Archives for June 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday he has fully reinstated one of two key advisory boards he dismantled earlier this year in a push for “scientific integrity” at the agency.

The new seven-member Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee features four scientists who have served on the panel previously — including two who were on the board when it was dismantled in March. The five women and two men on the panel include three people of color, making it the most diverse panel since the committee was established more than 40 years ago.

“From the very beginning of my tenure, I have committed to ensuring that science is restored as the backbone of everything EPA does to protect people and the environment from pollution,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. The new advisory panel will provide “credible, independent expertise to EPA’s reviews of air quality standards that is grounded in scientific evidence,” he said.

Regan has said that advisers appointed under the Trump administration were overly friendly to business, adding that his March 31 “reset” of the clean-air panel and the Science Advisory Board would return EPA to its practice of relying on advice from a balanced group of experts.

Regan’s overhaul removed more than 45 members of the two advisory boards, including some whose terms do not expire this year. The panels provide scientific expertise and recommendations for air quality standards and other policies intended to protect public health and the environment.

The new chair of the clean-air committee is Lianne Sheppard, a professor in environmental and occupational health sciences and biostatistics at the University of Washington. Sheppard, who has expertise in epidemiology, biostatistics and exposure assessment, served on the committee from 2015 to 2018.

Other members include James Boylan, an air protection official with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Boylan served on the panel under President Donald Trump and was on the committee when it was dismantled, along with Dr. Mark Frampton, a physician and professor emeritus in medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Judith Chow, a professor in atmospheric sciences at the Nevada-based Desert Research Institute, served on the panel from 2015 to 2018.

Also serving on the committee are Michelle Bell, environmental health professor at Yale University; Christina Fuller, associate professor of environmental health at Georgia State University; and Alexandra Ponette-González, associate professor of geography and the environment at the University of North Texas.

Members of the much larger Science Advisory Board have not been selected. Both panels pay stipends to members for their service.

Republican Reps. James Comer of Kentucky and Ralph Norman of South Carolina have criticized Regan for what they say was an unwarranted “purge” based more on politics than science. Comer is the senior Republican on the House Oversight Committee, while Norman is the top Republican on the panel’s environment subcommittee.

Democrats have said a 2017 decision by Trump’s first EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, to remove many academic scientists from the advisory panels tilted them in favor of the chemical and fossil fuel industries. Pruitt barred scientists from serving on the advisory boards if they had received EPA research grants. Pruitt later resigned amid ethics scandals but his policies were largely continued under his successor and former deputy, Andrew Wheeler.

__

This story has been updated to correct the name of board member Christina Fuller.

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

BERLIN (AP) — American filmmaker Laura Poitras, known for her award-winning 2014 documentary on former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden and his revelations about the National Security Agency, has once again turned her camera on the watchmen.

In an exhibition opening Friday in Berlin, Poitras examines the way the state monitors citizens’ lives — both abroad and at home, in New York City.

While her early work on the war in Iraq and the U.S. government surveillance apparatus — including the Oscar-winning “Citizenfour” — follows the long trail of the Sept. 11 attacks, Poitras’ new show grapples with the issues of the past year: The COVID-19 pandemic and the fight for racial justice.

The goal remains, Poitras said, to “create experience that has emotional resonance.”

“I want to interrogate power,” she told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the show’s launch.

Together with artist Sean Vegezzi, Poitras puts viewers outside an NYPD outpost in Queens used by the Technical Assistance Response Unit, whose role is to monitor political protests. The unit employs military technology to gather intelligence, including on recent Black Lives Matter rallies, but officers seem unaware that they are being watched as they enter and leave the building.

A second video combines exterior shots of the Vernon C. Bain prison barge on the East River with three months of intercepted radio recordings between guards discussing the apparent use of force against inmates. The crowded prison — set up as a temporary facility almost three decades ago — saw high death rates from COVID-19 last year.

Poitras and Vegezzi said they were surprised that the prison’s continued existence and the conditions there haven’t been taken up by local politicians, given that most of the inmates are local residents awaiting trial for minor crimes.

“As a New Yorker I hope that it’s difficult to look at this prison ship and know that you are complicit in it,” Poitras said, admitting: “We are interested in getting this shut down.”

The series is completed with a visit to little-known Hart Island, home to one of the largest mass grave sites in the United States with burials dating back to the Civil War era. Vegezzi, whose brother was among a prison detail from Rikers Island tasked with burying the dead, used a drone to show how detainees with little social distancing or protective equipment stacked coffins in deep trenches at the height of the pandemic. The Department of Corrections halted the practice after it became public last year.

The triptych’s bleak, distanced footage contrasts with Poitras’ 25-minute film “Terror Contagion” about Israeli spyware company NSO and its alleged role in the monitoring of activists around the world. Rights groups including Amnesty International claim that the company’s technology has been licensed by repressive regimes to infiltrate the phones of dissidents and journalists, a charge that NSO rejects.

The film was made together with the research group Forensic Architecture, which says its members and collaborators have been hacked using the NSO spyware Pegasus. The group plans to release a broader investigation into the company next month.

Since the start of the pandemic, NSO has sought to apply its technology — originally designed to hunt down terrorists — to COVID-tracking tools, alarming human rights activists.

“The pandemic rules and surveillance technology is definitely going to be exploited and normalized in future,” said Poitras.

The filmmaker was herself the subject of intense surveillance by the U.S. government that started after she visited Baghdad in 2004 for her film “My Country, My Country.” After coming under heightened scrutiny for her work with Snowden, who remains in exile in Russia, Poitras was based for years in Berlin, a city she chose to return to for this latest exhibition.

The German capital has its own grim history of state surveillance. The show’s gallery is located in the formerly communist-controlled east of the city. It also lies just a few hundreds yards from the bombastic new home of Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency.

Poitras and Vegezzi hope to take the exhibition to New York in the fall.

___

The exhibition “Circles” by Laura Poitras can be seen at Neuen Berliner Kunstverein from June 18 to Aug. 8.

___

Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at www.twitter.com/wirereporter

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

___

Brain waves not a factor in naming COVID-19 variants

CLAIM: The new COVID-19 variants were named after brain wave frequencies.

THE FACTS: Both virus variants and brain wave frequencies are named using letters from the Greek alphabet. But the names have no connection. As news about the delta COVID-19 variant made headlines, posts online began falsely claiming that the new variants were being named after brain waves or frequencies. Some posts falsely claimed this connection had to do with a secret conspiracy to control humans through technology. For example, posts suggested that one COVID-19 variant was named delta because it largely impacts children, and they claimed that delta is a brain wave specific to children. But delta waves are actually more closely associated with deep sleep. “Sleep is critical for development so in a contorted way you could say kids have more delta waves,” said David McCormick, professor of biology and director of the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon. The brain has billions of neurons that are all oscillating or generating brief signals, which are also known as brain waves. The first brain wave that was discovered was the alpha rhythm, which is the rhythm prominent in the visual cortex when you close your eyes, McCormick said. The delta COVID-19 variant was first discovered in India and is known for being more transmissible than other variants. But the variant did not get its name as part of a plot to control brains. The delta variant was named after the World Health Organization announced in May it would change its system for labeling COVID-19 variants. The Greek alphabet is often used for naming purposes in math and science, not just for brain waves. Before the change, COVID-19 variants were referred to by the location where they were found along with complex alphanumeric identifiers that have to do with how a given variant has descended from those that came before. For example, a variant found in South Africa was known as the South Africa variant, or B.1.351. In order to get away from naming variants after their locations, which WHO said was “stigmatizing and discriminatory,” the system was changed, and the Greek alphabet was selected as the source for labeling. The variants would now be publicly known as alpha (B.1.7), beta (B.1.351), gamma (P.1) and delta (B.1.617.2).

—- Associated Press writer Beatrice Dupuy in New York contributed this report.

___

Study touting hydroxychloroquine flawed, experts say

CLAIM: The malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, when used with the antibiotic azithromycin, can improve survival by nearly 200% when given to COVID-19 patients on ventilators.

THE FACTS: Experts say the small study that this claim is based on proves nothing, and that enough evidence now exists from well-run studies to indicate that hydroxychloroquine is not effective for treating COVID-19. The study in question is being misrepresented online to falsely suggest that top health officials were wrong when they found that hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria, had no benefit as a COVID-19 treatment. The observational study, which has not been vetted by independent scientists, gained attention on social media after it was posted on May 31 to Medrxiv, a website that displays medical papers that have not been published. Posts online, many from supporters of former President Donald Trump, claimed the study shows that health officials and media were wrong to discount the benefits of hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19, which Trump had championed. Several health professionals told The Associated Press that using the new study to tout the benefits of hydroxychloroquine is misleading. “This is a very small study from a single hospital that was observational only,” said Dr. Jaimie Meyer, infectious disease physician at Yale School of Medicine. “The answer to COVID is vaccination, not hydroxychloroquine.” Randomized double-blind studies are the gold standard in medical research. In such studies, patients are not told whether they are receiving the drug being tested or a placebo. They allow for even distribution across groups and take into account potential differences among subjects that researchers may not have anticipated. In an observational study, like the one being touted in the false posts, researchers simply observe patients without randomizing who gets what treatment. These studies are susceptible to bias and cannot prove cause and effect, Meyer said. The study cited in the false posts examined 255 COVID-19 patients on ventilators starting on May 1, 2020. It was conducted by the Smith Center for Infectious Diseases & Urban Health in East Orange, New Jersey, which is run by Dr. Stephen M. Smith, an early proponent of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. The study offers no information on how it was funded and the center did not respond to an AP request for comment. The study itself notes that it should not be used to guide clinical practice. Hydroxychloroquine has since been tested on thousands of COVID-19 patients. Data from randomized studies has shown the drug is not effective for treating the disease — alone or with other drugs like azithromycin. These included major studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine and The Journal of the American Medical Association.

___

Boy in courtroom images was charged with manslaughter, not hacking bank

CLAIM: Photos show a boy who, at 11 years old, hacked the computer system of a Swiss bank and transferred $75 billion to his father’s account.

THE FACTS: The caption on the photos is incorrect. An AP photo dated May 20, 2009, matches one of the images in the post. Its caption explained the handcuffed suspect, who was 14 at the time, was appearing in court in Caldwell, Idaho, on a charge of first degree murder for killing his father. He was charged as an adult. Photos shared more than a thousand times on Facebook on Tuesday showed the boy in a courtroom in a yellow jumpsuit and handcuffs. “At 11, he hacked the computer system of a Swiss bank and transferred $ 75 billion to his father’s account,” said a caption with the post. Commenters on the post reacted to the false claim, calling him a “genius” who should be recruited by NASA. However, a reverse-image search reveals the boy was in court for allegedly killing his father, not stealing from a bank. According to the AP and the Idaho Press-Tribune, the boy pleaded guilty in 2010 to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter after testifying that his father had sexually abused him. Five years into a seven-year sentence, a judge determined him fit to be released to probation, allowing him back into society in August 2014.

— Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in Semora, North Carolina, contributed this report.

___

FBI headquarters in Washington is open as usual

CLAIM: The FBI headquarters building in Washington is completely closed, empty and walled off.

THE FACTS: A video spreading the false claim shows the back of the building rather than the main entrance, which was open and fully operational this week, according to a statement from the FBI. The 30-second video, posted Monday on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, shows a view of the FBI headquarters, also known as the J. Edgar Hoover Building, from E Street NW in Washington. A narrator identifies the date as June 14, then claims the building is “completely closed.” “No one’s in there,” the narrator says. “In fact, it’s even walled off. You can’t even get inside.” The bogus claim spread to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and other platforms, with users speculating that the federal government is shutting down buildings in preparation for some kind of large-scale event or attack. There’s no evidence this is the case. “The FBI Headquarters building at 935 Pennsylvania Avenue NW is open and fully operational, as are all of our field offices,” the FBI said in an emailed statement. An AP reporter who works near the building confirmed that people have been entering and leaving the building all week, including on Monday, when the video was filmed. The main entrance to the building is located along Pennsylvania Avenue, not E Street NW, where the video was filmed.

— Ali Swenson

___

Interview with boy who claims he shot burglar is satire

CLAIM: Video shows a television interview with Lucas Armitage, an 8-year-old boy who used his dad’s gun to shoot a burglar several times and then laughed so loudly it woke his dad.

THE FACTS: A video purporting to show a daytime talk show interview with a child who laughed after shooting a burglar to death was being shared as real on social media on Monday, despite the fact that it originated as satire. The video, produced by The Onion, a satirical website, appeared to show two eager television hosts interviewing an 8-year-old boy and his father, with a logo reading “Today Now” in the corner. Text on the screen read, “MORNING INSPIRATION: Hero Eight-Year-Old Uses Dad’s Gun to Stop Burglar.” The two hosts and the boy’s father egged him on as he described using his father’s gun to shoot a burglar several times, including shooting off “each one of his fingers” until he stopped screaming. The hosts asked the father if the burglar’s screaming woke him. “Actually, it was Lucas laughing that woke me up,” the father said. The Onion created the video for its parody morning news show called “Today Now.”

— Ali Swenson

___

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck

___

Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

PLYMOUTH, England (AP) — The Mayflower had a few false starts before its trailblazing sea voyage to America more than 400 years ago. Now, its artificial intelligence-powered namesake is having some glitches of its own.

A sleek robotic trimaran retracing the 1620 journey of the famous English vessel had to turn back Friday to fix a mechanical problem.

Nonprofit marine research organization ProMare, which worked with IBM to build the autonomous ship, said it made the decision to return to base “to investigate and fix a minor mechanical issue” but hopes to be back on the trans-Atlantic journey as soon as possible.

With no humans on board the ship, there’s no one to make repairs while it’s at sea.

Piloted by artificial intelligence technology, the 50-foot (15-meter) Mayflower Autonomous Ship began its trip early Tuesday, departing from Plymouth, England, and spending some time off the Isles of Scilly before it headed for deeper waters.

It was supposed to take up to three weeks to reach Provincetown on Cape Cod before making its way to Plymouth, Massachusetts. If successful, it would be the largest autonomous vessel to cross the Atlantic.

There is some historical precedent for the malfunction: The original Mayflower that carried Pilgrim settlers to New England was supposed to set sail in the summer of 1620 but twice turned back to England because of a leaking problem affecting its sister ship, the Speedwell.

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Struggling electric truck maker Lordstown Motors said Thursday it doesn’t have any firm orders for its vehicles, just days after its president said the company had enough to maintain production through 2022.

Questions have been mounting about whether Lordstown Motors has enough money to stay in business and about its previous claims that it already had presold 100,000 of its Endurance pickup trucks.

Lordstown CEO Steve Burns and Chief Financial Officer Julio Rodriguez resigned on Monday, the same day the company acknowledged one potential buyer that committed to a large number of preorders doesn’t appear to have the resources to complete that transaction, and other preorders appear too vague or weak to be relied on for purchases.

A day later, company President Rich Schmidt said during a meeting of the Automotive Press Association of Detroit that Lordstown was on track to begin making the Endurance in the fall and had enough binding orders to keep going through 2022.

But the company on Thursday said the statements about the orders were not accurate.

“Although these vehicle purchase agreements provide us with a significant indicator of demand for the Endurance, these agreements do not represent binding purchase orders or other firm purchase commitments,” the company said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The price for shares of the company, which have been cut in half this year, slid at the opening bell Thursday before recovering.

Last week, the company warned it might not be in business next year because of difficulty with securing funding to begin full production at its former General Motors plant in Ohio near Youngstown. In a quarterly regulatory filing, the company said the $587 million it had on hand as of March 31 wasn’t enough to begin full commercial production.

Angela Strand, the company’s new chairwoman, said on Tuesday that the upheaval from the past week won’t interrupt the company’s day-to-day operations or its plans to start making the Endurance.

Copyright © 2021 . All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.