By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON – A study of bone loss in 17 astronauts who flew aboard the International Space Station is providing a fuller understanding of the effects of space travel on the human body and steps that can mitigate it, crucial knowledge ahead of potential ambitious future missions.

The research amassed new data on bone loss in astronauts caused by the microgravity conditions of space and the degree to which bone mineral density can be regained on Earth. It involved 14 male and three female astronauts, average age 47, whose missions ranged from four to seven months in space, with an average of about 5-1/2 months.

A year after returning to Earth, the astronauts on average exhibited 2.1% reduced bone mineral density at the tibia – one of the bones of the lower leg – and 1.3% reduced bone strength. Nine did not recover bone mineral density after the space flight, experiencing permanent loss.

“We know that astronauts lose bone on long-duration spaceflight. What’s novel about this study is that we followed astronauts for one year after their space travel to understand if and how bone recovers,” said University of Calgary professor Leigh Gabel, an exercise scientist who was the lead author of the research published this week in the journal Scientific Reports https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-13461-1.

“Astronauts experienced significant bone loss during six-month spaceflights – loss that we would expect to see in older adults over two decades on Earth, and they only recovered about half of that loss after one year back on Earth,” Gabel said.

The bone loss occurs because bones that typically would be weight-bearing on Earth do not carry weight in space. Space agencies are going to need to improve countermeasures – exercise regimes and nutrition – to help prevent bone loss, Gabel said.

“During spaceflight, fine bone structures thin, and eventually some of the bone rods disconnect from one another. Once the astronaut comes back to Earth, the remaining bone connections can thicken and strengthen, but the ones that disconnected in space can’t be rebuilt, so the astronaut’s overall bone structure permanently changes,” Gabel said.

The study’s astronauts flew on the space station in the past seven years. The study did not give their nationalities but they were from the U.S. space agency NASA, Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Space travel poses various challenges to the human body – key concerns for space agencies as they plan new explorations. For instance, NASA is aiming to send astronauts back to the moon, a mission now planned for 2025 at the earliest. That could be a prelude to future astronaut missions to Mars or a longer-term presence on the lunar surface.

“Microgravity affects a lot of body systems, muscle and bone being among them,” Gabel said.

“The cardiovascular system also experiences many changes. Without gravity pulling blood towards our feet, astronauts experience a fluid shift that causes more blood to pool in the upper body. This can affect the cardiovascular system and vision.

“Radiation is also a large health concern for astronauts as the further they travel from Earth the greater exposure to the sun’s radiation and increased cancer risk,” Gabel said.

The study showed that longer space missions resulted both in more bone loss and a lower likelihood of recovering bone afterward. In-flight exercise – resistance training on the space station – proved important for preventing muscle and bone loss. Astronauts who performed more deadlifts compared to what they usually did on Earth were found to be more likely to recover bone after the mission.

“There is a lot we still do not know regarding how microgravity affects human health, particularly on space missions longer than six months, and on the long-term health consequences,” Gabel said. “We really hope that bone loss eventually plateaus on longer missions, that people will stop losing bone, but we don’t know.”

(Reporting by Will Dunham, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

(This July 1 story refiles to correct attribution in par 11)

By Iryna Nazarchuk

SERHIIVKA, Ukraine – Russia flattened part of an apartment building while residents slept on Friday in missile attacks near Ukraine’s port of Odesa that authorities said killed at least 21 people, hours after Russian troops abandoned the Black Sea outpost of Snake Island.

Residents in the resort village of Serhiivka helped workers pick through the rubble of the nine-storey apartment block, a section of which had been destroyed in the early-morning strike.

Walls and windows of a neighbouring 14-storey apartment block were damaged by the blast wave. Nearby holiday camps were also hit.

“We came here to the site, assessed the situation together with emergency workers and locals, and together helped those who survived. And those who unfortunately died. We helped to carry them away,” said Oleksandr Abramov, who lives nearby and had rushed to the scene when he heard the blast.

Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odesa regional administration, said 21 people had been confirmed killed, including a 12-year-old boy. Among the fatalities was an employee of the Children’s Rehabilitation Center set up by Ukraine’s neighbour Moldova in the resort.

The regional governor said the missiles had been fired from the direction of the Black Sea.

The Kremlin denied targeting civilians.

“I would like to remind you of the president’s words that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

LONG-RANGE ATTACKS INTENSIFY

In his nightly video address on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced the strike on the apartments and seaside site as “conscious, deliberately targeted Russian terror and not some sort of error or a coincidental missile strike.”

The strike on Serhiivka took place shortly after Russia pulled its troops off Snake Island, a strategically important outcrop about 140 km (85 miles) southeast of Odesa that it seized on the war’s first day.

Chief of Ukraine’s General Staff Valeriy Zaluzhny accused Russia of failing to abide by its assertions that it had left Snake Island as a “gesture of good will”. On his Telegram channel, Zaluzhny said two Russian warplanes had taken off from a base in Crimea and bombed targets on the island on Friday evening.

He posted a video of what he said was the attack. Reuters had no way of confirming the video or the Russian action. There was no immediate Russian comment.

Earlier this week, Russia struck a crowded shopping mall in central Ukraine, killing at least 19 people.

Kyiv says Moscow has intensified its long-range missile attacks, hitting civilian targets far from the frontline. Russia says it has been aiming at military sites.

Thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Russia calls the invasion a “special operation” to root out nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies say it is an unprovoked war of aggression.

In southern Ukraine, Russian forces have occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, since March. On Friday, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator said it had re-established its connection to surveillance systems there that had been cut off. Communications have been lost twice since March and the U.N.’s atomic watchdog wants to inspect the plant.

FOOD SUPPLY

Russia forces had used Snake Island to control the northwestern Black Sea and impose a blockade on Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest grain exporters.

Moscow denies it is to blame for a food crisis, which it says is caused by Western sanctions hurting its own exports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met the president of Indonesia on Thursday and spoke by phone on Friday to the prime minister of India, promising both major food importers that Russia would remain a big supplier of grain.

Ukraine has accused Russia of stealing grain from the territories that Russian forces have seized since its invasion.

It said a Russian-flagged cargo ship, the Zhibek Zholy, had left the Russian-occupied port of Berdyansk with a cargo of Ukrainian grain. Kyiv requested that Turkey detain the vessel, according to a Ukrainian official and document seen by Reuters.

A Russian-installed official said on Thursday that after a stoppage of several months the first cargo ship had left Berdyansk port but he did not name the Zhibek Zholy.

The Kremlin has previously denied stealing grain and did not reply to requests for comment on Friday.

NO GAS, ELECTRICITY, WATER

Russia’s stepped up campaign of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities coincides with its forces grinding out success on the battlefield in the east, with the aim of forcing Ukraine to cede Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.

Moscow has been on the verge of capturing Luhansk since taking the city of Sievierodonetsk last week after some of the heaviest fighting of the war.

Ukraine’s last bastion in Luhansk is the city of Lysychansk across the Siverskyi Donets river, which is close to being encircled under Russian artillery barrages.

In Russian-occupied Sievierodonetsk, residents emerged from basements to sift through the rubble of their city.

“Almost all the city infrastructure is destroyed. We are living without gas, electricity, and water since May,” Sergei Oleinik, 65, told Reuters.

More weapons were needed in both eastern and southern Ukraine, said Zelenskiy, as the Pentagon announced the United States was sending two NASAMS surface-to-air missile systems, four additional counter-artillery radars and ammunition as part of its latest arms package.

“We have worked very hard to have these supplied,” Zelenskiy said.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Peter Graff, Angus MacSwan and Grant McCool; Editing by Nick Macfie and Rosalba O’Brien)

(Reuters) – Norway on Friday pledged 1 billion euros ($1.04 billion) to help Ukraine defend itself, support people in need and for reconstruction in the wake of Russia’s invasion.

Addressing a news conference in Kyiv alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said Norway wanted to express its solidarity with Ukraine’s fight for survival.

“I’m here to say that Ukraine’s fight is not only for Ukraine. This is about some fundamental principles of the world we are going to offer to our children. This is about security in Europe, this is about the fate of your neighbour,” he said.

“We will pledge 1 billion euros in support to your country and your people for the remaining part of 2022 and for 2023,” he continued. “This war is a breach of international law. … You have the right to defend yourself and we have the right to help you defend yourself.”

Asked whether Norway was willing to increase gas supplies to Europe, Stoere said Norway was already producing gas “at its maximum” but it would do everything it could to provide gas.

Zelenskiy said pressure needed to be kept up on Russia so the war would end.

He said Russia had used a Soviet-era Kh-22 missile designed to hit aircraft carriers or other large objects to strike a regular nine-storey building – a reference to a strike in the early hours of Friday on an apartment block near Odesa in which Ukrainian officials say at least 16 people were killed.

Russia denies targeting civilians. Asked on Friday whether Russia had struck the apartment building in the resort village of Serhiivka, the Kremlin spokesman said: “I would like to remind you of the president’s words that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets”.

($1 = 0.9630 euros)

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Andrew Heavens and David Gregorio)

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK – R. Kelly on Friday sued the Brooklyn jail that has housed him since his racketeering and sex crimes conviction, saying it wrongly put him on suicide watch after he received a 30-year prison sentence despite knowing he was not suicidal.

In a complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court, the 55-year-old multiplatinum R&B singer said officials at the Metropolitan Detention Center ordered the watch after his June 29 sentencing “solely for punitive purposes” and because he was a “high-profile” inmate.

Kelly’s lawyer Jennifer Bonjean quoted a prosecutor as saying the jail’s legal counsel had told her that “per the psychology department, [Kelly] is on a psych alert for various reasons, such as age, crime, publicity and sentencing.” No timetable was provided.

Bonjean wasn’t satisfied with the explanation. “Simply put, MDC Brooklyn is run like a gulag,” she wrote.

Kelly said the “harsh conditions” he faced led to “severe mental distress,” and amounted to cruel and unusual punishment that violated the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.

He is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, though the docket suggests Kelly is seeking $100 million.

The jail did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Known for the 1996 Grammy-winning hit “I Believe I Can Fly,” Kelly was convicted last September on one count of racketeering and eight counts of violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.

Prosecutors said Kelly exploited his stardom and wealth over two decades to lure women and underage girls into his orbit for sex, with the help of his entourage.

Kelly said he was also put on suicide watch after his conviction.

Ghislaine Maxwell, another inmate at the Brooklyn jail, was placed on suicide watch on June 24, four days before being sentenced to 20 years in prison for aiding financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of underage girls.

Maxwell’s lawyer said the British socialite had been given a “suicide smock” and deprived of clothing, toothpaste and soap though she too was not suicidal.

Friday’s filings did not say what specific conditions Kelly

faced.

Kelly still faces an August trial in Chicago federal court on child [censored]ography and obstruction charges, and various state charges in Illinois and Minnesota.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

By Lisa Baertlein

LOS ANGELES -The union and employers negotiating a new labor contract for more than 22,000 U.S. West Coast port workers said high-stakes talks that are being closely watched by industry and the White House would continue after the agreement expired late on Friday.

The agreement covers 29 Pacific Coast ports stretching from California to Washington State that handle almost 40% of U.S. imports. Any work slowdowns or stoppages could roil the nation’s already battered supply chains, stoke inflation, and exacerbate pressure on a weakening economy that is sinking President Joe Biden’s approval ratings.

“While there will be no contract extension, cargo will keep moving, and normal operations will continue at the ports until an agreement can be reached,” the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) employer group and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) said in a joint statement.

“Both sides understand the strategic importance of the ports to the local, regional and U.S. economies, and are mindful of the need to finalize a new coast-wide contract as soon as possible,” PMA and ILWU ahead of the contract expiration at 5 p.m. PDT Friday (0000 GMT Saturday).

When the contract expired, so did its “no strike” clause, said Peter Tirschwell, vice president of maritime, trade and supply chain at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Hours before the expiration, more than 150 business groups implored Biden to push for a smooth and swift resolution.

Groups representing industries from agriculture and apparel to trucking and toys asked the president to work with PMA and ILWU to extend the contract, commit to ongoing good-faith negotiations, and avoid any activity that would cause further disruptions.

The labor faceoff has been on Biden’s radar for months. He took the unusual step of meeting with the ILWU and PMA in Los Angeles on June 10. His labor secretary makes weekly check-ins with both sides, which kicked off talks in May.

“We’ve never had a White House that is all over these negotiations the way they are now,” Tirschwell said.

The last West Coast port labor contract negotiation broke down in 2015 after nine months. Dockworkers stopped work for eight days, which gummed up trade flows and siphoned an estimated $8 billion from the Southern California economy alone. President Barack Obama dispatched his labor secretary to forge a deal.

Automating the movement of containers at the ports, resulting in fewer jobs, appears to be a key issue in the current talks. Neither side has identified the issue specifically, but the PMA and ILWU have released dueling studies on the impact of automation and traded barbs in the media.

In a statement on June 14, PMA and ILWU said they were not planning any work stoppages or lockouts that would worsen existing shipping logjams.

Still, wary shippers are not taking any chances. They are routing cargo away from the West Coast to avoid potential labor-related slowdowns, particularly at the nation’s busiest seaport complex at Los Angeles/Long Beach. That is driving up costs and contributing to backups at ports in New York/New Jersey, Savannah and Houston.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los AngelesEditing by Marguerita Choy, Alistair Bell and Leslie Adler)

By Michael Holden and Kanishka Singh

LONDON -WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange has appealed to the High Court in London to block his extradition to the United States to face criminal charges, his brother said on Friday, the latest step in his legal battle that has dragged on for more than a decade.

Assange, 50, is wanted by U.S. authorities on 18 counts, including a spying charge, relating to WikiLeaks’ release of vast troves of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables which Washington said had put lives in danger.

Last month, Home Secretary Priti Patel approved his extradition, with her office saying British courts had concluded his extradition would not be incompatible with his human rights, and that he would be treated appropriately.

Australian-born Assange’s legal team have lodged an appeal against that decision at the High Court, his brother Gabriel Shipton confirmed. The court must give its approval for the appeal to be heard, but it is likely the legal case will take months to conclude.

“We also urge the Australian government to intervene immediately in the case to end this nightmare,” Shipton told Reuters.

The saga began at the end of 2010 when Sweden sought Assange’s extradition from Britain over allegations of sex crimes. When he lost that case in 2012, he fled to the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he spent seven years.

When he was finally dragged out in April 2019, he was jailed for breaching British bail conditions although the Swedish case against him had been dropped. He has been fighting extradition to the United States since June 2019 and remains in jail.

“We’re going to fight this. We’re going to use every appeal avenue,” his wife Stella Assange told reporters after Patel approved his extradition.

(Reporting by Michael Holden, Editing by William Maclean)