Iceland to ban whaling by 2024
Iceland will soon join the rest of the global community in the banning of whaling by 2024 once current quotas expire, due to a steady decrease in demand and increase in controversy. On Feb. 4 the Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, made a statement in the Morgunblaðið newspaper declaring that whaling had not economically served Iceland in recent years, as reported by CNN. Japan had once been the country’s largest buyer of whale products. However, as of 2019 Japan resumed its practice of commercial whaling in its waters, leading to a decrease in interest in Icelandic whale meat. Activist efforts by groups such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which launched a campaign in 2011 called Meet Us, Don’t Eat Us, also contributed heavily to the push to get Iceland to end whaling. By 2024 only Norway and Japan will have legalized whaling practices.
American ice skater Nathen Chen wins first gold in 2022 Winter Olympics
After coming in last place in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, there was nowhere for Nathan Chen to go but up, and go up he did. Chen, now 22, became the first American gold medalist of Chinese descent to climb upon the podium, according to NBC News Olympics coverage. During the men’s singles competition the figure skater wowed the audience and the world with a stunning performance to some of Elton John’s hits. The extraordinary performance follows Chen’s world record breaking short-program performance at the beginning of the games, where he scored 113.97 points.
Revolutionary technology helps paralyzed patients walk again
In 2017, Italian Michel Roccati suffered a spinal cord injury in a motorcycle accident that paralyzed him from the waist down. It was not until a revolutionary spinal implant, engineered by Swiss neuroscientist Grégoire Courtine and neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch, that Roccati was able to begin taking steps to move once more. The device uses flexible electrodes that are placed on top of the spine and is controlled by a tablet which sends electrical pulses to the various parts of the spine and back that allow movement to occur. With the aid of a walker, Roccati and nine other patients have been able to use the new treatment to walk in physical therapy sessions, as reported by the BBC. It has even given David M’zee, one of the first people to use the new technology, the ability to recover enough to have a child. While the technology used is still relatively too new to be manufactured on a large scale, Courtine notes in an interview with the BBC that it is still a major step forward in the field.
