The United Nations General Assembly is currently underway, and countries of the "Global South" are receiving particular attention. In fact, since this year, from India hosting the online "Voice of Global South Summit" to the Munich Security Conference mentioning "Global South" 55 times in its report, from the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima emphasizing the strengthening of relations with the "Global South" to Western countries and Russia vigorously seeking the support of "Global South" countries over the Ukraine issue, the strategic importance of the "Global South" has become increasingly prominent, and the popularity of this concept continues to rise.

The popularity of the "Global South" concept may be linked to two specific events: The first is the "Voice of Global South Summit" held by India on January 12 and 13 of this year, with the participation of 120 countries, although China was not invited; the second event is the G7 summit held in Hiroshima, Japan in May. This summit had two agendas, one of which was to "strengthen ties with the Global South," leading to the invitation of some developing countries, while China, similarly, was not invited.

In reality, the concept of the "Global South" still has many ambiguous aspects at present, and the idea of a "Global South" without China is even a pseudo-proposition.

Firstly, there is currently no universally recognized standard for defining "Global South." For example, some people believe that if the "Global North" refers to developed countries, then the "Global South" represents a synonym for developing countries, underdeveloped nations, and less-developed countries. Others argue that after the end of the Cold War and the disappearance of the Soviet Union, there was a significant shift in the world order, and as a result, "Global South" gradually replaced the term "Third World." In other words, "Global South" replacing "Third World" continues to carry strong political connotations.

Because the definitions of "Global South" are diverse, many people often use or interpret this term as they please, parroting or presenting their own understanding and definitions of "Global South." In terms of the purpose of this definition, one view is that the concept of "Global South" highlights the multiple impacts of globalization on developing countries; another view is that "Global South" embodies the determination of "the South" countries to resist the hegemonic power of "the North" countries. It can be imagined that such arbitrary speculation or self-talk can only lead to confusion in academic theories and concepts, and even result in different opinions.

Secondly, the G7 led by the US and some Western public opinion hype up the "Global South" with the motive of excluding China from the family of developing countries. As early as when Donald Trump was in office, the US had hyped up the idea that "China is not a developing country."

In the "Memorandum on Reforming Developing-Country Status in the World Trade Organization" published on July 26, 2019, the US announced in a high profile that "the United States has never accepted China's claim to developing-country status." As for why the US promotes India to become the leader of the "Global South," on the one hand, it is nothing more than wanting to use India's role as the rotating chair of the G20 to enhance its international status and woo India before the G20 meetings; on the other hand, it is an attempt to drive a wedge between China and India and exclude China from the "Global South" family.

However, the international status of a country is not determined by a few countries, but by the majority of countries in the world. The US and West have their own calculations, but they have miscalculated from the very beginning. The United Nations Development Programme, in a research report about building a "Global South" in 2004, explicitly included China in the category of "Global South" countries.

Indeed, China's economy is rapidly developing and its international status is increasing day by day, but China's status as a developing country has not fundamentally changed. China is still in the primary stage of socialism and its basic national conditions have not changed. China's international status as the largest developing country in the world remains unchanged. As President Xi Jinping emphasized in his important speech at the High-level Dialogue on Global Development on June 24, 2022, China has always been a member of the big family of developing countries.

Moreover, some people in the West attempt to exclude China from the "Global South," but they cannot deny our close ties and cooperation with developing countries, nor can they deny the contributions China has made to the development of "the South" countries and South-South cooperation. In fact, China has made significant contributions to South-South cooperation in the past and present, and will continue to make efforts in the future.

A delegation of six US senators arrived in Shanghai on Saturday, beginning a visit to China. The trip comes at an important time in the still unsettled bilateral relationship between China and the US.

The delegation is led by the Senate's majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and includes a mix of Democratic and Republican senators from Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, New Hampshire and New York. After their initial stop in China, the five men and one woman will head to Japan and South Korea, both of which are viewed as reliable American allies.

American politics is fractured; the speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy was recently ousted because he could not rein in his Republican colleagues and the Democrats saw no reason to support him. McCarthy's dismissal was an embarrassment to himself. But it also showed just how volatile US domestic politics is. Compromise, an essential feature of democracies, is hard to find in Washington, and political positions have also hardened within the American electorate. The 2024 presidential election will likely solidify these opinions even further.

Another aspect that might harden next year is hostility toward China within official Washington.

That would be unfortunate, but right now blasting China is a convenient way for political elites to cover up their differences. Sadly, the only thing elite politicians seem to agree on these days is their belief that China is a bad actor on the global stage. If you're looking for anyone in Washington to say something positive about the hugely influential Belt and Road Initiative, good luck. It's more likely to find someone who believes in the possibility of zombies ruling the world.

On top of attacking China for its global interests, politicians try to amplify any negative economic news as evidence that the country is doomed. They conveniently overlook the fact that China's economic growth will continue to outpace that of the US for the rest of the year and beyond. The global economic situation would be in bad shape if China were to have growth forecasts anywhere close to what the US is likely to experience. 

The domestic US political response is not to proactively seek ways to make America stronger. Instead, politicians advance massive, but inadequate, policies that make vague promises about bolstering national security. One example is the CHIPS and Science Act which was passed by Congress despite critics pointing out numerous flaws associated with it. President Joe Biden contributes to this nonsense about China by refusing to erase the tariffs established by his predecessor even though the evidence continues to show the tariffs are doing more harm to the US than China.

The bottom line is that reality goes out the window whenever America's politicians talk about China.

Is it possible that the visit by Schumer and his colleagues could lead to some rational conversations regarding China within Congress? Will this visit build on the generally positive trips made over the past few months by the US secretaries of State, Treasury and Commerce? With each of those trips, there has been increased anticipation in the US that Presidents Biden and Xi Jinping will meet during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering, scheduled for next month in San Francisco. Optimists believe that successful conversations might open the door to a state visit.

If Schumer wants to positively advance US-China relations, then he should consider taking back a recent statement indicating that he will carry a verbal hammer into any conversations with Chinese officials.

Schumer is from New York, a state that according to one estimate sustains almost 50,000 jobs per year because of trade with China. It's also reported that New York exported more than $37 billion to China between 2012 and 2022. My point: Imagine if the Democratic senator had spoken in advance of his trip about finding ways to expand trade between New York (and other states) with China as part of his visit. That would be leadership, something too often hard to find in Washington.

Keep in mind something that ought to be favorably viewed by China: Schumer and his fellow senators are not making a side trip to Taiwan; such visits by American officials derail any momentum in improving relations because of Beijing's insistence that US politicians are seeking to stoke discord between the island and the mainland by stopping in Taiwan.

China will not, and should not, sit by quietly if Schumer follows through on his promise to talk tough with Chinese officials and to make an issue of human rights as well as Fentanyl. In 2023, China and the global community are all too aware that "you must do what we want" screeds from a prominent American politician do nothing to improve the bilateral relationship. More importantly, the US is no longer positioned to dictate to any nation, especially powerful ones, about how to conduct their internal and external affairs.

The author is an associate professor at the Department of Communication and Organizational Leadership at Robert Morris University.

The President of the 77th Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly Csaba Kőrösi visited the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR) on Friday during his trip to China, applauding China's wisdom in dealing with water crises in ways that provides valuable experience to other countries.

At the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Korosi visited China from February 1 to 4, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Korosi believes that China's measures to deal with water crises are scientific and advanced, after gaining comprehensive knowledge of China's water science and technology development, and water engineering achievements in exchanges with relevant Chinese officials and water experts.

For the world today, the water crisis is imminent. In his speech, Korosi said that with climate change, floods, and droughts becoming more frequent around the world. It is estimated that in the next 20 years, about 400 million people around the world will be forced to leave their homes due to floods and droughts, which is unprecedented in human history.

In response to the global water challenge, the United Nations will convene the UN 2023 Water Conference from March 22 to 24 to steer a shift in water decision-making and truly improve water security and stability. 

"To meet such challenges, we must rely on scientific evidence," said Korosi.

He thanked China for its contribution to the realization of the water goals set by the UN Sustainable Development Agenda, and affirmed that science-based solutions to the water crisis would also provide valuable experience for other fields to fully realize the Sustainable Development Goals.

Water is the source of all living things and the cornerstone of all the Sustainable Development Goals. The world today faces a series of global challenges, such as climate change, and water is the key to meeting them. The world must use a united, sustainable, and scientific approach to solve the problem, said Kuang Shangfu, head of the IWHR.Chen Houqun, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a senior engineer at the IWHR, elaborated on specific technical difficulties that China's large water conservancy projects such as the South-to-North Water Diversion Project and the Three Gorges Dam have overcome. He offered examples of cases to demonstrate the contributions made by these major projects and contributed to China's economic boom and social development, such as in low-carbon emission reduction.

Though a slew of efforts have made to win back foreign tourists, Myanmar has been spurned due to rising security concerns caused by high profile telecom fraud cases and domestic political turmoil. Bookings for five-star hotels in the country still have been desolate even though the prices of some rooms have dropped to 300 yuan ($40) per night, Chinese media reported.

Some starred hotels in Myanmar have even been forced to give 40 percent discounts to lure in tourists. Earlier this year, the famous Sedona Hotel Yangon was forced to sell to a Singaporean company and a $130 million Peninsula hotel project in Yangon was suspended due to political instability and other factors, media reports said.

When reached by the Global Times on Thursday, several travel agencies, including Beijing China International Travel Service Co, Shanghai China International Travel Service Co, Spring Tour, tuniu.com and Shanghai Airlines Tours International, replied that they have no tourism products for Myanmar on offer at the moment. 

They were uncertain about when these tours would resume. A staffer from tuniu.com told the Global Times that they can only provide business visa services at the moment. 

According to a notice issued by the General Office of China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism on August 10, travel agencies and online tourism service providers across the country have been permitted to resume outbound group tours and "airline tickets plus hotel" services for Chinese citizens to destinations listed in the third batch of permitted countries and regions. Myanmar is included on the list of Asian countries. 

It is no longer surprising to see Chinese people say they are worried about being caught in telecom scams due to stereotypes involving Myanmar. The unfavorable perceptions about the South Asian nation were once again reinforced by No More Bets, a crime action drama currently dominating the box office in the Chinese mainland.

In a poll conducted by Chinese media on Thursday inquiring about whether Chinese netizens would travel to Myanmar, 8,901 respondents out of 9,298 said they wouldn't consider going due to safety concerns. 

Chinese tourists' unfavorable perception toward Myanmar is a result of multiple factors - political turmoil, rising concerns over rampant telecom fraud cases and the relatively poor tourism reception capability comparing to other South Asian countries, Song Qingrun, a senior research fellow from the School of Asian Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Thursday. Limited direct flights could also be one of the reasons why there hasn't been a jump in the number of Chinese tourists traveling to the country, Song noted. 

Myanmar's political society has been continually torn apart in the past few years. The struggle between the military and its supporters and the opposition has turned violent. Some extremist rebels have formed shadow governments along the border, carrying out scattered violent attacks on government departments and military and political officials, Song noted. 

The Chinese Embassy in Myanmar frequently reminds Chinese citizens not to believe high-salary recruitment information online, engage in illegal or criminal activities, so as to avoid damage to life and property during their stay in Myanmar. Previously, the UK warned British citizens not to travel to the conflict zone in Myanmar and the US State Department has also issued a Level 4 advisory against travel to the country, quoting civil unrest and armed conflicts.

According to figures from the Myanmar's Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, from April 2022 to the end of March in 2023, Myanmar received a total of 367,368 international tourists, of which Chinese tourists topped the list at 48,342, accounting for 13.15 percent. This is not even a fraction of what it used to be.

The latest data during the first half of 2023 showed that Myanmar attracted just 450,000 foreign tourists, led by Chinese and Thai tourists. Although it saw an increase compared to the same period last year, that increase is far less than that of neighboring countries, media reported. 

Song told the Global Times that the peak influx of Chinese travelers to the South Asian country in 2016 and 2017 has not returned despite the resumption of China's group tours to the country. However, Song said that since Myanmar is a close neighboring country of China and contains vast abundant tourism resources, it is still attractive to many Chinese travelers. He also called for a rational view of the country since the stereotype that it is plagued by crimes may have been amplified by media. 

Myanmar has been making efforts to optimize its domestic tourists market. Myanmar's ambition to win back more Chinese tourists can clearly be seen at the ongoing seventh China-South Asia Expo in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, Song said. 

Myanmar has arranged for more than 100 entrepreneurs to participate in the exhibition and for the first time used naked eye 3D screens to display the beautiful cultural scenes of the country, the China News Service has reported. 

Some tourism insiders pointed out that the gloomy tourism enthusiasm from Chinese people in the post COVID-19 era does not specially target the country, but the entire South Asian tourism market. An employee surnamed Sun from Shanghai Airlines Tours International told the Global Times that tours to Southeast Asian countries have all shown average poor performances these days except for the Philippines.

Modern-day Melanesians carry a two-pronged genetic legacy of ancient interbreeding that still affects their health and well-being, researchers say.

Unlike people elsewhere in the world, these Pacific islanders possess nuclear DNA that they inherited from two Stone Age hominid populations, say population geneticist Benjamin Vernot, formerly of the University of Washington in Seattle, and his colleagues. At least some of that ancient DNA contains genes involved in important biological functions, the researchers find. Nuclear DNA is passed from both parents to their children.
The finding means that ancestors of people now living in the Bismarck Archipelago, a group of islands off Papua New Guinea’s northeastern coast, mated with Neandertals as well as with mysterious Neandertal relatives called Denisovans, the scientists conclude online March 17 in Science.

In support of previous research, the researchers find that non-Africans — including Melanesians — have inherited an average of between 1.5 and 4 percent of their DNA from Neandertals. But only Melanesians display substantial Denisovan ancestry, which makes up 1.9 to 3.4 percent of their DNA, the researchers say. (Present-day African populations possess little to no Neandertal or Denisovan DNA.)

The bits of Neandertal and Denisovan DNA carried by Melanesians encompass genes involved in metabolism and immunity, indicating that interbreeding influenced the evolutionary success of ancient humans, Vernot’s group reports.

The new study reconstructs the microscopic landscape of Neandertals’ and Denisovans’ contributions to Melanesians’ DNA “in impressive detail,” says Harvard University paleogeneticist Pontus Skoglund.

Vernot’s team studied DNA from 35 Melanesians at 11 locations in the Bismarck Archipelago. Analyses concentrated on DNA from 27 unrelated individuals. The researchers also looked for evidence of ancient interbreeding in previously acquired genomes of close to 1,500 modern-day individuals from different parts of the world. Denisovan DNA for comparisons came from fragmentary fossils found in a Siberian cave; comparative Neandertal DNA came from a genome previously extracted from a 50,000-year-old woman’s toe bone.
Among Melanesians, DNA sequences attributed to Neandertals and Denisovans encompassed several metabolism genes. One of those genes influences a hormone that increases blood glucose levels. Another affects the chemical breakdown of lipids. Other Melanesian genetic sequences acquired through ancient interbreeding either include or adjoin genes that help to marshal the body’s defenses against illness.

These findings follow evidence suggesting that once-useful genes that ancient humans inherited from Neandertals now raise the risk of contracting certain diseases (SN: 3/5/16, p. 18). Vernot’s group reaches no conclusions about good or bad effects of ancient hybrid genes in Melanesians.

No sign of Neandertal or Denisovan DNA appears in areas of Melanesians’ genomes involved in brain development, the scientists say. So brain genetics, for better or worse, apparently evolved along a purely human path.

Denisovans’ evolutionary history remains poorly understood. Previous DNA comparisons suggest that Denisovans must have reached Southeast Asia. Skoglund suspects that’s where the ancestors of Melanesians bred with Denisovans.

Substantial interbreeding of humans with Denisovans probably occurred only once, Vernot and his colleagues suspect. Genetic exchanges of humans with Neandertals took place at least three times, they add. These estimates are derived from comparisons of shared Denisovan and Neandertal DNA sequences among individuals in different parts of the world.

Bacterium effective when dusted on plants — The successful agent for destroying pesty insects, the microscopic bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis, is most effective when it is dusted onto tobacco or other plants…. The bacteria are now recommended for use against tobacco budworms and hornworms. From known results …. they look promising as biological control agents. — Science News, April 30, 1966

Update
Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, is still used to combat agricultural pests. Different strains of the bacterium target different insects; one strain can even kill mosquito larvae in water. Organic farmers dust or spray Bt on crops and consider it a natural insecticide. In conventional farming, Bt DNA is often inserted into a plant’s genome, creating genetically modified crops that make their own pesticide (SN: 2/6/16, p. 22). In 2015, 81 percent of U.S. corn and 84 percent of U.S. upland cotton contained Bt genes.

Lead contamination in drinking water can change with the seasons. Tracking lead levels in water pipes over several months, researchers discovered three times as much dissolved lead and six times as much undissolved lead in summer than in winter. The finding could help improve water testing, says study coauthor Sheldon Masters, an environmental engineer at Virginia Tech and Corona Environmental Consulting in Philadelphia.

Masters and colleagues analyzed water contamination data collected from pipes in Washington, D.C., and Providence, R.I., and tested the dissolvability of lead in different water conditions. In many, but not all, homes and lab tests, the amount of lead leaching into drinking water rose as water temperature increased.

For pipes in Washington, average wintertime dissolved lead levels were 3.6 parts per billion, compared with 10.8 ppb during summer. Average undissolved lead concentrations varied from 7.6 ppb during winter to 48.4 ppb during summer. Each 1 degree Celsius rise in water temperature boosted dissolved lead levels by about 17 percent and lead particles by about 36 percent, the researchers report online April 14 in Environmental Science & Technology. Washington water temperature varied from about 5° to 30° C. Seasonal variations in lead were smaller than those expected from temperature changes alone, since other factors such as the amount of organic matter in water can also influence lead levels.

Some water systems could meet the regulatory standard of less than 15 ppb in winter while exceeding that threshold during warmer months, the researchers warn. Water testing prioritizes conditions with the highest risk for lead leaching. However, no current guidelines explicitly address seasonal variability. Lead consumption can cause severe health problems including birth defects, anemia and brain damage (SN: 3/19/16, p. 8).

Genetically engineered crops don’t appear to harm humans or the environment, according to a new report released May 17 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

An extensive analysis of two decades’ worth of evidence dug up no substantial proof that genetically engineered foods were any less safe to eat than those that are conventionally bred. The study’s authors also found no conclusive causal link between the engineered crops and environmental problems. The authors note, though, that it’s not always easy to make definitive conclusions; measuring long-term environmental changes is complicated.

The news comes in the midst of political tumult in the United States over laws to label foods made with GE ingredients. But when it comes to food safety and the environment, the authors conclude, how a plant is made isn’t as important as what is actually created.

“It is the product, not the process, that should be regulated,” the authors write.

3-D Home TV Foreseen — The pace of new developments in the recently revived method of photography known as holography is so fast that three-dimensional television sets portraying life-size scenes could be a reality before 1984, as was predicted in George Orwell’s novel…. A hologram is a recording of an interference pattern reflected from an object. From this recording, the object can be reconstructed visually in a three-dimensional form. — Science News, June 11, 1966

UPDATE
Television viewers are still waiting for the 3-D revolution. Although 3-D TVs went on sale in the United States and elsewhere in 2010, they have yet to take off. Most sets require special glasses or have limited viewing angles, and none use holography to create the illusion of depth. Scientists haven’t given up, though. Using innovative plastic screens, researchers are projecting small holographic movies in real time (SN: 12/17/11, p. 18). The enormous bandwidth and processing power needed to transmit and display the images are still huge barriers to making Orwell’s vision a reality.

The biggest ice shelf collapse on record was set in motion years earlier than previously thought, new research reveals.

Analyzing declassified images from spy satellites, researchers discovered that the downhill flow of ice on Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf was already accelerating as early as the 1960s and ’70s. By the late 1980s, the average ice velocity at the front of the shelf was around 20 percent faster than in the preceding decades, the researchers report in a paper to be published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Rising temperatures since the 1950s probably quickened the ice flow, which in turn put more strain on the ice and further weakened the shelf, says study coauthor Hongxing Liu, a geographer at the University of Cincinnati. Previous work had suggested that the ice shelf’s downward slide began only a few years before a Rhode Island-sized region of ice disintegrated into thousands of icebergs in 2002.

The new data will help scientists more confidently predict how Antarctic ice will fare in the coming decades, says Penn State glaciologist Richard Alley, who was not involved in the work. The early response of Larsen B to warming “is consistent with this ice shelf system being sensitive, and gives a target for future modeling studies to learn how sensitive, and for what reasons,” he says.

Ice shelves such as Larsen B line Antarctica’s coast and slow the flow of the continent’s glaciers and ice sheets into the sea. Rising temperatures are shrinking Antarctica’s ice, with several ice shelves on track to disappear completely within 100 years (SN Online: 3/26/15). Tracking the long-term decline of ice shelves is tricky, though. Scientific satellite images are sparse prior to the 1990s and next to nonexistent before the 1980s.

Liu and colleagues turned to another group that peered at Antarctica, a U.S. intelligence agency called the National Reconnaissance Office. In 1963, the agency photographed the continent as part of an intelligence-gathering mission. While these images were declassified in 1995, the photos were too distorted by effects such as the camera used and Earth’s curvature to use for ice flow measurements.

Making the photographs usable required identifying stationary landmarks for reference, a difficult task on a continent covered with shifting white ice. Comparing the spy photos with later scientific images, Liu and colleagues identified 44 potential landmarks. Then, using the locations as anchor points, the researchers unwarped the images. Along with additional satellite images snapped in 1979 and the 1980s, the modified images allowed the researchers to track Larsen B’s ice flow over time.
The ice on Larsen B’s front flowed at around 400 meters per year on average between 1963 and 1986, calculations using images from those years indicate. From 1986 to 1988, the average was 490 meters per year. That speed boost suggests that the ice flow accelerated between the 1963 to 1986 satellite images. Several glaciers that feed into Larsen B underwent similar accelerations, the researchers found.

Larsen B’s early acceleration hints that the ice shelf was already weakening well before the 1990s, says Ted Scambos, a polar scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., who was not involved in the study. Previous studies suggested that balmy surface temperatures caused Larsen B’s demise by forming meltwater pools on top of the ice shelf that forced open cracks in the ice (SN: 10/18/14, p. 9). The new satellite data suggest that this fracturing was a finishing blow following long-term weakening by forces such as relatively warm seawater eroding the ice shelf’s underside, Scambos says.