Media Today

[Rick Plant]

Scientists find new population of polar bears in sea-ice free region



Polar bears face an existential threat from the rapid decline of Arctic sea ice, which they rely on as platforms to hunt seals.

But in a new study, scientists have identified an isolated subpopulation of polar bears in Southeast Greenland that instead make use of freshwater ice pouring into the ocean from the region's glaciers, suggesting this particular habitat is less susceptible than others to climate change.

Their findings, described in the journal Science on Thursday, open up the tantalizing possibility that at least some pockets of the species might be able to survive further into this century, when Arctic sea ice is expected to disappear completely during summer months.

"One of the big questions is where in the Arctic will polar bears be able to hang on, what we call 'persist,'" first author Kristin Laidre, a polar scientist at the University of Washington and Greenland Institute of Natural Resources told AFP.

"I think that bears in a place like this can teach us a lot about where those places might be."

Laidre and colleagues first spent two years interviewing Inuit subsistence hunters who provided input and ecological knowledge, including harvest samples for analysis.

They then began their own field work, which lasted from 2015 to 2021, in a harsh region that was long understudied because of its unpredictable weather, heavy snowfall and jagged mountains.

Hemmed in

Each year, the team would spend one month in springtime, staying in the nearest settlement Kuummiit, which is a two-hour helicopter ride from where the bears live. Fuel depots had to be staged along the route in advance down the coastline, creating a hopskotch-like commute to work.

The team tagged the bears with satellite tracking devices, and collected genetic samples by either capturing bears or firing biopsy darts into their rumps.

Thought to number a few hundred individuals, "they are the most genetically isolated population of polar bears anywhere on the planet," said co-author Beth Shapiro, a geneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, in a statement.

"We know that this population has been living separately from other polar bear populations for at least several hundred years."

Unlike their cousins, the Southeast Greenland polar bears were found to be homebodies, seldom straying far to hunt.

Their isolation arises from the geography: they live in a complex landscape of fjords on the very edge of their range on the southern tip of Greenland, well below the Arctic circle, with nowhere to go.

To the west there are an enormous set of mountains and the Greenland Ice Sheet, and to the east the open water of the Denmark Strait all the way to Iceland. They also have to contend with a rapid current that flows southward along the coast.

"We see that when they get caught in this current they jump off the ice and they walk back home to their fjords," said Laidre. The team found that some of the tracked bears accidentally caught in this situation had to trek more than a hundred miles back home.

Climate refuges?

While sea ice provides hunting platforms for most of the Arctic's roughly 26,000 polar bears, the Southeast Greenland bears have access to sea ice for only four months, between February and late May.

For the remaining eight months they rely on chunks of freshwater ice breaking off the Greenland Ice Sheet in the form of marine-terminating glaciers.

"These types of glaciers do exist in other places in the Arctic, but the combination of the fjord shapes, the high production of glacier ice and the very big reservoir of ice that is available from the Greenland Ice Sheet is what currently provides a steady supply of glacier ice," said another co-author Twila Moon of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in a statement.

There remains much to study about the Southeast Greenland polar bears. Measurements show the adult females are a little smaller than average and they appear to have fewer cubs, but it's hard to infer much about what that means in the absence of long term data.

Laidre is keen to not oversell the study as one of hope. Polar bears -- which in addition to being iconic in their own right are also a vital resource for indigenous people -- aren't going to be saved without urgent climate action.

But this population might have a better shot, and there are similar areas with marine-terminating glaciers on other parts of Greenland's coast as well as the island of Svalbard that might become small-scale climate refugia.

"We as a community need to look at places like this and ask ourselves, is this a place where we might be able to have some small numbers of polar bears persisting in an ice-free Arctic?" said Laidre.

© 2022 AFP

[Rick Plant]

Scientists map brain network linked to addiction



Researchers said on Monday they had mapped the network in the brain linked to addiction by studying long-time smokers who abruptly quit after suffering brain lesions.

They hope the research will give future treatments a target to aim for in the fight against addiction to a range of substances.

To find out where addiction resides in the brain, the researchers studied 129 patients who were daily smokers when they had a brain lesion.

While more than half kept on smoking as normal after getting the lesion, a quarter immediately quit without any problem -- even reporting an "absence of craving", according to a new study in the journal Nature Medicine.

While the lesions of those who stopped smoking were not located in one specific region of the brain, they mapped them to a number of areas -- what they called the "addiction remission network".

They found that a lesion that would cause someone to give up an addiction would probably affect parts of the brain like the dorsal cingulate, lateral prefrontal cortex and insula -- but not the medial prefrontal cortex.

Previous research has shown that lesions affecting the insula relieve addiction. But it failed to take into account other parts of the brain identified in the new study.

To confirm their findings, the researchers studied 186 lesion patients who completed an alcohol risk assessment.

They found that lesions in the patients' addiction remission network also reduced the risk of alcoholism, "suggesting a shared network for addiction across these substances of abuse", the study said.

Juho Joutsa, a neurologist at Finland's University of Turku and the study's author, told AFP "the identified network provides a testable target for treatment efforts".

"Some of the hubs of the network were located in the cortex, which could be targeted even with non-invasive neuromodulation techniques," he added.

Neuromodulation involves stimulating nerves to treat a range of ailments.

One such technique is the transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) coil, which was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration last month for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

It already targets many of the same areas of the brain as the addiction remission network identified in Monday's study.

Joutsa said he hoped his research would contribute to a TMS coil targeting addiction.

"However, we still need to figure what is the best way to modulate this network and conduct carefully designed, randomized, controlled trials to test if targeting the network is clinically beneficial," he added.

© 2022 AFP

[Rick Plant]

Pence prevented a fall into chaos, and 3 other takeaways from Jan. 6 hearing
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/16/1105513685/recap-jan-6-committee-hearing

[Rick Plant]

Uvalde hires private law firm to block release of documents it says are 'highly embarrassing': report

The city of Uvalde, Texas, which has come under heavy criticism for its law enforcement officials' reaction to the Robb Elementary School massacre, has now hired a private law firm to help it block the release of certain documents it says could be "highly embarrassing."

Vice News has obtained a letter sent by attorney Cynthia Trevino -- who works for the private law firm Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech -- to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that asks him to make a determination about what information the town is required to make available to public records requests from media outlets.

The letter states that there are records being requested by media outlets that involve matters such as city employees' past criminal records, although Vice News writes that the letter is composed in such a way that it "is impossible to say what records, in particular, the city and the police are referring to."

The publication says that the city is trying to block access to a broad swathe of records, including "body camera footage, photos, 911 calls, emails, text messages, criminal records, and more."

Christopher Schneider, a professor of sociology at Brandon University, tells the publication that he is wary of the justifications the city is putting forward.

“They claim that the compilation of individuals’ criminal history is highly embarrassing information, which is a strange cover," he said. "The embarrassing information is the inept police response."

Read more:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/88q95p/uvalde-contracts-private-law-firm-to-argue-it-doesnt-have-to-release-school-shooting-public-records

[Rick Plant]

Juror in Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial speaks out, says actress's story 'didn't add up'



A juror in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial is speaking out for the first time — and revealing how the verdict was reached.

Good Morning America spoke with a male member of the jury, whose identity was concealed and who spoke off-camera, and in his opinion, Heard just wasn't believable. The seven jurors — five men and two women —who reached the verdict felt the Aquaman actress's story "didn't add up" and thought she shed "crocodile tears" on the stand, he said. They also felt Heard and Depp were both abusive to each other, but didn't think Depp was physically abusive.

"A lot of Amber's story didn't add up," the juror said. "The majority of the jury felt she was more the aggressor."

Heard testified that Depp physically abused her and sexually assaulted her during their four-year relationship. Depp vehemently denied the allegations. His defamation suit stemmed from Heard writing about surviving domestic abuse in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed. Depp sued her for $50 million and she countersued for $100 million.

The juror said they all felt Heard's testimony wasn't realistic. Her crying, her facial expressions and how she stared at the jury made them "very uncomfortable."

"She would answer one question and she would be crying and two seconds later she would turn ice cold," the juror said. "Some of us used the expression 'crocodile tears.'"

He said they felt Depp "was more believable" at the end of the day. "He just seemed a little more real in terms of how he was responding to questions. His emotional state was very stable throughout."

The juror said Heard claiming she donated her $7 million divorce settlement from Depp to charity — when she only really only pledged it, or said she planned to give it — was "a fiasco for her."

"She goes on a talk show in the U.K.," he said. "The video shows her sitting there telling the host that she gave all that money away … But the fact is she didn't give much of it away at all." (Heard paid $350,000 directly; some donations were also made on her behalf.)

The juror denied Heard's attorney Elaine Charlson Bredehoft's comments that the jury was influenced by social media in their decision. Social media, especially TikTok, favored Depp.

"We followed the evidence," he said, noting he and at least two others didn't even have Facebook or Twitter accounts.

He said at the end of the day, he felt what was "truthful" was that the couple, whose divorce was settled in 2016, "were both abusive to each other" — though he didn't believe Depp was physically abusive to Heard.

"I don't think it makes either of them right or wrong," he said. "But to rise to the level of what she was claiming, there wasn't enough or any evidence that really supported what she was saying."

He also said the jury was given no guidance on the amount of money to award. Each juror threw out a number they thought was fair. Depp was ultimately awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages (the latter reduced to $350,000 per state guidelines) while Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages.

As for the attorneys for Depp and Heard, he felt the actor's team — including Ben Chew and social media star Camille Vasquez — was "sharp," while her team had "sharp elbows," meaning they were abrupt and often interrupted.

Before the verdict was announced on June 1, the court agreed to a request by Heard to seal the names of the jurors for one year. The document granting the request did not state why the decision was made.

Heard, who spoke out for the first time to Today this week, plans to appeal this summer. She felt the jurors were influenced by social media, Depp's star power and his legal team vilifying her.

Depp will be back in court next month, with Vasquez representing him, for a personal injury lawsuit which was filed against him by Gregg "Rocky" Brooks. Brooks, the location manager for the film City of Lies, alleged that Depp punched him twice in the ribs before saying he would pay him $100,000 to punch him back in the face in 2017. Depp's attorneys said Brooks "provoked" Depp during an exchange and Depp acted in self-defense.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/juror-in-johnny-depp-amber-heard-trial-speaks-out-story-did-not-add-up-161020366.html

[Rick Plant]

Uvalde surveillance video shows cops did not try to open door to classroom for 77 minutes: report

The has been another bombshell report about the law enforcement response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

"Surveillance footage shows that police never tried to open a door to two classrooms at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in the 77 minutes between the time a gunman entered the rooms and massacred 21 people and officers finally stormed in and killed him," the San Antonio Express-News reported, citing "a law enforcement source close to the investigation."

After initially repeatedly misleading the public about the police response, authorities have gone silent, leaving the public to find out more though leaks.

"Investigators believe the 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at the school on May 24 could not have locked the door to the connected classrooms from the inside, according to the source. All classroom doors at Robb Elementary are designed to lock automatically when they are closed so that the only way to enter from the outside is with a key, the source said. Police might have assumed the door was locked, but the latest evidence suggests it may have been open the whole time, possibly due to a malfunction, the source said," the newspaper reported.

The source said that the entire time, officers had access to a “halligan” that could have been used to open the door even if it was locked.

Uvalde schools police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo said he sought keys to get into the room.

"When a custodian brought a large key ring, Arredondo said he tried dozens of the keys but none worked," the newspaper reported. "But Arredondo was not trying those keys in the door to classrooms 111 and 112, where Ramos was holed up, according to the law enforcement source. Rather, he was trying to locate a master key by using the various keys on doors to other classrooms nearby, the source and the Texas Tribune article said."

Read the full report:

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Uvalde-classroom-doors-17251116.php

[Rick Plant]

Monsoon storms in Bangladesh and India kill dozens, unleash devastating floods



Monsoon storms in Bangladesh and India have killed at least 41 people and unleashed devastating floods that left millions of others stranded, officials said Saturday.

Floods are a regular menace to millions of people in low-lying Bangladesh, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency, ferocity and unpredictability.

Relentless downpours over the past week have inundated vast stretches of Bangladesh's northeast, with troops deployed to evacuate households cut off from neighbouring communities.

Schools have been turned into relief shelters to house entire villages inundated in a matter of hours by rivers that suddenly burst their banks.

"The whole village went under water by early Friday and we all got stranded," said Lokman, whose family lives in Companiganj village.

"After waiting a whole day on the roof of our home, a neighbor rescued us with a makeshift boat. My mother said she has never seen such floods in her entire life," the 23-year-old added.

Asma Akter, another woman rescued from the rising waters, said her family had not been able to eat for two days.

"The water rose so quickly we couldn't bring any of our things," she said. "And how can you cook anything when everything is underwater?"

Lightning triggered by the storms has killed at least 21 people around the South Asian nation since Friday afternoon, police officials told AFP.

Among them were three children aged between 12 and 14 who were struck by lightning on Friday in the rural town of Nandail, said local police chief Mizanur Rahman.

Another four people died when landslides hit their hillside homes in the port city of Chittagong, police inspector Nurul Islam told AFP.

Landslides, surging rivers in northeast India

At least 16 people have been killed since Thursday in India's remote Meghalaya, the state's chief minister Conrad Sangma wrote on Twitter, after landslides and surging rivers that submerged roads.

Next door in Assam state, more than 1.8 million people have been affected by floods after five days of incessant downpours.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters he had instructed district officials to provide "all necessary help and relief" to those caught in the flooding.

Flooding in Bangladesh worsened on Saturday morning after a temporary reprieve from the rains the previous afternoon, Sylhet region chief government administrator Mosharraf Hossain told AFP.

"The situation is bad. More than four million people have been stranded by flood water," Hossain said, adding that nearly the entire region was without electricity.

The flooding forced Bangladesh's third-largest international airport in Sylhet to shut down on Friday.

Forecasters said the floods were set to worsen over the next two days with heavy rains in Bangladesh and upstream in India's northeast.

Before this week's rains, the Sylhet region was still recovering from its worst floods in nearly two decades late last month, when at least 10 people were killed and four million others were affected.

AFP