Louisville

Intel Officers 'Terrified' Of Briefing Trump On Russia Because He Would 'Explode': Report

"He'll explode and the whole thing will get derailed, because he has this weird affinity for Putin," a former national security officer said.

Nigeria unrest: Protesters shot in Lagos as millions put under curfew

Casualty figures and who opened fire in Lagos are not yet known, as anti-police anger spreads.

Nigeria protests: Millions placed under curfew as violence spreads

Curfews are extended beyond the city of Lagos as anti-riot officers struggle to control protests.

Beheading in France could bolster president's claim that Islam is in 'crisis' – but so is French secularism

A French high school teacher who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his class was beheaded on Oct. 16 by an 18-year-old Muslim refugee in what France’s President Emmanuel Macron characterized as an “Islamist terrorist attack.”The killing is the latest high-profile attack by a Muslim extremist in France, coming after the 2015 massacre at Charlie Hebdo magazine and the 2016 truck attack in Nice. It also occurred two weeks after Macron gave a controversial speech defining Islam as “a religion that is in crisis today all over the world.”France, which colonized many Muslim-majority territories in Africa and the Levant in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Algeria and Mali, has Western Europe’s largest Muslim minority – 6 million people, or 9% of its population. Macron’s Oct. 2 speech outlined a legislative proposal to fight “Islamist separatism.” If passed in Parliament, it would essentially ban home-schooling of all children aged 3 and up and prevent foreign-trained imams from leading French mosques. The goal, said the president, is “to build an Islam in France that can be compatible with the Enlightenment.” Macron’s analysis concludes, simply, that Islam is somehow at odds with modern Western society. But my research on state secularism and religion shows that the reality is much more complicated. French versus American secularismFrench secularism, which is embraced by both the progressive left and the Islamophobic right, goes well beyond the American democratic concept of separating religion and state. Called “laïcité,” it essentially excludes religious symbols from public institutions. France has banned Muslim women’s headscarves in schools and outlawed religious face coverings everywhere. There are no such bans in the United States.While both America and France have ongoing debates about “Islamic fundamentalism” and “Muslim terrorists” and views that can be defined as Islamophobic and have some popular support, American democracy generally provides better opportunities for the integration of various religious groups. In France, the Constitution defines the state only as secular, without delineating the boundaries of that secularism. In the United States, the First Amendment restricts the secular state’s engagement with religion, saying the government can neither establish a religion nor prohibit a religion’s free exercise. It would be difficult for the U.S. to announce, as Macron did, a state-sponsored project to “forge a type of Enlightenment Islam.”Indeed, 11 years before Macron voiced his provocative view, U.S. President Barack Obama gave a famous speech on Islam in Egypt in 2009, attempting to reset the relationship between America and the Muslim world.Emphasizing Muslims’ contributions to American society, Obama said, “It is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit – for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear.”Obama’s speech reflected an idealized American melting pot, a place where hyphenated identities like Muslim-American are common. French secularism sees no hyphenated identities – only French or Not French. Islam and the secular stateSome in France also see this rigid secularism as unequal to the challenges of multiculturalism and migration. The eminent scholar Jean Bauberot, for example, defends a more “pluralistic secularism” – one that tolerates certain religious symbols in public institutions. France has in fact made many exceptions for Catholics. The government provides substantial public funding to private Catholic schools, which educate about a quarter of all K-12 students, and six of 11 official holidays in France are Catholic holidays. Too often, laïcité translates into an unwillingness to accommodate the religiously based demands of Muslims. In 2015, a Muslim advocacy organization sued a municipal authority in France’s Burgundy region for refusing to offer an alternative to pork in public school cafeterias. The court compelled the town to reverse its policy, but not because it violated religious freedom. The court found the menu violated the children’s rights.France’s founding commitment to equality under the law likewise forestalls meaningful social debate on racial discrimination; its census does not even collect information on race. Although France’s biggest minority is mostly composed of nonwhite Muslim immigrants from its former colonies in Africa and their descendents, Macron’s speech referenced only in passing to French colonialism.[Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.] BlasphemyThat said, I find some truth in Macron’s speech. But the “crisis” facing Islam lies in the historical and political failings of the Muslim world, not in the religion itself.As my 2019 book, “Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment,” documents, many Muslim countries like Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia have long-lasting authoritarian regimes and chronic underdevelopment. In 32 of the world’s 49 Muslim-majority countries, blasphemy laws punish people who speak sacrilegiously about sacred things; in six countries, blasphemy is a capital offense. These laws, which block freedom of expression, are more rooted in the interests of the conservative clergy and authoritarian rulers than in the Islamic faith, my research shows. They actually contradict several Quranic verses that urge Muslims not to coerce or retaliate against people of other faiths. Still, in Western countries where Muslims are a minority, extremists occasionally take it upon themselves to punish those who, in their view, mock the Prophet Muhammad. That has caused global controversies over cartoons and movies. At times, in France and beyond, it has led to an unacceptable outcome: murder.Such killings, whether perpetrated by the state or by individuals, are tragedies. But to frame them as a purely religious problem ignores the socioeconomic and political origins of Islamic blasphemy laws, and the anti-democratic cultural consequences of authoritarianism in many Muslim countries. It also overlooks the difficult reality that social alienation is an underlying factor in the radicalization of some young Muslims in the West. Multiple secularisms, multiple IslamsMacron’s speech made some gestures toward greater inclusion. “I want France to become a country where we can teach the thoughts of Averreos and Ibn Khaldun,” he said, referencing two eminent Muslim thinkers of the 12th and 14th centuries, and envisioned “a country that excels in the study of Muslim civilizations.” That plural in “civilizations” is meaningful. It acknowledges that Islam is not monolithic. Neither is French secularism. Both are complex systems with varied interpretations. In truth, Macron doesn’t need to “build an Islam in France that can be compatible with the Enlightenment,” because that already exists. Whether French secularism can adapt to Islam is another question.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University.Read more: * Teachers in France, on the front line of defending the values of the Republic * Execution for a Facebook post? Why blasphemy is a capital offense in some Muslim countriesAhmet T. Kuru does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Trump ups pressure on Barr to probe Bidens as election nears

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on Attorney General William Barr to immediately launch an investigation into unverified claims about Democrat Joe Biden and his son Hunter, effectively demanding that the Justice Department muddy his political opponent and abandon its historic resistance to getting involved in elections. With just two weeks to go before Election Day, Trump for the first time explicitly called on Barr to investigate the Bidens and even pointed to the nearing Nov. 3 election as reason that Barr should not delay taking action. Trump has been leveling accusations of corruption against Biden without verified evidence for months, but is stepping up the pressure in the final days of the campaign.

Leaders in US, Europe divided on response to surging virus

Virus cases are surging across Europe and many U.S. states, but responses by leaders are miles apart, with officials in Ireland, France and elsewhere imposing curfews and restricting gatherings even as some U.S. governors resist mask mandates or more aggressive measures. The stark contrasts in efforts to contain infections come as outbreaks on both sides of the Atlantic raise similar alarms, including shrinking availability of hospital beds and rising deaths. Governors of states including Tennessee, Oklahoma, Nebraska and North Dakota are all facing calls from doctors and public health officials to require masks.

Melania Trump nixes campaign trip due to cough from COVID

Melania Trump’s return to the campaign trail will have to wait. The first lady has decided against accompanying President Donald Trump to a campaign rally Tuesday in Erie, Pennsylvania, because of a lingering cough after her bout with COVID-19, said Stephanie Grisham, her chief of staff. It was to be Mrs. Trump's first public appearance since recovering from the coronavirus, as well as her first time out on the campaign trail in more than a year.

US spacecraft diving to asteroid for rare rubble grab

A NASA spacecraft descended Tuesday toward the surface of an asteroid 200 million miles away to collect a handful of rubble for return to Earth. The Osiris-Rex spacecraft dropped out of orbit around asteroid Bennu right on time, beginning a 4 1/2-hour plunge to the rough, boulder-covered face of the ancient space rock. It was America's first attempt to gather samples from an asteroid, something already accomplished by Japan — twice.

How Google evolved from 'cuddly' startup to antitrust target

In Google's infancy, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin reviled Microsoft as a technological bully that ruthlessly abused its dominance of the personal computer software market to choke off competition that could spawn better products. Like Microsoft was 22 years ago, Google is in the crosshairs of a Justice Department lawsuit accusing it of wielding the immense power of its internet search engine as a weapon that has bludgeoned competition and thwarted innovation to the detriment of the billions of people using a stable of market-leading services that includes Gmail, Chrome browser, Android-powered smartphones, YouTube videos and digital maps.

UN urges India government to better protect rights defenders

The U.N. human rights chief on Tuesday urged India’s government to do more to protect human rights defenders, who have come under mounting pressure in recent months in the world’s largest democracy. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet's office pointed to three “problematic” laws in India that have variously tightened restrictions on non-governmental organizations and led to a crackdown on dissent. The comments marked a potent new expression of concern about recent actions from the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which views most foreign-funded non-profit organizations and rights groups with suspicion.

Germany to spend €500m upgrading ventilation systems against virus

Germany is to spend €500m (£450m) on upgrading ventilation systems in public buildings to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Schools, universities, public offices and museums will be able to apply for grants of up to €100,000 (£91,000) to retrofit their existing air conditioning or ventilation systems with filters. The coronavirus is chiefly spread by aerosols exhaled by the infected when they sneeze or cough, and a number of new filtration systems have been developed which can stop most of the microscopic droplets. The money is only available for public buildings in which large numbers of people gather, such as school auditoriums and theatres. Germany has something of a national obsession with ventilating rooms and Angela Merkel’s government is promoting the practice as part of the fight against the coronavirus.

UK's Lords condemns Brexit bill as UK-EU talks stay stalled

Britain’s upper house of Parliament delivered a resounding condemnation of the government’s contentious new Brexit legislation on Tuesday, as a standoff continued between the U.K. and the European Union over future trade relations. The House of Lords voted 395-169 to add words to the Internal Market Bill expressing “regret” for the legislation and saying it “would undermine the rule of law and damage the reputation of the United Kingdom.” The bill breaches part of the legally binding Brexit withdrawal agreement by allowing Britain to override key provisions on Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that shares a land border with the EU.

Michel Barnier 'could be in London on Thursday' for Brexit talks

Michel Barnier could be in London for rebooted Brexit negotiations on Thursday, sources in Brussels and the UK suggested amid cautious optimism a free trade agreement can still be struck. The EU’s chief negotiator today tried to convince David Frost to return to the negotiating table, after Boris Johnson declared negotiations “over” last week. Meanwhile the Prime Minister suffered a heavy defeat and Tory peer rebellion in the House of Lords over controversial Brexit legislation that breaks international law. If Mr Barnier was to visit London it would be the most tangible signal since last week that there could still be a deal between the UK and EU. One senior UK Government source said ministers were "hoping to hear more from the EU" before the end of this week. A second source said Mr Barnier could be in London on Thursday. A Brussels source added that Mr Barnier could come on Thursday but "it is not confirmed". After video conference talks with Lord Frost, Mr Barnier tweeted, “We should be making the most out of the little time left. Our door remains open." A Number 10 spokesman said that the two men had a “constructive discussion” and would stay in touch. The trade talks, which stalled on fishing, the level playing field guarantees and the deal’s enforcement, were still on ice, he said. UK sources described the state of talks as “fragile”. “We’re not there yet,” one source said. The Prime Minister declared he was ready to “embrace” no deal on Friday, unless there was a “fundamental change” of approach from the EU. Mr Barnier agreed to UK demands for intensified trade negotiations across all subjects and on the basis of common legal texts on Monday. A Downing St spokesman said that negotiations would only resume if the EU accepted that “movement” in the talks needs to come from the bloc, as well as the UK. The European Commission’s chief spokesman said yesterday (TUES) that both sides would have to compromise to get a deal. “This is a question 101 [a basic question] for students in international negotiations,” he said in Brussels. “I think it’s pretty obvious in order to come to an agreement both sides need to meet. And this is also obviously the case in this negotiation.” The EU has set an end of October deadline for the deal to be finished so there is enough time to ratify it before the end of the transition period on December 31. Brussels has made clear it will never sign a trade deal, if the UK pushes ahead with the Internal Market Bill. Peers yesterday (TUES) fired the opening salvo in a looming battle with the Government over the legislation, which disapplies parts of the Withdrawal Agreement. Members backed a "regret" amendment in the House of Lords by 395 votes to 169, a majority of 226, in a heavy defeat for the Government. The amendment warned contentious clauses involving Northern Ireland "would undermine the rule of law and damage the reputation of the United Kingdom". 39 Conservative peers defied the Government, including Lord Howard, former chancellors Lord Lamont of Lerwick and Lord Clarke of Nottingham, and Theresa May's former chief of staff Lord Barwell. The defeat sets the scene for the likelihood of protracted parliamentary "ping pong", where legislation is passed between the two Houses. The Prime Minister and Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, held a conference call with business chiefs on Tuesday to urge them to prepare for leaving the single market and customs union at the end of the year. With just 10 weeks until the transition finishes, Mr Johnson and Mr Gove told bosses they should be ready for major change regardless of whether there is a deal with Brussels. The bosses told the BBC that it was a "terrible call" and accused the Prime Minister of "being disrespectful" after he told them coronavirus had led to apathy about preparing for the end of the transition period

Bolivia appears to shift back left as Morales party claims victory after election

Arce’s victory is bound to reenergize Latin America’s left, whose economic justice message has appeal as poverty is expected to surge to 37% this year, according to the U.N.

DR Congo jail break: 'Islamist ADF rebels' free 1,300 inmates

The attackers came in large numbers and broke the jail's door, officials say.

Wisconsin voters line up to cast early in-person ballots

Voters across Wisconsin lined up Tuesday to cast their ballots on the first day of early in-person voting in the presidential battleground state, marking the beginning of the final push to Election Day in two weeks. The campaigns of President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, were encouraging their supporters to vote early in Wisconsin, which Trump won by fewer than 23,000 votes four years ago. Trump held a rally in the southern Wisconsin community of Janesville on Saturday.

Berkshire Hathaway to pay $4.14 million to settle Iran sanctions violations claims

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc agreed to pay $4.14 million to settle civil allegations that a Turkish subsidiary committed "egregious" violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Tuesday. The department's Office of Foreign Assets Control said Iscar Turkey sold 144 shipments of cutting tools and related inserts worth $383,443 to two Turkish distributors from December 2012 to January 2016, knowing they would be shipped to a distributor in Iran for resale, including to Iran's government. OFAC said the sales occurred under the direction of some senior managers, after Iscar Turkey's general manager concluded it was "inevitable" that U.S. and European Union sanctions against Iran would be lifted and sought to be "well positioned" to capitalize.

Local Young Leader Selected as a Youth Delegate for the 2020 YOUNGA Forum--Global Takeover of the United Nations

This fall, Jessie Chung from Hong Kong has been selected to represent Family Mask for the inaugural YOUNGA™ Forum. Organized by BridgingTheGap Ventures, this first-of-its-kind virtual global youth takeover of the United Nations is focused on a central theme for 2020—the future youth want, the action we need.

US, Russia appear set to extend last remaining nuclear pact

The United States and Russia inched closer Tuesday to a deal to extend their last remaining arms control pact, after U.S. threats to allow the deal to expire early next year. The two sides signaled they are ready to accept compromises to salvage the New START treaty just two weeks ahead of the U.S. presidential election in which President Donald Trump faces a strong challenge from former Vice President Joe Biden, whose campaign has accused Trump of being soft on Russia.

Russian media may be joining China and Iran in turning on Trump

It can be easy to overlook how the rest of the world is making sense of America’s chaotic campaign season. But in many cases, they’re paying attention just as closely as U.S. voters are. After all, who wins the U.S. presidency has implications for countries around the world. Since Sept. 22, we’ve been using machine-learning algorithms to identify the predominant themes in foreign media coverage.How different countries cover the race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden can shed some light on how foreign citizens discern the candidates and the American political process, especially in places that have strict state control of media like China, Russia and Iran. Unlike in the U.S., where there is a cacophony of perspectives, by and large the media in these three countries follow very similar narratives.In 2016, we did the same exercise. Back then, one of the main themes that emerged was the decline of U.S. democracy. With scandal and the disillusionment of voters dominating the headlines, America’s global competitors used the 2016 election to advance their own political narratives about U.S. decline. Some of these themes have emerged in the coverage of the current race. But the biggest difference is their portrayal of Trump. The last election cycle, candidate Trump was an unknown. Although foreign nations acknowledged his political inexperience, they were cautiously optimistic about Trump’s deal-making ability. Russian media outlets were particularly bullish on Trump’s potential. Now, however, the feelings appear to have changed. China, Iran and even Russia seem to crave a return to normalcy – and, to some extent, American leadership in the world. Dissecting the debateTo assess how America’s competitors make sense of the 2020 campaign, we tracked over 20 prominent news outlets from Chinese, Russian and Iranian native language media. We used automatic clustering algorithms to identify key narrative themes in the coverage and sentiment analysis to track how each country viewed the candidates. We then reviewed this AI-extracted information to validate our findings. While our results are still preliminary, they shed light on how these countries’ media outlets are portraying the two candidates. Two key moments from the 2020 campaign – the first debate and Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis – are particularly illustrative. After the first debate, the Chinese media questioned its usefulness to voters and generally portrayed Trump’s performance in a negative light. To them, the “chaotic” back-and-forth was a sobering reflection of America’s political turbulence. They described Trump as purposely sabotaging the debate by interrupting his opponent and, in the days after the debate, noted that his performance failed to improve his lagging poll numbers. Biden was criticized for being unable to articulate concrete policies, but was nonetheless praised for being able to avoid any major gaffes and – as an article from the Xinhua News Agency put it – responding to Trump with “fierce words.”Unlike in 2016, where Clinton was portrayed as anti-Russian, corrupt and elitist, Russian media appeared more willing to characterize the Democratic Party nominee in a positive light. In fact, Russian coverage expressed surprise over Biden’s debate performance. He didn’t come across as feeble; instead, he was, as the daily newspaper Kommersant wrote, a lively opponent who appeared to be “criticizing, irritating and humiliating” Trump by calling him a “liar, racist and the worst president.” They did praise Trump’s especially aggressive rhetoric. However, our analysis found that Russian media also repeatedly claimed that, unlike 2016, voters today were tiring of his bombast.While Trump’s post-debate posturing received some positive coverage, Russian media largely lamented his administration’s failure to deliver substantive progress toward normalizing relations between the two countries. They noted the debate neither clarified policies for voters nor for international observers. Iranian media took the strongest anti-Trump stance. Reports routinely pointed out that Trump has had no foreign policy successes, and has only exacerbated relations with the country’s major rivals. According to Iranian media outlets, Trump’s lack of accomplishments has left him with no choice but to rely on insults and personal attacks.Biden, however, was said to have kept his calm. As Al Alam News wrote, he used “more credible responses and attacks than Trump.”The former vice president, in their view, promised some semblance of normalized diplomatic relations. ‘Intransigence’ and ‘ignorance’The final month of the U.S. presidential race is known for last-minute surprises that can upend the race. This year was no exception, with Trump’s Oct. 2 announcement of his COVID-19 diagnosis quickly shifting media coverage from the debate to Trump’s health.He received little sympathy from foreign outlets. Across the board, they were quick to note how his personal disregard for public health safety measures symbolized his administration’s failed response to the pandemic.For example, one Chinese media outlet, The Beijing News, characterized the diagnosis as “hitting” the president “in the face,” given his previous downplaying of the epidemic. Other reports claimed Trump lacked “care about the epidemic,” including disregard for “protective measures such as wearing a mask.” Chinese outlets suggested Trump would use the diagnosis to win sympathy from voters, but also noted by being sidelined from holding campaign rallies, he could lose his “self-confessed” ability to attract voters. Russian media, on the other hand, remained confident that Trump would recover and repeated the White House line of Trump’s good health.At the same time, Russian outlets tended to chastise Trump’s unwillingness to avoid large gatherings, practice social distancing or wear a mask, all of which violated his administration’s basic health guidelines. Likewise, Russian reports criticized Trump’s post-diagnosis behavior – like tweeting video messages while at the hospital and violating quarantine with his public appearances – as “publicity stunts” that jeopardized the safety of his Secret Service detail and supporters. Again, Iranian media most directly criticized Trump. Reports characterized Trump as “determined to continue the same approach,” despite his diagnosis, and remain “without a muzzle,” “irresponsibly” continuing to tweet misinformation falsely comparing COVID-19 to the flu.Coverage centered on Trump’s inability to, as Al Alam put it, show “any sympathy” for the over 200,000 dead Americans. This death toll, the same article noted, was attributed to Trump’s “mismanagement, intransigence, ignorance and stupidity,” highlighted by his cavalier disregard for safety guidelines such as wearing a mask. In the bag for Biden?Many of the criticisms of the U.S. found in foreign media outlets in our 2016 study appear in this year’s coverage. But since the 2016 election, geopolitics have changed quite a bit – and, for many of these countries, not necessarily for the better. That might best explain their collective ire toward Trump.During Trump’s first term, Iranians absorbed the U.S.‘s unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the reimposition of sanctions and the assassination of one of its top generals. The Chinese entered into a trade war with the U.S., while the U.S. government leveled accusations of intellectual property theft, mass murder and blame for the spread of what Trump has called the “China Virus.” Russians, meanwhile, have seen themselves – fairly or not – bound to Trump’s 2016 election victory and outed as an international provocateur. That Trump has not been able to deliver on normalizing U.S. Russian relations despite four years of posturing and political rhetoric has perhaps made Trump more of a political liability than worthwhile ally. Not only has the COVID-19 pandemic sparked unrest in Russia’s backyard, but mounting regional instability is also undermining Putin’s image as a master tactician. [Get our best science, health and technology stories. Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter.]As a result, these countries’ outlets appear to have shifted attention away from a broad critique of U.S. democracy toward exasperation with Trump’s leadership. The two, of course, aren’t mutually exclusive. And these countries’ relatively positive characterizations of a potential Biden administration likely won’t last. But even the country’s supposed adversaries seem to be craving a return to stability and predictability from the Oval Office.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Robert Hinck, Monmouth College; Robert Utterback, Monmouth College, and Skye Cooley, Oklahoma State University.Read more: * For the ‘political-infotainment-media complex,’ the Mueller investigation was a gold mine * How the media encourages – and sustains – political warfareRobert Hinck receives funding from the US Department of Homeland Security and US Department of Defense. Robert Utterback receives funding from the US Department of Homeland Security and US Department of Defense.Skye Cooley receives funding from the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Defense.

Restoring seagrasses can bring coastal bays back to life

A century ago Virginia’s coastal lagoons were a natural paradise. Fishing boats bobbed on the waves as geese flocked overhead. Beneath the surface, miles of seagrass gently swayed in the surf, making the seabed look like a vast underwater prairie. More than 70 species of seagrasses grow in shallow waters around the world, on every continent except Antarctica. In Virginia, beds of eelgrass (Zostera marina) provided habitat for bay scallops and food for birds, and kept barrier islands from washing away. Eelgrass was so common that people who lived near the shore packed and baled it to use as insulation for homes, schools and hospitals. In the 1930s, however, pandemic plant disease and repeated hurricanes eliminated the eelgrass along Virginia’s eastern shore. The once-vibrant seafloor became barren mud, leading to a loss of “wildfowl, the cream of salt-water fishing, most of the clams and crabs, and all of the bay scallops,” sportsman and publisher Eugene V. Connett wrote in 1947. We are marine scientists who study seagrasses, marine biodiversity and coastal ecosystems. In a newly published study, we describe the results of a 20-year mission to reintroduce eelgrass into Virginia coastal bays using a novel seed-based approach. This project has now restored 9,600 acres of seagrasses across four bays – one of the most successful marine restoration efforts anywhere in the world. It has triggered large increases in fishes and invertebrates, made the water clearer and trapped large quantities of carbon in seafloor sediments, helping to slow climate change. We see this work as a blueprint for restoring and maintaining healthy ecosystems along coastlines around the world. Why didn’t seagrasses recover naturally?Development, nutrient runoff and other human impacts have damaged marshes, mangroves, coral reefs and seagrasses in many bays and estuaries worldwide. Loss or shrinkage of these key habitats has reduced commercial fisheries, increased erosion, made coastlines more vulnerable to floods and storms and harmed many types of aquatic life. Rapid climate change has compounded these effects through rising global temperatures, more frequent and severe storms and ocean acidification.In the late 1990s, local residents told two of us who are longtime students of seagrasses (Robert “JJ” Orth and Karen McGlathery) that they had spotted small patches of eelgrass in shallow waters off Virginia’s eastern shore. For years the conventional view had been that seagrasses in this area had not recovered from the events of the 1930s because human activities had made the area inhospitable for them.But studies showed that water quality in these coastal bays was comparatively good. This led us to explore a different explanation: Seeds from healthy seagrass populations elsewhere along the Atlantic coast simply weren’t reaching these isolated bays. Seagrasses are underwater flowering plants, so seeds are among the main ways they reproduce and spread to new environments. Sowing a new cropFrom our earlier research, we knew that when eelgrass seeds fall from the parent plant, they sink to the sea bottom quickly and don’t move far from where they land. We also knew that these seeds don’t germinate until late fall or early winter. This meant that if we collected the seeds in spring, when eelgrass flowers, we could hold them until the fall, helping them survive over the months in between.We decided to try reseeding eelgrass in the areas where they were missing. Starting in 1999, we collected seeds by hand from underwater meadows in nearby Chesapeake Bay – plucking the long reproductive shoots, bringing them back to our laboratory and holding them in large outdoor seawater tanks until they released their seeds naturally. After about 10 years we started gathering the grasses using a custom-built underwater “lawn mower” to collect many more of the reproductive shoots than we could by hand. In 2001 we sowed our first round by simply tossing seeds from a boat. Our first test plots covered 28 acres of mud flats in waters 2 to 3 feet deep. Returning the following year, we saw new seedlings sprouting up. Each year since then, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Nature Conservancy’s Virginia Coast Reserve, along with staff and students from the University of Virginia, have led a team of scientists and citizens to collect and seed a combined 536 acres of bare bottom in several coastal bays.These initial plots took off and rapidly expanded. By 2020 they covered 9,600 acres across four bays. Several factors helped them flourish. These bays are naturally flushed with cool, clean water from the Atlantic Ocean. And they lie off the tip of Virginia’s eastern shore, where there is little coastal development. Sheltering marine life and storing carbonSince eelgrass disappeared from these bays in the 1930s, human understanding of seagrass ecosystems has evolved. Today people don’t pack their walls full of seagrass insulation but instead value different services they provide, such as habitat for fish and shellfish – including many commercially and recreationally important species.Scientists and government agencies also have recognized the importance of coastal systems in capturing and storing so-called “blue carbon.” In fact, we now know that seagrasses constitute a globally significant carbon sink. They are a key tool for reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and slowing climate change[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]We are working to understand the valuable services that our restored seagrass beds provide. To our surprise, fish and invertebrates returned within only a few years as the meadows expanded. These organisms have established extensive food webs that include species ranging from tiny seahorses to 6-foot-long sandbar sharks.Other benefits were equally dramatic. Water in the bays become clearer as the seagrass canopy trapped floating particles and deposited them onto the bottom, burying significant stocks of carbon and nitrogen in sediments bound by the grasses’ roots. Our research is the first to verify the overall net carbon captured by seagrass, and is now being used to issue carbon offset credits that in turn create more funds for restoration. One big question was whether restoring seagrasses could make it possible to bring back bay scallops, which once generated millions of dollars for the local economy. Since bay scallops no longer existed in Virginia, we obtained broodstock from North Carolina, which we have reared and released annually since 2013. Regular surveys now reveal a growing population of bay scallops in the restored eelgrass, although there is still some way to go before they reach levels seen in the 1930s. A model for coastal restorationRepairing damaged ecosystems is such an urgent mission worldwide that the United Nations has designated 2021-2030 as the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. We see the success we have achieved with eelgrass restoration as a prime model for similar efforts in coastal areas around the world. Our project focused not only on reviving this essential habitat, but also on charting how restoring seagrasses affected the ecosystem and on the co-restoration of bay scallops. It provides a road map for involving scholars, nonprofits organizations, citizens and government agencies in an ecological mission where they can see the results of their work.Recent assessments show that the restored zone only covers about 30% of the total habitable bottom in our project area. With continued support, eelgrass – and the many benefits it provides – may continue to thrive and expand well into the 21st century.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Robert J. Orth, Virginia Institute of Marine Science; Jonathan Lefcheck, Smithsonian Institution, and Karen McGlathery, University of Virginia.Read more: * Mapping the world’s ‘blue carbon’ hot spots in coastal mangrove forests * Mauritius oil spill: how coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass could be affectedRobert J. Orth receives funding from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Coastal Zone Management, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Virginia Recreational Fishing License Fund, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Maryland Department of the Environment, Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment, Virginia Sea Grant . He is an elected official on the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors as an independent. Jonathan Lefcheck is supported by the Michael E. Tennenbaum Secretarial Scholar gift to the Smithsonian Institution.Karen McGlathery receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Fisheries and Wildlife Foundation, and Virginia Sea Grant.

U.S. Diplomats and Spies Battle Trump Administration Over Suspected Attacks

WASHINGTON -- The strange sound came at night: a crack like a marble striking the floor of the apartment above them.Mark Lenzi and his wife had lightheadedness, sleep issues and headaches, and their children were waking up with bloody noses -- symptoms they thought might be from the smog in Guangzhou, China, where Lenzi worked for the State Department. But air pollution could not explain his sudden memory loss, including forgetting names of work tools.What began as strange sounds and symptoms among more than a dozen U.S. officials and their family members in China in 2018 has turned into a diplomatic mystery spanning multiple countries and involving speculation about secret high-tech weapons and foreign attacks.One of the biggest questions centers on whether Trump administration officials believe that Lenzi and other diplomats in China experienced the same mysterious affliction as dozens of diplomats and spies at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba in 2016 and 2017, which came to be known as Havana Syndrome. American employees in the two countries reported hearing strange sounds, followed by headaches, dizziness, blurred vision and memory loss.But the government's treatment of the episodes has been radically different. The State Department, which oversaw the cases, has produced inconsistent assessments of patients and events, ignored outside medical diagnoses and withheld basic information from Congress, a New York Times investigation found.In Cuba, the Trump administration withdrew most of its staff members from the embassy and issued a travel warning, saying U.S. diplomats had experienced "targeted attacks." President Donald Trump expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington and started an independent review, though Cuba denied any involvement.The administration took a softer approach with China. In May 2018, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was the CIA director during the Cuba events, told lawmakers that the medical details of one U.S. official who had fallen ill in China were "very similar and entirely consistent" with the syndrome in Cuba. The administration evacuated more than a dozen federal employees and some of their family members.The State Department soon retreated, labeling what happened in China as "health incidents." While the officers in Cuba were placed on administrative leave for rehabilitation, those in China initially had to use sick days and unpaid leave, some officers and their lawyers say. And the State Department did not open an investigation into what happened in China.The administration has said little about the events in China and played down the idea that a hostile power could be responsible. But similar episodes have been reported by senior CIA officers who visited the agency's stations overseas, according to three current and former officials and others familiar with the events.That includes Moscow, where Marc Polymeropoulos, a CIA officer who helped run clandestine operations in Russia and Europe, experienced what he believes was an attack in December 2017. Polymeropoulos, who was 48 at the time, suffered severe vertigo in his hotel room in Moscow and later developed debilitating migraine headaches that forced him to retire.The cases involving CIA officers, none of which have been publicly reported, are adding to suspicions that Russia carried out the attacks worldwide. Some senior Russia analysts in the CIA, officials at the State Department and outside scientists, as well as several of the victims, see Russia as the most likely culprit given its history with weapons that cause brain injuries and its interest in fracturing Washington's relations with Beijing and Havana.The CIA director remains unconvinced, and State Department leaders say they have not settled on a cause.Critics say disparities in how the officers were treated stemmed from diplomatic and political considerations, including the president's desire to strengthen relations with Russia and win a trade deal with China.China diplomats began reporting strange symptoms in spring 2018, as U.S. officials stationed there were trying to coax their Chinese counterparts into a trade deal that Trump had promised to deliver. The president was also looking to Beijing for help in clinching nuclear talks with North Korea and consistently lavished praise on Xi Jinping, China's authoritarian leader.According to half a dozen U.S. officials, State Department leaders realized that pursuing a similar course of action as they had in Cuba -- including evacuating missions in China -- could cripple diplomatic and economic relationships.With Cuba, Trump sought to reverse President Barack Obama's detente. Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Havana during the events, said the Trump administration's move to withdraw staff members "dovetailed fortuitously with their objective on Cuba."Those who fled China have spent more than two years fighting to obtain the same benefits given to the victims in Cuba and others attacked by foreign powers. The battles have complicated their recovery and prompted government retaliation that might have permanently damaged their careers, according to interviews with more than 30 government officials, lawyers and doctors.U.S. lawmakers have criticized what they call secrecy and inaction from the State Department and are pressing the agency to release a study it received in August from the National Academies of Sciences, which examined potential causes of the episodes."These injuries, and subsequent treatment by the U.S. government, have been a living nightmare for these dedicated public servants and their families," said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. "It's obvious how a U.S. adversary would have much to gain from the disorder, distress and division that has followed."Dr. David A. Relman, a Stanford University professor who is chair of the National Academies of Sciences committee that examined the cases, said it was "disheartening and immensely frustrating" that the State Department had refused to share the report with the public or Congress "for reasons that elude us."In a statement, the department said: "The safety and security of U.S. personnel, their families and U.S. citizens is our top priority. The U.S. government has not yet determined a cause or an actor."Lenzi said he had sued the department for disability discrimination, and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel is pursuing two investigations into the State Department's conduct.The Office of Special Counsel declined to comment. But in an April 23 letter viewed by the Times, special counsel officials said investigators had "found a substantial likelihood of wrongdoing" by the State Department, though the inquiry continues."This is a deliberate, high-level cover-up," Lenzi said. "They have hung us out to dry."The situation has been complicated by the fact that U.S. officials and scientists still debate whether the symptoms resulted from an attack.Many diplomats, CIA officers and scientists suspect a weapon producing microwave radiation damaged the victims' brains. But some scientists and government officials argue it was a psychological illness that spread in the stressful environment of foreign missions. Some point to chemical agents, like pesticides.The Trump administration has not clarified its view or said exactly how many people were affected.At least 44 people in Cuba and 15 in China were evaluated or treated at the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania. Others went elsewhere. At least 14 Canadian citizens in Havana say they have suffered similar symptoms.Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania declined to discuss details but dismissed the idea of a psychological illness, saying the patients they treated had sustained a brain injury from an external source.Some senior officials at the State Department and former intelligence officers said they believed Russia played a role. The country's intelligence operatives have seeded violence around the world, poisoning enemies in Britain and fueling assaults on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.During the Cold War, the Soviet Union bombarded the U.S. Embassy in Moscow with microwaves. In a 2014 document, the National Security Agency said it had intelligence on a hostile country using a high-powered microwave weapon to "bathe a target's living quarters in microwaves," causing nervous system damage. The name of the country was classified, but people familiar with the document said it referred to Russia.Several of the cases against the CIA affected senior officers who were traveling overseas to discuss plans to counter Russian covert operations with partner intelligence agencies, according to two people familiar with the matter. Some CIA analysts believe Moscow was trying to derail that work.Polymeropoulos declined to discuss his experiences in Moscow, but he criticized how the U.S. government had handled its injured personnel. He is pushing the agency to allow him to go to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the hospital that has treated some of those who were affected in Cuba.Some top U.S. officials insist on seeing more evidence before accusing Russia. Gina Haspel, the CIA director, has acknowledged that Moscow had the intent to harm operatives, but she is not convinced it was responsible or that attacks occurred, two U.S. officials said.Nicole de Haay, a CIA spokesperson, said the "CIA's first priority has been and continues to be the welfare of all of our officers."Maria Zakharova, a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, has called any insinuation of Moscow's involvement "absolutely absurd and bizarre." A spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in Washington said the purported attacks were most likely a case of "mass hysteria."Lenzi, who has an extensive background working in the former Soviet Union, said classified material pointed to the country that had carried out the attacks, but the State Department denied him access to the documents.Top officials "know exactly which country" was responsible, Lenzi said, adding that it was not Cuba or China but another country "which the secretary of state and president do not want to confront."The first person to fall ill in China, a Commerce Department officer named Catherine Werner, who lived next door to Lenzi, experienced vomiting, nausea, headaches and dizziness for months before she was flown to the United States in April 2018.According to a whistleblower complaint filed by Lenzi, the State Department took action only after Werner's visiting mother, an Air Force veteran, used a device to record high levels of microwave radiation in her daughter's apartment. The mother also fell ill.That May, U.S. officials held a meeting to reassure U.S. officers in Guangzhou that Werner's sickness appeared to be an isolated case. But Lenzi, a diplomatic security officer, wrote in a memo to the White House that his supervisor insisted on using inferior equipment to measure microwaves in Werner's apartment, calling it a "check-the-box exercise.""They didn't find anything, because they didn't want to find anything," Lenzi said.He sent an email warning U.S. diplomats in China that they might be in danger. His superiors sent a psychiatrist to evaluate him and gave him an official "letter of admonishment," Lenzi said.Months after he began reporting symptoms of brain injury, he and his family were medically evacuated to the University of Pennsylvania.Other officers in China were experiencing similar symptoms. Robyn Garfield, a Commerce Department officer, was evacuated from Shanghai with his wife and two children in June 2018.Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania told Garfield that his injuries were similar to those of Americans in Cuba, but the State Department's medical bureau said they stemmed from a 17-year-old baseball injury, he wrote in a Facebook group for U.S. diplomats in March 2019.The State Department labeled only one China officer as having the "full constellation" of symptoms consistent with the Cuba cases: Werner, the first evacuee. In an internal letter, the department said 15 others in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing had some symptoms and clinical findings "similar to those" in Cuba, but it had not determined they were suffering from "Havana syndrome."Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania said they did not share individual brain scans with the State Department, so the government lacked necessary information to rule out brain injuries in China."It seems to me and my doctors that State does not want any additional cases from China," Garfield wrote, "regardless of the medical findings."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

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This despite the interior department’s research that the impacts of oil and gas on the sage grouse are “universally negative and typically severe”.In May, a judge put those rollbacks on hold, citing the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa), a key law that requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impact of planned projects. But in July, Trump gutted Nepa. Conservationists worry the Trump administration will now be able to get away with removing protections for the greater sage grouse – among many other critical species. Atlantic bluefin tunaThanks to overfishing and the continuing demand for bluefin tuna on the lucrative sushi market, the Atlantic bluefin tuna is at a fraction of its historic population.Earlier this year, the National Marine Fisheries Service passed a rule removing critical longline fishing gear restrictions in specific areas of the Gulf of Mexico during April and May, the bluefin’s peak spawning time. 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Last week, the government announced its intention to appeal. Monarch butterfly.Human development has eradicated large swaths of the monarch butterfly’s native milkweed habitat. Along with severe weather, this has resulted in a 90% loss in the monarch’s numbers over the last two decades. “They could be wiped out in just a few decades,” Hartl says.The US Fish and Wildlife Service is currently reviewing the monarch’s designation under the Endangered Species Act. A ruling is expected by December of this year.But the Trump administration’s changes to the Endangered Species Act threaten efforts to preserve the monarch, which many scientists view as threatened. Listing the monarch butterfly as an “endangered” or “threatened” species could extend it protections from the soybean and corn farmers that compete for its habitat – but changes to the ESA end blanket policies protecting all “threatened” species in favor of individual plans developed for each species on a case-by-case basis. Black bearsThe Trump administration scrapped an Obama-era ban on a series of practices that limited how hunters killed bears and other predators on Alaskan national preserves. In doing so, the administration gave the green light to practices like setting dogs on black bears and killing bear cubs and wolf pups in their dens.“When you allow widespread hunting of carnivores, that has a huge impact on the entire ecosystem,” Hartl says. The ban aimed at avoiding artificially reducing Alaska’s predator populations in an effort to keep ecosystems in balance. BeesBees and other pollinators are vital for global food security. But they – and, in turn, our food chain – are under threat. In 2018, the Trump administration weakened regulations on pesticide use in national wildlife refuges, opening the door to increased pesticide use across 150m acres of important pollinator habitat. The decision reverses an Obama-era ban on the use of neonicotinoid, or “neonic”, insecticides as well as genetically engineered crops within refuges.Neonic insecticides are a leading factor in mass pollinator die-offs worldwide. A report released last year found that US agriculture is 48 times more toxic to insects like bees and other pollinators than it was 20 years ago, largely due to an increased use of neonicotinoid pesticides. What’s worse, according to Hartl, is that the use of such toxic pesticides will harm not only pollinators but birds, fish and other wildlife. North Atlantic right whaleIn June, Trump announced that commercial fishing will be allowed in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts marine national monument off the coast of southern New England. 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