An American bitcoin trader built a floating house off Thailand's coast in an attempt to gain independence. Authorities destroyed his home and he now faces the death penalty.
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT
Global Warming Is Making The Arctic Fall Apart
André Blair — April 23, 2019
It is no secret that global warming is slowly destroying our planet, despite the fact that many choose to refuse the truth, A recent scientific survey brings even more evidence and it focuses on the impact of global warming in the Arctic.
Everything is affected, from the climate to the landscape. Coastal erosion is accelerated by the rising glacial melt. Tundra is also affected and its growing seasons have shifted. And these are just a couple of things from the list. Researchers are very concerned and claim that the Arctic is in a state they have never seen before.
“Combined with unusual storm systems, you can get these off-the-charts changes in the Bering Sea. Last year, with no sea ice and no pool of deep, cold water, pollock were found in the north Bering Sea where they don’t usually go. The question was if they will spawn in the new location or not, and it doesn’t seem that they did. When this happens two years in a row, it becomes really important. The Bering Sea is now in a state we’ve never seen before,” explained co-author Jim Overland from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Global Warming Is Making The Arctic Fall Apart
While these changes will have long term effects on our planet they also affect the indigenous communities in the Arctic right now.
“Almost all of the changes described in the paper, including warming air temperatures, thawing permafrost, retreating sea ice, increased river discharge, and changes in the arrival of migratory species have direct impacts on the residents of Arctic communities, particularly those near the coast,” explained Andy Mahoney from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
In the Arctic live many” indigenous peoples, recent transplants, hunters and herders, and city dwellers,” which are directly affected by these changes.
Canada unveils LGBTQ loonie — but some gay rights advocates are not impressed
By Katie Dangerfield National Online Journalist, Breaking News Global NewsCanada unveiled its new commemorative loonie Tuesday, paying tribute to the 50-year anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality across the country.
But the coin is also drawing controversy.
READ MORE: LGBTQ Canadians disproportionately affected by violence according to StatCan survey
Some LGBTQ activists and historians are calling into question the message behind the loonie, saying it mistakenly suggests equality has been reached and that it was done so largely by the Canadian government — specifically by former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
In 1967, then-justice minister Trudeau began calling for reforms to decriminalize homosexuality in Canada’s Criminal Code, which passed two years later.
“There were many gains gained by the gay community before this, but this coin gives all the credit to Pierre Trudeau and 1969. It should be about our community, not the federal government,” York University historian Tom Hooper said.
WATCH: Tracking the history of LGBTQ rights in Canada
The Royal Canadian Mint “could have consulted people who have knowledge of this history, but they didn’t,” Hooper said, adding that he hopes the agency will do so in the future.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau unveiled the loonie in Toronto, saying: “The equality coin encourages all of us to build a better, more inclusive Canada because like the coin itself, the more equality we have in Canada, the richer we all are.”
The coin, which starts circulating Tuesday, combines the words “Equality-Égalité” with the work of Vancouver-based artist Joe Average.
View image on Twitter
Bill Morneau
✔@Bill_Morneau
Hey Canada, keep your eyes peeled for the new Equality $1 coin. This is an opportunity for us all to reflect on the years of progress towards equality for LGBTQ2 Canadians, and importantly, to think about the work still to do.
Protesters were also at the event, arguing that LGBTQ people continued to face criminalization over the decades that followed the legal changes in 1969.
“There are people here who are protesting here,” Morneau said. “There is still more work we need to do. We are not at the end of this path.”
The Anti-69 Network was one of the groups silently protesting, challenging the “mythology that the 1969 Criminal Code reform decriminalized homosexuality.”
Protesters at an event unveiling the new LGBTQ2 loonie in Toronto on Tuesday, April 23, 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin
“Despite the important gains won by our movements and organizing, equality has still not been established in 2019,” the network stated.
“The continuing struggles are against the blood donation bans, HIV and sex worker criminalization, anti-black racism, which impacts many in our communities, racist and heterosexist and anti-trans policing, the continuing criminalization of consensual homosexual activities, the treatment of LGBTQ2S+ refugees and much more.”
What did the 1969 amendment do?
From confederation in 1867, homosexuality was punishable under Canada’s criminal law.
READ MORE: Petition to ban conversion therapy across Canada gains steam, survivor says it’s ‘long overdue’
The clause stated: “(1) Sections 147 and 149 do not apply to any act committed in private between (a) a husband and his wife or (b) any two persons, each of whom is 21 years or more of age, both of whom consent to the commission of the act. (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), (a) an act shall be deemed not to have been committed in private if it is committed in a public place or if more than two persons take part or are present.”
But Hooper argued this act didn’t repeal the law, it only reformed it.
“A lot of people think a law was removed. It wasn’t. Gay sex was still illegal after 1969,” he said. “It only allowed people to have sex in their bedroom, but everywhere else it was a crime, including in a car or in a gay bathhouse.”
He added that the changes also did not apply to many other people in the community, such as lesbians, the trans community and two-spirit people.
WATCH: LGBTQ advocates cheer NDP bill banning conversion therapy
After 1969, he said the gay community was still repressed and had to fight for equal rights in Canada. For example, cohabiting same-sex couples could not claim tax benefits, homosexuality was seen as a mental illness and gay marriage was illegal.
“We are prevented from donating blood still to this day,” he said.
There were also many bathhouse raids in the 1980s, which marked a turning point for the gay community as many protests that followed advocated the end of police violence against LGBTQ people.
Toronto Bathhouse raids, Feb. 5, 1981.Frank Lennon/Toronto Star via Getty Images
Gay rights supporters march on Dundas Street in Toronto on their way to 52 Division police station from Queen’s Park. Originally published on Feb. 21, 1981.Tibor Kolley / The Globe and Mail
‘A lot more still needs to be done’
Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, who was at the loonie’s unveiling, spoke about the controversy surrounding the coin.
“I was 13 years (old) when (Pierre) Trudeau issued those words and I was proud. It did not make me equal, but it gave me a fighting chance,” he said.
“I knew I was different, but just those words gave me a fighting chance and a sense I could have meaning. I wasn’t equal at that point and I’m not sure if I am yet equal, but this coin recognizes the journey. This coin is a small token of a huge effort that has happened and made Canada a better place,” Oliphant said.
READ MORE: B.C. Christian university loses Supreme Court battle over LGBTQ case
The MP argued the equality coin also acts as a “beacon” to the rest of the world, where homosexuality is punishable by death.
Gay rights activist Rev. Brent Hawkes, who was also at the event, said he does not want to back away from celebrating 1969.
“It was not perfect and a lot more needs to be done, and we’re still working on that, but in 1969, this government passed a bill that said certain laws can no longer exist to criminalize gays and lesbians. That is significant,” he argued. “While it’s not perfect, we should not diminish this part of it.”
Hooper said as a historian, he hoped more LBGTQ activists were represented in the new coin.
He gave the example of the first national gay and lesbian protest held on Parliament Hill in 1971.
“It was against the 1969 reform and called on actual decriminalization of homosexuality. It also called on employment rights and human rights protections. That would represent our community instead of representing Pierre Trudeau,” Hooper said.
— With files from the Canadian Press
“Despite the important gains won by our movements and organizing, equality has still not been established in 2019,” the network stated.
“The continuing struggles are against the blood donation bans, HIV and sex worker criminalization, anti-black racism, which impacts many in our communities, racist and heterosexist and anti-trans policing, the continuing criminalization of consensual homosexual activities, the treatment of LGBTQ2S+ refugees and much more.”
What did the 1969 amendment do?
From confederation in 1867, homosexuality was punishable under Canada’s criminal law.
In 1967, Trudeau proposed amendments to decriminalize homosexuality in Canada’s Criminal Code.
“I think the view we take here is that there’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation,” Trudeau famously said.
In 1969, the amendments passed into the Criminal Code, decriminalizing homosexuality in Canada.
READ MORE: Petition to ban conversion therapy across Canada gains steam, survivor says it’s ‘long overdue’
The clause stated: “(1) Sections 147 and 149 do not apply to any act committed in private between (a) a husband and his wife or (b) any two persons, each of whom is 21 years or more of age, both of whom consent to the commission of the act. (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), (a) an act shall be deemed not to have been committed in private if it is committed in a public place or if more than two persons take part or are present.”
But Hooper argued this act didn’t repeal the law, it only reformed it.
“A lot of people think a law was removed. It wasn’t. Gay sex was still illegal after 1969,” he said. “It only allowed people to have sex in their bedroom, but everywhere else it was a crime, including in a car or in a gay bathhouse.”
He added that the changes also did not apply to many other people in the community, such as lesbians, the trans community and two-spirit people.
WATCH: LGBTQ advocates cheer NDP bill banning conversion therapy
After 1969, he said the gay community was still repressed and had to fight for equal rights in Canada. For example, cohabiting same-sex couples could not claim tax benefits, homosexuality was seen as a mental illness and gay marriage was illegal.
“We are prevented from donating blood still to this day,” he said.
There were also many bathhouse raids in the 1980s, which marked a turning point for the gay community as many protests that followed advocated the end of police violence against LGBTQ people.
Toronto Bathhouse raids, Feb. 5, 1981.Frank Lennon/Toronto Star via Getty Images
Gay rights supporters march on Dundas Street in Toronto on their way to 52 Division police station from Queen’s Park. Originally published on Feb. 21, 1981.Tibor Kolley / The Globe and Mail
‘A lot more still needs to be done’
Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, who was at the loonie’s unveiling, spoke about the controversy surrounding the coin.
“I was 13 years (old) when (Pierre) Trudeau issued those words and I was proud. It did not make me equal, but it gave me a fighting chance,” he said.
“I knew I was different, but just those words gave me a fighting chance and a sense I could have meaning. I wasn’t equal at that point and I’m not sure if I am yet equal, but this coin recognizes the journey. This coin is a small token of a huge effort that has happened and made Canada a better place,” Oliphant said.
READ MORE: B.C. Christian university loses Supreme Court battle over LGBTQ case
The MP argued the equality coin also acts as a “beacon” to the rest of the world, where homosexuality is punishable by death.
Gay rights activist Rev. Brent Hawkes, who was also at the event, said he does not want to back away from celebrating 1969.
“It was not perfect and a lot more needs to be done, and we’re still working on that, but in 1969, this government passed a bill that said certain laws can no longer exist to criminalize gays and lesbians. That is significant,” he argued. “While it’s not perfect, we should not diminish this part of it.”
Hooper said as a historian, he hoped more LBGTQ activists were represented in the new coin.
He gave the example of the first national gay and lesbian protest held on Parliament Hill in 1971.
“It was against the 1969 reform and called on actual decriminalization of homosexuality. It also called on employment rights and human rights protections. That would represent our community instead of representing Pierre Trudeau,” Hooper said.
— With files from the Canadian Press
Philippines president gives Canada a week to take back tonnes of trash, or he will 'declare war' and send it back himself
Shipping containers filled with Canadian household and electronic garbage has been rotting in a port near Manila for nearly six year
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Updated: April 23, 2019
Filipino environmental activists wear mock container vans filled with garbage to symbolize the 50 containers of waste that were shipped from Canada to the Philippines two years ago, outside the Canadian embassy south of Manila, Philippines on May 7, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, AARON FAVILA
OTTAWA — The president of the Philippines says if Canada doesn’t take back tonnes of trash within the next week he will “declare war” and ship the containers back himself.
Filipino media outlets are reporting that Rodrigo Duterte made threats Tuesday about dozens of shipping containers filled with Canadian household and electronic garbage that has been rotting in a port near Manila for nearly six years.
More than 100 of the containers were shipped to Manila by a Canadian company in 2013 and 2014, improperly labelled as plastics for recycling.
Customs inspectors discovered they actually contained garbage, including soiled adult diapers and kitchen trash.
Canada has been trying for nearly six years to convince the Philippines to dispose of the garbage there even though a Filipino court ordered the trash returned to Canada in 2016.
Last week a British Columbia lawyer said in a legal brief that Canada is in violation of the international Basel Convention, which forbids developed nations from sending their toxic or hazardous waste to developing nations without informed consent.
Three Philippines policemen convicted of student’s murder, a first for Duterte’s brutal drug war
Aussie nun who angered Duterte forced to leave Philippines
Extremist groups in Alberta detailed in first-of-its-kind report
JONNY WAKEFIELD
Updated: April 23, 2019
Soldiers of Odin take part in a rally against Islam on the anniversary of 9/11 at the Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018 in Edmonton. GREG SOUTHAM / POSTMEDIA, FILE
Alberta is home to a disproportionate number of extremist movements — including far-right groups and people travelling abroad to join armed groups such as ISIS — according to a new report billed as the first of its kind.
The upcoming study, Extremism and Hate Motivated Violence in Alberta, runs nearly 100 pages and provides a taxonomy of the province’s extremist groups. It includes provincial membership estimates for violent or potentially violent ideological movements, and assessments of whether the groups are growing or shrinking.
The Organization for the Prevention of Violence (OPV), which produced the report, received a $1.2 million grant from the federal government last year as part of a plan to counter hate and violent extremism in Alberta, which has seen a rise in police-reported hate crimes. The report is poised to be made public next month.
The organization also developed an intervention program to steer people away from extremist movements.
OPV executive director John McCoy said he’s unaware of any other studies that identify and quantify extremist groups in Alberta.
“What our research (shows) is that there is a diversity of threats out there related to violent extremism, and there are many different ideologies that can create this problem,” said McCoy, a professor who teaches terrorism studies at the University of Alberta.
“There are a number of ideologies where Alberta is disproportionately represented, in terms of the numbers that we’re producing,” he said.
The report relied on interviews with more than 170 law enforcement members from the RCMP and every municipal police service in Alberta. Researchers also interviewed around 120 people whose communities are impacted by hate and extremism, 50 service providers specializing in violence and at-risk youth, and 21 “formers” — people previously involved with extremist movements or their loved ones.
McCoy said one major conclusion is that individuals on the edges of extremist groups — often radicalized on social media — are the biggest threat.
“The individuals that we’re seeing are really on the margins of extremist movements,” he said.
Al-Qaida, affiliates and splinter groups (AQAS)
The report found Alberta has been home to “both intimate and established networks” tied to al-Qaida and affiliated groups, and “highly isolated cases that are connected with AQAS networks wholly online.”
“Today, the trend is very much towards the latter,” the report says.
From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, low-level fundraising, money laundering and promotion/propaganda work took place in the province, the report said, supporting foreign fighters in the Middle East, North Africa and Bosnia.
The report cited the case of Faruq Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa, who pleaded guilty to U.S. charges of providing financial support to Tunisian fighters in Iraq who carried out a deadly 2009 suicide attack.
Since 2012, it is estimated that between 30 and 40 people from Alberta travelled overseas to fight for armed groups — a number McCoy said is disproportionate to Alberta’s population. McCoy said the majority of those joined ISIS.
Those fighters include former Edmonton residents Mahad Hirsi, Hamsa Kariye, Heri Kariye and Omar Aden, who are believed to have travelled to Syria in 2013. The four were believed to be part of a network that included up to 14 people spread between Minnesota, Alberta and California. All four fighters were reportedly dead by the end of 2014.
Roughly 20 people are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq from Calgary — including 10 or so who shared a loose connection with a now-closed mosque in downtown Calgary.
Now, the primary local concern is people inspired by the movements committing a “homegrown” attack. The report cited a Sept. 30, 2017, vehicle attack on a police officer and pedestrians in Edmonton — still before the courts — saying it mirrored the “playbook” of groups like ISIS. No terrorism charges were laid in that case.
While returning foreign fighters present a threat, those fears have yet to be realized, the report says. Most of those who travelled to fight abroad are dead. About 10 per cent of those who left have returned, the report said, but “no public details were available on their activities.”
The report said the movement’s trajectory in Alberta is “static.”
Anti-authority extremists
Anti-authority extremists cited in the report include Freemen on the Land, who broadly assert that government is illegitimate. The report estimates there are about 150 to 250 Freemen on the Land in Alberta — lower than previous estimates.
The report found that most Freemen come to the ideology after a “negative interaction” with the legal system. The majority of them are non-violent. However, the report found 10 to 15 Alberta Freemen have “demonstrated a behavioural propensity for violence.”
Norman Raddatz — the man who killed Edmonton city police Const. Daniel Woodall and shot another officer in 2015 — expressed Freeman-style sentiments and was investigated for harassing a Jewish family. James Roszko, the man who murdered four RCMP officers in Mayerthorpe in 2005, was also known to have violent anti-government views. Both perpetrators are dead.
The report suggests the Freemen on the Land movement is in decline. However, it says general anti-government extremism is on the rise — evidenced in part by an upswing in death threats against politicians following the 2015 elections of Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau.
Left-wing extremism
The report’s category on left-wing extremism includes anarchists and Antifa groups. To date, the report found left-wing extremists have not been involved in any major violent incidents in Alberta, nor do researchers believe they present a “significant threat to public safety.”
The researchers found “reciprocal radicalization” was at play in the relationship between right-wing and left-wing extremist groups. Violence by left-wing extremists is “mainly reactionary in confrontation with right-wing groups.”
The OPV estimates there were 20 to 30 people involved in Antifa and anti-racist groups in Calgary, with only a small number who support violence during confrontations with the far right.
The movements are believed to be growing, the report said.
Patriot and Militia Groups
Patriot and militia groups are motivated “primarily by xenophobia and anti-government views,” the report said, adding many members share anti-Islamic sentiments. Some engage in survivalist activities like “prepping” and firearms training. Some take part in ostensible charity activities, as well as “street patrols” that the report says “primarily target visible minority, newcomer and refugee communities — Muslims in particular.”
While there are reports of militia groups taking part in military-style training in rural Alberta, the OPV said those “remain unsubstantiated to date.”
Examples of the groups include the Three Percenters, Sons/Soldiers of Odin, the Canadian Infidels/Clann, True North Patriots and Northern Guard. Many formed in 2015 — driven by the elections of the provincial NDP, the federal Liberals and the economic downturn.
The report stressed that there is no evidence the groups are involved in violence or “would represent a significant threat to public safety or national security.”
“However, there are not-trivial concerns that individuals associated with, or more accurately on the margins of these groups, may carry out ‘lone actor’ or small network violence.”
The report estimates that in 2017, there were 600 to 700 Albertans who considered themselves “members” of patriot and militia groups. Interest fell off in 2018, and their numbers are now estimated at between 300 and 500 active members.
The report says media coverage has played a role in the group’s recruitment.
“Prior to a number of stories, in particular about larger patriot groups in the province in late 2017 and into the summer of 2018, many of these groups were facing a pronounced drop in membership and public interest,” the report says. “Subsequent to these articles being published, there was a noteworthy spike in potential new members, at least in some urban and rural areas of the province.”
Media coverage of the groups should walk a fine line between giving the public an understanding of the groups and “providing a platform or conveying an outsized threat posed by militia and patriot groups.”
The report also says the rise of the Yellow Vest movement has “re-energized areas of activism and engaged a broader set of individuals, some of whom may now gravitate toward more organized patriot or militia groups.”
White supremacy/associated ideologies
White supremacy has a long history in Alberta. In 1930, the Ku Klux Klan had 50 chapters in Alberta with 7,000 to 8,000 members, the report estimates. By the mid-1930s, however, the Klan had been reduced to a few small, largely rural groups.
Organized white supremacist groups were largely dormant in the province until the late 1980s. In 1988, two young KKK members were convicted of a plot to blow up a Jewish community centre in Calgary. During that period, KKK members numbered around 100 in Alberta.
In the intervening years, a number of skinhead, Neo-nazi and “Aryan” groups were active in the province. Particularly violent years fell between 2008 and 2012, with 10 “noteworthy” incidents of violence linked to white supremacists, including assaults on immigrants and visible minorities in Calgary and Edmonton, at least five homicides and “bouts of infighting” between white supremacist groups.
The report says that while a white supremacist group has never carried out an organized terrorist attack in Alberta, they are a threat — especially to visible minority communities.
Now, the primary active groups in Alberta are Blood and Honour, Combat-18, the Christian Identity Movement and a variety of “identitarian” groups. Blood and Honour is believed to have peaked at 60 to 70 members in 2016-17.
The report said that while “traditional” white power groups are in decline, more sanitized “identitarian” and ethno-nationalist movements are attracting new members.
jwakefield@postmedia.com
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Climate change has already made poor countries poorer and rich countries richer
But few nations will be spared as temperatures rise further.
by James Temple
Apr 22
Numerous studies have predicted that poor nations will suffer the greatest devastation from climate change. (See “Hotter days will drive global inequality.”) A new analysis finds it’s already been happening for decades.
From 1961 to 2010, rising temperatures cut the per-person gross domestic product of the world’s poorest countries by 17% to 31%, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That, in turn, widened the gap in economic output between poor and rich nations by 25% more than it would have been “in a world without global warming,” slowing an otherwise positive shift toward shrinking inequality over that half-century.
All of that has happened with only around a 1 °C rise in global temperatures, but far worse changes are in store. The planet could warm by 1.5 °C as early as 2030, and by more than 4 °C by the end of the century, according to the United Nations climate panel.
The inequity is exacerbated by the fact that the nations suffering the worst economic effects have pumped out the least carbon dioxide. Among the 19 wealthier nations where historical emissions divided by the current population exceeds 300 tons, 14 have benefited economically so far. Those countries experienced a median of 13% more economic output per person, the Stanford researchers found in the study.
The researchers conducted the study by comparing economic growth rates during the time period in question with a range of modeling results simulating a world that didn’t get hotter in recent decades, says Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist at Stanford, who coauthored the paper with Marshall Burke.
Poorer nations have suffered harsher effects in part because they’re concentrated in already hotter parts of the world, like Africa, South Asia, and Central America. In such places, a tick up in temperatures can quickly cut labor productivity and agricultural yields while increasing levels of violence, crime, suicides, illness, and mortality. These effects have been identified in many studies, including earlier work by Burke (see “Hot and violent”). In addition, the same countries often don’t have the money to invest in tools, infrastructure, and programs to address these dangers.
Country level economic impact of global warming
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
On the other hand, a little bit of warming can nudge cooler or temperate countries toward the “empirical optimum,” where productivity and agriculture yields actually rise. Warming in Norway, for instance, likely boosted per capita GDP by 34% over what the Scandinavian nation would have experienced in a world without global warming, while India experienced 31% less growth than it would have.
None of this means that richer nations are in the clear, of course. Various parts of the US are already grappling with more frequent or severe extreme weather events that have been strongly linked to climate change, including hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires. Plenty of other studies have concluded that warming will have devastating effects on the economies of most nations in the decades to come (though a few frosty ones, notably Canada and Russia, could wind up better off economically).
As the resolution of climate modeling improves, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the effects of climate change will vary dramatically within countries as well. A 2017 study led by Solomon Hsiang at the University of California, Berkeley, found that the hotter regions of the US South will suffer disproportionately under high emissions scenarios, resulting in a massive shift in wealth toward the North and West that would increase the nation’s economic inequality.
These highly variable economic consequences promise to significantly complicate the politics of how nations and regions work together to address the looming dangers—or how they don’t.
Global warming has increased global economic inequality
Noah S. Diffenbaugh and Marshall Burke
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2019/04/global-warming-has-increased-global.html
PNAS first published April 22, 2019
Trump baby blimp back and could be even bigger for UK state visit
Balloon depicting nappy-wearing US president could be five times size of predecessor
Matthew Weaver
Tue 23 Apr 2019
The baby blimp during a women’s march to Parliament Squar in London last July. Photograph: Andrew Aitchison/In Pictures/Getty
The Donald Trump baby blimp, which became the focal point of protests against the US president’s visit to the UK in July, will rise again for the state visit and could be accompanied by a bigger version, activists have revealed.
What happened next? The Trump baby blimp: 'In retrospect, we should have ordered a bigger balloon'
Anti-Trump campaigners are considering launching a hot air balloon, five times the size of the blimp, which would also depict Trump as a wailing baby in a nappy.
Leo Murray, who helped crowdfund the original six-metre-high inflatable, said: “The Trump baby will definitely fly again.”
He added: “We have been toying with the idea of a Trump baby hot air balloon, which would be about five times the size. But would cost a huge amount of money – upwards of £70,000.”
The shadow Treasury minister, Clive Lewis, called on protesters to “dust off the blimp” amid widespread opposition to the three-day state visit in the first week of June, announced on Tuesday.
Last year, the London mayor gave permission for the Trump blimp to fly over the capital in a move that infuriated the president’s supporters.
A spokesman for Sadiq Khan hinted that an attempt to relaunch the balloon would be approved. He said: “Any application to fly it on land that the Greater London Authority manages will be judged by the same criteria as last time by GLA officials, the police and the Civil Aviation Authority.”
But campaigners fear the authorities will block the approval for a bigger version of the blimp. Asad Rehman, the executive director of War on Want and a member of the Stop Trump Coalition, said: “We do have the baby blimp – it will fly and we’re also thinking about the option of making a bigger baby blimp. Logistics are the only consideration.”
He added: “We are very confident there will be more than a quarter of a million protesters. Trump’s visit last year mobilised a large number of people, but a year later the man has done more to rip up human rights, step back from international norms, continued his climate denialism and fuelled white nationalism.”
Murray conceded that raising money for the bigger blimp “might not be the best use of resources, especially if we are unable to fly it over London”.
The Donald Trump baby blimp, which became the focal point of protests against the US president’s visit to the UK in July, will rise again for the state visit and could be accompanied by a bigger version, activists have revealed.
What happened next? The Trump baby blimp: 'In retrospect, we should have ordered a bigger balloon'
Anti-Trump campaigners are considering launching a hot air balloon, five times the size of the blimp, which would also depict Trump as a wailing baby in a nappy.
Leo Murray, who helped crowdfund the original six-metre-high inflatable, said: “The Trump baby will definitely fly again.”
He added: “We have been toying with the idea of a Trump baby hot air balloon, which would be about five times the size. But would cost a huge amount of money – upwards of £70,000.”
The shadow Treasury minister, Clive Lewis, called on protesters to “dust off the blimp” amid widespread opposition to the three-day state visit in the first week of June, announced on Tuesday.
Last year, the London mayor gave permission for the Trump blimp to fly over the capital in a move that infuriated the president’s supporters.
A spokesman for Sadiq Khan hinted that an attempt to relaunch the balloon would be approved. He said: “Any application to fly it on land that the Greater London Authority manages will be judged by the same criteria as last time by GLA officials, the police and the Civil Aviation Authority.”
But campaigners fear the authorities will block the approval for a bigger version of the blimp. Asad Rehman, the executive director of War on Want and a member of the Stop Trump Coalition, said: “We do have the baby blimp – it will fly and we’re also thinking about the option of making a bigger baby blimp. Logistics are the only consideration.”
He added: “We are very confident there will be more than a quarter of a million protesters. Trump’s visit last year mobilised a large number of people, but a year later the man has done more to rip up human rights, step back from international norms, continued his climate denialism and fuelled white nationalism.”
Murray conceded that raising money for the bigger blimp “might not be the best use of resources, especially if we are unable to fly it over London”.
Military Traverse Underneath Alcatraz
BY STEPHANIE VALERA 03.01.2019
Aerial photograph (dated 1930s) of the Alcatraz island and penitentiary in the San Francisco Bay. (Photo Credit: OFF / AFP / Getty Images)
Alcatraz holds many forgotten secrets, but one has been discovered: High-tech radar and laser scans have uncovered a hidden military traverse underneath the infamous penitentiary, according to new research.
A team of researchers from Binghamton University, State University of New York used terrestrial laser scans, ground-penetrating radar data, and georectifications (the process of taking old digitized maps and linking them to a coordinate system so that they can be accurately geolocated in 3D space) to locate and assess the historical remains beneath the former recreation yard of the Alcatraz penitentiary, according to a press release.
The scans revealed that remnants of buried structures, including a “bombproof” earthwork traverse along with its underlying vaulted brick masonry tunnel and ventilation ducts, ran east to west beneath the recreation yard of the Alcatraz penitentiary, which is located in the San Francisco Bay, 1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco, Calif.
Binghamton University archaeologist Timothy de Smet, whose team’s findings are detailed in a paper published in the journal Near Surface Geophysics, said he was shocked to discover that the historical structures were maintained in such good condition.
“The remains of these historical archaeology features were just a few centimeters beneath the surface and they were miraculously and impeccably preserved,” de Smet said. “The concrete veneer of the Recreation Yard floor is incredibly thin and, in fact, in places sitting directly atop the architecture from the 1860s. We also learned that some of the earthwork traverses were covered over with thin concrete layers through time, likely to decrease erosion on the rainy windy island.”
Known as a former high-security federal penitentiary that once housed many of America’s most notorious gangsters and criminals, such as Al Capone, Alcatraz Island is now a National Historic Landmark that attracts several tourists in its location adjacent to the Golden Gate Bridge.
However, many overlook Alcatraz’s former military role as a 19th century coastal fortification, featuring underground ammunition. Since it was converted to a prison, researchers have been interested to see if there were any historical remains left of the fortification.
Binghamton University archaeologist Timothy de Smet and colleagues used terrestrial laser scans, ground-penetrating radar data and georectifications to locate and assess historical remains beneath the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. (Photo Credit: Timothy de Smet)
According to de Smet, during the construction of the Alcatraz prison in the 1900s, the area was essentially bulldozed from the former military installation to the modern prison we see today.
“We sought non-invasive, non-destructive means to ascertain if any historic archaeological remains lay beneath several parts of the island, like the Recreation Yard of the infamous US Federal penitentiary,” said de Smet. “We did not know what to expect. We did not know if there would be any extant subsurface architecture of these historically significant remains, or if there was anything left, what their extent and integrity would be like.”
The noninvasive process used by researchers permits accurate spatial identification 19th-century architectural structures depicted in historical documents. And this groundbreaking approach can also be applied to investigate other important cultural landmarks worldwide.
de Smet said the results prove that archaeologists can detect historical structures in a gentler manner: “These results are significant in that they show how modern technology can be used to answer fundamental questions of archaeological importance without any destructive excavations. This research shows that best practice approaches can be used to non-invasively non-destructively investigate the archaeological record with remote sensing alone.”
'It's clear we won': Istanbul's new mayor keen to start work
Ekrem İmamoğlu delivered a shock to the president but the fight for control of the city is not over
Bethan McKernan and Gokce Saracoglu in Istanbul
Mon 22 Apr 2019
Ekrem İmamoğlu was an outsider pick as the opposition coalition’s candidate for mayor of Istanbul. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Thousands of people gathered in Istanbul’s seaside Maltepe district on Sunday to see a politician take the stage in dazzling spring sunshine, red Turkish flags fluttering in the wind.
Such scenes are normal in Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey, but this rally wasn’t for him. It was for Istanbul’s new mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, who last month delivered one of the biggest challenges to Erdoğan’s grip on the country in years.
Local elections on 31 March proved to be an unexpected watershed momentin Turkish politics, as usually run-of-the-mill races for mayors and neighbourhood administrators became a referendum on Erdoğan’s handling of the faltering economy.
The ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) and an allied nationalist party won more than half of the votes across Turkey as a whole. But despite almost blanket pro-government media coverage, they lost Istanbul, the country’s economic and cultural powerhouse, as well as the capital, Ankara, breaking Islamist parties’ control of the two cities for the first time in a quarter of a century.
The AKP has challenged the secular Republican People’s party’s (CHP) win in Istanbul. As Erdoğan’s home town and the place where his political career took off as mayor in the 1990s, the city was a particularly painful loss for the president. His party has alleged ballot box fraud and asked Turkey’s electoral board for a rerun.
With a decision pending and possible new elections proposed for 2 June, the fight for control of the city is not over. But İmamoğlu seemed unperturbed as he settled into his new city hall office during an interview with the Guardian last week, wandering around the grand room to straighten gilt-framed pictures hanging on the walls.
“I am not feeling any pressure,” the 49-year-old said. “There are 16 million people in this city waiting for me to serve them and do the job I was elected to do. We need to work together and we can walk this road to success.”
İmamoğlu’s inclusive and conciliatory rhetoric was a large part of what got him elected: he strikes a tone very different to that of the firebrand politicians who have come to dominate Turkey’s polarised political scene. During the mayoral campaign, İmamoğlu reached out to working-class and pious AKP voters usually alienated by the middle-class CHP and talked about the need to integrate Syrian refugees into Turkish society.
“Lots of AKP voters asked me why I wasn’t running for their party instead,” he said. “They were pleased when I asked for their prayers rather than their votes.
“I don’t believe the public accepts divisive rhetoric and discriminatory policies. Populism has the upper hand in the world at the moment, but it will end eventually. Treating people with respect always wins out.”
İmamoğlu addresses supporters during a rally in Istanbul on Sunday. Photograph: Emrah Gürel/AP
İmamoğlu was an outsider pick as the opposition coalition’s candidate for mayor of Istanbul. He entered local politics in 2009 in an effort to sort out red tape facing his family construction business, eventually becoming mayor of the middle-class Beylikdüzü district in 2014’s local elections – the only seat gained by the CHP in the city that year.
Although well liked by constituents in Beylikdüzü, he was unknown to voters in the rest of Istanbul when he was pitted against the former prime minister Binali Yıldırım, a candidate hand-picked by Erdoğan to ensure an AKP victory, in last month’s election.
On election night as the initial results started to indicate a surprise CHP win, İmamoğlu held his ground, refusing to concede despite a premature victory announcement from Yıldırım.
“I didn’t sleep for almost 48 hours and I think we held 13 press conferences in the 24 hours after polling stations closed,” he said. “The official state agency was giving misleading numbers we knew were wrong. People were getting anxious and it was very stressful but we had to be sure we were right before we made a challenge.”
Canan Kaftancıoğlu, the CHP chair for Istanbul, said: “We were very prepared for the elections this time. We did our own polling, we had a double checking system to count votes, we made sure ballot boxes could not be tampered with. As the opposition we have finally learned from our previous mistakes in dealing with the government.”
Istanbul’s unofficial result - the final count still has not been verified – sent shockwaves through the rest of Turkey. İmamoğlu’s victory puts him at the forefront of resurgent social democratic movements around the world. But although he is now being touted as a potential candidate to run against Erdoğan for president in 2023, İmamoğlu said he did not see himself as a figure on the world stage.
“I think that judgment should be made by others, not by me. My decisions and my path in politics are a result of the fact that I’m a good manager with 10 years’ experience in getting things done,” he said.
There are potentially many obstacles in his path. Selahattin Demirtaş, another figure once touted as the Turkish opposition’s hope for the future, is in prison on charges related to the militant Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which he denies. Despite a strong campaign, Muharrem İnce, the CHP presidential candidate in 2018, quickly folded without explanation on election night.
İmamoğlu reached out to Erdoğan at the beginning of the local election campaigning, meeting him in Ankara, but the president delivered a pointed snub at an official engagement in Istanbul last week, refusing to shake his hand.
İmamoğlu, for his part, would risk the government’s anger if the CHP boycotts a rerun in Istanbul. Several CHP sources told the Guardian the party would refuse to engage in any AKP attempts to change last month’s result.
“I’m not even entertaining the thought of a rerun,” İmamoğlu said. “It’s clear we won. [The AKP] want to make people think otherwise, but it’s over. It’s time to move on.”
Seventeen days after the election, İmamoğlu’s team was finally given access to city hall on Wednesday night. The hectic activity in the building came to a brief standstill on Friday afternoon as İmamoğlu made his first address to municipality workers.
“I don’t want to be worshipped or feared. I just want you to work alongside me so we can do the best possible job for the people who elected us,” the new mayor told several hundred employees, some of whom leaned over balconies and took out phones to film the speech. “We have a lot of work to do.”
Thousands of people gathered in Istanbul’s seaside Maltepe district on Sunday to see a politician take the stage in dazzling spring sunshine, red Turkish flags fluttering in the wind.
Such scenes are normal in Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey, but this rally wasn’t for him. It was for Istanbul’s new mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, who last month delivered one of the biggest challenges to Erdoğan’s grip on the country in years.
Local elections on 31 March proved to be an unexpected watershed momentin Turkish politics, as usually run-of-the-mill races for mayors and neighbourhood administrators became a referendum on Erdoğan’s handling of the faltering economy.
The ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) and an allied nationalist party won more than half of the votes across Turkey as a whole. But despite almost blanket pro-government media coverage, they lost Istanbul, the country’s economic and cultural powerhouse, as well as the capital, Ankara, breaking Islamist parties’ control of the two cities for the first time in a quarter of a century.
The AKP has challenged the secular Republican People’s party’s (CHP) win in Istanbul. As Erdoğan’s home town and the place where his political career took off as mayor in the 1990s, the city was a particularly painful loss for the president. His party has alleged ballot box fraud and asked Turkey’s electoral board for a rerun.
With a decision pending and possible new elections proposed for 2 June, the fight for control of the city is not over. But İmamoğlu seemed unperturbed as he settled into his new city hall office during an interview with the Guardian last week, wandering around the grand room to straighten gilt-framed pictures hanging on the walls.
“I am not feeling any pressure,” the 49-year-old said. “There are 16 million people in this city waiting for me to serve them and do the job I was elected to do. We need to work together and we can walk this road to success.”
İmamoğlu’s inclusive and conciliatory rhetoric was a large part of what got him elected: he strikes a tone very different to that of the firebrand politicians who have come to dominate Turkey’s polarised political scene. During the mayoral campaign, İmamoğlu reached out to working-class and pious AKP voters usually alienated by the middle-class CHP and talked about the need to integrate Syrian refugees into Turkish society.
“Lots of AKP voters asked me why I wasn’t running for their party instead,” he said. “They were pleased when I asked for their prayers rather than their votes.
“I don’t believe the public accepts divisive rhetoric and discriminatory policies. Populism has the upper hand in the world at the moment, but it will end eventually. Treating people with respect always wins out.”
İmamoğlu addresses supporters during a rally in Istanbul on Sunday. Photograph: Emrah Gürel/AP
İmamoğlu was an outsider pick as the opposition coalition’s candidate for mayor of Istanbul. He entered local politics in 2009 in an effort to sort out red tape facing his family construction business, eventually becoming mayor of the middle-class Beylikdüzü district in 2014’s local elections – the only seat gained by the CHP in the city that year.
Although well liked by constituents in Beylikdüzü, he was unknown to voters in the rest of Istanbul when he was pitted against the former prime minister Binali Yıldırım, a candidate hand-picked by Erdoğan to ensure an AKP victory, in last month’s election.
On election night as the initial results started to indicate a surprise CHP win, İmamoğlu held his ground, refusing to concede despite a premature victory announcement from Yıldırım.
“I didn’t sleep for almost 48 hours and I think we held 13 press conferences in the 24 hours after polling stations closed,” he said. “The official state agency was giving misleading numbers we knew were wrong. People were getting anxious and it was very stressful but we had to be sure we were right before we made a challenge.”
Canan Kaftancıoğlu, the CHP chair for Istanbul, said: “We were very prepared for the elections this time. We did our own polling, we had a double checking system to count votes, we made sure ballot boxes could not be tampered with. As the opposition we have finally learned from our previous mistakes in dealing with the government.”
Istanbul’s unofficial result - the final count still has not been verified – sent shockwaves through the rest of Turkey. İmamoğlu’s victory puts him at the forefront of resurgent social democratic movements around the world. But although he is now being touted as a potential candidate to run against Erdoğan for president in 2023, İmamoğlu said he did not see himself as a figure on the world stage.
“I think that judgment should be made by others, not by me. My decisions and my path in politics are a result of the fact that I’m a good manager with 10 years’ experience in getting things done,” he said.
There are potentially many obstacles in his path. Selahattin Demirtaş, another figure once touted as the Turkish opposition’s hope for the future, is in prison on charges related to the militant Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which he denies. Despite a strong campaign, Muharrem İnce, the CHP presidential candidate in 2018, quickly folded without explanation on election night.
İmamoğlu reached out to Erdoğan at the beginning of the local election campaigning, meeting him in Ankara, but the president delivered a pointed snub at an official engagement in Istanbul last week, refusing to shake his hand.
İmamoğlu, for his part, would risk the government’s anger if the CHP boycotts a rerun in Istanbul. Several CHP sources told the Guardian the party would refuse to engage in any AKP attempts to change last month’s result.
“I’m not even entertaining the thought of a rerun,” İmamoğlu said. “It’s clear we won. [The AKP] want to make people think otherwise, but it’s over. It’s time to move on.”
Seventeen days after the election, İmamoğlu’s team was finally given access to city hall on Wednesday night. The hectic activity in the building came to a brief standstill on Friday afternoon as İmamoğlu made his first address to municipality workers.
“I don’t want to be worshipped or feared. I just want you to work alongside me so we can do the best possible job for the people who elected us,” the new mayor told several hundred employees, some of whom leaned over balconies and took out phones to film the speech. “We have a lot of work to do.”
Ethical Tech
A Googler who brought down Google’s AI ethics board says she’s now facing retaliation
One of the leading figures in the movement to disband Google’s AI ethics board says she and other employee activists are now being punished for their activism.
In an e-mail circulated internally within Google and obtained by Wired, Meredith Whittaker, who leads Google’s Open Research and cofounded the research institute AI Now, wrote that after the ethics board’s dissolution, she was informed that her role would be “changed dramatically.” “I’m told that to remain at the company I will have to abandon my work on AI ethics and the AI Now Institute,” she said.
Since its founding, AI Now has become an influential cornerstone of research on AI ethics and social impact, releasing reports and hosting annual summits that have sparked vigorous debate within the rest of the field. “Meredith [...] has been a real pioneer & thought leader on AI ethics, especially when it comes to ML bias, diversity, & inclusion,” François Chollet, a leading deep-learning expert at Google, wrote on Twitter. “I believe that her work is critical to Google’s mission, as an AI-first company [and...] I hope that she will be able to carry on her important work.”
In a statement, a Google spokesperson denied the allegations: “Employees and teams are regularly and commonly given new assignments, or reorganized, to keep pace with evolving business needs. There has been no retaliation here.”
Sonar ‘Accidentally’ Detects 16th-Century Dutch Shipwreck
BY STEPHANIE VALERA 04.21.2019 :: 1:55PM EDT
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Copper plates found on a 16th-century Dutch shipwreck, which was accidentally discovered on the North Sea floor by salvage teams searching for containers that fell off a merchant ship in January. (Photo Credit: Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency)
STAY ON TARGET
In what is being hailed as a lucky accident, a salvage team looking for containers that had fallen off a transport ship in Dutch waters discovered a 16th-century shipwreck on the North Sea floor.
Copper plates and wooden beams were found on the vessel, which dates back to 1540, making it the oldest find of a seafaring ship in Dutch waters ever, according to the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency.
Sonar image of the 16h-century shipwreck. (Photo Credit: Rijkswaterstaat)
The searchers were using ship-borne sonar equipment to find some 345 steel containers that fell from the ship MSC Zoe during a storm in January. As they scanned the Dutch North Sea, the sonar equipment spotted an unknown object on the seafloor north of the Dutch island of Terschelling.
The team sent down a mechanical grab — and brought up timbers from the 16th-century shipwreck, and almost five tons of its precious cargo of copper plates.
“This can rightfully be called a lucky accident,” said Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science Ingrid van Engelshoven said. “This spectacular discovery was made while salvaging containers… I find this discovery an enrichment of Dutch heritage.”
Wooden beam recovered from the wreck. (Photo Credit: Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency)
Researchers that examined the wooden beams found that they were felled in 1536 and that the ship was built around 1540 in the Netherlands. After an investigation, the copper plates were found to be dated around the same period. The plates bear the stamps of the Fugger family – one of the wealthiest families in European history – who at the time had a monopoly on copper production.
The beams and copper plates were unveiled to the public earlier this month.
Copper plates recovered from the wreck were unveiled at a presentation of the findings in Amersfoort, Netherlands on April 3, 2019. (Photo Credit: Koen Van Weel / AFP / Getty Images)
Underwater archaeologist Martijn Manders said the early 16th-century ship marked a period of transition in medieval history, when shipbuilders moved away from the traditional clinker-type model of overlapping timber. Ships built afterward started introducing timber arrangements that saw planks sit flush alongside each other, known as carvel-built hulls.
“It’s the way the ship was built that’s very interesting because you have to think 100 years later the Netherlands was in the middle of its Golden Age — and this ship is from a transition period,” he said.
Copper plates recovered from the wreck bear the Fugger family’s coat of arms. (Photo Credit: Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency)
Subsequent chemical testing has determined the copper plates lifted from the wreck were also of the same substances used to create the Netherlands’ first copper coins, Australia’s ABC News reported. It remains unclear, however, if the wreck’s copper plates were slated to become coins.
More secrets of the newly discovered shipwreck may soon be revealed as the Netherlands’ Cultural Heritage Agency plans to continue archaeological research on the shipwreck and bring more of its remains to the surface.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon Suffers 'Anomaly' And May Have Exploded During A Test
EUGENE'S COMMENT:
ANOMALY WAS STATIC ELECTRICITY WHICH CAUSED THE DRAGON TO EXPLODE
SpaceX’s historic Crew Dragon spacecraft that launched for the first time last month appears to have exploded, according to reports, potentially delaying the return to flight of humans from American soil.
On Saturday, April 20, an explosion was reported at a test stand at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Images and video showed smoke rising from the area following a “reddish-orange plume” in the sky, reported Spaceflight Now.
In a statement, SpaceX confirmed that something had gone awry. “Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida,” they said. “The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand.”
A video also emerged on Twitter, apparently showing the moment the accident took place, although this has been unconfirmed as yet. There are no reported injuries or fatalities from the explosion, while it’s unclear so far how much of the spacecraft was damaged, or if any part of it survived.
"On April 20, 2019, an anomaly occurred at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during the Dragon 2 static test fire," Jim Williams, a spokesperson from the 45th Space Wing, told Florida Today. "The anomaly was contained and there were no injuries."
The explosion appears to have happened during a routine test of the spacecraft’s SuperDraco thrusters, although the cause is unknown. Located on the side of the vehicle, these are designed to take the spacecraft away from the rocket in case of an emergency before or during launch. An in-flight abort test with no crew on board had been planned in the coming months using these thrusters.
The vehicle that exploded is believed to be the same one used on the historic Demonstration Mission 1 (DM-1) in early March. That uncrewed flight saw the vehicle fly to the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time, the first spacecraft designed for humans to launch to orbit from U.S. soil since the final flight of the Space Shuttle in 2011.
The vehicle had completed a successful flight to space in early March 2019.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SpaceX had planned to launch its first humans on a Crew Dragon vehicle – albeit a different one to that flown on DM-1 – as early as summer of this year as part of the DM-2 mission. But the explosion this weekend will almost certainly lead to a delay of some sort, with an investigation sure to follow into what went wrong.
“It’s quite possible that the accident investigation to follow will be SpaceX’s most difficult and trying yet,” noted Teslarati. “Major work will need to be done to prove to NASA that the spacecraft is safe.”
If confirmed, the Crew Dragon explosion would be the second recent setback for NASA’s Commercial Crew program. In early April, Boeing – the other company being funded as part of this program – said it was delaying the first uncrewed test flight of its Starliner vehicle until August. Originally the company had planned to launch this spring. Last year, Starliner also experienced a problem with its own abort thrusters.
Fortunately SpaceX’s Crew Dragon fault this weekend occurred with no humans on board, but making sure the vehicle is safe is absolutely paramount. The fallout from this incident may take some time, and it may mean that the possibility of launching humans in 2019 on either Crew Dragon or Starliner becomes fairly unlikely.
“NASA has been notified about the results of the SpaceX Static Fire Test and the anomaly that occurred during the final test,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. “We will work closely to ensure we safely move forward with our Commercial Crew Program.”
SpaceX’s historic Crew Dragon spacecraft that launched for the first time last month appears to have exploded, according to reports, potentially delaying the return to flight of humans from American soil.
On Saturday, April 20, an explosion was reported at a test stand at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Images and video showed smoke rising from the area following a “reddish-orange plume” in the sky, reported Spaceflight Now.
In a statement, SpaceX confirmed that something had gone awry. “Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida,” they said. “The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand.”
A video also emerged on Twitter, apparently showing the moment the accident took place, although this has been unconfirmed as yet. There are no reported injuries or fatalities from the explosion, while it’s unclear so far how much of the spacecraft was damaged, or if any part of it survived.
"On April 20, 2019, an anomaly occurred at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during the Dragon 2 static test fire," Jim Williams, a spokesperson from the 45th Space Wing, told Florida Today. "The anomaly was contained and there were no injuries."
The explosion appears to have happened during a routine test of the spacecraft’s SuperDraco thrusters, although the cause is unknown. Located on the side of the vehicle, these are designed to take the spacecraft away from the rocket in case of an emergency before or during launch. An in-flight abort test with no crew on board had been planned in the coming months using these thrusters.
The vehicle that exploded is believed to be the same one used on the historic Demonstration Mission 1 (DM-1) in early March. That uncrewed flight saw the vehicle fly to the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time, the first spacecraft designed for humans to launch to orbit from U.S. soil since the final flight of the Space Shuttle in 2011.
The vehicle had completed a successful flight to space in early March 2019.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SpaceX had planned to launch its first humans on a Crew Dragon vehicle – albeit a different one to that flown on DM-1 – as early as summer of this year as part of the DM-2 mission. But the explosion this weekend will almost certainly lead to a delay of some sort, with an investigation sure to follow into what went wrong.
“It’s quite possible that the accident investigation to follow will be SpaceX’s most difficult and trying yet,” noted Teslarati. “Major work will need to be done to prove to NASA that the spacecraft is safe.”
If confirmed, the Crew Dragon explosion would be the second recent setback for NASA’s Commercial Crew program. In early April, Boeing – the other company being funded as part of this program – said it was delaying the first uncrewed test flight of its Starliner vehicle until August. Originally the company had planned to launch this spring. Last year, Starliner also experienced a problem with its own abort thrusters.
Fortunately SpaceX’s Crew Dragon fault this weekend occurred with no humans on board, but making sure the vehicle is safe is absolutely paramount. The fallout from this incident may take some time, and it may mean that the possibility of launching humans in 2019 on either Crew Dragon or Starliner becomes fairly unlikely.
“NASA has been notified about the results of the SpaceX Static Fire Test and the anomaly that occurred during the final test,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. “We will work closely to ensure we safely move forward with our Commercial Crew Program.”
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