Month: October 2024
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA spacecraft is ready to set sail for Jupiter and its moon Europa, one of the best bets for finding life beyond Earth.
Europa Clipper will peer beneath the moon’s icy crust where an ocean is thought to be sloshing fairly close to the surface. It won’t search for life, but rather determine whether conditions there could support it. Another mission would be needed to flush out any microorganisms lurking there.
“It’s a chance for us to explore not a world that might have been habitable billions of years ago, but a world that might be habitable today — right now,” said program scientist Curt Niebur.
Its massive solar panels make Clipper the biggest craft built by NASA to investigate another planet. It will take 5 1/2 years to reach Jupiter and will sneak within 16 miles (25 kilometers) of Europa’s surface — considerably closer than any other spacecraft.
Liftoff is targeted for this month aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Mission cost: $5.2 billion.
Europa, the superstar among Jupiter’s many moons
One of Jupiter’s 95 known moons, Europa is almost the size of our own moon. It’s encased in an ice sheet estimated to be 10 miles to 15 miles or more (15 kilometers to 24 kilometers) thick. Scientists believe this frozen crust hides an ocean that could be 80 miles (120 kilometers) or more deep. The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted what appear to be geysers erupting from the surface. Discovered by Galileo in 1610, Europa is one of the four so-called Galilean moons of Jupiter, along with Ganymede, Io and Callisto.
Seeking conditions that support life
What type of life might Europa harbor? Besides water, organic compounds are needed for life as we know it, plus an energy source. In Europa’s case that could be thermal vents on the ocean floor. Deputy project scientist Bonnie Buratti imagines any life would be primitive like the bacterial life that originated in Earth’s deep ocean vents. “We will not know from this mission because we can’t see that deep,” she said. Unlike missions to Mars where habitability is one of many questions, Clipper’s sole job is to establish whether the moon could support life in its ocean or possibly in any pockets of water in the ice.
Supersized spacecraft
When its solar wings and antennas are unfurled, Clipper is about the size of a basketball court — more than 100 feet (30 meters) end to end — and weighs nearly 13,000 pounds (6,000 kilograms). The supersized solar panels are needed because of Jupiter’s distance from the sun. The main body — about the size of a camper — is packed with nine science instruments, including radar that will penetrate the ice, cameras that will map virtually the entire moon and tools to tease out the contents of Europa’s surface and tenuous atmosphere. The name hearkens to the swift sailing ships of centuries past.
Circling Jupiter to fly by Europa
The roundabout trip to Jupiter will span 1.8 billion miles (3 billion kilometers). For extra oomph, the spacecraft will swing past Mars early next year and then Earth in late 2026. It arrives at Jupiter in 2030 and begins science work the next year. While orbiting Jupiter, it will cross paths with Europa 49 times. The mission ends in 2034 with a planned crash into Ganymede — Jupiter’s biggest moon and the solar system’s too.
Europa flybys pose huge radiation risk
There’s more radiation around Jupiter than anywhere else in our solar system, besides the sun. Europa passes through Jupiter’s bands of radiation as it orbits the gas giant, making it especially menacing for spacecraft. That’s why Clipper’s electronics are inside a vault with dense aluminum and zinc walls. All this radiation would nix any life on Europa’s surface. But it could break down water molecules and, perhaps, release oxygen all the way down into the ocean that could possibly fuel sea life.
Earlier this year, NASA was in a panic that the spacecraft’s many transistors might not withstand the intense radiation. But after months of analysis, engineers concluded the mission could proceed as planned.
Other visitors to Jupiter and Europa
NASA’s twin Pioneer spacecraft and then two Voyagers swept past Jupiter in the 1970s. The Voyagers provided the first detailed photos of Europa but from quite a distance. NASA’s Galileo spacecraft had repeated flybys of the moon during the 1990s, passing as close as 124 miles (200 kilometers). Still in action around Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has added to Europa’s photo album. Arriving at Jupiter a year after Clipper will be the European Space Agency’s Juice spacecraft, launched last year.
Ganymede and other possible ocean worlds
Like Europa, Jupiter’s jumbo moon Ganymede is thought to host an underground ocean. But its frozen shell is much thicker — possibly 100 miles (160 kilometers) thick — making it tougher to probe the environment below. Callisto’s ice sheet may be even thicker, possibly hiding an ocean. Saturn’s moon Enceladus has geysers shooting up, but it’s much farther than Jupiter. Ditto for Saturn’s moon Titan, also suspected of having a subterranean sea. While no ocean worlds have been confirmed beyond our solar system, scientists believe they’re out there — and may even be relatively common.
Messages in a cosmic bottle
Like many robotic explorers before it, Clipper bears messages from Earth. Attached to the electronics vault is a triangular metal plate. On one side is a design labeled “water words” with representations of the word for water in 104 languages. On the opposite side: a poem about the moon by U.S. poet laureate Ada Limon and a silicon chip containing the names of 2.6 million people who signed up to vicariously ride along.
…
WASHINGTON — As if the largest bug to ever live – a monster about 2.7 meters long with several dozen legs – wasn’t terrifying enough, scientists could only just imagine what the extinct beast’s head looked like.
That’s because many of the fossils of these creatures are headless shells that were left behind when they molted, squirming out of their exoskeletons through the head opening as they grew ever bigger — 2.4 to 2.7 meters and more than 50 kilograms.
Now, scientists have produced a mug shot after studying fossils of juveniles that were complete and very well preserved, if not quite cute.
The giant bug’s topper was a round bulb with two short bell-shaped antennae, two protruding eyes like a crab, and a rather small mouth adapted for grinding leaves and bark, according to new research published Wednesday in Science Advances.
Called Arthropleura, these were arthropods — the group that includes crabs, spiders and insects – with features of modern-day centipedes and millipedes. But some of them were much, much bigger, and this one was a surprising mix.
“We discovered that it had the body of a millipede, but head of a centipede,” said study co-author and paleobiologist Mickael Lheritier at the University Claude Bernard Lyon in Villeurbanne, France.
The largest Arthropleura may have been the biggest bugs to ever live, although there is still a debate. They may be a close second to an extinct giant sea scorpion.
Researchers in Europe and North America have been collecting fragments and footprints of the huge bugs since the late 1800s.
“We have been wanting to see what the head of this animal looked like for a really long time,” said James Lamsdell, a paleobiologist at West Virginia University, who was not involved in the study.
To produce a model of the head, researchers first used CT scans to study fossil specimens of fully intact juveniles embedded in rocks found in a French coal field in the 1980s.
This technique allowed the researchers to scrutinize “hidden details like bits of the head that are still embedded in the rock” without marring the fossil, Lamsdell said.
“When you chip away at rock, you don’t know what part of a delicate fossil may have been lost or damaged,” he said.
The juvenile fossil specimens only measured about 6 centimeters and it’s possible they were a type of Arthropleura that didn’t grow to enormous sizes. But even if so, the researchers said they are close enough kin to provide a glimpse of what adults looked like – whether giant or of a less nightmarish size — when they were alive 300 million years ago.
…
WASHINGTON — Online hate against Americans of South Asian ancestry has risen steadily in 2023 and 2024 with the rise of politicians from that community to prominence, according to a report released Wednesday by nonprofit group Stop AAPI Hate.
Why it’s important
Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris is of Indian descent, as are former Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, is also Indian American.
Harris faces Republican former President Donald Trump in the 2024 U.S. elections.
There has been a steady rise in anti-Asian hate in extremist online spaces from January 2023 to August 2024, the report said.
The nonprofit group blamed the rise on a “toxic political climate in which a growing number of leaders and far-right extremist voices continue to spew bigoted political rhetoric and disinformation.”
Key quotes
“Online threats of violence towards Asian communities reached their highest levels in August 2024, after Usha Vance appeared at the Republican National Convention and Kamala Harris was declared a presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention,” Stop AAPI Hate said.
“The growing prevalence of anti-South Asian online hate … in 2023 and 2024 tracks with the rise in South Asian political representation this election cycle,” it added.
By the numbers
Among Asian American subgroups, South Asian communities were targeted with the highest volume of anti-Asian online hostility, with 60% of slurs directed at them in that period, according to the report.
Anti-South Asian slurs in extremist online spaces doubled last year, from about 23,000 to more than 46,000, and peaked in August 2024.
There are nearly 5.4 million people of South Asian descent living in the United States, comprising of individuals with ancestry from nations including India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
…
HIROSHIMA, Japan — Almost eight decades after an atomic bomb devastated her hometown of Hiroshima, Teruko Yahata carries the scar on her forehead from when she was knocked over by the force of the blast.
The U.S. bombs that laid waste to Hiroshima on the morning of August 6, 1945, and to Nagasaki three days later, changed the course of history and left Yahata and other survivors with deep scars and a sense of responsibility toward disarmament.
The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday to the Nihon Hidankyo group of atomic bomb survivors, for its work warning of the dangers of nuclear arms, has given survivors hope and highlighted their work still ahead, Yahata and others said.
“It felt as if a light suddenly shone through. I felt like I could see the light,” the 87-year-old said on Saturday, describing her reaction to hearing about the award.
“This feels like the first step, the beginning of a movement toward nuclear abolition,” she told Reuters at the site of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
She was just 8 years old and in the back garden of her home when the bomb hit. Although her house was 2.5 kilometers from the hypocenter, the blast was strong enough to throw her several meters back into her house, she said.
Seventy-nine years later, and a day after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the survivors the prize, a long line formed outside the museum, with dozens of foreign and Japanese visitors queuing up to get in.
A bridge leading into the memorial park was decorated with a yellow sheet and other handmade signs against nuclear weapons. Campaigners gathered signatures for nuclear abolition from those passing by.
Nihon Hidankyo, formed in 1956, has provided thousands of witness accounts, issued resolutions and public appeals, sent delegations to the U.N. and peace conferences, and collected signatures advocating nuclear disarmament.
Yahata, who is not a Nihon Hidankyo member, said it was that drive to gather signatures that finally paid off after bearing little fruit for most of a century.
“It’s this amount of sadness and joy that led them to this peace prize. I think it’s something very meaningful,” she said.
Nihon Hidankyo’s co-chair, Toshiyuki Mimaki, said he felt the award meant more responsibility, adding that most atomic bomb survivors were more than 85 years old.
“Rather than feeling purely happy, I feel like I have more responsibility now,” he told Reuters, sitting in a Hidankyo office in Hiroshima in front of a map showing the impact of the bomb on the city.
In rural areas the group is on the verge of falling apart, the 82-year-old said. “The big challenge now is what to do going forward.”
…
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Thirteen pregnant Philippine women accused of illegally acting as surrogate mothers in Cambodia after being recruited online could face prison terms after giving birth, a senior Interior Ministry official said Saturday.
Interior Ministry Secretary of State Chou Bun Eng, who leads the country’s fight against human trafficking and sexual exploitation, said police found 24 foreign women, 20 Philippine and four Vietnamese, when they raided a villa in Kandal province, near the capital of Phnom Penh, on September 23.
Thirteen of the Philippine women were found to be pregnant and were charged in court on October 1 under a provision in the law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, she said.
The law was updated in 2016 to ban commercial surrogacy after Cambodia became a popular destination for foreigners seeking women to give birth to their children.
Developing countries have been popular for surrogacy because costs are much lower than in countries such as the United States and Australia, where surrogate services could cost around $150,000.
The surrogacy business boomed in Cambodia after it was put under tight restrictions in neighboring Thailand, as well as in India and Nepal.
In July 2017, a Cambodian court sentenced an Australian woman and two Cambodian associates to 1 1/2 years in prison for providing commercial surrogacy services.
The new case is unusual because surrogates normally are employed in their own countries, not transported elsewhere.
Cambodia already has a bad reputation for human trafficking, especially in connection with online scams in which foreigners recruited for work under false pretenses are kept in conditions of virtual slavery and help perpetrate criminal fraud online against targets in many countries.
Details of the new surrogacy case remain murky, and officials have not made clear whether the women were arrested or whether anyone involved in organizing the scheme has been identified.
Chou Bun Eng told The Associated Press that the business that recruited the surrogates was based in Thailand, and their food and accommodation in Cambodia were arranged from there. She said the authorities had not yet identified the business.
She said the seven Philippine women and four Vietnamese women who were caught in the raid but who were not pregnant would be deported soon.
The 13 pregnant women have been placed under care at a hospital in Phnom Penh, said Chou Bun Eng. She added that after they give birth, they could be prosecuted on charges that could land them in prison for two to five years.
She said that Cambodia considered the women not to have been victimized but rather offenders who conspired with the organizers to act as surrogates and then sell the babies for money. Her assertion could not be verified, as the women could not be contacted, and it is not known if they have lawyers.
The Philippine Embassy in Cambodia, in response to a local news account of the affair, issued a statement Wednesday confirming most of the details related to what it called the “rescue of 20 Filipino women.”
“The Philippine Embassy ensured that all 20 Filipinos were interviewed in the presence of an Embassy representative and an interpreter in every step of the investigation process,” it said.
…
washington — The Federal Aviation Administration approved a license Saturday for the launch of SpaceX’s Starship 5 on Sunday after earlier saying it did not expect to make a decision until late November.
Reuters first reported this week the faster than expected timetable after the FAA in September had suggested a much longer review.
SpaceX is targeting Sunday for the launch and said a 30-minute launch window opens at 7 a.m. CT (1200 GMT)
The FAA said Saturday that SpaceX had “met all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements for the suborbital test flight” for the fifth test of the Starship and has also approved the Starship 6 mission profile.
The Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket are fully reusable systems designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon and beyond.
The fifth test flight of the Starship/Super Heavy from Boca Chica, Texas, includes a return to the launch site of the Super Heavy booster rocket for a catch attempt by the launch tower, and a water landing of the Starship vehicle in the Indian Ocean west of Australia.
The FAA said if SpaceX chooses an uncontrolled entry “it must communicate that decision to the FAA prior to launch, the loss of the Starship vehicle will be considered a planned event, and a mishap investigation will not be required.”
On Friday, the FAA approved the return to flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle after it reviewed and accepted the SpaceX-led investigation findings and corrective actions for the mishap that occurred September 28.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has harshly criticized the FAA, including for proposing a $633,000 fine against SpaceX over launch issues and for the delay in approving the license for Starship 5, which the company said has been ready to launch since August. Musk has called for the resignation of FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker and threatened to sue the agency.
…
The American Psychiatric Association says that as elections approach, stress levels go up, regardless of political affiliation. The constant stream of news, stressful arguments and concerns about the country’s future all put pressure on mental well-being. Some psychologists call it election stress disorder. Maxim Adams has the story. Videographer: Andre Sergunin
…
YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Humanitarian groups in Cameroon are visiting homes and villages in remote areas this week to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month, advising women to go to hospitals for free screening and treatment.
About 60% of the more than 7,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in Cameroon this year have died because they were late in getting to hospitals, officials say. Breast cancer deaths are highly unreported because families abandon women to die at home.
Thirty-year-old history student Emilie Nadege Atangana told a group of women and girls at the University of Yaounde 1 campus how she was psychologically and emotionally traumatized after receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer in 2020.
Most of her relatives, friends and fellow students said she would not live long and abandoned her, she said.
Atangana said she found hope when medical staff members of the Yaounde Gynaecology, Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital told her that 90% of early-stage breast cancers are curable.
Cameroonian government officials and humanitarian groups say cancer survivors such as Atangana have been sent to towns and villages as part of activities marking “Pink Month.”
The World Health Organization designates October as Pink Month, a time to teach people about cancer, including early identification and signs and symptoms.
Forty-two-year-old Mesode Ngwese Agbaw, a cancer survivor, said people should stop hiding cancer patients at home to die because of the false belief that cancer cannot be treated.
“You don’t need to hide alone with your pain,” she said. “Share it with somebody, and the people will be ready to help you. I was operated on and after the operation, I have been following treatment and till now, I am fine.”
This year’s theme for the month in Cameroon is “No one Should Face Breast Cancer Alone and Yes, No One is Expected to Fight Breast Cancer Alone.”
Ruth Amin, a public health specialist and project manager at the Yaounde-based Lifafa Research Foundation, said that sending people suspected of having breast cancer to hospitals would prevent many of the deaths caused because the women were abandoned or got to a hospital too late.
“We are calling on the men to support their spouses, to support their mothers, to support their sisters in raising awareness, in carrying them to the hospitals to be clinically examined by professionals,” she said.
“Women should speak up,” she said. “Women should go toward the health facilities to get examined because the earlier they are being diagnosed, the easier it would be for them to be treated.”
Amin spoke to VOA via a messaging app from Buea, a southern commercial city where humanitarian caravans were educating residents about breast cancer on Saturday.
Cameroon says it has equipped all hospitals with qualified medical staff members and equipment to diagnose breast cancer.
The World Health Organization estimates that Cameroon has about 20,000 new cancer cases, including breast cancers, each year, with 65% related deaths.
…
chicago — With a neon-green net in hand, Annette Prince briskly walks a downtown Chicago plaza at dawn, looking left and right as she goes.
It’s not long before she spots a tiny yellow bird sitting on the concrete. It doesn’t fly away, and she quickly nets the bird, gently places it inside a paper bag and labels the bag with the date, time and place.
“This is a Nashville warbler,” said Prince, director of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, noting that the bird must have flown into a glass window pane of an adjacent building. “He must only weigh about two pennies. He’s squinting his eyes because his head hurts.”
For rescue groups like the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, this scene plays out hundreds of times each spring and fall after migrating birds fly into homes, small buildings and sometimes Chicago’s skyscrapers and other hulking buildings.
A stark sign of the risks came last fall, when 1,000 migrating birds died on a single night after flying into the glass exterior of the city’s lakefront convention center, McCormick Place. This fall, the facility unveiled new bird-safe window film on one of its glass buildings along the Lake Michigan shore.
The $1.2 million project installed tiny dots on the exterior of the Lakeside Center building, adorning enough glass to cover two football fields.
Doug Stotz, senior conservation ecologist at the nearby Field Museum, hopes the project will be a success. He estimated that just 20 birds have died after flying into the convention’s center’s glass exterior so far this fall, a hopeful sign.
“We don’t have a lot of data since this just started this fall, but at this point, it looks like it’s made a huge difference,” Stotz said.
But for the birds that collide with Chicago buildings, there is a network of people waiting to help. They also are aiming to educate officials and find solutions to improve building design, lighting and other factors in the massive number of bird collision deaths in Chicago and worldwide.
Prince said she and other volunteers walk the streets downtown to document what they can of the birds that are killed and injured.
“We have the combination of the millions of birds that pass through this area because it’s a major migratory path through the United States, on top of the amount of artificial lighting that we put out at night, which is when these birds are traveling and getting confused and attracted to the amount of glass,” Prince said.
Dead birds are often saved for scientific use, including by Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. Rescued birds are taken to local wildlife rehabilitation centers to recover, such as the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center in suburban Illinois.
On a recent morning, veterinarian Darcy Stephenson at DuPage gave a yellow-bellied sapsucker anesthetic gas before taping its wings open for an X-ray. The bird arrived with a note from a rescue group: “Window collision.”
Examining the results, she found the bird had a broken ulna — a bone in the wing.
The center takes in about 10,000 species of animals annually and 65% of them are avian. Many are victims of window collisions and during peak migration in the fall, several hundred birds can show up in one day.
“The large chunk of these birds do actually survive and make it back into the wild once we’re able to treat them,” said Sarah Reich, head veterinarian at DuPage. “Fractures heal very, very quickly in these guys for shoulder fractures. Soft tissue trauma generally heals pretty well. The challenging cases are going to be the ones where the trauma isn’t as apparent.”
Injured birds go through a process of flight testing, then get a full physical exam by the veterinary staff and are rehabilitated before being set free.
“It’s exciting to be able to get these guys back out into the wild, especially some of those cases that we’re kind of cautiously optimistic about or maybe have an injury that we’ve never treated successfully before,” Reich said, adding that these are the cases “clinic staff get really, really excited about.”
…
new orleans, louisiana — Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole heritage takes center stage this weekend when the Festivals Acadiens et Creoles marks a half-century of honoring and celebrating the culture through music, arts, food and community.
What started as a one day concert in 1974 to entertain 150 French-speaking journalists gathered in Lafayette — considered the heart of Cajun country — has grown into a three-day event and possibly one of the largest Cajun and Zydeco festivals in the world, organizers said. And, they note, the entire event is free.
Barry Jean Ancelet, one of the event’s organizers, said when the idea formed 50 years ago, nobody knew if anyone would even come to hear the music.
“Cajun music at that time was largely considered ‘old people’s music,'” he said. “You’ve got to remember, we were in the throes of Rock ‘n’ Roll at the time. The people here loved it when they encountered it in dance halls, but this concert was designed to call attention to the music in a different way, to point out its value. They had to sit — not dance — and pay attention. And they ended up hearing it in a different way. It was so successful. We ended up turning it into an annual event where we could call positive attention to this important asset and get people to consider it.”
The festival, now held annually in Lafayette’s Girard Park, brings together multi-generations of musicians and artists who annually fight to preserve a culture that continues to evolve.
“We’ve always been about celebrating the past and handing it off to the future,” Ancelet said. “If you value and respect evolution, the culture will produce things that will continue to surprise you. It all comes out in the wash. What’s good will last and what’s not, won’t.”
Festival co-founder Pat Mould said the festival is a “self-celebration of who we are, how we live, what we eat, the music and how we speak.”
“If you know nothing and want to learn about the culture, this one weekend out of the year allows you to find out everything. Everything you want to know is represented at the festival. It’s a quick study of Cajun and Creole living,” he said.
Event features homegrown talent
On tap musically for the Friday through Sunday event are performances by 60 musicians — all homegrown talent — including Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Wayne Toups, CJ Chenier, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas, Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, The Revelers, Beausoleil avec Michael Doucet and The Lost Bayou Ramblers.
On Friday, contemporary artists will pay tribute to the 1974 concert house band that included Zydeco pioneer Clifton Chenier, Cajun accordion maker Marc Savoy, the Balfa Brothers, a Cajun music ensemble of five brothers, Cajun accordion players Nathan Abshire and Blackie Forrester, and Jimmy C. Newman, a country music and Cajun singer-songwriter and long-time star of the Grand Ole Opry.
“Get ready for Louisiana pure fun,” said Carrier, who’s scheduled to perform with his band on Sunday. “Get ready to eat some really good food and have the time of your life.”
“People all over the word have these dates circled on their calendar,” he continued. “It’s an event that helps the younger generations continue the traditions. I’m a third generation Zydeco musician. This is a family oriented festival that brings people together of all ages.”
A ‘celebration of everything Cajun’
Riley, who’s been performing at this festival since 1988, said he keeps returning for several reasons but especially because it helps preserve the culture.
“It’s important to see us on stage, singing and speaking in French. That has an effect on people who come to see us and helps them fall in love with the culture,” he said.
“There are a lot of events leading up to the weekend that focuses on the importance of the language, the culture, the food and, of course, the music. There’s none other that celebrates it like this one. I think it’s the biggest complete celebration of everything Cajun. It’s also inclusive of different generations, bands with lineage. That’s key,” he said.
Riley, now 55, said he’s very proud that his three children play music.
“It’s a beautiful thing for my family and others like mine,” he said. “Having your kids play with you is awesome. Most kids don’t want to have anything to do with what their parents do. Mine think what I do is fun and it is.”
Riley said when he first started there weren’t too many young bands playing Cajun music.
“There was real fear that the music would die off and dissipate like the language,” he said. “The opposite has happened. More young folks are preserving and playing this music than ever. The Zydeco scene down here is packed with young people. It’s super vibrant and alive. The same with the Cajun scene as well.”
…
NEW ORLEANS — On the eve of World War II, Nazis in Austria seized a pastel by renowned impressionist artist Claude Monet, selling it off and sparking a family’s decadeslong search that culminated Wednesday in New Orleans.
At an FBI field office, agents lifted a blue veil covering the Monet pastel and presented Adalbert Parlagi’s granddaughters with the artwork over 80 years after it was taken from their family. Helen Lowe said she felt that her grandfather would be watching and that he would be “so, so proud of this moment.”
Monet’s 1865 Bord de Mer depicts rocks along the shoreline of the Normandy coast, where Allied forces stormed the beaches of Nazi-occupied France during D-Day in 1944, marking a turning point in the war. The Monet pastel is one of 20,000 items recovered by the FBI Art Crime Team out of an estimated 600,000 artworks and millions of books and religious objects stolen by the Nazis.
“The theft was not random or incidental, but an integral part of the Nazis’ plan to eliminate all vestiges of Jewish life in Germany and Europe, root and branch,” U.S. State Department Holocaust adviser Stuart E. Eizenstat said in a March speech.
After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Adalbert Parlagi, a successful businessman and art lover, and his wife, Hilda, left behind almost everything they owned and fled Vienna, using British license plates to drive across the border, their granddaughters said. Though the Parlagis hadn’t identified as Jewish for years and baptized their children as Protestants, they were still considered Jewish under Nazi laws, according to Austrian government records. Other relatives were killed in concentration camps.
The Parlagis attempted to ship their valuable carpets, porcelain and artworks out of Vienna to London, but found out later that their property had been seized and auctioned off by the Gestapo to support the Third Reich.
Multiple international declarations decried trading in Nazi-looted art, beginning with Allied forces in London in 1943. The 1998 Washington principles, signed by more than three dozen countries, reiterated the call and advocated for the return of stolen art.
Yet Adalbert Parlagi’s efforts were stonewalled by the Vienna auctioneer who had bought and sold the Monet pastel and another artwork owned by Parlagi. The records were lost after the fighting in Vienna, the auctioneer told Adalbert in a letter shortly after World War II, according to an English translation of a document prepared by an Austrian government body reviewing the Parlagi family’s art restitution claims.
“I also cannot remember two such pictures either,” the auctioneer said.
Many survivors of World War II and their descendants ultimately give up trying to recover their lost artwork because of the difficulties they face, said Anne Webber, co-founder of the London-based nonprofit Commission for Looted Art in Europe, which has recovered more than 3,500 looted artworks.
“You have to just constantly, constantly, constantly look,” Webber said.
Adalbert Parlagi and his son Franz kept meticulous ownership and search records. After Franz’s death in 2012, Françoise Parlagi stumbled upon her father’s cache of documents, including the original receipt from her grandfather’s purchase of the Monet pastel. She reached out to Webber’s commission for help in 2014.
The commission’s research team reviewed archives and receipts, contacted museums and art experts and scoured the internet, but initially found “absolutely no trace,” Webber said. Then, in 2021, the team discovered online that a New Orleans dealer acquired the Monet in 2017 and sold it to a Louisiana-based doctor and his wife.
The FBI investigated the commission’s research and, earlier this year, a federal court ruled the pastel should be returned to the Parlagis’ descendants.
“There was never a question” of returning the art to the rightful owners after learning of its sordid history, said Bridget Vita-Schlamp, whose late husband had purchased the Monet pastel.
“We were shocked, I’m not going to lie,” she said.
The family recovered another work in March from the Austrian government but there are still six more artworks missing, including from acclaimed artists Camille Pissarro and Paul Signac. The U.S. is likely the “largest illegal art market in the world,” said Kristin Koch, supervisory special agent with the FBI’s Art Crime Program.
The art world has a greater responsibility to investigate the origins of artworks and a moral obligation to return looted works to their rightful owners, Webber said.
“They represent the life and the lives that were taken,” Webber said. “They represent the world that they were exiled from.”
The granddaughters of Adalbert and Hilda Parlagi say they are grateful for what they have already gotten back. Françoise Parlagi, a broad smile on her face, said she hoped to hang a copy of the pastel in her home. She said the moment felt “unreal.”
“So many families are in this situation. Maybe they haven’t even been trying to recover because they don’t believe, they think this might not be possible,” she said. “Let us be hope for other families.”
…
STOCKHOLM — Meta Platforms said on Friday that it had removed a network of group accounts targeting Russian speakers in Moldova ahead of the country’s October 20 election, for violation of the company’s policy on fake accounts.
Authorities in Moldova, an ex-Soviet state lying between Romania and Ukraine, said they had blocked dozens of Telegram channels and chat bots linked to a drive to pay voters to cast “no” ballots in a referendum on European Union membership held alongside the presidential election.
Pro-European President Maia Sandu is seeking a second term in the election and called the referendum on joining the 27-member bloc as the cornerstone of her policies.
The fake Meta accounts posted criticism of Sandu, pro-EU politicians and close ties between Moldova and Romania, and supported pro-Russia parties in Moldova, the company said.
The company said its operation centered on about a dozen fictitious, Russian-language news brands posing as independent entities with presence on multiple internet services, including Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, as well as Telegram, OK.ru and TikTok.
Meta said it removed seven Facebook accounts, 23 pages, one group and 20 accounts on Instagram for violating its “coordinated inauthentic behavior policy.”
About 4,200 accounts followed one or more of the 23 pages and about 335,000 accounts followed one or more of the Instagram accounts, Meta said.
In Chisinau, the National Investigation Inspectorate said it had blocked 15 channels of the popular Telegram messaging app and 95 chat bots offering voters money. Users were told the channels “violated local laws” on political party financing.
It had traced the accounts to supporters of fugitive businessman Ilan Shor — members of the banned party bearing his name or the “Victory” electoral bloc he had set up in its place from his base of exile in Moscow.
Moldovan police said on Thursday that they searched homes of leaders linked to Shor as part of a criminal investigation into election-meddling. Police have said tens of thousands of voters were paid off via accounts in a Russian bank to derail the vote.
Shor was sentenced to 15 years in jail in absentia last year in connection with the 2014 disappearance of $1 billion from Moldovan banks. He denies allegations of trying to bribe voters.
Sandu accuses Moscow of trying to topple her government while Moscow has accused her of fomenting “Russophobia.”
…
washington — As China pursues tit-for-tat actions against the European Union in response to tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, Beijing’s drive for global dominance in the automotive sector continues unabated.
Over the past year, companies such as EV giant BYD and others have made inroads in markets from Southeast Asia to Latin America and Africa, even as they face tariffs of up to 100% in Canada and the United States, and up to 45% in the European Union.
Chinese EV companies have announced plans to invest millions to build new factories in Thailand and Brazil, and they have opened showrooms in Zambia, Kenya and South Africa.
And while most Chinese EV makers say they will continue to sell cars in Europe and not boost prices to offset the tariffs, analysts say it makes sense that they are equally focused, if not more so, on markets in the developing world as well.
Ryan Berg, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the EV market is like a balloon that is fully blown up.
“When countries like the U.S., the EU, Canada and others squeeze [the balloon], the air is going to go elsewhere. Well, the air right now is going to go to the developing world countries that haven’t put the tariffs on Chinese cars in the first place,” Berg said.
Bangkok, Brazil and Ethiopia
In Thailand, companies such as Great Wall and BYD are leading the way. BYD opened a production facility in Thailand in July and its company chairman, Wang Chuanfu, said BYD has already captured 40% of the market for EVs. Earlier this year, Great Wall became the first Chinese EV company to mass-produce electric vehicles overseas through its production facilities in Thailand.
In addition to Thailand, BYD has also captured a large market share in Singapore and Malaysia. According to government statistics, the EV behemoth ranked as Singapore’s second-most popular car brand by sales in the first half of 2024. BYD ranked among the top 10 car brands in Malaysia when compared with all registered vehicles, following BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
In Latin America, BYD plans to launch a partnership with Uber that aims to bring 100,000 Chinese-made EVs to Uber drivers globally. In addition, BYD is planning a new auto factory in eastern Brazil to come online in 2025. Both BYD and Great Wall have local R&D, production and sales centers in Brazil.
John Helveston, an assistant professor in engineering management at George Washington University, said from a business perspective, it makes sense for Chinese EV companies to move to markets where there is more room for profit.
“I mean, just like we have Toyota and GM and Ford and Volkswagen … these companies like BYD very much are also global companies,” Helveston told VOA. “They want to expand just like any other successful business.”
Paul Nantulya, a China specialist at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, said Africa provides huge market opportunities for Chinese EV companies.
That opportunity, however, comes with its challenges. As in other countries, there is still a lack of infrastructure for EVs in Africa such as charging stations.
Nantulya, who attended the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), said Beijing and Africa are building long-term relationships, particularly when it comes to green energy and EV sectors.
About “122 green energy projects have been implemented since the last FOCAC, so between 2021 and 2024, 122 green energy projects have been implemented across the African continent across 40 countries. So, the demand is huge, and it is steady,” he told VOA.
“Chinese state-owned enterprises that are in this sector have been making a very, very aggressive push in developing economies … you know, the uptick of that technology in Africa is extremely high,” he said.
In March, China partnered with Ethiopia to announce an ambitious plan to shift toward electric mobility. The plan aims to introduce nearly half a million electric vehicles in Ethiopia over the next decade.
Mutual benefits
All three analysts said Beijing’s penetration of global markets is boosted by the economic benefits that China offers in exchange. For example, Helveston said, many countries are willing to “leverage market access” in exchange for improved infrastructure and technology.
Chinese companies have built roads, trains, schools and hospitals in some of the poorest countries in the world, and developing countries see “automotive trade [as] just building on top of those relationships that have already been there a while,” he said. “It’s a very transactional relationship.”
CSIS’s Berg said countries in Latin America “have been really keen to court Chinese investment in technological industries like the EV industry.” He noted that Latin American countries see the EV industry as “reliable” and “plentiful in terms of job opportunities.”
Nantulya added that Chinese technology is seen as a way to help African countries address energy challenges such as blackouts.
“When you look at it from the African perspective, [China’s presence] is helping them diversify their energy grids, which is a significant issue. It’s also contributing to improving their energy mix,” Nantulya said.
China has taken a proactive approach by building large infrastructure projects in developing countries, whereas the United States has not yet undertaken projects of similar scale, he said.
“I think that we’re looking at some pretty big shifts in, let’s say, 10 years from now with what the global situation might be. … A lot of these countries might be much more comfortable working with China than the U.S.,” Helveston said.
Washington, however, is not sitting back. At the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in 2022, the United States committed to $55 billion in pledges over three years that included investments in renewable energy infrastructure, clean energy and efforts to mitigate climate change.
Berg said geopolitics also is a motivating factor in Beijing’s push into developing countries in South America.
“They are in their geopolitical competition with [the United States], engaging in reciprocity … showing that they can be extremely active in some ways and especially in the economic domain in our neighborhood,” he said.
…
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers asked AT&T, Verizon Communications, and Lumen Technologies on Friday to answer questions after a report that Chinese hackers accessed the networks of U.S. broadband providers.
The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday hackers obtained information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized wiretapping, and said the three companies were among the telecoms whose networks were breached.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, and the top Democrat on the committee Representative Frank Pallone along with Representatives Bob Latta and Doris Matsui asked the three companies to answer questions. They are seeking a briefing and detailed answers by next Friday.
“There is a growing concern regarding the cybersecurity vulnerabilities embedded in U.S. telecommunications networks,” the lawmakers said. They are asking for details on what information was seized and when the companies learned about the intrusion.
AT&T and Lumen declined to comment, while Verizon did not immediately comment.
It was unclear when the hack occurred.
Hackers might have held access for months to network infrastructure used by the companies to cooperate with court-authorized U.S. requests for communications data, the Journal said. It said the hackers had also accessed other tranches of internet traffic.
China’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that it was not aware of the attack described in the report but said the United States had “concocted a false narrative” to “frame” China in the past.
…
From pop superstar Taylor Swift to former wrestler Hulk Hogan, celebrity endorsements have been a feature of this year’s U.S. presidential race. But whether they will have any kind of impact on the election is difficult to predict. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
…
This month, [October 8] the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History opened “NASA’s Earth Information Center” an exhibition that gives visitors a firsthand look at the forces shaping our planet. Andrei Dziarkach has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Artem Kohan
…
seoul, south korea — South Koreans flocked to bookstores Friday and crashed websites in a frenzy to snap up copies of the work of novelist Han Kang in her home country, after her unexpected win of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature.
However, the author herself was keeping out of the limelight.
The country’s largest bookstore chain, Kyobo Book Centre, said sales of her books had rocketed on Friday, with stocks almost immediately selling out and set to be in short supply for the near future.
“This is the first time a Korean has received a Nobel Prize in Literature, so I was amazed,” said Yoon Ki-heon, a 32-year-old visitor at a bookstore in central Seoul.
“South Korea had a poor achievement in winning Nobel Prizes, so I was surprised by news that (a writer of) non-English books, which were written in Korean, won such a big prize.”
Soon after Thursday’s announcement, some bookstore websites could not be accessed due to heavy traffic. Out of the current 10 bestsellers at Kyobo, nine were Han’s books on Friday morning, according to its website.
Han’s father, well-regarded author Han Seung-won, said the translation of her novel The Vegetarian, her major international breakthrough, had led to her winning the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 and now the Nobel prize.
“My daughter’s writing is very delicate, beautiful and sad,” Han Seung-won said.
“So, how you translate that sad sentence into a foreign language will determine whether you win … It seems the translator was the right person to translate the unique flavor of Korean language.”
Han’s other books address painful chapters of South Korean history, including Human Acts which examines the 1980 massacre of hundreds of civilians by the South Korean military in the city of Gwangju.
Another novel, We Do Not Part, looks at the fallout of the 1948-54 massacre on Jeju island, when an estimated 10% of the island’s population were killed in an anti-communist purge.
“I really hope souls of the victims and survivors could be healed from pain and trauma through her book,” said Kim Chang-beom, head of an association for the bereaved families of the Jeju massacre.
Park Gang-bae, a director at a foundation that honors the victims and supports the bereaved families and survivors of the Gwangju massacre, said he was “jubilant and moved ” by her win.
“The protagonists in her book (Human Acts) are people we meet and live with every day, on every corner here, so this is deeply moving,” Park said.
Han’s father told reporters on Friday that she may continue to shun the limelight after giving no separate comments or interviews and eschewing media scrutiny since Thursday’s win.
“She said given the fierce Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine wars and people dying every day, how could she celebrate and hold a joyous press conference?” her father said.
Han Kang received the news of her win about 10 to 15 minutes before the announcement, her father said, and was so surprised that she thought it might be a scam at one point.
…
WINTER PARK, Florida — Many Jews worldwide will mark Yom Kippur in fasting and prayer at their synagogues this weekend.
But for the faithful in Florida, destructive Hurricane Milton has disrupted plans for observing the Day of Atonement — the holiest day of the year in the Jewish faith — that begins Friday evening and caps off the High Holy Days that began with Rosh Hashana on October 2.
Across the storm-threatened areas, rabbis and their congregants spent part of the Days of Awe — the span between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur — protecting their homes and synagogues as Milton churned off the coast, spiraling into a Category 5 storm. Many — though not all — evacuated, heeding the voluntary and mandatory orders, and found safekeeping for their synagogues’ Torah scrolls and themselves.
Milton hit Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a Category 3 cyclone, with damaging winds, heavy rains and tornadoes. By Thursday, the storm had moved eastward into the Atlantic Ocean.
Why this rabbi decided against evacuating before storm
Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz evacuated most of his family ahead of the storm, but chose to ride it out with his son, also a rabbi, at Chabad Lubavitch of Southwest Florida near Fort Myers. The center is hosting people displaced by the storm, including doctors, first responders and elderly who cannot evacuate.
It’s important to be “with the people and for the people,” and provide emotional and spiritual support, he said as the storm approached.
Near midnight Thursday, the Chabad center and the rest of the neighborhood lost power, said Minkowicz, making them among the millions without it. The center was spared from the storm surge, but homes and other buildings in the area were not, he said.
“Our pressing need is for Power so that we can help our community & hold Yom Kippur services,” Minkowicz told The Associated Press via email Thursday. “We’re praying for this to be resolved asap.”
The center planned to host Yom Kippur observances regardless of the storm. He said it was similar two years ago, when the holy day followed the major hurricane, Ian.
“Yom Kippur is a day that you open up your soul to God and you totally connect with God,” Minkowicz said. “When you go through a hurricane, anything materialistic is not important. They’re already in that zone where they’re totally focused on God.”
Congregation Beth Am in the Tampa Bay area also lost power and plans to hold Yom Kippur services online, said Rabbi Jason Rosenberg of the Reform synagogue.
“It’s important to keep perspective. Having a service online is not what anybody wants, but it could’ve been a lot worse,” he said. “This feels like a blessing.”
The storm underscored one of Yom Kippur’s annual reflections.
An implicit question, he said before Milton’s landfall, is “If this was going to be your last year on earth, how would you want to act differently? … When you’ve got a historical storm, a potentially life-threatening and life-altering storm bearing down on you, that message is really present.”
Milton disrupts Yom Kippur and October 7 commemoration
Like most of her congregants, Rabbi Nicole Luna had evacuated after helping secure Temple Beth El in Fort Myers, and entrusting several Torah scrolls to congregants should the threatened surge devastate the synagogue.
While the congregation braved Hurricanes Irma in 2017 and Ian in 2022, Milton’s timing hit especially hard, having already forced the postponement of community-wide commemoration of Hamas attacking Israel on October 7, 2023. The war that followed is ongoing.
“It just feels like too much for our hearts to carry right now,” Luna said from Miami ahead of the storm. “It’s all very heavy.”
After the storm passed through, Luna told her congregation that their synagogue had emerged undamaged, though it lost power.
She announced plans for a service via Zoom on Friday evening, and in-person services Saturday.
“We hope by Saturday more traffic lights will be restored but please only come if you can safely navigate the roads,” she said in her message.
Luna said she was grateful for the “big outpouring of support” she received from fellow rabbis across the East Coast of Florida, who were opening their temples for the holidays to evacuees and have emphasized they can come as they are since few grabbed “holiday-appropriate clothing” in the rush to escape Milton’s fury.
The Chabad of Southwest Broward near Fort Lauderdale is hosting several evacuees from areas most affected by the storm, ranging from a mother with her newborn to an elderly couple, said director Rabbi Pinny Andrusier. They are invited to spend Yom Kippur with the Cooper City-based group, including sharing kosher meals before and after the day of fasting.
“We were spared, thank God,” Andrusier said of the storm. “We’ve been able to open up our doors” for those in the hurricane zone.
Synagogue skips holding Yom Kippur services
Hundreds of Jewish families on Longboat Key, a barrier island off Sarasota Bay, won’t be able to observe Yom Kippur in their synagogue for the very first time in their 45-year history, said Shepard Englander, CEO of The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee.
Access to the island, specifically the John Ringling Causeway, was closed ahead of the storm. The congregation decided it wasn’t worth risking Milton’s might for Day of Atonement services. They had celebrated Rosh Hashana in their building despite a number of nearby homes being damaged by Hurricane Helene, which made landfall last month.
Englander said he and his family evacuated from their home on a riverbank outside Sarasota and were hunkered down at a friend’s home inland. From there, he was trying to make sure community members from Longboat Key and other temples that won’t have services can say their prayers and break their daylong Yom Kippur fast at a newly constructed conference center in Sarasota with food items like blintzes, bagels, cream cheese and smoked salmon.
Ahead of the storm, people were scattered in the region at emergency shelters or staying with family or friends, Englander said.
“It’s in difficult times that you really understand the power of community,” he said. “And this is a caring, tight-knit, generous Jewish community.”
…
Taipei, Taiwan — Organizers of Taiwan’s premier film festival report a huge increase this year in entries from China, despite a ban imposed by Beijing six years ago on participation in the festival by Chinese filmmakers and actors.
As many as 100 Chinese entries had been submitted for Golden Horse Awards in recent years, in defiance of the ban and without apparent consequences. But this year organizers say the number of movies and documentaries submitted from China shot up to 276.
More than a dozen of the Chinese films are potential finalists, some in multiple categories. The winners will be announced on November 23.
Industry analysts and directors say many of the Chinese filmmakers may have turned to the Golden Horse Awards to earn exposure for their movies, fearing they would be banned at home. Others point to the festival’s reputation for hosting a diversity of films.
According to a list of finalists released on October 2, Chinese director Lou Ye’s pseudo-documentary, An Unfinished Film, and Geng Jun’s black-and-white gay film Bel Ami were shortlisted for multiple awards.
Wonder Weng, executive director of the Taiwan Film Critics Society in Taipei, said both movies are likely to be banned in China.
He said that Lou, a regular participant in the Golden Horse Awards, has never bowed to the Chinese system and that his An Unfinished Film deviates from Beijing’s favored narratives about the COVID-19 pandemic. Geng’s Bel Ami, Weng added, challenges the values of the Chinese Communist Party amid a heavy-handed crackdown on the LGBTQ community.
Among this year’s entrants is Zheng Yu, a 27-year-old independent director from Inner Mongolia who specializes in expressing thoughts and emotions through images and who has been involved in film and television production for eight years.
His entry, Her Dream in the Living Room is a short film that records how life for his family was changed by an elder’s chronic disease. Although he was not shortlisted in the end, he told VOA that he still dreams of standing on the stage of the Golden Horse Awards one day.
Zheng said there are three golden awards in the Chinese film industry: the Taiwan Golden Horse, the Hong Kong Golden Statue and the China Golden Rooster Awards.
Among the three, “The Golden Horse Awards are more welcoming to varieties of films, and it is also more supportive of young directors, so this is why I wanted to apply for the Golden Horse Awards,” he said.
In addition to the film entries from China, this year’s festival includes 277 entries from Taiwan, 72 from Hong Kong, 17 from Macau, 21 from Malaysia, 17 from Singapore and 67 from other countries.
Ng Kwok Kwan, an associate professor at the Academy of Film at Hong Kong Baptist University, said the Golden Horse Awards are the oldest Chinese film awards on either side of the Taiwan Strait.
Although entries from China, Hong Kong and Macao have been discouraged by politics, the Golden Horse Awards are still seen as major awards in the Chinese film industry, and being nominated for a festival award will greatly enhance a film’s visibility, he said.
Ng added that the festival has become the best channel for Chinese-speaking audiences to access excellent works, and it is also the ideal outlet for some non-mainstream Hong Kong and Chinese filmmakers.
He said Hong Kong-made films received a total of 18 nominations at last year’s Golden Horse Awards and finally won four awards: Best New Director, Best New Actor, Best Feature Short Film and Best Animated Short Film.
“In recent years, some of the Hong Kong films nominated have been very good. They belong to a relatively niche and non-mainstream, and [the festival] has a special [interest] in the themes of non-mainstream, social issues, and experimental films, and I think it really has a certain contribution [to Hong Kong films],” he said.
Seventy-two Hong Kong films participated in this year’s Golden Horse Awards. From Now On, which explores the situation of older lesbians, was shortlisted for the Best Feature Film, Best Director and Best Actress awards.
Among the five shortlisted films for Best Short Film, three are Hong Kong films, including Colour Ideology Sampling.mov, Something About Us and Letters from the Imprisoned: Chow Hang Tung.
…
The power of simple prayer to heal illness is not clear, according to scientists, and is difficult to study. Whatever your faith, when you’re sick, you should seek treatment from a doctor. But in Nigeria, some people choose spiritual healers and miracle cures over orthodox medicine and hospitals. That creates some dangerous situations. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
…