Mexico Blames US

"Poverty and desperation" led to the deaths of at least 50 migrants abandoned in a Texas lorry, Mexico's president has said.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador blamed trafficking and "a lack of control" at the border - the worst case of migrant deaths due to smuggling in the US.

Nearly two dozen Mexicans, seven Guatemalans and two Hondurans were among the dead.

Those found alive, including four children, were taken to hospital.

The survivors were "hot to the touch" and suffering from heat stroke and heat exhaustion.

So far, Mexican authorities have said that at least two Mexican citizens are being treated for dehydration in hospital. Consular officials are working to confirm their identities.

Authorities are working to confirm the nationalities of remaining victims.

According to US authorities, three people "believed to be part of the smuggling conspiracy" have been taken into custody.

Speaking at his daily briefing, Mr Lopez Obrador, popularly known as Amlo, called the discovery a "tremendous tragedy", and said Mexico would work to repatriate the remains of its citizens.  READ MORE...

Shapeshifting Animals

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESimage captionAustralian parrots' beaks are getting bigger as temperatures rise

When you hear the word "shapeshifting" you probably think of a sci-fi or horror film, and not the climate.  But that's what scientists say is happening to some animals in response to climate change.  Warm-blooded species are evolving to have larger beaks, legs and ears to regulate body temperature as the planet warms up, a new study suggests.

The scientists behind the study warn the physiological changes do not mean animals are coping with climate change.  "A lot of the time when climate change is discussed, people are asking 'can humans overcome this?' or 'what technology can solve this?'" says the study's author, Sara Ryding, from Deakin University. "It's high-time we recognised that animals also have to adapt to these changes."

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If animals fail to control their body temperature, they can overheat and die.  Some animals in warmer climates have historically evolved to have larger beaks or ears to get rid of heat more easily.  A larger wing, ear or beak relative to body size gives smaller animals a greater surface area from which to lose excess heat.  READ MORE

Offshore Wind Farm

Combined with the existing Gwynt y Mor turbines, the wind farm would be
among the largest in the world

A consultation into plans to build one of the world's biggest offshore wind farms off the north Wales coast has been launched.  About 100 turbines could be constructed as part of plans for Awel y Môr, between Colwyn Bay and Llanfairfechan.

RWE Renewables said it would be 10.5km (6.5 miles) off the coast, to the west of the existing Gwynt y Môr turbines.  They would cover an area of 88 sq km (34 sq miles) and the turbines could be as tall as 332m (1,089ft).  The energy firm said the new farm would be able to power 900,000 homes.

The same developers are behind Gwynt y Môr, which has 160 turbines, off Llandudno, in Conwy, and is one of the UK's largest offshore wind farms.  According to RWE, the maximum number of turbines planned for Awel y Môr has dropped from 107 to 91.

Taken together there could be a total of 251 turbines across
both Gwynt Y Môr and Awel Y Mor

Taken together there could be a total of 251 turbines across both Gwynt y Môr and Awel y Môr, making it one of the biggest wind farms in the world.  If approved the scheme could be operational by 2030.  The firm expects to submit its application to the UK government in 2022.

A preliminary report outlining maps, plans and details of potential negative impacts - on sea life, birds, fishing, and ocean currents - has been published.Noise onshore is also being considered, along with the farm's possible effects on tourism and conservation.  READ MORE

Artists and Their Private Jets

Artists and bands must swap private jets for trains, festivals and venues need to generate more of their own renewable energy and gig tickets should include free public transport.  

These are just some of the recommendations being made by scientists at the University of Manchester to help the music industry reduce its carbon emissions to stop climate change. 

The roadmap for live music was based on tour data supplied by the band Massive Attack.  The findings are being shared across the industry and, it's hoped, will inspire millions of fans to live more sustainably, too.

What are the recommendations?
Since 2019, scientists at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research have been poring over every detail of Massive Attack's last tour.  They then used lessons learned to create a roadmap for the whole industry.

Their recommendations for "super low carbon practices" deal with how musicians, promoters, tour managers and agents should work in order to keep the rise in global warming restricted to 1.5C.

The suggestions cover how artists move around, the venues they play at, and how fans get to events:

• Plan tour routes in a way that minimises travel and transport
• Include travel by public transport in the ticket price
• Generate renewable energy on site, e.g. solar panels
• Gig and concert venues should use renewable energy
• Use energy efficient lighting and sound equipment
• Use electric vehicles and trains to travel between venues
• Better bike storage at music venues
• Avoiding flying and eliminating private jets
• Perform at venues that are taking action to reduce their building energy use
• Offer incentives to fans who choose to travel by public transport

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Spider Invasion

Forget Halloween or Boxing Day with your family, the scariest time of the year is already here: spider season.  But what may be a petrifying period for us is actually a blast for the arachnids as they're out looking for love.

"The ones we see scuttling around in the house - they're usually the male house spiders," entomologist, author and self-proclaimed 'bugman' Richard Jones tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.  "The ones you see running across the carpet in front of you freaking you out, most often it'll be a male out on some sort of amorous pursuit.

"They're more mobile than the other sedentary females. And that's why we see them at this time of year."

'They do not invade our houses'
House spiders are descended from species that come from the Mediterranean or North Africa, which is why they like living in our warm, dry homes and won't be found building webs in the garden.  Those ones have no interest in coming indoors.  "The garden spiders are looking very big and obvious at the moment - but they remain outdoor creatures, and they do not invade our houses," says Richard.

Although he does say it's "highly likely" that if a house spider or daddy-long-legs does come crawling in through your window, it's because one of your neighbours has chucked it out of theirs.  READ MORE

China Not Impressed

US climate envoy John Kerry has told China that climate change is more important than politics as tensions between the two countries continue.  He made the remarks following two days of talks with Chinese leaders in the city of Tianjin.

But China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned on Wednesday that the worsening relationship could hamper future co-operation on climate issues. Both countries have outlined steps to tackle climate change.  But Mr Kerry has called on China to increase its efforts to tackle carbon emissions.

Tensions between the two countries have worsened in recent months with disputes over China's human rights record, the South China Sea and the Covid-19 pandemic.  Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mr Kerry said he had told the Chinese that "climate is not ideological, not partisan and not a geostrategic weapon".

"It is essential... no matter what differences we have, that we have to address the climate crisis," he said   Earlier, Mr Wang called on the US to "stop seeing China as a threat and an opponent", accusing Washington of a "major strategic miscalculation towards China".

"It is impossible for China-US climate co-operation to be elevated above the overall environment of China-US relations," he said. China became the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2006 and is now responsible for more than a quarter of the world's overall greenhouse gas emissions.

President Xi Jinping has said he will aim for China's emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for the country to be carbon neutral by 2060. But it is not yet clear how he plans to achieve this.  Mr Kerry said he aimed to meet Chinese leaders again ahead of the upcoming COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow this year and push for stronger emission reduction targets.  READ MORE  

Colder Winters

A new study shows that increases in extreme winter weather in parts of the US are linked to accelerated warming of the Arctic.  The scientists found that heating in the region ultimately disturbed the circular pattern of winds known as the polar vortex.


This allowed colder winter weather to flow down to the US, notably in the Texas cold wave in February.  The authors say that warming will see more cold winters in some locations.  Over the past four decades, satellite records have shown how increasing global temperatures have had a profound effect on the Arctic.



Warming in the region is far more pronounced than in the rest of the world, and has caused a rapid shrinkage of summer sea ice.  Scientists have long been concerned about the implications of this amplification of global change for the rest of the planet.

This new study indicates that the warming in the Arctic is having a significant impact on winter weather in both North America and East Asia.   The researchers detail a complex meteorological chain that connects this warmer region to a rotating pattern of cold air known as the polar vortex.

The authors show that the melting of ice in the Barents and Kara seas leads to increased snowfall over Siberia and a transfer of excess energy that impacts the swirling winds in the stratosphere above the North Pole.

The heat ultimately causes a stretching of the vortex which then enables extremely cold weather to flow down to the US.  There has been an increase in these stretching events since satellite observations began in 1979.  The scientists believe this vortex stretching process led to the deadly Texas cold wave in February this year.  READ MORE  

Facebook Apologizes

Facebook users who watched a newspaper video featuring black men were asked if they wanted to "keep seeing videos about primates" by an artificial-intelligence recommendation system.

Facebook told BBC News it "was clearly an unacceptable error", disabled the system and launched an investigation.  "We apologise to anyone who may have seen these offensive recommendations."  It is the latest in a long-running series of errors that have raised concerns over racial bias in AI.

'Genuinely sorry'
In 2015, Google's Photos app labelled pictures of black people as "gorillas".  The company said it was "appalled and genuinely sorry", though its fix, Wired reported in 2018, was simply to censor photo searches and tags for the word "gorilla".

In May, Twitter admitted racial biases in the way its "saliency algorithm" cropped previews of images.  Studies have also shown biases in the algorithms powering some facial-recognition systems.

Algorithmic error
In 2020, Facebook announced a new "inclusive product council" - and a new equity team in Instagram - that would examine, among other things, whether its algorithms exhibited racial bias.

The "primates" recommendation "was an algorithmic error on Facebook" and did not reflect the content of the video, a representative told BBC News.   READ MORE

Swapping Statues

The statue was daubed with paint during protests last year

A statue of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, which stood on one of the main avenues of Mexico City, will be replaced by one of an indigenous woman.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said the bronze likeness of Columbus would be moved to a park and a statue of an Olmec woman would take its place.

The Columbus statue was removed from its plinth last year ahead of protests.  Protesters have toppled Columbus statues in Latin America and the US.

Christopher Columbus, an Italian-born explorer who was financed by the Spanish crown to set sail on voyages of exploration in the late 15th Century, is seen by many as a symbol of oppression and colonialism as his arrival in America opened the door to the Spanish conquest.

Mayor Sheinbaum made the announcement on Sunday at a ceremony marking the international day of the indigenous woman.  She said that relocating the statue was not an attempt to "erase history" but to deliver "social justice".

Ms Sheinbaum said that the Columbus statue "would not be hidden away" but that the civilisations which existed in Mexico before the Spanish conquest should receive recognition.  READ MORE

Narcissists Climb the Ladder

People with a high degree of narcissism get promoted faster, new research shows. Why?

Much ink has been spilled on the dangers of the narcissistic CEO. They tend to instil an individualistic culture throughout the corporation, which reduces collaboration and integrity. 

They are known make rash and risky decisions that can weaken a company’s long-term resilience, and they are more likely to engage in aggressive tax avoidance and commit managerial fraud. 

Some management scientists have even speculated that narcissism can bring down entire companies, as may have been the case with the fall of Enron in 2001.

Despite these serious concerns about narcissistic leadership, surprisingly little is known about the way ways that these self-centred and over-confident people arrive at their positions of power in the first place. 

Does the ambition and hubris of narcissism actively help someone to be promoted, so that they are more likely to reach the top than the average person? Or are narcissistic leaders a toxic, but rather uncommon, phenomenon in the average workplace?

A new paper by Italian researchers attempts to close that gap in our knowledge – and it has some serious implications for the ways that companies select and reward their employees.  READ MORE

Kenya: Ending FGM

IMAGE SOURCEGETTY IMAGES

John can barely remember a time when having sex with his wife did not end with her in tears.  It was just too painful because she had undergone female genital mutilation (FGM).  "Anytime I go to Martha, she recoils, curling like a child. She cries, begging me to leave her alone. She doesn't want to have sex any more," the 40-year-old says. John and Martha come from Kenya's Marakwet community in western Kenya.

Although FGM is illegal in Kenya, girls in their community often undergo FGM between the ages of 12 and 17, as a rite of passage in preparation for marriage.  Martha was cut when she was 15.

Sex as an endurance test
"It is painful when we have sex. I wish this practice would end," she says, adding that it had also made childbirth very difficult for her.  Recounting their first sexual experience, the couple describe it as traumatising.  Martha says she felt a lot of pain and it is not how she had imagined sex would be. She had to ask her husband to stop.

"I didn't realise a part of her [vulva] had been stitched, leaving only the urethra and a tiny vaginal opening," John tells the BBC. "I try to be very compassionate with my wife. I don't want her to feel like I don't respect her, yet we are a couple."

They lived in agony with little hope that things would ever change - not just for them, but they feared for their young daughter as well.  That was until John heard of an anti-FGM campaign meeting in his village, targeting men.  READ MORE

Studied Law in Prison

In the US city of Philadelphia in 2018, one in 22 adults was on probation or parole. Among them was LaTonya Myers, who was facing almost a decade of supervision after a string of minor crimes. But a reforming district attorney, who started work the same year, has been reshaping the system - and LaTonya herself has become an activist for change.

LaTonya woke up in the night to the sound of thuds and yells. Her mother's boyfriend had been growing increasingly abusive and unstable, and now he was dragging their bed out of the apartment and into the passageway outside.

LaTonya crept out of bed and saw the boyfriend shouting and jabbing his finger at her mother's temple.

"I thought I could protect my mom," she says. She picked up an aerosol can and hit him with it. He went to a payphone and called the police.

"I thought that all I had to do was tell the truth and they would see that this man was abusing me and my mom," LaTonya says.

Instead, the police took her away in handcuffs and charged her with first-degree aggravated assault. She was 12 years old.

For three days she sat behind bars and cried the deep sobs of a child who doesn't know where her family is, or what is going to happen.

"I remember being asked for my social security number. I was 12, I didn't know my social security number!" she says.

Eventually she was taken to a juvenile court and given a choice by a lawyer: plead guilty and be released on probation, or go back to jail for another 10 days and fight the case in court.

All LaTonya wanted was to go home with her grandma, who was waiting outside. So she pleaded guilty without appreciating what becoming a convicted felon would mean.

"That experience turned my heart calloused and cold," she says. "It was a wayward life after that."  READ MORE

Oversupply of PIGS

The UK's pig producers are warning that a shortage of workers is causing a surplus of pigs to be stuck at farms.

Trade body the National Pig Association (NPA) said some abattoirs were running 25% below usual capacity.  "If the government doesn't do something soon there will be a lot of perfectly healthy pigs on farms that will have to be destroyed," said Zoe Davies, chief executive of the NPA.

Each week, the number of excess pigs is growing by 15,000, the NPA said.

The shortage of workers in processing plants means they are unable to take in as many pigs to process as they normally would - resulting in too many pigs on farms.  Having to house the pigs for longer, while they grow at a rate of a kilo each day, is having a severe impact on the profitability of the farms, according to the NPA.

The industry body said extra costs of feed and abattoir charges for overweight pigs means many farms are operating at a loss.  READ MORE

A Four Legged Whale

Scientists in Egypt have identified a new species of four-legged whale that lived around 43 million years ago.

The fossil of the amphibious Phiomicetus anubis was originally discovered in Egypt's Western Desert.  Its skull resembles that of Anubis, the ancient Egyptian jackal-headed god of the dead after which it was named.

The ancestors of modern whales developed from deer-like mammals that lived on land over the course of 10 million years.

Weighing an estimated 600kg and three metres (10ft) in length, the Phiomicetus anubis had strong jaws to catch prey, according to the study published by the Proceedings of the Royal Society B on Wednesday. The whale was able to walk on land and swim in water.

The partial skeleton was found in Egypt's Fayum Depression and analysed by scientists at Mansoura University. Although the area is now desert, it was once covered by sea and is a rich source of fossils.

"Phiomicetus anubis is a key new whale species, and a critical discovery for Egyptian and African palaeontology," the study's lead author, Abdullah Gohar, told Reuters news agency.  READ MORE

Seeing Galaxies

Astronomers have captured some of the most detailed images ever seen of galaxies in deep space.  They are in much higher definition than normal and reveal the inner workings of galaxies in unprecedented detail.

Many of the images could yield insights into the role of black holes in star and planet formation.  The researchers say that the pictures will transform our understanding of how galaxies evolve.

The images are of the radio waves emitted by the galaxies. Researchers often study the radio waves from astronomical objects rather than the visible light they give off because it enables them to see things that would otherwise be blocked by the Earth's atmosphere or dust and gas in faraway galaxies.

Many regions of space that are dark to our eyes, actually burn brightly in the radio waves they give off. This allows astronomers to peer into star-forming regions or into the heart of galaxies.  READ MORE

NAZI Police Chief

Franz Josef Huber ran the Gestapo secret police in Vienna

A Nazi SS general responsible for deporting tens of thousands of Jews to death camps worked for West German intelligence after World War Two, shielded from prosecution.  The protection given to Franz Josef Huber was revealed by the German spy service BND, in archives seen by German public broadcaster ARD.

Huber ran the Gestapo in Vienna, the Nazis' second-biggest secret police HQ after Berlin.  The US military knew about his crimes.  Huber took charge of the Gestapo in Vienna immediately after Adolf Hitler annexed Austria in March 1938 and held that post until late 1944.

Adapt and survive
When the Allies occupied the disintegrating Nazi Reich, Huber was on a US wanted list and was arrested by US forces in May 1945.  He was detained for nearly three years, but the US military found him to be co-operative and released him in 1948, so he escaped prosecution for war crimes, the New York Times reports. The paper was given access to ARD's material.

BND historian Bodo Hechelhammer told ARD that at that time "the Cold War was looming, so above all they were of course looking for hardline anti-communists.  "Unfortunately all too often they searched for, and found, such types among former Nazis."

From 1955 to 1967 Huber was employed by West German intelligence, the BND. Originally it was the Gehlen Organisation, headed by ex-Nazi officer Reinhard Gehlen, who had run agents on the Eastern Front.

Huber was pensioned off in 1967, as the BND had concluded that he could not be kept on, lest his role "endanger the service". He drew a German civil service pension, but also worked for an office equipment company, living under his own name in Munich until his death aged 73.

Among Nazi elite
In Nazi-run Austria Huber worked hand-in-hand with Adolf Eichmann, who set up the Central Agency for Jewish Emigration in Vienna. It handled the mass deportation of Jews.  SOURCE:  BBC News         READ MORE

Mrs. Sri Lanka

FROM BBC NEWS...

The winner of a major Sri Lankan beauty prize has suffered head injuries after a brawl broke out on stage.  Beauty queen Pushpika De Silva won the "Mrs Sri Lanka" title at a ceremony on national TV on Sunday.

Moments later, the 2019 winner seized Mrs De Silva's crown, claiming she could not be awarded the title because she was divorced.  The prize has now been returned to Mrs De Silva, after pageant organisers confirmed she is not a divorcee.

Judges named Ms De Silva the 2021 winner at the Mrs Sri Lanka final in a theatre in Colombo on Sunday night.  But the 2019 winner, Caroline Jurie, stripped Mrs De Silva of her crown, citing a pageant rule that competitors must be married and not divorced.

"There is a rule that prevents women who have already been married and are divorced, so I am taking steps to make the crown go to second place," Mrs Jurie told the audience.  She placed the crown on the runner-up, prompting a tearful Mrs De Silva to walk off stage, a video of the incident showed.  READ MORE