From the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian

A section of plastic filament net is among the debris pulled from the open ocean.



Plastic pollution in the ocean is harboring colonies of bacteria that could be harmful, not only to marine animals, but also to humans.
   
Thoughtless habits and practices, a bottle dropped here, a bag thrown there, are creating garbage dumps in the world’s oceans. The flotilla of debris moves with the currents and harms fish and marine mammals that either ingest or get entangled in it.

But for some organisms, it’s home. Scientists have discovered a wide diversity of microbes colonizing and thriving on plastic that is polluting the ocean in the so-called plastisphere.
 
It takes about six weeks for a plastic bag or bottle to ride the surface currents from the U.S. East Coast to the Sargasso Sea, in the center of the North Atlantic. The area is a gyre, essentially a big whirlpool that traps and swirls the debris which, unlike other types of trash in the ocean, never bio-degrades.

This is where Tracy Mincer, a microbiologist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and colleagues from the Marine Biological Laboratory, joined students aboard a Sea Education Association vessel to sample plastic debris for microbes.
                      
“We hypothesized that the microbes on plastic were specifically interacting with it, rather than just a random association,” Mincer said. “It’s not just flypaper that is just grabbing on to anything. Things are actually specifically interacting with plastic for a reason.”

The team skimmed the surface with fine nets, collecting confetti size bits of plastic. They analyzed the plastic with electron scanning tools and gene sequencing techniques. They found rich colonies of bacteria, including some that they hadn’t expected, which they called pit formers.

“We were surprised when we saw microbes that appeared to be hydrolyzing the plastic and etching into it,” said Ms. Mincer, “as well as just a whole other amazing ecosystem that was thriving on this plastic surface.”

The organisms in this plastisphere were different from those in the surrounding nutrient-poor water, indicating that the plastic acts as an artificial microbial reef, one that could harbor disease-causing pathogens and other harmful algal species.

“It’s certainly possible. And a lot of time certain toxins are oily in nature and they will absorb on to the plastic, but when the microbes interact with it they could be releasing those toxins off of the plastics,” Ms. Mincer said.

Some of those additives are known to have hormonal effects in humans.

More than 90 percent of the trash floating on the ocean surface is plastic. The largest of the planet’s five gyre sites is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is twice the size of Texas. Ms. Mincer says with so much plastic out there, it is important to know how it impacts marine species and by extension, people.

“Fish are eating the plastic,” Ms. Mincer said. “Are they picking up certain toxins from the plastic or not? And what does happen to plastic once it goes out into this environment? Does it eventually degrade into little tiny bits? And then what does it do?  Do the microbes make it heavier and make it sink quicker? Does it go away?  Is it a problem?”

The initial survey identified about 1,000 microbes that live on and interact with plastic. The next step is to sequence their genomes to get a better idea of whether or not they could be harmful pathogens.


Obama has to placate
foreign officials on leaks


Allegations that the United States has been eavesdropping on some of its European and Asian allies have created an international uproar. U.S. President Barack Obama and some former top officials are defending the U.S. surveillance as important for national security. But European lawmakers and officials are demanding an explanation and say relations may be damaged.

The National Security Agency is at the heart of allegations by the former contractor Edward Snowden that the United States has targeted some of its allies for surveillance. 

The German news magazine Der Spiegel reports the NSA eavesdropped on European Union offices in Washington, New York and Brussels, and that it has intercepted some half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages in Germany alone. 

James Bamford has written several books on the NSA. He explains why Germany was a target.

“The interest in Germany would be economic, since it is the economic powerhouse in Europe, and political, because whatever happens in Europe pretty much goes through Germany at one point or another, it is being discussed in Germany,” said Bamford.

Bamford also pointed out that two of the Sept. 11 hijackers studied in Hamburg, Germany. 

German officials have expressed outrage at the revelations. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle:

''We are countries which are friends. There cannot be any justification with security aspects. At this point, clarification is urgently needed," he said.

During his recent visit to Tanzania, Obama said that European and Asian intelligence services are also trying to pry information from sources that are not open.

"I guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders," said Obama.

Former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden told the CBS program Face the Nation that Snowden's disclosures will hurt U.S. intelligence sharing with its allies.

“Look, we cooperate with a lot of governments around the world. They expect us to be discrete about that cooperation. I cannot imagine a government anywhere on the planet who now believes we can keep a secret,” he said.

NSA’s access and technical capabilities, however, dwarf those of other countries, said author Bamford.

“The United States has the equivalent of a nuclear weapon in terms of eavesdropping. I mean we are armed with nuclear eavesdropping capabilities, basically, compared with the rest of the world."

Some European experts say Obama will have to do more than deliver speeches to calm the furor over privacy rights, especially as negotiations are set to start next week on a major new free trade agreement between the United States and the European Union.


South American leaders irate
at treatment of Evo Morales


South American leaders, outraged by the diversion of a Bolivian presidential plane in Europe over the Edward Snowden affair, on Wednesday weighed whether to hold an emergency summit to denounce what some called a U.S.-led act of aggression.
 
Bolivian President Evo Morales was en route from a conference in Moscow to his home on Tuesday when France and Portugal abruptly banned his plane from their airspace on suspicions it was carrying fugitive U.S. spy agency contractor Snowden, who is wanted by Washington.
 
The unusual treatment of the Bolivian leader touched a sensitive nerve in the region, which has a history of U.S.-backed coups, and other presidents rallied in support of Morales.
 
“Definitively, they're all crazy,” Argentine President Cristina Fernandez wrote on her Twitter account after a phone call to Morales, who was stranded in Vienna overnight.
 
Mrs. Fernandez described Morales as defiant. “'I'm not a thief,”' she quoted him as saying, although he was unable to prevent Austrian officials from searching his aircraft. Snowden was not onboard.
 
Nicaragua and Cuban officials also decried the incident.
 
The 12-nation  group which includes leftist leaders of Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia as well as the more moderate Chile and Brazil issued a statement, calling France's and Portugal's actions dangerous.
 
The group's secretary general said the group was coordinating with member nations to set a date and place for an emergency summit.
 
Snowden is believed to be still in the transit area of a Moscow airport, where he has been trying since June 23 to find a country that will offer him refuge from prosecution in the United States on espionage charges.
 
U.S. President Barack Obama has warned that giving Snowden asylum would carry serious costs.
 
Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia told reporters that Morales had been kidnapped by the empire. Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra accused the United States of strong-arming the Europeans into withdrawing the flight permits, although the restrictions were later lifted.

Bolivia has filed a formal complaint with the United Nations and has called in diplomats from the French, Italian and Portuguese embassies in La Paz to demand an explanation.
 
In Ecuador, President Rafael Correa called the Europeans' actions extremely grave.
 
“We're trying to convene a meeting of ... presidents, and take measures against this affront to Latin America,” he wrote on Twitter. “How they've trampled upon international law!”


Immigration group holds
an un-barbeque in Philadelphia


Barbecues and fireworks symbolic of America’s fight for freedom are a tradition of Independence Day celebrations in the United States. But this year, immigration activists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of America, are marking July 4 by fasting.
 
The interfaith immigrant rights group the New Sanctuary Movement staged a so-called un-barbecue Wednesday, setting up empty plates, picnic baskets and grills around the iconic Liberty Bell to draw attention to the freedoms that aren’t shared with undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
 
“It’s no picnic for the immigrant community in this country. They’re still lacking that liberty and justice,” said Peter Pedemonti, director of the New Sanctuary Movement and dozens of activists fasting for 40 days in the name of immigration reform.
 
“People are being separated from their families every day,” he said, noting that 1,000 undocumented immigrants are deported daily from the U.S. “That’s certainly not the liberty and justice I think our forefathers imagined and that people throughout history have struggled and fought for.”
 
The New Sanctuary movement is pushing the Philadelphia government to stop participating in the Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System, which allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to access Philadelphia’s police database. The system helps immigration determine if suspects picked up by the police are in the U.S. illegally.
 
“If someone’s arrested even for a traffic violation, the information is shared with ICE, and ICE can put a hold on them and take them into police custody, then ICE custody, then deportation. It violates people’s rights to due process and a trial,” Pedemonti said.
 
PARS is similar to the Secure Communities program managed by immigration, which has stirred controversy across the U.S. Opponents say immigration agents are using their partnerships with local and state law enforcement agencies as a general deportation tool, rather than a way to identify criminals.
 
The Obama administration, which has deported record numbers of people, says it is focusing on undocumented immigrants considered a threat to public safety.

9/11 Families for a Secure America supports Philadelphia’s partnership with immigration. The group, formed after the Sept. 11, 2011 attacks on the U.S., says concealing “illegal alien criminals from federal immigration authorities will result in the deaths of innocent Americans.”
 
The Philadelphia mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
 
The U.S. Congress is debating an immigration reform bill that could help millions of undocumented immigrants gain legal status by paying back taxes and passing other requirements. The bill, if passed, also would boost security along the U.S.-Mexico border.
 
Pedemonti said he would welcome the relief to undocumented immigrants, but added that no amount of border security or monitoring will solve the problem of illegal immigration. That, he said, can only be addressed by looking at the reasons why people come to the U.S.

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Kenneth Bae photo published by Japanese newspaper Choson Sinbo



A Korean-American sentenced to hard labor in a North Korean prison camp has appealed to the U.S. government to secure his release, saying he is in poor health and wants to be reunited with his family.

Kenneth Bae made the emotional appeal from prison as he spoke in Korean in a videotaped interview granted to Japanese newspaper Choson Sinbo, which is sympathetic to Pyongyang. The newspaper published the interview Wednesday and said it was conducted on June 26 with North Korean government approval.

In the interview, Bae appeared with his head shaved and wore a blue prison uniform while sitting in a room next to a radiator. It was the first time he had been seen publicly since being convicted in April of trying to topple the North Korean government and being sent to the camp in May to serve 15 years of hard labor.

North Korea arrested Bae, a tour operator, in its northeastern port of Rason last November.

The Korean-American said he was suffering from health problems, including diabetes, high blood pressure and a painful back while performing daily eight-hour shifts of farm work. He also told the pro-North Korean interviewer, however, that he appreciated the medical care he has received from doctors at the camp.

Bae held back tears as he talked about his desire to see his family in the United States and celebrate his father's 70th birthday on July 4. He expressed hope that North Korea will show leniency and the U.S. government will provide help to enable him to be released soon.

The U.S. State Department has urged North Korea to grant Bae amnesty and immediate release. Former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have made private visits to North Korea in recent years to bring home other Americans detained by Pyongyang, but there has been no sign of a similar mission being planned for Bae.


Florida Georgia Line emerges
as a top country group


During the past few years, the Country music industry has seen the arrival of several new duos.  One of the most successful is Florida Georgia Line.

“Cruise” was the first single from the group’s debut album, “Here’s To The Good Times.”  The album topped the Billboard Magazine Country chart.  Last month, “Cruise” set a record on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart by spending a 12th week at Number One, longer than any other duo in the 69-year history of that list.  The track sold nearly 4.3 million copies to become the best-selling tune by a Country duo in the era of digital singles.

Florida Georgia Line is 27-year-old Brian Kelley from Ormond Beach, Florida, and 26-year-old Tyler Hubbard from Monroe, Georgia.  They met while attending Nashville’s Belmont University.  Following graduation, Kelley and Hubbard packed a car and traveled the United States playing their music anywhere they were hired.  Florida Georgia Line eventually caught the attention of record companies, and last year they signed with Big Machine Records’ Republic Nashville label.

The second big hit from “Here’s To The Good Times” was “Get Your Shine On.”  The duo’s Brian Kelley describes the songwriting session for the recent Number One Country Airplay track.
 
“That was one of my personal favorite days of writing that we’ve ever had," he said. "We wrote it about a year ago right before the Big Loud Shirt Christmas party.  Tyler came in with that hook ‘Get Your Shine On.’  He threw that out at us and Chris Tompkins and Rodney Clawson.  We were off to the races.  I mean, I think we wrote it in an hour and a half.  It’s one of those songs just like “Cruise” that came together really quick.  Every songwriter will tell you it doesn’t always happen like that. You really count your lucky stars and thank the songwriting Gods when it does happen quick.”

The success of Florida Georgia Line’s first two hits brought the duo two Academy of Country Music Awards for Best New Artist and Best New Country Duo.

Florida Georgia Line will spend much of 2013 performing concerts throughout the United States.  In addition to appearances at summer festivals and local fairs, the duo has secured high-profile opening slots on Taylor Swift and Luke Bryan’s North American tours.

Tyler Hubbard describes the appreciation Florida Georgia Line has for its fans.

“I can relate to them and it means a lot to us if they want to take that hard-earned money, whatever they do," he said. "We’ve both had jobs where a dollar goes a long way.  We might have been making eight or nine bucks an hour doing some really bad jobs we hated.  So, money’s still sparse and we still try to stretch it, but it’s cool to have fans spend money on a ticket or spend money on a CD or buy a T-shirt when you know 15 bucks could be two meals.  Yeah, it just goes to show how passionate our fans are and how much they believe in us and support goes such a long way and we never take that for granted.”  
 
Later this year, the duo will return to the recording studio to work on its second album.  In the meantime, they are watching the third single from their debut album, “Round Here,” climb the popularity charts.