Month: March 2023

A Pentagon study has found high rates of cancer among military pilots and for the first time has shown that ground crews who fuel, maintain and launch those aircraft are also getting sick. 

The data had long been sought by retired military aviators who have raised alarms for years about the number of air and ground crew members they knew who had cancer. They were told that earlier military studies had found they were not at greater risk than the general U.S. population. 

In its yearlong study of almost 900,000 service members who flew on or worked on military aircraft between 1992 and 2017, the Pentagon found that air crew members had an 87% higher rate of melanoma and a 39% higher rate of thyroid cancer, while men had a 16% higher rate of prostate cancer and women a 16% higher rate of breast cancer. Overall, the air crews had a 24% higher rate of cancer of all types. 

The study showed ground crews had a 19% higher rate of brain and nervous system cancers, a 15% higher rate of thyroid cancer and a 9% higher rate of kidney or renal cancers, while women had a 7% higher rate of breast cancer. The overall rate for cancers of all types was 3% higher. 

There was some good news reported as well. Both ground and air crews had far lower rates of lung cancer, and air crews also had lower rates of bladder and colon cancers. 

The data compared the service members with the general U.S. population after adjusting for age, sex and race. 

The Pentagon said the new study was one of the largest and most comprehensive to date. An earlier study had looked at just Air Force pilots and had found some higher rates of cancer, while this one looked across all services and at both air and ground crews. Even with the wider approach, the Pentagon cautioned that the actual number of cancer cases was likely to be even higher because of gaps in the data, which it said it would work to remedy. 

The study “proves that it’s well past time for leaders and policy makers to move from skepticism to belief and active assistance,” said retired Air Force Col. Vince Alcazar, a member of the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association, which had lobbied the Pentagon and Congress for help. Alcazar serves on the association’s medical issues committee. 

The study was required by Congress in the 2021 defense bill. Now, because higher rates were found, the Pentagon must conduct an even bigger review to try to understand why the crews are getting sick. 

Isolating potential causes is difficult, and the Pentagon was careful to note that this study “does not imply that military service in air crew or ground crew occupations causes cancer, because there are multiple potential confounding factors that could not be controlled for in this analysis,” such as family histories, smoking or alcohol use. 

But aviation crews have long asked for the Pentagon to look closely at some of the environmental factors they are exposed to, such as jet fuels and solvents used to clean and maintain jet parts, sensors and their power sources in aircraft nose cones, and the massive radar systems on the decks of the ships they land on. 

When Navy Capt. Jim Seaman would come home from a deployment aboard an aircraft carrier, his gear would reek of jet fuel, his widow, Betty Seaman, said. The A-6 Intruder pilot died in 2018 at age 61 of lung cancer. Betty Seaman still has his gear stored and it still smells of fuel, “which I love,” she said. 

She and others wonder if there’s a link. She said crews would talk about how even the ship’s water systems would smell of fuel. 

She said she and others have mixed feelings about finally seeing in data what they have suspected for years about the aviation cancers. But “it has the potential to do a lot of good as far as early communication, early detection,” she said. 

The study found that when crew members were diagnosed with cancer, they were more likely to survive than members of the general population, which the study suggested was because they were diagnosed earlier due to regular required medical checkups and were more likely to be in better health because of their military fitness requirements. 

The Pentagon acknowledged that the study had gaps that likely led to an undercount of cancer cases. 

The military heath system database used in the study did not have reliable cancer data until 1990, so it may not have included pilots who flew early-generation jets in the prior decades. 

The study also did not include cancer data from the Department of Veterans Affairs or state cancer registries, which means it did not capture cases from former crew members who got sick after leaving the military medical system. 

“It is important to note that study results may have differed had additional older former service members been included,” it said. 

To remedy that, the Pentagon is now going to pull data from those registries to add to the total count, the study said. 

The second phase of the study will try to isolate causes. The 2021 bill requires the Defense Department not only to identify “the carcinogenic toxicants or hazardous materials associated with military flight operations,” but also determine the type of aircraft and locations where diagnosed crews served. 

After her husband got sick, Betty Seaman asked him if he would have chosen differently, knowing his service might be linked to his cancer. 

“I flat-out asked Jim. And he, without hesitation, said, ‘I would have still done it.'” 
…

The white-colored humanoid “Garmi” does not look much different from a typical robot — it stands on a platform with wheels and is equipped with a black screen on which two blue circles acting as eyes are attached.

But retired German doctor Guenter Steinebach, 78, said: “For me, this robot is a dream.”

Not only is Garmi able to perform diagnostics on patients, it can also provide care and treatment for them. Or at least, that is the plan.

Garmi is a product of a new sector called geriatronics, a discipline that taps advanced technologies like robotics, IT and 3D technology for geriatrics, gerontology and nursing.

About a dozen scientists built Garmi with the help of medical practitioners like Steinebach at the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence.

Part of the Technical University of Munich, the institute based its unit specializing in geriatronics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a ski resort that is home to one of the highest proportion of elderly people in Germany.

Europe’s most populous country is itself one of the world’s most rapidly ageing societies.

With the number of people needing care growing quickly and an estimated 670,000 carer posts to go unfilled in Germany by 2050, the researchers are racing to conceive robots that can take over some of the tasks carried out today by nurses, carers and doctors.

“We have ATMs where we can get cash today. We can imagine that one day, based on the same model, people can come to get their medical examination in a kind of technology hub,” said Abdeldjallil Naceri, 43, the lead scientist of the lab.

Doctors could then evaluate the results of the robot’s diagnostics from a distance, something that could be particularly valuable for people living in remote communities.

Alternatively the machine could offer a more personalized service at home or in a care home — by serving meals, opening a bottle of water, calling for help in case of a fall or organizing a video call with family and friends.

‘We must get there’

In the Garmisch laboratory, Steinebach sat down at a table equipped with three screens and a joystick as he got ready to test the robot’s progress.

At the other end of the room, a researcher designated as a test model took his spot in front of Garmi, which poses a stethoscope on his chest — an action directed by Steinebach from afar via the joystick.

Medical data immediately appear on the doctor’s screen.

“Imagine if I had had that in my old practice,” Steinebach said, while moving the joystick.

Besides the retired doctor, other medical practitioners also visit the lab regularly to offer their ideas and feedback on the robot.

“It’s like a three-year-old child. We have to teach it everything,” Naceri said.

It’s anyone’s guess when Garmi might be ready on a commercial scale.

But Naceri is convinced that “we must get there, the statistics are clear that it is urgent.”

“From 2030, we must be able to integrate this kind of technology in our society.”

Question of trust

And if it is indeed deployed one day, residents of the Sankt Vinzenz retirement home in Garmisch, a partner of the project, will likely see Garmi whizzing down the corridors.

Just thinking about it made Mrs Rohrer, a 74-year-old resident at the home, smile.

“There are things that a robot can do, for example, serve a drink or bring meals,” she said as Eva Pioskowik, the director of the home, did her nails.

Pioskowik, who battles with staffing shortages on a daily basis, said she did not expect the robot to take the place of health workers.

“But it could allow our staff to spend a bit more time with the residents,” she said.

For Naceri’s team, one of the major challenges is not technological, medical or financial.

Rather, it remains to be seen if most patients will accept the robot.

“They need to trust the robot,” he said. “They need to be able to use it like we use a smartphone today.”
…

The U.N.’s premiere global body fighting for gender equality on Saturday called for wide-ranging efforts to close the gap between men and women in today’s technology-driven world and urged zero tolerance for gender-based violence and harassment online.

In a document approved by consensus after all-night negotiations at the end of a two-week meeting, the Commission on the Status of Women expressed grave concern at the interrelation between offline and online violence, harassment and discrimination against women and girls — and it condemned the increase in these acts.

It called for a significant increase in investments by the public and private sector to bridge the gender digital divide. It also called for the removal of barriers to equal access to digital technology for all women and girls, and new policies and programs to achieve gender parity in emerging scientific and technological fields.

Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, an entity of the United Nations focusing on gender equality and the empowerment, called the document “game-changing” in promoting a blueprint for a more equal and connected world for women and girls. The challenge now, she said, is for governments, the private sector, civil society and young people to turn the blueprint “into reality for all women and girls.”

At the start of the commission’s two-week meeting, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said its focus was very timely because women and girls are being left behind as technology races ahead.

“Three billion people are still unconnected to the internet, the majority of them women and girls in developing countries, [and] in least developed countries just 19% of women are online,” Guterres said. “Globally, girls and women make up just one-third of students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics” and men outnumber women two to one in the tech industry.

Bahous told the opening meeting that “the digital divide has become the new face of gender inequality,” with 259 million more men than women online last year. She also cited a survey of female journalists from 125 countries that found three-quarters had experienced online harassment in the course of their work and a third had engaged in self-censorship in response.

The “agreed conclusions” document adopted Saturday by the 45-member commission calls for equal quality education for women and girls in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, information and communications technology, and digital literacy so they can thrive in the rapidly changing world.

During lengthy negotiations on the document, which has 93 paragraphs, U.N. diplomats said language on women’s rights was challenged by Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Holy See and human rights language was also challenged by those countries as well as Cuba and China. There were also intense debates over language on gender-based violence facilitated by technology, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations were closed.

The final document reaffirms the 1995 Beijing platform adopted by 189 countries which said for the first time in a U.N. document, that women’s human rights include the right to control and decide “on matters relating to their sexuality, including their sexual and reproductive health, free of discrimination, coercion and violence.”

The final issue blocking consensus was Pakistan’s insistence on adding a reference to “foreign occupation” to the document, and Israel’s strong opposition, diplomats said. The reference was not included and before the document’s adoption Pakistan’s representative expressed regret that the needs and priorities of women belonging to developing countries and facing humanitarian crisis including foreign occupation were not included.
…

Brazilian federal agents aboard three helicopters descended on an illegal mining site on Tuesday in the Amazon rainforest. They were met with gunfire, and the shooters escaped, leaving behind an increasingly familiar find for authorities: Starlink internet units.

Starlink, a division of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has almost 4,000 low-orbit satellites across the skies, connecting people in remote corners of the Amazon and providing a crucial advantage to Ukrainian forces on the battlefield. The lightweight, high-speed internet system has also proved a new and valuable tool for Brazil’s illegal miners, with reliable service for coordinating logistics, receiving advance warning of law enforcement raids and making payments without flying back to the city.

Agents from the Brazilian environment agency’s special inspection group and the federal highway police rapid response group on Tuesday found one Starlink terminal up and running next to a pit, an officer who participated in the raid told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity over concerns for his personal safety.

They also seized mercury, gold and ammunition, and destroyed fuel and other equipment used by miners in an area known as Ouro Mil, controlled by Brazil´s most feared criminal organization, known as the First Command of the Capital, according to federal investigations.

Since taking office this year, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has sought to crack down on environmental violations, particularly illegal mining in Yanomami land, Brazil’s largest Indigenous territory. In recent years, an estimated 20,000 prospectors contaminated vital waterways with mercury used to separate gold. They have disrupted traditional Indigenous life, brought disease and caused widespread famine.

The environment agency, known as Ibama, has seized seven Starlink terminals in Yanomami land over the past five weeks, the agency’s press office said.

Illegal miners have long used satellite internet to communicate and coordinate, but until now that entailed sending a technician, usually by plane, to install a heavy, fixed antenna that cannot be carried off when mining sites move or are raided. And the connection was slow and unstable, especially on rainy days.

Starlink – which first became available in Brazil last year and has spread rapidly – solved those problems. Installation is do-it-yourself, the equipment works even on the move, speed is as fast as in Brazil´s large cities and it works during storms.

Starlink has long viewed the Amazon as an opportunity. That was underscored by Musk’s visit to Brazil last May, when he met with then-President Jair Bolsonaro.

“Super excited to be in Brazil for launch of Starlink for 19,000 unconnected schools in rural areas & environmental monitoring of Amazon,” Musk tweeted at the time.

That project with the government hasn’t advanced, however. SpaceX and the communications ministry haven’t signed any contract, and only three terminals were installed in Amazon schools for a 12-month trial period, the ministry’s press office said in an emailed response to questions.

Nevertheless, Starlink has taken off in the region and begun ushering in change.

In Atalaia do Norte, on the western reaches of the Brazilian Amazon near the borders with Peru and Colombia, Rubeney de Castro Alves installed Starlink at his hotel in December. Now, he can make bank transfers and conduct video calls. He even started bingeing Netflix.

“There are so many new things to watch that I’m not even sleeping,” Alves said, chuckling.

His son once flew all the way to Manaus, the state capital 1,140 kilometers (708 miles) away, just to negotiate with a group of tourists via conference call. Today, internet at his 11-room hotel in Atalaia do Norte is more reliable than in Manaus, and he bought a second terminal for his tour boat to enable communications on its 10-day voyages, Alves said.

With high demand for internet, dozens of the riverside town’s 21,000 residents flock to Alves’ hotel each day. Its balcony is a meeting point for teenagers who spend hours playing online games on their phones.

“It made a revolution in our city,” Alves said.

A world away, in Ukraine, Starlink has yielded advantages on the battlefield in its war with Russia.

Ukraine has received some 24,000 Starlink terminals that allow continued internet in the most vulnerable regions of the southeast even amid ongoing Russian shelling. In large Ukrainian cities, authorities have set up “points of resilience” that offer free internet along with hot beverages.

The benefits of connectivity were immediately apparent to bad actors in the Amazon, Hugo Loss, operations coordinator for Brazil´s environment agency, told the AP in a phone interview.

“This technology is extremely fast and really improves the ability to manage an illegal mine,” Loss said. “You can manage hundreds of mining sites without ever setting foot in one.”

Another official with the environment agency told AP it is just beginning to expel miners from the Yanomami territory and the spread of Starlink has complicated that mission. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about personal safety.

An unauthorized reseller of Starlink in Boa Vista, the gateway for travel into Yanomami territory, has been marketing the units in a WhatsApp group for illegal miners and promising same-day delivery. Her price for a terminal is $1,600— six times what Alves pays for service at his little hotel in Atalaia do Norte. Others are selling the Starlink terminals on Facebook groups for illegal miners, like one called “Fanatics for Prospecting.”

As lawbreakers have gained access to superior internet service, authorities have started using Starlink themselves. Federal agents installed a terminal at a new checkpoint on the Uraricoera River – an important corridor for miners entering Yanomami territory. The official who informed the AP about the Tuesday raid used Starlink to send photos and even heavy video files of their operation.

Brazil’s environment agency told the AP via email that it, along with other federal bodies, is studying how to block Starlink’s signal in illegal mining areas, calling it crucial to stopping the activity.

The AP emailed James Gleeson, SpaceX’s Communications Director, questions about Starlink’s presence in Brazil and its use by illegal miners in remote areas, but received no response.
…

Barbara Washington is a lifelong resident of Convent, Louisiana, a town of fewer than 500 residents along the Mississippi River that has been hit hard by cancer.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven … about eight,” she told VOA, counting the number of people on her street who have died from cancer in recent years. “And my sister died from lung cancer at just 57 years old. She didn’t smoke. She just worked at one of the chemical plants at night.”

Convent is in the southeastern part of the state, part of a corridor surrounded by chemical plants.

U.S. first lady Jill Biden’s recent visit to the nearby city of New Orleans highlighted the region’s dubious distinction of having some of the highest cancer rates in the nation. It’s a scourge the Biden administration aims to combat with an ambitious effort to cut America’s cancer death rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years.

“It’s a problem in southeast Louisiana, but it’s really a statewide problem,” said Joe Ramos, director and chief executive officer of the Louisiana Cancer Research Center (LCRC). “Louisiana is consistently among the worst-hit by cancer in the nation. We’re always among the bottom five states as far as the number of people diagnosed with cancer, as well as, unfortunately, the number of people who die from it.”

Ramos said carcinogenic pollutants in the air are undoubtedly a part of the problem, but that behavioral factors such as smoking, drinking and obesity also contribute to the state’s above-average cancer rate.

“This is a complicated problem,” he told VOA. “But the president’s focus on the issue underscores how important that coming together to find a solution is for the people of this state and this country.”

Many causes

Convent is part of what is known as Cancer Alley, a 136-kilometer stretch along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge that contains more than 200 petrochemical plants and refineries.

The area is vital for America’s industrial needs, accounting for 25% of the country’s petrochemical production. But local residents can’t help but think about the human costs involved.

“This was such a beautiful place to grow up,” said Myrtle Felton, another Convent resident, recalling her childhood here in the 1960s. “It was so clean, and you could grow a garden and play outside for as long as your parents would let you.

“Nowadays, you wake up in the morning, and you find chemical residue from the surrounding factories covering your car and damaging it,” she said. “You find the side of your house is discolored yellow. Your roof, too. Pollution is billowing out from the factories, and it’s scary because you can’t help thinking that you’re breathing this stuff. It’s best not to go outside some days.”

Not everyone is convinced, however, that petrochemical plants are to blame for Louisiana’s high prevalence of cancer. Senator Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor and a Republican from Louisiana, pushed back against this assertion.

“We have a higher incidence of cigarette smoking, of obesity, of certain viral infections and other things which increase the incidence of cancer in our state,” he told New Orleans’ Times-Picayune in 2021.

“So, whenever you speak of Cancer Alley … you have to do what is called a regression analysis to separate out those factors,” Cassidy added, “and several others that could be an alternative, and a more typical explanation for why some folks may have cancer. When you do that, the amount of cancer which is left unexplained is pretty marginal.”

Comprehensive solutions required

In a study published last year, Tulane University’s Environmental Law Clinic estimated that high levels of toxic air pollution were responsible for 85 cancer cases each year in Louisiana.

The study also found that neighborhoods with higher poverty levels were most susceptible to living with higher levels of toxic air pollution. Poorer neighborhoods with the most toxic air had an average annual cancer rate of 502 cases per 100,000 people, compared with the state average of 480.3 cases per 100,000 residents.

Those defending the right of the industrial plants to operate so close to residents say the correlation between the plants and cancer isn’t as conclusive as factors such as obesity and smoking.

Kim Terrell, lead author of the Tulane clinic’s study, however, insists focusing on one cause of cancer over another is counterproductive.

“To me, it’s like saying that drinking and driving kills more people than texting and driving,” she told VOA. “Who cares? Neither is a good idea, and both should be stopped. Similarly, there are a lot of different risk factors for cancer, and if we’re going to improve health outcomes in our state, we have to tackle all of those risk factors and not just focus on one at a time.”

Cancer Moonshot

That’s what the Biden administration aims to do through the Cancer Moonshot, an initiative Joe Biden first championed as vice president in 2016 to supercharge America’s fight against cancer.

Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015, proposed $2.8 billion in new Cancer Moonshot funding in his 2024 federal budget submitted to Congress this month. Among the many projects the Moonshot would fund are efforts to better understand how environmental factors affect cancer risks, boost cancer screening, decrease preventable cancers, better support patients and caregivers, and augment cutting-edge cancer research.

While Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, declared Biden’s budget “dead on arrival,” federal efforts to combat deadly diseases from Alzheimer’s to cancer have long garnered bipartisan support.

“Everyone who wants to be a part of this fight has a place,” said LCRC director Ramos. “It’s going to take academia, the public sector, the private sector — all of us working together on a variety of solutions at once.”

Moving forward

Nearly 2 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year, with more than 600,000 deaths. A disproportionate number of diagnoses and deaths will occur in Louisiana, where Jill Biden last week committed to “building a world where cancer is not a death sentence.”

“I think the first lady’s visit to Louisiana last week is an indication of the administration’s continued commitment to cancer research,” said Erik Flemington, a professor of cancer research at the Tulane University School of Medicine, a partner in LCRC, “and I think it shows their appreciation for the importance of reaching parts of the country that are more highly impacted by cancer.”

But Louisiana isn’t only highly impacted. It’s also a state that many believe is poised to make big advances in the fight against cancer.

“The Louisiana Cancer Research Center — and I like to call it Louisiana’s Cancer Research Center — is embedded in the community at so many different points,” Ramos told VOA. “We’re engaged in clinical trials in communities across the state because we want to understand exactly what our communities are going through and how best to help them survive and thrive.”

He added, “Our physical center is also in the heart of the biomedical center where our faculty can create startup companies and work with existing private companies to develop more effective diagnostics and therapeutics.”

Ramos believes the LCRC will have a big role in achieving Biden’s ambitious Moonshot goals.

That would be important news for Louisianans like Washington and Felton, who, through activist organizations such as Inclusive Louisiana seek to draw attention to the devastating impact of cancer on their communities.

“Our health is all we have,” Washington told VOA. “We need help lowering the risk of cancer in our communities. Finding a cure is important, yes, but so is putting a moratorium on any new chemical plant trying to come to our community, and having our government regulate any plant that’s already here. This is our life we’re talking about, and it matters.”
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Advisers to the World Health Organization urged China to release all information related to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic Saturday after new findings were briefly shared on an international database used to track pathogens.

New sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as well as additional genomic data based on samples taken from a live animal market in Wuhan, China, in 2020 were briefly uploaded to the GISAID database by Chinese scientists earlier this year, allowing them to be viewed by researchers in other countries, according to the statement from the WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO).

The sequences suggested that raccoon dogs were present in the market and might have also been infected by the coronavirus, providing a new clue in the chain of transmission that eventually reached humans.

Access to the information was subsequently restricted “apparently to allow further data updates” by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

WHO officials discussed the matter with Chinese colleagues, who explained that the new data were intended to be used to update a preprint study from 2022. China’s CDC plans to resubmit the paper to the scientific journal Nature for publication, according to the statement.

WHO officials say such information, while not conclusive, represents a new lead into the investigation of COVID’s origins and should have been shared immediately.

“These data do not provide a definitive answer to the question of how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important in moving us closer to that answer,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday. “These data could have – and should have – been shared three years ago.”

“We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data, and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results,” he said.

SAGO was tasked by the WHO to continue to investigate the origins of the pandemic that has killed nearly 7 million people worldwide.

“(This is) newly analyzed data and nothing new,” said George Gao, professor at the Institute of Microbiology at the CDC, when asked by Reuters why the sequences were not uploaded before. He said that GISAID, the pathogen database, took down the sequences, not the scientists.

“All this must be left for scientists to work on, NOT for journalists or [the] public. We are eager to know the answer,” he added in an emailed statement.

The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was shut down by Chinese authorities after the novel coronavirus emerged in the city in late 2019. The market has since been a focus of study of whether the virus had infected several other species before jumping to humans.

The WHO and other scientists have also said they cannot rule out the possibility that the virus emerged from a high-security laboratory in Wuhan that studies dangerous pathogens. China denies any such link.

The 2022 preprint paper said that a small portion of 923 samples collected from the stalls and sewage systems in and around the market tested positive for the virus; no virus was detected in 457 animal samples tested. The paper said initially that raccoon dogs were not among the animals tested.

The new analysis suggests “that raccoon dog and other animals may have been present before the market was cleaned as part of the public health intervention,” the SAGO statement said.
…

Burundi has declared a national public health emergency after polio was detected in a 4-year-old and two other children who had been in contact with the child.  

The polio outbreak is Burundi’s first in more than 30 years. 

The landlocked African country is preparing a vaccination campaign targeting eligible children, from newborns to 7-year-olds. It will be ready in a few weeks. 

In addition to the children, health officials found five polio samples in its surveillance of wastewater, confirming the presence of circulating poliovirus type 2.  Early detection is critical in containing an outbreak of the disease.

Type 2 infections can occur when the weakened strain of the virus contained in the oral polio vaccine circulates among under-immunized populations for long periods. 

The highly infectious disease is also spread through contaminated water and food or contact with an infected person.  
…

The COVID-19 pandemic could settle down this year to a point where it poses a threat similar to flu, the World Health Organization said Friday.

The WHO voiced confidence that it will be able to declare an end to the emergency sometime in 2023, saying it was increasingly hopeful about the pandemic phase of the virus coming to a close.

Last weekend marked three years since the U.N. health agency first described the situation as a pandemic — though WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insists countries should have jolted into action several weeks before.

“I think we’re coming to that point where we can look at COVID-19 in the same way we look at seasonal influenza,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a press conference. “A threat to health, a virus that will continue to kill. But a virus that is not disrupting our society or disrupting our hospital systems, and I believe that that will come, as Tedros said, this year.”

The WHO chief said the world was in a much better position now than it has been at any time during the pandemic.

“I am confident that this year we will be able to say that COVID-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC),” Tedros said.

5,000 a week

The WHO declared a PHEIC — the highest level of alarm it can sound — on January 30, 2020, when, outside of China, fewer than 100 cases and no deaths had been reported.

But it was only when Tedros described the worsening situation as a pandemic on March 11 that year that many countries seemed to wake up to the danger.

“Three years later, there are almost 7 million reported deaths from COVID-19, although we know that the actual number of deaths is much higher,” Tedros said.

He was pleased that, for the first time, the weekly number of reported deaths over the past four weeks has been lower than when he first described COVID-19 as a pandemic.

But he said more than 5,000 deaths reported per week was 5,000 too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated.

Data emerges

The first infections with the new coronavirus were recorded in late 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

“Even as we become increasingly hopeful about the end of the pandemic, the question of how it began remains unanswered,” Tedros said, as he turned to address data that recently came to light concerning the early days of the pandemic.

The data, from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, relates to samples taken at the Huanan market in Wuhan in 2020.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID, said they showed molecular evidence that animals were sold at the market, including animals susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 disease.

The information was published on the GISAID global science initiative database in late January, then was taken down again — but not before some scientists downloaded and analyzed it and informed the WHO last weekend.

“These data could have — and should have — been shared three years ago,” Tedros lamented. “We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data, and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results.”

Van Kerkhove said all theories about where the outbreak began remain on the table.

They include entering the human population via a bat, an intermediate host animal or through a biosecurity breach at a laboratory, she said.
…

The Southern Nevada Water Authority on Thursday voted to accept a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to fund cloud seeding in other Western states whose rivers feed the parched desert region. 

The weather modification method uses planes and ground-based cannons to shoot silver iodide crystals into clouds, attracting moisture to the particles that fall as additional snow and rain. 

The funding comes as key reservoirs on the Colorado River hit record lows and booming Western cities and industries fail to adjust their water use to increasingly shrinking supplies. 

“This money from Reclamation is wonderful. We just have to decide how exactly it’s going to benefit us,” said Andrew Rickert, who coordinates Colorado’s cloud seeding for the Colorado Water Conservation Board. 

The federal funding will go toward upgrading manual generators to ones that can be remotely operated and using planes to seed clouds in key parts of the Upper Colorado River Basin, according to Southern Nevada Water Authority documents for its board meeting. 

Securing enough generators could be a challenge, Rickert said. “There’s not a lot of makers of cloud seeding generators,” he said. “Not only do we have to make sure we can find that, but that they could make as many as we need.” 

The Bureau of Reclamation declined to comment about the funding decision. 

The Southern Nevada Water Authority said the grant, while administered by Nevada, is not exclusively for the state’s benefit. “It will all be used to do cloud seeding in the Upper Basin for the benefit of all the river’s users,” wrote public outreach officer Corey Enus over email. 

In the Upper Colorado River Basin, Utah and Colorado have been seeding clouds for decades. Wyoming has nearly a decade of experience, and New Mexico recently began approving permits for warm weather seeding in the eastern part of the state. 

Colorado, Utah and Wyoming each spend between about $1 million and $1.5 million a year for cloud seeding. Utah’s legislature recently expanded its investment in cloud seeding programs in next year’s state budget, allocating more than $14 million. 

Numerous studies indicate cloud seeding can add 5% to 15% more precipitation from storm clouds. Contractors work with states to estimate how much ends up in water supplies. 

Since 2007, various groups have contributed to the overall cloud seeding budgets in those states. In 2018, several entities, including the Southern Nevada Water Authority, committed to long-term funding for those efforts, collectively contributing about $1.5 million annually. 

The reclamation bureau regularly funded cloud seeding operations toward the end of the 20th century, but has largely backed off in recent years, according to Frank McDonough a scientist at the nonprofit Desert Research Institute. 

“The research that’s come out over the last 10 years or so really seems to have convinced them that cloud seeding is a legitimate way to increase snowpack and subsequent water resources,” McDonough said. 

The grant from the bureau will be spread out over two years, temporarily doubling financial support for the Upper Basin cloud seeding from outside parties. 

The seven Colorado River basin states are still negotiating with the Bureau of Reclamation on how they will conserve 2 million to 4 million acre-feet of water. The bureau is expected to release a draft proposal this month and expects to finalize plans by mid-August, when it typically announces the amount of water available from the Colorado River for the following year. 

With such an overallocated river, everyone will have to use less, particularly the agricultural sector, said Kathryn Sorensen of the Kyl Center for Water Policy think tank. 

“I think a lot the allure of this type of program is it’s easier to talk about how do we get more than to talk about who has to use less,” she said. 
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U.S. former officials and experts are urging greater efforts to thwart Chinese espionage, which many believe has enabled Beijing to develop a range of advanced weaponry on the back of stolen American technology.

James Anderson, a former acting undersecretary of defense for policy, said China stole U.S. military technology for developing its J-20 fighter jet and has benefited immensely.

“They have profited greatly from their thievery over the years,” he said. “They’ve put it to good use, and they’ve come up with an advanced fifth-generation fighter,” noting that it’s “hard to say, short of actual combat,” how the J-20 matches up against the U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter.

Matthew Brazil is a researcher and writer with Jamestown Foundation who served in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where he both promoted and controlled U.S. high-technology exports to China. He said the FBI doesn’t have enough people to keep track of China’s activities in the U.S.

Brazil told VOA Mandarin, “Chinese communist espionage is not like an army of cockroaches crawling up our arms with daggers between their teeth. It’s spying. We can handle it with a better counterespionage system that includes both the government and the private sector working more closely together.”

He noted the FBI lacks “enough agents trained in Chinese language, culture and area studies. Congress should step in here and fund this sort of program to train people.”

U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Mark Warner last month urged the Biden administration to expand the use of existing tools and authorities at the Treasury and Commerce departments to prevent China’s military-industrial complex and entities from benefiting from U.S. technology, talent and investments.

As of March 14, Warner’s office told VOA Mandarin, “We have not yet received a response and are following up with the relevant departments.”

VOA Mandarin emailed the Chinese Embassy in Washington asking for a comment but did not receive a response in time for publication. Anderson, who made his remarks to Fox News Digital last week, was sworn in on June 8, 2020, and resigned in November 2020.

US tech in Chinese weapons

China claims to have independently developed its fifth-generation stealth fighter J-20, which entered service in 2017. John Chipman, head of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said on February 15 at an IISS event that China’s J-20A production is expected to surpass that of the U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter jet by the end of 2023.

China’s sixth-generation fighter jets, hypersonic weapons and missiles, and even the spy balloons that crossed the continental United States last month all appear to incorporate elements of American technology, according to DefenseOne, a Washington news site devoted to military issues.

U.S. defense officials say China has the world’s leading hypersonic arsenal.

Terry Thompson, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and war planner at the Pentagon who blogs, told VOA Mandarin that China lacks a solid technological foundation and has a long history of stealing technology.

He said, “If you look back at the epic progression of Chinese aircraft, they say they’ve produced an aircraft that looks like and flies like the F-16 and like the F-15 and the F-18. I mean, they look just like our aircraft. They’re not building something new that comes from their own base of technology. They don’t have a base of technology.”

Thompson said China targets engine and power system technology, but also “the aerodynamics. They didn’t have the capability to coat airplanes with stealth material. They stole that from us.

“But now China is making its way right up to the table that the rest of the free world is playing on, because they are just stealing their pathway to that table.”

Old-style spies and cyberattacks

Anderson told Fox News Digital that China’s intelligence practices include the old-fashioned — spies and bribes to buy American contractors, university professors and government officials — and high-tech cyberactivity to steal key information on military weapons.

“In effect, we end up subsidizing a portion of their research and development budget because they are successfully stealing some of our secrets,” Anderson said.

Kris Osborn, president and editor-in-chief of the U.S. Military Modernization Center, said in an article published last month that China has hired at least 162 Chinese scientists who had worked at the U.S. Los Alamos National Laboratory on deep-penetrating warheads, new hardened heat-resistant nanocomposite materials, vertical-takeoff-and-landing drones and a new generation of submarine “quiet” technologies.

“However, to put things simply and clearly, many of the U.S.-driven technological advances in these critical areas appear to have been stolen by Chinese spies,” Osborn wrote.

A report published in April 2022 by BluePath Labs, a consulting firm commissioned by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, said, “Despite a wide body of research on China’s scientific progress, the laboratory system remains a less understood component. … This opacity not only leads to gaps in our knowledge of Chinese defense research, but in many cases has allowed these labs to fly under the radar, leading to cases of close interaction, and even cooperation between Chinese defense labs and U.S. and allied academic institutions.”

In 2023, China’s military expenditure will expand significantly, by 7.2% to $224.8 billion, according to the official budget discussed in an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

When meeting with a delegation of the People’s Liberation Army and the Armed Police Force on March 8, China’s President Xi Jinping said China should accelerate the promotion of high-level technological self-reliance.

Emily de La Bruyere, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA Mandarin that China wants semiconductor technology for military functions, development of algorithms and valuable data.

“Stealing technology has been an escalating priority. And I also say that just general aggressiveness of China when it comes to the development of these capabilities, but also its use of international presence in order to coerce – all of those are increasing,” she said. “Not only are they working to catch up, but also if they’re stealing technology from the international system for their military modernization, they’re then able to modernize more cheaply than anybody else.”

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Health officials in Tanzania are investigating an illness that killed five people in the country’s northwest with Ebola-like symptoms, raising fears that it could be the deadly virus. 

Tanzania’s Ministry of Health late Thursday issued a statement saying seven people in northwest Kagera region showed symptoms such as fever, vomiting, bleeding and kidney failure.

The ministry sent audio comments by Chief Medical Officer Tumaini Nagu to media.

She said rapid response teams at the regional and council level have been sent to probe the unknown disease to understand and analyze it further. Nagu said samples have been taken from patients to identify the source of the disease.

Social media posts in Tanzania noted the symptoms were like those for Ebola, a deadly virus that causes high fevers, severe bleeding, and organ failure.

Kagera borders Tanzania’s northern neighbor Uganda, which had an outbreak of the rare Sudan strain of Ebola from September last year to January that was blamed for 77 deaths.

Albert Chalamila, regional commissioner of Kagera, said in audio comments that his office sent to the media that officials are taking precautions.

Chalamila said they have continued to educate residents regarding the importance of taking all necessary precautions, including for COVID-19 and other illnesses such as Ebola. He said so far there are no reports of anyone having contracted the Ebola virus.

Tanzania is not unfamiliar with rare and mysterious diseases but has never recorded a case of Ebola.

An outbreak in the southeast last year of leptospirosis, a bacteria spread by rat urine, sickened 20 people and caused three deaths.

In 2019, a disease with Ebola-like symptoms that killed one woman who had visited Uganda led the WHO to question the government’s response and lack of sharing information.

At the time, the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo was struggling with an Ebola outbreak that was the second largest on record, lasted nearly two years and killed more than 2,000 people.
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Mozambique’s health minister said Friday a cholera outbreak in the area hit by Cyclone Freddy killed eight people this week and hospitalized 250 – part of 600 sickened since the record storm made landfall in February.

Health Minister Armindo Tiago told state-run Radio Mozambique the cholera victims were in the port city of Quelimane, capital of Zambezia province, the area most affected by the cyclone.

Tigao said cholera prevention is focused on 133 centers in the city that are sheltering up to 50,000 people displaced by flooding. He added that more work is needed in other provinces hit by Cyclone Freddy, a record storm that hammered the region since February.

Tiago said everyone must work to control the outbreak by boiling drinking water, cleaning and washing food, and disposing of garbage properly – especially human waste.  And, if people have symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting, they must go to health units.   

The World Health Organization Wednesday confirmed that Mozambique is seeing a rise in cholera cases, while cases are dropping in neighboring Malawi after a record outbreak.   

The WHO said more than 40,000 cases of cholera were reported this year in Africa, more than half of them in Malawi.

Malawi gave out close to 5 million vaccination doses since the outbreak a year ago, but health authorities fear the numbers could spike there and in Mozambique if adequate measures are not taken.   

Malawi was hit the hardest by the cyclone, which has weakened to a low-pressure system, leaving hundreds dead and spreading floodwaters could be contaminated with cholera bacteria.

As the cyclone approached the southeast coast of Africa in February, Mozambique vaccinated more than 700,000 people in four provinces deemed at high risk for cholera, but Zambezia province was not among the regions targeted in the WHO-partnered vaccine drive.   

Reuters reported Mozambique on Wednesday received approval for an additional 1.3 million cholera vaccine doses to help control the spread.  
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New Zealand said on Friday it would ban TikTok on devices with access to the country’s parliamentary network due to cybersecurity concerns, becoming the latest nation to limit the use of the video-sharing app on government-related devices.

Concerns have mounted globally about the potential for the Chinese government to access users’ location and contact data through ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company.

The depth of those concerns was underscored this week when the Biden administration demanded that TikTok’s Chinese owners divest their stakes or the app could face a U.S. ban.

In New Zealand, TikTok will be banned on all devices with access to parliament’s network by the end of March.

Parliamentary Service Chief Executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said in an email to Reuters that the decision was taken after advice from cybersecurity experts and discussions within government and with other countries.

“Based on this information, the Service has determined that the risks are not acceptable in the current New Zealand Parliamentary environment,” he said.

Special arrangements can be made for those who require the app to do their jobs, he added.

ByteDance did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Speaking at a media briefing, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said New Zealand operated differently from other nations.

“Departments and agencies follow the advice of the (Government Communications Security Bureau) in terms of IT and cybersecurity policies … we don’t have a blanket across the public sector approach,” Hipkins said.

Both New Zealand’s defense force and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Friday they had already implemented bans on TikTok on work devices.

A spokesperson for the New Zealand Defense Force said in an email to Reuters the move was a “precautionary approach to protect the safety and security” of personnel.

On Thursday, Britain banned the app on government phones with immediate effect. Government agencies in the U.S. have until the end of March to delete the app from official devices.

TikTok has said it believes the recent bans are based on “fundamental misconceptions” and driven by wider geopolitics, adding that it has spent more than $1.5 billion on rigorous data security efforts and rejects spying allegations.
…

The Biden administration has demanded that TikTok’s Chinese owners divest their stakes in the popular video app or face a possible U.S. ban, the company told Reuters this week.

The move follows the introduction of a new U.S. legislation that would allow the White House to ban TikTok or other foreign-based technologies if they pose a national security risk.

Other countries and entities have also elected to ban the app.

TikTok is owned by China-based ByteDance, the world’s most valuable start-up. Numerous countries have raised concerns over its proximity to the Chinese government and hold over user data across the world.

Here is a list of countries and entities that have implemented a partial or complete ban on TikTok:

New Zealand

Became the latest country to target TikTok, imposing a ban on the use of the app on devices with access to the parliamentary network amid cybersecurity concerns.

United Kingdom

Would ban TikTok on government phones with immediate effect, and asked the National Cyber Security Centre to look at the potential vulnerability of government data from social media apps and risks around how sensitive information could be accessed and used.

India

Banned TikTok and dozens of other apps by Chinese developers on all devices in June 2020, claiming that they were potentially harmful to the country’s security and integrity.

Afghanistan

Is in talks to ban TikTok and video game PUBG, with the Taliban claiming those were leading Afghan youths “astray.”

Pakistan

Banned TikTok at least four times, with the latest ban ending in November, over what the government said was immoral and indecent content on the app.

Belgium

Belgian federal government employees will no longer be allowed to use TikTok on their work phones, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on March 10.

Canada

The nation has banned TikTok on government-issued devices due to security risks.

Taiwan

Banned TikTok and some other Chinese apps on state-owned devices and in December 2022 launched a probe into the social media app over suspected illegal operations on the island.

United States

The U.S. government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful national security body, in 2020 unanimously recommended ByteDance divest TikTok because of fears that user data could be passed on to China’s government.

In early March, legislators from both major U.S. parties introduced a bill to ban the popular app in the United States.

Congress previously passed a bill in December 2022 to ban TikTok on federal devices.

US educational institutions

Boise State University, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Texas-Austin, and West Texas A&M University are some of the schools to ban TikTok on university devices and Wi-Fi networks.

US states

Texas, Maryland, Alabama and Utah are among the more than 25 states that have issued orders to staff against using TikTok on government devices.

European Commission and European Parliament

The European Union’s executive arm, the European Commission, has issued an order to ban the use of popular Chinese app TikTok on its staff’s phones due to cybersecurity concerns. Separately, the European Parliament also banned the app from staff phones.
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Lack of access to clean drinking water is being exacerbated by climate change. In fact, less than 1% of the world’s water is fresh and accessible, according to Melissa Ho, senior vice president of freshwater and food at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

“Although we see water all around the planet, we do not necessarily realize what a precious and finite resource it is,” she said.

Ho cited that statistic during “This is Climate: Water,” a Washington Post event that featured leaders at the forefront of water crisis initiatives discussing possible solutions to address global water inequities and the role of water in sustainable development.

Ahead of Wednesday’s World Water Day, Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper outlined growing demands on the Colorado River, which drains a watershed from seven Western U.S. states and Mexico.

While lack of access to clean water is especially prevalent in developing nations, more than 2 million Americans are without running water in their homes.

“In the U.S., race is the No. 1 predictor of water access,” said DigDeep co-CEO Julie Waechter. “Native American households are 19 times more likely than white households to not have running water, and Black and Latino households are twice as likely.”

According to Waechter, when water infrastructure was expanded in the U.S., “many communities of color were not included in that expansion.”

“So communities of color that are trying to catch up and get that water infrastructure are having a really hard time finding the funding to do that.”

WWF’s Ho said women and girls are disproportionately affected by inaccessible water, with millions of girls worldwide routinely walking more than 3 kilometers to fetch water. “Think of what that means for their safety and health and access to schooling and educational opportunities,” she added.

Contaminated water in US

Even when water is accessible, in too many instances it is unsafe to drink. Ho said water quality is an issue that should be of “prime concern” given that chemicals, heavy metals, hormones and other potentially toxic substances are routinely present in the U.S. water supply.

The White House on Tuesday announced the first-ever national drinking water standard for six polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also referred to as “forever chemicals.” The proposal would enforce limits on the amount of PFAS allowed in drinking water.

Water use in industry

Speakers also addressed the use of water in industry, where it’s needed but often wasted.

In the United States, agriculture, including farming and ranching, is the biggest user of water, with 70% of fresh water going to agriculture. World Environment Center CEO Glenn Prickett said that makes farmers “also the most vulnerable to climate impacts in terms of drought or flooding.”

With all industries depending on water in some way, limited availability of water worsened by climate change is an economic reality.

“Water scarcity is a key portion of what companies should be thinking about as they think about their water sustainability programs so that they can be more water resilient into the future,” said Calvin Emanuel, vice president and general manager of Sustainable Growth Solutions at Ecolab. “It has to be a part of their growth strategy and path forward.”

“Some are obvious, like food and beverage manufacturing,” Prickett said, “but others may be less obvious but highly valuable to our economy, like fabrication of microchips or data centers for the cloud or chemical manufacturing. All use water, and if they didn’t have it, it would be a big impact on their business and their profitability.”

Environmental activist Alexia Leclercq closed the session with thoughts on how activists are trying to conserve clean water sources for future generations.

“Not to diminish the complexity of policy and of these solutions that we direly need, but I think that if we shift away from prioritizing profit, I think that gives us a lot of space to imagine what our future could look like and actually put our resources towards finding those solutions and working on those solutions,” the Start: Empowerment co-founder said. “It’s really limitless what we can create.”
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