Venezuela revamps PDVSA leadership after Maduro launches restructuring

FILE PHOTO: State oil company PDVSA's logo is seen at a gas station in Caracas, Venezuela, May 17, 2019. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado/File Photo

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela has named new vice presidents for four units of state oil company PDVSA, as well as a new president for the unit that handles joint ventures with private oil companies, PDVSA said on Saturday.

The company asked several vice presidents to resign amid a shakeup announced earlier this month, when socialist President Nicolas Maduro named a commission led by Economy Vice President Tareck El Aissami to restructure the industry.

PDVSA’S crude output has been hovering near its lowest levels in decades, and intensifying U.S. sanctions on the company, which are intended to force Maduro out of office, threaten to cut Venezuela off from its main oil export markets.

Venezuela named Oswaldo Perez, who currently serves in the Finance Ministry, as PDVSA’s vice president of finance, according to PDVSA and a copy of the government’s official gazette dated Feb. 28, which has not yet been published online. Erwin Hernandez was named vice president for exploration and Gabriel Oliveros was named vice president for refining.

Hernandez previously served as a manager at the Jose terminal here, Venezuela's main oil port, as well as a manager at Petrocedeno here a crude joint venture between PDVSA, France's Total and Norway's Equinor. Oliveros previously served as PDVSA's executive director for new refinery projects here

Antonio Perez Suarez, previously the director of a state-run distributor of locally made products known as “Productive Venezuela,” was named vice president for supply and trading on an interim basis, according to the gazette. Reuters reported Perez Suarez’s appointment earlier this week.

German Marquez, who currently serves as vice minister for hydrocarbons in the country’s Oil Ministry, was named president of Venezuelan Petroleum Corp, which manages PDVSA’s stakes in exploration and production joint ventures with private oil companies.

The company also named a new human resources manager, Victor Ramon Zamora.

Dozens detained at Kazakh protests over activist’s death

Kazakh law enforcement officers detain a protester during a rally held by opposition supporters, after anti-government activist has died of heart problems in a police detention center earlier this week, in Almaty, Kazakhstan March 1, 2020 REUTERS/Pavel Mikheyev

ALMATY/NUR SULTAN (Reuters) - Police in Kazakhstan detained dozens of opposition supporters on Sunday who took to the streets after the death of an anti-government activist in a detention center.

Activist Dulat Agadil died in a jail cell on Feb. 25, a day after police took him in on charges of contempt of court and insulting a judge. The authorities - including President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev - have said his death was caused by acute cardiovascular failure, ruling out any foul play.

Agadil’s case has galvanized the oil-rich Central Asian nations’ opposition movement, triggering several small-scale protests during the week and calls for a larger one on Sunday that would bring together groups that otherwise rarely coordinate their activities.

But police in the capital, Nur-Sultan, and the biggest city, Almaty, detained dozens of activists while they were still walking toward the rallying points. In Almaty, policemen including some in riot gear cordoned off the city’s main square and Reuters reporters saw them detain some 40 people.

A few people shouted “Wake up Kazakhstan!” or “Old man, go away!” - an opposition slogan aimed at Tokayev’s predecessor and patron Nursultan Nazarbayev who retains sweeping powers even after giving up the presidency a year ago.

In Nur-Sultan, some protesters carried posters that read “Dulat is a victim of the system” and “No to dictatorship”. A Reuters reporter saw police detain about 30 people there.

Street protests are illegal in the former Soviet republic of 19 million unless sanctioned by the authorities.

Afghan President Ghani rejects Taliban prisoner release clause in U.S. deal

LESS THAN 24 HOURS LATER

NOT WORTH THE PAPER IT IS WRITTEN ON

Abdul Qadir Sediqi


KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rejected on Sunday a Taliban demand for the release of 5,000 prisoners as a condition for talks with the Afghan government and civilians, included in a deal between the United States and the Islamist militants.

Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani speaks during a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan March 1, 2020. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

His remarks come against the backdrop of the difficulties U.S. negotiators face in shepherding the Afghan government and Taliban towards intra-Afghan negotiations, according to Western diplomats.

“The government of Afghanistan has made no commitment to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners,” Ghani told reporters in Kabul, a day after the deal was signed in Qatar to start a political settlement aimed at ending the United States’ longest war.

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Iran dismisses U.S.-Taliban agreement over Afghanistan

The accord said the United States and the Taliban were committed to work expeditiously to release combat and political prisoners as a confidence-building measure, with the coordination and approval of all relevant sides.

It said that up to 5,000 jailed Taliban would be released in exchange for up to 1,000 Afghan government captives by March 10.

However, on the issue of the prisoner swap, Ghani said, “It is not in the authority of United States to decide, they are only a facilitator.”


Saturday’s accord was signed by U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, witnessed by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

After the ceremony, Baradar met foreign ministers from Norway, Turkey and Uzbekistan in Doha along with diplomats from Russia, Indonesia and neighboring nations, the Taliban said, a move that signaled the group’s determination to secure international legitimacy.

“The dignitaries who met Mullah Baradar expressed their commitments towards Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development... the U.S.-Taliban agreement is historical,” said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid.

U.S. President Donald Trump rejected criticism around the deal and said he would meet Taliban leaders in the near future.


Ghani’s aides said Trump’s decision to meet the Taliban could pose a challenge to the government at a time when the U.S. troop withdrawal becomes imminent.

Under the agreement, Washington is committed to reducing the number of its troops in Afghanistan to 8,600 from 13,000 within 135 days of signing.

It will also work with allies to proportionally reduce the number of coalition forces in Afghanistan over that period, if the Taliban adhere to their security guarantees and ceasefire.

A full withdrawal of all U.S. and coalition forces would occur within 14 months, the joint statement said.

The withdrawal, however, depends on security guarantees by the Taliban who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and imposed many restrictions on women and activities it deemed “un-Islamic”.

After being ousted from power in 2001, the Taliban have led a violent insurgency.

The Afghan war has been a stalemate for over 18 years, with the Taliban increasingly controlling or contesting more territory, yet unable to capture and hold major urban centers.

Afghanistan did not commit to release 5,000 Taliban, Ghani says

KABUL (Reuters) - The government of Afghanistan has made no commitment to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners as stated in a pact signed between the United States and Taliban Islamic militants, President Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday.

The Taliban demand for the release of its prisoners from Afghan jails cannot be a pre-condition to direct talks with the hardline group, Ghani told a news briefing in the capital, Kabul.

Saturday’s accord between the United States and the Taliban said both were committed to work expeditiously to release combat and political prisoners as a confidence-building measure, with the coordination and approval of all relevant sides.

Up to 5,000 jailed Taliban will be released in exchange for up to 1,000 Afghan government captives by March 10, the pact added.

Reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi, Orooj Hakimi in Kabul, Gibran Peshimam in Islamabad; Writing by Rupam Jain; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

Prayers at fire-bombed mosques as India’s riot toll grows

By SHEIKH SAALIQ and EMILY SCHMALL February 28, 2020

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Muslims offer prayers on the roof of a fire-bombed mosque in New Delhi, India, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Muslims returned to the battle-torn streets of northeastern New Delhi for weekly prayers at heavily-policed fire-bombed mosques on Friday, two days after a 72-hour clash between Hindus and Muslims that left at least 38 dead and hundreds injured. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)


NEW DELHI (AP) — Muslims in a northeastern neighborhood of India’s capital returned for weekly prayers at fire-bombed mosques on Friday, two days after a 72-hour clash between Hindus and Muslims that left at least 40 dead and hundreds injured.

Five days after the riots started, authorities have not said what sparked the worst communal violence in New Delhi in decades. Hospitals were still trying to identify the dead as the toll continued to rise, and residents of the areas affected by the riots were still seeking loved ones.

“If they burn our mosques, we will rebuild them again and pray. It’s our religious right and nobody can stop us from practicing our religion,” said Mohammad Sulaiman, who was among about 180 men who prayed on the rooftop of a mosque that was set on fire in the unrest.

Muslims offer prayers on the roof of a fire-bombed mosque in New Delhi, India, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Muslims returned to the battle-torn streets of northeastern New Delhi for weekly prayers at heavily-policed fire-bombed mosques on Friday, two days after a 72-hour clash between Hindus and Muslims that left at least 38 dead and hundreds injured. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Tensions between Hindu hard-liners and Muslims protesting the Hindu-first policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had been building for months when the violence exploded Sunday night, on the eve of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first state visit to India.

Kapil Mishra, a local leader of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party who lost his Delhi state assembly seat in recent elections, demanded at a rally Sunday that police shut down a Muslim-led protest in the city or else he and his followers would do it themselves.

And it appears they did.

Hindus and Muslims attacked each other with guns and swords, metal rods and axes, leaving the streets where the rioting occurred resembling a war zone.

Al-Hind hospital, a small clinic with two doctors, was the nearest medical facility for many of the victims. When the riots broke out, it turned into a chaotic emergency ward, its doctors dealing for the first time with injuries such as gunshot wounds, crushed skulls, stabbings and torn genitals.

“It was horrific, as if evil had pervaded and housed itself in the hearts of the mob,” said M.A. Anwar, the doctor on duty,

Religious tensions in the area where the clashes occurred still simmered on Friday, tempered by a heavy police presence. On one riot-torn street, Hindus shouted “Jai Shri Ram,” or Long Live Ram, the Hindu god, as Muslims attempted to reach a mosque damaged in the riots.

Several Muslim residents told The Associated Press that most Muslim families had locked their homes and fled the area.

The passage of a citizenship law in December that fast-tracks naturalization for some religious minorities from neighboring countries but not Muslims earlier spurred massive protests across India that left 23 dead.

The protest violence is the latest in a long line of periodic communal clashes that date to the British partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, when the country was split into secular, Hindu-majority India and the Islamic state of Pakistan.

The protection of India’s religious, cultural and linguistic diversity is enshrined in its constitution. But communal tensions have occasionally flared into deadly riots, beginning with partition itself, when Hindus living in what is now Pakistan migrated to India, and Muslims in modern India to Pakistan.


Clashes claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and people of other religions.

This week’s death toll marked the worst religiously motivated violence in New Delhi since 1984, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards, triggering a wave of riots that resulted in the deaths of more than 3,000 Sikhs in the capital and more than 8,000 nationwide.

In 1992, tens of thousands of Hindu extremists razed a 16th-century mosque in northern India, claiming that it stood on Ram’s birthplace. Nearly 2,000 people were killed across the country in the riots that followed.

The religious polarization that followed saw Modi’s right-wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party emerge as the single largest party in India’s Parliament.

In 2002, the western Indian state of Gujarat erupted in violence when a train filled with Hindu pilgrims was attacked by a Muslim mob. A fire erupted — it remains unclear whether it was arson — and 60 Hindus burned to death. In retaliation, more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the state.

Modi was Gujarat’s chief minister at the time. He was accused of tacit support for the rampage against Muslims, but a court ultimately cleared him of wrongdoing.

Violent large-scale clashes between Hindus and Muslims last took place in New Delhi in 2014, months after Modi’s party came to power, in a largely poor neighborhood close to where this week’s rioting occurred. That violence left three dozen people injured.
Full Coverage: India

Ashutosh Varshney, a professor at Brown University who wrote a book about Indian riots, said the worst has been averted — at least for now.

“If it had reached the scale of Delhi 1984 or Gujarat 2002, it would have doomed Indian politics for many years to come and brought India closer to the kind of Hindu-Muslim polarization that the current ruling party would ideally want, but is finding it hard to manufacture,” Varshney said.

BJP leaders, who have sought to demonize Muslim protesters as a threat to India, may see some gain from the violence, Varshney said.

But it comes at a cost, the international perception that India under Modi has become ungovernable, he said.

Government spokesman Raveesh Kumar denied the Modi government had inflamed religious tensions and failed to protect Muslims.

“These are factually inaccurate and misleading, and appear to be aimed at politicizing the issue,” he said. “Our law enforcement agencies are working on the ground to prevent violence and ensure restoration of confidence and normalcy.”

He added that Modi had “publicly appealed for peace and brotherhood.”

“We would urge that irresponsible comments are not made at this sensitive time,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Anirrudha Ghosal contributed to this report.

As India counts dead, brutality of Hindu-Muslim riot emerges
By SHEIKH SAALIQ 29/2/2020

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In this Friday, Feb. 28, 2020 photo, paramedics tend to the wounds of Mehfooz Umar at Al-Hind hospital in Old Mustafabad neighborhood of New Delhi, India. As the Mustafabad neighborhood of India's capital broke out in brutal communal riots for three days this week, the Al-Hind Hospital turned from a community clinic into a trauma ward. Authorities haven't said what sparked the violence that has left more than 40 dead and hundreds injured, but it was the culmination of growing tensions since the passage of a citizenship law in December that fast-tracks naturalization for some religious minorities from neighboring countries but not Muslims. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

NEW DELHI (AP) — The wounded came in waves. First in ones and twos, limping up the steps and staggering through the aluminum doors, and then in wheelbarrows, with bleeding skulls and stabbed necks. Finally, the motorcycles and auto-rickshaws arrived, their seats stained with the blood of as many as they could hold.

As the Mustafabad neighborhood of India’s capital was ravaged by communal riots for three days this week, the Al-Hind Hospital turned from a community clinic into a trauma ward.

Doctors like M.A. Anwar were for the first time dealing with injuries such as gunshot wounds, crushed skulls and torn genitals.


“I wanted to cry and scream,” he recalled. “Something inside of me died during those three days.”

Almost a week after the clashes between Hindus and Muslims began, a clearer picture of the horrors inflicted during New Delhi’s worst communal riots in decades has begun to emerge.

On the eve of President Donald Trump’s first state visit to India last Sunday, Hindus and Muslims in the Indian capital charged at each other with homemade guns and crude weapons, leaving the streets where the rioting occurred resembling a war zone, with houses, shops, mosques, schools and vehicles up in flames. At least 42 people were killed and hundreds more wounded.

Authorities have struggled to identify some of the bodies because of the gruesomeness of the injuries.

While both sides behaved brutally, most of the victims were Muslim.

Authorities haven’t given an official account of what sparked the riots, though the violence appeared to be a culmination of growing tensions that followed the passage of a new citizenship law in December.

The law fast-tracks naturalization for some religious minorities from neighboring countries but not Muslims. Opponents say it violates India’s secular constitution, and further marginalizes the 200 million Muslims in this Hindu-majority nation of 1.4 billion people.

The law spurred massive protests across India that left at least 23 dead.

But what unfolded in Mustafabad this week was far more brutal, with mobs hacking individuals with swords, burning people alive and bludgeoning people to death.

A Hindu intelligence bureau officer was repeatedly stabbed and his dead body thrown into a sewage drain that divides Hindu and Muslim residential areas. A Muslim man had his legs spread so far apart that the lower half of his body tore. His condition remained critical.


Questions have been raised about the role of the New Delhi police and whether they stood by while the violence raged or even aided the Hindu mobs.

A New Delhi police spokesman, Anil Mittal, denied that police had aided rioters.

Al-Hind hospital’s doctors said authorities kept ambulances from reaching certain riot-hit places.

A little after midnight on Wednesday — more than 72 hours after the violence began — a New Delhi High Court passed an extraordinary order directing the police to provide safe passage for ambulances.

It was too late for many victims.

With streets taken over by the mobs and no way through for ambulances, Anwar knew early on that his clinic would soon be overcome with wounded.

Some slumped in plastic chairs as they draped gunshot-riddled arms and legs over tables.

Others just lay on the floor, bleeding.

Those who were there described the blood and chaos, but also shared oddly uplifting stories of teamwork and grit.

“We didn’t sleep. We didn’t eat anything. All we wanted to do was save lives. And we did,” said Aanis Mohammad, a volunteer at the clinic. “No patient of any religion was turned away.”

By mid-afternoon Wednesday as the violence came to an end, Anwar and his overwhelmed colleagues had treated more than 400 people and referred almost 100 to larger hospitals. Dozens, however, remained at the clinic in critical condition.

The hospital also gave refuge to those fleeing the violence, providing more than 50 people with food, bedding and safety.

Clean-up efforts in Mustafabad are underway but the scars are still visible.

At Guru Teg Bahadur hospital along New Delhi’s eastern border, 18-year-old Salman Ansari waited for his father’s body to be handed over.

Ansari’s father had gone out to collect scrap for money as there was no food in the house. After seeing police assurances on the news, he thought it would be safe. It wasn’t.

Ansari said he was sleeping when two strangers dumped his father outside their home early Wednesday.

He carted his father 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) on the family’s rickshaw to a private clinic. The doctors demanded 5,000 rupees ($69). His pockets were empty.

By the time Ansari managed to reach a public hospital, his father was dead.

For Anwar, the doctor, he said he eventually grew numb to the carnage. Yet he’s still coming to grips with how fellow Indians could do what they did to one another.

“It’s as if evil had pervaded and housed itself in the hearts of the mob,” he said.

___ Associated Press writer Aniruddha Ghosal contributed to thisTOPICS

Thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims protest India violence

February 28, 2020

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Bangladeshis protest against the communal violence in New Delhi, after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities have not said what sparked the riots, the worst communal violence in New Delhi in decades, as the the toll continued to rise. The protestors also raised slogans against the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is scheduled to visit Bangladesh in mid-March. Poster reads "Your religion allows the destruction of mosques, my religion prohibits destroying temples." (AP Photo/Al-emrun Garjon)

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Several thousand Muslims marched from the main mosque in Bangladesh’s capital on Friday to denounce India’s government for allegedly inflaming tensions between Hindus and Muslims, leading to clashes that left at least 40 dead and hundreds injured.

After Friday prayers, thousands of Muslims left the Baitul Mokarram Mosque in Dhaka and joined the rally, chanting slogans against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

They threw shows at posters of Modi and burned a portrait of him. Many of the protesters carried banners saying, “Stop killing Muslims” and “Save Indian Muslims.”

The protesters also demanded that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cancel a plan to invite Modi to a commemoration next month of the 100th anniversary of the birth of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Rahman, Hasina’s father, led a political movement that created the separate nation of Bangladesh after a nine-month war with what is now Pakistan in 1971.

“I ask the prime minister to immediately cancel Narendra Modi’s invitation,” Nur Hossain Kasemi of the influential Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam told the protesters. “If she fails to do so, the people of the country will be forced to take action and surround the airport. They will build resistance.”


Bangladeshis protest against the communal violence in New Delhi, after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities have not said what sparked the riots, the worst communal violence in New Delhi in decades, as the the toll continued to rise. The protestors also raised slogans against the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is scheduled to visit Bangladesh in mid-March. Poster reads "Bangladeshis do not want terrorist Modi to come here." (AP Photo/Al-emrun Garjon)

But he asked Bangladeshi Muslims not to harm Hindus.

“I remind the Muslims of our country that we believe in harmony. We don’t believe in violence. We shall not harm any non-Muslims in this country,” he said.

Tensions in India between Hindu hard-liners and Muslims protesting the Modi government’s Hindu-first policies have been building for months. Violence exploded in parts of New Delhi on Sunday night, the eve of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first state visit to India.

Hindus and Muslims attacked each other with guns and swords, metal rods and axes, leaving the streets where the three days of rioting occurred resembling a war

Bangladeshis beat a poster with a caricature of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a protest against the communal violence in New Delhi, after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities have not said what sparked the riots, the worst communal violence in New Delhi in decades, as the the toll continued to rise. The protestors also raised slogans against the visit of Modi who is scheduled to visit Bangladesh in mid-March. (AP Photo/Al-emrun Garjon)
AP 

Boeing blames incomplete testing for astronaut capsule woes
JUST IN TIME PRODUCTION FAILS, AGAIN

FILE - This Sunday, Dec. 22, 2019 file photo shows the Boeing Starliner spacecraft after it landed in White Sands, N.M. On Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, Boeing acknowledged it failed to conduct full and adequate software tests before the botched space debut of its astronaut capsule late last year. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

By MARCIA DUNNFebruary 28, 2020
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Boeing acknowledged Friday it failed to conduct full and adequate software tests before the botched space debut of its astronaut capsule late last year.

A software error left the Starliner capsule in the wrong orbit in December and precluded a docking with the International Space Station. Another software flaw could have ended up destroying the capsule, if not fixed right before reentry.

A Boeing vice president, John Mulholland, said both mistakes would have been caught if complete, end-to-end testing had been conducted in advance and actual flight equipment used instead of substitutes.


“We know that we need to improve,” he said.

The company is still uncertain when its next test flight might occur and whether astronauts might be aboard. NASA — which will have the final say — will announce the outcome of the ongoing investigation review next Friday. The first flight test had no crew.

SpaceX, meanwhile, aims to launch its Dragon crew capsule with NASA astronauts this spring.

Mulholland, who serves as the Starliner program manager, said the company is still reviewing the Starliner’s 1 million lines of code to make certain no other problems exist.

Because Boeing tested the Starliner’s software in segments rather than in one continuous stream to simulate the flight to and from the space station, the company failed to catch an error that knocked the capsule’s internal timer off by 11 hours shortly after liftoff. An unrelated communication problem prevented flight controllers from quickly sending commands in a bid to salvage the docking portion of the mission.

Then, just hours before the capsule’s early return to New Mexico, a second software error was detected by ground controllers. This mistake stemmed from the use of substitute equipment during preflight testing rather than actual flight hardware.

Mulholland stressed that the situation had nothing to do with saving money.

“We’re going to go make it right and we’re going to have a fantastic spacecraft going forward,” he said.

The December mission was supposed to be the company’s last major hurdle before launching the first Starliner crew — two NASA astronauts and a Boeing astronaut. NASA astronauts have not launched from home soil since the space shuttle program ended in 2011.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Biggest explosion seen in universe came from black hole
February 27, 2020

This image made available by NASA on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 shows the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster viewed in a composite of X-ray, radio and infrared data. The inset image at bottom right shows data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory which confirmed a cavity formed by a record-breaking explosion from a super-massive black hole. The explosion was so large it carved out a crater in the hot gas that could hold 15 Milky Ways, said lead author Simona Giacintucci of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. (Chandra: NASA/CXC/NRL/S. Giacintucci, et al., XMM: ESA/XMM; Radio: NCRA/TIFR/GMRT; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF via AP)


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the universe, originating from a super-massive black hole.

Scientists reported Thursday that the blast came from a black hole in a cluster of galaxies 390 million light-years away.

The explosion was so large it carved out a crater in the hot gas that could hold 15 Milky Ways, said lead author Simona Giacintucci of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.

It’s five times bigger than the previous record-holder.

Astronomers used NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory to make the discovery, along with a European space observatory and ground telescopes. They believe the explosion came from the heart of the Ophiuchus cluster of thousands of galaxies: a large galaxy at the center contains a colossal black hole.

Black holes don’t just draw matter in. They also blast out jets of material and energy.

The first hint of this giant explosion actually came in 2016. Chandra images of the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster revealed an unusual curved edge, but scientists ruled out an eruption given the amount of energy that would have been needed to carve out such a large cavity in the gas.

The two space observatories, along with radio data from telescopes in Australia and India, confirmed that the curvature was, indeed, part of a cavity.

“The radio data fit inside the X-rays like a hand in a glove,” co-author Maxim Markevitch of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in a statement. “This is the clincher that tells us an eruption of unprecedented size occurred here.”

The blast is believed to be over by now: There are no signs of jets currently shooting from the black hole.

More observations are needed in other wavelengths to better understand what occurred, according to the team.

The findings appeared in the Astrophysical Journal.
Explore: Science

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Feds reject removal of 4 US Northwest dams in key report

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

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FILE - In this April 11, 2018 file photo, water moves through a spillway of the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River near Almota, Wash. Farmers, environmentalists, tribal leaders and public utility officials are eagerly awaiting a federal report due Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, that could decide the fate of four hydroelectric dams on the Snake River. (AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios,File)

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A long-awaited federal report out Friday rejected the idea of removing four hydroelectric dams on a major Pacific Northwest river in a last-ditch effort tosave threatened and endangered salmon, saying such a dramatic approach would destabilize the power grid, increase overall greenhouse emissions and more than double the risk of regional power outages.

The four dams on the lower Snake River are part of a vast and complex hydroelectric power system operated by the federal government in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. The massive dams, built in eastern Washington between 1961 and 1975, are at the center of a years-long battle that pits the fate of two iconic Pacific Northwest species — the salmon and the killer whale — against the need for plentiful, carbon-free power for the booming region.

Environmental groups that have pushed for years for the dams to come down immediately blasted the report. The three agencies in charge of overseeing the sprawling hydropower system recommended an alternative that doubles down on an approach that includes spilling more water over the dams when juvenile salmon are migrating — a tactic already being used.

“Rather than seizing this opportunity to heed the public’s call for working together for a solution that revives salmon populations, the draft plan is built on the same failed approach the courts have rejected time and again,” said Todd True, an attorney for Earthjustice who has represented environmentalists and fishing groups in ongoing litigation over the dams.


Dam removal opponents, however, said the report presented a balanced solution that won’t burden ratepayers or disrupt the region’s power supply.

“Once again, the science has determined that destroying the four Lower Snake River dams would have high environmental and economic costs,” said Todd Myers, environmental director at the Washington Policy Center, a conservative think tank.
The 14 federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers together produce 40% of the region’s power — enough electricity to power nearly 5 million homes, or eight cities roughly the size of Seattle. They also contain a system of locks that allows cities nearly 500 miles (800 kilometers) inland access to Asian markets via barges that float down the rivers to the Pacific Ocean. Roughly 50 million to 60 million tons of cargo navigate the Snake and Columbia river system annually.

Yet the towering dams have proven disastrous for salmon that struggle to navigate past them on their way to and from the Pacific Ocean. Salmon are rare in that they hatch in freshwater streams, then make their way hundreds of miles to the ocean, where they spend years before finding their way back to mate, lay eggs and die.

Snake River sockeye were the first species in the Columbia River Basin listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1991. Now, 13 salmon runs are listed as federally endangered or threatened. Four of those runs return to the Snake River.

The Columbia River system dams cut off more than half of salmon spawning and rearing habitat, and many wild salmon runs in the region have 2% or less of their historic populations, said Meg Townsend, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.

A chinook salmon, below, and a steelhead, above, move through the fish ladder at the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River in Washington state. (Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review via AP, File)

On the way to the ocean, juvenile salmon can get chewed up in the dams’ turbines, she said. The adults returning from the ocean must navigate fish ladders — concrete chutes that bypass the dams — but they can become bottle-necked before reaching them and get picked off by predators, Townsend said.

Until recently, young salmon were sent by truck or barge around the dams or passed through the turbines or bypasses. An interim agreement that took effect last year prioritized the “flex spill” strategy of increasing the water in spillways to send more fish over the tops of the structures. This approach allows the U.S. government to adjust the spill level according to power demands.

The effect on the long-term survival of juvenile salmon won’t be known for several years, when biologists can start counting the adult fish that return from the ocean.

Scientists also warn that southern resident orcas are starving to death because of a dearth of the chinook salmon that are their primary food source.

FILE- In this Jan. 18, 2014, file photo, an endangered female orca leaps from the water while breaching in Puget Sound west of Seattle, Wash. A federal report released Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, rejected the idea of removing four hydroelectric dams on a major Pacific Northwest river in a last-ditch effort to save threatened and endangered salmon. Scientists also warn that southern resident orcas are starving to death because of a dearth of the chinook salmon that are their primary food source. Dam removal could increase the numbers of two key stocks of chinook salmon for orcas. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

The Pacific Northwest population of orcas — also called killer whales — was placed on the endangered species list in 2005. A mother orca that carried her dead baby on her back for 17 days brought international attention in 2018 as their numbers have dwindled to 72 animals.

Opponents of dam removal say they want salmon to flourish, but they aren’t sure breaching four major hydroelectric dams will help — and it could instead damage the regional economy and the stability of the power supply.

Reservoirs behind some of the dams allow the Bonneville Power Administration to even out the more erratic power supply from wind and solar by spilling water to generate electricity on short notice. And a move away from low-cost coal plants in the Pacific Northwest has some worried about what the future could hold for ratepayers if the Snake River dams are removed, said Kurt Miller, of Northwest River Partners, which represents community-owned utilities across Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

The Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River is seen from the air near Colfax, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren,File)

“If worldwide salmon populations are doing poorly because of climate change and carbon, does it make sense to tear out 1,000 average megawatts of carbon-free electricity?” he said. “For so many reasons, it’s bad public policy.”

The report addressed those concerns, noting hydropower generation would decrease by 1,100 average megawatts under average water conditions, and 730 average megawatts under low water conditions. The risk of a regional power shortages would more than double and the lowest-cost replacement power would be $200 million a year, it said. Those adjustments would increase the wholesale power rate up to 9.6%, the authors wrote.

U.S. District Judge Michael Simon ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Administration to revisit the impact of the hydroelectric system in 2016 while overseeing litigation over salmon.

In all, three federal judges have thrown out five plans for the system over the decades after finding they didn’t do enough to protect salmon.

Friday’s report is a draft and will be subject to 45 days of public comment. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will next analyze the proposal to determine if it does enough to protect salmon and orcas — a process that should be completed by June.

A final report is expected in September.

In this Feb. 12, 2020, photo, informational signs promoting dams on the Snake River are displayed during a lobby day at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. A federal report released Friday, Feb. 28, rejected the idea of removing four hydroelectric dams on a major Pacific Northwest river in a last-ditch effort to save threatened and endangered salmon. The report says breaching the dams would destabilize the power grid, increase greenhouse emissions and raise the risk of power outages. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Satellite almost on empty gets new life after space docking
By MARCIA DUNN February 26, 2020

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This Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020 photo provided by Northrop Grumman shows the Intelsat 901 satellite as the Mission Extension Vehicle-1 approaches it in orbit around the Earth, bottom right. The Northrop Grumman MEV-1 will serve as a guide dog of sorts for its aging Intelsat companion which is almost out of fuel. (Northrop Grumman via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A communication satellite almost out of fuel has gotten a new life after the first space docking of its kind.

Northrop Grumman and Intelsat announced the successful link-up nearly 22,500 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth on Wednesday. It’s the first time two commercial satellites have joined in orbit like this.

The recently launched satellite — Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle, or MEV-1 — will serve as a guide dog of sorts for its aging Intelsat companion.

Company officials called it a historic moment for space commerce, akin to the three-spacewalker capture of a wayward Intelsat satellite 28 years ago.

“We’re pushing the boundaries of what many thought would be impossible,” said Tom Wilson, president of SpaceLogistics, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman. “The impossible is now a reality. Today is a great example of that.”

The Northrup Grumman satellite was launched from Kazakhstan in October. On Tuesday, it closed in on the 19-year-old Intelsat 901 satellite and clamped onto it. The duo will remain attached for the next five years.

This Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020 photo provided by Northrop Grumman shows the Intelsat 901 satellite as the Mission Extension Vehicle-1 approaches it in orbit around the Earth, background. The Northrop Grumman MEV-1 will serve as a guide dog of sorts for its aging Intelsat companion which is almost out of fuel. (Northrop Grumman via AP)

This novel rescue was carried out at a slightly higher orbit to avoid jeopardizing other satellites if something had gone wrong. The Intelsat satellite was never designed for this kind of docking; officials said everything went well.

Once maneuvered back down into its operational orbit, the Intelsat satellite should resume operations in another month or two. MEV-1 will move on to another satellite in need once its five-year hitch is over.

Jean-Luc Froeliger, a vice president for Intelsat, said the satellite had just months of fuel remaining. It ended service late last year and was sent into the slightly higher orbit for the docking.

Officials declined to say how much the operation cost or what future rescues might cost. Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said “there was a solid business case” for undertaking the salvage attempt with five more years of operation ahead for the satellite.

It’s reminiscent of another Intelsat rescue that unfolded closer to home.

Spacewalking astronauts captured the wayward Intelsat 603 satellite during Endeavour’s maiden voyage in 1992. It took three men to grab the satellite with their gloved hands in perhaps the most dramatic shuttle mission of all time. An attached rocket motor ended up propelling the satellite from a low altitude to its proper orbit.

Northrop Grumman envisions satellite refueling and other robotic repairs in another five to 10 years. In the meantime, a second rescue satellite will be launched later this year.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Congresswoman: Science should guide nuclear storage decision

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

February 25, 2020

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A member of New Mexico’s congressional delegation wants to ensure a “sound and robust” scientific review is done before federal regulators decide whether to sign off on plans for a multibillion-dollar temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.

U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small in an interview with The Associated Press acknowledged that the growing stockpile of used fuel at commercial reactors around the U.S. is a national problem and that elected leaders need to ensure New Mexico does not pay an unfair price as part of the solution.

“My concern is making sure that we’re looking at the science and that we are doing our best to evaluate based on that, not based on economic considerations or based on fear or bias, but based on how do we solve a challenge that is a national challenge,” the Democrat said.

While elected leaders in Eddy and Lea counties support the project, it has garnered fierce opposition from nuclear watchdog groups, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other members of the state’s congressional delegation. They are concerned about the state becoming a permanent dump since the federal government is far from having any long-term plan for dealing with the tons of spent fuel building up at nuclear power plants around the nation.

State and industry officials also have concerns about potential effects on oil and gas development, as the proposed site is located within the Permian Basin — one of the world’s most prolific energy production regions.

Torres Small narrowly won the district and is up for re-election this year. She said she has heard from constituents on both sides of the matter — those who have concerns and those who see the project as an opportunity for more jobs and revenue for the oil-dependent region.

New Jersey-based Holtec International is seeking a 40-year license from federal regulators to build what it has described as a state-of-the-art complex near Carlsbad.

The site in southeastern New Mexico is remote and geologically stable, the company has said. Holtec executives also have said the four-layer casks that would hold the spent fuel would be made of thick steel and lead and transported on a designated train with guards and guns.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is in the process of considering Holtec’s application. It could be next year before a decision is made.

Torres Small said the clock is ticking for elected leaders to find a permanent solution as spent fuel is now stored at a variety of dangerous locations scattered across the U.S., including near important waterways.

New Mexico already is home to the U.S. government’s only underground repository for Cold War-era waste generated over decades by nuclear research and bomb-making. Some watchdogs are concerned the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could become the final destination for other types of waste as the government prepares to ramp up production of the plutonium cores that serve as triggers for weapons in the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

Torres Small couched her support forproduction of the plutonium coresby saying New Mexico has a long history of bearing a burden when it comes to nuclear development and waste. She said the focus should be on making sure the state and its residents are kept “whole and strong” as national security obligations are met.