Thursday, 17 June 2021

EXPLAINER: The significance of China’s new space station

JIUQUAN, China (AP) — Adding a crew to China’s new orbiting space station is another major advance for the burgeoning space power.

Here’s a look at key developments:

WHAT’S THE MISSION’S PURPOSE?

The three-member crew is due to stay for three months in the station’s main living module, named Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony. They will be carrying out science experiments and maintenance, space walks and preparing the facility to receive two additional modules next year.

While China concedes it arrived late at the space station game, it says its facility is cutting-edge. It could also outlast the International Space Station, which is nearing the end of its functional lifespan.

The launch Thursday also revives China’s crewed space program after a five-year hiatus. With Thursday’s launch, China has now sent 14 astronauts into space since it first achieved the feat in 2003, becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to do so.

WHY IS CHINA BUILDING THE STATION?

As the Chinese economy was beginning to gather steam in the early 1990s, China formulated a plan for space exploration, which it has carried out at a steady, cautious cadence. While China has been barred from participation in the International Space Station, mainly over U.S. objections to the Chinese program’s secretive nature and close military connections, it’s likely the country would have built its own station anyway as it sought the status of a great space power.

At a news conference Wednesday, China Manned Space Agency Assistant Director Ji Qiming told reporters at the Jiuquan launch center that the construction and operation of the space station will raise China’s technologies and “accumulate experience for all the people.”

The space program is part of an overall drive to put China on track for even more ambitious missions and provide opportunities for cooperation with Russia and other, mostly European, countries along with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

POLITICS AND SECURITY

China’s space program has been a massive source of national pride, embodying its rise from poverty to the world’s second-largest economy over the past four decades. That has helped shore up the power of the Communist Party, whose authoritarian rule and strict limits on political activity have been tolerated by most Chinese as long as the economy is growing.

President and head of the party Xi Jinping has associated himself closely with that success, and Ji in his remarks cited Xi as setting the updated agenda for China’s rise to prominence in space. The first mission to the station also coincides with the celebration of the party centenary next month, an important political milestone.

At the same time, China is modernizing its military at a rapid pace, raising concerns from neighbors, the U.S. and its NATO allies. While China espouses the peaceful development of space on the basis of equality and mutual respect, many recall that China in January 2007 sent a ballistic missile into space to destroy an inactive weather satellite, creating a debris field that continues to be a threat.

WHO ARE THE ASTRONAUTS?

Mission commander Nie Haisheng, 56, and fellow astronauts Liu Boming, 54, and Tang Hongbo, 45, are former People’s Liberation Army Air Force pilots with graduate degrees and strong scientific backgrounds. All Chinese astronauts so far have been recruited from the military, underscoring its close ties to the space program.

For Nie, it is his third trip to space, and for Liu, his second following a mission in 2008 that included China’s first space walk. Tang, who was recruited as one of the second batch of candidates in 2010, is flying in space for the first time.

Future missions to the station will include women, according to officials, with stays extended to as long as six months and as many as six astronauts on the station at a time during crew changeovers. With China stepping up international cooperation and exchanges, it’s only a matter of time before foreign astronauts join the Chinese colleagues on missions to the station, Ji told reporters Wednesday.

WHAT ELSE IS CHINA DOING IN SPACE?

Along with its crewed space program, China has been moving boldly into exploration of the solar system with robotic space ships. It landed a probe on Mars last month that carried a rover, the Zhurong, which is conducting a range of surveys, looking particularly for frozen water that could provide clues as to whether the red plant once supported life.

Earlier, China landed a probe and rover on the moon’s less explored far side, joining the Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, rover that was part of an earlier lunar exploration mission. China also brought back the first lunar samples by any country’s space program since the 1970s and officials say they want to send Chinese astronauts to the moon and eventually build a research base there.

Black community has new option for health care: the church

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Every Sunday at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, the Rev. Joseph Jackson Jr. praises the Lord before his congregation. But since last fall he’s been praising something else his Black community needs: the COVID-19 vaccine.

“We want to continue to encourage our people to get out, get your shots. I got both of mine,” Jackson said to applause at the church in Milwaukee on a recent Sunday.

Members of Black communities across the U.S. have disproportionately fallen sick or died from the virus, so some church leaders are using their influence and trusted reputations to fight back by preaching from the pulpit, phoning people to encourage vaccinations, and hosting testing clinics and vaccination events in church buildings.

Some want to extend their efforts beyond the fight against COVID-19 and give their flocks a place to seek health care for other ailments at a place they trust — the church.

“We can’t go back to normal because we died in our normal,” Debra Fraser-Howze, the founder of Choose Healthy Life, told The Associated Press. “We have health disparities that were so serious that one pandemic virtually wiped us out more than anybody else. We can’t allow for that to happen again.”

Choose Healthy Life, a national initiative involving Black clergy, United Way of New York City and others, has been awarded a $9.9 million U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant to expand vaccinations and and make permanent the “health navigators” who are already doing coronavirus testing and vaccinations in churches.

The navigators will eventually bring in experts for vaccinations, such as the flu, and to screen for ailments that are common in Black communities, including heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, AIDS and asthma. The effort aims to reduce discomfort within Black communities about seeking health care, either due to concerns about racism or a historical distrust of science and government.

The initiative has so far been responsible for over 30,000 vaccinations in the first three months in 50 churches in New York; Newark, New Jersey; Detroit; Washington, D.C.; and Atlanta.

The federal funding will expand the group’s effort to 100 churches, including in rural areas, in 13 states and the District of Columbia, and will help establish an infrastructure for the health navigators to start screenings. Quest Diagnostics and its foundation has already provided funding and testing help.

Choose Healthy Life expects to be involved for at least five years, after which organizers hope control and funding will be handled locally, possibly by health departments or in alignment with federally supported health centers, Fraser-Howze said.

The initiative is also planning to host seminars in churches on common health issues. Some churches already have health clinics and they hope that encourages other churches to follow suit, said Fraser-Howze, who led the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS for 21 years.

“The Black church is going to have to be that link between faith and science,” she said.

In Milwaukee, nearly 43% of all coronavirus-related deaths have been in the Black community, according to the Milwaukee Health Department. Census data indicates Blacks make up about 39% of the city’s population. An initiative involving Pastors United, Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope and Souls to the Polls has provided vaccinations in at least 80 churches there already.

Milwaukee is one of the most segregated cities in the country, according to the studies by the Brookings Institution. Ericka Sinclair, CEO of Health Connections, Inc., which administers vaccinations, says that’s why putting vaccination centers in churches and other trusted locations is so important.

“Access to services is not the same for everyone. It’s just not. And it is just another reason why when we talk about health equity, we have … to do a course correction,” she said.

She’s also working to get more community health workers funded through insurance companies, including Medicaid.

The church vaccination effort involved Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope, which is faith organization working on social issues. Executive Director and Lead Organizer Lisa Jones says the effect of COVID-19 on the Black community has reinforced the need to address race-related disparities in health care. The group has hired another organizer to address disparities in hospital services in the inner city and housing, and lead contamination.

At a recent vaccination clinic in Milwaukee at St. Matthew, a Christian Methodist Episcopal church, Melanie Paige overcame her fears to get vaccinated. Paige, who has lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, said the church clinic helped motivate her, along with encouragement from her son.

“I was more comfortable because I belong to the church and I know I’ve been here all my life. So that made it easier.”

Spanish man jailed for killing and eating his mother

A Spanish man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after killing his mother and eating her remains.

Alberto Sánchez Gómez, 28, was arrested in 2019 after police found body parts around his mother’s home – some in plastic containers.

The court rejected Sánchez’s arguments that he was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time of the killing.

He will now serve 15 years for murder and a further five months for the desecration of a corpse.

He has also been ordered to pay his brother €60,000 ($73,000, £52,000) in compensation.

Police arrived at the home in eastern Madrid in February 2019 after a friend raised concerns about the welfare of María Soledad Gómez, who was in her 60s.

During the trial, the court heard that Sánchez, then aged 26, had strangled his mother during a dispute.

He then dismembered and ate parts of her body over the following two weeks, feeding some to his dog.

Spanish media say he had been known to police because of violence against his mother and that he had breached a restraining order at the time of his arrest.

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Airbnb reportedly pays tourist $7m after rape

Airbnb paid a tourist $7m (£5m) after she was allegedly raped at knifepoint at a rental property in New York City, according to media reports.

Bloomberg News reported an Australian traveller received the payout after an attack on New Year’s Eve in 2015.

The victim and her friends picked up the keys to the property from a nearby shop that evening, it says.

The report suggests the suspect had made a copy of keys to the apartment, which he accessed before an attack.

The traveller returned shortly after midnight, as the suspect, 24-year-old Junior Lee, allegedly hid in the bathroom, Bloomberg reports.

Mr Lee has been charged with predatory sexual assault. He has pleaded not guilty, but remains in custody.

The Legal Aid Society, which is representing Mr Lee, declined to comment when approached by BBC News.

After the alleged attack, an Airbnb safety team contacted the local police department to offer its assistance and put the victim in a hotel.

It also offered to pay for costs such as counselling and flew her mother overseas from Australia.

Bloomberg said that, as part of the $7m settlement, the victim cannot blame or sue Airbnb or the apartment host where the incident took place. It says it was reached two years after the alleged attack.

But Airbnb spokesman Ben Breit told the New York Post: “In sexual assault cases, in the settlements we’ve reached, survivors can speak freely about their experiences. This includes the NYC case.”

Airbnb’s prospectus, released before the company floated the business last December, states that for hosts and guests based in the US, it conducts “online background checks” including criminal and public records.

“In some instances, we re-run these checks periodically thereafter,” it said.

“We also conduct host background checks in India prior to the first transaction. We check all of our hosts and guests against certain regulatory, terrorist, and sanctions watchlists to increase safety for all parties.”

‘Bad actors’

Earlier this month, the company led calls for a nationwide registration system for short-term let operators, who would be required to obtain a registration number from the government or a devolved authority in order to list their homes on platforms, such as Airbnb.

Airbnb said the move would “empower local authorities to notify platforms about issues with listings in their area” and also enable platforms to “remove bad actors” by preventing people from getting around the rules by switching their listing to another booking site.

The latest news is part of a wider Bloomberg investigation into safety standards on the rental platform.

Since the attack, the company has not overhauled its rules on keys and where hosts may leave them.

Hosts on the platform are not required to use keypad locks or change codes for keypads between bookings. They do not have to tell Airbnb who else has a copy of a property’s key either.

However, it has introduced a number of discounts for hosts who want to buy items such as smart locks and noise detectors.

Australian prime minister meets the Queen – and tells her she was a ‘hit’ at the Cornwall G7 summit

The Queen held a rare face-to-face meeting with Scott Morrison on Tuesday, with the pair meeting at Windsor Castle.

Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison told the Queen she was “quite the hit” at the G7 summit, as the pair met at Windsor Castle.

The Queen held a rare face-to-face audience, meeting Mr Morrison on Tuesday.

Her Majesty, who is also the monarch of Australia, was photographed chatting with the prime minister, standing with her hands behind her back in a vibrant yellow floral dress.

The Queen met leaders at the G7 summit last week in Cornwall and Mr Morrison remarked: “You were quite the hit. Everyone was talking about you at dinner the next night.”

“Oh lord. Were they really?” she replied.

Mr Morrison added: “They were. They were thrilled to see you.”

Since the UK entered its first lockdown last year, the Queen has held several virtual audiences at Windsor, with guests usually speaking to her via a video link from Buckingham Palace.

She told Mr Morrison that it was “very nice to see you – in person this time”.

The monarch later watched the racing at Royal Ascot after the five-day meet began on Tuesday – with a particular interest in her horse King’s Lynn, in the 15.40 King’s Stand Stakes.

The Queen’s racing manager John Warren said the monarch, a keen horse breeder, is hoping to attend the Berkshire racecourse later in the week.

Last week, the monarch travelled to Cornwall to host an open-air reception at the Eden Project for the G7 summit, attended a mini Trooping for her official 95th birthday, and welcomed US president Joe Biden to tea at Windsor Castle.

Climate protester parachutes on to pitch at Euro 2020 game

The kick-off in the Group F match between two of the tournament favourites was not delayed.

One more victim identified of Mexican students missing for years

Mexico City, June 16, (dpa/GNA) – Nearly seven years after 43 students went missing in Mexico’s Guerrero state, the remains of a third victim have been identified beyond doubt, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Using DNA testing, forensic doctors at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, identified a lumbar vertebra as belonging to Jhosivani Guerrero, said Omar Gomez Trejo, head of the special unit of the Mexican Attorney General’s Office that is reinvestigating the case.

On September 26, 2014, 43 young men studying at a rural teacher training college in Ayotzinapa went missing in the city of Iguala while travelling on buses they had stolen.

They were pursued by police and allegedly handed over to the crime syndicate Guerreros Unidos, for reasons that are not known.

An earlier investigation said their bodies had been burned at a rubbish dump, but that version of events was later discredited.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador government relaunched the investigation after the previous one was plagued with irregularities and more than half of the over 140 suspects were released.

Dozens of suspects have so far been arrested in connection with the case, including Iguala police chief and the city’s mayor at the time. To date, no one has been convicted.

Two other students have been previously identified from human remains uncovered by forensic teams.

Last July, a student was identified from a bone fragment found in a gorge at 20 kilometres from the site of the students’ disappearance, the same site where Guerrero’s vertebra was found.
GNA

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