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www.alternatifa.com What does spending more than a year in space do to the human body? Nasa astronaut Frank Rubio has just returned from a record-breaking 371 days in space onboard the ISS, but the trip may have altered his muscles, brain and even the bacteria living in his gut. With a few handshakes, a brief photoshoot and a wave, Nasa astronaut Frank Rubio bid farewell to the American-football-�ield-sized collection of modules and solar panels that has been his home for the past 371 days. His departure from the International Space Station (ISS) and return to Earth marks the end of the longest single space�light by an American to date. His time in orbit – which surpassed the previous US record of 355 consecutive days – was extended in March after the spacecraft he and his crewmates had been due to �ly home in developed a coolant leak. The extra months in space allowed Rubio to clock up a total of 5,963 orbits around the Earth, travelling 157.4 million miles (253.3 million km). But it still means he is around two months short of the record for the longest ever space�light by a human – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov spent 437 days onboard the Mir Space Station in the mid 1990s. With a huge grin on his face, Rubio was carried from the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft after it bumped safely back to Earth in a cloud of dust near the town of Zhezkazgan in the Kazakhstan Steppe. Spending so much time in the low gravity environment of the ISS will have taken a toll on his body, so he had to be lifted out of the capsule by the recovery teams. His extended trip in space, however, will provide valuable insights into how humans can cope with long-duration space�light and how best to counteract the problems it can present. He is the �irst astronaut to participate in a study examining how exercising with limited gym equipment can affect the human body. It is information that will prove vital as humans set their sights on sending crews on missions to explore deeper into the Solar System. A return journey to Mars, for example, is expected to take around 1,100 days (just over three years) under current plans. The spacecraft they will travel in will be far smaller than the ISS, meaning smaller lightweight exercise devices will be needed. But problems keeping �it aside, just what does space�light do to the human body? Muscles and bones Without the constant tug of gravity on our limbs, muscle and bone mass quickly begins to diminish in space. The most affected are those muscles that help to maintain our posture in our back, neck, calves and quadriceps – in microgravity they no longer have to work nearly as hard and begin to atrophy. After just two weeks muscle mass can fall by as much as 20% and on longer missions of three-to-six months it can fall by 30%. Similarly, because astronauts are not putting their skeletons through as much mechanical strain as they do when subject to Earth's gravity, their bones also start to demineralise and lose strength. Astronauts can lose 1-2% of their bone mass every month they spend in space and up to 10% over a six-month period (on Earth, older men and women lose bone mass at a rate of 0.5%-1% every year). This can increase their risk of suffering fractures www.alternatifa.com and increase the amount of time it takes to heal. It can take up to four years for their bone mass to return to normal after returning to Earth. To combat this, astronauts undertake 2.5 hours a day of exercise and intense training while in orbit on the ISS. This includes a series of squats, deadlifts, rows and bench presses using a resistive exercise device installed in the ISS's "gym", alongside regular bouts tethered to a treadmill and on an exercise bike. They also take diet supplements to help keep their bones as healthy as possible. The lack of gravity pulling down on their bodies can also mean that astronauts �ind they grow a little taller during their stay on the ISS as their spines elongate slightly. This can lead to issues such as back pain while in space and slipped disks once back on Earth. During a brie�ing onboard the ISS ahead of his return to Earth, Rubio himself said his spine was growing and said it might help him to avoid a common neck injury that astronauts can suffer when their spacecraft hit the ground if they try to crane out of their seats to see what is happening. "I think my spine has extended just enough that I'm kind of wedged into my seat liner, so I shouldn't move much at all," he said. Weight loss Although weight means very little while in orbit – the microgravity environment means anything not tethered down can �loat around the ISS habitat freely, including human bodies – maintaining a healthy weight is a challenge while in orbit. Although Nasa tries to ensure its astronauts have a diverse range of nutritious foods, including most recently a few salad leaves grown on board the space station, it can still affect an astronaut's body. Scott Kelly, a Nasa astronaut who took part in the most extensive study of the effects of long-term space�light after staying onboard the ISS for 340 days while his twin brother stayed back on Earth, lost 7% of his body mass while in orbit. Eyesight On Earth, gravity helps to force the blood in our bodies downward while the heart pumps it up again. In space, however, this process becomes messed up (although the body does adapt somewhat), and blood can accumulate in the head more than it normally would. Some of this �luid can pool at the back of the eye and around the optic nerve, leading to oedema. This can lead to changes in vision such as decreased sharpness and structural changes in the eye itself. These changes can start to occur after just two weeks in space but as that time goes on, the risk increases. Some of the vision changes reverse within about a year of astronauts returning to Earth, but others can be permanent. Exposure to galactic cosmic rays and energetic solar particles can also lead to other eye problems. The Earth's atmosphere helps to protect us from these but once in orbit on the ISS, this protection disappears. While spacecraft can carry shielding to help keep out excess radiation, astronauts onboard the ISS have reported seeing �lashes of light in their eyes as cosmic rays and solar particles hit their retina and optical nerves. www.alternatifa.com Fill in the Blank With Appropriate Meaning! 1. Downward : 2. Tethered down: 3. Occur : 4. Handshakes : 5. Leak : 6. Injury : 7. Ray : 8. Athropy : 9. Alongside : 10. Suffer : 11. Eyesight : 12. Crane out : 13. Lightweight : 14. Current : 15. Diverse : 16. Alongside : 17. Deadlift : 18. Quadriceps : 19. Bumped : 20. Fluid : 21. Space�light : 22. Treadmill : 23. Resistive : 24. Spine : 25. Onboard : www.alternatifa.com Sea sponges offer lifeline to women in Zanzibar As ocean temperatures rise, single mothers and divorced women in Zanzibar switch from seaweed to sea sponge farming to stay a�loat. As a gentle morning breeze blows across the Zanzibar shore, Hindu Simai Rajabu walks through knee-deep water to reach a shallow lagoon off the coast of Jambiani, Tanzania, where her �loating sponge farm is located. Sporting shiny goggles and with a snorkel placed on top of her headscarf, Rajabu wades through the Indian Ocean, her laughter at the experience of being �ilmed mingling with the sound of the crashing waves. As the tide rises, the 31-year-old mother of two swims and submerges to the depth of the buoys which hold the �loating sponge farm in place. The quest for prosperity has led Rajabu and 12 other divorced women and single mothers from Zanzibar's Jambiani village into the Indian Ocean to grow climate-resilient sponges. Farming sea sponges has become a lucrative business for these women in recent years. Many women in Jambiani farm seaweed, but low yields due to rising sea temperatures have started to make itto earn a living. In 2009,some women began switching to growing puff-like soft sea sponges: primitive aquatic animals that, when harvested, are used for bathing and cleaning. Sea sponges are more resilient to warmer temperatures and �ilter pollutants such as sewage and pesticides out ofthe water. Local women's rights activists say sea sponge farming is helping to improve gender equality in Zanzibar and has lifted these women out of poverty. The farmers themselves say their quality of life has improved. When Rajabu reaches the buoys, she adeptly propels herself forward to inspect the juvenile sponges on the ropes. She briskly starts scrubbing a thick polyethylene rope with a clasp knife and removes lurking bacteria from baby sponges bobbing there. "The sponges are delicate animals; if I don't clean them well they will die," says Rajabu, as she handles them carefully, taking care not to squeeze them. To prevent the sponges from becoming overheated by the sun or damaged by motorboats, Rajabu ensures they always remain underwater. She spends four hours every day in the ocean, tending to the farm. In the afternoon, she goes to the of�ice to sort and label dried sponges for sale. Rajabu dropped out of school when she was 17 because her mother could no longer afford to pay for her studies, crushing her dream of becoming a doctor. When her husband left her after nine years, Rajabu refused to be de�ined by her circumstances. She started seaweed farming to support her two children. But she barely earned enough to support them – a mere 70,000 Tanzanian shillings (£22/$28) each month. In 2020, Rajabu approached Marine Cultures to explain her dif�icult situation and seek a job. She was swiftly taken on board and started earning a higher income. "It is a tough job, but I enjoy doing it and it pays quite well," she says. She now earns a monthly salary of 250,000 Tanzanian shillings (£80/$100). "I earn a stable monthly income, enough to meet my family's needs," she says. Sea sponges have a shell-like layer, riddled with tiny pores which allows water to �low in and out. The marine creatures are thought to have existed for over 600 million years. Scientists have identi�ied over 15,000 species globally. www.alternatifa.com Marine Cultures, a Swiss non-pro�it, established sponge farming in Zanzibar in 2009 to enable poor women to earn a better income and help protect the region's natural resources. "I thought it is a good thing to cultivate the sea, not only to take things out, without giving something back," says founder Christian Vaterlaus. Until the early 2000s, the seaweed industry was a backbone of Zanzibar's local economy, employing 20,000 women farmers, lifting their standard of living and social status. But the seaweed industry has been battered by rising temperatures, says Vaterlaus, threatening the livelihoods of thousands of farmers in Zanzibar. A 2021 study by researchers at the University of York in the UK found seaweed yields and quality had dropped drastically in the area due to rising temperatures, stronger winds and erratic rainfall. Despite early gains, the production of seaweed fell by 47% between 2002 and 2012 due to climate change, disease and the decrease of the number of farmers due to low prices, the researchers concluded. "I found the prices of seaweed are low and the people don't earn good money," says Vaterlaus. In his bid to help cash-strapped seaweed farmers in Jambiani, Vaterlaus introduced the idea and method of growing sponges to the area. Seaweed is highly vulnerable to climate change, but sponges can tolerate warmer temperatures, allowing them to thrive in hot conditions, Vaterlaus adds. "During the hot season, it is hard to produce seaweed but sponge farming is still possible," he says. Aziza Said, a marine biologist at the University of Dodoma in Tanzania, agrees that sponges are more resilient to hotter temperatures, adding that they also require less maintenance and fetch a higher market price than seaweed. By providing an alternative to �ishing, sponges also reduce pressure on natural resources and protect the environment, Said says. And they enrich the sea bed by spitting out fatty and amino acids for other organisms to absorb, she adds. Research has also shown that the spongy creatures play an important role themselves in combatting climate change. Sea sponges exist in all oceans around the world and make up 20% of the global silicon biological sink. Their skeletons break down into microscopic pieces of silicon, which helps control the carbon cycle in the ocean and reduces the greenhouse effect, experts say. Dissolved silicon is critical for the growth of diatoms, tiny organisms which absorb large amounts of CO2 in the ocean using photosynthesis. According to Said, diatoms grow well when there's a large enough supply of dissolved silicon in seawater. "When diatoms die, their shells sink to the ocean �loor, effectively absorbing carbon in the form of organic matter and silica," she says. Sea sponges also effectively �ilter sea water and reduce marine pollution, according to another study. A single sponge can pump thousands of litres of water per day through a maze of channels and pores that trap impurities and organic substances, the researchers note. According to another study, up to 24,000 litres (5,300 gallons) of sea water can be pumped through a 1kg (2.2lb) sponge in a single day. The women in Jambiani are trained by Marine Cultures before they start harvesting sea sponges. Since 2009, 13 women have been trained, according to Ali Mahmudi Ali, who manages the farm. "We train farmers for one year to ensure they have [the] necessary skills and knowledge to cope with the changing sea conditions," he says. www.alternatifa.com Fill in the Blank With Appropriate Meaning! 1. Switching : 2. Resilient : 3. Poverty : 4. Absorb : 5. Experts : 6. Threatening : 7. Gains : 8. Pores : 9. Matter : 10. Juvenile : 11. Delicate : 12. Trap : 13. Absorb : 14. Headscarf : 15. Snorkel : 16. Disease : 17. Sewage : 18. Pesticide : 19. Maze : 20. Impurities : 21. Mingling : 22. Buoy : 23. Pollutant : 24. Necessary : 25. Circumstances : www.alternatifa.com Trudeau apologizes for ‘embarassing’ celebration of Ukrainian veteran who fought for Nazi unit in World War II Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized on behalf of Canada’s parliament Wednesday, referring to the “deeply embarrassing” incident last week that saw the chamber applaud a Ukrainian veteran who fought for a Nazi military unit during World War II. “This was a mistake that has deeply embarrassed parliament and Canada. All of us who were in this House on Friday regret deeply having stood and clapped, even though we did so unaware of the context,” said Trudeau in a media brie�ing in Ottawa Wednesday. Trudeau also recognized diplomatic damage done to the visiting Ukrainian delegation in attendance that day, which included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “I also want to reiterate how deeply sorry Canada is for the situation this put President Zelensky and the Ukrainian delegation in. It is extremely troubling to think that this egregious error is being politicized by Russia and its supporters to provide false propaganda about what Ukraine is �ighting for,” he said. On Friday, following an address by Zelensky, House of Commons speaker Anthony Rota lauded veteran Yaroslav Hunka as a Ukrainian-Canadian war hero who “fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russian aggressors then, and continues to support the troops today.” Hunka, 98, received an extended standing ovation. But in the days since, human rights and Jewish organizations have said that Hunka served in a Nazi military unit known as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division was part of the Nazi SS organization declareda criminal organization by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg in 1946, which determined the Nazi group had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Jewish human rights organization B’nai Brith Canada in a statement condemned the Ukrainian volunteers who served in the unit as “ultra-nationalist ideologues” who “dreamed of an ethnically homogenous Ukrainian state and endorsed the idea of ethnic cleansing.” Rota has resigned his post amid the fallout, and Poland’s Minister of Education has published a letter saying that he is taking steps towards Hunka’s possible extradition.. www.alternatifa.com Fill in the Blank With Appropriate Meaning! 1. Referring : 2. Behalf : 3. Deeply : 4. Chamber : 5. Embarrassed : 6. Clap : 7. Unaware : 8. Attendance : 9. Reiterate : 10. Egregious : 11. False : 12. Troubling : 13. Aggressor : 14. Lauded : 15. Tribunal : 16. Against : 17. Commited : 18. Ideologue : 19. Endorsed : 20. Toward : www.alternatifa.com South Korea showcases missiles, drones and tanks in rare military parade South Korea showcased an arsenal of advanced weaponry in a military parade on Tuesday, rolling tanks and missiles down the streets of its rain-soaked capital during the �irst event of its kind in a decade. The parade, held to mark the 75th Armed Forces Day commemorating the founding of the country’s armed forces, comes against the backdrop of rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, as South Korea draws closer to the United States and Japan against the threat of North Korea’s accelerating weapons program. The event kicked off in the morning with ceremonies and performances at the Seoul Air Base, where President Yoon Suk Yeol delivered an address warning Pyongyang against ever using nuclear weapons. “If North Korea uses nuclear weapons, its regime will be brought to an end by an overwhelming response from the (Seoul-Washington) alliance,” Yoon said, speaking in the rain. Later on Tuesday, North Korea’s United Nations Ambassador Kim Song claimed Pyongyang had been “urgently required to further accelerate the build-up of (its) self-defense capabilities,” saying the Korean Peninsula was moving “closer to the brink of a nuclear war.” Speaking in New York at the UN General Assembly, Kim accused the US of spreading its in�luence across the world, particularly across the Korean Peninsula. The military parade – a �irst for South Korea since 2013 – followed in the afternoon, with troops and military equipment rolling through the heart of Seoul, passing by the city hall and historic Gwanghwamun Square. The roads were lined with spectators, many wearing plastic ponchos and holding umbrellas in the rain. Several thousand South Korean soldiers and more than 300 US troops marched during the event, according to the Ministry of National Defense. Other performances included a military band, �lag-bearers, and mascots from each military unit. On display were a variety of homegrown equipment including drones, tanks and armored personnel carriers. Soldiers in vehicles waved to the crowd as they passed by; several carriers had the South Korean �lag af�ixed to the exterior. Peter Layton, a visiting fellow at the Grif�ith Asia Institute at Grif�ith University, said while the parade served to send “a message to an external audience,” including partners like the United States and regional powers such as North Korea and China, the event “is really about domestic factors.” The parade and Yoon’s presence “help portray (South) Korea to the Korean people that the country is now an important power on the world stage, a pivotal global power as the current president calls it,” he said. It also boosts public perception of the Korean defense industry, which is “achieving remarkable export success” while other economic sectors fall �lat, he added. Yoon has previously stated his goal to make South Korea one of the world’s top four arms exporters, after the US, Russia and France. While it’s still a few places away in the rankings, the industry has grown rapidly, with $7 billion of defense exports in 2021, according to the Export-Import Bank of Korea. www.alternatifa.com Layton added that the parade also underscores South Korea’s enduring alliance with the US – with the two countries drawing closer, as well as with Japan, as North Korea ramps up its weapons testing. International intelligence has also suggested since last year that Pyongyang may be preparing to resume nuclear testing, with satellite imagery showing activity at its underground nuclear test site. In April this year, Yoon and US President Joe Biden announced a key new agreement that aims to deter North Korean aggression, including a new US commitment to deploy a nuclear-armed submarine in South Korea for the �irst time since the early 1980s. Yoon, Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also held a historic summit in August, announcing new military exercises and a hotline for crisis communications. It marked the �irst time Biden hosted foreign leaders at the Camp David retreat in Maryland, a site of historic diplomatic negotiations for past presidents. This story has been updated to more accurately describe the weapons on display during the parade. www.alternatifa.com Fill in the Blank With Appropriate Meaning! 1. Arsenal : 2. Display : 3. Preparing : 4. Resume : 5. Past : 6. Remarkable : 7. Marched : 8. Remarkable : 9. Equipment : 10. Underground : 11. Imagery : 12. Particularly : 13. Aggression : 14. Accurately : 15. Brink : 16. Poncho : 17. Hosted : 18. Retreat : 19. Assembly : 20. Rolling through: 21. Passing by : 22. Showcased : 23. Foreign : 24. Peninsula : 25. In�luence : www.alternatifa.com This green armored train has carried the Kim family for decades On Sunday afternoon, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stepped onto an old-fashioned green train that has by now become an enduring symbol of the hermit nation’s isolation and secrecy. Images released by North Korean state media KCNA show Kim boarding his private train as he prepared to travel to Russia for an expected meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, amid warnings by the United States that an arms deal could be on the table. It’s not clear when or where this expected meeting will take place. But Russian state media reported Tuesday that Kim’s train had arrived in the country, and was currently traveling north through Russia’s far east region. Photos of Kim’s departure from Pyongyang show a train station with a long red carpet rolled out for the leader, lined with uniformed of�icials and soldiers standing at attention. Several of�icials bow and shake Kim’s hand. In the background, women in dresses and traditional clothing can be seen cheering and waving the North Korean �lag. Among the of�icials photographed appear to be North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Sun Hui and Ri Pyong Chol, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party. At one point, Kim and his entourage stand at the train entrance, waving to the crowd – offering a glimpse into the heavily armored, slow-moving locomotive, with polished wooden �loors and an ornately decorated white doorway. The string of dark green carriages, with yellow stripes running down the side, match the look of the train used both by his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, and his father, Kim Jong Il, who reportedly threw lavish dinners aboard. Armored train of luxury The train has long been the subject of intrigue, carrying generations of the Kim family across the country and on rare overseas trips. Kim Jong Il, who was reportedly averse to �lying, relied heavily on the train, according to Reuters – in contrast to his son Kim Jong Un, who has previously traveled by luxurious private jet, and who studied in Switzerland in the 1990s. The same train – green with yellow striping – was seen infootage from Russian state media when Kim Jong Il visited Russia in 2002. At the time, international sanctions on North Korea had relaxed, allowing a brief period of greater engagement with the outside world. Memoirs by the former Russian of�icial Konstantin Pulikovsky, drawing from a report by a Russian Foreign Ministry note-taker on board the train in 2001 during Kim Jong Il’s one- month ride across Russia, paint a picture of luxury. Pulikovsky claimed the train was conducted by beautiful women and loaded with extravagant dishes and wine, according to a 2002 New York Times article. “It was possible to order any dish of Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French cuisine,” Pulikovsky wrote, according to the Times. Live lobsters were taken to train stations along the route, and cases of Bordeaux and Burgundy red wines were reportedly delivered, Pulikovsky wrote. CNN could not independently verify The New York Times account. Other reports over the years by South Korean media have highlighted the train’s security features. www.alternatifa.com According to a 2009 report in South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, the train is so heavily armored that it travels at an average speed of 60 kilometers an hour (about 37 miles mph). It contained conference rooms, an audience chamber and bedrooms and featured satellite phone connections and �lat screen televisions, the paper reported at the time. “Before Kim’s train nears the station, the power on other tracks is shut off so that no other trains can move,” the paper reported. Kim Jong Un on board The North Korea of today is a far cry from that era at the start of the millennium when Pulikovsky’s reports of largesse and luxuries on board the train were made. International sanctions clamped down again in 2003 after North Korea continued its nuclear weapons program and withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Information from inside the country slowed to a trickle, even more so in recent years under Kim Jong Un’s rule. An already reclusive and isolated state, North Korea shut its borders throughout the coronavirus pandemic and reports from earlier this year suggested the population who are not part of the political elite in Pyongyang were facing chronic food shortages. Even before the Covid pandemic, nearly half of the North Korean population was undernourished, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Still, the train has made several appearances since Kim took power in 2011, highlighting North Korea’s relationships with Russia and China – the country’s only real ally internationally. Kim rode the train to Beijing in 2018, marking his �irst foreign trip since assuming power, where he met Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and other high-level of�icials. Footage released by KCNA showed Kim and a number of Chinese of�icials on board the train, sitting in two rows of pink couches on either side of the carriage. Kim made another train trip to Beijing in January 2019, then the following month, he took the train to Vietnam to meet then-US President Donald Trump in the capital Hanoi. But that summit �izzled out, with no deal struck or concrete progress in pushing for denuclearization. In April 2019, Kim took the train to Vladivostok to meet Putin for the �irst time – where he accused the US of acting in “bad faith” at the Hanoi summit. Photos from the trip show North Korean workers at the Vladivostok station, wiping down the exterior of the train. More recently in 2022, footage released by North Korean state media shows Kim working in his of�ice on board the train, with blue curtains in the background and teal chairs surrounding a white table. State media also aired a documentary showing rare glimpses of Kim in a more relaxed state – sitting in his of�ice on the train in a short-sleeved white shirt, smoking a cigarette while talking to of�icials, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap. A laptop and computer monitor can be seen in the corner. www.alternatifa.com Fill in the Blank With Appropriate Meaning! 1. Intrigue : 2. Luxury : 3. Concrete : 4. Wipe down : 5. Footage : 6. Former : 7. Fizzled out : 8. Undernourished : 9. Enduring : 10. Ornately : 11. Assuming : 12. Glimpse : 13. Counterpart : 14. Shut off : 15. Conducted : 16. Denuclearization : 17. Struck : 18. Reclusive : 19. Non-proliferation : 20. Far cry : 21. Hermit : 22. Clamped down : 23. Throughout : 24. Extravagant : 25. Carriage :
