufficient in terms of what it takes to win," he said, according to a transcript of the call posted on the company's website.

That included, he said, a "lack of emphasis on today's business drivers."

"Today, we win by creating value through our large integrated asset base underpinned by oilsands," he said.

He promised a "revised direction and tone" focused more on the immediate financial opportunities in the oilsands.

In that same call, Suncor reported second-quarter earnings of $1.9 billion, down from $4 billion in the second quarter of 2022, when oil prices soared following Russia's invasion in Ukraine.

Kruger said the company remained committed to the Pathways Alliance, a consortium of six oilsands companies working together to install carbon-capture technology and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Net-zero is the term used to describe a situation where any remaining greenhouse-gas emissions produced are captured by technology or nature. Carbon capture is an emerging technology that traps emissions and funnels them back underground.

Pathways executives have long said that they want to contribute to Canada's climate targets, but that the federal timeline for cutting their emissions was unrealistic.

Both Suncor and Pathways have been approached for comment for this story but neither have yet responded.

Kruger's comments come almost a year after his company announced it would sell off its wind and solar power assets, ending its two-decade long foray into the renewable energy business. Earlier this year, Suncor expanded its oilsands operations when it bought the Fort Hills oilsands mine from Teck Resources and TotalEnergies.

Guilbeault said the federal government isn't asking the oil and gas sector to do more than its fair share, and is not singling it out. He noted zero-emission vehicle regulations being finalized now require one in five new vehicles sold to be electric by 2026, and bar the sale of new combustion engine cars and trucks in 2035.

Draft regulations to eliminate emissions from Canada's electricity sector were published earlier in August and are still in the comment period.

The oil and gas cap regulations were expected already, but Guilbeault acknowledged they have been delayed.

"It is a complex piece of regulation," he said.

But the minister said they are coming, and industry has to do its part.

"I don’t think in 2023 you can be a good corporate citizen and not play your role," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2023.

Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press

Thousands have died in the Mediterranean. Why don't we care?

Story by Joseph Brean •

Migrants swim next to their overturned wooden boat during a rescue operation south of the Italy's Lampedusa island on the Mediterranean Sea in August 2022. More than 25,000 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean since 2015, according to the United Nations.© Provided by National Post

Lampedusa is about as close to Africa as you can get and still be in Europe.

That is why the little island between Sicily and Tunisia is a major destination in the migrant crisis of the central Mediterranean, a human catastrophe that is accelerating into its second decade with no end in sight.

This weekend marked a little milestone, a record of sorts, when 65 boats landed at Lampedusa on Friday, then another 55 on Saturday, with 2,172 people arriving within 24 hours, more than ever before, sending the Italian island’s emergency reception centre so far over capacity the island’s chief official said it was beyond “humane.”

The Mediterranean migrant crisis is as inhumane as any natural disaster, exposing thousands of people to the risk of drowning as they try to reach safety. Already this year 2,300 people have been lost at sea this way, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , and more than 25,000 have died since 2015, when tracking began in earnest. It is a smuggling trade, so the true numbers are almost certainly higher.

But over this first decade, the human catastrophe has failed to shock like others of similar scope, or different cause. The drownings simply accumulate. Like mass shootings in America, each new horror is muted by its familiarity.

Earlier this month, a seven-metre long boat carrying 45 people, including three children, left from Sfax in Tunisia but sank soon after. Four people survived in the sea before clambering aboard another empty boat, likely from a previous crossing attempt. In response to this shipwreck, and advocating generally but vaguely for political and diplomatic solutions, Pope Francis said the crisis is “an open wound on our humanity.”

In the last few days, the NGO SOS Mediterranée has reported rescuing more than 400 people from flimsy vessels in the central Mediterranean, including more than 30 unaccompanied children and nine babies. They were the lucky ones.


Migrants wait to be rescued on the Mediterranean Sea, 100 kilometres north of Al-Khums, Libya, in February 2018.© Olmo Calvo/AP, File

In June, a vastly overloaded trawler named the Adriana, sailing from Tobruk in Libya, was wrecked off the southern Greek town of Pylos, killing more than 80 of the perhaps 700 migrants on board. No one even had life jackets.

It is not always like this, just another distant disaster, barely registering anymore with the Canadian public.

Once, it exploded into global consciousness, with the picture of the boy on the beach. This was two year old Alan Kurdi, photographed face down, dead in the waves on the Turkish shore in September 2015. He was a Syrian refugee whose family was trying to reach Vancouver, where his aunt was ready to sponsor them. Canadians in particular were so moved that it became a major issue in the 2015 election that saw the Conservatives replaced by the Liberals.

But, like the conflicts and civil wars that feed the Mediterranean migrant crisis — from the Sahel through the Horn of Africa to Yemen and beyond into Central Asia, even as far away as Bangladesh — these horrors soon slip back beneath the surface.


The numbers of dead rise like a tide, too slow to notice unless you measure over a long time. Drip by drip, the numbers reach into the thousands.

It has become a perennial issue of European politics, no longer the acute crisis that rallied the world’s attention in 2015. It has become a campaigning focus for a surging far-right racist nativism that blames migrants for perceived European decline, from street crime to culture. And it remains a seemingly impossible dilemma for mainstream governments.


Attendees look at a mural depicting Alan Kurdi, the young refugee found dead on a Turkish beach, at a press conference where political and community leaders called on the federal government to expedite the process of admitting displaced Syrian refugees into Canada, London, Ont., September 13, 2015.

© Craig Glover/The London Free Press/Postmedia/File

French President Emmanuel Macron is trying to pass immigration reforms, but in highly adverse conditions, alienating both the left and the right with a plan to fast-track asylum cases and legalize undocumented workers, while also tightening the path to long-term residency and enabling greater deportation.

In Britain, far from the Med, migrants who have crossed into France from Italy make another dangerous sea crossing of the Channel, seeking more favourable treatment than on the European mainland. Overwhelmed as much as France or Italy, the Conservative government under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been trying to enact a policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing and settlement, only to be told by the Court of Appeal this summer that the plan is unlawful because Rwanda is not safe, a decision Sunak has pledged to appeal. It has also recently set up a barge in a Dorset harbour to house migrants awaiting a hearing.

Just like in the Mediterranean, though, the boats keep coming, every one of them too small and ill-equipped to make the journey safely, overfull with people desperate for safety.

The plain need to do something has rattled the European project as much as Brexit or the sovereign debt crisis, stressing charity and cooperation beyond their practical limits, and placing a disproportionate impact on Greece and Italy. Italy alone has recorded well over 100,000 migrant arrivals by sea this year.

Under a new right-wing populist government run by a party that once pledged to blockade North Africa, Italy has moved to prevent civilian rescuers, even levelling fines against Doctors Without Borders for failing to comply with onerous rules about how rescues at sea must be carried out and reported, and detaining the SOS Mediterranée boat Ocean Viking at the port of Civitavecchia for more than a week.

UN High Commission for Human Rights Volker Türk called this policy of criminalizing and discouraging civilian rescue efforts “simply wrong.” But he has also urged solidarity with Italy for its primary role in the crisis, as it faces a “steep increase in the number of desperate people putting their lives at grave risk.”

“We cannot afford to dither, and to become embroiled in yet another debate about who is responsible. Human lives are at stake,” Türk said in April. “Now is the time for solidarity with Italy and enhanced cooperation to safeguard the protection of the human rights of all people on the move.”



A wooden boat with about 100 migrants travels on the Mediterranean Sea to Lampedusa, illuminated by a searchlight coming from a lifeguard boat of the NGO Open Arms on March 29, 2021.

© Carlos Gil/Getty Images/File

As this weekend’s minor record in Lampedusa shows, this remains a distant goal. Mark Green, a former American Ambassador to Tanzania and president of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, recently wrote about the low profile of this crisis.

“So why aren’t we paying more attention? Why are these terrible tragedies unlikely to be talked about a month from now, let alone a century from now? Some might say it’s a sign of the difficulty we have in fully processing the rapid release of news during the age of social media. Others say that stories of the war in Ukraine and increasing hostilities with China are taking up all the time and space our media are willing to devote to international affairs. Still others would argue that news consumers simply aren’t stirred by tragedies involving people who ‘don’t look like us.’ The only certainty is that there will be more migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea in coming months — and more dying in the effort.”

The unofficial tally of about 30,000 migrants dead or missing dates to 2014, but the crisis is older still. In 2013, the late Sunday Times writer and critic A.A. Gill went to Lamepdusa and wrote about a small wooden boat, “like a child’s drawing, with a high wheelhouse,” that set out from Tripoli with 520 refugees.

“This is the last journey, whatever the outcome,” he wrote . They had come from Eritrea mostly, the young men fleeing conscription into a conflict that continues today, a decade later. They pushed through Libya where they were persecuted, locked up for bribes, eventually in effect chased out into the Mediterranean.

Usually, migrant boats are tracked and escorted to port by Italian authorities. This one got missed, ran out of fuel, foundered near cliffs as the passengers burned fabric to alert people on shore. Then it sank, and 368 people died.

Gill spoke to the mayor, who said: “This is not a new crisis. It is not a crisis at all. We have been taking in refugees every week for 15 years. They are not the problem. They are not the fault.”

Dogs have nose for COVID-19, studies show. Why aren’t they used for testing?

Story by Sean Previl •

Two dogs wait for a reward as they are trained in testing for COVID-19 at Vancouver Coastal Health.© Vancouver Coastal Health

As the availability of COVID-19 tests dwindle across Canada, another option to detect the virus in the form of a furry friend may be the next best thing.

Multiple studies show that dogs can be more effective, faster and potentially less expensive than the current tests on the market.

The research has grown since 2020, with University of California Santa Barbara professor Tommy Dickey finding the collective research shows trained scent dogs are "as effective and often more effective" than both the rapid antigen tests many people keep in their homes, and even the PCR tests deployed at clinics and hospitals.

But even with studies showing their effectiveness, COVID-19-detecting dogs are deployed only in certain jurisdictions in various countries.

One such place is the Canines for Care program at Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), which started looking into the possibility of training dogs to detect COVID-19 in early 2021.

Dr. Marthe Charles, division head of medical microbiology and infection prevention and control at VCH, said the idea stemmed from the early reliance on laboratory testing.

"I think there was a will from public health at the time and also from the various levels of government to try to find a way that was fast, accurate and non-invasive to be able to detect and train as many people as possible," Charles told Global News in an interview.

Three dogs — two Labrador retrievers and an English springer spaniel — were brought in for training. The dogs were exposed to items such as masks that were worn by patients either negative or positive for the virus. This trained the dogs to recognize what is and is not COVID-19.

Video: Health Matters: COVID sniffing canine

Charles said the dogs were trained since being puppies to associate the scent of COVID-19 with food and were rewarded each time they correctly detected a positive case of the virus.

"So from early on in their lives, they've associated the scent of a case of COVID to a rewarding scent," she explained.

This reward method is not just used by VCM. It was also used with a group of dogs sourced in early 2021 for a French study, trained at detection using toys — usually tennis balls — as rewards.

Dr. Carla Simon, owner of Hunter's Heart Scent Detection Canines in Calgary, said this method of training dogs is common. By using rewards, it can help motivate them to find the scent.

"We would pair, let's say, the sweat samples with COVID, with their reward, and they notice that every time they find their reward, there's that special smell," she explained. "We just have to make it rewarding for the dog."

She added, however, that the dog chooses the reward so trainers can ensure the canines "show up every day and want to do their job."

Earlier this month, Dickey along with Heather Junqueira of BioScent, Inc. gathered several peer-reviewed studies into a review that was published in the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine. Dickey said the number of peer-reviewed studies over the past few years went from four to 29, incorporating the work of more than 400 scientists from more than 30 countries and 31,000 samples.

The review noted the effectiveness of dogs' ability to detect COVID-19 comes down to their noses.   Duration 2:05 View on Watch

"The nose is not like humans," Simon said. "It's massively different, orders of magnitude different, and they can detect things without us being able to smell them."

Humans have about five to six million olfactory receptors in their noses, while dogs have hundreds of millions. One-third of their brain is devoted to the interpretation of smell — something only five per cent of a human's brain is committed to, according to Dickey's review.

The study found dogs' noses may even be able to detect pre-symptomatic COVID-19 cases, or even those who will develop symptoms later.

Dickey told CBS News in an interview that this could help limit or stop the virus from spreading.

"The longer the wait is between your test and your result, that's a latent period," he said. "During that time you're running around spreading COVID and you don't know it. The dogs with a direct sniff will be done in seconds.”

Many of the studies conducted, including the work at VCH through the Canine for Care program, have shown dogs' ability to detect the disease correctly with a success rate of more than 90 per cent. Additionally, the studies also showed a high speed at which the dogs could identify cases. In one study in Thailand, researchers reported the dogs had gone through thousands of samples in just a few weeks.

"The dogs take only one to two seconds to detect the virus per sample. Once they detect a patient, they will sit down," said Chulalongkorn University professor Kaywalee Chatdarong, who led the 2021 project. "This takes only one to two seconds. Within one minute, they can manage to go through 60 samples."

Even though the research suggested deploying scent-detection dogs could also be less expensive than rapid or PCR tests, Charles cautioned the logistics that go into training the dog is where it becomes "more prohibitive."

Video: Dogs trained to detect COVID-19 in Vancouver hospitals

In VCH's case, training of the dogs included the medical microbiology lab to provide samples for use, working with infection prevention teams and control nurses, and if a dog identifies an area of concern, cleaning services may need to be utilized. And when it comes to rolling out testing using the dogs, enough staffing is needed for mass screening.

Despite this, while Charles says deploying the dogs widely could be difficult due to staffing and training, they are still one of several tools that can be used in COVID-19 detection.

"I think the way to see those dogs from my perspective is really like another tool in the toolbox and trying to prevent further transmission of pathogen of concern," she said.

Dickey and Junqueira say dogs should have a place in "serious diagnostic methodology" including in helping should the world face a future pandemic.

India's moon rover confirms sulfur and detects several other elements near the lunar south pole

India's moon rover confirms sulfur and detects several other elements near the lunar south pole© Provided by The Canadian Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s moon rover confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected several other elements near the lunar south pole as it searches for signs of frozen water nearly a week after its historic moon landing, India’s space agency said Tuesday.

The rover's laser-induced spectroscope instrument also detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon on the lunar surface, the Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO, said in a post on its website.

The lunar rover had come down a ramp from the lander of India’s spacecraft after last Wednesday’s touchdown near the moon’s south pole. The Chandrayan-3 Rover is expected to conduct experiments over 14 days, the ISRO has said.

The rover "unambiguously confirms the presence of sulfur,” ISRO said. It also is searching for signs of frozen water that could help future astronaut missions, as a potential source of drinking water or to make rocket fuel.

The rover also will study the moon's atmosphere and seismic activity, ISRO Chairman S. Somnath said.

Chandrayaan-3: Pragyan Rover detects Sulphur on Moon, set to uncover more secrets | WION Pulse
3:33

Chandrayaan 3's Pragyan Rover Confirms Sulphur's Presence On Moon's Surface | English News | News18

3:35

Amaze Lab  India’s Lunar Lander Just Sent Back the First Ever Images of the Moon’s South Pole

1:09

On Monday, the rover's route was reprogrammed when it came close to a 4-meter-wide (13-foot-wide) crater. "It’s now safely heading on a new path," the ISRO said.

The craft moves at a slow speed of around 10 centimeters (4 inches) per second to minimize shock and damage to the vehicle from the moon's rough terrain.

After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India last week joined the United States, the Soviet Union and China as only the fourth country to achieve this milestone.

The successful mission showcases India’s rising standing as a technology and space powerhouse and dovetails with the image that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to project: an ascendant country asserting its place among the global elite.

The mission began more than a month ago at an estimated cost of $75 million.

India’s success came just days after Russia’s Luna-25, which was aiming for the same lunar region, spun into an uncontrolled orbit and crashed. It would have been the first successful Russian lunar landing after a gap of 47 years. Russia’s head of the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos attributed the failure to the lack of expertise due to the long break in lunar research that followed the last Soviet mission to the moon in 1976.

Active since the 1960s, India has launched satellites for itself and other countries, and successfully put one in orbit around Mars in 2014. India is planning its first mission to the International Space Station next year, in collaboration with the United States.

Ashok Sharma, The Associated Press

Israeli PM orders ministries to get his OK before secret talks, as drama over Libya meeting persists


JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an order Tuesday mandating that his office approve all secret diplomatic meetings in advance, his spokesperson said, as officials scrambled to contain the growing diplomatic firestorm over Israel's disclosure that its top diplomat had met with his Libyan counterpart.

The exposure of the first-ever known encounter between Israeli and Libyan foreign ministers ignited angry street protests in several Libyan cities and sent Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush fleeing to Turkey for fear of her safety. Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who heads one of the country's rival governments, said he was temporarily suspending Mangoush from her position over the reported meeting. Libya has a history of unremitting hostility toward Israel.

Netanyahu sent the directive Tuesday to all government ministries, requesting they receive approval from his office before conducting any covert political talks. The order also asked that Netanyahu personally approve the publication of news concerning such sensitive meetings. A Netanyahu aide, Topaz Luk, said Netanyahu issued the order in response to fallout from the Libya scandal. It was not known if Netanyahu knew about Foreign Minister Eli Cohen's meeting with Mangoush ahead of time.

Israel's Foreign Ministry announced Sunday that Cohen met Mangoush in Rome last week in what it hailed as a “historic” step toward the normalization of ties with Libya. Having established diplomatic ties with Gulf Arab sheikhdoms, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, during the Trump administration, Netanyahu's government anxiously wants to do so with other Arab states — including Saudi Arabia — to change its status in its long-hostile neighborhood and end its regional isolation.

Related video: Libyan Foreign Minister Fired: Protests over meeting with Israeli foreign minister (Al Jazeera)   Duration 2:28   View on Watch

But the backlash served as a glaring reminder that despite the warming ties between Israel and the Arab world, challenges remain as ordinary citizens in the region still oppose closer relations with Israel.

Within hours of the revelation, Mangoush was on a plane to Turkey, Dbeibah announced her suspension and Netanyahu's political opponents were seizing on the crisis to criticize the foreign minister and his lack of discretion.

A ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes diplomacy, said the ministry was forced to go public after an Israeli news site learned about the meeting. Israeli media said the acting United States ambassador to Israel, Stephanie Hallett, had expressed American displeasure with the Israeli announcement in a meeting with Cohen on Monday. The U.S. Embassy had no immediate comment.

In Libya, protests erupted for a second straight night Monday over the prospect of normalization with Israel. Demonstrators set tires ablaze, waved Palestinian national flags and chanted against Dbeibah, the prime minister.

The leader of Libya's Tripoli-based administration in the country's west, Dbeibah has defied calls for him to hand over power. The oil-rich nation has for years been split between two rival governments in its eastern and western halves. Each side has been backed by armed groups and foreign governments.

Libya was plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Gadhafi was hostile to Israel and a staunch supporter of the Palestinians, including radical militant groups.

Isabel Debre, The Associated Press

Native nations on front lines of climate change share knowledge and find support at intensive camps

PORT ANGELES, Wash. (AP) — Jeanette Kiokun, the tribal clerk for the Qutekcak Native Tribe in Alaska, doesn't immediately recognize the shriveled, brown plant she finds on the shore of the Salish Sea or others that were sunburned during the long, hot summer. But a fellow student at a weeklong tribal climate camp does.

They are rosehips, traditionally used in teas and baths by the Skokomish Indian Tribe in Washington state and other tribes.

“It’s getting too hot, too quick,” Alisa Smith Woodruff, a member of the Skokomish tribe, said of the sun-damaged plant.

Tribes suffer some of the most severe impacts of climate change in the U.S. but often have the fewest resources to respond, which makes the intensive camps on combatting the impact of climate change a vital training ground and community-building space.

People from at least 28 tribes and intertribal organizations attended this year’s camp in August in Port Angeles, Washington, and more than 70 tribes have taken part in similar camps organized by the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians across the U.S. since 2016.

They heard from tribal leaders and scientists and learned about a clam garden that is combatting ocean acidification. They visited the Elwha River, where salmon runs were recently restored after the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe fought to have two dams torn down. They also learned how to make the most of newly available federal funds to add climate staff, restore habitats and reduce carbon emissions. And they set aside time to focus on cultural practices, such as cedar weaving, to unwind from the harsh realities of climate change.

“(What) this camp has done for us is to help us know that there is the network, there is a supporting web out there, that we can help one another," said Jonny Bearcub Stiffarm, a member of the climate advisory board for the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes in Montana. "So we make new songs. We make new stories. We make new visions that we embrace for the positive outcome of our people. We make new warrior societies, new climate warrior societies.”

Knowledge-sharing between tribes is not new. There were trade routes across North America before colonization. During first contact, tribes on the East Coast would send runners as far west as possible to share the news, said Amelia Marchand, citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

“This is kind of like a revitalization and an extension of that,” she said.

Kiokun is one of only three fulltime employees for the Qutekcak Native Tribe. In 2022, a landslide cut off a major road and hurled debris into a bay, damaging a popular fishing spot for tribal elders, said Jami Fenn, the tribe’s financial grant manager.

Out of last year's camp came a group made up of tribes and Native villages across the Chugach region in Alaska, including the Qutekcak Native Tribe, focused on responding to climate change. The group is now working to get a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant so they can rebuild fish habitats ruined by the landslides and add liaisons with federal entities on climate change issues.

Camp participants include those first starting to consider actions to counter the effects of climate change to those who have long had plans in place.

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in Washington attended for the first time last year. Soon after, they added a staff member focused on climate change, installed their first solar panels, and kicked off a friendly competition with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation to see which could become carbon neutral by 2032. This year, the tribe co-hosted the camp.

Loni Greninger, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe vice chair, said a comment from a participant last year had stuck with her, about how the Western red cedar — which is central to the tribe's cultural identity — could die off in the Pacific Northwest because of excessive heat due to climate change.

“To think about a world where there wouldn’t be cedar anymore, where I can’t smell it, where I can’t touch it, where I can’t work with it, where I can’t weave with it, where I can’t use it anymore. That caught my attention,” she said. “I don’t want to be in a world like that.”

This year’s camp had added urgency. The federal government has granted more than $720 million through the Inflation Reduction Act to help tribes plan and adapt to climate change. But Marchand, from the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, said navigating these opportunities can be “overwhelming” for tribal staff juggling many responsibilities.

The training helps tribes see “what the low-hanging fruit is ... where they can leverage their energy," she said.

Near the end of the camp, each tribal team presented projects they were working on and discussed the impact of climate change.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana was among the first tribes in the U.S. to develop a climate response plan, and the tribe's climate change advisory committee chairman willingly shared that with other camp attendees.

“You don’t have to steal it, it’s yours," Michael Durglo Jr. told the group. “Everything I have is yours.”

The Qutekcak Native Tribe is planning a tribal youth climate camp in Alaska, and Durglo has already agreed to teach part of the six-week program.

Kiokun, the tribe's tribal clerk, also plans to help with this work.

“I think I’ve found a new passion," she said.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Hallie Golden, The Associated Press

'Like Snoop Dogg's living room': Smell of pot wafts over notorious U.S. Open court



NEW YORK (AP) — It’s become a stink at the U.S. Open: a pungent marijuana smell that wafted over an outer court, clouded the concentration of one of the world’s top players and left the impression there’s no place left to escape the unofficial scent of the city.

While the exact source of the smell remained a mystery Tuesday, one thing was clear: Court 17, where eighth-seeded Maria Sakkari complained about an overwhelming whiff of pot during her first-round loss, has become notorious among players in recent years for its distinctive, unmistakable odor.

“Court 17 definitely smells like Snoop Dogg’s living room,” said Alexander Zverev, the tournament's 12th-seeded man who won his opening match on the court Tuesday. “Oh my God, it’s everywhere. The whole court smells like weed.”

Stung by stories in the wake of Sakkari’s match Monday that made it appear the U.S. Open's stands are the sporting equivalent of a Phish concert, the United States Tennis Association conducted its own investigation, of sorts, to weed out the source of the smell.

Spokesman Chris Widmaier said the USTA questioned officials and reviewed video of the midday match and found “no evidence” anyone was smoking pot in the stands of Court 17, leading to the speculation it may have come just outside the gates of the intimate stadium from adjacent Corona Park.

And he may not be just blowing smoke. Sakkari herself suggested just that when she complained to the chair umpire while up 4-1 in the first set: “The smell, oh my gosh. I think it’s from the park.”

After her 6-4, 6-4 loss to Rebeka Masarova, Sakkari told reporters: “Sometimes you smell food, sometimes you smell cigarettes, sometimes you smell weed. I mean, it’s something we cannot control, because we’re in an open space. There’s a park behind. People can do whatever they want.”

Flushing Meadows security staffer Ricardo Rojas, who was working the gate outside Court 17 on Monday, said he took a break in the park around the time of Sakkari’s match and "there was definitely a pot smell going on.” But he noted that while he enforces a strict no-smoking policy inside the USTA’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the park is “outside my jurisdiction.”

It’s legal in New York for adults 21 and older to possess up to three ounces of cannabis and up to 24 grams of concentrated cannabis for personal use, and they may smoke or vape cannabis wherever smoking tobacco is allowed.

Adam Placzek, who attended Monday’s match on Court 17 with two friends from Hartford, Connecticut, said he smelled pot but didn’t see anyone in the stands it could have been coming from. He admits he “partakes from time to time” but never would dream of lighting up at the U.S. Open.

“My boss heard about the pot story at the U.S. Open and texted me,” Placzek said. “We told him we were there and he was like, ’Well that explains the smell!”'

Other players in past years have complained about the pot smells emanating from Court 17, a 2,500-seat arena that opened in 2011 in the extreme southwest corner of the complex with little buffer to the park.

Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, who easily won her match on Court 17 on Tuesday, told a similar story: “I smelled it actually today also. You smell it a lot. I think it's just Court 17. That court is so far away, it's almost in the park. I think it’s coming from the park.”

Sakkari, a semifinalist at the U.S. Open two years ago, said the smell didn’t affect her while playing. Still, some fans at Flushing Meadows had little patience for the notion that a top player would be thrown off mentally by the smell of pot.

“It’s New York. It’s everywhere,” fan Diane Patrizio of Southampton, New York, said as she stood in line to enter Court 17. “But what are you going to do?

“There’s so many distractions at the U.S. Open. To hone in on that one thing and let that rattle you? You just can’t do that," she said.

Security staffer Rojas said cannabis odors have become an inescapable fact of life. "Turn every corner and you smell it. It’s part of our world now. You’ve got to get used to it.”

So what would he tell Sakkari or any other player who complains about pot during a world-class competition?

“Try it. ... It might help you relax.”

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

James Martinez, The Associated Press