Tesla is laying off workers who only just started and withdrawing employment offers as Elon Musk's job cuts begin

Sam Tabahriti

Sun, June 26, 2022

Elon Musk announced in June Tesla's headcount would increase.Patrick Pleul/Getty Images

• Tesla has laid off workers who only started at the company months or even weeks ago.

• An intern had his full-time offer rescinded, while a recruiter was let go after just two weeks.

• One employee told Insider they thought their position as manager made them "safe."

Tesla workers who started their jobs only months or even weeks ago have been let go while others have had offers withdrawn as the company begins to impose cuts announced by Elon Musk in early June.

Insider found a number of posts from Tesla employees who said they'd been laid off as part of the cut, while others had their job offers rescinded.

A senior employee who had only started earlier this year told Insider: "I was very shocked when I was told that I was being let go. Being a manager, I was under the impression that my position was safe."

Asked how Tesla had decided which roles to cut, he said: "They said that layoffs were based on performance reviews but that is not true in my opinion because I had only been at Tesla for a few months and had yet to have performance goals set or a performance review. I asked what metrics they used and they refused to tell me."

"The process definitely was not fair because I was never given the team that I requested."

Iain Abshier, who was part of the recruiting team, said on Tuesday in a LinkedIn post: "Damn, talk about a gut punch. Friday afternoon I was included in the Tesla layoffs after just two weeks of work."

Robert Belovodskij had his job offer as a "manufacturing controls development engineer" rescinded. He said: "The timing of the situation is also unfortunate as I was due to start in early August."

At the start of June Musk told Tesla executives to pause all hiring because he had a "super bad feeling" about the economy and needed to cut 10% of the company's workforce. However, he later tweeted that the headcount would increase, but the number of salaried staff would not rise.

Mansi Chandresha started at Tesla in February as a data analyst and posted on LinkedIn after learning she was being cut: "I have been trying to gather myself to the news that my position with Tesla was terminated."

Nevertheless she added: "I am grateful for the fact that I got an opportunity to work with a fantastic team."

Chandresha said she was urgently seeking a new role before her student visa expired at the end of July.

Two former employees are suing the company claiming the electric carmaker violated federal law by laying off hundreds of employees on short notice.

John Lynch and Daxton Hartsfield, who filed the lawsuit, said at least 500 of their coworkers in Nevada lost their jobs at around the same time, the document showed.

Insider found at least 11 more workers whose jobs had been cut. More are likely to suffer a similar fate as Musk said at the Qatar Economic Forum last week that reduction would take effect over the next three months.

Elon Musk confirms termination of 10 percent of Tesla salaried employees amid economic turmoil

Ike Sasson

WSWS.ORG

On Tuesday, Tesla CEO and multibillionaire Elon Musk confirmed that the company would be laying off as much as 10 percent of its salaried workforce, or roughly 3.5 percent of its total workforce, over the next three months. His announcement has taken place amid disruptions in supply chains, which have impacted the electric vehicle industry, a drop in Tesla’s stocks, and numerous lawsuits filed against Tesla for frequent violations of labor and civil rights laws.

Earlier in the month, Reuters stated that they had obtained emails sent from Musk to executives in which he expressed that he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy and would be carrying out a mass layoff of salaried employees and would “pause all hiring worldwide.”

Since the leaked information, Musk has attempted to reassure employees about the current stability of the company while also openly admitting to Tesla’s economic uncertainty.

An email was sent out to all employees to clarify that the layoffs would “not apply to anyone actually building cars, battery packs or installing solar.” He also stated that Tesla would continue to hire for hourly positions. However, Electrek, a news website focused on electric transportation, later confirmed that there has been a second round of layoffs impacting hourly workers in sales and delivery teams.

The company reported in 2021 that it employed 100,000 people, which would translate to roughly 3,500 layoffs by the end of the summer if the 3.5 percent figure given by Musk is accurate.

On Tuesday, he attempted to reiterate his claims of stability, giving a statement at the Qatar Economic Forum that “A year from now, I think our [employee] headcount will be higher.” Musk’s statement likely reflects an attempt at damage control as Tesla stocks have spiraled following Reuters’ report on the layoffs.

Workers at the company have said they were “blindsided” by the sudden layoff. Some have also taken to social media to lament the poor working conditions among salaried employees at Tesla and to lament that they had not left the company sooner.

On TheLayoff.com, one worker wrote: “They utilized PIP [performance improvement plan, an internal policy often used to justify firings] to trim the people who they don't like for whatever reason. Obviously, Elon doesn’t have any sense about this. He doesn’t think that feeding your family is his job as a boss.”

Another worker left an anonymous post that stated: “Musk has obviously lost his damn mind. He wants everybody to work 60+ hour weeks with no breaks, no vacations, no days off, and certainly no work from home. All of this for the same pay (the lower the better)—just like the ‘exemplary’ employees in China do. You know, the desperate people who have no other choice if they want to survive. That's his ideal employee. If you got away from that, your situation can only improve.”

Musk’s public confirmation of mass firings took place between filing a lawsuit by former employees at Tesla’s factory in Sparks, Nevada—where a separate mass firing took place—and the release of statements Musk gave in late May in which he raises the possibility of Tesla going into bankruptcy.

The lawsuit, which was filed on June 19 by John Lynch and Daxton Harsfield, alleges that Tesla carried out a mass firing of 500 workers at Gigafactory 2 in May and June. The plaintiffs allege that the largest electric vehicle producer was in violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act because it fired over 499 workers without providing a written notice 60 days in advance.

Tesla is also the subject of multiple other lawsuits including one alleging that the company allowed for “rampant sexual harassment” of women at the Fremont, California factory. In a separate suit a judge had awarded Owen Diaz, an African American elevator operator at Tesla’s Fremont plant, $15 million in payment for the racial abuses he experienced on the job. Diaz has rejected the payment, instead calling for a new trial claiming the amount would not change the conduct at the company. In an initial trial Diaz was awarded $137 million by a jury, which was later reduced.

In June, Solomon Chau, a Tesla investor, disclosed that he was also suing the company claiming the poor workplace culture is damaging the company’s reputation and in violation of its fiduciary responsibilities to investors. Chau’s suit specifically names Musk, Tesla’s board members and the company as defendants.

Chau’s lawsuit likely also reflects growing concerns among investors over Tesla’s economic downturn. In an interview with Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley in late May, but published this week, Musk described the factories in Berlin, Germany and Austin, Texas as “gigantic money furnaces,” which are unable to produce because of continued supply chain concerns. Musk specifically pointed to the inability to supply these factories with batteries due to COVID-19 related lockdowns in China.

Tesla operates a plant in Shanghai, which produces batteries used in their vehicles.

Musk also raised the possibility of Tesla going into bankruptcy if it is unable to keep up production. Business experts have also pointed out that the company could face difficulty transferring funds out of China and that Tesla is likely going to announce a drop in earnings compared to the previous year. Analysts at Refinitiv estimated adjusted earnings could drop to $2.5 billion in the second quarter compared to $3.7 billion in the first quarter.

Musk’s statements are surprising given his history of making grandiose claims about the operations of various companies he is a part of. He has frequently used Twitter, a company he is currently attempting to purchase, as a means of encouraging stock and digital currency speculations.

Tesla’s high market valuation, particularly compared to the number of vehicles it produces, has largely been the byproduct of rampant speculation and the ruthless treatment of workers. Throughout the pandemic this has found a particularly sharp expression with Musk rejecting remote work and violating California’s lockdown measures to reopen the Fremont factory.

The announced firings confirm that in times of economic downturn, Tesla and other companies will respond even more ruthlessly to unload the crisis onto the workers.

Notably, the layoffs at Tesla have coincided with job cuts among the more traditional automakers as well as tech companies, and portends further attacks on autoworkers.

British microchip factory faces shutdown if China deal approved, ministers warned


Matt Oliver
Sun, June 26, 2022 

nexperia newport wafer fab - Matthew Horwood /Getty Images Europe

Britain’s biggest microchip factory is likely to be closed and production shifted to Shanghai if ministers allow a Chinese takeover of the business to go ahead, a report has warned.

Researchers at the Policy Exchange think tank claimed there was a “strong possibility” that Newport Wafer Fab’s new owner, Nexperia, will in future seek to move the company’s facilities out of South Wales.

This risks strengthening China’s stranglehold on the global semiconductor market, the think tank said, which has suffered huge disruption because of the country’s strict zero-Covid policy and subsequent lockdowns.

Semiconductors are a crucial component in electrical goods such as smartphones and televisions, and are essential in car manufacturing -

The Policy Exchange said Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, should consider these implications when he is deciding whether to undo the deal, they said, alongside American concerns and the military applications of the company’s technology.

Researchers said: “There is a strong possibility that when Wingtech’s Shanghai plant reaches full capacity the company might close Newport and shift production to China, thus supporting China’s drive to reduce semiconductor imports.”

Nexperia, which is owned by Shanghai-listed Wingtech, described suggestions that it will relocate the Newport Wafer Fab's production abroad as "nonsense".

A spokesman said: “This is complete nonsense. There is no factual basis for such idle conjecture. In addition to acquiring the Newport Wafer Fab site, repaying a £17m loan to the Welsh Government, Nexperia has committed a further £160m of new investment to its UK business in the past year, to help respond to strong global demand for semiconductors.

"This investment has secured the 450 high value manufacturing jobs at Newport, with a further 50 people hired already, as well as the 1,000 at our Manchester site.

"Those are not the actions of a business that is about to shut up shop.”

The £63m takeover of Newport Wafer Fab was announced last year but provoked a furious backlash from MPs, amid concerns about growing Chinese ownership of technology assets around the world.

Mr Kwarteng announced a national security review of the takeover in May but a decision has been delayed amid a Cabinet split over the issue.

The plant fell into financial trouble during the pandemic, allowing Netherlands-based Nexperia, which owned 14pc of Newport Wafer Fab, to exercise an option to buy it.

Ministers had initially waved through the deal but Mr Kwarteng later ordered a detailed review under new national security legislation.

The laws give him the power to reverse the takeover once an investigation has been carried out.

Calls for the takeover to be blocked have grown amid a global chip shortage and increasing concerns over China’s technology ambitions.

A group of US Members of Congress has urged Joe Biden to intervene if the takeover is not reversed, saying the UK should be removed from a security whitelist that allows British investments in America to avoid screening.

FIRST TIME SINCE 1918

Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time in more than a century, reports say
Huileng Tan
Mon, June 27, 2022 

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and President Vladimir Putin have slammed sweeping sanctions against the country.Olga Maltseva/AP

Russia missed a Sunday deadline to pay $100 million in interest on two foreign-currency bonds.


Russia has the money to pay, but sanctions are blocking payments from moving through the global system.

Russia last defaulted on its foreign debt in 1918 during the Bolshevik Revolution.

Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time in more than a century as the country can't pay creditors due to sanctions over the war in Ukraine, according to media reports.

The country missed a deadline to pay $100 million in dollar- and euro-denominated interest on two foreign-currency bonds on Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing bondholders. Some Taiwanese holders of Russian bonds also did not receive interest due by the deadline, Reuters reported citing two sources.

Russia said it has sent the money to Euroclear for distribution to investors, but the payment seems to be held up there, the BBC reported. Euroclear would not say whether the distribution had been blocked, and said it follows all sanctions, the report said.

In May, the US Treasury ended a key sanctions exemption that allowed Russian sovereign bond payments to pass through to US investors. In response, Russia said it would start using rubles to pay down dollar bond payments.

Moscow said it had sent the Eurobond payments to the country's National Settlement Depository, Reuters reported last week. But the bonds' covenants do not allow for payments in rubles, which means the payments would still constitute a default.

It's also unclear how bondholders can access the ruble payments, as Russia's National Settlement Depository has been sanctioned by the EU.

This marks Russia's first default on its foreign debt since 1918, when, during the Bolshevik Revolution, communist leader Vladimir Lenin repudiated the debt of the Tsarist era.

But Russia isn't defaulting this time around because it doesn't have the money to pay; its finances are holding up well currently, thanks to soaring energy prices. Instead, the default comes as sweeping US and European Union sanctions are blocking its bond interest payments from moving through the international payments system.

Up until Sunday, Russia had been making good on its bond payments even amid sweeping sanctions. But markets have been expecting the country to eventually default on its foreign bonds as international trade restrictions intensify.

To counter the situation, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday to handle payments on foreign bonds under a new program — which signals that Moscow considers the interest paid, even when payments are made in rubles, Reuters reported. Russia has about $40 billion in outstanding foreign currency payments.
Russia says it's not a default

Formal default declarations are typically issued by credit rating agencies, but the big three agencies — S&P, Moody's and Fitch — have all withdrawn ratings on Russian entities due to sanctions.

Russia has hit back against what it called a "force-majeure situation," with finance minister Anton Siluanov calling the situation a "farce," Bloomberg reported last Thursday.

"Anyone can declare whatever they like," Siluanov said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg last week. "But anyone who understands what's going on knows that this is in no way a default."

Russia made the bond payments it made in May, and the fact Western sanctions were holding them up at Euroclear is "not our problem", a Kremlin spokesperson said, per Reuters.

Russia may still have until the end of the day on Monday to pay up, as there's no exact deadline specified in the bonds' prospectus, lawyers told Reuters.

And while Russia may still be able to get the money through the financial institution to bondholders, "the overwhelming probability is they won't be able to, because no bank is going to move the money," Jay S. Auslander, a top sovereign debt lawyer at Wilk Auslander, told the Associated Press.

The impact of Russia's debt default on the world's financial systems would be limited, as the country doesn't have extensive financial links globally, Insider's Harry Robertson reported in March.

Russia's foreign debts are pretty low compared to the size of its economy, so a default is unlikely to severely affect the country now. However, a default would impact Russia's credit trustworthiness, making it harder for the country to borrow on the international markets in the future.

Russia Is Hours Away From Its First Foreign Default in a Century

Giulia Morpurgo
Sun, June 26, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- After months of teetering on the edge of default, Russia is now just hours away from a dramatic moment in the financial battle that the US and others have waged against the Kremlin over its invasion of Ukraine.

A grace period on about $100 million of missed bond payments -- blocked because of wide-ranging sanctions -- ends on Sunday night. There won’t be an official declaration, and Russia is already disputing the designation, but if investors don’t have their money by the deadline, there will be an “event of default” on Monday morning, according to the bond documents.

It’s largely a symbolic development for now, given that Russia is already an economic, financial and political outcast across most of the world. But it showcases how the US, Europe and others have tightened the screws since the invasion started in February to make it all-but impossible for Russia to conduct what would otherwise be normal financial business.

For Russia, it will mark its first foreign default since the Bolshevik repudiation of Czarist-era debts in 1918. The country tipped very near to such a moment earlier this year, but managed a last-ditch escape by switching payment methods. That alternative avenue was subsequently shut off in May -- just days before the $100 million was due -- when the US closed a sanctions loophole that had allowed American investors to receive sovereign bond payments.

Now the question is what happens next, as markets are faced with the unique scenario of a defaulted borrower which has the willingness and resources to pay, but can’t.

Major ratings agencies would usually be the ones to issue a default declaration, but sanctions bar them from Russian business. Bondholders could group together to make their own statement, but they may prefer to wait to monitor the war in Ukraine and the level of sanctions as they try to figure out the chance of getting their money back, or at least some of it.

“A declaration of default is a symbolic event,” said Takahide Kiuchi, an economist at Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo. “The Russian government has already lost the opportunity to issue dollar-denominated debt. Already as of now, Russia can’t borrow from most foreign countries.”

As the penalties on Russian authorities, banks and individuals have increasingly cut off payment routes, Russia has argued that its met its obligations to creditors by transferring the May payments to a local paying agent, even though investors don’t have the funds in their own accounts.

Earlier this week, it made other transfers in rubles, despite the fact that the bonds in question don’t allow that payment option.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has cited “force-majeure” as a justification for the currency switch, calling the situation a “farce.” The legal argument of force majeure hasn’t historically encompassed sanctions, according to lawyers who spoke to Bloomberg earlier this month.

“There is every ground to suggest that in artificially barring the Russian Federation from servicing its foreign sovereign debt, the goal is to apply the label of ‘default’,” Siluanov said Thursday. “Anyone can declare whatever they like and can try to apply such a label. But anyone who understands the situation knows that this is in no way a default.”

Trophies made from human skulls hint at regional conflicts around the time of Maya civilization's mysterious collapse


Gabriel D. Wrobel, 

Associate Professor of Anthropology, Michigan State University

THE CONVERSATION
Sat, June 25, 2022 a

How did military conflict fit into the end of a mighty civilization?

  AP Photo/Moises Castillo

Two trophy skulls, discovered by archaeologists in the jungles of Belize, may help shed light on the little-understood collapse of the once powerful Classic Maya civilization.

The defleshed and painted human skulls, meant to be worn around the neck as pendants, were buried with a warrior over a thousand years ago at Pacbitun, a Maya city. They likely represent gruesome symbols of military might: war trophies made from the heads of defeated foes.

Both skulls are similar to depictions of trophy skulls worn by victorious soldiers in stone carvings and on painted ceramic vessels from other Maya sites.

Drilled holes likely held feathers, leather straps or both. Other holes served to anchor the jaws in place and suspend the cranium around the warrior’s neck, while the backs were sawed off to make the skulls lie flat on the wearer’s chest.

Flecks of red paint decorate one of the jaws. It’s carved with glyphic writing that includes what my collaborator Christophe Helmke, an expert on Maya writing, believes is the first known instance of the Maya term for “trophy skull.”

What do these skulls — where they were found and who they were from — tell us about the end of a powerful political system that thrived for centuries, covering southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and portions of Honduras and El Salvador? My colleagues and I are thinking about them as clues to understanding this tumultuous period.

What ended a civilization?

The vast Maya empire flourished throughout Central America, with the first major cities appearing between 750 and 500 B.C. But beginning in the southern lowlands of Guatemala, Belize and Honduras in the eighth century A.D., people abandoned major Maya cities throughout the region. Archaeologists are fascinated by the mystery of what we call “the collapse” of this once powerful empire.

Earlier studies focused on identifying a single cause of the collapse. Could it have been environmental degradation resulting from the increasing demands of overpopulated cities? Warfare? Loss of faith in leaders? Drought?

All of these certainly took place, but none on its own fully explains what researchers know about the collapse that gradually swept through the landscape over the course of a century and a half. Today, archaeologists acknowledge the complexity of what happened.

Clearly violence and warfare contributed to the end of some southern lowland cities, as evidenced by quickly constructed fortifications identified by aerial LiDAR surveys at a number of sites.

Trophy skulls, together with a growing list of scattered finds from other sites in Belize, Honduras and Mexico, provide intriguing evidence that the conflict may have been civil in nature, pitting rising powers in the north against the established dynasties in the south.

Piecing together the skulls’ social context

Ceramic vessels found alongside the Pacbitun warrior and his (or her – the bones were too fragmentary to confidently determine sex) trophy skull date to the eighth or ninth century, just prior to the site’s abandonment.

During this period, Pacbitun and other Maya cities in the southern lowlands were beginning their decline, while Maya political centers in the north, in what is now the Yucatan of Mexico, rose to dominance. But the exact timing and nature of this power transition remains uncertain.

In many of these northern cities, art from this period is notoriously militaristic, abounding with skulls and bones and often showing war captives being killed and decapitated.

At Pakal Na, another southern site in Belize, a similar trophy skull was discovered inscribed with fire and animal imagery resembling northern military symbolism, suggesting a northern origin of the warrior it was buried with. The presence of northern military paraphernalia in the form of these skulls may point to a loss of control by local leaders.

Archaeologist Patricia McAnany has argued that the presence of northerners in the river valleys of central Belize may be related to the lucrative trade of cacao, the plant from which chocolate is made. Cacao was an important ingredient in rituals, and a symbol of wealth and power of Maya elites. However, the geology of the northern Yucatan makes it difficult to grow cacao on a large scale, necessitating the establishment of a reliable supply source from elsewhere.

At the northern site of Xuenkal, Mexico, Vera Tiesler and colleagues used strontium isotopes to pinpoint the geographic origin of a warrior and his trophy skull. He was local from the north. But the trophy skull he brought home, found atop his chest in burial, was from an individual who grew up in the south.

Other evidence at a number of sites in the southern highlands seems to mark a sudden and violent end for the community’s ruling order. Archaeologists have found evidence for the execution of one ruling family and desecration of sacred sites and elite tombs. At the regional capital site of Tipan Chen Uitz, approximately 20 miles (30 kilometers) east of Pacbitun, my colleagues and I found remains of several carved stone monuments that seem to have been intentionally smashed and strewn across the front of the main ceremonial pyramid.

Trophy skulls and power dynamics

Archaeologists are not only interested in identifying the timing and the social and environmental factors associated with collapse, which vary in different regions. We’re also trying to figure out how specific communities and their leaders responded to the unique combinations of these stresses they faced.

While the evidence from just a handful of trophy skulls does not conclusively show that sites in parts of the southern lowlands were being overrun by northern warriors, it does at least point to the role of violence and, potentially, warfare as contributing to the end of the established political order in central Belize.

These grisly artifacts lend an intriguing element to the sweep of events that resulted in the end of one of the richest, most sophisticated, scientifically advanced cultures of its time.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Gabriel D. Wrobel, Michigan State University.

Read more:

Misreading the story of climate change and the Maya

Soundscapes in the past: Adding a new dimension to our archaeological picture of ancient cultures

New Stonehenge discovery: how we found a prehistoric monument hidden in data

Cyberattack forces Iran steel company to halt production



ISABEL DEBRE
Mon, June 27, 2022 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — One of Iran's major steel companies said on Monday it was forced to halt production after being hit by a cyberattack, apparently marking one of the biggest such assaults on the country's strategic industrial sector in recent memory.

The state-owned Khuzestan Steel Company said experts had determined the plant had to stop work until further notice “due to technical problems” following “cyberattacks.” The company's website was down on Monday.

The company's CEO, Amin Ebrahimi, claimed that Khuzestan Steel managed to thwart the cyberattack and prevent structural damage to production lines that would impact supply chains and customers.

“Fortunately with time and awareness, the attack was unsuccessful,” the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Ebrahimi as saying, adding that he expected the company's website to be restored and everything to return to "normal" by the end of Monday.

A local news channel, Jamaran, reported that the attack failed because the factory happened to be non-operational at the time due to an electricity outage.

The company did not blame any specific group for the assault, which constitutes just the latest example of an attack targeting the country's services that has embarrassed authorities in recent weeks. In a major incident last year, a cyberattack on Iran's fuel distribution paralyzed gas stations across the country, leading to long lines of angry motorists.

Train stations in Iran have been hit with fake delay messages. Surveillance cameras in the country have been hacked. State-run websites have been disrupted. Footage showing abuse in the country's notorious Evin prison has leaked out.

Iran has previously accused the United States and Israel for cyberattacks that have crippled the country's infrastructure.

Iran disconnected much of its government infrastructure from the internet after the Stuxnet computer virus — widely believed to be a joint U.S.-Israeli creation — disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges in the country’s nuclear sites in the late 2000s.

Khuzestan Steel Company, based in Ahvaz in the oil-rich southwestern Khuzestan province, has a monopoly on steel production in Iran along with two other major state-owned firms.

Founded before Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, the company for decades afterward had some production lines supplied by German, Italian and Japanese companies. Service has been continuous except during catastrophic Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein sent his army across the border.

However, crushing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program has forced the company to reduce its dependence on foreign parts.

The government considers steel a crucial sector. Iran is the leading producer of steel in the Middle East and among the top 10 in the world, according to the World Steel Association. Its iron ore mines provide raw materials for domestic production and are exported to dozens of countries, including Italy, China and the United Arab Emirates.

Iran's crude steel production, however, was only 2.3 million tons last month, the WSA said. Its concurrent drop in exports has been largely attributed to sanctions-hit Russia flooding Iran's Chinese buyers with discounted steel after losing access to Western markets amid the war on Ukraine.

THE ILLUMINATI
Mystery rocket crashes into Moon and leaves baffling ‘double crater,’ NASA says


NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University photo

Mark Price
Sun, June 26, 2022

A “mystery rocket body” crashed into the Moon and left a “double crater,” which is an even bigger mystery to scientists.

That means it wasn’t your average rocket, NASA reported in a June 24 news release.

So far, none of Earth’s space exploring nations have taken credit — or blame — for the crash.

NASA says astronomers spotted the rocket on a collision course with the Moon last year, and were waiting to see what might happen.

It hit March 4 and apparently put on quite a show.

“Surprisingly the crater is actually two craters, an eastern crater (18-meter diameter, about 19.5 yards) superimposed on a western crater (16-meter diameter, about 17.5 yards),” NASA reported.

“The double crater was unexpected. ... No other rocket body impacts on the Moon created double craters.”

At least 47 NASA rocket bodies have created “spacecraft impacts” on the Moon, according to 2016 data from Arizona State University.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted the double crater site near the Hertzsprung crater, a “complex” impact crater on the far side of the Moon.

The double crater may indicate the rocket “had large masses at each end,” which is not the norm, NASA says.

Spent rockets typically have a heavy motor at one end and a lighter empty fuel tank at the other, scientists say.

So what was the additional heavy mass? NASA didn’t offer guesses.

“Since the origin of the rocket body remains uncertain, the double nature of the crater may indicate its identity,” NASA says.

'Biblical' insect swarms spur Oregon push to fight pests

In this photo provided by rancher Diana Fillmore, grasshoppers cover rabbit brush that they've eaten bare on rancher Diana Fillmore's land in Arock, Ore., on July 15, 2021. Farmers in Oregon already battling extreme drought and low water supplies are bracing for another grasshopper and Mormon cricket infestation. Severe outbreaks in recent years, fueled by drier, warmer conditions, have wreaked havoc. 

Diana Fillmore via AP

CLAIRE RUSH
Sun, June 26, 2022

ARLINGTON, Ore. (AP) — Driving down a windy canyon road in northern Oregon rangeland, Jordan Maley and April Aamodt are on the look out for Mormon crickets, giant insects that can ravage crops.

“There’s one right there,” Aamodt says.

They’re not hard to spot. The insects, which can grow larger than 2 inches (5 centimeters), blot the asphalt.

Mormon crickets are not new to Oregon. Native to western North America, their name dates back to the 1800s, when they ruined the fields of Mormon settlers in Utah. But amidst drought and warming temperatures — conditions favored by the insects — outbreaks across the West have worsened.

The Oregon Legislature last year allocated $5 million to assess the problem and set up a Mormon cricket and grasshopper “suppression” program. An additional $1.2 million for the program was approved earlier this month.

It’s part of a larger effort by state and federal authorities in the U.S. West to deal with an explosion of grasshoppers and Mormon crickets that has hit from Montana to Nevada. But some environmental groups oppose the programs, which rely on the aerial spraying of pesticides across large swaths of land.

Maley, an Oregon State University Extension Agent, and Aamodt, a resident of the small Columbia River town of Arlington, are both involved in Mormon cricket outreach and surveying efforts in the area.


In 2017, Arlington saw its largest Mormon cricket outbreak since the 1940s. The roads were “greasy” with the squashed entrails of the huge insects, which damaged nearby wheat crops.

Rancher Skye Krebs said the outbreaks have been “truly biblical.”

“On the highways, once you get them killed, then the rest of them come,” he explained. Mormon crickets are cannibalistic and will feast on each other, dead or alive, if not satiated with protein.

The insects, which are not true crickets but shield-backed katydids, are flightless. But they can travel at least a quarter of a mile in a day, according to Maley.

Aamodt fought the 2017 outbreak with what she had on hand.

“I got the lawnmower out and I started mowing them and killing them,” she said. “I took a straight hoe and I’d stab them.”

Aamodt has organized volunteers to tackle the infestation and earned the nickname “cricket queen.”

Another infestation last year had local officials “scrambling,” Maley said.

“We had all those high-value crops and irrigation circles,” he explained. “We just had to do what we could to keep them from getting into that.”

In 2021 alone, Oregon agricultural officials estimate 10 million acres of rangeland in 18 counties were damaged by grasshoppers and Mormon crickets.

Under the new Oregon initiative, private landowners like farmers and ranchers can request the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) survey their land. If ODA finds more than three Mormon crickets or eight grasshoppers per square yard it will recommend chemical treatment. In some areas near Arlington surveyed in May soon after the hatch there were 201 Mormon crickets per square yard.

State officials recommend the aerial application of diflubenzuron. The insecticide works by inhibiting development, preventing nymphs from growing into adults. Landowners can be reimbursed for up to 75% of the cost.

Diana Fillmore is a rancher participating in the new cost-sharing initiative. She says “the ground is just crawling with grasshoppers” on her property.

ODA recommended she treat her 988-acre ranch in Arock in southeastern Oregon. As the program’s protocol calls for applying insecticide to only half the proposed area, alternately targeting swaths then skipping the next one, this means nearly 500 acres of her land will actually be sprayed.

Fillmore decided to act, remembering last year’s damage.

“It was horrible,” Fillmore said. “Grasshoppers just totally wiped out some of our fields.” She was forced to spend $45,000 on hay she normally wouldn’t have to buy.

Todd Adams, an entomologist and ODA’s Eastern Oregon field office and grasshopper program coordinator, said as of mid-June ODA had received 122 survey requests and sent out 31 treatment recommendations for roughly 40,000 acres (16,187 hectares).

Landowners must act quickly if they decide to spray diflubenzuron as it is only effective against nymphs.

“Once they become adults it’s too late,” Adams said.

Oregon’s new program is geared toward private landowners. But the federal government owns more than half of Oregon’s total land, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has its own program for outbreaks on Western public land.

The U.S. government’s grasshopper suppression program dates back to the 1930s, and USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has sprayed millions of acres with pesticides to control outbreaks since the 1980s.

APHIS National Policy Director William Wesela said the agency sprayed 807,000 acres (326,581 hectares) of rangeland across seven Western states in 2021. So far this year, it has received requests for treatment in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada and Arizona, according to Jake Bodart, its State Plant Health Director for Oregon.

In a 2019 risk assessment APHIS recognized the main insecticide used, diflubenzuron, remains “a restricted use pesticide due to its toxicity to aquatic invertebrates,” but said risks are low.

APHIS says it follows methods to reduce concerns. It instructs pesticide applicators to skip swaths and apply the insecticide at lower rates than listed on the label.

But environmental groups oppose the program. Last month, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) sued APHIS in the U.S. District Court in Portland. In their filing, they accuse APHIS of harming rangeland ecosystems and not adequately informing the public about treatment areas.

They also allege the agency violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not assessing all the alternatives to pesticides or analyzing the cumulative effects of the program.

Federal officials declined to comment on the suit because it is pending before courts.

Environmentalists say the reduction of grasshoppers diminishes the food source of other wildlife that prey on them.

“We’re very concerned about the impact of these broad, large sprays to our grassland and rangeland ecosystems,” said Sharon Selvaggio, the Xerces Society’s Pesticide Program Specialist.

Selvaggio added the sprays can be “toxic to a wide variety of insects” beyond grasshoppers and Mormon crickets, expressing particular concern for pollinators such as bees.

The two environmental groups want the agency to adopt a more holistic approach to pest management, by exploring methods such as rotational grazing.

“We’re not trying to stop APHIS from ever using pesticides again,” said Andrew Missel, staff attorney at Advocates for the West, the nonprofit law firm that filed the suit. “The point is really to reform” the program, he added.

In Arlington, the “cricket queen” Aamodt said residents had experimented with pesticide alternatives. During 2017, some covered trees in duct tape to trap the insects. The following year, local officials brought in goats to graze hillsides.

For now, those fighting against future infestations hope the new state program will bring much-needed support.

“Keep in mind that these are people that are taking time out from their own lives to do this,” said OSU Extension Agent Maley. “The volunteers made a huge difference.”

___

Rush is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

 

YIPPEE KI YAY MOFO

Villagers cheer Indonesian for capturing big crocodile with rope


4-metre long crocodile captured in Buton

Mon, June 27, 2022 
By Angie Teo

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Fellow villagers have praised an Indonesian man for capturing a crocodile longer than 4 metres (13 ft) on the island of Sulawesi using just a rope.

The giant reptile can be seen in a video being secured around the jaws by Usman, who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name. Usman said it had been roaming the area for at least two days, frightening the inhabitants.

"If we had left it, it would have come on to land and we wouldn't have been able to go into the rice fields," the 53-year-old said.

"There are also drainage channels around the roads here, places where locals fish. It would have been dangerous if it had crawled up the drainage channels. I had to take a chance," he said.

The crocodile's capture was lauded by others in the village of Ambau Indah.

"What Usman has done is appreciated by the community. Some even consider it a heroic act, because it saved many people who could have become victims," said Umar Siddiq Al Farizi.

In the past there had been several crocodile attacks in the area, he said. He also welcomed Usman's decision to the report the capture to authorities.

"He (Usman) considered this a rare animal whose habitat had been damaged by floods. He thought it should be protected and not killed," Umar said.

The crocodile, measuring 4.3 metres, will be released back into the wild, an official at the local Natural Resources Conservation Agency said.

(Reporting by Angie Teo and Heru Asprihanto; Editing by Ed Davies and Bradley Perrett)

GOOD NEWS

Grand Canyon won't seek volunteers to kill bison this fall



 In this July 31, 2016 photo, a park ranger and a group of motorcyclists pass a sign warning of bison within the Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona. Grand Canyon National Park has decided not to extend a pilot project this fall 2022 that used volunteers to kill bison to downsize the herd. New surveys show the herd roaming the far reaches of northern Arizona is closer to the goal of about 200. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)More

FELICIA FONSECA
Sun, June 26, 2022 

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A bison herd that lives almost exclusively in the northern reaches of Grand Canyon National Park won't be targeted for lethal removal there this fall.

The park used skilled volunteers selected through a highly competitive and controversial lottery last year to kill bison, part of a toolset to downsize the herd that's been trampling meadows and archaeological sites on the canyon's North Rim.

Introducing the sound of gunfire and having people close to the bison was meant to nudge the massive animals back to the adjacent forest where they legally could be hunted. But the efforts had little effect.

“They just kind of moved a bit from where the activity occurred, and sometimes they'd come back the next day,” said Grand Canyon wildfire program manager Greg Holm.

New surveys also have shown the herd is closer to the goal of about 200, down from an estimated 500 to 800 animals when the park approved a plan to quickly cut the size of the herd. The park is now working with other agencies and groups on a long-term plan for managing the bison, an animal declared America's national mammal in 2016 and depicted on the National Park Service logo.

Hunting over hundreds of years and a genetic bottleneck nearly left the animals that once numbered in the tens of millions extinct in the U.S. Federal wildlife authorities now support about 11,000 bison in about a dozen states, including the largest herd on public land at Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone, which spans 3,500 square miles in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, also is developing a new management plan for the roughly 5,500 bison there. It's working with Native American tribes, state agencies and other groups to find ways to reduce the number of bison sent to slaughter.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota regularly rounds up bison using helicopters and corrals, then transfers some of the animals to tribes, other states and national parks. Without natural predators, bison herds can grow quickly and strain the resources, the park says.

The Grand Canyon herd didn't always live within the park's boundaries, where they can be seen along the highway leading to the North Rim entrance. The bison are descendants of those brought to Arizona in the 1900s as part of a crossbreeding experiment with cattle.

The animals increasingly recognized they could be hunted on the adjacent national forest and sought refuge in the national park. Hunting isn't allowed at national parks, but the agency has authority to kill animals that harm resources, using park staff or volunteers.

Most of the bison at Grand Canyon have been removed by corralling them and transferring them to Native American tribes that have been trying to reestablish herds on their land. A controversial pilot project last fall sought skilled volunteers to shoot up to 12 of the animals.

More than 45,000 people applied for the chance. Ultimately, 10 were picked, and they were able to kill four bison. Although the animals are massive, they're quick and agile and can hide among thick stands of trees.

Grand Canyon officials say they won't repeat the program this fall, but it won't be excluded as a tool in the future. Another corralling effort is planned.

The latest bison population estimate based on aerial surveys and tracking devices shows 216 bison on the expansive Kaibab Plateau, according to Grand Canyon National Park. Agencies that manage the land and wildlife in far northern Arizona and study the bison's movement are meeting in July to start talking about the long-term plan.

Part of that discussion will include creating more gaps in the state-sanctioned bison hunting seasons outside Grand Canyon National Park to see if bison will move outside the boundaries, said Larry Phoenix, an Arizona Game and Fish Department regional supervisor.

Meanwhile, the Game and Fish Department is seeking approval to improve fencing, cattle guards and water catchments to expand the range for another herd of bison in far northern Arizona. The state imported 15 bison yearlings from a privately owned nature reserve in Montana in late 2017 and said the herd now needs more room to grow.

Phoenix is confident these bison won't follow the others into the Grand Canyon, largely because the animals don't know the other herd exists.

Environmental groups are skeptical fences can keep them from straying and adding to the overall bison population in the region where they've been difficult and costly to keep in check.

They’re asking the U.S. Forest Service to do an in-depth review of the proposal that considers climate change and impacts to plants and animals like the chisel-tooth kangaroo rat.

Drought and bark beetles are killing the oldest trees on Earth. Can they be saved?


Louis Sahagún
Mon, June 27, 2022

At the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, where some of the the world's oldest trees live, scientists are concerned about a possible infestation of bark beetle. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Forest pathologist Martin MacKenzie strode forward on a narrow path through California’s mythic bristlecone pine forest in the White Mountains near the Nevada border, methodically scanning gnarled limbs for the invaders that threaten the lives of some of the world’s oldest trees.

These intruders are bark beetles, a menace smaller than a pencil eraser, but they bore by the thousands into the bark and feast on the moist inner core, where trees transport nutrients from roots to crown. Then they carve out egg galleries, where hungry larvae hatch.

A blue stain fungus carried in by the pests delivers the coup de grace — a clogged circulatory system.


For thousands of years, bark beetles were held in check or eliminated by the harsh conditions of the stony, storm-battered mountain crests where the grotesque, twisted trees have evolved an arsenal of survival strategies.

At the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, U.S. Forest Service pathologist Martin MacKenzie checks on trees with ecologist Michele Slaton, right, and spokeswoman Mary Matlick. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Now, scientists say, these living symbols of longevity, strength and perseverance may be at an evolutionary crossroads. Hotter droughts and bark beetles are for the first time in recorded history killing bristlecones, according to a recent study published in the scientific journal Forest Ecology and Management.

Since 2013, thousands of the trees that ranged in age from 144 to 1,612 years have been killed on Telescope Peak — the site of Death Valley National Park’s lone population of bristlecones — the study says. Many more have been killed in high-altitude bristlecone forests scattered across southern Utah.

On a recent morning, MacKenzie, 74, wanted to confirm that the culturally significant Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, home to Methuselah, a 4,853-year-old specimen some say is the oldest living tree on Earth, remained free of the insects.

“We’re lucky — there’s no sign of the beetles in these trees,” MacKenzie told a companion with a smile.

But minutes later, as he made his way along the path, he noticed a tell-tale color of arboreal stress: red. It had just begun to emerge on the bright green needles of a bristlecone crouched on a steep slope in the distance.

His face fell. “I have to go check it out.”

A large bristlecone pine tree has fallen over, exposing the roots, at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Great Basin bristlecone pine trees are magical for foresters like MacKenzie.

In tough times, they die off almost entirely, leaving a few strips of bark that can continue growing for thousands of years — sideways along the ground, or diagonally skyward. They hold needles for up to 40 years and drown hungry insects in resin.

They are survivors of bristlecone pine forests pushed upslope more than 11,000 years ago, by rising temperatures that triggered major shifts in plant and animal distribution and created California’s deserts.

“Unlike people, bristlecone pines don’t die of old age,” he likes to say.

But they can be killed. The study led by U.S. Forest Service biologists Barbara Bentz and Candace Millar found that bark-beetle-caused mortality was most likely in areas where bristlecone pines are intermixed with other tree species that are known to host the beetles.

U.S. Forest Service pathologist Martin MacKenzie takes a sample from a dying bristlecone pine. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Solitary bristlecones deal with the beetles by drowning them in sap, the study says. But in hot, drought-stricken mixed forests, bark beetles first land on nearby limber and pinion pines, generating new broods that can attack bristlecones, overwhelming their defense systems.

In an interview, Millar recalled what she described as “a sense of shock when I first came upon hundreds of bristlecones killed by bark beetles on the highest slopes of Telescope Peak in Death Valley.”

The study found that bristlecone mortality at Telescope Peak and in the Wah Wah Forest in southern Utah was likely due to a combination of warming temperatures, declining precipitation, reduced tree defenses, and bark beetle attacks that originated in nearby limber and pinyon pines during a period of severe drought that began in 2013.

“Do I think this is a death knell for bristlecone pines elsewhere? Well, maybe not,” Millar said. “But it’s time to consider taking action to protect these trees.”

Proposals to control the bugs have included the sublime and the controversial. The study calls for annual surveys to provide advance notice of beetle attacks, as well as public education programs and the posting of interpretive signs.

Another idea involves devising a chemical attractant to lure the insects into baited traps, although such an effort would also risk summoning uncontrollable swarms of bugs into currently unaffected groves.

Ancient bristlecone pine cone. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Bristlecone pines, identifiable by their bottlebrush-like branches with short needles, are found in semiarid portions of the Great Basin, which extends from California’s Sierra Nevada range east to the Rocky Mountains.

But the ones found in the White Mountains are the oldest. The slow growers are only about 25 feet tall and expand 1 inch in diameter every 100 years.

Of particular concern for researchers is the oldest of the bunch, Methuselah. Its precise location is carefully guarded to prevent vandalism, although its surrounding grove is a tourist attraction that draws 30,000 people a year.

In certain urgent situations, such as to protect Methuselah from potentially fatal infestations, the study suggests that “a highly aggressive defensive strategy would be to manually remove nearby pines that are known hosts to mountain bark beetles.”

In tough times, bristlecone pines die off almost entirely, leaving a few strips of bark that can continue growing for thousands of years. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Whether Methuselah warrants the title “oldest living thing,” however, is debatable. Researchers in Chile a month ago announced that an ancient cypress there known as Gran Abuelo may be 5,400 years old. If confirmed, it would beat Methuselah by about six centuries.

In the meantime, the daunting task of keeping an eye out for bark beetle attacks in public lands belongs to forest pathologists like MacKenzie.

After a hike, MacKenzie entered the shade of the bristlecone pine tree with troublesome shades of red and looked at its bark and needles, his eyes alive with anticipation.

There were plenty of red needles indicating stress, but no evidence of beetles.

“Drought killed the tree — not beetles,” he said. “But I noticed some other trees in the area that I have to check out.”



This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.