📌 Clemency, Euthanasia, More

President Joe Biden has presided over the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

Biden today commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people released from prison and given home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and pardoned 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.

The commutations are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in part to stop the spread.

Biden said he would be taking more steps in the weeks ahead and would continue to review clemency petitions. The second largest single-day act of clemency was by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017.

The clemency follows a broad pardon for his son Hunter, who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes. Biden is under pressure from advocacy groups to pardon broad swaths of people, including those on federal death row before the Trump administration takes over in January.

Those pardoned had been convicted of nonviolent crimes such as drug offenses and turned their lives around, White House lawyers said. They include a woman who led emergency response teams, a deacon who worked as an addiction and youth counselor, and a doctoral student in molecular biosciences.

The rate of medical assistance in dying — also known as euthanasia — has grown in Canada for the fifth straight year.

Canada released its fifth annual report since legalizing assisted dying in 2016, which, for the first time, included data on ethnicity. Around 15,300 Canadians underwent assisted dying last year, accounting for 4.7% of deaths. Lawmakers are seeking to expand access to include mental illnesses by 2027.

The figures released on Wednesday by Health Canada show that the rate of assisted dying in Canada increased by nearly 16% in 2023, dropping from an average increase since 2016 of 31%.

Canada is among a few countries that have introduced assisted dying laws in the past decade. Others include Australia, New Zealand, Spain, and Austria.

The average age of those seeking assisted dying was around 77 years old, with cancer being the most frequent underlying medical condition. Around 96% of recipients identified as white people, who account for about 70% of Canada's population.

While the number of assisted deaths in Canada is growing, the country still falls behind the Netherlands, where euthanasia accounted for around 5% of total deaths last year.

Whether it’s a delicate outline or a full sleeve, up to a quarter of people around the world now have tattoos.

But how much you like — or dislike — body ink could indicate your age, according to a study by the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg. Negative stereotypes and attitudes towards tattoos were more prevalent among older individuals.

487 adults rated images of models with varying degrees of temporary tattoo coverage, from no tattoos to extreme facial tattoos, on a 7-point scale. Images with no tattoos were rated highest overall, while those with facial tattoos were rated lowest.

Participants under 50 rated extreme tattoos more positively than older respondents. Individuals with tattoos and tattoo artists rated inked people more highly, but facial tattoos were consistently rated poorly.

A separate survey by Dr. Stephen Crabbe of the University of Portsmouth found that 18% of the UK population has tattoos, with significant regret over certain designs. 31.34% of men and 24.33% of women regretted getting someone's name tattooed on their body.

15.64% of women felt judged by their tattoos compared to 9.54% of men. Around 29.50% considered tattoo removal, 24.50% had already removed a tattoo, and 28.30% preferred to cover up their tattoos rather than remove them.

Modern farming relies on GPS-guided tractors for planting, fertilizing, and harvesting, and when that is interfered with …

On May 10, 2024, a massive G5-class geomagnetic storm disrupted GPS systems nationwide, severely impacting farmers. The storm caused tractors to malfunction, forcing farmers to switch to manual controls or halt operations.

Solar storms disrupt Earth's ionosphere, distorting GPS signals and causing precision farming equipment to lose accuracy. Farmers in the Midwest experienced significant issues, with tractors veering off course and losing GPS connections.

Even moderate G3 and G4 solar storms in October caused similar disruptions during the harvest season. The economic impact of these disruptions includes lower yields and increased costs for recalibrating or repairing GPS systems.

"If it just happens at the wrong time, in the wrong season, if it holds everything up by three or four days, it can have a significant impact on agriculture," said solar and astrophysical researcher Scott McIntosh.

Future farming technology is being developed to use machine vision and artificial intelligence to reduce reliance on GPS.

Mosquitoes carry some of the world’s deadliest diseases, and scientists are investigating whether ‘gene drive’ is the solution.

“Gene drive is a mechanism that enables a gene to spread itself through a population,” says Prof. Luke Alphey, chair in genetics at the University of York. “When it becomes important is when we use it to spread a trait that is useful to humans.”

Under normal genetic rules, animals have a 50:50 chance of inheriting a single gene from either parent. But a gene drive is a naturally occurring process where a specific gene is prioritized, meaning its chances of being inherited are up to 99%. Almost all species will carry that gene within a few generations.

Scientists have studied this process for decades but have only recently developed ways to replicate it in the lab. They hope to use it to spread genetic modifications through animal populations — such as mosquitoes — to help reduce their numbers or stop them transmitting disease.

Lab-based tests on 1,000 mosquitoes in 5-cubic-meter cages found the gene drive effectively spread the modified gene to most of the population within months (the lifecycle of a laboratory mosquito is about three weeks), leading to an increase in sterile females, which caused the population to plummet.

No field tests will occur until governments approve. “Whether countries adopt or use it is beyond us,” says Prof. George Christophides, Transmission Zero co-director. Dr Nikolai Windbichler, a geneticist at Imperial College London, adds: “The question of when it will happen is not technical, it’s political.”

Australia’s government plans to charge big tech firms millions if they don’t pay national media companies for their news.

The move piles pressure on global tech giants such as Facebook-owner Meta Platforms and Alphabet's Google to pay publishers for content or face the risk of paying millions to continue operations in Australia.

"The news bargaining initiative will ... create a financial incentive for agreement-making between digital platforms and news media businesses in Australia," Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones told a press conference.

The platforms at risk will be significant social media platforms and search engines with an Australian-based revenue of over $250 million, he said.

Tech companies condemned the plan. "The proposal fails to account for … how our platforms work … most people don't come to our platforms for news content, and news publishers voluntarily choose to post content on our platforms because they receive value from doing so," a Meta spokesman said.

A spokesperson for Google said the government's decision "risks ongoing viability of commercial deals with news publishers in Australia.” The proposed new rules come as Australia toughens its approach to the mostly US-domiciled tech giants.

Five Hawaiian crows have just been released onto the island of Maui in an attempt to return the species to the islands.

Extirpated from its native Big Island in 2002, all remaining members of the species have been bred in captivity since then. However, the animals were raised to retain their wilder instincts in the hope they could be released safely into the wild.

Known as

alalā

in the Hawaiian language, the two males and three females hopped out of their cages on the leeward slopes of Haleakalā in the Kīpahulu Forest Reserve on Maui. This is the first release of Hawaiʻi’s endemic crow on Maui and the first reintroduction attempt outside of the Big Island.

Alalā is considered

aumākua

(spirit guardians) in Hawaiian culture, said Martin Frye, a research field supervisor. “The birds represent so many individuals who have gone before us, and our care for this release group is linked with our desire to preserve their memories and knowledge for the future,” Frye said.

The field team will monitor the birds into the foreseeable future, supplementing their food and keeping an eye on their health and well-being. For now, the birds are free to roam and explore their surroundings, learning and feeling what it means to be wild.