Dec242022 DmediaNo Comments

Canada’s Hudson Bay Polar Bear Population Plummets

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Canada's Western Hudson Bay polar bear population has fallen 27% in just five years, according to a government report released this week, suggesting climate change is affecting the animals. Every autumn, the bears living along the western edge of the Bay pass through the sub-Arctic tourist town of Churchill, Manitoba, as they return to the sea ice. This has made the population not only the best-studied group in the world, but also the most famous, with the local bear-viewing economy valued at $5.30 million annually. However, Nunavut's government assessment finds that just 618 bears remained in 2021 — a roughly 50% drop from the 1980s. "In some ways, it's totally shocking," said John Whiteman, chief research scientist at conservation nonprofit Polar Bears International. "What's really sobering is that these kinds…
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Dec232022 DmediaNo Comments

CDC: Omicron Subvariant XBB Jumps to 18% of US COVID cases

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The highly contagious omicron subvariant XBB has surged to more than 50% of COVID-19 cases in the northeastern United States and risks spreading fast as millions of Americans began holiday travel on Friday.   It's estimated that at week's end, XBB will account for 18.3% of the COVID-19 cases in the United States, up from 11.2% in the previous week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.   The subvariant is currently dominant in the Northeast, but it accounts for less than 10% of infections in many other parts of the country, the CDC said.  Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, said holiday travel in the United States could speed up the XBB subvariant's spread across the country.   The American…
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Dec232022 DmediaNo Comments

Great Reef Census Reaches Milestone Surveying Australian Icon

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One of the world's largest marine citizen science projects has surveyed its 500th section of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef since the effort began in 2020. This year’s Great Reef Census, which runs from September to December, has revealed severe damage to the coral, while other parts of the 2,300-kilometer World Heritage site are thriving. The Great Barrier Reef is made up of about 3,000 individual reefs, making it the world's largest coral system. The annual reconnaissance of the Great Barrier Reef off northeastern Australia has produced tens of thousands of images. They have been taken by divers and snorkelers onboard more than 60 dive boats, tourism vessels, sailing boats, super-yachts and tugboats, who are surveying the far reaches of the world’s largest coral system. They have visited 500 individual reefs…
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Dec232022 DmediaNo Comments

Russia Mulls Early Return of Space Station Crew After Soyuz Capsule Leak

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Russia's space agency said it is considering a plan to send an empty spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) to bring home three crew members ahead of schedule, after their Soyuz capsule sprang a coolant leak while docked to the orbiting outpost. Roscosmos and NASA officials said at a news conference Thursday they continue to investigate how the coolant line of the capsule's external radiator sustained a tiny puncture last week, just as two cosmonauts were preparing for a routine spacewalk. No final decision has been made about the precise means of flying the capsule's three crew members back to Earth, whether by launching another Soyuz to retrieve them or by the seemingly less likely option of sending them home in the leaky capsule without most of its coolant.…
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Dec232022 DmediaNo Comments

Former Judge on China’s Top Court Suggests End to Prosecution of ‘Zero-COVID’ Violators

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A former judge of the Supreme People's Court, the highest court in China, is calling for the suspension or revocation of cases against some 80 people found guilty of violating "zero-COVID" policy regulations since the advent of omicron, a less deadly variant that began spreading in December 2021. China implemented the zero-COVID policy in January 2020, the month after the virus was first detected in humans in Wuhan. Anyone convicted of obstructing the prevention and control of COVID-19 faced a prison sentence of three to seven years, according to regulations set forth by the National Health and Medical Commission of China on January 20, 2020. Offenses included leaving home during lockdown The offenses included violations such as leaving home during a lockdown without official authorization and concealing travel plans. Both…
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Dec232022 TechmanNo Comments

Whistleblower Files Complaint to Congress Over Twitter Suspending Journalists

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Nearly a week after Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk said that the accounts of suspended journalists would be reinstated, at least six remain blocked. Voice of America’s chief national correspondent, Steve Herman, is among them. Twitter suspended the accounts Dec. 15 over posts about another removed account — @Elonjet — which uses public data to track Musk’s private jet and other aircraft. On Thursday, the Government Accountability Project (GAP), a Washington-based whistleblower protection and advocacy organization, filed a complaint to Congress over the suspension of Herman and other journalists. “All of this is disturbing,” GAP’s Senior Counsel David Seide wrote in a letter addressed to the House and Senate commerce committees. “For no rational reason, Twitter and Mr. Musk wrongly muzzled and continue to muzzle Voice of America’s reporter and…
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Dec222022 TechmanNo Comments

France Planning AI-Assisted Crowd Control for Paris Olympics

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French authorities plan to use an AI-assisted crowd control system to monitor people during the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to a draft law seen by AFP on Thursday. The system is intended to allow the security services to detect disturbances and potential problems more easily, but will not use facial recognition technology, the bill says. The technology could be particularly useful during the highly ambitious open-air opening ceremony  with Olympians sailing down the river Seine in front of a crowd of 600,000 people. French police and sports authorities faced severe criticism in May after shambolic scenes during the Champions League final in Paris when football fans were caught in a crowd crush and teargassed. The draft law, which was presented to the cabinet on Thursday, proposes other security measures including…
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Dec222022 TechmanNo Comments

Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt Building Factories for Battery Powered Vehicles

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Between the close of this year's climate conference in Sharm el Sheikh and the 2023 climate event slated for December 2023 in the UAE, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt are all working to position themselves as new electric vehicle powerhouses. Signaling an era where next-generation electric vehicles are made in a region most strongly associated with fossil fuels, manufacturers in the three countries are seeing new forms of government backing and technology-driven partnerships with international automotive companies.   Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has set the most ambitious targets for electric vehicle manufacturing. Last month Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched the first Saudi vehicle brand Ceer to design, manufacture, and sell sedans and sports utility vehicles targeting consumers in the kingdom and the broader Middle East. Ceer…
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Dec222022 TechmanNo Comments

What Kind of Leader Does Twitter Need?

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If not Elon, then who? That’s a question many are contemplating since Elon Musk, Twitter’s CEO, said this week he was actively looking for a new leader to run the social media network. Musk’s proclamation comes after more than 10 million respondents said in a Musk-created Twitter poll that he should resign. Musk followed up with a tweet that he would resign as soon as he found someone “foolish enough to take the job.” It was one of many twists in the company’s chaotic restructuring since Musk took over in late October, a period that has included mass layoffs and resignations, advertisers fleeing, policy changes and reversals, and the suspension of some journalists’ accounts. Musk’s management style is “break-it-to-build it,” said Andrew Miller, chief growth officer at Interbrand North America,…
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Dec212022 DmediaNo Comments

WHO Expresses Concern About COVID Situation in China 

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The World Health Organization is concerned about a spike in COVID-19 infections in China and is supporting the government to focus its efforts on vaccinating people at the highest risk across the country, the head of the U.N. agency said on Wednesday. Infections have recently spiked in the world's second-largest economy and projections have suggested China could face an explosion of cases and more than a million deaths next year. "The WHO is very concerned over the evolving situation in China, with increasing reports of severe disease," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. Tedros said the agency needed more detailed information on disease severity, hospital admissions and requirements for intensive care units support for a comprehensive assessment of the situation. The comment comes as the German government confirmed it has…
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Dec212022 TechmanNo Comments

Musk Says He’ll Be Twitter CEO Until a Replacement Is Found 

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Elon Musk said Tuesday that he plans on remaining as Twitter's CEO until he can find someone willing to replace him in the job.  Musk's announcement came after millions of Twitter users asked him to step down in an unscientific poll the billionaire himself created and promised to abide by.  "I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!" Musk tweeted. "After that, I will just run the software & servers teams."  Since taking over San Francisco-based Twitter in late October, Musk's run as CEO has been marked by quickly issued rules and policies that have often been withdrawn or changed soon after being made public.  He has also alienated some investors in his electric vehicle company Tesla who are concerned that…
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Dec212022 DmediaNo Comments

NASA Mars Lander Insight Falls Silent After 4 Years

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It could be the end of the red dusty line for NASA's InSight lander, which has fallen silent after four years on Mars. The lander's power levels have been dwindling for months because of all the dust coating its solar panels. Ground controllers at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory knew the end was near, but NASA reported that InSight unexpectedly didn't respond to communications from Earth on Sunday. "It's assumed InSight may have reached the end of its operations," NASA said late Monday, adding that its last communication was Thursday. "It's unknown what prompted the change in its energy." The team will keep trying to contact InSight, just in case. InSight landed on Mars in 2018 and was the first spacecraft to document a marsquake. It detected more than 1,300 quakes…
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Dec202022 DmediaNo Comments

Historic Biodiversity Agreement Reached at UN Conference

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Negotiators reached a historic deal at a U.N. biodiversity conference early Monday that would represent the most significant effort to protect the world's lands and oceans and provide critical financing to save biodiversity in the developing world. The global framework comes on the day the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP15, is set to end in Montreal. China, which holds the presidency at this conference, released a new draft on Sunday that gave the sometimes-contentious talks much-needed momentum. "We have in our hands a package which I think can guide us as we all work together to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and put biodiversity on the path to recovery for the benefit of all people in the world," Chinese Environment Minister Huang Runqiu told delegates before the package was…
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Dec202022 DmediaNo Comments

Mystery Nevada Fossil Site Could Be Ancient Maternity Ward

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Scientists have uncovered new clues about a curious fossil site in Nevada, a graveyard for dozens of giant marine reptiles. Instead of the site of a massive die-off as suspected, it might have been an ancient maternity ward where the creatures came to give birth. The site is famous for its fossils from giant ichthyosaurs — reptiles that dominated the ancient seas and could grow up to the size of a school bus. The creatures — the name means fish lizard — were underwater predators with large paddle-shaped flippers and long jaws full of teeth. Since the ichthyosaur bones in Nevada were excavated in the 1950s, many paleontologists have investigated how all these creatures could have died together. Now, researchers have proposed a different theory in a study published Monday…
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Dec192022 TechmanNo Comments

Twitter Poll Closes, Users Vote in Favor of Musk Exit as CEO 

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More than half of 17.5 million users who responded to a poll that asked whether billionaire Elon Musk should step down as head of Twitter voted yes when the poll closed on Monday.  There was no immediate announcement from Twitter, or Musk, about whether that would happen, though he said that he would abide by the results.  Musk has clashed with some users on multiple fronts and on Sunday, he asked Twitter users to decide if he should stay in charge of the social media platform after acknowledging he made a mistake in launching new speech restrictions that banned mentions of rival social media websites.  In yet another significant policy change, Twitter had announced that users will no longer be able to link to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and other platforms…
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Dec182022 TechmanNo Comments

Twitter Bans Linking to Facebook, Instagram, Other Rivals

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Twitter users will no longer be able to link to certain rival social media websites, including what the company described Sunday as "prohibited platforms" Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon. It's the latest move by Twitter's new owner Elon Musk to crack down on certain speech after he shut down a Twitter account last week that was tracking the flights of his private jet. "We know that many of our users may be active on other social media platforms; however, going forward, Twitter will no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms on Twitter," the company said in a statement. The banned platforms include mainstream websites such as Facebook and Instagram, and upstart rivals Mastodon, Tribel, Nostr, Post and former President Donald Trump's Truth Social. Twitter gave no explanation for…
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Dec182022 DmediaNo Comments

Beloved ‘Hollywood Cat’ Mountain Lion Euthanized in Los Angeles 

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Hollywood Cat is no longer. The Los Angeles area's most famous mountain lion, an aged wild male feline sighted around the city's Griffith Park, was euthanized Saturday, wildlife officials said. For years, it was known to prowl around the hillside "Hollywood" sign visible around much of Los Angeles, a fitting setting for a celebrity cat. It earned the nickname Hollywood Cat, but the mountain lion — estimated to be around 11 years old  — is officially called P-22. State and federal wildlife officers decided earlier this month to capture it due to its erratic behavior, perhaps associated with being struck by a vehicle. Veterinarians found "significant trauma" to its head, right eye and internal organs, California's Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement. The experts also found underlying health…
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Dec182022 TechmanNo Comments

Frustrated Virtual Reality Pioneer Leaves Facebook’s Parent

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A prominent video game creator who helped lead Facebook's expansion into virtual reality has resigned from the social networking service's corporate parent after becoming disillusioned with the way the technology is being managed. John Carmack cut his ties with Meta Platforms, a holding company created last year by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, in a Friday letter that vented his frustration as he stepped down as an executive consultant in virtual reality. "There is no way to sugar coat this; I think our organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy," Carmack wrote in the letter, which he shared on Facebook. ""Some may scoff and contend we are doing just fine, but others will laugh and say, 'Half? Ha! I'm at quarter efficiency!'" In response to an…
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Dec182022 DmediaNo Comments

Uganda Lifts Lockdown in Ebola Epicenter

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Uganda on Saturday lifted a two-month lockdown on two districts at the epicenter of the country's Ebola epidemic, amid cautious hope that the outbreak could end soon. Since authorities declared an Ebola outbreak Sept. 20, the East African nation has registered 142 confirmed cases and 56 deaths, with the disease spreading to the capital, Kampala. The two central districts at the heart of the outbreak, Mubende and Kassanda, were placed under lockdown by President Yoweri Museveni on Oct. 15. But on Saturday, Vice President Jessica Alupo announced that the government was "lifting all movement restrictions and curfew in Mubende and Kassanda districts with immediate effect." The two hotspots were under a dusk-to-dawn curfew, with markets, bars and churches closed as well as personal travel banned. "The lifting of the restrictions…
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Dec182022 TechmanNo Comments

Taiwan to Fine Foxconn for Unauthorized China Investment

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Taiwan's government said on Saturday it would fine Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, for an unauthorized investment in a Chinese chip maker even after the Taiwanese firm said it would be selling the stake. Taiwan has turned a wary eye on China's ambition to boost its semiconductor industry and is tightening legislation to prevent what it says is China stealing its chip technology. Foxconn, a major Apple Inc. supplier and iPhone maker, disclosed in July it was a shareholder of embattled Chinese chip conglomerate Tsinghua Unigroup. Late Friday, Foxconn said in a filing to the Taipei stock exchange its subsidiary in China had agreed to sell its entire equity stake in Tsinghua Unigroup. Taiwan's Economy Ministry said in response that its investment commission, which has to approve all…
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Dec182022 DmediaNo Comments

Biodiversity Talks in Final Days With Many Issues Unresolved

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Negotiators at a United Nations biodiversity conference Saturday have still not resolved most of the key issues around protecting the world's nature by 2030 and providing tens of billions of dollars to developing countries to fund those efforts. The United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP15, is set to wrap up Monday in Montreal and delegates were racing to agree on language in a framework that calls for protecting 30% of global land and marine areas by 2030, a goal known as "30 by 30." Currently, 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas globally are protected. They also have to settle on amounts of funding that would go to financing projects to create protected areas and restore marine and other ecosystems. Early draft frameworks called for closing a $700 billion…
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Dec182022 DmediaNo Comments

Beijing Sees COVID-Linked Deaths After Virus Rules Eased

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Outside a funeral home in eastern Beijing, dozens of people were bundled up in parkas and hats against the freezing temperatures Friday evening as workers in full protective suits wheeled out coffins one by one. When an employee with a clipboard shouted the name of the dead, a relative trundled up to the coffin to examine the body. One of the relatives told The Associated Press their loved one had been infected with COVID-19. Deaths linked to the coronavirus are appearing in Beijing after weeks of China reporting no fatalities, even as the country is seeing a surge of cases. That surge comes as the government last week dramatically eased some of the world's strictest COVID-19 containment measures. On Wednesday, the government said it would stop reporting asymptomatic COVID-19 cases…
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Dec172022 DmediaNo Comments

Action Urged to Ensure Safe Water, Sanitation Globally

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he World Health Organization warns billions of people who lack access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene are at risk of deadly infectious diseases. The finding appears in the WHO and U.N.-Water’s Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report issued this week. Data collected from 121 countries show billions of people are facing a health crisis and states must act urgently to improve water, sanitation and hygiene, known as WASH. The report, the most comprehensive to date, finds most countries are not on track to achieve the U.N. sustainable development goal of providing water and sanitation for all by 2030. Bruce Gordon is unit head, water, sanitation, hygiene and health at the WHO. While dramatic acceleration is needed, he says only 25 percent of countries are…
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Dec162022 DmediaNo Comments

Climate Change Fuels Unprecedented Cholera Increase

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The World Health Organization says climate change is behind an unprecedented surge in the number of cholera outbreaks around the world this year. At least 30 countries have reported outbreaks of the deadly disease this year, about a third higher than normally seen. Philippe Barboza, WHO’s team leader for cholera and epidemic diarrheal diseases, said most of the large cholera outbreaks have coincided with adverse climate events and have been visibly and directly affected by them. “Very severe droughts like, for example, in the Horn of Africa, in the Sahel but also in other parts of the world,” he said. “Major floods, unprecedented monsoons, succession of cyclones. So, most again, most of these outbreaks appear to be fueled by the result of the climate change.” No quick reprieve is in…
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