Female physicists aren’t represented in the media – and this lack of representation hurts the physics field

The Conversation
July 12, 2023,

Lise Meitner, in the front row, sits alongside many male colleagues at the Seventh Solvay Physics Conference in 1933. Corbin Historical via Getty Images

Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated movie “Oppenheimer,” set for release July 21, 2023, depicts J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb. But while the Manhattan Project wouldn’t have been possible without the work of many accomplished female scientists, the only women seen in the movie’s trailer are either hanging laundry, crying or cheering the men on.

The only women featured in the official trailer for Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ are crying, hanging laundry or supporting the men.

As a physics professor who studies ways to support women in STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – fields and a film studies professor who worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood, we believe the trailer’s depiction of women reinforces stereotypes about who can succeed in science. It also represents a larger trend of women’s contributions in science going unrecognized in modern media.

Lise Meitner: A pioneering role model in physics

The Manhattan Project would not have been possible without the work of physicist Lise Meitner, who discovered nuclear fission. Meitner used Einstein’s E=MC² to calculate how much energy would be released by splitting uranium atoms, and it was that development that would prompt Einstein to sign a letter urging President Franklin Roosevelt to begin the United States’ atomic research program.

Einstein called Meitner the “Madame Curie of Germany” and was one of a pantheon of physicists, from Max Planck to Niels Bohr, who nominated Meitner for a Nobel Prize 48 times during her lifetime.

Lise Meitner, the accomplished physicist who discovered nuclear fission.

MaterialScientist/Wikimedia Commons

Meitner never won. Instead, the prize for fission went to Otto Hahn, her male lab partner of 30 years in Berlin. Hahn received the news of his nomination under house arrest in England, where he and other German scientists were being held to determine how far the Third Reich had advanced with its atomic program.

Of Jewish descent, Meitner had been forced to flee the Nazis in 1938 and refused to use this scientific discovery to develop a bomb. Rather, she spent the rest of her life working to promote nuclear disarmament and advocating for the responsible use of nuclear energy.

Meitner was not the only woman who made a significant contribution during this time. But the lack of physics role models like Meitner in popular media leads to real-life consequences. Meitner doesn’t appear as a character in the film, as she was not part of the Manhattan Project, but we hope the script alludes to her groundbreaking work.

A lack of representation

Only around 20% of the undergraduate majors and Ph.D. students in physics are women. The societal stereotypes and biases, expectation of brilliance, lack of role models and chilly culture of physics discourage many talented students from historically marginalized backgrounds, like women, from pursuing physics and related disciplines.

Societal stereotypes and biases influence students even before they enter the classroom. One common stereotype is the idea that genius and brilliance are important factors to succeed in physics. However, genius is often associated with boys, and girls from a young age tend to shy away fromfields associated with innate brilliance.

Studies have found that by the age of 6, girls are less likely than boys to believe they are “really, really smart.” As these students get older, often the norms in science classes and curricula tend not to represent the interests and values of girls. All of these stereotypes and factors can influence women’s perception of their ability to do physics.

Research shows that at the end of a yearlong college physics course sequence, women with an “A” have the same physics self-efficacy as men with a “C”. A person’s physics self-efficacy is their belief about how good they are at solving physics problems – and one’s self-efficacy can shape their career trajectory.

Women drop out of college science and engineering majors with significantly higher grade-point averages than men who drop out. In some cases, women who drop out have the same GPA as men who complete those majors. Compared to men, women in physics courses feel significantly less recognized for their accomplishments. Recognition from others as a person who can excel in physics is the strongest predictor of a student’s physics identity, or whether they see themselves as someone who can excel in physics.

More frequent media recognition of female scientists, such as Meitner, could vicariously influence young women, who may see them as role models. This recognition alone can boost young women’s physics self-efficacy and identity.

When Meitner started her career at the beginning of the 20th century, male physicists made excuses about why women had no place in a lab – their long hair might catch fire on Bunsen burners, for instance. We like to believe we have made progress in the past century, but the underrepresentation of women in physics is still concerning.


A number of barriers keep young women out of the physics field, but having role models to look up to can lead them toward success. 

Hill Street Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Diversity as an asset to science

If diverse groups of scientists are involved in brainstorming challenging problems, not only can they devise better, future-oriented solutions, but those solutions will also benefit a wider range of people.

Individuals’ lived experiences affect their perspectives – for example, over two centuries ago, mathematician Ada Lovelace imagined applications far beyond what the original inventors of the computer intended. Similarly, women today are more likely to focus on applications of quantum computers that will benefit their communities. Additionally, physicists from Global South countries are more likely to develop improved stoves, solar cells, water purification systems or solar-powered lamps. The perspectives that diverse groups bring to science problems can lead to new innovations.

Our intention is not to disparage the “Oppenheimer” movie, but to point out that by not centering media attention on diverse voices – including those of women in physics like Meitner – filmmakers perpetuate the status quo and stereotypes about who belongs in physics. Additionally, young women continue to be deprived of exposure to role models who could inspire their academic and professional journeys

Carl Kurlander, Senior Lecturer, Film and Media Studies, University of Pittsburgh and Chandralekha Singh, Distinguished Professor of Physics, University of Pittsburgh

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The atomic age was born 78 years ago — government secrecy and 'cover-ups' have held sway ever since

Greg Mitchell
July 12, 2023


While many people trace the dawn of the nuclear era to August 6, 1945, and the dropping of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, it really began three weeks earlier, in the desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico, with the top-secret Trinity test, on July 16, 1945. This forms the dramatic center of Christopher Nolan’s new "Oppenheimer" epic, coming to theaters on July 21. That has been true, in fact, about every movie about the making and use of the first atomic bomb, going back to the very first film in 1947.

The successful detonation put President Truman on the path to using the horrendous new weapon, twice, against Japanese cities, killing at least 170,000 civilians and others. Much less attention has been directed at how the aftermath of the test lay the groundwork for the age that would follow: the cover-up of radiation effects on Americans (workers, soldiers and others) and government obsession with secrecy, soon extending to all military and foreign affairs in the Cold War era, with many negative effects.

One value of focusing on the New Mexico bomb test and not Hiroshima and Nagasaki in popular accounts: No one died that day at Trinity, a far cry from what would happen in Japan. In finalizing work on the revolutionary new weapon, Manhattan Project scientists knew it would produce deadly radiation but weren’t sure exactly how much. One Los Alamos scientist had already died from radiation exposure. The military planners were mainly concerned about pilots ion the bombers carrying the payload catching a dose, but Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, worried, with good cause (as it turned out) that radioactive particles could drift for miles and fall to earth, especially with the rain.

Scientists warned of dangers to those living downwind from the Trinity site but, in a pattern-setting decision, the director of the bomb project, General Leslie R. Groves, ruled that residents should not be evacuated and kept completely in the dark (even after they were sure to spot a blast brighter than any sun before dawn on July 16). Nothing was to interfere with the test. When two doctors on Oppenheimer’s staff proposed an evacuation, Groves replied, “What are you, Hearst propagandists?”

There is no record of Oppenheimer himself trying to intervene. Most movie and book portrayals of him — we don’t know yet about Christopher Nolan’s — focus on him leading the drive to make the bomb but downplay his role in advocating its use against Japan. In fact, he was militant on getting the bomb used against Japan, even taking part in targeting decisions.

Admiral William Leahy, President Truman’s chief of staff — who opposed dropping the bomb on Japan — placed the weapon in the same category as “poison gas.” Sure enough, soon after the shot went off, scientists monitored alarming evidence. Radiation was quickly settling to earth in a band thirty miles wide by 100 miles long. A paralyzed mule was discovered twenty-five miles from ground zero.

Still, it could have been worse. The cloud had drifted over loosely-populated settlements. “We were just damn lucky,” the head of radiological safety for the test later affirmed. The local press knew nothing about any of this. When the shock wave had hit the trenches in the desert, Groves’ first words were: “We must keep the whole thing quiet.” These seven words set the tone for the decades that followed.

Naturally, reporters from nearby newspapers were curious about the big blast, however, so Groves released a statement written by W.L. Laurence (who was on leave from the New York Times and playing the role of chief atomic propagandist) announcing that an “ammunition dump” had exploded. Nobody questioned and the bomb project and preparations for using the weapon in war accelerated.

In the weeks that followed, ranchers discovered dozens of cattle had odd burns or were losing hair. Oppenheimer ordered post-test health reports held in the strictest secrecy. When Laurence’s famous report for The Times on the Trinity test was published after the Hiroshima bombing he made no mention of radiation.

Even as the scientists celebrated their success at Alamogordo on July 16, the first radioactive cloud was drifting eastward over America, depositing fallout along its path. When Americans found out about this, three months later, the word came not from the government but from the president of the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York, who wondered why some of his film was fogging and suspected radioactivity as the cause.

Fallout was absent in early press accounts of the Hiroshima bombing as the media joined in the triumphalist backing of The Bomb and the bombings. It was pictured as just a Big Bang. When reports of thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki afflicted with a strange and horrible new disease emerged, General Groves called it all a “hoax” and “propaganda” and speculated that the Japanese had different “blood.” He told a congressional committee that he had heard that expiring from radiation disease was a rather "pleasant way to die."

None of this made an appearance in 1947 when Hollywood produced its first movie on the atomic bomb, MGM's "The Beginning or the End." In one scene before the Trinity test, General Groves even cracks a joke when someone wonders what would happen if the bomb created a radioactive cloud. "I don't know about you," Groves (Brian Donlevy) comments, "but I am running."

The movie also stayed clear of the famous line uttered by Oppenheimer after the blast, from the Baghavad Gita, "I am become death, destroyer of worlds," and the claim by a fellow scientist that morning: "Now we are all sons of bitches." Instead we see Oppenheimer, Groves and others striding across the desert, chatting about how President Franklin Roosevelt would be so proud if he had lived to see this day.

My recent book, "The Beginning or the End," also explores how Oppenheimer signed a release for MGM allowing himself to be depicted in the movie (and serve as narrator) even after reading a script and considering it awful and full of falsehoods. Truman and the Pentagon forced the filmmakers to introduce pro-bomb revisions, even if many were inaccurate.

We’ll soon see if Nolan includes any of this in his new movie. When some of the truth about radiation and radiation disease started to surface in the U.S. media, a full-scale official effort to downplay the death toll from that really enveloped the issue, so as not to alarm Americans now facing their own nuclearized future. Oppenheimer even led a misleading press tour of the Trinity site a month after the atomic attacks to “give lie to”(as the Pentagon put it) Japanese claims of radiation dangers. Of course, Geiger counters found only low levels of radiation lingering at the test site, which hardly disputed the initial dangers.

Yet few could escape the threatening, sometimes tragic effects, for decades: millions of workers in the nuclear industry, “downwinders” near the test sites (and others exposed to fallout across the country), and “atomic soldiers and sailors” asked to witness tests at close hand, among others (not to mention the American patients subjected to medical tests). The mindset of "secrecy first" took hold throughout the government, with obvious ramifications for us today.

Trinity was the beginning, but we are not yet at its end.

Greg Mitchell's latest book is "The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood--and America--Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"(
(The New Press). He has written a dozen books and has directed three documentary since 2021, including Atomic Cover-up, and two for PBS.

US EPA proposes tighter rules for lead exposure in residential buildings
2023/07/12


By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday proposed stricter regulations for lead exposure in residential buildings and childcare facilities.

Any amount of lead found in a building will be regarded as hazardous, according to the proposed rule from the EPA that would lower its lead dust hazard level to any level greater than zero.

The rule will, therefore, require disclosures for home buyers, and in certain cases for the paint or source of the lead to be removed.

Although the federal government banned lead-based paint for residential use in 1978, it is estimated that 31 million pre-1978 houses still contain lead-based paint, and 3.8 million of them have one or more children under the age of six living there, creating health and developmental risks for children, the EPA said in a statement.

The proposed rule is estimated to reduce the lead exposures of about 250,000 to 500,000 children under age six per year, the EPA said on Wednesday.

"This proposal to safely remove lead paint along with our other efforts to deliver clean drinking water and replace lead pipes will go a long way toward protecting the health of our next generation of leaders," said EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe.

Lead exposure can damage the brain and kidneys and interfere with red blood cells that carry oxygen to all parts of the body. It poses a particular danger to children, whose nervous systems are still developing.

"There is no safe level of lead. Even low levels are detrimental to children’s health, and this proposal would bring us closer to eradicating lead-based paint hazards from homes and child care facilities across the U.S once and for all," said Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the office of chemical safety and pollution prevention.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)

© Reuters

 

Police say at least six killed and 50 children tear-gassed in Kenyan protests

Protests have broken out across the country against the rising cost of living.

WED, 12 JUL, 2023 - 15:58

CARA ANNA, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Six people were killed by police during protests across Kenya, a police official has said.

A health worker also said that more than 50 schoolchildren in the capital, Nairobi, were tear-gassed.

Protests have broken out across the country against the rising cost of living.

The opposition leader behind the demonstrations vowed that they would continue until a new law imposing taxes is repealed.

Anti-government protesters are demonstrating against newly imposed taxes and the cost of living (Samson Otieno/AP)

The police official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said three people were killed in Mlolongo city in Machakos county, two in Kitengela town near Nairobi, and one in the town of Emali on the highway to the port city of Mombasa.

The officer said more than 10 people were taken to hospitals.

According to the official, the six who were killed were shot for disrupting businesses, but did not elaborate any further.

The police have been criticised by human rights watchdogs for their sometimes deadly response to such protests.

A health records worker at the Eagle Nursing Home clinic in Nairobi’s Kangemi neighbourhood said 53 children were treated after tear gas was thrown into their school.

The children, aged 10 to 15 had been in shock, said Alvin Sikuku.

Mr Sikuku said: “At this point they are OK, with their parents. Right now, things are cool.”

Dozens of protesters in Nairobi burned tires and dismantled part of an entrance to a recently built expressway.

Protesters carry a placard in Swahili that reads ‘Ruto, what is wrong with your thinking, we are fed up’ (Samson Otieno/AP)

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who lost last year’s election to President William Ruto, has repeatedly called on Kenyans to protest as the country struggles with debt and rising prices.

Mr Odinga said that such protests will continue and he accused police of blocking access to the site where he had planned to make a speech.

He also accused police of using excessive force against protesters.

Mr Odinga said: “All our engagements are peaceful until the police show up.”

New taxes have added to frustration in East Africa’s economic hub, with inflation at around 8%.

Taxes on petroleum products, including gasoline, have doubled from 8% to 16%, which is expected to have a ripple effect.

Mr Odinga called on Mr Ruto to repeal the act imposing the new tax measures.

“People are tired of going to bed hungry, facing the new day hungry and returning to bed hungry,” he said.

Protesters and the police clashed in the Mathare neighbourhood of Nairobi (AP)

Most Kenyans either get on with their day or stay home during such demonstrations, but the economic toll of the demonstrations is yet another challenge for Mr Ruto, who won the election after appealing to Kenyans as a fellow “hustler” of modest background and vowing to lessen their everyday financial pain.

Lilian Anyango, a Nairobi resident, said: “Our children are not going to school, we are not affording food. Now we cannot go to work due to the protest.

“We do not have options. We do not know what we will do with the current government.”

Police have been criticised by human rights watchdogs for their assertion that any demonstration needs advance notification “in the interest of national security”.

Kenya’s constitution includes the right to peacefully demonstrate.

In a letter calling the protests “illegal”, Japhet Koome, the national police inspector general said: “All lawful means will be used to disperse such demonstrations.”

8 facts about Black Lives Matter

BY JENN HATFIELD

PEW RESEARCH

JULY 12, 2023

In the 10 years since the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag was first used on social media, it has appeared in more than 44 million tweets, according to a recent Pew Research Center report. On a typical (median) day, #BlackLivesMatter appears in about 3,000 tweets as users discuss topics such as racism, violence and the criminal justice system.

Use of the hashtag has often surged around specific acts of violence against Black Americans. The hashtag first appeared in July 2013, after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida. Its use peaked at over 1.2 million tweets per day after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in May 2020.

As we mark 10 years since the hashtag originated, here are eight facts about the Black Lives Matter movement.

How we did this

About half of adults in the United States (51%) say they support the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a 2023 Center survey. This includes 22% who strongly support it and 29% who somewhat support it.

There are significant differences in opinion by race and ethnicity, political party, and age. About eight-in-ten Black Americans (81%) support the movement, compared with 63% of Asian, 61% of Hispanic and 42% of White Americans. Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party are about five times as likely as Republicans and Republican leaners to support Black Lives Matter (84% vs. 17%). And whereas most adults ages 18 to 29 (64%) support the movement, 41% of those ages 65 and older do.

Support for Black Lives Matter has decreased significantly among U.S. adults since June 2020, the same Center survey shows. Two-thirds of adults strongly or somewhat supported the movement in June 2020 – shortly after Floyd was murdered – but that share fell to 56% in March 2022 and 51% in April 2023.

The decline is largely due to a smaller share of White adults supporting the movement. In June 2020, 60% of White adults said they supported Black Lives Matter, but that share fell to 50% in 2022 and 42% this year. Support among Asian and Hispanic adults has also fallen since 2020, but not as sharply as it has among White adults. In contrast, about 80% or more of Black adults have expressed support for the movement every year since 2020.

Most teenagers support the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a separate Center survey conducted in 2022. Seven-in-ten Americans ages 13 to 17 said they strongly or somewhat support the movement.

Black and Democratic teenagers were especially likely to support the movement. Some 92% of Black teenagers said they support it, compared with 82% of Hispanic and 57% of White teenagers. (There were not enough Asian teens in the sample to allow for separate analysis.) And 94% of Democratic teens said they support Black Lives Matter – more than twice the share of Republican teens who said the same (42%).

Among U.S. adults, 7% say they have ever attended a Black Lives Matter protest, according to the 2023 Center report. Even among the demographic groups that are most likely to support Black Lives Matter, the shares of people who have attended a protest are low.

Some 15% of Black adults say they have attended a Black Lives Matter protest; they are more likely than Hispanic, Asian or White adults to say they have done so. Similarly, adults ages 18 to 29 are about twice as likely as those 30 to 49 and five times as likely as those 50 and older to have attended a Black Lives Matter protest. And Democrats are four times as likely as Republicans to have done this.

Many Black adults in the U.S. say Black Lives Matter has done the most to help Black people in recent years. About four-in-ten Black adults (39%) said this in a 2021 Center survey. That far exceeded the share of Black adults who said the same about any other entity asked about in the survey, including the NAACP, Black churches or other religious organizations, the Congressional Black Caucus and the National Urban League. (This survey did not specify whether Black Lives Matter referred to an organization or the broader movement.)

The public is divided on how effective the Black Lives Matter movement has been at bringing attention to racism against Black people in the U.S. About a third of adults (32%) say the movement has been extremely or very effective at this. Some 35% say it has been somewhat effective, while 30% say it has been not too or not at all effective, according to the 2023 Center survey.

Black and Asian adults are more likely than other racial and ethnic groups to say the movement has been extremely or very effective at bringing attention to racism in the country. Some 48% of Black adults and 46% of Asian adults say this, compared with 33% of Hispanic and 27% of White adults.

The public gives the Black Lives Matter movement lower marks on some other questions. Only 14% of U.S. adults say the movement has been extremely or very effective at increasing police accountability; 8% say it has been effective at improving the lives of Black people; and 7% say it has improved race relations.

A large majority of social media users in the U.S. (77%) say they have seen content on social media related to Black Lives Matter, but far fewer report having ever posted or shared something about this topic, according to the 2023 Center report. Some 24% of social media users say they have posted or shared content supporting Black Lives Matter, while 10% have shared content opposing it.

Black social media users are particularly likely to have posted in support of Black Lives Matter: 52% have done so, compared with 24% of Hispanic, 22% of Asian and 18% of White users. Younger users are also more likely than older users to have posted or shared something in support of Black Lives Matter, as are Democrats when compared with Republicans.

On Twitter specifically, millions of people first engaged with the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag following Floyd’s murder. Between May and September 2020, 5.8 million distinct users shared a tweet that contained the hashtag for the first time.

A majority of social media posts that use the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag are supportive, the same report finds. Between July 2013 and March 2023, about seven-in-ten publicly available tweets that used the hashtag (72%) were positive toward the movement. Another 17% were neutral and 11% were negative.

Supportive tweets commonly include words such as together, justice, change, brutality and murder, whereas negative tweets often use words such as riot, assault, criminal and violent.

Scrapping IMF surcharges is key to cutting debt burden on distressed nations

ROBERT WALKER MARIZA COORAY ROLAND RAJAH

The economic logic of charging beyond lending rates doesn’t add up and also undermines the Fund’s legitimacy.

Ciudad Bolivar neighbourhood, south of Bogota, Colombia

 (Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images)

Published 12 Jul 2023

Global Economy
IMF   

Follow @RolandMRajah

More than 50 countries, composing half of the world’s poorest people, are facing severe debt distress. “Crisis” might be an overused term in global politics, but surely this qualifies as one.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) serves as the “lender of last resort” for financially distressed countries – its role to lend at reasonable terms when no one else will. The hope is to prevent crises from getting worse, and, along with imposing policy changes, to ultimately help countries sustainably exit economic troubles.

Less well appreciated, however, is that the IMF often imposes significant “surcharges” well beyond its basic lending rate. These surcharges have long been controversial. But after the twin shocks of Covid-19 and the invasion of Ukraine, there are renewed and growing calls for these surcharges to be abolished, including from Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and some member countries.
There is little evidence that the surcharge policy has achieved its purpose.

The IMF for its part says that surcharges are important for protecting the Fund’s financial integrity by discouraging “large and prolonged use of IMF resources”. It further claims surcharges help manage credit risk, encourage early repayment, and contribute to IMF resources. This economic logic is dubious. Rather than reduce the burden placed on the IMF, surcharges seem more likely to increase the eventual financial burden while also undermining its legitimacy.

IMF loans come with a standard (currently about 5 per cent) interest rate, with surcharges imposed based on certain criteria. An additional 2 per cent a year is charged for outstanding amounts above 187.5 per cent of a country’s standard allocation. A further 1 per cent a year is charged if outstanding debts remain above this threshold after three years. Surcharges do not apply to low-income countries but do apply to still economically fragile lower-middle income countries.

There is little evidence that the surcharge policy has achieved its purpose. The IMF itself states that the “heaviest users of Fund resources have consistently accounted for the bulk of the Fund’s total surcharges income”, with 95 per cent of surcharge income drawn from recurring debtor countries

.

A high rise residential tower under construction in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta 

(Romeo Gacad/AFP via Getty Images)

The most obvious problem with surcharges is they are procyclical – reinforcing economic downturns by further constraining fiscal space for governments during a crisis. Plenty of IMF research demonstrates the importance of countercyclical fiscal policy to combat economic crises. Imposing procyclical costs works directly against this rationale.

Related to this, in seeking to deter excessive borrowing, surcharges conversely risk encouraging governments and IMF staff to design unrealistic adjustment programs predicated on premature fiscal consolidation and over-optimistic assumptions for recovery.

For instance, the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office concluded that program targets and timelines in the wake of the 2007-08 global financial crisis were over-optimistic – reflecting forecasting errors, underestimation of the negative effect of premature fiscal consolidation, and overestimation of the benefits from structural reforms. Similarly, others find systematic over-optimism in the IMF’s debt projections of emerging market developing economies.
Ukraine, a country fighting back against an illegal invasion, which having turned to the IMF for assistance, will also face significant surcharge costs.

The IMF should encourage countries to seek early assistance – timeliness is critical to containing crises. By making the IMF less attractive, surcharges do the opposite. These lead to greater bailout costs, reducing the success rates of IMF programs, and undermine the Fund’s reputation and role as the global lender of last resort.

Sri Lanka is a prime example of these dynamics. Since independence the country has been forced to turn to the IMF a total of 17 times. Despite obviously worsening economic conditions since 2019, the government delayed approaching the Fund again until it was already at breaking point – having run out of foreign exchange reserves and defaulted on its debt obligations. The design of the IMF program already looks unrealistic, targeting only limited debt relief that would see Sri Lanka’s public debt still at 95% of GDP a decade from now. The result is a high probability this will not be the last time the country turns to the IMF for help.

To make matters worse, surcharges undermine the IMF’s legitimacy while it profits from countries in crisis. One perverse outcome can be seen in Ukraine, a country fighting back against an illegal invasion, which having turned to the IMF for assistance will also face significant surcharge costs, potentially amounting to as much as $423 million, equal to 25 per cent of Ukraine’s health sector spending over the pandemic.

At the most basic level, it is not clear why the IMF needs to use surcharges to deter countries from seeking larger-than-normal support. The Fund can simply deny requests beyond either what it thinks is needed or a reasonable share of its financing capacity. Meanwhile, preferred creditor status implies the IMF faces little risk in practice that it will not be repaid.

Over the next decade, the Fund is estimated to receive over $14 billion from developing country surcharge payments. Yet foregoing these payments would not substantially alter the Fund’s precautionary balance sheet. Some forecasts have the precautionary balance hitting target by 2027 without any surcharge income.

Getting rid of surcharges has been called for many times. However, given reluctance of the IMF’s shareholders to do so, useful smaller steps could include enhancing the transparency around surcharge costs, waiving or easing surcharges on loans provided in response to recent external shocks, and shifting to a progressive surcharge policy based on country income and vulnerability.

World job market on brink of ‘AI revolution’: OECD


By AFP
Published July 11, 2023

The OECD said 'urgent action' is needed to make sure AI is 'used responsibly and in a trustworthy way in the workplace' - Copyright AFP Sam Yeh

The world’s wealthiest nations must urgently prepare for the impact of an imminent “AI revolution” that will change jobs, create new ones and make others disappear, the OECD said Tuesday.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence — with tools that can generate essays, create images and even pass medical exams — have raised concerns that it could replace whole sectors of the workforce through automation.

In its 2023 Employment Outlook, the OECD said there was little evidence of significant negative effects on employment from AI “so far”.

“While the adoption of AI still remains relatively low, rapid progress, falling costs and the increasing availability of workers with AI skills indicate that OECD economies might be on the brink of an AI revolution,” the report said.

“While there are many potential benefits from AI, there are also significant risks that need to be urgently addressed,” according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The international and influential organisation has 38 member countries ranging from Australia to Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico and the United States.

The OECD said it was “vital” to gather better data on AI uptake and use in the workplace, “including which jobs will change, be created or disappear, and how skills needs are shifting”.

AI use is generally concentrated in large firms that are still experimenting with the new technology, and many appear reluctant to replace staff, said Stefano Scarpetta, OECD director for employment, labour and social affairs.

“However, it is also clear that the potential for substitution remains significant, raising fears of decreasing wages and job losses,” he wrote in an editorial.

AI has the potential to improve workplace safety by reducing “tedious or dangerous tasks” and lead to higher wages for workers whose skills complement the technology, the OECD report said.

But it could also “leave workers with a higher-paced work environment” and reduce wages for those “who find themselves squeezed into a diminished share of tasks due to automation”.

When taking AI into consideration, jobs at the highest risk of automation account for 27 percent of employment, according to the OECD.

“The use of AI also comes with serious ethical challenges around data protection and privacy, transparency and explainability, bias and discrimination, automatic decision making and accountability,” Scarpetta said.

“Urgent action is required to make sure AI is used responsibly and in a trustworthy way in the workplace,” he said.

“On the one hand, there is a need to enable workers and employers in reaping the benefits of AI while adapting to it, notably through training and social dialogue.”

NASA celebrates Webb telescope anniversary with close-up of stellar birth


By AFP
Published July 12, 2023


This NASA handout image captured by the James Webb telescope and obtained on July 12, 2023, shows a small star-forming region in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth

- Copyright AFP ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS

Issam AHMED

Jets of red gas bursting into the cosmos, and a glowing cave of dust: NASA marked a year of discovery by the James Webb Space Telescope Wednesday with a spectacular new image of Sun-like stars being born.

The picture is of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the nearest stellar nursery to Earth, whose proximity at 390 light-years allows for a crisp close-up by the most powerful orbital observatory ever built.

“In just one year, the James Webb Space Telescope has transformed humanity’s view of the cosmos, peering into dust clouds and seeing light from faraway corners of the universe for the very first time,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

“Every new image is a new discovery, empowering scientists around the globe to ask and answer questions they once could never dream of.”

Webb’s image shows around 50 young stars, of similar mass to our Sun or smaller.

Some have the signature shadows of circumstellar disks — a sign that planets may eventually form around them.

Huge jets of hydrogen appear horizontally in the upper third of the image, and vertically on the right.

“These occur when a star first bursts through its natal envelope of cosmic dust, shooting out a pair of opposing jets into space like a newborn first stretching her arms out into the world,” the US space agency said in a statement.

“At the bottom of the image, you can see a young star that’s energetic enough that it’s blowing a bubble in the cloud of dust and gas from which it was born,” Christine Chen, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which operates Webb, told AFP.

It does so through a combination of its light and a stellar wind linked to it, she added.

Interstellar space is filled with gas and dust, which in turn serves as the raw material for new stars and planets.

“Webb’s image of Rho Ophiuchi allows us to witness a very brief period in the stellar life cycle with new clarity. Our own Sun experienced a phase like this, long ago, and now we have the technology to see the beginning of another star’s story,” said Webb project scientist Klaus Pontoppidan.

– New era of astronomy –

Webb was launched in December 2021 from French Guiana, on a 1.5 million kilometer (nearly one million mile) voyage to a region called the second Lagrange point.

Its first full color picture was revealed by President Joe Biden on July 11, 2022: the clearest view yet of the early universe, going back 13 billion years.

The next wave included “mountains” and “valleys” of a star-forming region, dubbed the Cosmic Cliffs, in the Carina Nebula; and a grouping of five galaxies bound in a celestial dance, called Stephan’s Quintet.

Webb boasts a primary mirror measuring more than 21 feet (6.5 meters) that is made up of 18 hexagonal, gold-coated segments, as well as a five-layer sunshield the size of a tennis court.

Unlike its predecessor Hubble, it operates primarily in the infrared spectrum, allowing it to look back nearer towards the start of time, and to better penetrate dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are being formed today.

Key discoveries include some of the earliest galaxies formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, identifying at unprecedented resolution the atmospheric compositions of planets outside our solar system, and, in our own neck of the woods, stunning new views of the planet Jupiter.

Webb has enough fuel for a 20-year mission, promising a new era of astronomy.

It will soon be joined in orbit by Europe’s Euclid space telescope, which launched on July 1 on a mission to shed light on two of the universe’s greatest mysteries: dark energy and dark matter.

The James Webb Space Telescope – Transforming humanity, one image at a time

By Karen Graham
Published July 12, 2023

To mark the James Webb Space Telescope’s first year of service, NASA has shared Webb’s image of the “birth of a star.”

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered on its promise of opening the universe to us mere mortals, showing us images of distant galaxies, bright nebulae, and a stellar nursery, where stars are born.

“In just one year, the James Webb Space Telescope has transformed humanity’s view of the cosmos, peering into dust clouds and seeing light from faraway corners of the universe for the very first time. Every new image is a new discovery, empowering scientists around the globe to ask and answer questions they once could never dream of,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

To celebrate the completion of a successful first year, NASA has released Webb’s image of a small star-forming region in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, while 390 light years away, is still one of the closest star-forming regions to the Solar System. Over half of the mass of the complex is concentrated around one of the clouds, and this is the most active star-forming region.

Webb’s image shows a region containing approximately 50 young stars, all of them similar in mass to the Sun, or smaller. The darkest areas are the densest, where thick dust cocoons still-forming protostars.

Huge bipolar jets of molecular hydrogen, represented in red, dominate the image, appearing horizontally across the upper third and vertically on the right. These occur when a star first bursts through its natal envelope of cosmic dust, shooting out a pair of opposing jets into space like a newborn first stretching her arms out into the world.

In contrast, the star S1 has carved out a glowing cave of dust in the lower half of the image. It is the only star in the image that is significantly more massive than the Sun.

A James Webb Space Telescope Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) detector with optical baffles removed. Light is collected in the purple mercury-cadmium-telluride film. The film is pixelated, although the individual pixels are far too small to be seen by the eye here. Credit: University of Arizona/NASA

Observing the universe in infrared wavelengths

The James Webb Space Telescope observes the Universe in the near-infrared and mid-infrared – at wavelengths longer than visible light.

Objects of about the Earth’s temperature emit most of their light at mid-infrared wavelengths. These temperatures are also found in dusty regions forming stars and planets, so with mid-infrared radiation we can see directly the glow of this slightly warm dust and study its distribution and properties.

Colors are assigned in chromatic order (blue, green, red) from shortest wavelength to longest wavelength for both of Webb’s cameras. Webb has two main cameras onboard! Its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captures shorter wavelengths of infrared light. ts Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) captures longer wavelengths of infrared light.

The images we finally see are actually a combination of specific filter ranges of infrared light. It is a fascinating process and one that is carefully done by image specialists.

Thai parliament votes for PM with reformist frontrunner facing hurdles

LIKE BURMA THE GENERALS RUN THE COUNTRY
By AFP
Published July 12, 2023

Move Forward Party leader and prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat addresses supporters during a rally in Bangkok on July 9, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary vote to elect Thailand’s next prime minister

 - Copyright AFP Manan VATSYAYANA

Rose TROUP BUCHANAN

Thailand’s parliament will vote for a prime minister Thursday, with reformist frontrunner Pita Limjaroenrat reeling from a barrage of hurdles that could undo his bid for the premiership.

The coalition bloc led by Pita’s Move Forward Party (MFP) will face off against more established parties and junta-appointed senators, spooked by the progressives’ shock election victory in May and their determination to amend Thailand’s strict royal defamation laws.

On a day of high political drama Wednesday, Pita was hit with the threat of parliamentary suspension as well as the Constitutional Court’s acceptance of a case accusing him and his party of attempting to overthrow the monarchy.

Despite the MFP’s win at the polls, with Thais rejecting the government of General Prayut Chan-o-cha who seized power in a 2014 coup, the party’s chances of forming a government with Pita at its head look increasingly slim.

He faces resistance from a military-appointed, 250-member bloc in the senate because of his party’s push to reform section 112 of Thailand’s criminal code which bans defaming or insulting the royal family.

His plans to shake up the country’s powerful business monopolies have also sparked concern.

Despite the series of obstacles thrown in his way on Wednesday, Pita told reporters he was in “good spirits”.

He also said of Thursday’s parliamentary vote that “the process tomorrow continues as planned”.

Pita’s eight-party coalition, which includes runners-up Pheu Thai, has 312 seats but is short of the 376 needed across both houses of parliament to claim the prime ministership.

On Tuesday, now-caretaker PM Prayut — whose United Thai Nation party came a dismal fifth in the May elections — announced his retirement from politics, although he will remain as premier until a new prime minister emerges.

– Constitutional court cases –

On Wednesday, the Election Commission recommended Pita’s suspension from parliament over allegations he broke campaign rules — a move that the MFP branded as an “abuse of power”.

The recommendation followed a probe around Pita’s ownership of shares in a media company, prohibited under Thai law.

Pita has said he inherited the shares in the iTV television station, which has not broadcast since 2007, from his father and denies any wrongdoing.

The announcement could convince senators on the fence to vote against him, said analysts.

Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, assistant law professor at Thammasat University, told AFP it was hard to see why the commission was in “such a hurry” to issue its recommendation.

“I can think of only one reason, this action is to meant to affect the result of tomorrow’s vote,” he said on Wednesday.

Should Pita lose the first vote, the house speaker will table session after session until a PM emerges — raising the spectre of weeks of deadlock and economic uncertainty.

– ‘Anything is possible’ –

The kingdom has endured a dozen coups in the past century, with political instability a regular danger and progressive movements often abruptly curtailed.

May’s election was the first since huge pro-democracy demonstrations swept the capital Bangkok in 2020, when tens of thousands of people made unprecedented calls to reform the royal defamation laws.

Pita’s MFP was the only party during campaigning to promise to tackle the issue.

But in another upset for the MFP on Wednesday, the Constitutional Court accepted a case alleging that their promises on the campaign trail to amend the legislation amounted to attempting to “overthrow” the constitutional monarchy.

It gave the party two weeks to present their defence.

The uncertainty may bring already-existing divisions within the MFP-led coalition to the fore, as alternative PM candidates are suggested.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of exiled ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra, was the face of Pheu Thai during the election campaign.

Business leader Srettha Thavisin of Pheu Thai is also seen as a potential alternative candidate.

Napisa Waitoolkiat, a political analyst with Naresuan University, told AFP that it appeared less and less likely that Pita would become the premier.

But she added: “Anything is possible in Thailand.”

Thailand's Election Commission

says a reformist candidate for

prime minister may have broken

the law

Published: 12 Jul 2023 -

 This photo taken on June 26, 2023 shows Thai flags fluttering in the wind as the backdrop of Bangkok skyline seen from the Wat Saket Buddhist temple. (Photo by Amaury PAUL / AFP)

AP

Bangkok: Thailand’s Election Commission said Wednesday it has concluded there is evidence that the top candidate to become the country’s next prime minister, a reformist with strong backing among progressive young voters, violated election law and referred his case to the Constitutional Court for a ruling.

The commission’s decision included a request that the court order Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat suspended as a member of Parliament until the ruling is issued.

The alleged violation involves undeclared ownership of media company shares, which are banned for lawmakers. Separately, the court also said it would review a complaint that Pita and his party may have violated the law by proposing to amend Thailand's strict legal provision against defaming the monarchy.

Thai media said the court would not make any ruling on Wednesday and that it might need some to consider the issues.

Pita can still be nominated on Thursday when Parliament meets to vote for a new prime minister. But the commission's move raises new doubts about whether he can muster enough votes to get the post, already a struggle because of Thailand's deep political divisions.

The Move Forward Party, with a progressive reformist platform, swept to a surprise first-place finish in May’s general election, capturing 151 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives and the most popular votes.

Move Forward has assembled an eight-party, 311-seat coalition with which it had planned to take power.

But Pita's path to power is difficult because he must win 376 votes of a joint session of the House and the conservative, 250-seat, non-elected Senate. The Senate largely represents Thailand's traditional ruling establishment, which suspects Move Forward's proposals for minor reforms of the monarchy endanger the royal institution, which they consider to be the center of Thais' national identity.

Pita's party responded to the Election Commission's decision by questioning its fairness and even its legality. It said its decision was unnecessarily hurried and violated its own procedures by failing to call Pita to give a statement.

The commission had earlier said it acted correctly but Move Forward alleges its members may have engaged in malfeasance, or carrying out duties in a wrongful manner, a crime punishable by 10 years imprisonment and a fine.

The election law complaint against Pita, lodged by a member of a rival party, alleges he ran for office in 2019 while failing to declare his shares in a media company.

The case the commission referred to the court accuses Pita of running for office with awareness that he was ineligible, a criminal violation punishable by maximum imprisonment of three years and/or a fine of up to 60,000 baht ($1,720). The party faces a fine of up to 100,000 baht ($2,865).

Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, the government’s top legal advisor, has been quoted as saying that a ruling against Pita could be grounds for nullifying the May election results and holding a new election.

There have been fears since the election that Thailand’s conservative ruling establishment would use what its political opponents consider to be dirty tricks to hold on to power.

For a decade-and-a-half, it has repeatedly used the courts and supposedly independent state agencies such as the Election Commission to issue controversial rulings to cripple or sink political opponents.

The dissolution in 2019 of the Future Forward party, a forerunner of Move Forward, triggered vigorous street protests by pro-democracy activists that trailed off only when the coronavirus pandemic took hold.

Hours after the Election Commission announced its referral of the shareholding case, the Constitutional Court said it had has accepted a separate petition against Move Forward and Pita concerning their campaign promise to amend Thailand's harsh lese majeste law,.

The law, also known as Article 112, mandates a three to 15 year prison term for defaming the king, his immediate family, or the regent.

Critics of the law say it is abused for political purposes, and Move Forward wants changes to rein in such abuses, which it claims actually do damage to the monarchy's reputation.

Royalists soundly reject all efforts to amend the law, and courts have sometimes treated such proposals themselves as tantamount to violating the law. The military and the courts consider themselves stalwart defenders of the monarchy, and the Senate members overwhelmingly share their viewpoint.

If the court agrees that the accused's actions constitute trying to overthrow the constitutional monarchy -a separate provision from Article 112 - they will not be subject to punishment but can be ordered to cease all activities related to their proposed amendment, subject to prosecution if they continue.