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World

Romanian cops raid 7 homes tied to Andrew Tate case

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Romanian anti-terrorism cops raided seven homes Thursday as part of the ongoing investigation into accused sex-trafficking rapist Andrew Tate.

The Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) announced the raids early Thursday as the 36-year-old US-born influencer remains in custody facing a slew of serious sex-crime charges.

The morning raids were “in the continuation of the investigations” in the case “constituting an organized criminal group, human trafficking and rape,” DIICOT said.

The raids were on seven homes “within the radius of Bucharest municipality and Ilfov counties and Prahova,” the anti-terror unit said. Local cops helped carry out the search warrants.

The new raids came two days after Tate, 36, was seen handcuffed to his brother Tristan, 34, while arriving in court for a doomed bid to be released.
AP
Romanian anti-terrorism cops raided seven homes Thursday as part of the ongoing investigation into accused sex-trafficking rapist Andrew Tate.
Andrew Tate

Tate remains in custody alongside his 34-year-old brother Tristan and two so-called “Tate’s Angels” — the influencer’s rumored girlfriend Georgiana Naghel, 28, and an ex-Romanian cop, Luana Radu, 32.

All four were arrested late last month and lost their bid to be released on Tuesday after a judge ruled they were a flight risk. On Wednesday, Tate lost a separate bid to get back his seized assets, including the fleet of luxury cars he parades to flaunt his wealth.

DIICOT also announced a similar raid Thursday tied to a suspected organized gang accused of trafficking in minors and pimping. It was not immediately clear if it was tied to Tate’s case.

In that raid, DIICOT said eight homes were searched and three people — none of whom were identified — taken in for questioning.

The Tate brothers and their two co-accused all failed to get released from custody Tuesday.
AFP via Getty Images
The incendiary influencer has been in custody since his arrest late last month.
REUTERS
Tate also failed this week to get back his seized assets, including his fleet of luxury sports cars.
Twitter/Andrew Tate

That alleged operation started in 2019 and “some of the injured persons traveled with the members of the organized criminal group outside the country,” DIICOT said, including France, Germany and the UK. They were also taken to “the United Arab Emirates, where they practiced prostitution for the benefit of investigated persons.”

Officials said the gang members used the “loverboy method” to seduce and then trick victims, the same tactic Tate is accused of employing.

DIICOT did not immediately respond to a message asking if that raid was connected to Tate, who was raised in the UK and lived partly in the UAE.

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World

Joshimath in Indian Himalayas sinks; cracks on homes force evacuations

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The cracks appeared late last year. Walls, ceilings and even the earth began to fracture. This month, several cracks widened into large crevices and in some places, muddy water began to gush out of the ground.

The town of Joshimath, in the Indian Himalayas, is starting to sink.

Authorities have evacuated hundreds of residents to government schools or hotels in other parts of town. “There is absolute panic,” said Suraj Kaparuwan, a 38-year-old businessman.

His house was in the danger zone, authorities said, and his family was told to evacuate. Vein-like marks crisscross the white and blue walls of all eight rooms in his two-story home, which is littered with hurriedly packed clothes and moving boxes.

Joshimath is the latest casualty of the Himalayan region, where unchecked development is colliding with climate change and frequent natural disasters.

The town is a warning sign, experts say, not just for India but for the entire Himalayan Hindu Kush mountain region, part of what has been called the “Third Pole,” which contains the world’s third-largest repository of glacial ice. The Third Pole spans more than half a dozen countries, including China, and is critical to the fate of more than a billion people.

More than 700 homes in Joshimath, a town of about 22,000 people, have developed cracks. Construction in the area, some 320 miles northeast of India’s capital, New Delhi, was halted this week. The chief minister of Uttarakhand state, where Joshimath is located, announced that cities would be audited to ensure they consider both ecological and economic needs.

In 2021, the area experienced a deadly flood after a section of rock and hanging glacier fell down a steep slope. That calamity was exacerbated as the floods encountered infrastructure barriers, picking up speed and debris and killing more than 80 people. Experts said climate change may have contributed to the disaster, and studies have found that glaciers in the Himalayas are melting dramatically, and at a much faster pace than during the 20th century.

Deadly floods in India point to a looming climate emergency in the Himalayas

There are many reasons that earth sinks, though it is typically the result of human activity. Land subsidence can occur when groundwater, which holds up land, is removed from certain rocks. When the water is gone, the rock “falls in on itself,” writes the U.S. Geological Survey, which also notes that activities such as underground mining can contribute to the sinking.

“We are messing up our environment to an extent that is irreversible,” said Anjal Prakash, who researches climate change and sustainability at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.

Local officials declined to pinpoint a specific cause for land subsidence in Joshimath, which sits in an earthquake-prone area, saying scientists are investigating. But Prakash noted that hydropower and other large infrastructure projects are being built within the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayas without taking ecology into account. (Uttarakhand’s glacier-fed rivers make it an attractive area for hydropower projects, eight of which were under construction in 2020.)

Climate change acts as a force multiplier and “will make everything worse,” said Prakash, who has contributed to reports by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“Nobody is really sure” about what is happening, said Piyoosh Rautela, executive director of the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority. The immediate trigger for the recent large cracks, he said, seemed to be a breach in an underground water reservoir that forced muddy water to spurt out of the ground.

“As the water leaches off finer materials from the debris, the land sinks,” he said, adding that construction has exceeded the land’s capacity.

As the experts investigate, residents such as tourism worker Durga Saklani, 52, are living amid apocalyptic scenes. Tiles in his recently constructed home have begun to pop out, doors won’t shut, and walls are sinking, he said.

“The sounds of the cracking still ring in my ears every night,” he said.

Many residents pin blame on a hydropower project in the town’s vicinity that the national government is behind. They allege that blasting and drilling for a tunnel punctured an underground stream and made the land unstable.

NTPC, the government-owned power company behind the project, did not respond to a request for comment. But the Indian Express newspaper reported that it denied the charges and said that its tunnel does not pass under Joshimath. No blasting is ongoing, the company said.

Prakash Negi, a 45-year-old resident, said the power project was opposed by locals. When people first reported damage to their homes last year, the government did nothing, he said.

His house has minor cracks, but he fears what comes next.

“We have lived here for generations,” Negi said. “If this continues to happen, where will we go?”

Situated at an altitude of 6,151 feet, Joshimath sits on the debris of an old landslide. The town expanded rapidly after emerging as a key rest spot for the thousands of devotees traveling farther up the mountain range to important Hindu and Sikh pilgrimage spots.

Half of Earth’s glaciers could melt even if key warming goal is met, study says

Cracks and signs of sinking also appeared in Joshimath in the 1970s, but the scale of the damage is far greater this time, experts familiar with the topography said.

The current crisis is the result of a “governance failure,” said geologist Yaspal Sundriyal, a professor at Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Uttarakhand.

He suggested that authorities demolish multistoried buildings and damaged houses, which would reduce pressure on the land. People should not be allowed to construct new homes in unstable areas, and hydropower projects should not be built in the higher Himalayan region, he added.

“We need to have the stringent rules and regulations and timely implementation of these rules,” he said. “We are not against development but not at the cost of disasters.”

Residents who have been rendered homeless overnight say their future is bleak. Kaparuwan, the businessman, had left Joshimath and worked in larger cities. But he said he came back to support the local economy. He runs a small hotel and had set up a laundry business in November with a $25,000 bank loan.

“Now the [laundromat’s] land has a two-feet gaping hole,” he said. “I can’t see my future anymore.”

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Business

S&P 500 closes out dismal year with worst loss since 2008

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A man rides his bicycle past monitors showing Japan’s Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, Friday. Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher on Friday following encouraging U.S. employment data but were headed for double-digit losses for the year. (Hiro Komae, Associated Press )

Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes

NEW YORK — Wall Street capped a quiet day of trading with more losses Friday, as it closed the book on the worst year for the S&P 500 since 2008.

The benchmark index finished with a loss of 19.4% for 2022, or 18.1%, including dividends. It’s just its third annual decline since the financial crisis 14 years ago and a painful reversal for investors after the S&P 500 notched a gain of nearly 27% in 2021. All told, the index lost $8.2 trillion in value, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The Nasdaq composite, with a heavy component of technology stocks, racked up an even bigger loss of 33.1%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, posted an 8.8% loss for 2022.

Stocks struggled all year as inflation put increasing pressure on consumers and raised concerns about economies slipping into recession. Central banks raised interest rates to fight high prices. The Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes remain a major focus for investors as the central bank walks a thin line between raising rates enough to cool inflation, but not so much that they stall the U.S. economy into a recession.

The Fed’s key lending rate stood at a range of 0% to 0.25% at the beginning of 2022 and will close the year at a range of 4.25% to 4.5% after seven increases. The U.S. central bank forecasts that will reach a range of 5% to 5.25% by the end of 2023. Its forecast doesn’t call for a rate cut before 2024.

Rising interest rates prompted investors to sell the high-priced shares of technology giants such as Apple and Microsoft as well as other companies that flourished as the economy recovered from the pandemic. Amazon and Netflix lost roughly 50% of their market value. Tesla and Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, each dropped more than 60%, their biggest-ever annual declines.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine worsened inflationary pressure earlier in the year by making oil, gas and food commodity prices even more volatile amid existing supply chain issues. Oil closed Friday around $80, about $5 higher than where it started the year. But in between oil jumped above $120, helping energy stocks post the only gain among the 11 sectors in the S&P 500, up 59%.

China spent most of the year imposing strict COVID-19 policies, which crimped production for raw materials and goods, but is now in the process of removing travel and other restrictions. It’s uncertain at this point what impact China’s reopening will have on the global economy.

The Fed’s battle against inflation, though, will likely remain the overarching concern on Wall Street in 2023, according to analysts. Investors will continue searching for a better sense of whether inflation is easing fast enough to take pressure off of consumers and the Fed.

If inflation continues to show signs of easing, and the Fed reins in its rate-hiking campaign, that could pave the way for a rebound for stocks in 2023, said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors.

“The Fed has been the overhang on this market, really since November of last year, so if the Fed pauses and we don’t have a major recession, we think that sets us up for a rally,” he said.

The Fed has been the overhang on this market, really since November of last year, so if the Fed pauses and we don’t have a major recession, we think that sets us up for a rally.

–Jay Hatfield

There was scant corporate or economic news for Wall Street to review Friday. That, plus the holiday-shortened week, set the stage for mostly light trading.

The S&P 500 fell 9.78 points, or 0.3%, to finish at 3,839.50. The index posted a 5.9% loss for the month of December.

The Dow dropped 73.55 points, or 0.2%, to close at 33,147.25. The Nasdaq slipped 11.61 points, or 0.1%, to 10,466.48.

Tesla rose 1.1%, as it continued to stabilize after steep losses earlier in the week. The electric vehicle maker’s stock plummeted 65% in 2022, erasing about $700 billion of market value.

Southwest Airlines rose 0.9% as its operations returned to relative normalcy following massive cancellations over the holiday period. The stock still ended down 6.7% for the week.

Small company stocks also fell Friday. The Russell 2000 shed 5 points, or 0.3%, to close at 1,761.25.

Bond yields mostly rose. The yield on the 10-Year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, rose to 3.88% from 3.82% late Thursday. Although bonds typically fair well when stocks slump, 2022 turned out to be one of the worst years for the bond market in history, thanks to the Fed’s rapid rate increases and inflation.

Several big updates on the employment market are on tap for the first week of 2023. It has been a particularly strong area of the economy and has helped create a bulwark against a recession. That has made the Fed’s job more difficult, though, because strong employment and wages mean it may have to remain aggressive to keep fighting inflation. That, in turn, raises the risk of slowing the economy too much and bringing on a recession.

The Fed will release minutes from its latest policy meeting on Wednesday, potentially giving investors more insight into its next moves.

The government will also release its November report on job openings Wednesday. That will be followed by a weekly update on unemployment on Thursday. The closely-watched monthly employment report is due Friday.

Wall Street is also waiting on the latest round of corporate earnings reports, which will start flowing in around the middle of January. Companies have been warning investors that inflation will likely crimp their profits and revenue in 2023. That’s after spending most of 2022 raising prices on everything from food to clothing in an effort to offset inflation, though many companies went further and actually padded their profit margins.

Companies in the S&P 500 are expected to broadly report a 3.5% drop in earnings during the fourth quarter, according to FactSet. Analysts expect earnings to then remain roughly flat through the first half of 2023.

U.S. stock markets will be closed Monday in observance of the New Year’s Day holiday.

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Health

Strep throat is one of many illnesses to watch during an ‘immunological catch-up,’ Utah doctor says

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Just like many other illnesses, strep throat is more common this year than over the last few years, according to Dr. Timothy C. Larsen, a pediatrician at Intermountain Redrock Pediatrics. He encouraged washing hands and not sharing dishes as children return to school. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY — Just like many other illnesses, strep throat is more common this year than over the last few years, according to Dr. Timothy C. Larsen, a pediatrician at Intermountain Redrock Pediatrics.

And he said as school starts back up in January the number of cases might go up a little bit more, something that is typical at the start of the school year.

Strep throat is spread through direct contact with saliva so luckily, the spread can be prevented. Larsen suggested people don’t share utensils, cups or straws and that they wash their hands before eating.

Larsen said strep throat is one thing that people should get on top of and treat with antibiotics. He suggested taking children with symptoms of strep to a clinic within a day or two. Strep can lead to complications including rheumatic heart disease and kidney problems, but antibiotics can prevent those.

He said strep comes on quickly, typically with a sore throat and fever that begin at the same time and sometimes with swollen lymph nodes and inflamed tonsils or white spots on the tonsils. A runny nose, congestion or cough are not typical with strep.

Intermountain Healthcare’s GernWatch data, which tracks illness levels, shows limited data from across their care system, but Larsen said it is showing levels that are a bit higher than the last few years. He is also seeing a lot of the people coming into the clinic for same-day appointments are diagnosed with strep throat.

He said in general they have been very busy at the St. George clinic, as flu cases continue going up and are much higher than the last five years. Larsen said cases of respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, have been starting to decrease. He also said he has seen multiple COVID-19 cases which initially looked like strep throat.

Larsen said the rise in multiple illnesses this year can be attributed to measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 over the last few years which have led to a little less immunity.

“Those things did have an effect, they helped. Now we’re seeing the downside … now that we’re mingling, which we should be,” Larsen said.

He said it is like we are playing some “immunological catch-up,” but with strep throat it does not appear that the cases are worse even though they are more frequent.

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Emily Ashcraft joined KSL.com as a reporter in 2021. She covers courts and legal affairs, as well as health, faith and religion news.

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Health

Diabetes rates may surge in US young people, study finds

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Katherine Stewart, who is diabetic, puts her insulin pen in her pocket during a press conference at the Intermountain Healthcare Transformation Center in Murray on March 8. The number of people under age 20 with type 2 diabetes in the U.S. may increase nearly 675% by 2060 if trends continue. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News )

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

ATLANTA — The number of people under age 20 with type 2 diabetes in the U.S. may increase nearly 675% by 2060 if trends continue, researchers say, with an increase of up to 65% in young people with type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes — in which the pancreas makes little or no insulin — is more common in young people in the U.S., but type 2 — in which the body doesn’t use insulin the way it should — has “substantially increased” in this age group over the past two decades, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new study, published this month in the American Diabetes Association journal Diabetes Care, used data from the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study, which is funded by the CDC and the National Institutes of Health.

The researchers found that if incidence rates from 2017 were to remain unchanged over the next decades, the number of young people with either type of diabetes would rise 12% from 213,000 to 239,000. However, if the incidence continues to rise as quickly as it did between 2002 and 2017, as many as 526,000 young people may have diabetes by 2060.

The researchers say young people who are Black, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander and Native American/Alaska Native are likely to have a higher burden of type 2 diabetes than White people.

The marked increase in expected type 2 diabetes rates could have several causes, including rising rates of childhood obesity and the presence of diabetes in people of childbearing age, the CDC says.

People with diabetes are at risk of complications including nerve damage, vision and hearing problems, kidney disease, heart disease and premature death. The disease may worsen more quickly in young people than in adults, requiring earlier medical care, the researchers note. This in turn could increase demand on U.S. health care systems and result in rising health care costs.

“This new research should serve as a wake-up call for all of us. It’s vital that we focus our efforts to ensure all Americans, especially our young people, are the healthiest they can be,” Dr. Debra Houry, acting principal deputy director of the CDC, said in a statement.

Christopher Holliday, director of the agency’s Division of Diabetes Translation, called the findings “alarming.”

“This study’s startling projections of type 2 diabetes increases show why it is crucial to advance health equity and reduce the widespread disparities that already take a toll on people’s health,” he said in a statement.

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Science

NASA images showcase eerie beauty of winter on Mars

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Ice frozen in the soil left polygon patterns on the Martian surface. (NASA, JPL-Caltech, University of Arizona)

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

ATLANTA — Mars may seem like a dry, desolate place, but the red planet transforms into an otherworldly wonderland in winter, according to a new video shared by NASA.

It’s late winter in Mars’ Northern Hemisphere, where the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter are exploring an ancient river delta that once fed into Jezero Crater billions of years ago.

As the planet’s main feature, dust also drives Martian weather. Dust usually heralds winter’s arrival, but the planet is no stranger to snow, ice and frost. At the Martian poles, the temperature can dip as low as minus 190 degrees Fahrenheit.

There are two types of snow on Mars. One is the kind we experience on Earth, made of frozen water. The thin Martian air and subzero temperatures mean that traditional snow sublimates, or transitions from a solid directly to a gas, before touching the ground on Mars.

The other type of Martian snow is carbon dioxide-based, or dry ice, and it can land on the surface. A few feet of snow tend to fall on Mars in its flat regions near the poles.

“Enough falls that you could snowshoe across it,” said Sylvain Piqueux, a Mars scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement from a NASA release. “If you were looking for skiing, though, you’d have to go into a crater or cliffside, where snow could build up on a sloped surface.”

So far, no orbiters or rovers have been able to see snowfall on the red planet because the weather phenomenon only occurs at the poles beneath cloud cover at night. The cameras on the orbiters can’t peer through the clouds, and no robotic explorers have been developed that could survive the freezing temperatures at the poles.

Patchy carbon dioxide frost, or dry ice, can be seen inside a crater during winter in the Martian Southern Hemisphere. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

However, the Mars Climate Sounder instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter can detect light that’s invisible to the human eye. It has made detections of carbon dioxide snow falling at the Martian poles. The Phoenix lander, which arrived on Mars in 2008, also used one of its laser instruments to detect water-ice snow from its spot about 1,000 miles away from the Martian north pole.

Thanks to photographers, we know snowflakes on Earth are unique and six-sided. Beneath a microscope, Martian snowflakes would likely look a little different.

“Because carbon dioxide ice has a symmetry of four, we know dry-ice snowflakes would be cube-shaped,” Piqueux said. “Thanks to the Mars Climate Sounder, we can tell these snowflakes would be smaller than the width of a human hair.”

Ice and carbon dioxide-based frosts also form on Mars, and they can occur farther away from the poles. The Odyssey orbiter (which entered Mars’ orbit in 2001) has watched frost forming and turning to a gas in the sunlight, while the Viking landers spotted icy frost on Mars when they arrived in the 1970s.

At the end of winter, the season’s buildup of ice can thaw and turn into gas, creating unique shapes that have reminded NASA scientists of Swiss cheese, Dalmatian spots, fried eggs, spiders and other unusual formations.

During winter in Jezero Crater, recent high temperatures have been about 8 F, while lows have been about minus 120 F.

Meanwhile, at Gale Crater in the Southern Hemisphere near the Martian equator, the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, has been experiencing highs of 5 F and lows of minus 105 F.

Seasons on Mars tend to last longer because the planet’s oval-shaped orbit around the sun means that a single Martian year is 687 days or nearly two Earth years.

NASA scientists celebrated the Mars new year on Dec. 26, which coincided with the arrival of the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.

“Scientists count Mars years starting from the planet’s northern spring equinox that occurred in 1955 — an arbitrary point to begin, but it’s useful to have a system,” according to a post on the NASA Mars Facebook page. “Numbering Mars years helps scientists keep track of long-term observations, like weather data collected by NASA spacecraft over the decades.”

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World

Chinese hospitals, funeral homes ‘extremely busy’ as COVID spreads unchecked

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  • Hospitals, funeral parlours report surge in COVID infections
  • China reports three new COVID deaths for Tuesday
  • Some countries consider travel rules for Chinese visitors

CHENGDU, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Chinese hospitals and funeral homes were under intense pressure on Wednesday as a surging COVID-19 wave drained resources, while the scale of the outbreak and doubts over official data prompted some countries to consider new travel rules on Chinese visitors.

In an abrupt change of policy, China this month began dismantling the world’s strictest COVID regime of lockdowns and extensive testing, putting its battered economy on course for a complete re-opening next year.

The lifting of restrictions, which came after widespread protests against them, means COVID is spreading largely unchecked and likely infecting millions of people a day, according to some international health experts.

The speed at which China, the last major country in the world moving towards treating the virus as endemic, has scrapped COVID rules has left its fragile health system overwhelmed.

China reported three new COVID-related deaths for Tuesday, up from one for Monday – numbers that are inconsistent with what funeral parlours are reporting, as well as with the experience of much less populous countries after they re-opened.

Staff at Huaxi, a big hospital in the southwestern city of Chengdu, said they were “extremely busy” caring for COVID patients.

“I’ve been doing this job for 30 years and this is the busiest I have ever known it,” said one ambulance driver outside the hospital who declined to be identified.

There were long queues inside and outside the hospital’s emergency department and at an adjacent fever clinic on Tuesday evening. Most of those arriving in ambulances were given oxygen to help with their breathing.

“Almost all of the patients have COVID,” one emergency department pharmacy staff member said.

The hospital has no stocks of COVID-specific medicine and can only provide drugs for symptoms such as coughing, she said.

Car parks around the Dongjiao funeral home, one of the biggest in Chengdu, were full. Funeral processions were constant as smoke billowed from the crematorium.

“We have to do this about 200 times a day now,” said one funerals worker. “We are so busy we don’t even have time to eat. This has been the case since the opening up. Before it was around 30-50 a day.”

“Many have died from COVID,” said another worker.

At another Chengdu crematorium, privately-owned Nanling, staff were equally busy.

“There have been so many deaths from COVID lately,” one worker said. “Cremation slots are all fully booked. You can’t get one until the new year, maybe Jan. 3 at the earliest.”

China has said it only counts deaths of COVID patients caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure as COVID-related.

Zhang Yuhua, an official at the Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, said most recent patients were elderly and critically ill with underlying diseases. She said the number of patients receiving emergency care had increased to 450-550 per day, from about 100 before, according to state media.

The China-Japan Friendship Hospital’s fever clinic in Beijing was also “packed” with gray-haired patients, state media reported.

Nurses and doctors have been asked to work while sick and retired medical workers in rural communities were being rehired to help. Some cities have been struggling to secure supplies of anti-fever drugs.

TRAVEL RULES

In a major step towards freer travel, China will stop requiring inbound travellers to go into quarantine from Jan. 8, authorities said this week, prompting many Chinese, cut off from the world for so long, to check travel platforms.

But while online searches for flights spiked on Tuesday from extremely low levels, residents and travel agencies suggested a return to anything like normal would take some months yet, as caution prevails for now.

Moreover, some governments were considering extra travel requirements for Chinese visitors.

U.S. officials cited “the lack of transparent data” as reasons for doing so.

India and Japan would require a negative COVID test for travellers from mainland China, with those testing positive in Japan having to undergo a week in quarantine. Tokyo also plans to limit airlines increasing flights to China.

The Philippines was also considering imposing tests”.

ECONOMIC PAIN

China’s $17 trillion economy is expected to suffer a slowdown in factory output and domestic consumption as workers and shoppers fall ill.

News of re-opening borders sent global luxury stocks higher, but the reaction was more muted in other corners of the market.

U.S. carmaker Tesla (TSLA.O) plans to run a reduced production schedule at its Shanghai plant in January, according to an internal schedule reviewed by Reuters. It did not specify a reason.

Once the initial shock of new infections passes, some economists expect Chinese growth to bounce back with a vengeance from what is this year expected to be its lowest rate in nearly half a century, somewhere around 3%.

Morgan Stanley economists expect 5.4% growth in 2023, while those at Goldman Sachs see 5.2%.

Reporting by Marting Quin Pollard in Chengdu, Chen Lin in Singapore and Shanghai and Beijing bureaus; Writing by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Lincoln Feast.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Science

Glass act: Scientists reveal secrets of frog transparency

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Some frogs found in South and Central America have the rare ability to turn on and off their nearly transparent appearance, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science. (Jesse Delia, AMNH via Associated Press)

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

WASHINGTON — Now you see them, now you don’t.

Some frogs found in South and Central America have the rare ability to turn on and off their nearly transparent appearance, researchers report Thursday in the journal Science.

During the day, these nocturnal frogs sleep by hanging underneath tree leaves. Their delicate, greenish transparent forms don’t cast shadows, rendering them almost invisible to birds and other predators passing overhead or underneath.

But when northern glass frogs wake up and hop around in search of insects and mates, they take on an opaque reddish-brown color.

“When they’re transparent, it’s for their safety,” said Junjie Yao, a Duke University biomedical engineer and study co-author. When they’re awake, they can actively evade predators, but when they’re sleeping and most vulnerable, “they have adapted to remain hidden.”

Using light and ultrasound imaging technology, the researchers discovered the secret: While asleep, the frogs concentrate, or “hide,” nearly 90% of their red blood cells in their liver.

Because they have transparent skin and other tissues, it’s the blood circulating through their bodies that would otherwise give them away. The frogs also shrink and pack together most of their internal organs, Yao said.

The research “beautifully explains” how “glass frogs conceal blood in the liver to maintain transparency,” said Juan Manuel Guayasamin, a frog biologist at University San Francisco of Quito, Ecuador, who was not involved in the study.

Exactly how they do this, and why it doesn’t kill them, remains a mystery. For most animals, having very little blood circulating oxygen for several hours would be deadly. And concentrating blood so tightly would result in fatal clotting. But somehow, the frogs survive.

Further research on the species could provide useful clues for the development of anti-blood clotting medications, said Carlos Taboada, a Duke University biologist and study co-author.

Only a few animals, mostly ocean dwellers, are naturally transparent, said Oxford University biologist Richard White, who was not involved in the study. “Transparency is super rare in nature, and in land animals, it’s essentially unheard of outside of the glass frog,” White said.

Those that are transparent include some fish, shrimp, jellyfish, worms and insects — none of which move large quantities of red blood through their bodies. The trick of hiding blood while sleeping appears to be unique to the frogs.

“It’s just this really amazing, dynamic form of camouflage,” said White.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Health

Utah doctors keep encouraging vaccinations as hospitals fill due to respiratory illnesses

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Intermountain doctors are again urging Utahns to get flu and COVID-19 vaccinations as hospitals are at or near capacity dealing with high levels of respiratory illnesses. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)

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SALT LAKE CITY — Doctors are again urging Utahns to get flu and COVID-19 vaccinations as hospitals are at or near capacity dealing with high levels of respiratory illnesses.

Dr. Per Gesteland, pediatric hospitalist at Primary Children’s Hospital and University of Utah Health, said that in the last few weeks, communities in Utah have been hit hard with RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and influenza and, to a lesser extent, other illnesses like COVID-19, seasonal coronavirus and strep throat.

“The surge has been so large that it has been placing a great deal of strain on our health care delivery system,” he said.

Gesteland said this is even more severe at children’s facilities, including at Primary Children’s Hospital, which has been at capacity for several weeks. The hospital has rescheduled about 50 nonemergency procedures in each of the last three weeks.

Although Gesteland said it seems like the RSV epidemic has peaked, it is still bringing patients to hospitals and keeping physicians busy. The flu, however, is reaching last year’s peak levels now, although it is not expected to peak until January or February.

Gesteland said he is hoping after learning about the situation that people are motivated to help prevent the spread of illness to themselves and their loved ones.

Dr. Tamara Sheffield, medical director for preventive medicine at Intermountain Healthcare, said doctors seeing the same issues in adults, with record cases of flu, COVID-19 and RSV. She said the increase of these three respiratory illnesses this year has been called a blizzard.

“We really are seeing an extraordinary amount of infections circulating within the community. And it’s not just putting a strain on the health system but also on the medications we use,” Sheffield said.

She said monoclonal antibody therapies are not working on the current COVID-19 strain, which means the antivirals they are using are in short supply. Sheffield said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance for how to prioritize antivirals used for flu. The flu treatment for children has become hard to get, she said, adding that some doctors have been taking adult medications and reformulating them for use in children.

Because of limitations in treatment options, Sheffield stressed that the best strategy is prevention — flu vaccinations, the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine, masks, staying home when sick, hand washing and covering coughs.

“(These are) things that we know are great ways to prevent respiratory illnesses from spreading. They are working and need to work for us right now,” Sheffield said.

She said it is never too late to get a flu vaccine. She urged people to get their vaccinations today, in order to allow a week or two before the holidays for the vaccine to become effective.

The current flu numbers are the highest the U.S. has seen in the last 10 years, Sheffield said, adding the increase is likely due to lower levels over the last few years and less exposure to illness. She said vaccines help teach immune systems to protect themselves and combat spreading illness.

Gesteland said supply chain issues and demand are also to blame for ongoing limitations in common pediatric medications, including for fever, as well as antibiotics. Although people have been putting information online about how to alter adult medications for children, he said he suggests talking to a pediatrician or pharmacist for advice, checking with neighbors who may have some to spare and treating children with honey, humidifiers or smaller doses of Tylenol or Advil instead of adult cold medications.

He said RSV starts with cold symptoms, a runny nose and sore throat, but it can lead to a more persistent cough, inflammation and pneumonia-like symptoms. If cold symptoms turn into to troubled breathing, Gesteland said, it is time to see a doctor.

Sheffield said the flu is different, as it typically has a very fast onset, instead of starting with a cold. She added that flu and COVID-19 antivirals are most effective if they are used in the first 48 hours that symptoms exist. Shortness of breath and deep, dry coughs can mean a person has COVID-19; Sheffield said, in this case, it can also be good to get tested and get some medication soon.

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Emily Ashcraft joined KSL.com as a reporter in 2021. She covers courts and legal affairs, as well as health, faith and religion news.

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Tornadoes leave a trail of destruction in Louisiana and the Southeast, killing at least 3, collapsing homes, knocking out power

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CNN
 — 

A severe weather system cutting through the South has left a trail of destruction in Louisiana, killing at least three people and injuring dozens of others as violent tornadoes touched down, collapsing homes, turning debris into projectiles and knocking out power.

The deaths attributed to storm-related events include a 56-year-old woman who died after a tornado hit her home in the Killona area in St. Charles Parish, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

Additionally, a boy and his mother were found dead after a tornado destroyed their home Tuesday in the northwestern Louisiana community of Keithville, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office said. The mother and son’s bodies were found hours apart, far from where their house once stood, officials said.

Multiple communities throughout Louisiana reported destruction, with roofs ripped off, homes splintered, debris littering roadways and cars flipper over. As ferocious winds downed power lines, more than 50,000 customers were left without power in across Louisiana and Mississippi Wednesday evening, according to PowerOutage.us. That number was down to less than 15,000 early Thursday.

There were at least 49 tornado reports across Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama and Florida Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the Storm Prediction Center. More tornado reports are likely to come in as surveyors continue to check for damage.

And the threat isn’t over yet. More than 15 million people could see severe weather Thursday in parts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas as the severe weather shifts the east, according to CNN Meteorologist Robert Shackelford.

More than 1.5 million people were under tornado watches in southeastern Alabama, northern Florida and southern Georgia until 9 a.m. Thursday. Strong tornadoes are still likely as well as quarter sized hail and powerful wind gusts up to 70 mph.

The massive storm that brought the destruction to Louisiana and across the Southeast is part of a massive system that has also brought blizzard conditions in northern parts of the central US.

For Thursday, the storms are expected to weaken slightly, but there is a risk for severe weather for much of Florida, coastal Georgia and coastal Carolinas. Cities like Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Savannah and Charleston could see damaging winds, large hail and isolated tornadoes, Shackelford said.

In Louisiana, the damage has been widespread, affecting multiple communities, prompting Gov. John Bel Edwards to declare a state of emergency.

As many as 5,000 structures were likely damaged when a tornado struck the city of Gretna, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, Mayor Belinda Constant said.

Farther north, at least 20 people were injured in the small Union Parish town of Farmerville when a tornado struck Tuesday night, demolishing parts of an apartment complex and a mobile home park, Farmerville police Detective Cade Nolan said.

Patsy Andrews was home with her children in Farmerville when she heard “rushing wind like a train” outside, she told CNN affiliate KNOE-TV.

Her son told her not to open the door when she went to investigate, but it was too late.

“All of a sudden that wind was so heavy, it broke my back door,” Andrews said. “The lights went off and all we could hear was glass popping everywhere.”

She said she and her daughter hit the floor, crawling into a hallway as glass shattered around them and water leaked through the roof. They ended up taking shelter in their bathroom.

“We just got in the tub and we hugged each other. We just kept praying and I just kept calling on Jesus,” Andrews said. Her family survived the storm but were left with damage to their home.

In the Algiers area of New Orleans, four residents were taken to area hospitals as the storm battered the area on the west bank of the Mississippi River, Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness told CNN. At least one house collapsed in the area and other residences and businesses have been impacted, Arnold added.

Officials in St. Bernard Parish also reported “major damage” in Arabi, where a tornado touched down, they said, leaving much of the area without power.

Crews in Arabi will be conducting search and rescue efforts throughout the night, St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann said. Ten people have been rescued due to severe weather, but no serious injuries or deaths have been reported, Pohlmann added.

Cindy DeLucca Hernandez thought she could beat the storm while driving home after picking up her 16-year-old son from school. But on the journey, she found herself facing a tornado.

“It was extremely scary, I’ve never ever been through anything like that,” Hernandez said.

Video she shared with CNN shows her waiting at red light as a tornado blew through Arabi, kicking up debris and taking out power lines.

“We started seeing debris and we got hit a couple of times by it and that’s when I put the car in reverse,” she said. Hernandez and her son made it home safe.

Jefferson Parish Councilman Scott Walker said he saw at least a mile-long path of debris.

“Power lines down, homes severely damaged, rooftops ripped off,” he said in a video shared online describing the scene. “It is an extensive damage scene and a long path of destruction here on the west bank.”

Two schools in Jefferson Parish suffered storm damage and were expected to stay closed Thursday.

Iberia Medical Center “sustained a significant amount of damage,” police Capt. Leland Laseter said on Facebook. CNN has sought comment from the medical center.

The New Iberia Police Department reported on Facebook that two tornadoes touched down in the city, with several homes damaged and reports of people trapped in the Southport Subdivision.

The storm also left damage behind in Texas and Oklahoma as it moved through the south earlier this week, spawning tornadoes.

In Texas, at least seven people were injured Tuesday in the Dallas-Fort Worth area – including at least five hurt around the city of Grapevine. Two tornado reports were made in Grapevine, where police said a mall and other businesses were damaged.

An EF2 tornado struck Wise County near the communities of Paradise and Decatur, damaging homes and businesses, officials said. Video showed homes splintered, with roofs ripped off in Decatur.

In Wayne, Oklahoma, an EF2 tornado damaged homes, outbuildings and barns early Tuesday, officials said. No injuries were reported but homes were flattened or had roofs torn off, video from CNN affiliate KOCO shows.



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