World

NASA gets serious about UFOs

11 Jun 2022

NASA is officially joining the hunt for UFOs.

The space agency on Thursday announced a new study that will recruit leading scientists to examine unidentified aerial phenomena — a subject that has long fascinated the public and recently gained high-level attention from Congress.

The project will begin early this fall and last around nine months, focusing on identifying available data, how to gather more data in future, and how NASA can analyze the findings to try to move the needle on scientific understanding.

“Over the decades, NASA has answered the call to tackle some of the most perplexing mysteries we know of, and this is no different,” Daniel Evans, the NASA scientist responsible for coordinating the study, told reporters on a call.

While NASA probes and rovers scour the solar system for the fossils of ancient microbes, and its astronomers look for so-called “technosignatures” on distant planets for signs of intelligent civilizations, this is the first time the agency will investigate unexplained phenomena in Earth’s skies.

With its access to a broad range of scientific tools, NASA is well placed not just to demystify UFOs and deepen scientific understanding, but also to find ways to mitigate the phenomena, a key part of its mission to ensure the safety of aircraft, said the agency’s chief scientist, Thomas Zurbuchen.

The announcement comes as the field of UFO study, once a poorly-regarded research backwater, is gaining more mainstream traction.

Last month, Congress held a public hearing into UFOs, while a US intelligence report last year cataloged 144 sightings that it said could not be explained. It did not rule out alien origin.

NASA’s study will be independent of the Pentagon’s Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, but the space agency “has coordinated widely across the government regarding how to apply the tools of science,” it said in a statement.

A paucity in the number of UFO observations make it difficult at present for the scientific community to draw conclusions. 

Therefore, said astrophysicist David Spergel, who will lead the research, the first task of the group would be identifying the extent of data out there from sources including civilians, government, nonprofits and companies. 

Another overarching goal of NASA is to deepen credibility in this field of study.

“There is a great deal of stigma associated with UAP among our naval aviators and aviation community,” said Evans.

“One of the things we tangentially hope to do as part of this study, simply by talking about it in the open, is to help to remove some of the stigma associated with it, and that will yield obviously, increased access to data, more reports, more sightings.”

Southwestern US on alert for dangerous heatwave

10 Jun 2022

A large swathe of the southwestern United States was on alert Thursday for a potentially deadly heatwave that could push temperatures as high as 47 degrees celsius (117 Fahrenheit) over the coming days.

Millions of people in California, Nevada and Arizona were warned to expect dangerous conditions for at least some of the weekend, with the National Weather Service advising residents to stay out of the sun.

While the region usually heats up at this time of year, forecasters warned it would be considerably hotter than average.

Inland and desert areas of California will be particularly hot on Friday and Saturday, with the tourist city of Palm Springs expected to hit 45 degrees, while nearby Ocotillo Wells could reach 47 degrees.

“We’ve had some prior heat waves this year, but not as intense as this one or as long duration,” San Diego weather service meteorologist Alex Tardy said.

Prolonged exposure to high temperatures can be exceedingly dangerous for humans.

The World Health Organization says excessive heat stresses the body, and increases the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

“Heatwaves can acutely impact large populations for short periods of time, often trigger public health emergencies, and result in excess mortality, and cascading socioeconomic impacts,” the WHO says on its website.

Heatwaves and temperature variations are a natural part of the climate, but scientists say human-caused global warming is creating a greater number of extreme events, sometimes with devastating consequences.

In June last year a “heat dome” sat over the western United States and Canada.

The intense temperatures and worst-in-a-millennium drought gripping the region led to numerous fires.

In the village of Lytton, northeast of Vancouver, temperatures reached 49.6 degrees in the days before a destructive fire swept through.

California, along with much of the American West, is on high alert for wildfires.

Years of below-average rainfall has left huge tracts of countryside tinder-dry, and almost the entire state is classed as suffering from severe drought or worse.

In 2020 and 2021, a total of almost seven million acres (2.8 million hectares) were burned in California alone, and forecasters are warning there could be another grim year ahead.

US Capitol riot hearings to link Trump election plots to insurrection

9 Jun 2022

The congressional panel probing the 2021 assault on the US Capitol begins outlining its findings Thursday, promising explosive new revelations that will tie the deadly violence to Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his election defeat.

The first hearing — an evening prime-time presentation 11 months into the investigation — will serve as an “opening statement” on the January 6 insurrection, according to aides of the House committee charged with laying out for the American public the causes of one of the darkest days in the history of US democracy. 

It will also aim to demonstrate that the violence was part of a broader conspiracy by Trump and his inner circle to illegitimately cling to power, tearing up the Constitution and more than two centuries of peaceful transitions from one administration to the next.

“We will be revealing new details showing that the violence of January 6 was the result of a coordinated multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and stop the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden,” a select committee aide said.

“And indeed that former president Donald Trump was at the center of that effort.”

A slickly-produced 90-plus minutes of television — and five subsequent hearings over the coming weeks — will focus on Trump’s role in the multi-pronged effort to return him to the Oval Office as an unelected president by disenfranchising millions of voters. 

Trump has defiantly dismissed the probe as a baseless “witch hunt” — but the public hearings were clearly on his mind Thursday as he launched into a largely false tirade on his social media platform, defending the insurrection as “the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again.”   

The case the committee plans to make is that Trump laid the groundwork for the insurrection through months of lies about fraud in an election described by his own administration as the most secure ever.

His White House is accused of involvement in several potentially illegal schemes to aid the effort, including a plot to seize voting machines and another to appoint fake “alternative electors” from swing states who would ignore the will of their voters and hand victory to Trump. 

– ‘Chilling’ conspiracy –

The select committee’s Republican vice-chairwoman Liz Cheney said on Sunday that the assault on the Capitol was part of a “chilling” conspiracy.

“It is extremely broad. It’s extremely well organized,” she told CBS.

The committee is planning to present live testimony Thursday from two people who interacted with members of the neofascist organization the Proud Boys on January 6 and in the days leading to the violence.

Cheney and chairman Bennie Thompson will make opening arguments before explaining how each of the six hearings, organized by theme, is expected to play out.

They will feature previously unseen video clips of the violence itself and excerpts from a trove of 1,000 interviews, including a “meaningful portion” of discussions with Trump’s senior White House and campaign officials — as well as members of his family.

Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, as well as the former president’s eldest son Don Jr., have all cooperated voluntarily with the committee.

British documentary filmmaker Nick Quested will testify Thursday about his experience shadowing members of the Proud Boys in the days leading up to January 6 and his interactions with them on the day itself.

The Emmy Award-winning director’s evidence is seen as crucial, said a committee aide, because he was on the scene during the first moments of violence against the Capitol Police and “all the chaos that ensued.”

– ‘Ongoing threats’ –

Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who was present at the breach of the first barricade, will describe sustaining head injuries in clashes with the far-right group, which saw its leader and four lieutenants charged on Monday with seditious conspiracy.

The hearings will differ from Trump’s two impeachments, however, in that he will not be represented in the room as he is not on trial — except perhaps in the court of public opinion.

Nevertheless, a number of his most loyal counter-punchers are expected to circle the wagons on Capitol Hill, questioning any damning testimony and challenging the validity of the investigation in TV appearances. 

“It is the most political and least legitimate committee in American history,” the leader of the House Republican minority, Kevin McCarthy, told reporters at the Capitol.

In fact, Congress has wide-ranging oversight powers, and a Trump-appointed federal judge last month emphatically rejected Republicans’ arguments that the committee is illegitimate, overtly partisan and has no real legislative or oversight purpose.

AFP asked Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich for details of the plan for Trump’s defense, but there was no response.

The committee has not confirmed its plans for after the initial slate of hearings, but at least one more presentation and a final report are expected in the fall.

Somalia president urges global community to help avert famine

9 Jun 2022

Somalia’s newly elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud used his inauguration speech on Thursday to appeal for international help to stave off a famine that threatens his drought-stricken country.

Aid agencies have warned of an approaching famine as cases of severe malnutrition among children shoot up in the troubled Horn of Africa nation, which is battling a record drought following four failed rainy seasons.

“There are fears that starvation may strike in some areas,” Mohamud said, urging “the diaspora and the world to play a role in saving our people who were affected by the drought”.

“These conditions were caused by accumulated problems including climate change, destruction of our economic resources and the weakness of our government institutions. Therefore, my government will establish an agency for environmental matters,” he said.

Multiple appeals for aid have gone largely unnoticed so far, with nearly half the country’s population going hungry and more than 200,000 people on the brink of starvation, the United Nations said Monday.

The drought crisis has also hit Somalia’s neighbours, Ethiopia and Kenya, whose presidents were among the foreign leaders attending Thursday’s ceremony, held under heavy security in the Mogadishu airport complex.

In addition to tackling the looming famine, Mohamud — who previously served as president between 2012 and 2017 — faces a grinding Islamist insurgency in parts of the country, making humanitarian access a challenge.

In a sign of the lingering threat, militants fired several rounds of mortar shells in neighbourhoods near the airport in an overnight attack.

– Foster unity –

A former academic and peace activist, Mohamud’s first term was dogged by high-profile corruption scandals and political turmoil, with two of his three prime ministerial appointees forced out, and two central bank governors resigning.

The first Somali leader to win a second term, he has promised to transform Somalia into “a peaceful country that is at peace with the world” and repair damage inflicted by months of political infighting, both at the executive level and between states and the central government.

He vowed Thursday to foster “political stability through consultation, mutual endorsement, and unity among… the federal government and federal member states,” striking a contrasting tone to his confrontational predecessor Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known as Farmajo.

Somalia’s international partners have welcomed the election of Mohamud, with many hoping it will draw a line under a long-running political crisis that has distracted the government from tackling the Al-Shabaab insurgency and the devastating drought.

The United Nations mission in Somalia issued a statement on Twitter saying it “congratulates President HassanSMohamud on his inauguration today, and looks forward to working with his administration in support of achieving national priorities”.

Meanwhile, calls for international aid have raised less than 20 percent of the money needed to avert a repeat of the 2011 famine in Somalia that killed 260,000 people — half of them children under the age of six.

Foreign fighters in Ukraine sentenced to death by pro-Russians

9 Jun 2022

Pro-Russian rebels sentenced to death two British fighters and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine, as a Ukrainian governor called for western arms on Thursday to win the battle for a crucial eastern city.

The death sentences come as Moscow concentrates its firepower on the strategic industrial hub of Severodonetsk, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the fierce fighting could determine the fate of the entire Donbas area.

Separatist authorities in the Donetsk region, which is part of the Donbas, ordered the death penalty for Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Saadun Brahim after they were accused of acting as mercenaries for Kyiv, Russian media reported.

Britain said it was “deeply concerned” by the sentences.

“Under the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war are entitled to combatant immunity,” said a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The two Britons surrendered in April in Mariupol, the southern port city that was captured by Russian troops after a weeks-long siege. They later appeared on Russian TV calling on Johnson to negotiate their release.

Brahim surrendered in March in the eastern town of Volnovakha.

During a trial that lasted three days, the men pleaded guilty to committing “actions aimed at seizing power and overthrowing the constitutional order of the Donetsk People’s Republic”, Russian news agency Interfax said.

A lawyer representing one of them told the TASS news agency that they would appeal.

– ‘Fate of Donbas’ –

Western countries have provided weapons and aid for Ukraine since the February 24 invasion, while a number of people from abroad have come to fight against Russian forces.

The fiercest fighting is now focused on Severodonetsk in the Lugansk region, where Ukrainian officials say their outgunned forces are still holding out amid street battles despite the city being mostly under Russian control. 

The regional governor of Lugansk — also part of the Donbas — said Western artillery would quickly help secure a Ukrainian victory for the bombarded city.

“As soon as we have long-range artillery to be able to conduct duels with Russian artillery, our special forces can clean up the city in two to three days,” governor Sergiy Gaiday said.

In his evening address to the Ukrainian people on Wednesday, Zelensky said the battle for the city was “probably one of the most difficult throughout this war.

“In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there.”

Up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers were being killed every day in frontline fighting and as many as 500 wounded, Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said.

The city of Lysychansk, which is separated from Severodonetsk by a river, is still in Ukrainian hands but under fierce Russian bombardment.

– ‘Foreign mercenaries’ –

After being repelled from Kyiv following their February 24 invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops have refocused their offensive on the Donbas. 

Pro-Russian separatists have held part of that region since 2014.

Moscow, which has repeatedly warned the West against getting involved in the conflict, said it had targeted a Ukrainian training centre for “foreign mercenaries” in the Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv.

The Ukrainian presidency said four people were killed in a Russian air strike on Toshkivka, a village around 25 kilometres (14 miles) south of Severodonetsk.

Four more people were killed in fighting in Donetsk and shelling took the lives of two in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, it said. Another person was killed in the Mykolayiv region in the south. 

In Kyiv, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said the capital was in no immediate danger more than 100 days into the war, but troops were keeping up a line of defence around the city all the same.

Putin, meanwhile, compared his actions to Peter the Great’s conquest of the Baltic coast during his 18th-century war against Sweden.

“By fighting Sweden he was grabbing something… He was taking it back,” he told young entrepreneurs in Moscow.

“It is our responsibility also to take back and strengthen,” Putin said, in an apparent reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The war’s shockwaves are spreading around the world. At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres added his voice to increasingly dire warnings. 

“For people around the world, the war is threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake,” he said.

Zelensky on Thursday called for Russia to be expelled from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), blaming Moscow for “causing hunger” and spurring the global grain crisis by invading his country.

– ‘Nobody to help’ –

Ukraine’s Black Sea ports usually export millions of tonnes of grain each year but have been blocked since the invasion, while western sanctions on Russia have prevented Moscow selling much of its grain abroad, sending food prices soaring.

The FAO warned that poor countries will suffer the most from the crisis as they were “paying more but receiving less food.”

Russia and Turkey made little headway during talks on Wednesday in striking a deal to secure safe passage for grain exports stuck in Ukraine.

The situation on the ground is increasingly desperate. 

In Severodonetsk’s twin city Lysychansk, residents who had chosen to stay were facing fierce Russian bombardments. 

“Every day there are bombings and every day something burns. A house, a flat,” 70-year-old Yuriy Krasnikov told AFP.

“I tried to go to the city authorities, but nobody’s there, everyone has run away.”

burs-dk/ah/

Styrofoam-munching superworms could hold key to plastic upcycling

11 Jun 2022

Packing material, disposable cutlery, CD cases: Polystyrene is among the most common forms of plastic, but recycling it isn’t easy and the vast majority ends up in landfills or finds its way to the oceans where it threatens marine life.

Scientists at Australia’s University of Queensland have now discovered that superworms — the larvae of Zophobas morio darkling beetles — are eager to dine on the substance, and their gut enzymes could hold the key to higher recycling rates.

Chris Rinke, who led a study that was published in the journal Microbial Genomics on Thursday, told AFP previous reports had shown that tiny waxworms and mealworms (which are also beetle larvae) had a good track record when it came to eating plastic, “so we hypothesized that the much larger superworms can eat even more.”

Superworms grow up to two inches (five centimeters) and are bred as a food source for reptiles and birds, or even for humans in countries such as Thailand and Mexico.

Rinke and his team fed superworms different diets over a three week period, with some given polystyrene foam, commonly known as styrofoam, some bran, and others not fed at all.

“We confirmed that superworms can survive on a sole polystyrene diet, and even gain a small amount of weight — compared to a starvation control group — which suggests that the worms can gain energy from eating polystyrene,” he said.

Although the polystyrene-reared superworms completed their life cycle, becoming pupae and then fully developed adult beetles, tests revealed a loss of microbial diversity in their guts and potential pathogens. 

These findings suggested that while the bugs can survive on polystyrene, it is not a nutritious diet and impacts their health.

Next, the team used a technique called metagenomics to analyze the microbial gut community and find which gene-encoded enzymes were involved in degrading the plastic.

– Bio-upcycling – 

One way to put the findings to use would be to provide superworms with food waste or agricultural bioproducts to consume alongside polystyrene. 

“This could be a way to improve the health of the worms and to deal with the large amount of food waste in Western countries,” said Rinke.

But while breeding more worms for this purpose is possible, he envisages another route: creating recycling plants that mimic what the larvae do, which is to first shred the plastic in their mouths then digest it through bacterial enzymes.

“Ultimately, we want to take the superworms out of the equation,” he said, and he now plans more research aimed at finding the most efficient enzymes, then enhancing them further through enzyme engineering.

The breakdown products from that reaction could then be fed to other microbes to create high-value compounds, such as bioplastics, in what he hopes would become an economically viable “upcycling” approach.

Styrofoam-munching superworms could hold key to plastic upcycling

11 Jun 2022

Packing material, disposable cutlery, CD cases: Polystyrene is among the most common forms of plastic, but recycling it isn’t easy and the vast majority ends up in landfills or finds its way to the oceans where it threatens marine life.

Scientists at Australia’s University of Queensland have now discovered that superworms — the larvae of Zophobas morio darkling beetles — are eager to dine on the substance, and their gut enzymes could hold the key to higher recycling rates.

Chris Rinke, who led a study that was published in the journal Microbial Genomics on Thursday, told AFP previous reports had shown that tiny waxworms and mealworms (which are also beetle larvae) had a good track record when it came to eating plastic, “so we hypothesized that the much larger superworms can eat even more.”

Superworms grow up to two inches (five centimeters) and are bred as a food source for reptiles and birds, or even for humans in countries such as Thailand and Mexico.

Rinke and his team fed superworms different diets over a three week period, with some given polystyrene foam, commonly known as styrofoam, some bran, and others not fed at all.

“We confirmed that superworms can survive on a sole polystyrene diet, and even gain a small amount of weight — compared to a starvation control group — which suggests that the worms can gain energy from eating polystyrene,” he said.

Although the polystyrene-reared superworms completed their life cycle, becoming pupae and then fully developed adult beetles, tests revealed a loss of microbial diversity in their guts and potential pathogens. 

These findings suggested that while the bugs can survive on polystyrene, it is not a nutritious diet and impacts their health.

Next, the team used a technique called metagenomics to analyze the microbial gut community and find which gene-encoded enzymes were involved in degrading the plastic.

– Bio-upcycling – 

One way to put the findings to use would be to provide superworms with food waste or agricultural bioproducts to consume alongside polystyrene. 

“This could be a way to improve the health of the worms and to deal with the large amount of food waste in Western countries,” said Rinke.

But while breeding more worms for this purpose is possible, he envisages another route: creating recycling plants that mimic what the larvae do, which is to first shred the plastic in their mouths then digest it through bacterial enzymes.

“Ultimately, we want to take the superworms out of the equation,” he said, and he now plans more research aimed at finding the most efficient enzymes, then enhancing them further through enzyme engineering.

The breakdown products from that reaction could then be fed to other microbes to create high-value compounds, such as bioplastics, in what he hopes would become an economically viable “upcycling” approach.

US expands safety probe into Tesla Autopilot

11 Jun 2022

US regulators expanded a probe into Tesla’s “Autopilot” system, moving the investigation closer to a potential recall of a controversial feature in Elon Musk’s electric vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating whether “Autopilot and associated Tesla systems may exacerbate human factors or behavioral safety risks by undermining the effectiveness of the driver’s supervision,” according to a summary statement.

The agency now considers the probe an “engineering analysis” — which in NHTSA parlance upgrades the status from a “preliminary evaluation” — to determine “whether a safety recall should be initiated or the investigation should be closed.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NHTSA opened the probe in August 2021 after identifying 11 crashes involving a first responder vehicle and a Tesla in which Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control was engaged, and five additional cases were later found that fit into this group. 

Additional forensic data on 11 of the incidents showed the drivers took no action to avert a crash between two and five seconds prior to impact, although they had their hands on the steering wheel.

The agency also probed more than 100 crashes not involving an emergency vehicle in which Tesla Autopilot or another driver-assistance system was engaged.

In about half of these cases, evidence suggests the driver was “insufficiently responsive” to driving conditions, NHTSA said.

Looking at a subset of 43 of those crashes that yielded more detailed data, NHTSA determined that in 37, the driver’s hands were on the steering wheel in the last second prior to the collision.

The automaker has defended the safety of the Autopilot feature, and say when used correctly it reduces the chance of an accident.

But NHTSA said, “A driver’s use or misuse of vehicle components … does not necessarily preclude a system defect” particularly “if the driver behavior in question is foreseeable in light of the system’s design.”

Japan elected to UN Security council for two years

9 Jun 2022

Japan was among five countries elected Thursday to hold a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for 2023 and 2024.

Switzerland, Mozambique, Malta and Ecuador will also take up two-year positions from January 1 next year.

The five will succeed India, Norway, Kenya, Mexico and Ireland.

The Council is made up of 15 members, five of whom are permanent: the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain.

The other ten positions are filled by other countries for two-year stints, five of which are announced each year.

Japan, Switzerland, Mozambique, Malta and Ecuador were voted in by the UN General Assembly in a secret ballot.

Out of the assembly’s 193 members, Japan obtained 184 votes.

Deputy foreign minister Odawara Kiyoshi said Tokyo’s priorities would be “security, including energy and food.”

Mozambique was elected to the Council for the first time in its history with 192 votes.

Switzerland won 187, Malta 185 and Ecuador 190.

James Webb telescope hit by micrometeoroid: NASA

10 Jun 2022

A mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope was struck by a micrometeoroid last month but is expected to continue to function normally, NASA said Thursday.

“After initial assessments, the team found the telescope is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements despite a marginally detectable effect in the data,” the US space agency said.

“Webb’s beginning-of-life performance is still well above expectations, and the observatory is fully capable of performing the science it was designed to achieve,” it added.

One of the space observatory’s primary mirror segments suffered an impact from a micrometeoroid, which tend to be smaller than a grain of sand, between May 23 and 25.

The telescope, which is expected to cost NASA nearly $10 billion, is among the most expensive scientific platforms ever built, comparable to its predecessor Hubble, and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Webb’s mission includes the study of distant planets, known as exoplanets, to determine their origin, evolution and habitability, and it is expected to produce “spectacular color images” of the cosmos in mid-July.

The telescope has spent the past few months aligning its instruments in preparation for the big reveal.

NASA said micrometeoroid strikes are an “unavoidable aspect of operating any spacecraft” and “were anticipated when building and testing the mirror.”

“This most recent impact was larger than was modeled, and beyond what the team could have tested on the ground,” it said.

Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA Goddard, said that “with Webb’s mirrors exposed to space, we expected that occasional micrometeoroid impacts would gracefully degrade telescope performance over time.

“Since launch, we have had four smaller measurable micrometeoroid strikes that were consistent with expectations,” Feinberg said.

NASA said that to protect Webb, flight teams can turn the optics away from known meteor showers.

It said the May micrometeoroid strike was not the result of a meteor shower but an “unavoidable chance event.”

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