Last year’s bird flu epidemic was devastating for gannets in the Magdalen Islands, according to the latest Canadian Wildlife Service data obtained by the QMI agency.

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The census carried out by the organization in July 2022 using aerial photographs shows that the gannet colony in Rocher aux Oiseaux off the islands has declined by 58%.

“Our previous monitoring of the gannet population dates back to 2020,” explains Jean-François Rail, biologist in charge of monitoring populations of seabirds nesting in Quebec. “And the impact of bird flu is unprecedented for the Rocher aux Oiseaux colony. We had never seen such a drop!

PROVIDED BY JEAN-FRANÇOIS RAIL

Canadian Wildlife Service biologist Jean-François Rail monitors the development of the gannet population in the Magdalen Islands.

The census refers to the number of breeding pairs at the peak of the breeding season, which extends from May to October. This confirms images circulating in the media last year showing thousands of dead birds on the shores of the Magdalen Islands.

PROVIDED BY JEAN-FRANÇOIS RAIL

In comparison, the gannet population on Bonaventure Island in the Gaspé declined by just 13% in 2022 compared to 2020.

The biologist says he has no explanation for understanding such a gulf between the colonies of these two regions.

“One can draw a parallel with the common eider colonies in the estuary, where some islands were affected with hundreds of carcasses of dead birds and others were unaffected at all. So why one place more than the other? It’s really strange,” said Mr. Rail.

The latter is also surprised that the guillemots, which nest in large numbers in Rocher aux Oiseaux, also escaped the H5N1 virus.

“The guillemots come in the thousands and sometimes in much greater densities than the gannets, but we can’t see any mortality from the photos. Why did it only affect gannets and not guillemots? I don’t know. That’s another mystery!”

New wave detected

While he describes the impact of last year’s deaths from the H5N1 virus as significant, the biologist fears a new wave of bird flu in the coming months.

“There are signs of bird flu in South America, where our Quebec migratory birds have infested their wintering grounds. But in terms of the extent to which it will last, we really don’t know. If there were any additional impact on population mortality next summer, it would certainly be of great concern.

The booby population in Quebec was already declining before last year’s bird flu outbreak. It peaked at nearly 90,000 pairs in 2009, but that number dropped to below 75,000 the following year, Jean-François Rail said.

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Shelley Taylor was in Silicon Valley in her native California on September 3, 2015 when she saw the shocking media image of the body of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, who drowned off the coast of Ali Hoca Buruna (Turkey). ). She, who also lost her son, felt the pain of this father as her own – the mother died with another son during the shipwreck – who fled Syria in the war. He feels he should try to help, he explains in a video call to this newspaper. In just one weekend he developed the RefAid application, which brings together all the help that NGOs provide to migrants. What makes it accessible is that it doesn’t require a permanent internet connection and it’s available in seven languages ​​(Spanish, English, French, Farsi, Arabic, Russian and Ukrainian). “As long as you’ve downloaded it, it’s enough,” the founder clarifies. Although they already work in 50 countries and with 8,000 organizations, their goal now is to map public and community services around the world to help all vulnerable people.

Pregnant women who give birth in the forest are a good example of the need for an application like RefAid, explains Alvar Sánchez, a Jesuit stationed in Nador (Morocco), at the Diocesan Delegation for Caritas and Social Affairs (Cerna, by its acronym in French) . “We have a service in Morocco where we pick them up and take them to the hospital or even ask the ambulance to pick them up,” he says. However, due to the extremely vulnerable situation in which they find themselves, many “arrive in a camp where there are people who suddenly leave and return with vegetables, water or life jackets, not knowing that there is a hospital just 10 kilometers away can”. , he adds.

To avoid insurmountable situations, the application has several services such as the specific category for women or drinking water. For example, if you open it in Madrid and click on food, you will find a list of different soup kitchens such as that of the Autonomous Community itself or the Asociación Caridad de San Vicente de Paul. All with a brief description of opening hours and address. In addition, you can directly display a map with which you can search for nearby services.

RefAid is designed so that even people with low literacy levels can access it

From Nador, Morocco, Rodrigue Dombou, manager of Cerna’s shower and hygiene service for migrants, explains that the usefulness of this program lies in the autonomy it offers to people on the go: not only does it not require an internet connection, but it is also accessible to People who cannot read as the mobile phone can play the information out loud. Dombou is a migrant who made his journey from Cameroon to Morocco without the help of RefAid, so he is fully aware of the help such an app could have given him. “People travel like goods. You can’t go out or be seen. In countries like Morocco, where there is a minimum of services, it becomes very useful,” he assures. Now he teaches workshops on raising awareness and using the tool for the NGO, which also promotes it among migrants through social networks and word of mouth. As for the entities, they do it through conferences like Frontera Sur, which recently held one in Malaga, and organizations like Cáritas or Justicia y Paz came together.

RefAid is completely free for the user, but the entities have to pay for the usage license to include more services for the migrant. When Taylor was developing the software in 2015, he went to UNHCR and other NGOs like the British Red Cross and Caritas “to make sure people weren’t already doing this”. It is the first tool to include all service providers from local, national, international and governmental organizations. Although it’s no longer the only one, “most will close within a year of implementation or will only target a small area like a city or town,” explains Taylor. La Cerna, for example, opted for this tool “because it ultimately offers the greatest security,” explains Sánchez.

reduce hazards

In 2017, a year after the launch of RefAid to the general public, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) dared to launch its MigrantApp project in its pilot version and in only three languages. In 2022, they restarted the initiative, this time with improvements: eight languages ​​and the ability to make low-cost transfers. Unlike RefAid, this tool allows to know the whereabouts of migrants and family members. In his version, Taylor deliberately prevented it from being used to track people.

RefAid application interface created by Shelly Taylor. ASSIGNED IMAGE

The founder clarifies that an email is requested in order to be able to connect to the device and show users nearby services. “It can be fake and doesn’t require authentication, but it allows us to show the offer within a 500 meter radius. It also serves to allow providers to send direct messages to people in a geographic area,” argues Taylor. Sánchez assures that “people who arrive in northern Morocco do not want to be located” and that is why it is important to explain to them that the problem is not applications like RefAid, but, for example, their connections to social networks that they use to to communicate with their families.

You have to increase and improve everything that can be offered to a mobile human being

Alvar Sánchez, Delegate of the Cerna in Nador

Migration routes harbor many dangers. The UN Program on Missing Migrants estimates that 51,897 migrants went missing between 2014 and 2022: 2,011 in the Mediterranean, 895 in Africa, 1,227 in the Americas, 92 in West Asia, 479 in Asia and 145 in Europe.

One way to mitigate hazards is to allow people on the move access to essential services and support. And as autonomous as possible, which promotes the application. In addition, Sánchez wants to expand the services offered by the application and include access to educational content for the youngest. “You have to expand and improve everything that can be offered to a mobile human being,” he concludes.

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After being slammed for a chauvinistic prank on Justin Thomas on Friday, Tiger Woods may have redeemed himself with fans on Saturday at the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles by giving a young spectator the thrill of a lifetime. Woods, who was four under par on Saturday to switch to three under par for the tournament, saw a young fan on the 17th hole holding a strange sign.

“My bucket list,” read the sign.

“Get a heart transplant,” read the next line next to a large check mark.

“Meet Tiger Woods” was written on the second line next to an empty box.

Woods approached the young fan, later identified as heart transplant recipient Madelyn Quinn, personally ticked off the second line on her tag and gave her an autographed glove.

After being slammed for a chauvinistic prank on Justin Thomas on Friday, Tiger Woods may have redeemed himself with fans on Saturday at the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles by giving a young spectator the thrill of a lifetime. Woods, who was four under par on Saturday to switch to three under par for the tournament, saw a young fan on the 17th hole holding a strange sign

Quinn also received an awkward high five from Woods, who was heading towards the 18th tee at this point.

She had a third line on her sign that said “Play Augusta,” but that’ll have to wait another day.

As reported by Golf Digest, Quinn was born with a heart defect that led to her undergoing three open-heart surgeries that began when she was just two years old.

Quinn dreams of becoming a professional golfer.

Her father Greg is a former PGA teaching pro who has taken her to Woods twice now.

“Thank you @TigerWoods – it’s things like this that don’t get enough media and attention,” Greg tweeted. You the man!!!’

Greg described her heart transplant recovery to the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2021.

“It was the most wondrous transformation we’ve ever seen,” said Greg. “Her cheeks were pink, she felt warm for the first time. You don’t realize what heart failure can do until you live it every day. Since then she’s been driving a million miles an hour.’

Woods had some explaining to do on Friday, about a putter that was so cold it nearly missed the cut on the Riviera and a chauvinistic prank he played on Justin Thomas at the Genesis Invitational.

Woods approached the young fan, later identified as heart transplant recipient Madelyn Quinn, personally ticked off the second line on her tag and gave her an autographed glove

Her father Greg says she ranks 41st in the world for her age group

Returning to elite competition for the first time in seven months, Woods caused quite a stir in the opening round for all the wrong reasons.

It started when he ripped a 323-yard drive, about 10 yards longer than 29-year-old Thomas. Woods walked off the tee and discreetly put something in Thomas’ hand, which Thomas threw on the ground when he realized what it was – a tampon to remind him Woods had kept hitting it. Woods laughed and put his arm around Thomas.

Social media came alive when the moment was posted. On Friday, a fan shouted, “Tampon!” at Woods after he made a rare putt.

Woods apologized after his bogey-bogey finish for a 74 in the second round, which left him over the projected cut line. At the end of the day he advanced enough that he was sure to be there for the weekend. He was 11 shots behind Max Homa.

“It was just meant to be fun and games, and obviously it didn’t turn out that way,” Woods said. “If I offended anyone in any way, I’m sorry. It was not intended that way. It was just that we played pranks on each other all the time, and I don’t think it went viral that way.

He seemed to put it behind him on Saturday by shooting his best round since 2020.

Woods plays a shot on the 17th hole during the third round of The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club. Minutes later, Woods would meet Madelyn Quinn

Woods is 12 shots behind leader Jon Rahm after hitting a 67 on Saturday.

“Today was better,” Woods said. “I felt like I made some nice adjustments to my putting and that’s what held me back yesterday. I’ve been riding well for the last three days, my iron game has been good. And the hard conditions that I like, that’s my thing with iron game. I just wish I could have putt a little bit better yesterday.”

What stood out was the day. It was his best result on a Saturday at an official event since fall 2019.

It’s certainly a small sample – 12 tournaments since he won the Zozo Championship in Japan in 2019 – but his legs are a bigger problem than how he swings the racquet.

Woods fractured bones in his right leg and ankle in a car accident in Los Angeles two years ago. He returned 14 months later to play at the Masters and made the cut, a remarkable feat. And then, over the weekend, he hobbled to a pair of ’78s.

A month later at Southern Hills for the PGA Championship, he made the cut again on Friday with a stunning play on the track. But the wind shifted, a cold front hit Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he shot 79 and retreated.

Woods made the cut on the number at Riviera and started on the back nine. He opened with a 15-foot birdie putt, missed a good chance on the par-5 11th, and then raised the putter in his left hand when his 25-foot birdie putt off the edge of the par-14 3 dropped for another birdie.

Tiger Woods goes up the 9th hole after hitting his tee shot during Round 3 of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles

The greatest moment was on the par 5 opening hole after he made the turn. Caught between clubs and feeling some wind on his face, he hit a cut with a 5-iron that landed at the front of the green and rolled inches off the cup before settling 3 feet away in a tap-in eagle equaled.

He finally dropped a shot on the seventh when his approach rolled off the steep ledge, leaving a difficult incline. But he finished better than Friday when he bogeyed three of his last four holes.

“I thought I could get a run where I could reach and touch the leaders,” Woods said, before admitting he was too far behind.

Rahm is playing on a different level, a level Woods is familiar with. The Spaniard has not finished in the top 10 since August and is targeting his fifth win in his last nine starts.

Woods said he was in pain after his fourth straight day – starting with Wednesday’s Pro-Am when he stopped playing after 16 holes – and he speaks of recovering after a round and preparing before that.

That part isn’t fun. Saturday was. And while the morning chill wasn’t great, the fast-paced Riviera conditions are right up his alley.

“I was pretty one-dimensional when it came to how I hit my shots,” he said. “I kind of went to my little stock shot because I just wasn’t playing enough where I feel like I can hit different shots. … The way the golf course plays, as fast as it is, a flat cut can go a long way here, so I was able to hit that shot. Then with the firm greens I enjoy that for my iron game and finally made some putts.’

Sunday will be his first 72-hole event since the Masters and only his second since his car accident that happened not far from Riviera. Woods is already looking forward to his return to Augusta National, but wants to wait until after this week to add tournaments before then.

Tiger Woods is interviewed after completing his round during the third round of The Genesis Invitational on Sunday at Riviera Country Club

Russia’s massive offensive is about to form in the east and is piling up its military aircraft, including its Generation 5 Su-57 fighter jets, for a final blow, Western military and diplomatic officials have noted.

The intense and relentless actions toward Kupyansk, Krasniy Liman, Donetsk and South Donetsk were seen as a harbinger of the final blow as the war approaches its first anniversary on February 24.

Whether the accumulation of planes is a coercive measure to overwhelm and frighten the Ukrainian leadership, or will actually translate into an all-out land and air attack to capture the target area remains to be seen.

However, it is clear that Russia does not want the conflict to drag on, as the West has enforced its concept of the “Long War” by continuing to arm Ukraine. Long wars do not mean endless wars, especially those with set political goals.

The Su-57, which appears to have been deployed safely from Russian territory in Ukraine by RIA Novosti in a Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses/Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD/DEAD) operation in June 2022, hints at how it may be could be used in the event of such an offensive.

Do not use regularly

As the most modern fighter jet, Russia is unlikely to fly it in Ukrainian airspace, where it could become a target for Western surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems.

These are the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), the German IRIS-T and the powerful defense systems of Soviet origin S-300 and Buk.

A British Ministry of Defence (MoD) update of January said Russia feared “reputational damage, reduced export prospects and the disruption of sensitive technology that would result from a loss of the Su-57 Felon over Ukraine.”

The June 2022 operation, aimed at “identifying and destroying Ukrainian air defense systems with a flight of four Su-57 fighters”, “(combined) the aircraft in a single information space (which increased the efficiency of identifying and hitting targets increased).

The quartet is “connected to a single information network to destroy air defense systems through automatic communication systems, data transmission, navigation and identification in real time”.

A later report in TASS on the Su-57 receiving what appears to be artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI-ML) enabled sensor fusion and data linking was a logical next step in the fighter’s development.

The device provided “intelligent support to help the pilot make decisions under time pressure (and) to help pilots in a pair quickly (for tactical) tasks (such as) target distribution, selection of an attack trajectory, determination of the moment of missile launch (to) interact and the moments of interference with an enemy combatant.”

Sukhoi Su-57

Su-57 missions were designed to test AI network systems and tactics

The Defense Ministry’s assessment added that the Su-57 missions “were limited to overflying Russian territory and firing long-range air-to-surface-to-air-to-air missiles into Ukraine.”

The Defense Ministry on Jan. 9 cited a satellite image dated Dec. 25 showing five criminals at Akhtubinsk air base in southern Russia, home to the 929th flight test center. Whether the planes are still on the base is not known, but the British Ministry of Defense rightly concludes that Russia will not use it on routine operations.

This is especially true given that the war was less air-force dominated, with heavy air-to-air combat, regular bombing raids and air supremacy operations. Its highlights were air denial, a ground grinding campaign, mechanized warfare, artillery duels, long-range missile strikes, and drone strikes.

Russia’s Su-35S, Su-30SM2 and MiG-35 are not only sufficient for the small air superiority and Combat Air Patrol (CAP) missions, but also to compete with western jets like the Eurofighter Typhoon, F-16, F- 15, and possibly the F-35.

Russia would therefore only put the Su-57 into service if it clashes with fighters from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Image file: Russian Air Force Su-57

long-range missile attacks

The Su-57s will also not be deployed individually, as coordinated parallel ground offensives will take place simultaneously. It features two large internal weapons bays mounted in tandem between the engines and two side bays for short-range air-to-air missiles.

The ten internal and six external hardpoints can carry R-74M Archer and R-77M Adder air-to-air missiles (AAM); Kh-38M air-to-surface missiles; anti-ship missiles Kh-31AD and Kh-35U and; Anti-radiation missiles Kh-31PD and Kh-58UShK.

If there is a Russian offensive, we can expect the Su-57s to be used in long-range ground or airborne strikes on Ukrainian air defense systems and large military command and control structures in the next few days.

But even this information may only be available after several weeks, if not months, like the report on the SEAD/DEAD mission in June 2022.

But given that Moscow’s interest is in conquering the east and south, where infantry, tank and artillery battles are taking place, and shows no inclination towards western Ukraine or the capital Kiev, there is little reason for the Voenno-vozdushnye Trick Rossii (VVS or the Russian Air Force) to deploy the Su-57.

Operation June 2022 appears for testing purposes only, to validate systems and refine tactics.