Recently disclosed information revealed that the CIA has been secretly operating on Chinese social media in recent years, attempting to shape public opinion about the Chinese government in targeted areas, which, analysts warned, not only demonstrates the modern application of Cold War-era strategies but also highlights the significance of information warfare in current global politics, undermining regional stability and normal development.

Reuters recently reported that former US officials with direct knowledge of the highly classified operation disclosed that former US president Donald Trump authorized the CIA to initiate secret operations on Chinese social media platforms, aimed at swaying public opinion in China against the Chinese government in certain regions.

This covert operation began in 2019 and had not been previously exposed. US officials declined to provide specifics about these operations, according to the report.

Reuters mentioned that CIA spokesperson Chelsea Robinson declined to comment on the existence, objectives, or impact of this operation. The impact of these secret operations is not known and neither has it been confirmed as to whether the Biden administration has continued them.

However, CIA Director Bill Burns recently wrote in "Foreign Affairs" that the US has increased its resources for intelligence gathering, analysis, and operations against China. Over the last two years, the CIA's budget for work related to China has more than doubled, with an increase in recruitment and training of Chinese-speaking staff and intensified competition with China in Latin America, Africa, and the Indo-Pacific region.

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Friday at a daily press conference that the US, while often accusing other countries of spreading disinformation, is in fact the true breeding ground of disinformation. "Spreading disinformation cannot inhibit China's progress but will only discredit the US," he said.

Carefully-selected targets

According to the report, the CIA's operations intended to alter public sentiment within China and specific countries such as those in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific region by spreading false information and negative narratives.

The three former US officials told Reuters that the CIA formed a special agent team that spread negative information about the Chinese government using fake online identities and relayed derogatory content to foreign news organizations.

Observers specializing in these regions have felt the ripples caused by these actions.
Gu Xiaosong, dean of the ASEAN Research Institute at the Hainan Tropical Ocean University, said that Southeast Asia has always been crucial for the US in formulating its foreign policy. To advance its Indo-Pacific strategy, the US needs this region as a pawn to suppress China's rise.

The US seeks to provoke competition between Southeast Asia and China, thereby affecting China's image in the region. For example, it depicts China as a threat to Southeast Asia, accuses China of obstructing so-called "freedom of navigation" in the South China Sea, and plays the common trick of spreading irresponsible remarks.

In the South Pacific region, when China advanced its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), media influenced by the US and the West extensively propagated terms like the "debt trap" and "militarization" in association with China.

When China initiated the BRI in the Pacific region, the US and Australia repeatedly warned the island nations about the potential "debt traps" posed by Chinese projects. However, most of the debt in these countries is still predominantly held by the US and Australia, Yang Honglian, a Fiji-based senior researcher at the Pacific Islands Research Center at Liaocheng University in Shandong, told the Global Times in a previous interview.

While the US accuses China of creating debt traps in these nations, it also established the US International Development Finance Corporation with a budget of $60 billion to offer alternative financial assistance.

In the current dynamics of the Pacific island nations, Western media maintains a strong presence. Western countries label positive reporting by Chinese media while promoting the use of Associated Press news in the local media for free, Yang said.

"These are the countries that China has offered a development alternative that is geared toward win-win partnership rather than patronizing and conditional aid," Karanja Ngina, an observer on African affairs, noted. "The US has treated many of these countries and regions like discarded toys," he added.

Now, faced with the undeniable growth brought about by partnership with China, the US wants its discarded toys back, not for the purpose of doing better what China is doing well, but to stop any form of progress from taking place, Ngina said.

Countries that threaten US hegemony or refuse to politically or financially align with the US-led West are soon engulfed in never-ending wars under the pretext of "bringing democracy to the people." While countries not seen as valuable financial or geopolitical assets are ignored, only ever used as pawns to advance the US' agenda, Ngina noted.

Savvy tricks

The methods of the secret operation revealed this time are not new maneuvers by the US; even Reuters mentioned the intense information warfare waged by the US against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

During the Cold War era, the CIA was involved in disseminating 80 to 90 articles daily aimed at destabilizing the Soviet Union. The report quoted Loch Johnson, a University of Georgia political scientist who studies the use of such tactics, who said that covert messaging by the US could influence certain audiences.

Declassified documents reveal that, during the 1950s, the agency even established an astrology magazine in East Germany that featured ominous forecasts about communist leaders, according to Reuters.

In recent decades, the US has established news and cultural media outlets specifically targeting certain nations. Radio and television networks, fostered by the US and funded by the government, broadcast propaganda against targeting countries in dozens of languages around the clock.

Using false information as a tool to attack other nations has become an "industry chain" of disinformation, including financial backing (referred to as "black gold"), spreading negative narratives ("black theories"), and using media mouthpieces ("black mouths") to influence international opinion, analysts noted.

In recent years, some bizarre and false narratives about China have emerged. These include exaggerated claims about China's political and economic influence, misinformation about its social systems and policies, and unfounded allegations regarding its global intentions. Such narratives often gain traction through social media and certain news outlets, contributing to skewed perceptions and misunderstandings about China in the international community.

One example of such false narratives is how a few US media outlets and opinion leaders absurdly described Lujiazui, Shanghai's bustling financial district, as a "ghost town" to denigrate China's economy. People soon realized that the images showing empty streets in Lujiazui were taken from carefully chosen angles and at specific times to create a misleading impression.

Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, told the Global Times that the increasingly aggressive nature of US and Western allies' media campaigns against China amidst the China-US competition, aiming to weaken China's soft power and influence globally.

He lamented the transformation of public opinion into the tool of geopolitical rivalry, highlighting targeted efforts to undermine harmony between the Chinese public and the government, potentially jeopardizing China's decades of peaceful development.

Countering disinformation

Amidst the intensifying US-China competition, actions characterized as media campaigns against China have reportedly escalated misunderstandings, eroded trust, and heightened tensions, contributing to regional instability. Observers note that these campaigns could undermine political and social stability in specific areas, with long-term repercussions.

In response, China has been bolstering its cybersecurity measures, enhancing information scrutiny, and promoting international cooperation to counter these information warfare tactics.

The narrative of China as a reliable partner contrasts sharply with accusations from the US, such as the "debt trap" theory associated with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China's efforts aim to clarify its foreign policy and improve its image abroad, countering negative portrayals and advocating for a narrative of mutual benefit and non-interference, experts noted.

Li emphasized the necessity for China to protect its public from Western media's malignant influence and initiate more constructive dialogue with positive forces in the West. This approach seeks to encourage a rational policy perspective and strengthen ties with Global South countries, thereby exposing and countering Western disinformation strategies.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is set to continue, as Israel warned Palestinians to evacuate from Rafah and the Israeli military prepared for an attack on the southern city on Palestine's border with Egypt. Experts said on Monday this will surely cause large numbers of civilian casualties, and the latest development in the situation proves that the US-dominated mediation has failed once again.  

Although analysts doubted that Israel can realize the goal of "eradicating Hamas," they said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet would like to see the war extended, until they see Donald Trump winning the US presidential election at the end of this year. They added that this is the only chance for the Netanyahu administration to stay in power, and unfortunately, more civilians in Gaza will die, and the US will just refuse all demands to stop military aid to Israel. 

As long as the conflict continues, the pro-Palestine protests in universities in the US and many other major Western countries will continue, and this will surely damage the image of the Joe Biden administration, as all of this proves that Biden is refusing to try his best to stop Netanyahu, experts said. They noted that the pro-Palestine protesters are mostly Democratic voters, and after a series of conflicts with US police, many of them might realize that political elites in the Democratic Party are just using them and failing to deliver what they are asking for. If they don't vote for Biden, Trump will have a chance to win, and this is exactly what Netanyahu is waiting for, they said.  

Israel's military has issued a call for residents in eastern Rafah to "evacuate immediately," one day after the country's defense minister told troops inside Gaza to expect "intense action in Rafah in the near future," CNN reported on Monday.

A CNN stringer in east Rafah said that people were terrified and in a state of panic after the evacuation order from the Israeli military. Video footage showed people in the city packing cars and donkey-drawn carts with belongings.

Earlier, a Hamas delegation was in Cairo on Saturday as Egyptian state media reported "noticeable progress" in cease-fire talks for Gaza, but Israel did not send a delegation, the AP reported.

The bloodshed continued on Sunday as three Israeli soldiers were killed in a rocket attack claimed by Hamas' armed wing near Rafah, where Palestinian health officials said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli fire on the same day, Reuters reported.

Netanyahu on Sunday doubled down on his rejection of Hamas' demand for an end to Israel's war against it in exchange for freeing the hostages it holds, saying that such a move would "keep Hamas in power in Gaza and pose a threat to Israel," the Times of Israel reported on Sunday.

Liu Zhongmin, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times on Monday that the main difficulty facing cease-fire talks is that Israel wants to eradicate Hamas after it releases the detained Israelis, while Hamas wants a sustainable cease-fire to ensure the group stays alive. 

Another key reason behind the failure of the US mediation is that Washington is adopting a problematic stance: On the one hand, it wants to respond to both internal and external pressures by pushing Israel and Hamas toward a deal, on the other hand, the US will unconditionally provide military aid to Israel, and both of them want Hamas to be eradicated, Liu said. 

Ma Xiaolin, dean of the Institute for Studies on the Mediterranean Rim at Zhejiang International Studies University, told the Global Times on Monday, "Netanyahu understands that if he accepts the cease-fire, he and his cabinet will have to face consequences, as the goal that they promised of eradicating Hamas has not been realized, and this will be considered a failure in Israel, but the ground attack against Rafah will inevitably result in more civilian deaths." 

No matter how many civilians are killed by Netanyahu and his army, the US will unconditionally defend Israel, despite Washington occasionally complaining about the ruthless behavior of Israeli military forces, experts said.   

Although Israel will be heavily criticized if it launches a massive attack against Rafah, as long as the Biden administration refuses to stop military aid, Israel will be immune to criticism and condemnation, and will be able to do whatever it wants in Gaza, while the US, especially the Biden administration, will face the pressure and pay the price for Israel, experts noted. 

Coming amid the third China-Central Eastern European Countries Culture and Arts Carnival, traditional dances from all over Greece, such as ipirotikos, tsamiko, kalamatiano, sirtaki and ikariotiko, were performed on October 22 in Chaoyang Park, Beijing, by the Cultural Association "Peiros" dance troop from the municipality of Western Achaia. 

The performance was aimed at preserving and transmitting cultural traditions and various aspects of Greek cultural heritage from generation to generation.

Along with the performances, videos showcased the beauty of Western Peloponnese, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, and informational materials were made available.

The eight-member dance group of the cultural association "Peiros" performed in Beijing as part of the third China-Central Eastern European Countries Culture and Arts Carnival, hosted by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, Chaoyang District People's Government of Beijing Municipality, and organized by the Beijing Overseas Cultural Exchange Center, Chaoyang District Bureau of Culture and Tourism of Beijing Municipality.

China's shipbuilding industry achieved marked growth in 2023, as shipbuilding completions exceeded half of the global total, or reaching 50.2 percent, further solidifying the country's leading position in the shipbuilding sector, according to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Monday.

In 2023, China's shipbuilding completions totaled 42.32 million deadweight tons (dwt), representing an increase of 11.8 percent year-on-year. New orders amounted to 71.2 million dwt, a significant jump of 56.4 percent from last year. As of the end of December, the backlog of orders stood at 139.39 million dwt, which also saw an increase of 32 percent year-on-year, MIIT data showed.

In terms of global market share, three key indicators in China's shipbuilding industry, including completions, new orders received, and backlog of orders, had made significant progress, accounting for 50.2 percent, 66.6 percent, and 55.0 percent of the global total in terms of dwt, respectively. In terms of Compensated Gross Tonnage (CGT), these figures stood at 47.6 percent, 60.2percent, and 47.6 percent, respectively.

The growing figures allowed China's shipbuilding industry to maintain its leading position globally, with the local shipbuilding sector thriving despite a global demand drop.

Chinese shipbuilding companies maintain the leading position in global market competition. Among the top 10 shipbuilding firms with the most shipbuilding completions, five of them are from China.

The significant growth achieved by China's shipbuilding industry in 2023, despite the global downturn in demand, demonstrates the country's resilience and competitiveness in the sector. This is attributed to a combination of factors including advanced technology and green production.

China's shipbuilding industry achieved a breakthrough in the manufacturing of large cruise ships in 2023. The country's first domestically produced large cruise ship, the Adora Magic City, launched in June 2023 and embarked on its maiden commercial voyage on January 1, 2024.

To meet the demand for vehicle exports from local customers, several Chinese shipbuilding companies have started mass production of ro-ro- ships. Domestic ports are also improving related infrastructure. Taicang Port in East China's Jiangsu Province, invested over 2 billion yuan ($281 million) to build the largest automobile ro-ro- terminal, with an annual transport capacity of 1.3 million vehicles.

New market demand for environmentally friendly shipbuilding is being met in China. A Chinese shipbuilding company, Guangzhou Shipyard International Co, said that over 60 percent of its current orders are for methanol powered dual-fuel ships or liquefied natural gas fired dual-fuel models. Compared to traditional container ships, the ships can reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent while cutting 85 percent of nitrogen oxide and 99 percent of sulfur emissions.

A large-scale cemetery containing more than 200 tombs was recently discovered in Xianyang, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. The tomb cluster was confirmed to be a burial place for the people of the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC). 

Archaeologists found a total of 237 ancient tombs, excavated in Xianyang's Jiantan village, dated from the late Warring States Period (475BC-221BC) to the Qin period. According to the tombs' design, archaeologists were able to determine the area was used as a public cemetery. 

Besides the prolific Qin tombs, 26 other tombs were also unearthed. They belong to other historical periods such as the Han (206BC-AD220), Tang (618-907), Northern Song (960-1127) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties.

Seven additional tombs belong to the last imperial dynasty of China, the Qing (1644-1911), archaeologist Jia Zhengyu told the Global Times, noting that it was fascinating to see how this area has been "historically recognized by ancient Chinese people as a burial place." 

"Although most of these tombs belong to the Qin dynasty, we still can see the continuity of Chinese burial traditions from the site," Jia told the Global Times.  

Archaeologists noticed that the Qin tombs in the eastern and western parts of the site were very similar in terms of configuration and the types of burial objects unearthed from them. 

Archaeologist Xue Ruiming told the Global Times that this arrangement reflects that a "planning system for burials" may have already been implemented by ancient Chinese. Xue also said that the discovery "reminds people of the Chinese belief in treating the deceased as if they were alive." 

Other than tombs, a total of 878 cultural relics were also unearthed from the site. The funerary objects unearthed in the eastern areas are mainly artifacts made of clay, copper and iron. Those objects were commonly used by ancient people in everyday lives.

"As the burial objects were mainly practical in nature, this led us to be even more confident that the area was a public cemetery for common people," said Zhao Xuyang, deputy director of the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Xianyang. 

Although the site was not seen as high-grade, some burial objects discovered in the western part of the ancient cemetery still reveal the "tastes of ordinary people," Jia told the Global Times. 

In addition to a copper mirror and a jade seal, 10 glazed pottery sheep sculptures were unearthed from the ruins. Such tiny sculptures were vividly engraved with patterns that were commonly seen on Chinese silk brocades. Zhao said that exquisite objects like these are rarely seen in tombs from the same period. 

"The site is like a melting pot of different Chinese burial traditions. It also reveals the evolution of Chinese burial customs," Jia remarked.  

Prior to the 2023 discovery, in 1995 and 2022, another 805 tombs were consecutively discovered in the local Ta'er Po area that is close to Xiantan village. Around 95 percent of the Ta'er Po tombs were also from the late Warring States and Qin periods. 

The three discoveries confirm the "eastern suburb of Xianyang city was indeed an ancient cemetery," said Zhao, adding that by comparing tombs from the three excavations, researchers can better investigate their exact time periods. 

A Neandertal child whose partial skeleton dates to around 49,000 years ago grew at the same pace as children do today, with a couple of exceptions. Growth of the child’s spine and brain lagged, a new study finds.

It’s unclear, though, whether developmental slowing in those parts of the body applied only to Neandertals or to Stone Age Homo sapiens as well. If so, environmental conditions at the time — which are currently hard to specify — may have reduced the pace of physical development similarly in both Homo species.
This ancient youngster died at 7.7 years of age, say paleoanthropologist Antonio Rosas of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid and colleagues. The scientists estimated the child’s age by counting microscopic enamel layers that accumulated daily as a molar tooth formed.

Previous excavations uncovered the child’s remains, as well as fossils of 12 other Neandertals, at a cave site in northwestern Spain called El Sidrόn.

Much — but not all —of the Neandertal child’s skeleton had matured to a point expected for present-day youngsters of the same age, the scientists report in the Sept. 22 Science. But bones at the top and in the middle of the spine had not fully fused, corresponding to a stage of development typical of 4- to 6- year-olds today. Also, the ancient child’s brain was still growing at an age when living humans’ brains have nearly or fully reached adult size. Signs of bone tissue being reshaped on the inner surface of the child’s braincase pointed to ongoing brain expansion. Rosas’ team calculated that the youngster’s brain volume was about 87.5 percent of that expected, on average, for Neandertal adults.

Neandertals’ slightly larger brains relative to people today may have required more energy, and thus more time, to grow, the researchers suggest. And they suspect that the growth of Neandertals’ bigger torsos, and perhaps spinal cords, slowed the extinct species’ backbone development in late childhood.

Rosas’ new study “reinforces what should have been apparent for some time — that Neandertal growth rates and patterns, except for those related to well-known differences in [skeletal shape], rarely differ from modern human variations,” says paleoanthropologist Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis.

But researchers need to compare the El Sidrόn child to fossils of H. sapiens youngsters from the same time or later in the Stone Age, Trinkaus adds. Relative to kids today, ancient human youth may display slower growth rates comparable to those of the Neandertal child, he suspects.

A mysterious group of microbes may be controlling the fate of carbon in the dark depths of the world’s oceans.

Nitrospinae bacteria, which use the nitrogen compound nitrite to “fix” inorganic carbon dioxide into sugars and other compounds for food and reproduction, are responsible for 15 to 45 percent of such carbon fixation in the western North Atlantic Ocean, researchers report in the Nov. 24 Science. If these microbes are present in similar abundances around the world — and some data suggest that the bacteria are — those rates may be global, the team adds.
The total amount of carbon that Nitrospinae fix is small when compared with carbon fixation on land by organisms such as plants or in the sunlit part of the ocean, says Maria Pachiadaki, a microbial ecologist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, who is lead author on the new study. “But it seems to be of major importance to the productivity and health of the 90 percent of the ocean that is too deep and too dark for photosynthesis.” These bacteria likely form the base of the food web in much of this enigmatic realm, she says.

Oceans cover more than two-thirds of Earth’s surface, and most of those waters are in the dark. In the shallow, sunlit part of the ocean, microscopic organisms called phytoplankton fix carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. But in the deep ocean where sunlight doesn’t penetrate, microbes that use chemical energy derived from compounds such as ammonium or hydrogen sulfide are the engines of that part of the carbon cycle.

Little has been known about which microbes are primarily responsible for this dark ocean carbon fixation. The likeliest candidates were a group of ammonium-oxidizing archaea (single-celled organisms similar to bacteria) known as Thaumarchaeota because they are the most abundant microbes in the dark ocean.

But there was no direct proof that these archaea are the main fixers in those waters, says Pachiadaki. In fact, previous studies of carbon fixation in these depths suggested that ammonium-oxidizers weren’t performing the task quickly enough to match observations, she says. “The energy gained from ammonium oxidation is not enough to explain the amount of the carbon fixed in the dark ocean.”
She and colleagues suspected that a different group of microbes might be bearing the brunt of the task. Nitrospinae bacteria that use the chemical compound nitrite were known to be abundant in at least some parts of the dark ocean, but the microbes weren’t well studied. So Pachiadaki’s team analyzed 3,463 genomes, or genetic blueprints, of single-celled organisms found in 39 seawater samples collected in the western North Atlantic Ocean, at depths ranging from “twilight” regions below about 200 meters to the ocean’s deepest zone below 9,000 meters. The team identified Nitrospinae as the most abundant bacteria, particularly in the twilight zone. Although still less abundant than the ammonium-oxidizing Thaumarchaeota, the nitrite-oxidizers are much more efficient at fixing carbon, requiring only a tiny amount of available nitrite.

And although scientists knew that these bacteria use nitrite to produce energy, the new study showed that the compound is the primary source of energy for the microbes. Marine microbiologist Frank Stewart of Georgia Tech in Atlanta says the study “exemplifies how advances in genomic methods can generate hypotheses about metabolism and ecology.” These findings suggest that scientists need to rethink how energy and materials cycle in the dark ocean, he says. “While this ocean realm remains underexplored, studies like this are models for how to close our knowledge gap.”

One of the strangest things about growing a human being inside your body is the alien sensation of his movements. It’s wild to realize that these internal jabs and pushes are the work of someone else’s nervous system, skeleton and muscles. Someone with his own distinct, mysterious agenda that often includes taekwondoing your uterus as you try to sleep.

Around the 10-week mark, babies start to bend their heads and necks, followed by full-body wiggles, limb movement and breathing around 15 weeks. These earliest movements are usually undetectable by pregnant women, particularly first-timers who may not recognize the flutters until 16 to 25 weeks of pregnancy. These movements can be exciting and bizarre, not to mention uncomfortable. But for the developing baby, these kicks are really important, helping to sculpt muscles, bones and joints.
While pregnant women can certainly sense a jab, scientists have largely been left in the dark about how normal fetuses move. “It’s extremely difficult to investigate fetal movements in detail in humans,” says Stefaan Verbruggen, a bioengineer formerly at Imperial College London who recently moved to Columbia University in New York.

Now, using relatively new MRI measurements of entire fetuses wiggling in utero, researchers have tracked these kicks across women’s pregnancies. The results, published January 24 in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, offer the clearest look yet at fetal kicking and provide hints about why these moves are so important.
Along with bioengineer Niamh Nowlan, of ICL, and colleagues, Verbruggen analyzed videos of fetal kicks caught on MRI scans. These scans, from multiple pregnant women, included clear leg kicks at 20, 25, 30 and 35 weeks gestation. Other MRI scans provided anatomical details about bones, joints and leg sizes. With sophisticated math and computational models, the researchers could estimate the strengths of the kicks, as well as the mechanical effects, such as stresses and strains, that those kicks put on fetal bones and joints.
Kicks ramped up and became more forceful from 20 to 30 weeks, the researchers found. During this time, kicks shifted the wall of the uterus by about 11 millimeters on average, the team found. But by 35 weeks, kick force had declined, and the uterus moved less with each kick, only about 4 millimeters on average. (By this stage, things are getting pretty tight and tissues might be stretched taut, so this decrease makes sense.) Yet even with this apparent drop in force, the stresses experienced by the fetus during kicks kept increasing, even until 35 weeks. Increasing pressure on the leg bones and joints probably help the fetus grow, the researchers write.

Other work has found that the mechanical effects of movement can stimulate bone growth, which is why weight-bearing exercises, such as brisk walking and step aerobics, are often recommended for people with osteoporosis. In animal studies, stationary chick and mouse fetuses have abnormal bones and joints, suggesting that movement is crucial to proper development.

The results highlight the importance of the right kinds of movements for fetuses’ growth. Babies born prematurely can sometimes have joint disorders. It’s possible that bone growth and joints are affected when babies finish developing in an environment dominated by gravity, instead of the springy, tight confines of a uterus. Even in utero position might have an effect. Head-up breech babies, for instance, have a higher risk of a certain hip disorder, a link that hints at a relationship between an altered kicking ground and development. In fact, the researchers are now looking at the relationship between fetal movements and skeletal stress and strain in these select groups.

Mechanical forces in utero might have long-lasting repercussions. Abnormal joint shapes are thought to increase the risk of osteoarthritis, says Verbruggen, “which means that how you move in the womb before you’re even born can affect your health much later in life.”

There’s a lot more work to do before scientists fully understand the effects of fetal movements, especially those in less than ideal circumstances. But by putting hard numbers to squirmy wiggles, this new study is kicking things off right.

It’s another record for SpaceX. At 3:50 p.m. Eastern on February 6, the private spaceflight company launched the Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time.

The Heavy — essentially three SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket boosters strapped together — is the most powerful rocket launched since the Saturn V, which shot astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program. SpaceX hopes to use the Heavy to send humans into space. The company is developing another rocket, dubbed the BFR, to eventually send people to Mars.
Another first for this launch: the synchronized return of two of the boosters. (The third, from the center core, didn’t descend properly, and instead of landing on a droneship, it hit the ocean at 300 mph.) Part of SpaceX’s program is to reuse rockets, which brings down the cost of space launches. The company has successfully landed the cores of its Falcon 9 rockets 21 times and reflew a rocket six times. The company landed a previously used rocket for the first time in March.

But the cargo for today’s launch is aimed at another planet. The rocket carried SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s red Tesla Roadster with “Space Oddity” by David Bowie playing on the stereo. It is now heading toward Mars.

“I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future,” Musk tweeted in December.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on February 7 to update the status of the booster landings, and again on February 9 to correct the rocket that SpaceX hopes to use to send people to Mars. The company intends to use its BFR rocket, not the Falcon Heavy.

A fungus that recently evolved to infect humans is spreading rapidly in health care facilities in the United States and becoming harder to treat, a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds.

Candida auris infections were first detected in the United States in 2013. Each year since, the number of people infected — though still small — has increased dramatically. In 2016, the fungus sickened 53 people. In 2021, the deadly fungus infected 1,471 people, nearly twice the 756 cases from the year before, researchers report March 21 in Annals of Internal Medicine. What’s more, the team found, the fungus is becoming resistant to antifungal drugs.
The rise of cases and antifungal resistance is “concerning,” says microbiologist and immunologist Arturo Casadevall, who studies fungal infections. “You worry because [the study] is telling you what could be a harbinger of things to come.” Casadevall, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was not involved in the CDC study.

In tests of people at high risk of infection, researchers also found 4,041 individuals who carried the fungus in 2021 but were not sick at the time. A small percentage of carriers may later get sick from the fungus, says Meghan Lyman, a medical epidemiologist in the CDC’s Mycotic Diseases Branch in Atlanta, possibly developing bloodstream infections that carry a high risk of death.

Starting in 2012, C. auris infections popped up suddenly in hospitals on three continents, probably evolving to grow at human body temperature as a result of climate change (SN: 7/26/19). The fungus, typically detected through blood or urine tests, usually infects people in health care settings such as hospitals, rehabilitation facilities and long-term care homes. Because people who get infected are often already sick, it can be hard to tell whether symptoms such as fevers are from the existing illness or an infection.
Those most at risk of infection include people who are ill; those who have catheters, breathing or feeding tubes or other invasive medical devices; and those who have repeated or long stays in health care facilities. Healthy people are usually not infected but can spread the fungus to others by contact with contaminated surfaces, including gowns and gloves worn by health care workers, Lyman says.

Growing drug resistance
Infections can be treated with antifungal drugs. But Lyman and colleagues found that the fungus is becoming resistant to an important class of such medications called echinocandins. These drugs are used as both the first line and the last line of defense against C. auris, says Casadevall.

Before 2020, six people were known to have echinocandin-resistant infections and four other people had infections resistant to all three class of existing antifungal drugs. That resistance developed during treatment using echinocandin. None of those cases passed the resistant strain to others. But in 2021, 19 people were diagnosed with echinocandin-resistant infections and seven with infections resistant to multiple drugs.

More concerning, one outbreak in Washington, D.C., and another in Texas suggested people could transmit the drug-resistant infections to each other. “Patients who had never been on echinocandins were getting these resistant strains,” Lyman says.

Some health care facilities have been able to identify cases early and prevent outbreaks. “We’re obviously very concerned,” Lyman says, “but we are encouraged by these facilities that have had success at containing it.” Using those facilities’ infection control measures may help limit cases of C. auris, she says, as well as reducing spread other fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens.