At Tyler Malek’s ice cream parlors, one cook’s trash is another chef’s frosty treat.

The head ice cream maker at the Portland, Oregon-based Salt & Straw uses the whey leftover from yogurt makers in upstate New York to make his lemon curd flavor. For chocolate barley milk, he mixes in the remnants of rice and grains from beer brewing to give it a light and creamy taste.

“Instead of calling this food waste, we need to call it wasted food and start decreasing how much wasting we’re doing,” Malek said.

Malek’s ice cream chain is among those at the forefront of the upcycling movement, the process of creating high-quality products from leftover food. Malek’s shops from the Pacific Northwest to Miami now feature flavors like “Cacao Pulp & Chocolate Stracciatella Gelato,” which is made from leftover cacao pulp from chocolate production that otherwise would have gone to waste.

It’s a trend gaining ground as consumers spend more time reading packaging labels and menu ingredients to learn where their food comes from and how it affects the environment. More than 35 million tons (31 million metric tons) of food are wasted every year in the U.S. — about 40% of the country’s food production — costing the national economy more than $200 billion, according to the Upcycled Food Association.

Upcycled food is becoming increasingly common in cake mixes and veggie chips at natural grocery stores. Ingredients include fruits and vegetables from farms nationwide that are perfectly edible but often rejected by restaurants and grocery stores because of their shape or color, like white strawberries, wilted greens and ugly mushrooms.

The Upcycled Food Association, which will celebrate World Upcycling Day on Saturday, issues an official “Upcycling Certified” seal to qualifying products. These seals, which adorn the new Salt & Straw upcycled flavors, raise awareness with consumers that the company making the food used such ingredients.

The association initially certified about 30 products in 2021 and now has 450 carrying the label.

“A lot of the food that is uneaten or thrown away in our supply chain is actually due to archaic cosmetic standards or sort of perceptions that what we think is edible or quality food,” said Angie Crone, the association’s chief executive. “So this is a mark that you can see on the products wherever you go shopping, to be able to understand how that company is reducing food waste in their supply chain.”

The association’s seal also is featured on all products made by Renewal Mill, an Oakland-based company turning byproducts from plant-based milk into pantry stables like baking flour to reduce waste at the manufacturing level.

“Our first product is the pulp leftover from making soy milk. We turn that into a high fiber gluten-free flour called okara flour,” co-founder Caroline Cotto said. “And then we use that flour to make things like baking mixes and ready-to-eat cookies.”

The company’s okara flour is featured in Salt & Straw’s new “Salted Caramel & Okara Cupcakes” flavor.

The movement isn’t confined to recycled products found in a trendy ice cream store, farmers market or natural grocery. In San Francisco, a restaurant serving pizza and wine focuses on upcycled ingredients such as ugly mushrooms, misshapen peppers and discolored tomatoes, as well as offcuts of meat for menu stars like beef heart meatballs.

“I think so many people think about dumpster diving or using rotten ingredients, but we have this wildly overproductive food system that accounts for a ton of waste,” said Kayla Abe, co-owner of Shuggie’s Trash Pie. “Some people might not read that it’s a beef heart meatball and they just might see meatball. They order it and they’re like, that was the best meatball I’ve ever had in my life.”
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The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has opened an investigation into the implosion of the Titan, the underwater sea vessel that imploded with five people onboard as it was traveling to the wreckage of the Titanic, the British ocean liner that sank in the North Atlantic in 1912 after striking an iceberg.

The submersible vessel was the property of OceanGate Expeditions, a U.S.-based company. Its support ship, Polar Prince, however, is a Canadian-flagged ship.

“The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is launching an investigation into the fatal occurrence involving the Canadian-flagged vessel Polar Prince and the privately operated submersible Titan,” the board said in a statement Friday, raising questions about the safety of the ill-fated excursion. The board said a team of investigators has been sent to St. John’s, Newfoundland, to gather information and conduct interviews.

U.S. officials said they too, were opening an investigation.

“The U.S. Coast Guard has declared the loss of the Titan submersible to be a major marine casualty and will lead the investigation. The NTSB has joined the investigation and will contribute to their efforts. The USCG is handling all media inquiries related to this investigation,” the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said Friday in a tweet.

The Polar Prince lost contact with the Titan an hour and 45 minutes after the submersible began its descent Sunday.

Responders rushed equipment to where remains of the Titan were found. Five major fragments of the 6.7-meter Titan were located in the debris field left from its disintegration, including the vessel’s tail cone and two sections of the pressure hull, U.S. Coast Guard officials said. No mention was made of whether human remains were sighted.

OceanGate Expeditions said in a statement the five people on the vessel were company CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

Since the submersible went missing with an approximately four-day air supply, questions about it its safety have grown.

“I know there are also a lot of questions about how, why and when did this happen,” said Rear Adm. John Mauger of the First Coast Guard District. “Those are questions we will collect as much information as we can about now.”

According to an Associated Press report, David Lochridge, a former OceanGate director of marine operations, raised questions in 2018 about the methods the company used to insure the structural viability of the hull.

Filmmaker James Cameron, who directed the 1997 Academy Award-winning film Titanic and who has made several dives to the ocean liner’s wreckage aboard other deep-sea submersibles, said in an interview with the BBC that he was sure an “extreme catastrophic event” had happened when he heard the submersible had lost communication and navigation.

“For me, there was no doubt,” he said.

He told the BBC the news about the air supply and underwater noises were a “prolonged and nightmarish charade” to provide false hope to the families of the passengers. Cameron said that once a remotely operated vehicle reached the depth of the vessel, it was likely to be found “within hours … probably within minutes.”

Arthur Loibl, a passenger on the Titan two years ago, described his trip to the Titanic as a “kamikaze operation.” The retired German businessman said, “Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can’t stand. You can’t kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other.”

Scientist and journalist Michael Guillen, who survived an expedition in 2000 that ran into some challenges, said, “We need to stop, pause and ask this question, why do you want to go to the Titanic and how do you get there safely?”

Some information is from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. 

World Refugee Day

The Inside Story

This week on The Inside Story, World Refugee Day, we explore the complicated processes refugees face around the world and hear inspiring stories from refugees seeking asylum from countries like Ukraine, Afghanistan and Sudan.  

Refugee or Asylum-Seeker in the US: What’s the Difference?

World Refugee Day, celebrated around the world every June 20, serves as a day to pay tribute to people who have been compelled to flee their homes. Those who leave their countries seeking safety are known as refugees or asylum-seekers. While the terms are often used interchangeably, in the United States there are significant differences under immigration law when pursuing these statuses. Immigration reporter Aline Barros has the story.

Supreme Court Allows Biden Policy to Take Effect Focusing Deportations on Public Safety Risks

The Supreme Court said Friday it will no longer stand in the way of a long-blocked Biden administration policy to prioritize the deportation of immigrants who are deemed to pose the greatest public safety risk or were picked up at the border. The Associated Press reports.  

Former Somali Refugee Turns Reclaimed Life Jackets Into Fashion

One former refugee turned entrepreneur has sought to turn the refugees’ stories into something inspiring that empowers others who have fled their homes. Mohamed Malim, 27, is the director of the fashion apparel brand Epimonia, a small Minnesota-based company that he founded in 2018. Story by Mohamed Olad Hassan.

US Supreme Court Upholds Law Against Encouraging Illegal Immigration

A federal law that makes it a crime for a person to encourage illegal immigration does not violate constitutional free speech protections, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday in upholding the decades-old measure defended by President Joe Biden’s administration. Reuters reports.  

Immigration around the world 

VOA60 Africa – Amnesty International Accuses Spain, Morocco of Covering Up Racist Border Practices

Amnesty International on Friday accused Spain and Morocco of a cover-up for failing to properly investigate events at the border of the Spanish enclave of Melilla last year, when tens of migrants and refugees died during a mass attempted crossing. 

Disabled Syrian Refugee Dreams of Paralympics Glory

Some of the Syrian refugees taken in by Spain have accomplished big things, including Adnan Almousa Alfermli. His eyes are set on winning a gold medal at the Paralympics. Miguel Amaya narrates this report from Alfonso Beato in Barcelona. Camera: Alfonso Beato. 

External Pressures Increasing Suicide Risk at Refugee Settlement in Uganda

Palorinya refugee settlement in Uganda is reporting high numbers of suicides and suicide attempts by the people who live there. Organizations and individuals who work with the refugees say denial of food and a failure to meet basic needs are the main causes. Halima Athumani reports from Obongi District, Uganda. Camera: Francis Mukasa 

Frustration Growing Among Young Palestinians at Refugee Camps

The U.N. classifies more than 900,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank as refugees, meaning they or more often their parents or grandparents were displaced from their homes in what became the State of Israel in 1948. About a quarter of them live in refugee camps that are crowded and poor and have frequently been the scene of clashes with Israeli soldiers. VOA visited the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank and filed this report. Camera: Ricki Rosen 

Escaping Conflict, Ukraine’s Refugee Women Go It Alone

The U.N. says that among 8 million refugees who have fled the war in Ukraine, 90% are women and children. With martial law prohibiting most men from leaving the country, many of Ukraine’s women who go abroad have no choice but to take care of their families alone. As part of VOA World Refugee Day coverage, Warsaw reporter Lesia Bakalets heard from some of the women who have taken refuge in Poland. VOA footage by Daniil Batushchak. 

Refugees in Kenya Pursue Entrepreneurship Amid UNHCR Funding Shortfall

More than a half-million refugees in Kenya will not receive assistance from the U.N. refugee agency because of a lack of funding. Amid the tough conditions, a refugee-led organization in Nairobi — Youth Voices Community — is helping thousands of refugees through education in business and learning new skills to earn a living. Mohammed Yusuf reports.

News in brief

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that he applauded the Supreme Court’s ruling on immigration enforcement.

“DHS looks forward to reinstituting these Guidelines, which had been effectively applied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to focus limited resources and enforcement actions on those who pose a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security. The Guidelines enable DHS to most effectively accomplish its law enforcement mission with the authorities and resources provided by Congress.”
…

Newly declassified intelligence on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic appears to cast doubt on theories that the outbreak that killed millions around the world began at a research laboratory in Wuhan, China.

A report issued late Friday by U.S. intelligence agencies and shared with members of Congress said that despite concerns about biosafety measures at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), and despite its history of work with coronaviruses, there is no intelligence that indicates COVID-19 was present in the lab before the outbreak.

“We continue to have no indication that the WIV’s pre-pandemic research holdings included SARS-CoV-2 or a close progenitor, nor any direct evidence that a specific research-related incident occurred involving WIV personnel before the pandemic that could have caused the COVID pandemic,” according to the report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The report further states that the available evidence indicates the lab did not get possession of the COVID-19 virus until late December 2019, “when WIV researchers isolated and identified the virus from samples from patients diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown causes.”

The newly declassified intelligence also seems to reject concerns that one of a handful of researchers at the lab who fell ill in November 2019 might have been patient zero.

“This information neither supports nor refutes either hypothesis of the pandemic’s origins,” the report said. “The researchers’ symptoms could have been caused by a number of diseases and some of the symptoms were not consistent with COVID-19.”

Yet despite the lack of evidence to support the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic originated at the lab in Wuhan, the U.S. intelligence report makes clear that neither of the leading theories – natural transmission from animals or a lab incident – can be ruled out.

“All [U.S. intelligence] agencies continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection,” the report said.

And it said almost all intelligence agencies assess the virus “was not genetically engineered,” while noting that while “most agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not laboratory-adapted; some are unable to make a determination.”

As for how the pandemic did start, there is less agreement.

The National Intelligence Council and four of the intelligence agencies continue to assess patient zero contracted SARS-CoV-2 as the result of exposure to an infected animal.

The FBI announced this past February that its analysts assess with “moderate confidence” that the pandemic began at the research lab in Wuhan, China.

Intelligence analysts at the Department of Energy have concluded, although with “low confidence,” that the virus spread as a result of a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Two other intelligence agencies, including the CIA, have not been able to determine a precise origin for the pandemic.

The new disclosure by the U.S. intelligence community comes three months after President Joe Biden signed legislation ordering the agencies to declassify as much information as possible about the pandemic’s origins.

But the newly declassified information, in some ways, reflects few changes from the initial intelligence assessments shared in 2020, when U.S. agencies said that their information supported “the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified,” but that more work was needed to determine how the initial transmission of the virus took place.

Since the World Health Organization first declared a global health emergency in January 2020, COVID-19 has killed nearly 7 million people worldwide, with some officials suggesting the true death toll could be as high as 20 million.

Chinese health officials have repeatedly defended their handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, criticizing any suggestions that they should have shared more information sooner as “offensive and disrespectful.”

As recently as March, leading U.S. intelligence officials noted collecting additional information on the COVID-19 virus has been difficult due, in part, to China’s refusal to cooperate.

In a statement late Friday, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the chairman of the Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic praised the newly declassified report, saying, “The Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have some serious explaining to do.”

“Everyone deserves to know the truth, and the declassification of this report is a promising step toward full transparency,” said Republicans Mike Turner and Brad Wenstrup.

“Based on the classified information that we received, we suspected right away that the coronavirus was not a natural phenomenon,” they added. “We’ve been pushing for years to make this information available for all to see.” 
…

The Carter Center was already a decade into its fight against Guinea worm globally when former President Jimmy Carter and his nonprofit took on another neglected tropical disease in the African nation of Mali.

“From 1996 to 1998, it was estimated about 85,000 to 90,000 people would go blind from trachoma,” said Kelly Callahan, director of the Carter Center’s trachoma control program. “Twenty-five[%] to 50% of the children between the ages of 1 and 9, in all areas of Mali, suffered from the beginning stages of this disease.”

It was a statistic Callahan said troubled Carter.

“The Hilton Foundation asked President Carter and the Carter Center if we would be willing to consider working on sanitation and water to combat this disease called trachoma in Mali and Niger,” she said. The nonprofit foundation has been working to prevent avoidable blindness for more than 20 years.

The Carter Center set a goal of eliminating the disease in both countries. Trachoma can be transmitted through infected discharge from the eyes and nose.

“This disease is preventable,” Callahan explained to VOA during a recent Skype interview. It is “a bacterial infection that stems from access, or lack of access, to water and sanitation, poor living conditions, socioeconomically stressed populations.”

Since 1998, the Carter Center and its partners have funded and staffed programs with host nations to develop widespread strategies to treat and prevent infections, even during Mali’s recent armed conflict and continuing instability.

In May, the World Health Organization certified that the countries of Benin and Mali had eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. Six countries in Africa have reached that milestone.

The Carter Center believes its program in Mali has helped avert blindness in more than 5 million people, and the antibiotics used to combat trachoma also help prevent infant mortality, the center said.

“The elimination of trachoma as a public health problem is no less than Herculean,” Callahan told VOA.

Sadi Moussa, the Carter Center’s senior representative in Mali who spoke to VOA via Skype, said he believed the success of his organization’s program to eliminate trachoma could boost efforts to combat other neglected tropical diseases, like Guinea worm.

“Working in an unstable country like this is really challenging for everyone,” Moussa said. “This will also help us with donors to show them that we are serious in what we are doing, and we can convince them to get more resources.”

While Carter has retired from public life and is receiving hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia, Callahan said the center keeps him up to date on the status of its health programs, including recent developments in Mali.

“We heard that President Carter was thrilled beyond belief, so we’re very excited that he knows,” Callahan said, adding that while Mali’s elimination milestone is important, the Carter Center’s work in Africa is far from over.

“Currently, we work in five countries, including Mali. Those countries have the worst known trachoma in the world and are also areas of severe challenges and insecurity and are areas of conflict,” she said.

The World Health Organization said trachoma remains in 23 countries throughout Africa, with approximately 105 million people on the continent living in areas at high risk for infection. 
…

Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a woman’s federal right to an abortion. Since then, U.S. states have decided on the regulations governing the procedure, and the issue has become even more politically crucial in U.S. campaigns and elections. VOA’s Laurel Bowman reports.
…

The Metropolitan Opera in New York not only organizes concerts and campaigns to support Ukraine but also has offered four Ukrainians an internship. Iryna Solomko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
…

A fragile thaw in U.S.-China relations is unlikely to significantly reduce tensions between Seoul and Beijing, experts said.

Stalled talks between the world’s two biggest economies were revived when Washington and Beijing agreed over the weekend to maintain high-level communication channels and to stabilize relations that had hit a low point after a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew across the continental U.S.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday at a news briefing that his trip to Beijing on June 18-19 represented “progress.”

But Seoul’s close alignment with the U.S. on policies aimed at countering what both see as China’s challenges to a democratic values-based international system has made Beijing increasingly antagonistic toward its neighbor.

Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming on June 8 openly criticized Seoul, saying placing “wrong bets” in the U.S.-China rivalry would lead to “many difficulties” for South Korea.

South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin summoned Xing a day later and expressed strong dissatisfaction over his remarks.

“The South Korean government has made known several times that its position in seeking South Korea-China bilateral relations is based on mutual respect, and China should also put efforts toward that direction,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jung Hyung-kwon told VOA’s Korean Service in a phone interview on Tuesday.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington told VOA’s Korean Service on Wednesday that any response to Seoul’s comments should be requested from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a news briefing on June 13 “there is no point in making an issue” out of Xing’s remarks. He said, “A sound and steady China-ROK relationship serves the common interests of both sides.” South Korea’s official name is the Republic of Korea.

‘Premature’ to expect improvements

Daniel Russel, who served as the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs during the Obama administration, said, “It’s premature to conclude that Blinken’s trip will produce a sustained improvement in the U.S.-China relations, let alone have an impact on the ROK-China relations.”

Russel said that “Washington’s partners seem to value” its efforts to reduce escalating tensions and “are confident about Washington’s resolve to push back against coercive and destabilizing behavior” of China.

Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, visited Seoul on Wednesday to explain, as a member of the delegation, Blinken’s two-day meetings in Beijing.

Kritenbrink told Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Youngsam that the U.S. sought to maintain high-level communication channels with China to prevent any miscalculation from leading to an unwanted conflict.

He said the U.S. planned to continue its close cooperation with its allies including South Korea to defend a free and open Indo-Pacific and the rules-based international order.

South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Chang Ho-jin, who also met with the assistant secretary of state, said Kritenbrink’s Seoul visit demonstrated close Washington-Seoul relations.

Dennis Wilder, senior director for East Asia affairs at the White House’s National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, said diplomatic ties between Washington and Beijing were renewed a bit but still fragile. Military tensions remain high, with the Chinese military “aggressively monitoring U.S. air and naval activities in international waters near China’s coast,” he said.

In this context, he said, he does “not have a great deal of hope” that Beijing will become “less belligerent in its approaches to the Yoon administration” as “China is adamantly opposed to many of the policies of the Yoon government.”

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said in April that the Taiwan issue was not simply a matter between China and Taiwan and that he opposed changing the status quo in Taiwan by using force.

China considers self-governing Taiwan as part of its territory and has ramped up its disruption of international navigation in the Taiwan Strait. On June 8, more than 35 Chinese military aircraft made incursions into the Taiwanese air defense zone, prompting the island’s military to activate its defense system.

China also has repeatedly intruded into South Korea’s air defense zone without warning. On June 6, South Korean jets chased away four Chinese and Russian military aircraft from its air defense zones.

The incident followed what the U.S. military said was an “unsafe” maritime move by a Chinese warship that came close to colliding with a U.S. destroyer exercising a freedom of navigation transit in the Taiwan Strait on June 3.

In a news conference on Monday, Blinken said that “China has not agreed” to restore military-to-military channels of communications that would help to avoid miscalculations leading into clashes.

Concerned by China’s increasingly aggressive military actions, the U.S. has been urging its allies and partners, including South Korea, to restrict the sale of high-end semiconductors that China can use to advance its military.

“Washington does not expect them to stop taking advantage of business opportunities in China,” Wilder said.

“That said, in those areas of emerging technologies where Washington is trying to halt leakage of key components, such as high-end semiconductors, the United States will want its allies and partners to be alert to any attempts by companies within their border to violate the restrictions.”

Blinken said in an interview with CBS News on Monday that the U.S. was not “trying to hold China back economically,” as that would be “profoundly against our own interests.”

However, he said, “it’s not in our interest to provide” or “sell” to China “sensitive technology that China is using to advance its own very opaque nuclear weapons program, to build hypersonic missiles, to create technology that can be used for repressive purposes.”

Kim Hyungjin contributed to this report.
…

One year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court rescinded a five-decade-old right to abortion, prompting a seismic shift in debates about politics, values, freedom and fairness.

Twenty-five million women of childbearing age now live in states where the law makes abortions harder to get than they were before the ruling.

Decisions about the law are largely in the hands of state lawmakers and courts. Most Republican-led states have restricted abortion. Fourteen ban abortion in most cases at any point in pregnancy. Twenty Democratic-leaning states have protected access.

Here’s a look at what’s changed since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.

Laws enacted in 25 states to ban or restrict abortion access

Last summer, as women and medical providers began to navigate a landscape without legal protection for abortion, Nancy Davis’ doctors advised her to terminate her pregnancy because the fetus she was carrying was expected to die soon after birth.

But doctors in Louisiana, where Davis lived, would not provide the abortion due to a new law banning it throughout pregnancy in most cases.

At the same time, abortion opponents who worked for decades to abolish a practice they see as murder cheered the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling. Anti-abortion groups said the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide was undemocratic because it prevented states from enacting bans.

“The Dobbs decision was a democratic victory for life that generations fought for,” said E.V. Osment, a spokeswoman for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a major anti-abortion group.

While some states scrambled to pass new restrictions, others already had enacted laws that were designed to take effect if the court overturned Roe.

More than 25 million women ages 15 to 44, or about 2 in 5 nationally, now live in states where there are more restrictions on abortion access than there were before Dobbs.

Davis received help from a fund that raises money for women to travel for abortions and went to New York for a procedure. The whole experience was heartbreaking, she said.

“A mother’s love starts as soon as she knows she’s pregnant. That attachment starts instantly,” she said. “It was days I couldn’t sleep. It was days I couldn’t eat.”

Abortion access has been protected in 20 states

As some states restricted abortion, others locked in access. In 25 states, abortion remains generally legal up to at least 24 weeks of pregnancy. Twenty of them have solidified abortion rights through constitutional amendments or laws.

CHOICES Center for Reproductive Health had for decades treated patients seeking abortions in Memphis, Tennessee. After Tennessee’s abortion ban kicked in last year, the clinic opened an outpost three hours away, in Carbondale, Illinois.

“They’re coming from Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and even Texas,” said CEO Jennifer Pepper. “But now they’re having to travel much farther.”

Number of abortions is not clear

With lags and gaps in official reporting, the impact of the Dobbs ruling on the number of abortions is not clear.

A survey conducted for the Society of Family Planning, a nonprofit organization that promotes research and supports abortion access, has found that the number has fallen to nearly zero in states with bans and risen in neighboring states with fewer restrictions. On balance the number of abortions is declining. But the survey does not capture self-managed abortions outside the traditional medical system, usually done with through a two-pill regimen.

Before the Dobbs ruling, pills were already the most common method of abortion in the U.S. Now, there are more networks to provide access to pills in states with abortion bans.

Some abortion opponents are calling for the abortion drug mifepristone to lose its government approval. The Supreme Court has preserved access for now.

Lawsuits abound

More than 50 lawsuits have been filed over abortion policy since the Dobbs ruling. Many challenges rely on arguments about the rights to personal autonomy or religious freedom. A Texas lawsuit alleges women were denied abortions even when their lives were at risk.

Bans or restrictions are on hold in at least six states while judges sort out their long-term fate. The only states where the top court has permanently rejected restrictions since the Dobbs ruling are Iowa and South Carolina.

Criminal courts have not been busy with abortion cases

There’s little evidence that doctors, women, or those who help them get abortions are being prosecuted.

The Mississippi attorney general’s office says no charges have been brought under a new law that calls for up to 10 years in prison for anyone who provides or attempts to provide an abortion in cases where it wasn’t to save the woman’s life or to end a pregnancy caused by rape or incest.

Progressive prosecutors across the country, including in states with bans, have said that they would not pursue abortion-related cases, or that they would make them a low priority.

Abortion remains a dominant political issue

The political table has been reset, with Republicans entering a new election season weighing how to balance the interests of a base that wants the strictest bans possible against the desires of the broader electorate.

Polling has consistently found that most Americans think abortions should be available early in a pregnancy, but that most also favor restrictions later in a pregnancy.

Last year, voters sided with abortion-rights advocates in all six states with abortion-related ballot measures. The issue was also a major factor in why Democrats performed better than expected in 2022 elections.

It has emerged as a key issue in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
…

A tornado ripped through the northern Texas town of Matador on Wednesday, killing four people and injuring several others while damaging at least a dozen buildings, officials said.

Touching down at 8 p.m. local time (0100 GMT), the “unprecedented tornado” brought high gusting and battering winds to the small community of about 600 residents, according to Lubbock Fire Rescue. The agency is one of multiple emergency crews from the region to join in search and rescue efforts.

At least ten people were transported to area hospitals, of which one died, law enforcement said at a news briefing on Thursday morning.

“A town of this size with such a small population, with the amount of damage that they experienced — it’s not only physical damage, but the economical and emotional impact that it will have on this town is very well significant,” Lubbock Fire Rescue Public Information Officer Derek Delgado said.

Video of the aftermath showed a string of homes flattened to a rubble and downed power lines. About two dozen emergency vehicles helped to illuminate the dark road in the video shared by the fire agency in nearby city of Lubbock.

Power was knocked out to a majority of customers in Motley County, according to PowerOutage.us. Matador is the county seat. Widespread outages stretched 130 miles (209 km) south of Matador.

Crews hope to restore power in Matador by Friday evening after the storm damaged a substation.

The National Weather Service issued a warning about 8 p.m. about a tornado heading toward Matador and urged residents to take cover.

Last week, Perryton, Texas, was struck by one or more tornadoes, which killed at least three people and injured dozens of others. Hundreds of homes, many of them in a trailer park, were damaged or destroyed.
…

In the past few years, political tensions have derailed U.S.-Mexico cooperation in fighting the illegal trafficking of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. U.S. legislators and experts are now calling for a reset of bilateral relations. Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. (Camera: Mino Dargakis)
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A U.S. Coast Guard ship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday in a transit that China described as “public hype,” after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken having wrapped up a high-profile, widely watched visit to Beijing a day earlier.

The national security cutter Stratton made a “routine” Taiwan Strait transit Tuesday “through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said Thursday.

The politically sensitive strait, which separates China from the democratically governed island of Taiwan, is a frequent source of tension as Beijing steps up its political and military pressure to try to force Taipei to accept Chinese sovereignty.

“Stratton’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows,” the 7th Fleet added in its statement.

The mission happened the day after Blinken ended a visit to Beijing, in which the two countries agreed to stabilize their intense rivalry so it does not veer into conflict, but failed to produce any major breakthrough.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said the ship sailed in a northerly direction, and its forces monitored the situation which it described as “normal.”

The Chinese coast guard described the ship’s transit as “public hype.”

Chinese vessels tailed the U.S. ship “all the way,” a spokesperson at China’s coast guard said in a statement, adding that China will “resolutely” safeguard its sovereignty and security and maritime rights and interests.

U.S. military vessels, and on occasion those of its allies, have routinely sailed through the strait in recent years, to the anger of China, which views such missions as provocation.

This month the U.S. Navy released a video of an “unsafe interaction” in the strait, in which a Chinese warship crossed in front of a U.S. destroyer operating with a Canadian warship.

Taiwan’s military reports almost daily Chinese incursions in the strait, mostly warplanes that cross the waterway’s median line, which once served as an unofficial barrier between the two.

On Wednesday, Taiwan said Chinese warships led by the aircraft carrier Shandong sailed through the strait.
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The US is not backing down on comments made by President Joe Biden likening Chinese President Xi Jinping to a dictator. The remarks, which came a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China to repair bilateral relations, drew sharp criticism from Beijing. White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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The White House is not backing down on comments made by President Joe Biden likening Chinese President Xi Jinping to a dictator.

“It should come as no surprise that the president speaks candidly about China and the differences that we have — we are certainly not alone in that,” a senior administration official said in a statement sent to VOA on Wednesday.

At a California fundraiser for his 2024 presidential campaign Tuesday, Biden said Xi was unaware and embarrassed over a suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over American territory that the U.S. military shot down in February.

“That’s what’s a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn’t know what happened,” Biden said. “When it got shot down, he was very embarrassed. He denied it was even there.”

China’s Foreign Ministry hit back, saying Biden’s remarks “seriously violated China’s political dignity and amounted to public political provocation.”

“The relevant remarks by the U.S. side are extremely ridiculous and irresponsible. They seriously violate basic facts, diplomatic protocol and China’s political dignity,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at her Wednesday briefing. “China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to this.”

The press is usually forbidden from recording such fundraising events, but the White House provided a transcript of Biden’s remarks.

The comments were especially notable as they were made a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing to repair bilateral relations that have hit a historical low. Blinken’s visit, originally scheduled for February, was postponed by Washington after the spy balloon was destroyed.

While Blinken’s visit failed to produce any major breakthrough, he and Xi had agreed to stabilize the U.S.-China rivalry so it does not veer into conflict.

Washington rejects the notion that Biden’s comments are counterproductive to his top diplomat’s efforts.

“We will continue to responsibly manage this relationship, maintain open lines of communication with the PRC, but that, of course, does not mean we will not be blunt and forthright about our differences,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said in his briefing Wednesday.

“We have been very clear about the areas in which we disagree, including the clear differences we see when it comes to democracies and autocracies,” he added.

Biden’s comments brought renewed focus on the spy balloon incident that administration officials have sought to put behind them since the president signaled a thaw in relations in May, following a meeting between White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and top Communist Party diplomat Wang Yi.

Domestic pressure

Biden is facing domestic pressure from Republicans in Congress who have sought to portray his administration as weak on China and characterized efforts to mend ties with Beijing as tantamount to appeasement.

“The Biden administration is holding back U.S. national security actions to chase fruitless talks with the CCP,” Representative Michael McCaul, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

Last week a group of Republican senators sent a letter to Biden urging a public accounting of his administration’s assessment of the spy balloon and expressing frustration with its “failure to confront China’s brazen threats to America’s security and sovereignty.”

“Republicans won’t let it go because it provides them with extra ammunition,” said Michael Swaine, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “You got sniping going on in the party, people in Congress who think they know better about how to manage the relationship, when they don’t,” he told VOA.

Rising tensions

The bitter rhetoric shows just how challenging it is to bring down tensions and jump-start communication between the two rivals.

“If the engagements we’re seeing are then followed by such direct criticisms from very senior officials, I think the Chinese side is going to ask what the point of the engagement is in the first place,” said Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

“I do think there’s going to be probably some pretty difficult conversations between Beijing and Washington over the next few days and the next few weeks,” Cooper told VOA.

Moscow also condemned Biden’s comments. On Wednesday, the Kremlin said the comments reflected the U.S. administration’s “unpredictable” foreign policy.

“This is a very contradictory manifestation of U.S. foreign policy, which points to a significant element of unpredictability,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
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Rescuers on Wednesday rushed more ships and vessels to the area where a submersible disappeared on its way to the Titanic wreckage site, hoping underwater sounds they detected for a second straight day might help narrow their search in an increasingly urgent mission.

The full scope of the search was twice the size of Connecticut in waters 2½ miles deep, said Captain Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District, who noted that authorities are still holding out hope of saving the five passengers onboard the Titan.

“This is a search-and-rescue mission, 100%,” he said. ” … We’ll continue to put every available asset that we have in an effort to find the Titan and the crew members.”

But even those who expressed optimism warned that many obstacles remain: from pinpointing the vessel’s location, to reaching it with rescue equipment, to bringing it to the surface — assuming it’s still intact. And all that has to happen before the passengers’ oxygen supply runs out, which some have estimated might happen as early as Thursday morning.

The area of the North Atlantic where the Titan went missing on Sunday is prone to fog and stormy conditions, making it an extremely challenging environment to conduct a search-and-rescue mission, said Donald Murphy, an oceanographer who served as chief scientist of the Coast Guard’s International Ice Patrol. The lost submersible could be as deep as about 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) below the surface near the watery tomb of the Titanic.

Meanwhile, newly uncovered allegations suggest there had been significant warnings made about vessel safety during the submersible’s development.

Frederick said while the sounds that have been detected offered a chance to narrow the search, their exact location and source hasn’t yet been determined.

“We don’t know what they are, to be frank,” he said.

Retired Navy Captain Carl Hartsfield, now the director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Systems Laboratory, said the sounds have been described as “banging noises,” but he warned that search crews “have to put the whole picture together in context, and they have to eliminate potential man-made sources other than the Titan.”

The report was encouraging to some experts because submarine crews unable to communicate with the surface are taught to bang on their submersible’s hull to be detected by sonar.

The U.S. Navy said in a statement Wednesday that it is sending a specialized salvage system that’s capable of hoisting “large, bulky and heavy undersea objects such as aircraft or small vessels.”

The Titan weighs 20,000 pounds (9,071 kilograms). The U.S. Navy’s Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System is designed to lift up to 60,000 pounds (27,216 kilograms), the Navy said on its website.

Aboard the vessel are pilot Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company leading the expedition. His passengers are a British adventurer, two members of a Pakistani business family and a Titanic expert.

Authorities reported the 22-foot carbon-fiber vessel overdue Sunday night, setting off the search in waters about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s.

The submersible had a four-day oxygen supply when it put to sea around 6 a.m. Sunday, according to David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate Expeditions, which oversaw the mission.

Frank Owen, a submarine search-and-rescue expert, said the estimated 96-hour oxygen supply is a useful “target” for searchers, but is only based on a “nominal amount of consumption.” Owen said the diver on board the Titan would likely be advising passengers to “do anything to reduce your metabolic levels so that you can actually extend this.”

At least 46 people successfully traveled on OceanGate’s submersible to the Titanic wreck site in 2021 and 2022, according to letters the company filed with a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, that oversees matters involving the Titanic shipwreck.

The submersible had seven backup systems to return to the surface, including sandbags and lead pipes that drop off and an inflatable balloon.

Jeff Karson, a professor emeritus of earth and environmental sciences at Syracuse University, said the temperature is just above freezing, and the vessel is too deep for human divers to get to it. The best chance to reach the submersible could be to use a remotely operated robot on a fiber optic cable, he said.

“I am sure it is horrible down there,” Karson said. “It is like being in a snow cave and hypothermia is a real danger.”

Documents show that OceanGate had been warned there might be catastrophic safety problems posed by the way the experimental vessel was developed.

David Lochridge, OceanGate’s director of marine operations, said in a 2018 lawsuit that the company’s testing and certification was insufficient and would “subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible.”

The company insisted that Lochridge was “not an engineer and was not hired or asked to perform engineering services on the Titan.” The firm also says the vessel under development was a prototype, not the now-missing Titan.

The Marine Technology Society, which describes itself as “a professional group of ocean engineers, technologists, policy-makers, and educators,” also expressed concern that year in a letter to Rush, OceanGate’s chief executive. The society said it was critical that the company submit its prototype to tests overseen by an expert third party before launching in order to safeguard passengers. The New York Times first reported on those documents.

Retired Navy Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, who is now deputy director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law at Syracuse University, said the disappearance of the submersible underscores the dangers associated with operating in deep water and the recreational exploration of the sea and space, “two environments where in recent past, we’ve seen people operate in hazardous, potentially lethal environments,” Murrett said.

“I think some people believe that because modern technology is so good, that you can do things like this and not have accidents. But that’s just not the case,” he said.
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Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guard member accused of leaking highly classified military documents on a social media platform, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal felony charges. 

Teixeira, 21, entered the pleas during a hearing in Worcester’s federal court days after he was indicted by a grand jury on six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. Each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. 

Handcuffed and wearing orange jail garb, Teixeira smiled at family seated in the gallery at the start of the hearing. He stood at the defense table next to his lawyers and leaned over to say “not guilty, your honor” into the microphone after the judge read each count. The judge also denied a defense request to reconsider his detention order. 

Teixeira, of North Dighton, has been behind bars since his April arrest on charges stemming from the most consequential intelligence leak in years. A magistrate judge ruled last month that Teixeira must remain in jail while the case plays out, saying that releasing him would pose a risk that he would attempt to flee the country or obstruct justice. 

The leak left the Biden administration scrambling to assess and contain the damage among the international community and reassure allies that its secrets are safe with the U.S. 

Teixeira’s family said in a statement Wednesday that they “remain committed as ever” to supporting him. “The important thing is Jack will now have his day in court,” they said. “We are hopeful that Jack will be getting the fair and just treatment he deserves.” 

Teixeira’s attorney has said his client “will answer the charges” and “will be judged by his fellow citizens.” In pushing for his release, Teixeira’s attorneys argued that the government isn’t alleging Teixeira ever intended that the information be widely disseminated. 

Shared on social media

Teixeira is accused of sharing classified military documents about Russia’s war in Ukraine and other sensitive national security topics on Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games. Investigators believe he was the leader of an private chat group called Thug Shaker Central, where enthusiasts shared jokes, talked about their favorite types of guns and discussed wars, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Authorities say Teixeira, who enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, began around January sharing military secrets with other Discord users — first by typing out classified documents and then sharing photographs of files that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings. Teixeira worked as a cyber transport systems specialist –  essentially an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks. 

Prosecutors say he continued to leak government secrets even after he was warned by superiors about mishandling and improper viewing of classified information. After being admonished by superiors last year, he was again seen in February viewing information not related to the intelligence field, not his primary duty, according to internal Air National Guard memos filed in court. 

Justice Department lawyers revealed in earlier court filings that Teixeira had a history of disturbing online remarks. He wrote in November that he would “kill a [expletive] ton of people” if he had his way, because it would be “culling the weak minded.” He also used his government computer in July to look up mass shootings, searching terms such as “Mandalay Bay shooting” and “Uvalde,” prosecutors said. 

Authorities have provided few details about an alleged possible motive, but accounts of those in the online private chat group where the documents were disclosed have depicted Teixeira as motivated more by bravado than ideology. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement last week that Teixeira was entrusted with information “that reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if shared.” 
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In astronomical terms, summer begins Wednesday with the arrival of the summer solstice, which marks the longest day of the year for everyone north of the equator. 

This year, the summer solstice falls at exactly 10:57 a.m. EDT, when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer. South of the equator, the same time marks the astronomical start of winter. 

On two moments each year, Earth’s axis tilts the most toward the sun. The hemisphere that tilts closer to the sun experiences its longest day, whereas the hemisphere that tilts away from the sun experiences its longest night. 

The summer solstice takes place between June 20 and 22 each year. By meteorological standards, summer for the Northern Hemisphere begins on June 1. 

This year, the winter solstice will take place on December 21, marking the shortest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere. 

On the summer solstice, the amount of sunlight people experience depends on how far north they are. The northernmost latitudes experience a full 24 hours of sunlight. By comparison, most of the United States will experience between 14 and 16 hours of sunlight. 

The word solstice comes from the Latin words sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).

Nowadays, the summer solstice comes and goes with little significance to many. 

But for millennia, people around the world celebrated the summer solstice in various ways. Some still take part in festivities. 

The most well-known celebration takes place at 5,000-year-old Stonehenge in England.

Crowds of about 10,000 people — including druids and pagans — often gather at Stonehenge to watch as the rising sun aligns perfectly with the complex’s Heel Stone, which stands outside the main circle. 

In Scandinavian countries, Midsummer festivals mark the summer solstice. In Sweden, people dance around a maypole and feast on herring and vodka. 

Some Alaskans celebrate with midnight baseball, and in Iceland, some celebrate with late-night hiking and golf.

Meanwhile in Ukraine, celebrations honor John the Baptist, known as Ivan Kupala. 

This year, astronomical summer concludes with the autumn equinox on September 23. 
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For the first time, U.S. regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and, eventually, supermarket shelves. 

The Agriculture Department gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had been racing to be the first in the U.S. to sell meat that doesn’t come from slaughtered animals — what’s now being referred to as “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat as it emerges from the laboratory and arrives on dinner plates. 

The move launches a new era of meat production aimed at eliminating harm to animals and drastically reducing the environmental impacts of grazing, growing feed for animals and animal waste. 

“Instead of all of that land and all of that water that’s used to feed all of these animals that are slaughtered, we can do it in a different way,” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and chief executive of Eat Just, which operates Good Meat. 

The companies received approvals for federal inspections required to sell meat and poultry in the U.S. The action came months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deemed that products from both companies are safe to eat. A manufacturing company called Joinn Biologics, which works with Good Meat, was also cleared to make the products. 

Cultivated meat is grown in steel tanks, using cells that come from a living animal, a fertilized egg or a special bank of stored cells. In Upside’s case, it comes out in large sheets that are then formed into shapes like chicken cutlets and sausages. Good Meat, which already sells cultivated meat in Singapore, the first country to allow it, turns masses of chicken cells into cutlets, nuggets, shredded meat and satays. 

But don’t look for this novel meat in U.S. grocery stores anytime soon. Cultivated chicken is much more expensive than meat from whole, farmed birds and cannot yet be produced on the scale of traditional meat, said Ricardo San Martin, director of the Alt:Meat Lab at University of California Berkeley. 

The companies plan to serve the new food first in exclusive restaurants: Upside has partnered with a San Francisco restaurant called Bar Crenn, while Good Meat dishes will be served at a Washington, D.C., restaurant run by chef and owner Jose Andrés. 

Company officials are quick to note the products are meat, not substitutes like the Impossible Burger or offerings from Beyond Meat, which are made from plant proteins and other ingredients. 

Globally, more than 150 companies are focusing on meat from cells, not only chicken but pork, lamb, fish and beef, which scientists say has the biggest impact on the environment. 

Upside, based in Berkeley, operates a 70,000-square-foot building in nearby Emeryville. On a recent Tuesday, visitors entered a gleaming commercial kitchen where chef Jess Weaver was sauteeing a cultivated chicken filet in a white wine butter sauce with tomatoes, capers and green onions. 

The finished chicken breast product was slightly paler than the grocery store version. Otherwise it looked, cooked, smelled and tasted like any other pan-fried poultry. 

“The most common response we get is, ‘Oh, it tastes like chicken,'” said Amy Chen, Upside’s chief operating officer. 

Good Meat, based in Alameda, operates a 100,000-square-foot plant, where chef Zach Tyndall dished up a smoked chicken salad on a sunny June afternoon. He followed it with a chicken “thigh” served on a bed of potato puree with a mushroom-vegetable demi-glace and tiny purple cauliflower florets. The Good Meat chicken product will come pre-cooked, requiring only heating to use in a range of dishes. 

‘Ick factor’

Chen acknowledged that many consumers are skeptical, even squeamish, about the thought of eating chicken grown from cells. 

“We call it the ‘ick factor,'” she said. 

The sentiment was echoed in a recent poll conducted by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Half of U.S. adults said that they are unlikely to try meat grown using cells from animals. When asked to choose from a list of reasons for their reluctance, most who said they’d be unlikely to try it said “it just sounds weird.” About half said they don’t think it would be safe. 

But once people understand how the meat is made, they’re more accepting, Chen said. And once they taste it, they’re usually sold. 

“It is the meat that you’ve always known and loved,” she said. 

Cultivated meat begins with cells. Upside experts take cells from live animals, choosing those most likely to taste good and to reproduce quickly and consistently, forming high-quality meat, Chen said. Good Meat products are created from a master cell bank formed from a commercially available chicken cell line. 

Once the cell lines are selected, they’re combined with a broth-like mixture that includes the amino acids, fatty acids, sugars, salts, vitamins and other elements cells need to grow. Inside the tanks, called cultivators, the cells grow, proliferating quickly. At Upside, muscle and connective tissue cells grow together, forming large sheets. After about three weeks, the sheets of poultry cells are removed from the tanks and formed into cutlets, sausages or other foods. Good Meat cells grow into large masses, which are shaped into a range of meat products. 

Challenges

Both firms emphasized that initial production will be limited. The Emeryville facility can produce up to 50,000 pounds of cultivated meat products a year, though the goal is to expand to 400,000 pounds per year, Upside officials said. Good Meat officials wouldn’t estimate a production goal. 

By comparison, the U.S. produces about 50 billion pounds of chicken per year. 

It could take a few years before consumers see the products in more restaurants and seven to 10 years before they hit the wider market, said Sebastian Bohn, who specializes in cell-based foods at CRB, a Missouri firm that designs and builds facilities for pharmaceutical, biotech and food companies. 

Cost will be another sticking point. Neither Upside nor Good Meat officials would reveal the price of a single chicken cutlet, saying only that it’s been reduced by orders of magnitude since the firms began offering demonstrations. Eventually, the price is expected to mirror high-end organic chicken, which sells for up to $20 per pound. 

San Martin said he’s concerned that cultivated meat may wind up being an alternative to traditional meat for rich people, but will do little for the environment if it remains a niche product. 

“If some high-end or affluent people want to eat this instead of a chicken, it’s good,” he said. “Will that mean you will feed chicken to poor people? I honestly don’t see it.” 

Tetrick said he shares critics’ concerns about the challenges of producing an affordable, novel meat product for the world. But he emphasized that traditional meat production is so damaging to the planet it requires an alternative — preferably one that doesn’t require giving up meat all together. 

“I miss meat,” said Tetrick, who grew up in Alabama eating chicken wings and barbecue. “There should be a different way that people can enjoy chicken and beef and pork with their families.” 
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At stake are surveillance powers that US intelligence say are critical but expire at this year’s end
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Britain and Ukraine are co-hosting a two-day conference to rally support for Ukraine’s rebuilding and recovery from the Russian invasion that began early last year. 

The conference Wednesday and Thursday in London is bringing together leaders from 60 nations as well as officials from the private sector.   

Britain said specific areas of focus included technology, logistics, green energy, agriculture, health and infrastructure.  

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office announced $3 billion in World Bank loan guarantees as part of a new financial support package for Ukraine that will help support public services such as hospitals and schools. 

“The question for us today is what can we do to support this – to fast-track recovery and help Ukraine unleash its potential. We must bring to bear a partnership of governments, international financial institutions, and business leaders, all of us here today, to make this happen,” Sunak said in remarks released ahead of the conference opening. 

Sunak’s office also said 400 companies from 38 nations have pledged to support recovery and reconstruction efforts in Ukraine. 

“Ukraine’s reconstruction needs are — and will be — immense,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Tuesday. “Through our new measures today, we’re strengthening the U.K.’s sanctions approach, affirming that the U.K. is prepared to use sanctions to ensure Russia pays to repair the country it has so recklessly attacked.”   

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States would continue to support Ukraine, including announcing Wednesday a “new robust U.S. assistance package.” 

Blinken said the conference was a show of the “powerful and enduring support for Ukraine, not only militarily but also economically, and also in everything we’re trying to do to build the strongest possible democracy. So, we’re very pleased to be part of this and very pleased that Ukraine and our friends here are hosting this conference.” 

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Chinese state media and nationalist netizens accused Western media of deliberately darkening China’s image by dimming footage of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent visit to Beijing. However, VOA Mandarin found the same gloomy tones in coverage published by China’s official media outlets.

A collage started circulating on China’s social media shortly after Blinken’s arrival early Sunday. It compares three photos from the scene. The first was taken at a distance from Blinken’s plane, showing a blue sky over Beijing with green trees in the distance. The second and third images were screenshots from video by BBC and The Washington Post showing Blinken descending from the jet with sky in the background that looks darker than that in the first photo.

Some nationalist netizens reposted the collage, saying it offered evidence of Western media bias.

“When Blinken visited China yesterday, the weather in Beijing was fine. As a result, the BBC’s footage shows a gray sky, and Blinken looks like a black man in The Washington Post’s shot,” posted the blogger “Former HR at HW” on Weibo.

The post, which referred to “the underworld filter of the Western media,” went on to say that western media “do whatever they can to use small tricks to spread rumors to vilify and slander China.”

The post received thousands of likes.

China’s state-owned Global Times tweeted, 

“The Western media’s usual grayish ‘underworld filter’ on China has been applied to Blinken’s China visit. With colored glasses, they tend to perceive everything as gray.”

However, Chinese state media CGTN used the same footage in its news broadcast. In CGTN’s YouTube video, the tone of the image of Blinken getting off the plane is almost the same as that in The Washington Post.

Phil Cunningham, China state media watcher, told VOA Mandarin that “China’s state-affiliated media, while still rather clumsy, is increasingly conversant in the kind of news analysis that goes on in U.S. journalism seminars, with talk of narrative frames, memes, AI, photo manipulation, meta-narratives, etc.”

“They don’t necessary get it right,” he said, “but in imitating Western critiques of China they inadvertently reveal A) hidden admiration B) Western critiques really bug them.”

The BBC Chinese service refuted the netizens’ accusation on Twitter, pointing out that CGTN used the same footage.

“They don’t necessary get it right,” he said, “but in imitating Western critiques of China they inadvertently reveal A) hidden admiration B) Western critiques really bug them.”

The BBC Chinese service refuted the netizens’ accusation on Twitter, pointing out that CGTN used the same footage.

VOA Mandarin found that the Chinese news outlet, The Paper, which criticized the tone of the clips released by the BBC and The Washington Post, also used the same dark footage in its own coverage.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday called Chinese President Xi Jinping a dictator, adding that Xi was very embarrassed when a Chinese balloon was blown off course over the U.S. recently earlier this year. 

Biden made the remarks at a fundraiser in California a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Xi on a trip to China that was aimed at easing tensions between the two countries. 

“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it was he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said in the fundraiser. 

“That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened. That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course,” Biden added. 

A suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over U.S. airspace in February. That incident and exchanges of visits by U.S. and Taiwanese officials have recently magnified U.S.-China tensions. 

Blinken and Xi on Monday agreed in their meeting to stabilize the intense rivalry between Washington and Beijing so it does not veer into conflict but failed to produce any major breakthrough during a rare visit to China by the secretary of state. 

They did agree to continue diplomatic engagement with more visits by U.S. officials in the coming weeks and months. 

Biden himself said on Monday he thought relations between the two countries were on the right path, and he indicated that progress was made during Blinken’s trip. 

Biden said on Tuesday that Xi had been concerned by the so-called Quad strategic security group, which includes Japan, Australia, India and the United States. The U.S. president said he previously told Xi the U.S. was not trying to encircle China with the Quad. 

Later this week, Biden will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China is expected to be a topic of discussion between the two leaders. 
…

The risks of artificial intelligence to national security and the economy need to be addressed, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, adding he would seek expert advice.

“My administration is committed to safeguarding Americans’ rights and safety while protecting privacy, to addressing bias and misinformation, to making sure AI systems are safe before they are released,” Biden said at an event in San Francisco.

Biden met a group of civil society leaders and advocates who have previously criticized the influence of major tech companies, to discuss artificial intelligence.

“I wanted to hear directly from the experts,” he said.

Several governments are considering how to mitigate the dangers of the emerging technology, which has experienced a boom in investment and consumer popularity in recent months after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Biden’s meeting on Tuesday included Tristan Harris, executive director of the Center for Humane Technology, Algorithmic Justice League founder Joy Buolamwini, and Stanford University Professor Rob Reich.

Regulators globally have been working to draw up rules governing the use of generative AI, which can create text and images, and whose impact has been compared to that of the internet.

Biden has also recently discussed the issue of AI with other world leaders, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak whose government will later this year hold a first global summit on artificial intelligence safety. Biden is expected to discuss the topic with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his ongoing U.S. visit.

European Union lawmakers agreed last week to changes in draft rules on artificial intelligence proposed by the European Commission in a bid to set a global standard for a technology used on everything from automated factories to self-driving cars to chatbots.
…

An attorney for 16 young plaintiffs urged a judge Tuesday to strike down as unconstitutional a Montana law that prohibits state agencies from considering the environmental effects when it weighs permits allowing the release of greenhouse gases.

Attorney Nate Bellinger made the plea in his closing argument at the end of a seven-day trial. Plaintiffs say state officials violated their right to a clean and healthful environment, part of the Montana Constitution, by allowing companies to build power plants and expand coal mines, among other things.

“Like other monumental constitutional cases before, the state of Montana comes before this court because of a pervasive systemic infringement of rights,” Bellinger said.

During the trial, plaintiffs testified about how increased heat, smoke from wildfires and drought affect their activities and mental health. Native Americans said climate change affects their ceremonies and traditional food sources, and climate experts warned the window to address the environmental damage is rapidly closing.

Montana Assistant Attorney General Michael Russell said Tuesday that the climate change issue is much larger than Montana can address on its own and that the legislature had the right to enact the law that limits greenhouse gas reviews.

He said that the calls by plaintiffs to take the lead in addressing climate change were a social statement, not a legal argument.

A ruling from state District Judge Kathy Seeley is expected sometime after the parties file their proposed findings in the case, which are due in early July.

If Seeley sides with the plaintiffs and declares the state law unconstitutional, it would be up to the Republican-led legislative and executive branches of the Montana government to respond. Representatives of Governor Greg Gianforte’s administration indicated during the trial that there is no basis under state law for rejecting permits for projects, even if their climate impacts are disclosed.

That means a ruling for plaintiffs could increase political pressure on state officials, but it would not have any immediate consequences, said James Huffman, a former professor and dean emeritus at Lewis & Clark Law School who is now living in Montana.

“Republicans in Montana seem pretty fixed in their ways, and I don’t think a decision by this district court is going to change the way that they think about these issues,” Huffman said.

A decision against the state also could establish new legal precedent and add to the small number of rulings that have established a government duty to protect citizens from climate change. However, only a handful of states — including Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts — have similar environmental protections in their constitutions.

Emily Flower, a spokeswoman for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, described the trial as a “publicity stunt staged by an out-of-state organization that is exploiting well-intentioned children.”

The plaintiffs were represented by attorneys for Our Children’s Trust, an Oregon environmental group that has filed similar lawsuits in every state since 2011 and raised more than $20 million in contributions. None of the previous cases had reached trial.

“Anyone who has [a] question about the legitimacy of our plaintiffs’ claims wasn’t listening at trial last week,” Julia Olson, the group’s founder, said in response to Flower’s statement. She noted that the evidence presented by the young people and by scientists for the plaintiffs was largely uncontested by the state’s attorneys.

“The trial has shown the facts are irrefutable,” Olson said.
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